To give is divine

The Archbishop of York John Sentanu has announced his retirement, for 2020. He will have time for a farewell tour. It wasn’t long after he was appointed that he showed his solidarity with the homeless by sleeping in a tent. Inside York Minster. This rather strange gesture of course made the news, and Sentanu’s eye for a story was never blind for long. Who could forget the moment when Robert Mugabe’s bones must have quivered in fear when Sentanu said he wouldn’t wear his dog collar until the dictator was gone. Another brave but dare we say ineffectual gesture. Sentanu once sent all MPs a copy of something called “The One Hundred Minute Bible.” I read it, partly to see what the editors had done with Leviticus, which must be one of the most unpleasant chapters in that tome. For some reason its sheer unpleasantness didn’t survive the editors’ scissors. Anyway, in a spirit of reciprocal generosity I sent Sentanu my only copy of Sam Harris’s “Letters to a Christian,” which was equally short, and asked that as he had with me, he read it. I don’t think he paid me the compliment, and when I briefly met him at a reception and reminded him of this exchange, I got the impression that he thought I must have trod in some dog muck. The arrogance of faith, I suspect.