Waiting on Parliament and on God

I've been following events in Parliament closely this past few days and will do for the rest of this critical week in European politics. I follow just as closely what media reports and the commentariat have to say about it. It's hard to know which group is the more worrying of the two. 

For ages it's seemed to me that MPs are dimly aware or ill informed on all the consequences of decisions they are required to take, often less interested in the common good than in preserving self-interests. Journalists and interviewers often seem poorly briefed, not quite up to date, and utterly devoted to over-simplifying every issue, and enforcing binary options to which an instant response is required from their unfortunate victim. 

I find myself reluctant to trust the majority of public voices, whether elected or employed in the media, to speak the whole truth in the service of all citizens. It's argued that all this disagreement, division and harsh debate about the way forward for the country is what democracy is about. What I see is elite groups struggling for control, not for a unifying consensus, setting a bad example that exacerbates existing social division in the population. It's recipe for civil strife if many on both sides of the brexit debate feel their voices are unheard and don't get what they thought they wanted from the outcome of this agonising process. 

Britain is no longer a society in which Christian moral values and spiritual influence set the tone or give a lead in nurturing a more just and equal society. We have become to a much greater extent a multi-faith and plural culture, tolerant in some respects, but overly lax and permissive in others. The total proportion of people of any faith who practice their religion and apply its teaching is perhaps a quarter of the population. To have a secular environment in which all believers enjoy equal respect and treatment can be beneficial to the common good, but at what price? To have secularism as a dominant ideology fostering individualism, striving to discredit and exclude religious thought and influence from the public debate, poses a grave danger. 

It's all too easy for cultured despisers of religion to dismiss the faith perspective on the grounds of differences in beliefs and the awful conflicts these have generated, and ignore elements of different religious paths on which believers do unite in pursuit of truth justice, equality and goodness. The idea of Christendom is a lost cause, but the spiritual reality of God's kingdom, and human beings as God's children transcends culture and religion. I believe it can and should be worked towards by all people of faith, thinking and working together for the common good, regardless of differences. And to make any fresh impact on the wider world, every household of faith has to set its own house in order, purge itself of deceit, corruption and exploitation. Believers in God have lost so much of their credibility, it's easier said than done to restore it, maybe beyond us humans, but not beyond God. So, it's a matter of watching and waiting on God for the kingdom to break through - yet again.

Sobering thoughts

Thinking about Rhiannon flying to Holland this morning, and Rachel travelling to Penslyvania from Arizona to visit an internet friend. She'll be in a time zone two hours nearer us during her week of holiday, which means having to figure out different possible phone calling times. The environment in Pensylvania will be more like Wales, which will suit her better than the climate in Phoenix.

I had a bereavement visit to make in Rhiwbina this morning, to complete preparations mostly made by email for a funeral tomorrow. Fr Mark has asked me to do another funeral next week, this time of someone who committed suicide under the influence of alcohol, not due to mental health issues. This isn't going to be easy. I'm racking my brains to remember if I've done the funeral of a young suicide before. In my twenties, I worked regularly with Samaritans on suicide prevention watch, but never had to deal with families of those we were unable to help.

It's hard to understand how survival instinct fails to override that fatal impulse, even though alcohol can reduce self control and inhibition. London and other big UK cities have seen a worrying increase in knife and gun crime in relation to street gangs in recent years, also deadly domestic violence, murderous revenge attacks with child victims. It's as if a sense of the value of human life as well as self control is withering away in some parts of society.

The injustice of growing social inequality with the detachment of wealthy elites from the need and suffering of the poor creates a moral climate that starves them of self esteem and hope for change in the future. Without a spiritual basis in life, despair is hard to resist, and vulnerability to destructive impulses increases. It happens when people think they can dispense with institutional religion and relegate ethics and spirituality to the privacy of each individual. This is the dark side of modernity and secularity with which we now have live. Finding the way to a new place is going to be painfully tough.