New Year Thoughts

 

Back in 1992, the Queen in a speech at the Guildhall, to mark her Ruby Jubilee on the throne, referred to that year as an 'annus horribilis' She did so with some justification. As we mark the passing of this year and look forward to the new, we know that each year will always bring its joys and sorrows. But how often we may underestimate the depths of human sorrow and how often when we are given the happiest of circumstances, we heedlessly allow that time to pass us by! The present moment is all we have.

I have noticed even as we have approached the threshold of this New Year, how many have expressed their wishes that 2021 will be better than 2020. For those who read beyond the popular headlines and all the government propaganda, it is writ large that life is not going to return to the normal as we understood it, prior to March 2020. Little by little, it is beginning to sink in that there really does exist an agenda for massive societal change, at home and abroad, and furthermore that this agenda is already in process. More and more people are waking up to the aims of The Great Reset. To find out more, simply Google up 'he Great Reset'. Read and you will learn how the coronavirus is being hyped up to lever in unconsulted change that will change your world, forever.

You might ask what the response should be to such misgivings as we move forward into 2021. There is the story of Jesus who in Roman occupied Palestine, was asked, 'Should we pay taxes to Caesar?' A dangerous question, but Jesus said, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' Each year, we as dutiful citizens may fill in our tax return forms and also make arrangements to pay our local council taxes. Thus, we too, figuratively speaking, do our duty and 'render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's'. We will note however, that Jesus' words did not prevent his execution on the cross, because it was not deemed expedient to let him live.

Perhaps we too are beginning to see that even for us it may not be enough to 'render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.' In a totalitarian state, mind and soul are required for sacrifice too, and so there exists in China 'thought transformation camps' where faith and cultural identity must be replaced by 'love for the Chinese Communist Party.' A BBC documentary recorded a Chinese official denying that these thought transformation camps were prisons. Where in prison can you paint? He objected.

Similarly, in recent lockdowns at home, otherwise known as house arrest, Facebook memes suggested that all that was required of the obedient citizen was to 'sit at home, watch Netflix and eat Pringles.' Later as Christmas came upon us, further memes were posted on Facebook comparing our comfortable loss of liberty with the very real hardships of the soldiers of the First World War. Notwithstanding the destruction of the economy and the very fabric of people' lives, such blandishments were and remain an obfuscation of the loss of our civil liberties and democratic rights. All of it is as duplicitous as the Chinese Communist Party' official line that the thought transformation camps are not prisons.

We are living through times of great change and it is difficult to understand what is really going on. As I have previously stated, the information is out there, and one only needs to do a little internet research to see how far reaching these changes are and are going to be. I think it is helpful also, to see that from the globalist-capitalist perspective, the methods of China, a capitalist economy under the control of the totalitarian one party surveillance state, has become for the elites, an attractive alternative to Western democracy. The recent utterances of Professor Neil Ferguson, the Government’s top scientific advisor, as reported in The Times, clearly shows that same direction of thought and where we are heading:

'I think people's sense of what is possible in terms of control changed quite dramatically between January and March,’ Professor Ferguson says. When SAGE observed the 'innovative intervention' out of China, of locking entire communities down, and not permitting them to leave their homes, they initially presumed it would not be an available option in a liberal Western democracy: 'It's a communist one party state, we said. We couldn't get away with it in Europe, we thought...and then Italy did it. And we realised we could.'’

In the same interview Ferguson said: ‘If China had not done it, the year would have been very different’

Ferguson is currently advocating the continuation of lockdown until Easter 2021 and possibly beyond, this from a lockdown that was originally sold to the British public as a solution designed to last for only three weeks! This continuing level of totalitarian control has been deliberately achieved through months of fear inducing propaganda and government misinformation.

The Guardian recently published the concerns of the country's leading psychiatrist, Dr Adrian Jones with a headline that read: Covid poses greatest threat to mental health since second world war'. The telling paragraph reveals that up to 10 million people including 1.5 million children, 'are thought to need new or additional mental health support because of the crisis.' When one considers the fact that from the inception of this 'pandemic', in England, only 377 healthy people under the age of 60 have died of covid, then perhaps we may get a real sense of perspective and an inkling of the power of the government's fear induced tyranny. I read somewhere that, 'Where the government fears the people there is freedom, and where the people fear the government there is tyranny.'

The opposite of love is not hate but fear. God is love and the churches exist for the worship of God (love). Love casts out fear. The continuation of the 2020 'annus horribulus' is set to continue. Unless the churches really do wish to be consigned to oblivion, they need to take a stand now. The retreat to online worship is no substitute for the fellowship of public worship. This is not the time to step back but a time to step forward into 2021, to reject the lies, false promises and predictions of fallible men and to place our trust in God. 

 Picture: By Peter Paul Rubens - Artnet.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14823625

The Blessing of Christmas

 

I once received a Christmas card, many years ago now, with a picture of Father Christmas on the front. But a closer examination showed this image to be a likeness of Karl Marx. There he was, complete with a bright red coat and hood, trimmed with the usual white fur. The caption on the card read, “Even Marxists are nice at Christmas” I suppose you could say that it doesn’t say very much for Marxists if they can only be nice at Christmas. And in any case, niceness doesn’t quite do it when you are looking for a revolution of the heart and the world. There is only a Christ-like love that is capable of that.

Nevertheless, it seems that as Christmas approaches nearly everybody does become a bit nicer. In spite of all the cynicism and disillusionment, now and again, we can glimpse if only fleetingly, amidst the festive preparations, a yearning for that love expressed in the desire for peace on earth and goodwill.

The jingles in the shops, the media and the shopping malls resound (mostly and not very tastefully) with the same message. And what do we do? We bemoan the secular tide of commercialism that seems to have overcome this Christian festivity. But if we think about it another way, we can see, in spite of the cash register queues, the credit card transactions, the online purchases and the apparent superficial exuberance of it all, at the heart of this, in that swarming mass of humanity in the supermarkets and the shopping centres, at the heart of it all, are real people with an earnest and sincere desire to celebrate Christmas with the people that they love. They really do want to bring the magic of Christmas into the lives of their children, not only to give them gifts and sweets but also something more valuable; the gift of Christmas itself, a happy event that can be stored in the treasure chest of memory. Indeed, for those of us who are just a little older, Christmas gives us the opportunity to cast our minds back to Christmases past; spent in the company of loved ones no longer with us today.

Great memories as we know, can become great history. For the past one hundred and six years a Christmas has not gone by in which the events of December 1914 were forgotten. In the words of a BBC Special Report (1998) “It is perhaps the best and most heartening story of modern times”

This true story was of a time during the First World War when the British, French and German Armies faced each other across a frozen landscape of shell craters, of mud, shattered trees, wrecked buildings and corpses. Millions of men faced each other in the trenches. Millions died in this war and those who survived suffered terrible hardships and horrific experiences.

A French infantry lieutenant, Alfred Jobbaire, wrote in his diary shortly before he was killed: “Humanity is mad! It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre! What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impression. Hell cannot be so terrible. Men are mad!

The battlefields of Belgium and France were indeed a living hell but on 24 December 1914, it seemed as though a miracle had taken place. As the artillery bombardment ended, the guns became silent and the killing stopped. From their positions the British troops in Ypres Belgium, could see that the German troops had begun to decorate the area around their trenches with Christmas trees and candles and through the clear bitter cold night of Christmas Eve the British soldiers heard the Germans singing Christmas carols and in particular they could hear them softly singing Stille Nacht or Silent Night. It wasn’t long before the British joined in because in some areas the opposing trenches were less than thirty yards apart.

Soon they were shouting to each other across the trenches. Then, little dots of red, the burning cigarettes they were smoking became visible to each other as unarmed German and British soldiers courageously climbed out of their trenches to meet each other, to share Christmas greetings and to exchange gifts of whisky, jam, cigars, and chocolate.

All sorts of souvenirs were exchanged including names and addresses, family photographs were shown and a desire to go home and to end the war was a sentiment that was widely shared and expressed by both sides.

The next day, Christmas Day, unarmed German and British soldiers joined together to search for their dead comrades. And in at least one burial service the German and British dead were buried alongside each other.

Along the twenty-seven-mile British line there was a time of peace, celebration, and joy as enemies became friends and understood each other through the bond of their own humanity. Football matches as well as more casual kick-arounds took place. And it must be emphasised that this was not a small-scale event, thousands of soldiers took part, ordinary privates, NCOs and officers, much to the frustration of some the German and British high command.

The Christmas truce ended on Boxing Day, but in some areas, it continued well into the New Year. The First World War continued until 11 November 1918. But the powers that be ensured that the spirit of Christmas and the possibility of peace on Earth would be snuffed out until then. For the remainder of the war artillery bombardments remained constant over the Christmas period, and soldiers were constantly transferred from one area to another ensuring that solidarity and familiarity would not be able to flourish and allow the joy and peace of Christmas to shine in the darkness of war.

Without Christmas or any similar great religious festival at this time of the year we would miss a tremendous opportunity to connect with the loving depths of our own humanity. And there would have certainly been no Christmas 1914 to shine like a beacon over the passing years and generations. A beacon to remind us of our manifest destiny, to bring us home and to remind us of who we really are. 

We who have been brought up and educated in a culture so heavily influenced by Christianity know that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the arrival of the Christ child into the world. If we let go a little and let our imaginations leap into one cold dark starlit night in December, can we not believe just for a moment, that not too far away, this special child, this wonderful gift from God lies cradled in a mother’s arms? Is this not a scene of such joy and tranquillity? as we gaze upon mother and child enveloped in that radiant light of pure love. A light that illuminates the whole scene as the rich and powerful, the poor and mean kneel together and worship in such humility.

The Christ child is born and is born in our hearts, the hope of the world, the light of our lives. From the darkness, we come face to face with the Christ Child, into the light of a Holy presence where all our strivings, our greed and anger our hatreds, our small mindedness, prejudice, jealousies and fears have been supplanted by an apparition of such purity that our very hearts are smitten as we resonate with a divine love with the wonder and beauty of it all. In this moment we know who we really are and we know that this child is every child the universal child, the child in every person we meet. As we meet his gaze through the radiance of his presence, we feel his vulnerability and a powerful sense of innocent, trusting love and we are deeply touched. We are deeply touched because we are not observers, but have become one with him, deeply touched, we are lifted on the wings of angels.

When we are far away from home in the cold solitude of despair of pain and self-pity, we have only to remember the light that shines in the darkness a light transcendent and immanent, a light deep within ourselves, the power of love to transform ourselves and the world.

 

May the humility of the shepherds,

the faith of the wise men,

the joy of the angels

and the peace of the Christ Child

be God’s gift to all people this,

Christmas and always

The Leadership of Churchill

 

The Leadership of Winston Churchill  

You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. Winston Churchill 1940

You ask what leadership is? That question can be summed up in two words: Winston Churchill. Churchill was a great war time leader. We and future generations who love freedom have much to thank him for. Churchill’s leadership as the British prime minister during the Second World War. His first significant achievement in 1940 was to prevent the then foreign secretary, Lord Halifax from seeking a negotiated peace settlement with Hitler. In time, Churchill’s bellicose attitude proved to be correct but, in his famous Blood, Sweat and Tears speech, he certainly did not exaggerate the cost. Already I can hear the objections to this well-deserved praise for Churchill. A candid response in the man’s own words comes to mind, ‘I should have made nothing if I had not made mistakes.’ The humility to acknowledge one’s own mistakes and to learn from them is a sign of character and character is a leadership quality.

The above few words taken from Churchill’s famous speech have a message and a resonance for each of us today. Our policy should be to wage war with all the might and with all strength that God can give us. We should wage war against monstrous tyrannies that are ever more present in the creep of totalitarian ideologies at home and abroad today.

In May 1940, Churchill’s message was grim and uncompromising and yet it was inspiring and totally appropriate. At that time the evacuation of the British and Allied troops at Dunkirk was still days away. Meanwhile, the Nazis in Germany, Austria and occupied Poland were already murdering those with mental or physical disabilities. It was SS policy to eliminate ‘life unworthy of life’ which in 1941 led to the creation of extermination camps and the Final Solution.

The sheer horror and evil that can take hold of any society is not always obvious. Wickedness on that kind of scale is so shocking and is so hard to comprehend and describe that we falsely believe that it can’t happen again, or that it can’t happen in our own democratic civilised society. But the price of such security has to be built on eternal vigilance. Evil has many disguises, and the road to Hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions. Churchill remained politically isolated when he said that the peace agreement signed by Hitler in 1938 and celebrated as ‘Peace for our time’ ‘brought shame to England’. True leadership requires bravery and an unflinching steadfastness in the face of opposition. In the storms of life, the true leader will speak the unpalatable truth rather than the convenient lie.

Andrew Roberts in his much-acclaimed biography of Churchill brought to mind the words he wrote on Friday 10^th May 1940, the day he became the prime minister, ‘I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial . . . I could not be reproached either for making the war or with want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all and I was sure I would not fail.’ Roberts wrote, ‘He had believed in his own destiny since at least the age of sixteen, when he told a friend that he would save Britain from a foreign invasion.’

Shakespeare wrote, ‘Some are born great, some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them’. ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man, is a saying we are also familiar with, it suggests that at a crucial moment, a time of urgency and uncertainty, a leader, a saviour will emerge. We can debate whether leaders are made or born but destiny follows her own rules. Every individual is a product of history; Hitler no less than Churchill. But to leave it at that would be to deprive ourselves of knowledge, insight and understanding.

The statue of Winston Churchill that stands in Parliament Square, London, is based on a photograph taken of him inspecting the bomb wreckage of the Chamber of the House of Commons in May 1941. The statue conveys an inspiring yet stolid pose in the face of adversity, it reflects the leadership that gave the nation the will to survive, to succeed and to win in desperate times. Churchill’s statue is a silent sermon on an important aspect of leadership proclaiming that one must keep a steady hand at the helm during a storm. Churchill said, ‘If you’re going through hell keep going’.

A leader has to become a living testimony to his vision. A leader’s conduct is crucial to his image. If he wants the people to be there for him, he has to be seen to be there for them, to mourn with them when they mourn, to rejoice with them when they rejoice, to be steady, to be dependable and to inspire hope and courage in times of despair; such leadership is not only required, it is paramount.

There is the notion of the self-made man or self-made woman but who in any true sense is really self-made? Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace, his paternal grandfather was John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, so Churchill came from an aristocratic background but that in itself could not be the single guarantor of success.

In his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John C Maxwell wrote, ‘He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk’. Maxwell made the obvious yet profound point that even with great ability if you cannot influence others then, you will not be able to lead. This brings us back to a realisation that our relationship with others has to be based ultimately on who we are. Who we are is the measure of our inner life, and the measure of our deepest convictions. As First Lord of the Admiralty, during the First World War, Churchill was responsible and was blamed for the disastrous loss of life in the Dardanelles Campaign 1915-16. Later in life, a number of other serious political misjudgements would ensure his marginalisation during the years, 1929-1939.

But deep within the soul of Churchill remained that undimmed vision of destiny. Every leader must have a vision, every leader must have the inner resources and the drive to go on, so it was with Churchill, ‘cometh the hour cometh the man’. There need not have been a war with Nazi Germany, the easy thing to do would have been to have supported an accommodation with Hitler and all his evil. Today there is much confusion sown by so-called liberals concerning our past history. Indeed, it has become fashionable amongst a swathe of the population to denigrate all that was achieved during the war years 1939-1945 and in the aftermath. Indeed, in this perspective there is a wilful blindness to the cost of that sacrifice in human life or recognition of the loss of Britain’s position as a major world power, as a sacrifice that was ultimately made in exchange for freedom and democracy against a vile totalitarianism. None of this could be achieved without leadership.

Churchill’s observations on the creeping tyranny of Germany under Nazi rule were true and he knew what had to be done when others were trying evade the issue and hoping that the problem would go away. In Brian Wren’s Unitarian hymn/song, ‘Bring Many Names’, there is a line that speaks of an ‘old aching God’, ‘calmly piercing evil’s new disguises’ and evil does stand before us today in a new disguise. When Parliament ceases to function properly, when laws are made by diktat, when civil and religious liberties are seriously curtailed, when arbitrary rules are enforced, when we are told that Christmas is cancelled, when the police enter a church to break up a Sunday service, when self-righteous ideologues will brook no debate, when the majority quietly hope that the problem will just go away, we need a leader who will declare that, ‘Our policy is to wage war.’  

Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. - Ephesians 6:12

 

Rev. Bob Pounder

Unitarian Chapel Oldham

Published in News & Views, magazine of the National Unitarian Fellowship, www.nufonline.org.uk

Photo: By Tim Buss from North County, San Diego, California, USA - Winston Churchill, Parliament Square, London, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86223851