I have mercifully had some time for reflection and rest over Christmas, despite hosting our first Christmas at home. Nonetheless, i am still battling a persistent cough and cold.
It has been a pretty distressing start to 2005 in many ways as the scale of the disaster in Asia unfolds. I was listening to Radio 2 yesterday and a discussion between Nicky Gumbel, a muslim cleric and a Hindu. Apart from being irritated by the rather sensationalist approach taken by Jeremy Vine interviewing (eg. "The fact the tsunami occurred must mean God doesn't answer prayer, doesn't it?") one thing that got me thinking most was a suggestion that God cannot be a just God if He lets these disasters happen in the poorer parts of the world where they are ill-equipped to cope. It strikes me as rather poignant that in the middle of the most indulgent season for some parts of the Western World, something like this happened in the poor man's back yard/the rich man's playground. I was frustarted that it wasn't pointed out that God has given man free choice. The world is exactly as man has intended it to be over thousands of years of repeated oppression, creation of imbalances and corruption.
I also heard an interview with Tony Blair on the Today programme. (I was driving to Dorchester yesterday morning, so I listened to a lot of radio.) There was a lot of empty political posturing but I did chear him on when he made the point that he hoped the scale of this disaster would help increase visibility of suffering in other parts of the world like Africa where tens of thousands of children die every week from preventable diseases.
No comments:
Post a Comment