|
What do we do?
Kristina Cooper reflects on the state of the nation
in the light of terrorist attacks nn the capital.
|
|
|
I write this in the wake of the terrorist bombings that hit London. This has affected the life of the capital in many ways. I feel it is a very dangerous time, not just physically but morally too. There is a great temptation that in our desire to protect ourselves from further bomb attacks we could unleash more seeds of evil into the bloodstream of our nation. We have only to look at the recent history of Northern Ireland. Here the tragedy of "Bloody Sunday" (a civil rights demonstration that went badly wrong and ended with 13 deaths) and the government's attempt to odefeat the IRA by imposing Detention without Trial and a Shoot to Kill policy, within a lew short years helped to radicalise the Catholics of the inner city estates and turn (he IRA from outlaws into community champions. The same could happen 'with the Moslem community, who are appalled at what has happened, but could all too easily become disaffected if anti-terrorist measures start affecting their civil rights and freedom of speech and if they become the target of racist attacks. (Apparently the latter have increased 500% since the bombings!) Added to this unemployment levels among Moslem youth is three times higher than that of their white counterparts, creating a pool of disaffected youth with time on their hands. History demonstrates that terrorism can never be defeated by military means, and that our ways of combating it often fuel it instead. It's too easy to simply blame ;the government or the police, however, who find themselves in the front line of .coping with the situation that has developed and who feel they have to be seen to be "doing" something. .The truth is that humanly speaking we are in an impossible situation where it is difficult in the short term to know what to do. The future looks bleak as we begin to experience the bitter fruit of the culture of death which has long been an .undercurrent in our society. This has been producing all kinds of angers beneath . The surface of which most of us are unaware, engrossed as we are in our own lives. .Our recent popes have warned us of the consequences of trying to build a society without God. A culture of consumerism, individualism and selfishness brings its own consequences and the spawning of angry young terrorists seems to be proving to be one of them. As it says in Luke 6:43-45 "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor ...does a bad me bear good fruit. Each tree is recognised by its own fruit." This is why I feel that it is very important that we, who do believe in God, turn to Him and pray for help and guidance at this dangerous time. We need to repent, particularly of our sins of omission and to plead for God's mercy on us and our land. What has happened is a wake np call to us to convert, and simply blaming , the terrorists, will mean we will miss God's larger message to us. Jesus himself lived in a very difficult lime politically and socially. It was in this context that he taught us as his followers how we are to live. As the days get darker, may His words take on a new meaning and power as we try to live them and put them into practice. May we be formed by them rather than what we read in the newspapers or hear from our politicians. We must make it our special responsibility at this time,
too, I believe, to reach out to our Moslem neighbours or to anybody
else who is feeling vulnerable at this time in acts of love and solidarity.
We need at the grassroots level to build real community and this is
something (hat our governments can't do, only we can. Our real enemies
are not the terrorists but the powers and principalities that are trying
to destroy us. and change our Christian values. Each one of us will
be called to do something different, be it prayer, political action
or acts of love. The main thing is we must not be apathetic. We really
are in a fight, but our weapons as Christians must be different from
those of the terrorists.
|
|
|
 |