Category: Political

Activism · Bible · faith · Following Jesus · Jesus · Political · World Affairs

In My Dream I Saw

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I don’t remember my dreams very often, but I still have some snippets from a dream I had last night.
In my dream I saw a statue, standing up with something like a rod in its hand. The statue was a bit more than life size, maybe about 8 feet tall, and the rod was about 18 inches long and maybe 2 inches in diameter.

The next thing I saw was that the statue was lying down on its side, and the rod was held by two cupped hands of the statue. The hands were holding, rather than gripping the rod. Then someone was removing the rod from the cupped hands.

Then I found myself with a group of people in a room, all giving their different accounts of what the rod symbolised. Each one was describing a different angle on power

I can’t quite remember exactly what I said, but it was something to do with what happens when there’s a vacuum. There’s that saying – nature abhors a vacuum. When there’s a vacuum, something will rush in the fill that vacuum.

In the dream, the vacuum was created when the rod was removed from the hands. Suddenly, the person, or organisation that was holding the power is no longer in charge. At that point, other forces are quick to come and seize power.

In my dream, I went on to say that what was needed was an understanding of what the purpose of holding that power should be. The power should be exercised for the benefit of all. That means that everyone needs to have a say, no one should be left out.

At that point, I finished, and everyone applauded. I was surprised, but pleased that what I had said seemed to ring a bell with everyone present.

Here endeth the dream

So – a couple of reflections on the dream. We’re watching a series on Netflix at the moment called Godless. It’s set just after the American Civil war, and I think that may have been on my mind, and that somewhere deep in my unconscious is a memory of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address from November 19th 1863, in the middle of the Amercian Civil War. In that speech, he famously said ‘That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’ The exact wording of the speech is uncertain, and Lincoln wasn’t the first to use that idea …. of the people, by the people, for the people.

My little speech in the dream seemed to be along the same lines …

The second thought is that today – March 28th 2021 – is Palm Sunday in the Christian calendar. The Gospel reading for Palm Sunday recalls how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. As he entered the Holy City, the crowds acclaimed him as king shouting – ‘Hosanna to the Son of David.’ Hosanna means ‘save,’ and is probably used here as a special cry of joy for the one who has come to save, to rescue.

Here’s the prophetic passage from the First Testament book of Zechariah that is clearly seen in the events of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.

Zechariah chapter 9 verses 9 – 10.
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you,righteous and victorious,lowly and riding on a donkey,on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem,and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations.His rule will extend from sea to seaand from the River to the ends of the earth.

In my dream, someone came and took the rod representing power from the statue. Whatever part of my subconscious that dream came from, the removal of the rod of power is something to do with a non-violent expression of a different quality of power to the oppressive displays of power that dominate our world.

For example, I’m thinking today of the non-violent demonstrations in Myanmar at the brute force and violence shown by the army.

I’m thinking of the non-violent demonstrations in our own city of Bristol, sadly hijacked by violent protesters.

I’m thinking of the peaceful protests against violence done to women after the murder of Sarah Everard, that ironically resulted in a police over reaction and more violence shown to the mostly women protesters.

I’m thinking of the peaceful civil disobedience of the protests of Extinction Rebellion back in 2019.

And I’m thinking of Jesus, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, not a war horse, to announce God’s kingdom of peace. Jesus comes to demonstrate his power, that is so different to the power of the elite in Jerusalem, and to the imperial might of Rome. He comes to challenge the powers of his day. From the backwater of Galilee, Jesus now enters as it were, the Lion’s Den.

As I imagine the picture of Jesus on a donkey, I see that event as an act of non-violent resistance. The words of the ancient prophets are brought to life, and their words still speak today.

The words of Zechariah conjure up a vision not far from my dream in which I saw the symbol of power taken from the statue – I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem,and the battle bow will be broken.

It is a vision of peace that comes against all kinds of oppression – through the economy, through race, gender and sexuality.
Wherever such protests are made, the forces of power will rise to try and silence the voices of peace.

A prayer for today

God of ancient prophets, we thank you for your timeless utterances of truthfulness. Give us good ears to hear the reverberation of those old words as new voices ring out in our day. In his name. Amen.

Prayer by Walter Brueggemann (slightly altered)

Bible · Following Jesus · Political · World Affairs

There Is None So Blind

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A lyric from an old song “Everything is Beautiful” by Ray Stevens goes like this “there is none so blind, as those who will not see.”
In this form of a proverb, it might date back to 1546, but it probably has its roots in the Bible.

I was reading in John Gospel chapter 9 this morning. It’s the account of the healing of a man born blind. Now, because it happened on the Sabbath, when it was against the Jewish Law to work, an argument follows the healing – if Jesus was really from God, would he have done such an outrageous thing ?

As well as the physical healing, which enabled the man to see for the first time, there’s also the question of a different kind of seeing, which is to do with seeing the truth about how things really are, and making an appropriate response.

One of Jesus’ claims is to be ‘The Light of the World,’ which is about revealing how things really are. Enabling people to ‘see.’
The religious leaders take exception to this claim, and ask Jesus …. ‘Are you saying that we’re blind ?’

Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, ‘Surely we are not blind, are we?’ (John 9:40)

Jesus’ response is perhaps surprising:

41 Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, “We see”, your sin remains. (John 9:41)

What he is saying in essence is this: they are not blind – they can see perfectly well. ‘If they were blind, they would have an excuse for not seeing the evidence of Jesus’ power. They are guilty because they have seen, and should have known better than to refuse the power of God.’ *
* Walter Brueggemann in ‘Gift and Task’ a year of daily readings and reflections.

In the Gospel, the religious leaders are more interested in preserving the status quo, and their position of influence. Jesus is a big threat to that power.

It made me think of current situations where people in power might see quite clearly where there is a need for change, but that change would threaten to take away their influence, so they hold on to their power. They should know better.

As always, the challenge is there for me too. Where should I know better ?

Bible · faith · God · Political · Theology · World Affairs

The Pernicious Influence of Globalisation

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The Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel is pretty well known. It’s a curious tale that appears after the flood story. Here’s the text from Genesis 11.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
4 Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’
5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.
6 And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
7 Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

The motivation for building the tower seems to be twofold:
a desire to be known as the best, and to do the impossible.
coupled with a fear that without power and fame, the people (whoever they were, we don’t know), would be dispersed, and thus lose their influence.

Walter Brueggemann puts it like this: ‘the story … is an early account of globalisation, a strategy of universal control by powerful people who aim to control all the money and to impose uniformity on all parts of the world population.’

The force behind such attempts for domination is so powerful that it is all consuming, stopping at nothing to be at the top. The consequence of this kind of behaviour, althought not explicitly stated in the Genesis account, is that the poor and the powerless are overlooked.

Walter Brueggemann again … ‘The scattering and confusion wrought by God is to assure that no assertive power can gain ultimate control and emerge as a single superpower.’

Fast forward to the 21st century. Where are the parallels today for empire building to achieve complete control.
The super companies – Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook etc (and probably some others that have the same degree of power but work behind the scenes).
The super powers – at this time notably China, while the USA decreases in its influence.

And where would we look to see God’s hand in all of this ? Is there a move of God today that will assure that no assertive power can gain ultimate control ?

Grace and Peace.




music · Political · Song for Today

A Song For Today #24

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It’s been a while since I posted a song. This one came to mind today as we were listening to Canned Heat – I thought about Woodstock, and then this Richie Havens song popped in. (Richie was the opening act at Woodstock) … I went looking for a live recording and found one here. There’s a fuller production (of course) on his 1968 double album enititled ‘1983’

I can remember hearing the song on the radio back in the late 60’s or early 70’s and I must have missed the D.J. announcing the song, because it took me years to track it down – before the age of the internet. When I did discover who it was, I went out and bought the album. It’s a bit patchy, with too many Beatles covers for my taste, but for some reason this song has remained one of my personal favourites from that era. The words are challening for any age, and the melody really does it for me, added to Richie’s percussive guitar style with open tuning. The addition of something like sitars on the album recording give an eastern vibe, that is very much of the time.

Just Above My Hobby Horse’s Head

Oh, day is near,
darkness gone
and the word is clear
Children see the light,
we close their eyes
and we call it night.

And as they dream their dreams,
we talk the hours away
And as we plan and scheme,
we change tomorrow to yesterday

Borrowed for the time,
the life we share
is a sacred right
Choosing,
we may find
we’re on the road
and there are no signs

And we say we love and we say we care
And we say we know and we say we’re there
If we live our hates and we fight our wars
And we burn our towns, what is going down?

Children raise their voice,
questioning all
has been their choice
Answers
from within
point the way
to where we’ve been

And as the music plays
and we become all the days
That become the years
of our lives,
of our lives

Richie Havens / Mark Roth

Activism · faith · Greenbelt Festival, · music · Political · Song for Today · Songwriting · World Affairs

A Song – Work In Progress

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I don’t think I’ve posted one of my own songs before, but here goes. If you’ve been following me, you’ll know that I am trying to understand the situation in the Middle East, especially as it applies to the relationship between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza.

One of the defining moments in the last 100 years was what Palestinians call Nakba – the time in 1948 when Palestinian families were forced to leave their homes. One of the accounts of that event is told by Sami Awad, and tells how his grandfather, living in Jerusalem with his family, lost his life to a bullet. The truth of what happened that day is disputed, but whatever that truth is, his death was caused by the actions of Israel.

I wrote a song that tries to capture something of those events. It’s just a home version, with me doing all the singing and playing, and it’s very rough round the edges, but it’s a story that I needed to tell. The last 72 years have seen the bitter fruit of those days in 1948, with the loss of access to water, expulsion from the ancestral lands, frequent loss of the olive trees that are a symbol of Palestinian life and the perils of losing the heritage seeds that tell the story of day to day life in the foods that are eaten.

Amos Trust is a small human rights organisation – find out more about the situation here

My song is actually work in progress. I need to do some more work on it, but I wanted to put it out there. I am a songwriter, who like many others, dreams of others seeing the value of their work and making it their own. So if anyone out there wants to take the song and do something with it, let me know.

Here it is: Catastrophe

Grace and peace

Political · World Affairs

One Of My Favourite Writers

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October has been a dry month, at least, in terms of writing this blog. It’s like that sometimes I suppose. I need an outside stimulus to get the creative juices flowing, and it just hasn’t happened for the last few weeks.

The outside stimulus for today comes indirectly from the current news about the Labour Party and Antisemitism, together with a novel I’m reading by one of my favourite writers, Chaim Potok, and the Psalm that I read in my morning prayers today.

First, Chaim Potok. In the last year or so, I’ve been reading his novels and one work of non fiction. Every thing I have read is informative, powerful, moving, often heartbreakingly sad, and deeply human.

What I have read so far:

Novels:
The Chosen (1967)
The Promise (1969)
My Name is Asher Lev (1972)
In the Beginning (1975)
The Gift of Asher Lev (1990)
I am the Clay (1992)

Non Fiction
The Gates of November (1996)

I have yet to read several others, including
Wanderings (1978) – Chaim Potok’s history of the Jews.

Chaim Potok was a Rabbi and novelist, who wrote a number of very powerful novels, many of them set in Jewish communities of New York in the middle of the 20th century.

I’m in the middle of ‘In the Beginning’ which tells the story of a Jewish family in New York, recently arrived from Poland. It’s set in the late 1920’s and is told from the perspective of a young boy, David. I have just got to a part where the Jewish community in New York are beginning to hear news reports of a massacre of Jews in Hebron. Potok weaves the factual account into his fictional story. That made me go and find out more about what happened. On 24th August 1929, 67 or 69 Jews were killed by Arabs incited to violence by rumours that Jews were planning to seize control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Alongside that I read this in Psalm 123:

3 Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us,
    for we have endured no end of contempt.
4 We have endured no end
    of ridicule from the arrogant,
    of contempt from the proud.

The history of oppression against the Jews goes back a very long way – to the enslavement of God’s chosen people in Egypt around 1400 B.C. Since then, there have been numerous other examples – the captivity and exile of the Jews to Babylon in around 600 B.C. The conquering of Palestine by Alexander the Great, and the Roman occupation around the time of Christ. Add to that the persecution of the Jews through history, the pogroms in Russia in the 19th and early 20th century, and the indescribably horrific and inhuman events of the holocaust.

History is important. We cannot take the events of today and try to interpret them without some understanding of how we got here. So the debate on anti-semitism must be understood in the light of the thousands of years of Jewish suffering.

So far, I’m totally with those voices that decry any forms of antisemitism.

However, let’s look at the definition of anti-semitism on the gov.uk website. It includes this: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”

Hhmm, I’m nt sure about that one. According to the Absentees’ Property Law (1950), Palestinian refugees expelled after November 29, 1947, are “absentees” and are denied any rights. Their land, houses/apartments, and bank accounts (movable and immovable property) were confiscated by the state.

Simultaneously, the Law of Return (1950) gave Jews from anywhere in the world the right to automatically become Israeli citizens. 

So discrimination against Palestinians goes back to the founding of the state of Israel. Isn’t discrimination against someone because of their racial identity racism in action ? It’s also clear that the current actions of the state of Israel are based in treating a group of people differently because of their Palestinian identity.

The grave injustices that are being done to the Palestinian people by the state of Israel in the name of security continue. The United Nations has ruled that the Jewish settlements in Palestinian land are illegal. Bit by bit, and over many years, the Palestinian people have themselves been oppressed and denied their human rights.

Sadly, as history again tells us, the European colonial powers must bear much of the responsibility for the situation we have today. Colonial powers carved up, and decided on borders for large parts of Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia, as well as being responsible for the oppression of the indigenous peoples of Africa, Australasia and the Americas. Perhaps there should be a national day each year when we (‘Great Britain’) acknowledge the wrongs that we have perpetrated in the name of power and wealth.

So what can I say about a situation that has proved to be insoluble to some of the the greatest politicians and diplomats of our time ? I’m trying to listen to the voices of the ordinary people whose lives are impacted, especially those affected by the occupation.

I have listened to some of those voices, and one of the most important foundations for a peaceful settlement in Israel/Palestine is the issue of equality. Somehow, we have to get to a point of recognising and respecting the equality of all people, regardless of colour, ethnicity, national identity, gender, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation. That would be a start. Until the Palestinian people are treated as equals under the law by Israel, there can never be a solution, two state, or one state.

This article by Jewish journalist Peter Beinhart might be helpful.

Bible · Political

The Blessings Of The Righteous or … Is This How It Is ?

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Psalm 112

1 Praise the Lord!
Happy are those who fear the Lord,
who greatly delight in his commandments.
2 Their descendants will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in their houses,
and their righteousness endures for ever.
4 They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright;
they are gracious, merciful, and righteous.
5 It is well with those who deal generously and lend,
who conduct their affairs with justice.
6 For the righteous will never be moved;
they will be remembered for ever.
7 They are not afraid of evil tidings;
their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord.
8 Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid;
in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
9 They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor;
their righteousness endures for ever;
their horn is exalted in honour.
10 The wicked see it and are angry;
they gnash their teeth and melt away;
the desire of the wicked comes to nothing.

I nearly always get something new out of a reading from holy scripture. It’s not always what I expect.

There are three kinds of people in this psalm – The Righteous, The Wicked and The Poor.

Think about the people labelled ‘the righteous.’ It seems like they are OK and they have enough to live and enough to give. They are‘ good people.’ They are generous towards the poor, and there’s nothing wrong in that.

Then there are the wicked and the poor. I wonder, does this system ever change. Is there the potential for transforming the status quo, or not ?

It almost seems like everyone is in their allotted stations in life, and the role of the righteous is simply to be generous.

Added to this is the grammatical structure of the psalm. The righteous and the wicked are both subjects in the sentences, whilst the poor are objects.

The righteous are gracious ….. they are active in the way they live

The wicked are angry … also active in the way they live

But where the poor are concerned, they are passive. The righteous have given to the poor. The poor are on the receiving end of charity.

I know there are many passages that speak of righting injustice, but this appears to accept the ways things are.

Bible · faith · Political · Theology · World Affairs

With Prayers For The Landless

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I was reading in Psalm 105 this morning

For he (Yahweh) remembered his holy promise
    given to his servant Abraham.
43 He brought out his people with rejoicing,
    his chosen ones with shouts of joy;
44 he gave them the lands of the nations,
    and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—
45 that they might keep his precepts
    and observe his laws.

There is much that I find helpful in the Old Testament to do with God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to his covenant people. But I have a problem with God giving his chosen people land that others have lived in and toiled over. (See above verse 44)

With verses like that in the Hebrew Scriptures, it is, maybe, not surprising that Benjamin Netanyahu is still hell bent on annexing more land from the Palestinian people.

It is possible to find in holy scripture a warrant for the most evil of deeds. Christians must acknowledge that, and attempt to read the whole story of God and his people. In the prophet Isaiah for example, we see that God’s blessing is in fact intended for every people, and not just Israel. And in the verses below, Isaiah had harsh words for those who steal the land of others.

Ah, you who join house to house,
    who add field to field,
until there is room for no one but you,
    and you are left to live alone
    in the midst of the land!
(Isaiah chapter 5 verse 8)

And his conclusion is that they will get their reward

9 But I have heard the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    swear a solemn oath:
“Many houses will stand deserted;
    even beautiful mansions will be empty.
10 Ten acres of vineyard will not produce even six gallons of wine.
    Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket of grain.”
(Isaiah Chapter 5 verse 9,10)

With prayers for justice for the Palestinian people, and all those whose land has been illegally taken.

Political · World Affairs

The Plight Of The Stateless

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We’ve been watching a Netflix series called ‘Stateless’ over the last week or so. It’s about the treatment of refugees in Australia, and it set in a detention camp. It’s not an easy watch as it is ‘inspired by real events’, and therefor has some basis in fact.

Linked with that, we watched the first programme in a series featuring Miriam Margolyes, where she goes on a road trip round Australia to celebrate her new Australian citizenship.

She admits to having a limited, idealised idea of what it means to be Australian, and has her eyes opened to the history of the Aboriginal peoples and the plight of refugees seeking asylum in Australia.

The sadness, repeated over and over again throughout history is the forced displacement of people through colonisation, and because of ethnic and religious difference.

She meets a man from Afghanistan, and a family from the Karen people of Myanmar, who are both in Australia as a result of discrimination and persecution.

it seems ironic that the Australian immigration system is so stacked against refugees when the history of the country is tainted by the genocide of the Aboriginal peoples.

The same of course is true of America, whose history includes so many examples of the abuse of power in land grabbing – primarily from the First Nation American peoples.

And it seems that we are no better, witness the treatment of many who seek asylum in this country and who spend years in detention centres, let alone the scandal of the forced deportation to the Caribbean of those who are from families of the Windrush generation.