Friday 21 September 2012

Riots and relational responsibility

Quote
“An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.”  William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

News
Protests and riots have continued to erupt across the Muslim world in response to the US film denigrating Islam, and the flames have been fanned by a French satirical magazine which published a series of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

The right to freedom of speech and conscience is of paramount importance in the Western culture.  On the other hand, people in the Muslim world assert their right to defend their values and beliefs from attack – in this case religious offence surrounding the honour of their Prophet.
It’s incomprehensible to most people in the West, whose worldview is individualistic, that Muslims should mount angry protests against people wholly unconnected with the film.  On the other hand, it is baffling for many Muslims that the Western world (which they assume to have something of a collective identity, based on Christianity, after their own worldview) should allow some of its members to carry out with impunity acts that deeply offend the beliefs of others.

These two rights are understandably cherished, but for them to lead to more freedom and peace – not less, as we’re seeing this week – they must be tempered by relational responsibilities.  The right free speech should be matched by a responsibility to use that freedom with sensitivity, and not set out deliberately to offend and provoke others.

Conversely, the responsibility that should accompany the right to defend one’s beliefs is to be careful at which door one lays the blame, and to ensure that any protest is commensurate with the offence.

The more that rights are thought to stand alone and sufficient, dislocated from their relational responsibilities, the greater will be the mutual incomprehension, suspicion, fear and violence we have witnessed this week.  

Read on…
Colin Chapman wrote a Cambridge Paper on Christian responses to Islam, Islamism and 'Islamic terrorism', which seeks to understand the Muslim worldview better and the factors which lead to Islamic extremism.  You can read the paper here

Walk the talk
We often form our judgments in discussion only with those who think like us; why not approach someone you know who is a Muslim, and ask them to share their thoughts and feelings about the events of the last few days? 

The last word
From the Bible: 1 Corinthians 8, verse 9: “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”

Friday 14 September 2012

Paralympics and the power of encouragement


Quote
“…that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” 
      Alfred Lord Tennyson

News
The Paralympic Games of London 2012 drew to a close last weekend, leaving many acknowledging that the event has done more to change attitudes towards disability than any number of educational programmes or equal rights campaigns. 

A subtle transformation took place among crowds in the packed venues, as they watched people whom they previously considered as different and marginalised overcome their handicaps spectacularly, to triumph in one of the 20 Paralympic sports.  No longer were these unusual athletes defined by their disability but by their extraordinary ability.

The Paralympics had perhaps had an even greater emotional impact on the nation than the Olympics.  Commentator Steve Cole wrote, ‘A journalist who had been cynical before the Games wrote about how it had taken him a while to realise why he was so emotionally caught up in the euphoria of the Games.  He then acknowledged that he had never been in an arena where everyone was 100% encouraging.  80,000 people from many of the world’s nations encouraged every single athlete from every nation, whether they were first or in last place.’

Changed attitudes lead to changed relationships, and maybe the biggest dividend from these Paralympic Games will be a growing understanding, respect, appreciation and friendship between the able-bodied and disabled.

Yet the greatest lesson to be learned from the last fortnight, perhaps, concerns the power of encouragement.  When a person decides to seek the best for another as the paths of their lives overlap – for an afternoon of sport or a lifetime of relationship – then they can literally ‘put courage into’ the one facing hardship, difficulty or fear.  Who knows how many people’s life outcomes might change if they could only receive the right encouragement?  

Read on…
The father of the Paralympics was Ludwig Guttman, a Jewish doctor who fled to Britain from Nazi Germany early in 1939 and later became director of the first specialist spinal injuries unit in Britain.  Read Jeff Fountain’s brief account of this unsung hero here.

Walk the talk
In your heart do you feel disabled in some way, by some choice or event in your life, and thereby excluded from the company of others?  Why not go to a trusted friend and bring this into the light, giving him or her an opportunity to encourage you?

The last word
From the Bible, Hebrews 10, verse 25: ‘Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.’

Friday 7 September 2012

Obama, style, celebrity and substance



Quote
“On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.”  Thomas Jefferson

News
President Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic Party’s convention last night was “…dominated by unexplained goals that were often worthy, but also familiar and incommensurate with the problems at hand," according to David Brooks of the New York Times.  It was a far cry from the soaring rhetoric of four years earlier, which carried Obama to victory in the 2008 election.

Voters in America, as in most democracies, have to weigh up the difference between a candidate’s ability to inspire people with a vision on one hand, and deliver consistently against their promises on the other.

Declining voter turnout in many elections reflects disillusion with politics.  Two factors stand out: firstly, there is a resigned acceptance that politicians will probably mislead the public, or cheat on their spouse – public and private manifestations of the same character weakness.  20 years ago in Britain, Cabinet members would resign for either of these misdemeanours.

Secondly, the cult of celebrity, in which style is elevated over substance.  Politicians must look good, cultivate their personal brand, and be masters of the media to get elected.   However, those talents are not necessarily the ones needed to make sound judgments, build consensus, and lead others: the stuff of government.

People are voters for a day, but citizens for the following four years.  The goal of elections is not to put certain people in power but to hold them accountable for what they subsequently do with that power.   We undermine the relational realities of democracy when we want politicians to be celebrities first and foremost, rather than the kind of leader people can trust to govern their nation well. 

Read on...
Oliver Cromwell refused to have his image manipulated by the media: he insisted that the artist painting his portrait showed him as he really was, “warts and everything”.  Cromwell’s character and faith helped to shape democracy in Britain; read Nick Spencer’s account of the Christian sources of British political thought here.  

Walk the talk
As the culture increasingly puts more emphasis on style than substance, is there a danger of investing more in one’s charisma than one’s character? 

The last word
From the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1, 4: “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God…   My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”