Possibly the bishops in +Roskam’s crosshairs are just following ++Rowan’s suggestion. 

Such a moment arrived today when the Rt Rev Catherine Roskam, Suffragan Bishop of New York, declared in a liberal magazine article that some of the bishops here at the conference are wife-beaters.

“We have 700 men here. Do you think any of them beat their wives? Chances are they do. Many of our bishops come from places where it is culturally acceptable to beat your wife,” she wrote.

“In that regard, it makes the conversation quite difficult.” She didn’t actually use the A-word, but Africa figured large in the article. It ranks with the moment at the last Lambeth Conference 10 years ago when Bishop John Shelby Spong said that Animism was still a problem with some African Christians, who believed that trees and rocks had spirits.

Where Bishop Roskam was spot on was that it makes conversation quite difficult. Africans and conservatives (not always the same thing) turned on her to express various degrees of outrage.

Ya think?

Be sure to read the entire article.