Sharing

I'm not sure if I should publish this post. But here goes. It's not aimed at anyone in particular or with the intention of making anyone feel uncomfortable. It's just a metaphor for how I feel sometimes.

Imagine that you have discovered something- a piece of information, perhaps, or a book or a film or a place or an experience, which has made a big impact on you. You think it's amazing, and has made a difference to your life (OK that sounds like a big claim, but just imagine).

So naturally you want to tell your friends about this amazing thing. You try to talk to them about it and the effect it's had on you- maybe that's hard, but you try. Or you invite them to somewhere they can see or read it for themselves.

And they generally respond in one of three ways. Most often they're just not interested. They think it's nice that you like it, but it's not for them, it's not their cup of tea. Perhaps they can't understand what you see in it, they think you're a bit strange. Perhaps they're cynical about something that has those kind of effects.

Or they are interested, but they don't do anything about it, for any number of valid reasons. Perhaps they have too much on, or can't access it, or just don't feel they can cope. But for one reason or another it passes them by and they loose interest.

Or perhaps they take offence at what you're saying. They think that you feel that you're better than they are because of what you've seen, or read, or been to. They get annoyed, refuse to listen. Perhaps they treat you with suspicion, thinking you've been brainwashed.

So perhaps you give up for a while. But you can't keep quiet for long about something that's such a big part of your life, and some time later you try again to interest your friends in whatever it is you're so enthusiastic about. But you get a similar response. It's difficult, because you don't want to annoy your friends by harping on about something they don't care about, because you know that'll only put them off more. But this thing is really important to you, and you want to share it with your friends, so you keep trying, without much success. No one does anything about it; despite all your invitations, nobody comes.

This hurts. When you care deeply about something and, because of your love for your friends, you want them to understand and recognise that thing to be real, but they don't, it saddens you.

Some people react in an even worse way. They accuse you and people like you of being not just wrong, but acting in a way that is evil. They say you are trying to drag people into a dangerous cult, a group that destroys people by taking away their capacity for rational thought or freedom to do as they please. They think you should be stopped from talking about this thing that to you is so wonderful and liberating that you want everyone to know about it. They think that it is harmful, and that you are either sadly misguided or trying to harm other people mentally or even physically. Because some of the people who claim to agree with you have acted in ways that are wrong, they think you are all tarred with the same brush and lack credibility.

This hurts even more. Especially when you can see that your friends are more willing to accept this negative view of what you believe than they are to accept what you say about it.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised. In the parable of the sower Jesus describes the different responses people would make to the message that he brought, a message of God's love for all humanity and of restoration for the world. Sometimes people would hear the message, but not understand, and it would just pass them by. Sometimes people would listen to the message, but not put down deep enough 'roots' to allow them to cope when tough times come. Sometimes people would listen to the message, but other things going on in their lives would drown it out and distract them from doing anything about it.

But sometimes people would listen, and would take the message of God's love on board and believe, going on to spread the 'seeds' of the message to many other people. I suppose the right response in the light of this is just to try and deal with the hurt- not to ignore it, because it can lead to prayer and crying out to God for my friends, which is a good thing- and not to give up. Because some of these 'seeds' will, I hope, be like the ones that fell on the good soil, and will be fruitful in their turn. I hope.

What's important?

Last week I heard a discussion on the radio where a Conservative MP said that "the first priority of government is to sort out the country's finances." It it really? I wondered. What he was referring to was the massive public debts that are being run up by the government to try and dig our way out of this recession (or Moneygeddon, as I like to refer to it) and how to reduce them.

Whilst not denying the importance of economic policy, I'd like to perhaps be a little controversial. I don't think that this is the most important issue facing the government. Or at least, not the most urgent part of that issue.

As a historian, I know there have been many debates over the centuries about what government is 'for' and that views of this have changed. For many centuries, the monarch was the government, and the oath that monarchs took (I have no idea about the modern version) was to protect the church, to do justice, and to protect the laws and customs of the realm. So law making and the workings of the judiciary were a major focus. At other times the defence of the realm and support of the armed forces has been seen as the first duty of government, particularly in war time.

Today there are still different views of the purpose of government- should it be a light or heavy touch, can the market right itself or do government agencies need to intervene? But my view, which I'm not saying is the only 'right' one, is that the government is there to act in the best interests of the people of the country (and, I hope, of the world).

People. That's what should be at the heart of government. Policies and process are there to serve them, not the other way around. So health, education, job creation, surely these should be at the heart of what the government does? And perhaps, if we can follow this through, it might help with the financial problem we started with.

To reduce government debt, either spending has to decrease, or tax revenue has to increase. At present, it seems that most people are agreed that neither of these can happen, at least not by huge amounts. But for the future, one or the other or both will probably have to. Debt isn't good. I don't like the idea of a decrease in government spending. I'm sure there are areas where the same work could be done for less money. But the problem is that when you start cutting down on government 'waste,' most people seem to conveniently forget that this usually means cutting jobs. Often not very highly paid jobs. Which only adds to the problem (saying that paying Jobseekers' is cheaper than paying their salaries doesn't make it right).

So the other area is to increase tax revenue. Again, there are two ways of doing this; to increase the amount each person pays, or to increase the number of people paying it. Given that I'm on a fairly low income, I don't like the sound of the first, at least not as an across-the-board increase, which is bound to hit the lowest paid hardest. Better, it seems to me, to increase the number of people who are eligible to pay tax by increasing the number of people in work. That's one reason why I'm glad the government has at last recognised the problem of youth and graduate unemployment. Education provision is also linked to this, and so is health- a well-skilled and healthy workforce can contribute to the economy more than an unskilled and unhealthy one. This was partly why the post-second world war government introduced the welfare state- to cure the 'social ills' that had been brought to light during the war.

People so often seem to forget the reason taxes exist: to provide services. It's easy to moan about taxes when you're not dependent on the services they provide- if you can afford private healthcare and education, and have savings enough not to have to worry about pensions or benefits.

Of course, I know that this isn't an ideal world, and that the ideal that increasing jobs would solve our financial problems is probably too simplistic to work just like that. But I can't help but think it might help. That perhaps a better way to get out of this slump is to do for our own country what we try to do to help those in the third world: to give people the tools (skills, start-up grants, training and support) to work their way out of dependence, so that they can contribute to the economy.

As I say, that's probably too simplistic. I've never studied economics, or even politics, except where they interact with history. But hey, maybe there's something in it.

Invitation

I'm often sad that so many of my friends seem to have only a negative- or at best uninterested- view of the church and Christianity. They've come across things that have put them off. Or they can't understand things, or feel they cannot accept things, or feel excluded. So they aren't interested in the church, and pay no attention to it- or worse, consider everything relating to it and to faith in a negative light.

But I'd like to offer all of you an invitation. From the evening of Monday 6th July there will be a FREE cafe in my church, St Michael le Belfrey, next to the Minster. It's running during the day and evening during that week.

Monday 6th July: 8pm-10.30pm
Tuesday 7th- Thursday 9th July: 11am-4pm, 8pm-10.30pm

Friday 10th July: 11am-4pm with an evening youth event

and also in the Minster on Saturday 11th July between 11am and 4pm (all being well!).

You can come in for free tea, coffee, juice and homemade cake, or just for a sit down. No one's going to try to make you do, say or sing anything, it really is free, no strings attached. We just want to serve people, to give them something for nothing, as a gift. I should know what it's going to be like, I've been helping organise things. I'm your friend, you can trust me (hopefully!)

So please come!