Wednesday 29 June 2016

Who IS My Neighbour?

...said the young man to Jesus in Luke chapter 10. 
 Liz directed me to this helpful poster from the Migrant Rights Centre in Ireland























There have been a number of pieces in the press about opposing racism. Allison, an American woman living in London is starting a campaign suggesting people wear a safety pin on their clothing to show solidarity with immigrants.
I confess I am not so sure about this one - safety pins on clothing have been around for a long time e.g. the Dutch wore them in WW2 as a symbol of resistance to the Nazis. Punks wore/wear them as a symbol of anarchy. In many African cultures, a pregnant woman wears a pin as a 'protection' for her unborn child. 
For the brave folk of the Netherlands then,the pin meant 'let's keep things together, and keep our mouths closed' - but surely we now need to be open and speak out about evil?
And I am not sure who is supposed to wear the pins - Allison herself is, after all, a foreigner living in the UK. But I admire her for wanting to do something. Edmund Burke said "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Jesus answered the young man's question with the story of the good Samaritan who was neighbour to the man who had been robbed - and told him to "go and do the same"



3 comments:

  1. How awful that we have to think like this...The increase in racist attacks - both physical and oral - have been horrendous. Poor Britain. What have we become?

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  2. I love the phrase "civil courage." It seems like we need more and more of that these days, and not just in the UK.

    xofrances

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  3. It is just terrible. I really, really like that advice about witnessing a racial attack, will be remembering that!x

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