A CAUSE FOR OFFENCE

We all know of the Christian air stewardess who was suspended for wearing a cross whilst on duty. Some may even know of the council office worker who was told to remove her wedding ring whilst at work. Recently a Christian mental health worker was suspended by the NHS for sharing privately with her work colleagues Christian principles in connection with abortion advice. In the first and last of these cases re-instatement thankfully was made, but only through the intervention of a Christian Legal Agency.

In all three cases the real scandal was the charge preferred against these people: doing or saying things that “some people may find offensive”. One wonders what kind of person would find the sight of a woman’s wedding ring “offensive” – would it be some one who objects to life long vows of commitment? One has to retort that such stricture is itself an act that is grossly offensive..

This kind of arbitration, “because it might offend”, is based on incredibly shaky ground. It never ought to be at the bottom of any stricture. All it does is to give a handle for some people (one might say, slightly obsessive people) to abuse other people who have a different or opposite viewpoint. There is evidence of this across the world in accusations against Christians where they are in a minority. I seem to remember that the argument against the old British blasphemy laws was that there should be no law against non-religious opinion, and such opinion should not be treated as an offence. There was great outcry until these laws were rendered defunct. Now it seems a Christian stance is the new blasphemy in the sight of certain groups of people and the blasphemy law must be reinstated in a new guise to crush such a stance. Certainly there seems to be very little of the “live and let live” in these acts; they smack much more of intolerance, and that in an age which outwardly screams for tolerance as the supreme virtue.

The problem with making a ruling against something “that some people might find offensive” is of course that it is virtually impossible to make any objective decision as to what is or is not offensive. It is totally dependent upon some party proclaiming they have been offended. In such a situation it will always be the louder voice or the greater threat of retaliation that wins the day. A person of militant outlook will be the one who uses the ruling, and will always win against one of a more peaceful outlook. It is indeed exactly the situation in which real tolerance is most likely to disappear. It means a reversion to a “might is right” position.

Individual cases are always important, but there is a very far reaching case being courted at the level of the United Nations. Ironically enough there is a movement afoot to get a ruling which would stricture defamation of religion. It’s a blasphemy law in new clothes! It is based on precisely the same principle as the cases we have looked at above, namely that nothing must be allowed which offends. What happens, however, when one set of religious beliefs are “offensive” to another? And that is the reality world-wide! Once again the loudest voice wins, and the most violent cause overwhelms the peaceable cause. And that is happening in many Muslim dominated areas. If such a ruling is adopted by the U.N. we shall have militant groups using the legislation simply to persecute minorities. There has rarely been such a misleading and dangerous proposal.



Bob

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NUMBER ONE HYDE PARK

You may have seen last week the opening celebration of four new blocks of 80 flats in Hyde Park. Some 50 had already been bought, and the “guests” included billionaires from the Gulf States and Russia. The Sheikh Prime Minister of Qatar has bought several of these flats (he is joint owner of the company that controls the flats). Other buyers came from the U.S., Eastern Europe and China, amongst whom were plutocrats, potentates and technology billionaires.

These flats are different, even for London. The four penthouses on top of the four blocks have already changed hands for up to £135 million each, and the cheapest homes, one bedroom flats, were going for £5.75 million. They represent a new high for residential property anywhere in the world, and they revel in unlimited luxury; high quality polished marble and European oak is everywhere. They are, of course, bomb proof, and they have “panic rooms”.

The venture was a gamble for the property developers involved, but clearly they hit the jack pot! The sales have reached £1 billion already. There is talk now of others being built. The government is not likely to object, having netted £36 million already in Stamp Duty - there is always money to be made out of the rich if you know how.

One newspaper report commented, “(this) confirms London as the favoured playground and tax haven of the international elite”. Unfortunately it is a playground in the midst of a very depressed property market for ordinary people, and in the midst of a nation in which one in five young people are now unemployed and are very unlikely ever to own the smallest and cheapest of properties. It grotesquely highlights the difficult times in which we live. “A favoured playground for the rich” is not really the highest honour that could be paid to our nation’s capital at this time. Or indeed at any time! It is in fact an appalling condemnation.

It is exactly the sort of scenario that Amos addressed 2,700 years ago in his own severe warning to the rich of his day. As he pointed out,it is extremely dangerous to have such wealth when there is so much poverty about. There is always a day of reckoning. God watches the deceit and injustice that accompanies so much wealth accumulation. James in the New Testament had some harsh words for the rich of his day; “Now listen you rich people; weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you …” Wealth can so easily destroy real human living for those who indulge in it

Thank God many rich people have taken note of this fact. We’ve always had the super-rich, but we’ve always had many benefactors and philanthropists whose activities have benefited thousands; the Rothschilds, the Carnegies, the Cadburys and latterly Bill Gates, to mention the most obvious. In a world where the richest 1% of adults control 43% of the world’s assets, and the wealthiest 10% control 83% of those assets there is a vast call for a culture of benefactors and philanthropists. The “trickle down effect” of the rich is a very poor excuse for selfish squandering. There are billions in locked up resources that could so beneficially be released, both for giver and receiver.

The Judeo-Christian tradition has the injunction of “giving to the poor” deeply embedded in its foundations. It is a profoundly important foundation for any healthy human society. It has more than a human sanction, it has a divine sanction. It has more than a human blessing, it has a divine blessing. The same tradition has strong warning for those fail to acknowledge that “the love of money is the root of all evil” and who cling avidly to their gains.


Bob

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A PLANET IN TURMOIL

“The floods across much of the world have reached epic proportions”. “Much of the blame can be pinned on La Nina, a vast upheaval in the Pacific … and because the Pacific covers a third of the Earth’s surface, that turmoil has stoked up violent weather across a large part of the globe”. An estimated 1,000,000 are affected. So reports “The Times” this week. It adds, “No one really knows why these events come and go when they do …the only sure thing is that signs can appear weeks or months ahead but without knowing where exactly they would strike”.

Put this report alongside Jesus’ prophetic utterance just days before he died: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint with terror, apprehensive at what is coming on the world”. He was speaking of his return, and saying that devastating happenings on the earth would presage that return and that the sea would have a particular place in that sequel.

Be careful here! The atmosphere of liberal, scientific and secular Christianity in which we live unfortunately tends to make even Christians “turn off” when the prophetic is put alongside the scientific. It has rather a sniff of being “over the top”. Better to just retreat into the prevailing cynicism!
Be careful lest that sort of thought creep across your mind, for there could be no greater mistake.

Jesus was adamant about the fact that catastrophic happenings in the heavens and on the earth and the sea would constitute signs of his coming. Natural events and catastrophes are not things that “just happen”. God is the Creator God. He knows all about sunspots, the source of so many problems! They are still within his determining “fiat”; he is still in control.

Why should such catastrophic signs be associated with his return? Well, Jesus’ coming will, of course, be a time of human reckoning and judgement, so what more plain a way could there be to draw attention to so serious a moment than signs that make us aware of such a judgement, and challenge us as to our behaviour.

If scientists can pick up the “signs” of a coming La Nina, though not exactly quite when it would come, Christians should be able to pick up the signs of the coming Jesus even if they cannot say exactly when. Those signs have been laid out clearly enough for us by Jesus himself and they include natural catastrophe. Our generation of Christians has actually shrunk back from any real study and reflection on “end times”, when more than any other generation, perhaps, it should have them firmly in its outlook and thinking. Jesus was not indulging in interesting theological possibilities when he spoke on the last days and his return and the signs of those times; his words were serious, down the line Holy Spirit prophecy.

We don’t know precisely where what we are witnessing in these days fits into the scheme of things. One would not want to say that the things we are witnessing were the fulfillment of Jesus’ words, but they are certainly clear pointers and reminders of the nature of what is to come.


Bob


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