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Introduction:
Exile & Homecoming
Derek Poole
From
the Ardoyne Road...
Norman Hamilton
From
the Director
David Porter
Exile
and Homecoming
David McMillan
Be
Careful What You Wish For
Gareth Higgins
Bonfire
Reflections
Alwyn Thomson
Rights,
Relationships and Responsibilities
Kelvin McCracken
Wilson
On Suffering
Alan Wilson
Faith
and Practice - Debbie Watters
Ruth Hutchinson
Forgiveness
Janet Morris
FROM THE
THE DIRECTOR...
There have been numerous occasions since 1969
when the parochial concerns of our conflict have either connected deeply
with the affairs of the wider world or been put in proper perspective
in face of greater human tragedy. Connectedness and perspective combine
in the events of the eleventh of September 2001 and will mark our lives
for years to come.
News of the suicide attack by militant Islamic warriors, driven by their hatred of the Western world and aided by their distortion of faith, community and eternal destiny, struck a deep chord with many throughout N Ireland. The number of dead is beyond our grasp, but, proportionally, we know the impact such violence against humanity exacts in our small community.
Fear, pain and grief give way to anger and the need to avenge. We feel guilt because we are unable to forgive and powerless because we know that terrorism thrives and succeeds if we resort to methods that serve retaliation rather than justice. Through all of this is the inability to grasp the apparently incomprehensible. Where does this bitterness and hate, anger and violence come from?
Here is where our conflict begins to resonate with a world that is torn apart by bitter enmity between its peoples. It is a simple fact of history that tribes, nations and even the most benevolent empires rarely prosper except at the expense of others. Land and resources, freedom of cultural, political and religious identities as well as life itself are casualties of the struggle for wealth, power and security. This is the plight of a fallen humanity and there is not a community in the world that is not scarred by such histories.
In his recent book, The Shape of Irish History, under the title The Cain-Abel Business, ATQ Stewart quotes Amos Oz on the Palestinian /Israeli conflict:
‘[There is] a popular European inclination to assume that every conflict is essentially a misunderstanding, and with family counselling and group therapy everyone will live happily ever after. But there is no misunderstanding between Israeli Jew and Palestinian Arab… Rivers of coffee cannot solve the issue of land. We need compromise.’
So Stewart states:
‘Similarly, there is no misunderstanding between Catholic and Protestant in N Ireland, none whatsoever. Nor do they need to get to know each other better. They know each other only too well, having lived alongside each other for four centuries, part of the same society yet divided by politics and history. This is not just a clash of culture; it is a culture in itself, a point overlooked by most observers.’
A culture of conflict is the common legacy of every contested relationship between groups around the world. The attacks in America come in the context of centuries of bloody conflict between the Muslim world and Christendom. Confrontations in North Belfast are but the latest manifestation of the sectarianism that erodes relationships throughout our society. People hurt when murder, death, violence, fear, poverty and injustice erode their humanity. The journey to the bitterness and hate that fuel further division and violence is a short one. But it is a journey that God calls us to abandon.
God does not call us to compromise with evil and murder. ‘You shall not murder’ is unambiguous in its demands. No just cause is served through murder. But God requires that we overcome evil with good.
• Good requires that justice be upheld and those responsible for violating the sanctity of human life and distorting human potential are made accountable.
• Good is willing to face enmity between ourselves and others, our people and other peoples, repenting the abuse of power by which we allow our interests to be furthered at the cost of others.
• Good is concerned for the hurt of thousands in America and beyond, and for the welfare of innocent Afghans, a people who over recent years have seen millions killed and maimed and countless others afloat on the ‘sea of the global refugees’.
• Good is as eager to battle the poverty, exploitation and inequality that fuels the hate as it is to battle those who vent their hate in destruction.
‘Do gooders’ has become a term of ritual abuse for those deemed to be naïve, whose interference betrays an apparent failure to face the world as it is. In reality the Good News of God’s reign is uncompromising in its demands, and in a world broken and scarred by violence and hate it is a costly path to take. There is no naivety or failure of nerve in Jesus’ words: ‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you’. Rather he starkly states the breakdown in human relationships, there are enemies, and he invites us to a better way.
David Porter
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