“I don’t understand it, no one does. I don’t understand how Monday has flipped the town upside down. It’s scary.”
I shouldn’t be thinking on holiday, but this week in Southport and the aftermath there and elsewhere need careful reflection. The words of a mum trying to explain to her daughter why her friend won’t be at school with her in September is heart breaking. Three little girls enjoying themselves at a dance class full of Taylor Swift joy, well, we cannot imagine the pain of loss and tragedy. I know two Methodist presbyters in Southport, Marie Anne the Circuit Superintendent, who was on breakfast tv news the other morning, and Martin, Southport Hospital Chaplain, who spoke at the vigil and said 'To be known around the world for a defining incident has shook us all.' I was ordained in Southport. I’m planning a visit in my 25th anniversary year back there soon. It may have pockets of problems, but it comes over as a genteel seaside town. If you’ve ever shopped on Lord Street, you’ll know that. It hit me that this could have happened anywhere. What if I’d been the local Methodist minister. What would I have said?
The death of three little girls and others injured including the dance class teacher is a tragedy but there is another. The rise of extremism and narrow views is deeply worrying. We are all made in the image of God, and who are we to say anyone is less than us if that is so. As one of the hymns in our book says “we have privatised God’s grace.” Enough is enough was the theme of the protest around Downing Street, we want our country back, stop the boats! It’s interesting isn’t it that the police in Merseyside have told us the suspect was born here. We’ve seen what happens when narrow extremism rises up in history. What motivates people to be so threatened by the other and believe certain rhetoric they read on social media? I think the Prime Minister had the right tone in his press conference earlier tonight. He condemned "violent disorder, clearly whipped up online", describing it as crime, "not protest.”
What is also worrying is that people will believe anything! There’s two men who appear on market day here every Thursday. They spout narrow theology and offer a Jesus who is to my mind unattractive and dangerous. The man on the cheese stall opposite them told me today they are a “bloody nuisance”! I was horrified tonight to see a post on our local information site Blow Your Horn Ripon. It said “has anyone heard that they are building a mosque up Clotherholme Road?” To which there was a reply “we have one in Harrogate. I hope Ripon isn’t going to follow suit.” Lord, have mercy.
Then there’s America! We are seeing slander there. She’s Indian and she’s black. Even Christians are putting stuff out there… “Just remember the same media that is telling you how great Kamala is is the same one telling you Joe was sharp as a tack.” How have we got so nasty? Thank God our political system has yes, weeks of each party leader taking lumps out of each other but after it’s done the defeated Prime Minister rings his successor to concede and then weeks later the two of them are seen laughing and joking as they walk from the Commons to the Lords to hear the King’s speech.
I think tonight we are in a world where two narratives are fighting each other to be the dominant voice heard. We aren’t a country of violence and narrowness. There is a voice and a commitment that cleans up the streets of carnage and bricks in Southport and in Hartlepool and says the violence and hatred won’t have the last word. People work hard for compassion and cohesion and respect and peace. We need to shout louder that God would have us do justice - or pray for it when we can’t be physically at the place where peace needs to come. We can only make a difference where we are.
I have few answers to what’s going on in the world tonight but I do know God stands in the mess and I do know on the cross Jesus takes on the sins of the world and gives us a new beginning. We were at Ampleforth Abbey today. I spotted this display board in the new visitors centre. Compare these words with the words of those who would make God’s love too narrow by false limits of our own…
Tonight I pray for peace and a commitment to radical and joy filled inclusiveness and where’s that’s scary, Lord, come and reassure people and remind them of your grace which is huge and unlimited. And sometimes when there’s a large news story happening just keep me alert with coffee…
I end these rambling thoughts then like this: Thomas Merton wrote that any person who is made to feel as though he or she doesn’t belong, who is marginalized and rejected by power, is another Christ. He was rejected, remember.
And maybe I also end this with these words of Jeremy Corbyn, who a lot of us still have time for…
This morning I’m thinking of the grieving families of Bebe, Elsie & Alice. We will not let acts of hatred tarnish their memory.
The mob in Southport may have gone home, but the threat of the far right remains.
This is a wake-up call for those who have emboldened them by parroting their rhetoric and pandering to their ideas.
The only antidote to hatred is hope. The vast majority of people in Southport, and across the country, respond to horror the only way they know how: with compassion, unity and solidarity.
They should inspire us that, if we come together, we can bring about a kinder and safer society for all.
Writing this I shudder at the narrowness and the arrogance that says “I am threatened by you. Go away.” Instead, well, there is a different way which has a God who enfolds everyone and yearns for them to flourish… may that world come… soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment