10 August 2024

With the Paris Olympics in the background celebrating the remarkable achievements of men and women of many different nations, united together in a common playful arena, we have had to look  into the foreground of anti-immigrant protest, attacks on mosques and hotels  housing asylum-seekers and violence towards the police.

It has been an extraordinary contrast and an alarming set of circumstances. There has been much speculation about online influencers and the power of social media. The emphasis from the politicians has been on restoring law and order and ensuring prohibitive prison sentences are meted out to the worst offenders.

Tommy Robinson who is not only a far-right activist but also a convicted criminal somehow manages to harness one million followers to his online commentary. And this whilst sunbathing in Cyprus!  How does he manage to enthrall so many people with so much wickedness?

This is surely the more important aspect of these riots. Why are so many people influenced by this brutalising and dehumanising rhetoric? It is not simply the influence of social media because the same thing happened in Nazi Germany when the Jews rather than immigrants were scapegoated for the ills of a nation.

There is a capacity within human beings not only to do evil but to be given permission to do evil by belonging to a larger group of human beings who think in a similar way. The cycle needs to be broken. But how? The Church must play its part. Our gospel is simple – Love God, love your neighbour!

Unlike other parts of the UK, Scotland has reframed the issue of immigration positively  by declaring that it needs immigrants to rejuvenate our population and to undertake jobs for which Scots are unwilling, unable or unqualified to fulfil. Our need is satisfied by the gifts of others. This is a true community and a powerful tool to secure the peace of the earth.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  18 August 2024 I am concerned  that when smaller charges are subsumed into larger units, ministry is reduced to  ‘needs must’ and this will prejudice the smaller rural units. They require ministers to have more time to stand and stare, to build up relationships which may or may not lead anywhere  and to work with all ages and all community agencies. The value of this work may be lost without a specialist dedicated to the task. Here are six  areas of specialist training: 1. breaking down the division between secular and sacred – in the rural charge this is much more diffuse and more in keeping with the true nature of the Gospel where God is at work in all places and all people 2. integrating  young and old – in the rural charge people are not so self-conscious of these age differences and work together in community events and initiatives 3. embracing  the pace of the natural world and nature’s discrete  modus operandi – results are not immediate nor immediately recognisable, G
Read more
  15 August 2024 David Fergusson, Regius   Professor of   Divinity at Cambridge University, and Kirk minister has just produced a series of essays on theology, philosophy and the Church. One is entitled, ‘Mapping the Church – Current Challenges of History and Mission’. In it, he tackles the issue of mission in the Church. He begins by acknowledging that mission is a constituent part of the Church’s work not least in handing on the faith to those who are coming after us. But he points out   that the ‘Five Marks of Mission’ which have been embedded into our current thinking are not comprehensive. ‘The church has many functions,’ he writes, ‘the glorifying of God in its worship, the education and nurture of its people, the pastoral care of the sick and the dying, and the bearing witness to the gospel in the life of the world.’ Mission is one of several aspects of being the Body of Christ. He recognises that there is a mistaken view in some quarters that by focusing our attention a
Read more
  10 July 2024 The Revd. Will Pearson-Gee was an Army Chaplain rising to the rank of   major in 1999. He is now the rector of Buckingham where he said that some of the services for which he is responsible were ‘overflowing with widows’. So Kaya Burgess has reported. He has been so concerned about the lack of men in church that he raised it at the Church of England Synod in York. ‘What resources has the church developed to help people think about and practise evangelism among men?’   Two facts justify his concern. Firstly, 59% of worshippers in the Church of England are women. In some kirk congregations, this would be an under-estimate. Secondly, the British Social Attitudes Survey found in 2019 that at every age men were less likely than women to say they had a religion, went to church or believed in God. In his address to the Synod, Will Pearson-Gee argued that men who became Christians were more likely to bring their whole family with them. He also argued that the language of
Read more