And another one...

Two broadly positive posts in a week?  Never!  What, never?  Well, hardly ever...but see!

One point I'd like to add to hers is that it's not just the, to quote, 'sharey-sharey' nature of the new testament, but the care for the individual.  Jesus doesn't treat everyone the same.  People are treated according to their needs, to who they are.  For example, the man cured of leprosy (Mark 1, 40-45), a man who has been shunned and not been touched for years, is cured with a touch, and told to go and show himself to the priest so he can be accepted back into society.  The servant of a Roman centurion, a man used to commands being obeyed, is healed without Jesus needing to go near him to show that Jesus has authority, just like the centurion  (Matthew 8 5-13).  The government welfare plans, like so much government policy, are designed to reduce individuals and families' complex needs down to a siple, easy to administer formula.  Unfortunately a lot of people are likely to fall through the gaps because they have unusual or extreme needs that don't meet the formula, and low ranking officials won't have the time or the training to deal with them.  
  
It's the bishops job to tell people- and in this case the government- how to behave better, both in terms of welfare policy and perhaps in their dealings with banks.  While they have a voice in the Lords- and elsewhere, through the media- I hope they keep doing that.
 

Shock, horror!

 Sorry for the long absence.  However, I've been shocked on returning after reading this article.  Positive coverage of something religious communities are doing in national mainstream media?  Is that allowed?

On a more serious note, yay.  I wish I read as many of these sort of articles as the ones where someone who doesn't understand a religion or set of beliefs criticises those who believe, usually on grounds that something they believe isn't, from their point of view, rational.  A good, thoughtful piece is worth reading whether you  agree with their conclusions or not (perhaps especially not, it's good to be challenged to think about why you believe things).  But too often it boils down to one person bashing another's beliefs because they don't like their beliefs.  And one of the first things I learnt as a history student was to detect and be wary of writers who  base their arguments on their prejudices.  In history it often leads to conclusions that are later shown to be wrong.  I suspect a few journalists could do with learning that.

Dulce et decorum est?

Is it just me, or has there been more than usual of the "why bother with rememberance day" conversation around this year?  People asking why it matters, when they and indeed their parents weren't born until long after 1918 and 1945, and when no one they know has been killed in war.  Perhaps it's because we're a country that's been at war for a decade or so against an invisible enemy, where the conflict takes place in a distant country, and the only effects most of us see are stories about arms traders enriching themselves at public expense and the occassional repatriation parade at Wootton Bassett.

In our world of globalisation and international economies old fashioned values like patriorism seem out of date, smacking of racism.  For those of us who deplore BNP/ EDL style demonstrations of hate and fear of difference, it can be hard to reconcile a desire to welcome people of different races and faiths, and yet to appreciate the sacrifiice of so many young men and women who died because they thought they were fighting for the right side. 

But I do think there's still a place for remembrance.  Perhaps it's because I'm a historian by nature; perhaps it's because I've been to Ypres and Thiepval and heard the Last Post at the Menin Gate.  I've seen the remains of the trenches, seen the cemeteries, the gravestones stretching out all around you, seen the memorials to the missing and even found the name of a relative on one.  I've read the poetry, seen the photos and the films.  I've studied the history of the first and second world wars, as well as many others before that, and I've seen news coverage of quite a few in the last couple of decades.  I wouldn't regard myself as an expert on any, but I hope I know what I'm talking about.  Once you've seen the cemetaries, the memorials, you don't forget easily.

When I visited Flanders and northern France I was about fourteen.  It was a school trip.  We weren't naturally the best behaved bunch of teenagers, this was an ordinary small town comprehensive with no selection, and the people on the trip were of varied academic abilities.  But no one played up when we were visiting the memorials.  There was something about those hundreds and thousands of names engraved on the stone that impressed us all.  Of course, not everyone was so impressed- a coachful of French teenagers was visiting at the same time as us, and we were shocked to see their attitudes- climbing all over the memorials and shouting without seeming to care where they were.

But I can understand that the wars of nearly a century ago, of even seventy, can seem distant if you have no personal connection.  Perhaps that's why we need a day like Remembrance day to remember.  Because there was nothing new about people dying in war, but what the first and second world wars brought- and to a lesser extent the Boer war- brought the industrialisation of war, brought the business of killing into a modern era where it was possible to kill hundreds of men without ever seeing them.  Ever since that disconnect has only increased with the development of guided missiles and drones that can kill from hundreds of miles away.  Perhaps, in an era where for us in the west war is something that takes place a long way from where we live, and are for causes less straightforward than opposing the Nazi tyrrany, we- or at least our leaders and policy makers- need a day where the true cost of war in human life is brought home.

PS: if you don't understand the title, I suggest you see Wilfred Owen's poem of the same name, available here: http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html