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Editorial
Alwyn Thomson
Comment:
Failed Politics?
Norman Hamilton
From
the Director: Words and Deeds
David W Porter
Loyalism
and Me
Philip Rankin
Real
Life
David Campton
Policing
Matters
Sam Pollock
The
Crisis Within
Eddie
Kinner
Loyalism
- The Issues
Mervyn Gibson
Scapegoating
Billy Mitchell
Review...Beyond
Retribution
Stephen Graham
Down
to Basics
Malachy
O'Doherty
Faith
in the Future
David
W Porter
For
God and His Glory Alone:
Study 1: Love
COMMENT: FAILED
POLITICS?
'POLITICS
HAS FAILED'. The distressing words of a moderate community leader in North
Belfast to me recently. What did he mean? In three pungent words he was
expressing the feeling amongst so many in the loyalist and unionist community,
that the dividends that could properly be expected from having a local
administration simply were not there for the taking in North Belfast.
The reasons may be many and complex, but the
implications do not augur well for the future.
Few would doubt that
loyalist communities are in almost
permanent crisis. My own experience of Ardoyne and the
aftermath of the Holy Cross dispute does nothing to reassure me that the
crisis will simply go away. The crisis reflects the widening gap between
the way 'big picture' politics is done, and the way 'street politics'
operates. Few leaders show much ability to bridge the gap, and so other
groups and forces fill the space vacated by the democratic process. It
is fashionable to wring hands and lament the role and influence of paramilitaries,
but when people feel that 'politics has failed' should society be surprised
at the consequences?
This raises an acute
dilemma for evangelical Christians.
Recently I received an email in which a colleague suggested that 'far
too many evangelical Christians hide behind Romans 13'. If the 'governing
authorities' will not or cannot fulfil their God given responsibility
to ensure that they 'hold no terror for those who do right, but for those
who do wrong', does the Scripture actually back a view that ordinary citizens
should simply keep silent and acquiesce with what is happening?
Many things that
are happening on our urban streets - and increasingly on the streets of
our provincial towns - are often profoundly evil. Sectarianism is rampant;
drug dealing is commonplace with a blind eye often being turned to it;
violence is commonplace with apparently inadequate resources to deal with
it. And there often seems to be so little said or done by those of us
who are evangelicals
in response. Could it possibly be that it is not only loyalism that is
in crisis, but the moral conscience of evangelicalism as well? Would it
be fair to say that we are largely undisturbed about evil, except when
it is in our own back yard? Do we expect our politicians to deal with
issues of the human heart, when that is a matter for us to tackle?
There is surely an
irony that it is Belfast City Council which has grabbed the headlines
in wanting to address sectarianism, rather than the people of God being
the public vanguard. And if we pray, do we pray with grace and for grace,
with courage and for courage, with faith and for faith?
It is the job of leaders to lead, and if they fail to do so, then others will seek to fill their shoes. It is the calling and privilege of ordinary Christian people to stand against evil as Ephesians 6 guides us to do, and if we don.t do it, then others will try to do so with a rather different world view. Maybe part of the reason why people say that 'politics has failed' is that Christian people haven't really been much concerned to make it work - when was the last time your church prayed for all your local politicians?
Norman Hamilton is minister of Ballysillan Presbyterian Church on the Crumlin Road and is a member of ECONI.
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