'God's not the problem people are' (From Surrey Comet)

'God's not the problem people are'

6:31am Wednesday 2nd July 2008 in News By Jonathan Portlock

"Religion is awful!"

I am winding up an interview that has been as terrifying as it has been interesting, the equivalent of watching a boxer at his peak in the ring.

My interviewee's words have a beautiful technique, but a damaging punch. But this is not Darwin's rottweiler Richard Dawkins, or the enfant terrible of the Left Christopher Hitchens speaking.

No, these words have just been uttered by Canon Andrew White, an Anglican vicar.

Canon White, the Vicar of Baghdad, is visiting England from his church in Baghdad and has brought with him four Iraqi teens from his congregation.

He has come to Cornerstone the Church in Esher to take a sermon, where he informed the crowd he and his companions had lost all their luggage and possessions on the journey over.

"God is not the problem, people are."

Canon Andrew White

To him however, such material concerns are not important - he is just glad that they are here at all!

Canon White, who grew up in Bexley, south-east London, has been the vicar of St George's Church in Baghdad since 2005 and was a staunch supporter of the invasion of Iraq.

He is also chief executive of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, an organisation at the forefront of peacemaking in Iraq.

After the service, I am taken to an interview room where I am informed that the eccentric canon is likely to ribb' me and I should expect the unexpected. And when he enters the room he seems like a man on a mission - he has no time for small talk and jokingly remarks that my local jounalistic style is far too time-consuming. He wants to answer my questions and get on with why he is really here.

So why has he made this visit with four members of his Iraqi congregation?

"It thought it was important," he says. "They will be able to talk about their first-hand experiences."

Canon White believes that the visit will benefit us more than it will benefit his children' - the term he uses to refer to the youngsters with him - but admits that the experience of being in a totally different environment has been riveting for them.

"Being here is very strange and very different for them - there are no bombs and there is nobody shooting at them. But they love it over here!"

I ask him then what daily life is like for them in the war-torn capital?

"They basically have to avoid being killed - just simple things like wearing shorts could get you killed. Everything is different."

So with daily-life still so bad for his congregation, does he still supports the invasion?

He emphatically replies yes'. Even some of the war's strongest supporters have back-tracked amid the public outcry against the invasion, but there is no back-tracking from Canon White.

While he admits that mistakes have been made since the invasion, he is angered by the public's lack of support for the coalition soldiers.

"All the coalition forces are doing a wonderful job," he says.

"The public have let them down. They don't understand it. If the troops leave we will have a civil war."

And this ties in with his current mission. He wants to share with the British public what life is like in Iraq to bring about a better understanding. And with the troops in place he can envisage a day when Baghdad will be as peaceful as Elmbridge. However, he believes next year's presidential campaign in America could have a huge bearing on this.

"I don't want Barak Obama to win, I want John McCain to," he says with contrary zeal.

He sees McCain, who has been a regular visitor to Iraq during the conflict, as the candidate who understands the situation and knows what needs to be done to eventually bring peace to the country. And he believes that the surge in troops last year - a policy McCain very vocally supported - has already improved things.

But what about religion? Much of the strife in Iraq is a sectarian conflict between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims.

It's all very well attacking the British public for not supporting a war that for many was fought on the lie' of WMDs and, far from delivering stability to the country, in fact left the country in the hands of terrorists. But doesn't religion itself not have a lot to answer for in all of this?

"Am I in favour of religion?" he bellows. "No! Am I a religious leader? Yes!" For Canon White, God is not the problem, people are.

"God is alright, it's everybody else that is bad," he tells me, with a smile which seems to say: "What else were you expecting me to say to you?"

And with that he is off and I am left stunned.

But ultimately, whether you agree with Canon White or not, you cannot ignore what he has to say.

On a day-to-day basis he not only experiences the bombs and the fighting in Iraq, but through his congregation he experiences what they experience. And he wants what is best for them.