Would You Kill the Spider?

Word Count: 750

This was an article I wrote for a Christian student magazine, SALT, in Oxford back in 2017. I recently rediscovered it, so I thought I'd post it here with a couple small edits!

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Love your neighbour as yourself? Love your enemy? Turn the other cheek? These famous sayings of Jesus were big enough asks two millennia ago, yet today, it is so easy to feel that the call on our character and moral duty is even greater. A combination of our knowledge of our own privilege in modern British society alongside an all-seeing media that presents us with the many problems and injustices present in our world leaves us with nowhere to hide. The magnitude of the moral task before us is overwhelming.

And so it should be. The moral task before us is far too impossible for us to ever make so much as a dent. In fact, it’s so big that, I’d much rather talk to you about a far smaller moral dilemma than the injustice in the world. Let’s talk about spiders! (Bear with me).

Imagine you’re in the garden, pulling out some weeds, when suddenly a large spider jumps out from where it had been resting under a leaf and crawls on your hand. You panic. You’ve never particularly liked spiders, and you certainly don’t want one crawling on your hand. It runs to hide underneath the next weed you intended to pull out. What do you do? This same dilemma came to me a few years ago and I chose the most convenient option: I killed the annoying, frightening little creature. But wait a minute, I thought we were talking about the difficulty of truly loving a world whose darkness seems so vast? Indeed, we are, but entertain me a little longer.

Many years ago, I read in a book something which is very similar to Luke 16:10; that if God knows you can be faithful in the small things, he will trust you to be faithful with the big things. If we have dreams to love our neighbours as ourselves and to eradicate the injustices in the world, then we must start with the small things that don’t matter. So, I ask you this time, would you kill the spider? I admit, this question sounds almost ridiculous and if someone else was asking me this right now I’d be tempted to laugh just from the sheer incredulity that it seems to be being asked with such seriousness. However, I am quite serious because I firmly believe that our actions in those situations that don’t 'matter' reveals our character and the principles we really live by. You say you want to love your neighbour as yourself, but what is your attitude and how loving are you in those small everyday situations which in and of themselves are unlikely to change much? What do you do when your friends are gossiping about someone? Are you waiting until you have a secure job and salary before you consider donating money regularly to charity? Do you stick with just talking to those friends you like best and are fun, or do you talk to the socially awkward kid who is an effort to talk to? Do you find yourself consistently walking past that homeless man because, unfortunately, you just never have time to say hello? Do you shout back when your mum has unfairly decided to take out her anger on you after a stressful day at work?

I don’t think it is a coincidence that St. Francis of Assisi, a man who played a significant part in revitalising an increasingly dead and lukewarm European Christianity in the 13th century, is also well-known to have spent much time preaching to animals (hence he is the patron saint of animals). Indeed, although many of his actions were about things which 'mattered', there is no doubt that Francis was also a man who had a lot of time and a lot of love for those creatures (and people) which didn’t matter. The heart that the Holy Spirit can transform to love even those things that seem inconsequential is a heart that God can use greatly. Our character is important to God because if we are the tools by which God will transform this dark world, then He needs tools that He can use. The fruit of the Spirit which He gives us -- love, joy, peace and all the rest -- are given to make us just such tools of transformation. However, we will never love big unless we are willing to love small.

You say you want to change the world? Why not start with the awkward kid in the playground. You say you want to love your neighbour as yourself? Why not start with the annoying spider.

Notes

*Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

"...Now and Forever. Amen." Can the Pursuit of Justice be Sustained?

Word Count: 950

I wrote the following blog for Just Love Cambridge, the Cambridge University-wing of a UK Christian student social justice charity whose mission statement is "to inspire and release every Christian student to pursue the biblical call to social justice." Despite having graduated two years ago, it remains my privilege to remain involved with this great organisation, and you can find out more here. You can find the original blog on Just Love Cambridge's blog here.

The blog was written for their Kingdom Come series linking phrases of 'The Lord's Prayer' (known also as the 'Our Father') to the call of justice. This was the final blog of the series on the final words of the prayer.

Though this blog has a more explicit Christian theme, I've tried as with all my blogs to make it as accessible to all regardless of creed or none.

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“For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, Now and Forever. Amen.”

The pursuit of justice is full of idealism. This is only natural as justice must be fundamentally imaginative for justice cannot function without a vision of what the world could be as opposed to what the world is.

The Lord’s Prayer is full of this imaginative justice: “Your Kingdom Come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” We see in the prayer a desire to bring the imagery of the unseen but imagined Heaven to the tangible but ordinary (and often disappointing) Earth; and what else is the call of justice but the call to bring Heaven to Earth? Even if our secular age has removed ‘Heaven’ of its spiritual attire, it has not removed its enchantment for the principle remains: it doesn’t have to be like this.

However, the Prayer doesn’t stop there with this hope of a future justice. Rather, it continues to end with the extra-biblical doxology[1] that the Kingdom is already now and forever. This isn’t something we’re just waiting to happen, but something that is happening now and ongoing! It doesn’t have to be like this now, never mind in the future!

Can you feel the revolutionary fire in your belly yet? The vigour coursing through your veins as your imagination is given free rein to totally re-imagine our bleak, imperfect reality as a vision of a just and peaceful world? Or do you instead feel something more akin to apathy, a latent sigh as disappointment and memory reminds you you’ve heard this all before? The vision, the enthusiasm, raised only to be left unfulfilled, inspiration now passed over into discouragement.

‘Idealism’ doesn’t have positive connotations in our culture today. It has left many people disappointed, and is more likely to be used as a criticism than a compliment. Likewise the pursuit of justice, caught up in its idealistic visions, is a fire that frequently seems to be doused by the torrents of life. It’s become a stereotype that young people start out as idealists and end up after their 20s and 30s as ‘realists’ (in other words as at best deflated do-gooders and more usually apathetic well-wishers). After all, the ‘real world’ is tough, brutal and unfair. Shouldn’t we just get used to it instead of trying to change it?

It’s a very good point. Life is tough, it is unfair, and positive change doesn’t come easily. Why bother? In such a reality, can the pursuit of justice—the bringing of Christ’s Kingdom to Earth—be sustained? Can we continue living justly through the discouragements and difficulties of life? Perhaps more pressingly for those entering or in the working world, if we can’t find a ‘justice-y job’, is it even worth pursuing justice when we’re locked in a 9 to 5 grind where we frequently lack both time and energy to do anything?

In short, yes, but how? By being creative with our normal and uniting the ideal with the real.

If justice is characterised by imagination, then it is sustained by imagination tangibly lived out. Grandiose visions of Heaven come to Earth are great, but inspiration on its own is like spewing gallons of petrol on the body of a car and expecting it to start speeding away. That is, unless the petrol is channelled into the engine, the car isn’t going to move. Similarly, inspiration needs to be channelled into practical expression in our daily life if it is to get off the ground. There’s a reason the early generations of disciples who wrote the Lord’s Prayer doxology referred to themselves as ‘followers of the Way’. Following Jesus wasn’t about parroting a list of doctrines they needed to believe, it was about intentionally attuning their everyday lives to the pattern of Christ. They became creative with their normal and so transformed it.

The call is still the same for us today. A relatively profound man once said, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.”[2] Pursuing justice isn’t just about ending world poverty or signing all nations up to a zero-carbon treaty. It’s also offering back massages to rough sleepers in shelters in Wolverhampton who rarely receive positive human touch. It looks like teachers in Gateshead who give up time in their summer holidays to offer disadvantaged pupils extra lessons and food to prevent them falling behind. Both these initiatives were helped instigated by Just Love alumni. They won’t change the world, but they’ve helped change someone’s world.

When you’re trying to make a difference in the world, it often feels like you’re a wave battering the seashore. Wave after wave hits, and still the rock stays, stubborn and unmoved. Without patience, perseverance and discipline, we very quickly become discouraged and exclaim, “Things will never change!” But come back to that coastline in 10, 20 or 50 years, and I promise you, those rocks will have changed. It takes time, effort, resources and money; it involves cooperation, organisation and monotonous repeat; it requires encouragement, support and community; but what it absolutely needs are people willing to risk living out an imaginative justice that brings Heaven down to Earth. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.

References

[1] In the Bible, the Lord’s Prayer appears in slightly varied forms. In Matthew 6, the prayer ends with “…and deliver us from evil. Amen,” whilst in Luke 11 it ends with “…and lead us not into temptation.” The common ending today—“For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, now and forever. Amen.”—is a later doxology, the earliest reference of which is in The Didache, an early Christian text on Christian worship that dates from the late 1st/early 2nd century.

[2] Jesus in Luke 16:10

Why the EU Elections are the People's Vote

Word Count: 1,500

Almost as soon as the referendum result became apparent, calls begun to be heard amongst Remainers that we should have a Second Referendum. Many had expected the vote to go Remain’s way and were left shocked and mortified when the vote went the other way, if only by a close margin. Many in Remain quickly started to tell the story that this could only have happened because the Brexit-voting population must largely be misinformed and have made a mistake. Thus, began the controversy of the People’s Vote.

Now was there misinformation during the EU referendum? Of course there was. When has there been a political campaign where there wasn’t? On the Brexit side, which Remain politician hasn’t rehashed the infamous ‘£350m for the NHS’ Brexit bus? Indeed, it was quite clear that much of the Brexit campaign was about stirring emotions and identifying ‘Brexit’ with the left behind and those spurned and ridiculed by the equally now infamous ‘liberal metropolitan elite’. Catchy car bumper slogans like ‘Take back control!’ and ‘Our Independence Day!’ could be seen galore. However, misinformation persisted on the Remain side too. I mean, the apocalypse hadn’t happened in the UK last time I checked, even if the £ has dropped. The Remain campaign did its fair share of emotion stirring around the ‘nightmare’ of a post-Brexit Britain. Furthermore, it was clear that accusations of the existence of a ‘liberal metropolitan elite’ were perhaps not quite untrue as Remain began identifying itself with urban-dwelling people with generally liberal outlooks and too often a sense of elitist enlightenment that at least they were not like those ‘backwards, regressive Brexiteers’.

Politics is essentially the art of story-telling and frequently it’s a case of the best story-teller wins. The political landscape is not conquered through facts and figures but through imagination, vision and a sense of what could be. So of course misinformation persists. A story cannot be true or false, but it can be truer or falser than another story. For this reason, political campaigns, like the EU referendum, contain a mixture of truth, exaggeration, half-truths, and blatant lies. There might be more truths than lies, but essentially there is always a mixture. Interestingly, Remain had the ‘facts advantage’ because it could actually talk about the tangible reality of how our relationship with the EU is now. The facts and figures were ready to hand, and because of this Remain politicians always seemed to be quoting statistics of various sorts about how the EU benefited the UK. Brexit politicians could only use facts and figures in a negative way to argue why the EU was bad for Britain. But with no positive facts of their own to say what a post-Brexit Britain would actually be like, they could only rely on models and what ifs. However, when it came to generating emotion, what was Remain supposed to do? “Three cheers for the status quo!”…Yeah, not the best campaign idea, especially when your supporters and politicians also concur that that status quo is not perfect. Stir up fear and dread about what Brexit could be? That’s a better way about it. Likewise, what Brexit did so well, and arguably what won it the referendum, was that it stirred up enough belief and passion amongst the British public about what post-Brexit Britain could look like that people were stirred to take the risk and vote to see this vision of possibility become a reality. This vision of possibility won out over the presentation of facts and figures about a relatively uninspiring status quo.

Why does all this matter? Because on May 23, in a strange twist of fate, the British public are unexpectedly going to be voting to send MEPs to a Parliament that 52% voted three years ago to leave. The EU Elections of 2019 will see the British electorate coming together to vote for (what are currently) utterly pointless MEPs, and because of this, the EU Election is not about electing MEPs—it’s about showing whose story is truer.

Since the referendum, the story of Remain is that the country has changed its mind and there is no longer a majority in favour of Brexit. What was presented as a rosy, simple, black-and-white picture of how the world could be has been shown to be a far more complicated, boring, confusing waste of resources than anyone was expecting. The British people have been sold a lie, and they now want out.

In the Brexit camp, the story is one of betrayal by Remain politicians who have sabotaged the will of the British people. They have botched what they promised to deliver, mainly because they haven’t had the guts to stick it to the EU and prove that a No Deal is better than a Bad Deal. The British people have not changed their mind. If anything, they are more determined than ever to prove to the patronising Remainers that they were not mistaken when they voted and meant what they said.

Neither of these stories presents a totally accurate picture of reality, though both do give some of that picture. However, believe me when I say that the EU elections will be used to legitimise one of these stories over the other. It is for this reason that Nigel Farage has brought himself out of retirement to once again lead the Brexit charge. Seeing the EU Elections for what they are—a People’s Vote by another name—Farage has made sure that The Brexit Party is the clear party to vote for if you want to leave the EU. Unfortunately for Remain, no politician has had the foresight to do the same. Those clearly wanting to vote ‘Remain’ in this EU Election must choose between either ChangeUK or the Liberal Democrats. And that’s not including the Labour and Green Parties who lean in the Remain direction.

A number of Remainers have been calling for a People’s Vote for some time. However, as far as I can see, it is those pushing for Brexit, not Remain, who are taking advantage of the EU Elections to have a People’s Vote on Brexiteer, not Remainer, terms. If the People’s Vote were ever to officially happen, it would be a passionate, frenzied and undoubtedly divisive contest. I honestly don’t know which side would end up winning such a contest, but both sides would give it their all. However, instead the Brexit campaign has spotted its opportunity to put an end to Remain’s story of a nation that has changed its mind without needing to risk such a contest. And that’s by having the contest under another name with a Remain vote that is disorganised and split and a Brexit campaign that is revitalised and energised.

Up to this point (I hope) I’ve held my cards relatively close to my chest. The debate around Brexit has become so polarising, you rarely hear people presenting their opinions in a way that doesn’t paint the other side as the ‘menace within’. However, I did vote Remain and did (and still do) think Brexit is a bad idea. Nevertheless, I hope I have been fair to both my Leave and Remain readers in presenting the stories and feelings of both sides. Politics should be about seeking to understand each other so that we can go forward together, not a fight to the death in order to crush the other side.

However, I have to be honest and say I have been hoping for a People’s Vote. Furthermore, my hope for this was for no more noble a reason than a political calculation on my part that it seems like the only chance there is of stopping something I think would be bad for Britain. It’s the only way of ‘proving’ Remain’s story that the people have had a change of heart. Likewise, I think Brexiteers are often so against a People’s Vote because they’ve made the same political calculation. To agree to a People’s Vote is to endorse the possibility that Remain’s story might be truer and that people have changed their minds. Why risk that if you think Brexit is what’s best for Britain?

But what if you can have a national vote on Europe which, because no one was expecting it and it’s not a People’s Vote with a Yes/No tick-box, doesn’t risk Remain coming together to present a united front? Then, you can placate ‘Remoaners’ with minimal risk. A close contest is less close when one side is pooling its votes amongst several different parties.

I wrote this post because, as I’ve explained, I think the Brexit campaign is being much savvier than Remain in understanding the importance of the upcoming EU elections. Leave understands that the Cup Final is not several months away but right here, right now, and it’s playing better football. This article is my little attempt to wake the Remain campaign up so there isn’t the same complacency there was when the EU referendum first happened. Whether or not it’s a fair contest or you’re ready for it, the ‘People’s Vote’ is happening next Thursday, and one story or another is going to be shown truer as a result. If you want Brexit, vote for the Brexit Party. If you want Remain, then don’t be complacent and find a clear way to show it.