Evangelical Greek Free Church |
Perspective - The Mad Hatters Tea Party |
| Date Written: April 20, 2006 |
| Wars, rumours of more wars planned, suicide bombers, Royal Commissions into ‘Kick-backs’, more ‘asylum seeker’ legislation, ‘stand-offs’ in the Botanical Gardens…. Sometimes when I read the newspapers or listen to the news of the day I feel as though I am at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. In the story of Alice in Wonderland, the hare makes all sorts of unusual excuses for some of the crazy things he got up to. Of course, the excuses mankind uses are equally as interesting. Ignorance is a popular one, with a long but less than distinguished history. Many Europeans used it in the aftermath of World War II. Their failure to see what was happening around them permitted the extinction of six million Jews. But today some of the prevailing explanations that are currently popular, are…… “Our intentions were good” …and… “We meant well…” As if that somehow excuses us! The Christian political theorist, Reinhold Niebuhr, makes a telling comment: “The greatest evils in the world are not committed by bad people, but by good people who do not know that they are not doing good!” Which brings to mind the very different approach that Jesus demonstrated…You will recall the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8: 1-11). Apart from the religious leaders who set the scene in the hope that Jesus would be caught in some theological mistake, the rest of the crowd would have been just like a great many people in the Christian community today – concerned to uphold what is morally decent and upright, to protect the sanctity of the family, to make a stand against these people who flaunt themselves defiantly against the established religious norms and society as it is today. In bringing the woman for appropriate judgement and justice, surely their good intentions should be applauded, even if they were, by our more modern standards, a little brutal in the way they went about things? Jesus didn’t applaud them. His famous comments, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,” and “Neither do I condemn you; go and do not sin again,” ….have rung throughout the centuries, as a brilliant summary of some of the most important values of the Christian faith: - That every person, irrespective of their experiences, is of equal worth to God. - That God has given everyone guidance as to how we ought to live. With the choice ours to make, thinking we are right and therefore being well-intentioned, ……does not excuse us from respecting and upholding these fundamental values. God’s Word, was, is and always will be, the fountain of all knowledge & wisdom. |
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