Sunday 20 June 2010


As much as I like big sporting occasions like the World Cup, and all the countries it brings together.... I couldn't help noticing the profit FIFA will be making from the tournament, which is in the region of 2.2 Billion pounds. And soon after we were given the qualifying statement that this vast amount will be invested into grass roots football.

At first glance, this seems like a reasonable statement... but with any knowledge of the sheer poverty in South Africa, one must feel that there is something inherently wrong. A clear case of ignoring the obvious, which reminds me of the indignant feeling I get when I hear the charge of poverty being levelled at God. It goes without saying that poverty always has, and always will be mainly down to human greed, an inward focus that completely ignores its immediate surroundings

Sunday 13 June 2010

What would Jesus do?

This statement has been the subject of some rather corny Christian merchandise over the years, but the concept itself gives one scope for theological reflection in any circumstance. And because I'm writing regarding myself, It's my work situation which immediately springs to mind.
In short, I find myself bearing the brunt for things which initially had nothing to do with me, and as a result there seems to be a complete abdication of responsibly of those around me. I have a stream of complaints about me, which, if they had come directly, could of been rectified rather quickly. But the reality of the situation is that I had to learn the job myself, and guess what the right thing was to do. One could only feel a sense of bemusement and more importantly feel extremely let down when one was only told every six weeks the shortcomings of one's work. And because of the anonymous nature of most of the complaints, the only channels of enquiry open to me in terms of the specifics of them (what session?, in what way?, how could can I improve?) was supervision. Unfortunately the response of I got ranged from complete silence to what seemed like a rather aside comment about how 'some people cannot put their names to complaints'. And while this maybe true, it puts the complainer in a rather unequal position of power, also, great assumptions have to be made about their intentions.
There are many terms I could use to describe the above, such as toxic, dysfunctional and backwards, but the most figural emotion is that of injustice.And this is where one needs to apply their original question, what would Jesus do in the face of injustice? Perhaps the question can be more adequetly phrased like: 'what has Jesus done about injustice'. We lose sight of the fact that the atonement is the most unjust action we have ever seen, with Jesus taking the punishment which he didn't deserve and people like us gaining something we could never earn (unmerited favour)..... And as much as I find my situation hard, I must keep perspective about this situation in terms of the grand scheme of things..and know that injustice has gone before me, and given me life.