Now we have a Methodist minister, the Reverend Paul Flowers, who wolfs down hard drugs such as cocaine and crystal meth. He also looks (or has done so) at gay porn on his laptop. Oh, and he has reportedly paid for rent boys in a Manchester hotel, allegedly charging the cost of his room to his bank...
But I have been struck by how much the BBC and other of his critics have concentrated on his financial unsuitability, and how relatively little emphasis has been placed on what John Wesley — and, I would have thought, many practising Methodists and others — would have called his moral turpitude...
Taking hard drugs is illegal. Taking advantage of young rent boys is exploitative and possibly also illegal. Watching porn, which we may infer was hard-core, may not be illegal, but it is not what is expected of a minister in the Methodist or any other Church...
Behaviour that would be shocking in a layman is ten times so in a supposed man of God who advertises his credentials by wearing a clerical collar and regularly climbs into a pulpit to address the faithful. Yet many commentators have tip-toed around his unpleasant activities...
It’s time that Labour and all the other apologists for Paul Flowers accepted that his vices should not be disregarded and swept under the carpet. His moral shortcomings do not end where his private life begins, which was why the Mail on Sunday was justified in exposing them...
Daily Mail.
The Mail's editorial asked readers, "how the cocaine snorting, pornography-obsessed Methodist minister Paul Flowers was allowed to take charge of – and almost destroy – the Co-operative Bank"?
Answer: Co-op and the culture of the Labour Party.
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