Category: Social

A call went out from a local Pastor to support a bigot and racist.

Christianity is at a crossroads.

Behind it lies the sins of their forebears, from child abuse to witch burning. From the denial of science to their role in subjugating Africa and appeasing the Nazis.

Straight ahead lies oblivion as the same tired doctrine of exclusion and resistance to progress dooms them.

But turning at the crossroads represents and opportunity. If God is real and God is love then the Churches need to re-evaluate their default position.

The Churches were wrong about heliocentric models, they were wrong about the earth being flat and they were wrong about gravity. They were wrong about inter-racial relations and civil rights, they were wrong about organ transplant and class structure.

Christianity doesn’t have to doom itself to following demagogues into obscurity and they can accept secular life and equal marriage just as easily as they have ignored the Bible on whether or not it’s appropriate to eat Steamed Mussels in a White Wine Sauce.

I’m left with the question; What would Jesus do?

And I find myself unwilling to believe that he would rally himself with hatred and riots. Or would preach condemnation based on race. The only time I read about his wrath was when usurers turned the Temple into a market place. I think Christianity needs to have a deep reflection about what it has become.

I am musing about the concept of unity.

I never really thought about Irish unity until recently. The Republic of Ireland has always been a foreign land, somewhere to visit, somewhere to holiday, but not home. It is a land populated by friends and good memories.

From what I can tell the province of Ulster has always been people apart. Reading the Ulster Cycle it was clear our myths and legends diverged.

The concept of Irish unity therefore needs to be on multiple fronts; cultural, economic, social and national.

Culture
The first issue is that as an outsider I see the Republic of Ireland as united. There may be issues with the haves and the have-nots, there may even be issues between the city folk and the rural folk, the people of the west and those in the east but they are one people, secure in their identity.

It’s not the same in Ulster. We have three cultures at war – nationalists, unionists and everyone else; corresponding roughly to the discrete identities of "Irish", "British" and "why does it matter?"

Economy
Our economies could not be more different. Ireland is a sovereign nation prepared to do what’s necessary. Northern Ireland is a province of subjects, beholden to London for any creature comforts.

Social
There are other differences; the Irish are hungry for business, buoyant in their humour, liberal in their attitudes and optimistic in their outlook. The subjects of Ulster are self-deprecating, suspicious of outsiders, conservative, risk-averse, and pessimistic about the future.

National
Ireland is not haunted by the constitutional question. Beyond a few, the attitude of the Irish to a United Ireland seems to be "Aye, grand"

Northern Ireland is haunted constantly by this. We are categorised by either being for or against. Our media refuses to recognise the rest of us who ultimately could care less. And it’s holding up progress, it’s causing poverty, division and violence.