Newspaper's Misinterpretation on Archbishops' Faith Criticised

Triggered by a shocking headline on one of the UK’s leading newspapers, many doubted the faith of the head of the 77 million member worldwide Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury. To further add to the rising tensions, the newspaper has failed to clarify the mistake, and has therefore been widely criticised.

The troubled newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, posted a featured story headline entitled, "Archbishop of Canterbury admits: This makes me doubt the existence of God" on 2nd January. In fact, in the rest of the article, the Archbishop explained how God was a faithful presence for many victims of natural disaster. Therefore, the headline has been condemned for its lack of accuracy and has been labelled as misleading.

The headline was reproduced by many news agencies and newspapers in the whole world, and so has continued to damage the image of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Anglican Ugandan bishops were "surprised" and "alarmed" to see the headlines. While in the US, Christianity Today magazine accused Dr Williams of soft-peddling traditional Christian apologetics in his article.

The Sunday Telegraph received many complaints about the headline. Simon Barrow of Ekklesia, a UK-based Christian news agency wrote to the editor, saying "Your headline... makes me question not Dr Williams’ faith ... but the capacities of your headline writer and sub-editor."

Ekklesia say that the Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, Dominic Lawson, has privately admitted misrepresenting the views of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In a letter to Lambeth Palace, he said the headline "apart from misrepresenting the nature of your argument was also theologically obtuse".

Jonathan Bartley, Director of Ekklesia, pointed out that a necessary correction has not yet been made for the article posted online on the paper’s website as well as the print edition.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has suffered a number of significant media misrepresentations previous to this also. He is widely acknowledged as a deep thinker and as an exponent of open, creative Christian orthodoxy. However, he has admitted that he is averse to a sound bite culture.