Reader Writes October 2024

First, a very ordinary anecdote; we’ll get to war in just a moment. We were visiting the

Harp one sunny August evening, enjoying the chance to sit outside and admire the Radnor

Valley with its hills beyond. There’s no pub with a finer view! I negotiated my way to the bar

and asked after the ales on offer. Now the Harp, rather wonderfully, is a local as well as a

pub eatery. When I turned to go out, someone immediately jumped up and insisted on

carry the drinks; someone else would have carried my stick if I’d let them. I suspect that

the forestry acquaintance sitting near the bar may have whispered, “Poor man, he’s got

Parkinson’s”! But the point is that people are naturally kind and generous.

So where on earth does this kindness come from? A pub is after all a business; an

expanded restaurant might make it a more valuable business. Why would the owners and

staff want to spend any time on customers other than ensuring they get their orders

promptly? Now jump to the war in Gaza. Very many of us feel despair and anger that so

many civilians have been killed. There are now over 40,000 recorded deaths, including a

high proportion of women and children, with another estimated 10,000 lost under the

rubble. Without going any further in examining the legality of these tragic facts, I want to

ask where our sense of justice comes from. We don’t need to look far to make a long list of

injustices and, we could say, evils. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is both entirely illegal and

evil.

Come back to our everyday community. I love the Friday morning market, for social

reasons as well as stocking up on the finest bread in Herefordshire; Lisa is quite likely to

round my bill down and even pack my bike pannier for me. And I can go to the Locally

Kington stall and pick up fresh surplus from gardens only minutes away; and they’ll

willingly accept an IOU if I’ve forgotten to bring cash. This is the local economy where

generosity and kindness are as important currency as cash. And all this thrives within and

despite neoliberal capitalism that ruthlessly advances cash-making and rent taking over

social and community value.

I believe the answer to where these human qualities of kindness and generosity come

from is very simple. We are made in God’s image. Right there at the beginning of the

creation story we read that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he

created him; male and female he created them.”(Gen 1:27). It’s not that God is like us, but

we are like God. We are made in his image, and made to show kindness to our fellow

man, made to sense and hate injustice, made to care for the poor or the destitute.

Glen Scrivener points out that the Gospel writers used the word “compassion” to describe

Jesus’ emotional life; it comes from the word for guts. For them, the deepest feelings came

from the gut rather than the heart. Jesus is full of gut-wrenching love. His stories called for

action; the merciful father restoring the prodigal son or the Samaritan rescuing a dying

traveller. Not only should we stand up but we should take action.