The tragedy of the Mediterranean migrants became a political character attack yesterday. Whether because the Labour party mischievously released a press statement knowing Ed Miliband would say something more nuanced and less specific in its criticism; or because it was an honest statement which Conservatives mischievously misinterpreted and misrepresented in order to accuse Ed Miliband of gross distaste akin to, but even worse than UKIP. Or just because the pursuit of power in this country has become a dirty, corrupting, frantic ego-fest, driven by the greed of vested interests, divisive fear-mongering about the SNP, and the dissolution of public trust in any of the political parties because that same dissolution is caused by disillusion.
As a follower of Jesus Christ I couldn't be less interested in the shoddy shenanigans of politicians, media and spin. They can argue all they like about who was going to say what, who said what, and what the public should think about who said what. There's something tragic and morally indefensible about the focus and energy being on blame and finger pointing for poltical advantage, when every day desperate people are fleeing from the danger and misery of their home country and risking a 50% chance of death or enforced return, by paying traffickers to bring them to Europe.
I am troubled by the varied use of the words to describe this misery. Are these people migrants or refugees? Are they seeking a change of economic opportunity or refuge? Are they driven by economic aspiration or despair? What drives whole families to risk death on the sea or utter misery if they survive and are returned? These are questions I ask because my worldview is theological as well as economic, geographic, ethical and social.There is all the difference in the world, a world of difference, in the words we use, because human beings are dying of desperation. And as a wise Jewish philosopher said that every time a human being dies, a world dies.
Theologically that is intolerable. Every human being is created in the image of God and has inherent worth, to be respected, cared for and given the chance for life. God incarnate in Jesus Christ confers on God's creation and on human destiny a dignity and hope that is carried into the heart of the Creator and Redeemer God. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, making peace by the blood of the Cross, and to put it in evangelical terms, every human being is one for whom Christ died. As followers of the crucified and risen Lord I am for life, and part of that is the welcome to the stranger, compassion for the suffering, justice for the oppressed, and mercy to those who otherwise have no further hope.
I am haunted by those words of Christ when the nations gather for Judgement: "For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me." I am haunted because this parable is about the nations; it is a wanring to the intenrational community as well as a caution to every individual person in their ways of treating others.
So I am ashamed of our politicians. Doubly ashamed that in the 21st Century this election campaign has up till now largely ignored Foreign Policy as a matter for serious political debate, until this nasty piece of rhetorical posturing exploded into toxic personal attack. Miliband and Cameron are not the news that matters here. The mess in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Pakistan Border and the relentless inhumanity of ISIS are the issues. Refugees fleeing danger, death and the mayhem of tribal warfare is nothing new - but the scale of it in the modern era is undoubtedly a problem stretching beyond the apparent scope of the national, economic and moral imaginations of the international community.
Do I have practical answers? A few, but they would be based on my own limited perceptions, ignorance of the intricacies of international law, a passion for human rights being upheld as a universal obligation, and a lack of practical power to make things happen. What I do have is a high view of the value of each human being, and a sense of political resposibility to vote for those who demonstrate a will, capacity and conscience to resist the self interested economic and political pressures to ignore our responsibilities to those who are refugees with nowhere else to go. So far I've heard very little fro any party about such a moral vision for the world beyond these increasingly self-absorbed, reactionary and in recent years isolationist shores.
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