The Walk On By Society

Civic duty has been in the spotlight this week, drawing into the debate a campaigner who has dubbed us the 'walk on by society'.

Guy Dehn of 'Witness Confident' - a charity that aims to help people take a stand against the culture that fuels street violence - was quoted in reference to proposed plans for overhauling the system of registering to vote, which might lead to even fewer people turning out at elections.

This week has also seen the unveiling of a startling report on the lack of quality care for the elderly within society. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has judged that the low standard of treatment of thousands of older people in home care essentially breaches their human rights.

Does all this suggest that the concept of civic duty is past its sell by date? That we may aspire to be the 'big society' but what we have instead is the 'walk on by society'?

Do we have a right to be cared for? And whose responsibility is it? The state? Except it appears that the government cannot cope with the level of demand placed on it by an increasingly ageing population.

The family, then? But as David Willetts argues in his book, The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future - And How They Can Give it Back, there has been a breakdown of 'the social contract'. Put simply, 'what you give to the next generation depends on what you received from the previous ones'. Indeed, Scripture emphasises the formative significance of relationships within the household, and the success of the 'big society' will undoubtedly depend on how well the 'small society' of the family thrives.

Beyond that, civic duty involves the obligation to uphold the public good as opposed to pursuing one's private interest. I live in relationship with, and dependence on, others. My action or inaction affects others. My choices carry consequences, not only for myself but for others. Of all citizens, it would seem, Christians should be ideally placed to tackle the 'walk on by' mentality. The scope and implications of the gospel suggest nothing less.

thanks to Jason Gardner (LICC)

Power to the People ! ?

Thanks to Roger Johnson for this:

So a group of anti-capitalism protestors with a less than clear message pitch their tents and sleep outside (or some of them do as the police’s thermal imaging cameras have shown), bring St. Paul’s Cathedral to a halt, trigger the resignation of two of its senior staff and leave the Church of England in a position of acute embarrassment because of its less than decisive response to the issues being raised. Even now I wonder whether the Archbishop of Canterbury who advocates the introduction of the Tobin Tax (a tax on currency transactions) and the Bishop of London who has been ‘flown’ in to run St. Paul’s in the wake of these resignations, are actually singing from the same hymn sheet.

I say this, not to add to the plight of the Church of England with whom I have some sympathy, but to demonstrate that even the small, insignificant voices of the general public can, in fact, have world-changing consequences – and why not? Decades ago, the sight of Robert Lindsay dressing up as Citizen Smith and raising his revolutionary fist in the air with the cry of ‘power to the people’ was seen by many as an out dated and hopeless figure. But, is ‘people power’ seeing a resurgence?

The Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has secured the unanimous backing of his cabinet for a referendum on the eurozone debt rescue plan, leaving other European heads of state in fits of fury after they negotiated long and hard to secure a bail-out package which is now in jeopardy. But why shouldn’t the people of Greece have their say? Why should the financial gurus tell the Greek people what hardships they should face in the future when they, along with many other highly paid executives, see their salaries increase by around 50%?

This all begs the questions, ‘have the common people got it right?’ Can we leave the big questions in the hands of so-called experts any longer? Has it all come home to roost for the financial institutions who plunged us into this crisis in the first place. Has the great institution of the Church of England found itself unable to answer the question ‘what would Jesus do?’ for fear of losing its financial backing from the very people being criticised by the motley bunch of protesters camped on its doorstep? Is the axe hanging over the great institutions which have underpinned so much of society for so long?

Maybe we are seeing something for which Christian people should rejoice. Perhaps this is a sign that God has had enough and his Spirit is sweeping across the globe in an unprecedented way. Didn’t Joel prophecy that God would ‘pour out his Spirit on all flesh’, even the lowest of the low? Is this the moment when the Spirit fans the flame into an inferno? I remember that 2,000 years ago the religious and political establishment were rocked by an uneducated, Galilean peasant who eventually met his fate on a cross. However, the movement he founded, which has little to do with the erection and maintenance of large buildings in big cities, has grown ever since in the hearts of his followers – people upon whom the Spirit has been poured out as prophesied.

The Greek debt crisis will no doubt rumble on for some weeks now with the world’s financial markets cascading out of control and the politicians losing sleep. They will be asking themselves if it is right to use their taxpayers’ money to bail out a country which has consistently overspent. But with Ireland, Portugal, Spain and now Italy perilously close to melt-down, why don’t they simply give in and cancel everybody’s debt and be done with it? After all, that’s what Jesus did! (Isaiah 53:6, Luke 15:22-24, 1 Corinthians 6:20)

As the staff of St. Paul’s and the European leaders try and dig themselves out of these messes, I am reminded of the parable which Jesus told of a rich man who sat in his luxurious house, seemingly oblivious to the plight of the beggar at his gate (Luke 16:19-31). The point of this parable is that in God’s Kingdom roles will be reversed. It was the poor beggar who was favoured by God while the rich man faced eternal torment, pleading for the poor beggar to bring him relief.

It seems to me that the staff of St. Paul’s have missed an amazing evangelistic opportunity when they could have presented the true message of the gospel, not only to the protesters outside, but to the world’s media.