Friday 5 November 2010

Remember, remember...

I've seen several things today around the web about how it seems odd and perhaps wrong that we celebrate the torture and execution of a seventeenth century terrorist.  As someone who goes to the church where said terrorist was baptised, I can see their point.  But perhaps there's more to the story than we remember.

To start with, the celebration was about how the plot to blow up the king in parliament had been stopped.  Now, I can't say that celebrating that a great deal of death has been averted is a bad thing, can you?  If the gunpowder plotters (remember, Guy Fawkes was in fact one of the lesser members of the gang) had succeeded, not only the king, queen and heir to the throne but also the whole of Parliament, Lords and Commons alike, would have been killed.  The country, losing so many of its' leaders at a stroke, would have experienced civil unrest and probably rebellion, although whether it would have been in the plotters' favour is uncertain. 

Longer term, it's interesting to speculate what the effects of a successful plot would have been.  Even assuming a Stuart monarchy restored, would the events of the next century (Charles I's personal rule, the civil war with Parliament, the execution of the king and rule by parliament, army and Cromwell and eventual Stuart restoration, followed by more unrest and the Glorious Revolution of 1688) have been in any way the same?  If not, it could well have made a vast difference to the way our country is governed today.  Many things we take for granted today, our very parliamentary system, date back to the turbulent seventeenth century, if not further back. 

Much as we currently despise and decry our politicians, we actually are very fortunate, as people from Zimbabwe or North Korea or Myanmar will tell you.  My historical opinion may not be worth much, but I think it has a lot to do with the troubles we got through in the seventeenth century.  Several of the members who faced up to Charles I in 1639 were already sitting in 1605.  Would that have happened- would Parliament have had the strength to stand up to the monarch- if all the experienced members had been wiped out a few years before?  Would there even have been a Parliament? 

I don't know, of course, no one does.  But perhaps in the light of that we could look a bit more closely at what we're celebrating.  In this age of both terrorism and of MP's expenses scandals, it perhaps wouldn't be a bad thing to think about celebrating democracy and to remind those in power of just why it is important that they don't abuse their position.

So set off the fireworks and rejoice that we live in a country where there is free speech and we don't have to pay taxes at the whim of just one man, where we have a say, however small, in how we are governed.  Be glad that so far, no terrorists fighting have managed to destroy that, and maybe, as you're standing round the bonfire, consider how we can work to stop that happening in the future.  Preferable without explosions or executions.

Thursday 4 November 2010

Faced with a furnace, how strong would your faith be?

I've never published any of my fiction writing on this blog, but today is going to be an exception.  Today WordLive, the Bible engagement site I use posed this question, based on Daniel 3: "Faced with a furnace, how strong would your faith be?"
Along with it was a picture, and perhaps it was that which made me think and engage a bit more than usual.  I ended up writing the story- if you can call it that- below from my thinking about that.  Maybe it'll help you think too.  Or not.  But here it is, anyway.

   She stared at the gaping orange mouth of the furnace.  Even at this distance she could feel the heat, and see it glowing red between the cracks in the wall.  
   She had always loved fire.  Fire gave warmth and light, it could be used to cook.  It gave life; it spoke of companionship and comfort.  But she was terrified of pain, and burning to death had seemed almost the worst deaths she could imagine.  So really, it was no surprise that she should face it now, the ultimate temptation.    She could not take her eyes off the glowing death before her, beautiful in its’ ferocity and destructive capability.
   She thought of the pain as the fire would catch on her clothes, her hair, her very self.  A strand of hair had fallen across her face, and with her hands tied she could not move it.  Her quick imagination thought of it catching light, of the flames licking their way up it towards her face, her eyes...she flinched from the mere thought.  She wondered how long it would take for her to be consumed, how long she would have to endure before the relief of unconsciousness and death would come?  The light alone was blinding, the heat enough to make breathing difficult.  
   Her faith faltered in the face of such terror.  She couldn’t go through with it.  She was alone, and afraid, and face to face not only with that terror without, but with her inner fear.  She didn’t feel that she mattered.  Why should He, the One above, bother to save her?  It wouldn’t make any difference to the world.  Why should He even bother to help her bear what she must go through?  She was just one little person who didn’t really matter.
   But that wasn’t the point, was it?  It wasn’t about who she was, but who He was.  She had been praying in her heart for courage and strenght from the moment she was brought in, and now her prayers stepped up a level, with almost incoherent urgency, begging her God to have mercy and not make her go through with this.
   The king interrupted her.  “Your last chance,” he said.  “Now you see what will happen to you if you refuse, will you bow down and worship as I command?”  She looked up at him, desperate, terrified.
   “No,” she said.  “I won’t do it.”
   “Throw her in,” he said.  A guard lifted her up, and quickly, unwilling to stay near the fire for too long, threw her, bound, into the heart of the flames, too scared even to scream, trying still to pray but unable to think anything clearer than, “Lord, help!”
 

Monday 1 November 2010

Not the 95 Theses

It's Halloween-tide.  Or, alternatively, All Souls/ All Saints'.  It's also the anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses against the sale of Indulgences and abuses in the Roman Catholic church in 1517, something which to me is rather more important than either of the other two festivals- well, I am a historian!  While it's not entirely correct to call it the start of the Reformation, or to say that before this the Church was entirely without merit, it was a significant action if only because of what came after, and has had a profound impact both on the Christian faith (what it means to be a Christian) and on world history and politics to this day.

So I thought I'd attempt to write some theses of my own.  Not that I expect them to have the impact of Luther's 95 (although I doubt he was expecting quite what he got...).  And I'm afraid that 95 would be too long for a modern blog audience's attention span.  So here's 9 and a bit.

Luther's theses were directed against abuses he saw as exploiting the poor and giving people a false idea of what God was all about.  That's something that gets my goat too so here's some ideas.  Theses such as Luther's were intended to be were less dogmatic statements of belief as propositions for discussion and comment so please bear that in mind.  Anyway, see what you think. 


1. Christian organisations should learn to put God's kingdom first in all their plans (not profit), and to have the priorities that God would want (care for the weak, acting in love).  Actions such as American Christian TV stations threatening local youth groups because they share the same name shouldn't happen.

2. Christians should learn to listen to each other and consider the other person's reasons before dismissing beliefs they consider backslidden and wrong.

3. Christians should not engage in 'political' manouverings against each other at the expense of those outside the church (or indeed within it) who can't see what all the fuss is about.

4.  Christians should be willing and able to defend themselves, reasonably but not aggressively, against the false claims and accusations of others.

5. Christians should not try to hide the fact that they are imperfect but to be honest about their failures.

6.  Christians should heed the advice of various new testament writers to 'live good lives among the pagans' and seek to be a group of people who are part of this world- but who outsiders can see are 'different' in a positive way.

7.  Christians should be willing to recognise the skills and talents of every member of their congrergations and to train and develop them.

8.  Christians should seek to be part of a community that cares for both its' members and those outside. 

9.  Christians should remember that love and justice are God's motives, and that they should be ours too and are good clues as to what God wants us to do in tricky situations.

9.5 Same as 9 above.  "For God so loved the world he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life."  Our motivation and our mission statement.