Christians and Politics Part 1

The beginning of a series of posts discussing Christians and politics
 

“Why do Christians thank they can stick their noses in to politics!!”

This is a common enough rant from the daily mail and others when Christians or “the Church” say things that upset the great and the good

I would argue that if the church was doing its job right, it would be the touchstone for politics in our society – the bench mark political parties would be judged by.

When Jesus returned to Nazareth after his baptism, he returned with a reputation and  he went to the synagogue, stood up to read as was the practice in those day, he was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he opened it and read out these words      

 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

   because he has anointed me

     to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

   and recovery of sight to the blind,

     to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

He sat down to speak to this text, and said - Today in your hearing this has come to pass!

Jesus did two things at the moment

Firstly he claimed the messianic mantle and secondly proclaimed a God centred society.

In making this statement he said yes the rumours are true - God has touched me and raised me high,  I am the anointed one.    He also said God wants a just world, free from oppression, good news for all.

Jesus never separated the social from the spiritual in his teaching (nor the spiritual from the social), when he stood on the mount and gave his big sermon he spoke of society and our personal relationship with god, he dealt with the issues of the day and also spoke of prayer and your relationship with God,  piety and probity and two sides of the same coin as they were in much of the Old Testament, as they are in James’ letter.   A positive response to the needs of our communities is the outward sign of the inward change that being a Christian involves.

In Pauls letter to the Romans ,  Paul contrast’s  the prevailing self-centred attitude to the way of Christ and asks us  “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds, so that you may discern what the will of God— what is is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Once  we have allowed that change and renewal to begin ,  we truly do begin to see more clearly what God wants his world to be like and it comes from a deepening relationship with God.

Holiness is not a withdrawn virtue, to be found in the hermit’s cell or stylites column, it is found in the mess and dirt and noise of the world,   To be aware of the vision of Jesus for a just and God centred society, is to see an ideal world, what is called by Jesus the Kingdom of God, which maybe we won’t see this side of heaven but is still something worth striving for and that is the way of holiness.

The night is dark now, the wind is sharp

And laden with so much water

The ground is sodden, no crisp winter night this

Looming darker even than the sky,

the great whale back of the church

Its windows lit, 

The side chapel burns brightest

A sound break out from it’s walls 

A northern sound, a brass band

I clearly hear the carol they are playing 

The words ring in my head

“Born that man no more may die:

Born to raise the son of earth,

Born to give them second birth.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

"Glory to the new-born King !"       

Suddenly the head drooping cold and damp,

the dark wetness is lifted :

The Christ child is coming

Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year     

Oh heck I get political

There has been a lot written about  Anti-Semitism in our society, especially  in the Labour Party.  I have been very concerned about this so I have done a lot of reading, texting and listening and I have come to conclusion that the vast majority of the claims about anti-Semitism in the party labour are more about Corbyn and the labour position on Palestine than anything else.

I do not doubt that there are anti-Jewish people in the labour party, and that there are those who use anti-Semitic rhetoric (sometimes unaware of the racial/religious charge of their words) though stupidity is no excuse as there is no place in public life for anti-Semitic, islamophobic, racist, homophobic, religionist hate speech of any kind.   To  pick on anyone because they are “other” is  morally wrong and stupid -  we are all different  but all share a common humanity

The Aniti-semitism problem has been compounded by those who conflate Judaism and Zionism.

Judaism means you hold a religious faith in the Jewish expression of God and the scriptures of the jewish peoples, or that you are person descended from that community and still identify with that community and its culture.

Zionism is the nationalist movement of the Jewish people that espouses the re-establishment of and support for a Jewish state in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel (roughly corresponding to Canaan, the Holy Land, or the region of Palestine).Modern Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in Central and Eastern Europe as a national revival movement, both in reaction to newer waves of antisemitism and as a response to the Jewish Enlightenment  (Wikipedia)  Ie a political ideology.

I of the opinion that conflation this is not only lazy but also stupid and dangerous thinking, which unfortunately is apparently shared by the present Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis according to his own words in 2016. If he is not guilty of lazy thinking then he is guilty of  deliberately dangerous and  divisive  thinking in doing so.  Whilst he does not represent every Jew in the country -  only a little over  one third  - like the Archbishop of Canterbury, he is seen to speak on behalf of all.

To conflate a political philosophy with a religion or ethnic community is wholly wrong. It turns those who do not hold that political view into racists even if they hold the same faith or of the same ethnicity. So according to Mirvis not to be a Zionist means you aren’t a good Jew,  even discriminatory to your own community.  It is even worse for someone outside that community who does not agree with that political philosophy, they are are  seen as rabid racists when all they are is someone who disagrees politically with you.   It is basically insane.

Why insane ?  Because it actually demeans and weakens real hate speech against your community. The Jewish community has been the subject of appalling racism for century after century.   To equate that with a political disagreement  is blind stupidity, it allows real anti Semites to say they are non zionists and are being called out for that.   What Mirvis is trying to do, is to hide a still controversial idea in religion and there is nothing good that will come out of that.  

Whilst I personally believe the modern idea of Zionism, an idea whereby a Jewish person of any nationality have a “right to return” to Israel bizarre.  This almost seems to be a willing cooperation in a weird international ghettoization of a community,  which cannot be good for anyone, either those in the ghetto, or those deprived of the variety of culture in their societies. 

Whilst I can understand why after the long persecution, Jewish people want a safe place to live but i am far from convinced the present setup in Israel/Palestine is that safe or this ghetto is good for us all, including those who lived there before 1948.   Surely the ultimate safety lies in being part of an open pluralistic society that strives to rid itself of true hatred is the best place. To create false hysteria is counterproductive,  to identify faith with a political creed damages  both the believer and the politician

The next bit gets religious!

I am in no way unaware that there is a religious element to the “return” to land God gave to the Abraham and Moses. But it also clear to me that the gift was always dependent on a good relationship between the people and God and that included good governance and respect for people not of the faith who lived in the land.   And the Hebrew scriptures make it very clear that God can be worshipped away from this Promised Land.   I share with many Jews and many Muslims, a desire to walk the street of Jerusalem, to be in that place where God spoke to us weedy humans would be inspiring, but today it seems that all the richness of God is being squeezed out as much as it was in AD 70, or in the Babylonian captivity.

I would not want to walk the streets of a city at war with itself, torn apart by injustice, violence and rage.   That pain was caused by Zionism, that pain is made worse by a darker twisted Zionism that declares non-Jews to be less Israeli than Jews. 

That last sentence is the point of view that Mirvis describes as anti-Semitic.   I suspect that there are other people who would express their opposition more crudely and then there is a risk of getting into truly anti-Semitic language when people only think they are being anti Netanyahu. 

That is why Mirvis is wrong, either stupid or wicked to conflate faith and a political opinion because it releases the poison back into society and some good don’t even realise that they are doing it. Personally I think Mirvis is a lightweight and so lean heavily to the stupid interpretation.

30th November

The sun is out 

The sky is cloudless, the darkness has lifted 

there will be stars tonight :

rain a memory – all too recent a memory  

The land is sodden, every field a marsh, each stream a river 

The trees are now bare 

But in the winter light are richly coloured

The tops are green and bronze

The winter blue of the sky shows the filigree of the birch

Fingers reaching up

Here and there a pine tree – green and fresh

One there cut for the Christmas tree for the town.

A cloud of tumbling jackdaws, clear sharp outlines

Where the sun has not fallen, the hoar frost remains

Soft shapes against the soft wet dark earth

Those trees seems to be still green – but that’s the moss

My side of the valley is the cold side, the air sharp

but the leaves of the sage so soft to the touch

a fur of ice added to the natural softness

As the cars pile up in the road outside the school

Some trees and now some more have their brief

Time in the sun ended as the sun falls below the hill 

The valley is now dark, the high empty fields

Still cling onto the light for a few more minutes 

Now the pale blush of evening seems to reach from the high grasslands 

Peach and rose, slowly darkening deepening to pink and orange and red

The morning woke to grey mist which spread over the land

Advent starts on the morrow

Copyright

Hi
Just to say all the posts on here are copyright  (C)  Mark Ieuan Johnston
If you want to use any of the words or images for non commercial purposes you can but my copyright must be included and asserted.

For commercial use please contact me 

Buzzards!

Buzzards

A short collection

of

Words

By Mark Ieuan Johnston

November 6th

High above valley, a mew of a buzzard sounds

I wonder what she sees.

The silver ribbon of the canal

The trees now burning as the winter calls

The cold high tops,

Dark stone monuments above

Does she see the brilliant white and dark green

Of the drake goosander?

Does she see the three cormorants

Primitive shapes dark against the grey river?

Does she see the bright winged

Jay with its white rump?

Does she see the azure streak of the winter kingfisher?

She calls again and falls to the woodlands’

High trees in a search for a roost

Llanthony

High summer and the green lawns reach out

To green trees and green bracken covered hillsides

Till they touch the perfect blue dome of sky 

Unbreached by cloud or smoke or raging wind

Perfect stillness

Lifting the verdant earth to that blue sky are the last straight walls

Left of the monks church

The colours of nature fill the vacant windows

Daisies replace the tiles of the chancel

No vaulted ceiling was ever a glorious as the vault of heaven

We are not quite alone in this ancient place of prayer

But the other couple sit and rest, blessed by the sun 

Still quiet of the quire surrounds us and then the call of prayer

High above a star on heavens ceiling calls out

A wild mew of the buzzard calls all to pray, to give thanks for this moment

This perfect slice of light, this fragment of time.

  

Cyfan

We walked out that day from the white cottage at the edge of the town

Down along the river's edge  just above 

The tides highest reach 

Amongst the salt tolerant flowers

Till at last we found the path that lead along safer ground,  past the tumbled stones

Of an old house,  past the the grave 4000 years old, 

Along the edge now of the sea

Down into small bays filled with shells

Jumping over streams that drain the rich farmland

Onto another cove, where the  sea kale grows in abundance

To a wide bay, showing the flat rocks leading down to the sea

The tide was low, the waves distant

And in the midst of the bay a green island ringed by a grey wall

A perch for the little white church, which Cyfan made, 

We turned up the lane and walked back towards
The village, once a royal court of Gwynedd

Up through the green fields and stone walls, 
The lanes curved and danced almost like at a summer ball

Then we saw her – wild and fierce eyes - watching us 

Only a child, her hooked beak, her yellow talons, pale feathers,

The young buzzard wondering what we were.

Mere Country 

I set off one morning in my teens to walk back home

I started by the mere in Knutsford and walked up

Past the three meres in the great park of Tatton

Past Rostherne’s distant mere

And on into the edges of the urban jungle that

Is Manchester, and there, tired from the miles I caught the bus then back home

All around there are meres, no lakes , no ponds  just meres

Some are hidden, enclosed by those who build great houses on their edges

Some are play grounds

Some are for the birds

They are all around in this part of England

Rivers like the Dane, the Bollin and even the Mersey weave and run around  
And  both  feed and are fed  by these meres

Cattle drink by the edges

Legends grow along the reed filled edges

There the Black lake – Llyn ddu- now just a mere on Lindow Moss

But once it was an altar to the gods who received the bodies of men

Ddu indeed

Now and again I find myself back by those meres

The reeds are failing but there is bird feeding platform and a thousand gulls 

The black moss is a SSSI

The lapwings have gone 

But the Buzzards have returned, every tree seems to have one watching you

Seasons turn and again and the world changes 

The Mountain Road

There are many mountain roads in Wales

Mountains abound and so to the high lonely roads that go

Between forgotten places

Roads over commons

Through long abandoned mine buildings

The mountain road near Bargoed is crossed by sheep and

The Mountain ponies, memories of childhood  

They were there when we scattered the ashes of the old man

That was the day I saw Barcud Coch over that road,

A road above the faded broken valley communities

A road through Cwm Ystwyth passed older mines than those in the valleys

Here they sought out lead, not black anthracite,

Past the great dams providing water for the English midlands.

I remember that day when the ridge line was marshalled

By all the buzzards of Wales it seemed

Each one 50 metres apart floating on the sharp wind driving up the edge

The mountain road that passes behind and out of the walled city,

With its castle by the sea.  Its high view of the island framed by the

Heather clad headlands, the long slow descent down and down till we are Level with the sea, a moment on the bridge, 

And we are on that Island, that holy place

  

Buzzards

A bird of grace, strangely thrilling to see

Because it has again become so common

So different from one to another, such a variable plumage

The tourist eagle, so often mistaken for the real thing

They bring a touch of wild to any day

But is still the familiar bird in the tree,

On a telegraph pole

Once a common sight, the apex predator

For the voles and the rabbits

Then DDT and their eggs shell grew so thin

They could not contain the life within

Years passed and slowly the poison leached out

Of the land

Eggs grew strong, birds from the mountains drifted

Down to the farms and fields

Now they were seen as friends,

Preying on rodents that devour the crops

Perched on the tree by the side of the field

Nesting in the little wood in the curve of the river

Lanes and hedgerows where I roamed as a child,

This wild bird is now a common sight.

Where once it was never seen, 

Now they are daily companions

  

This is a small collection of nature

Poetry in which the wonderful

Buzzard features heavily

 

  

Harvest 3

October, time of harvest festivals

Time of the dying sun

Leaves fall, blood of summer

Spilled by the cold and dark

Crops unripened now will fade

But

The barns are full

The green tomatoes will be chutney

The apples are ripe

The crops are gathered in

Winter will come, 

the trees will be bare 

Black twigs will line the sky

The apples will keep

The wheat will make bread

The barley will make beer

Autumn will pass the riches of summer

To the winters hunger

The world will turn

We will eat

Darkness will grow

But light will come again

Hope will return

The Christ mass will mark the beginning of the end of darkness