Not that it's really anything to do with me, or indeed 99.9% of the people and organisations who have had their say on the whole tragic Madeleine business. Now that the backlash is well under way, and the insidious rumours are flying around, it would be so much easier to sit on the fence and wait for the truth to come out one way or the other.
But I don't see Jesus doing that. He committed himself to people whether they were reliable or not. He took risks with who he identified with, some turned out to be good calls, in another case the risk was a fatal mistake. (Or was it a mistake?) I see from this weeks Church of England newspaper that the McCann's local vicar has expressed his support for them. Good for him. It's a risk. But Christians have no place playing it safe, going with the crowd, waiting alongside the media to be judge jury and executioner. 'Do not be like them.' I support the McCanns because basically I believe in human goodness, because as a dad I can't imagine they could possibly harm their own child, because I hate the scapegoating that goes on in the media and which we all gorge on as a spectator sport, because I don't think Jesus would be sitting on the fence right now. May God give them peace and surround them with his protection.
Not sure why you say it has nothing to do with you.
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown is involved, the truthfulness of the British media has been called into question, and 250 British police have been drectly investiging, and the tax payer has paid Clarence Mitchel £6230.90 up to July for his time in Portugal.
Very intersting blog. Found it while searching Matt Redman. Love the exploration of "new ways of being church". God's reflected glory is really hard to confine to one small box, isn't it.
ReplyDeletetransfattyacid - Now that Big Brother is over, the McCann family are the new reality TV show in town. The case, along with the case of thousands of other missing persons or occasions of child abuse, is nothing to do with me. It's only because it is on the front pages every day that I felt moved to comment. It's yet another one of those cases like Soham which the British media are trying to turn into a soap opera. And we're getting worse - why did buses of grief tourists go to Soham? Why are the McCanns getting eggs thrown at them in the UK? Sorry, this is turning into a post in itself!
ReplyDeletedcw - thankyou, envious of you getting your pic taken with Tony Campolo.