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When you say the right things the wrong way ...

Well, I was hoping to get the blog moving again soon, and I wanted to focus more on my personal journey as a peacemaker. But I didn't think I would have to do it with a confession that i had just lost it with the deputy leader of the BNP. I plead guilty to behaviour not befitting a peacemaker.

Victoria's Derbyshire's programme on Five Live was in Luton this morning talking about the subject of immigration. I was in the invited audience, and primed to speak at an appropriate moment in a very vigorous debate. The political guests were Phil Woolas (Labour's Immigration Minister), James Brokenshire (Conservative spokesperson on Home Affairs), Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Home Affairs), Gerard Batten (UK Independence Party MEP, and UKIP spokesperson on immigration) .... and Simon Darby, Deputy Chairman of the BNP.

You can hear the show on the Victoria Derbysire Show Webpage for the next month.  Its all interesting as a reflection on how the good people of Luton feel about the subject, and the lack of inspiration offered by most of the parties. Very broadly most people here -- of whichever race or creed - feel there needs to be some limits. 

I am going to be very honest here. I need to be as public in my confession as I can be because I was very public in my angry outburst. I may have been right in what I said, in its own context, but I missed what he was saying, and my manner in speaking was not appropriate to the role of peacemaking that I seek to walk in. 

"British Jobs for British Workers?" Its not so simple as that.

The "British jobs for British workers" issue is bringing to the surface the worrying potential of the recession for both intercultural and international relations.

I am not normally a reader of the Socialist Worker, but some of my friends are, and they pointed me to this article:  Why British jobs for British workers is not the solution to the crisis. I think they are right in many ways. I think they have something when they say:

This government, which has so utterly failed working people, showers billions on the bankers to shore up the profit system. But workers are ordered to the dole queue. As a steel worker at Corus said last week, “If you’ve got a bowler hat you get billions, if you’re in a hard hat you get turned away”.

Stereotypical of bankers, yes - its a long time since I have seen a bowler.  But while I am not a Marxist, I am inclined to the radical views that I believe are core to the life I am called to as a follower of Jesus, and on some things the consequence of that is not a whole lot different to what I read here. This economic crisis is a result of pure greed, greed at every level of the financial markets, and while the workers in hard hats are living with consequence of being tempted, the greed of those who steered our western economy is not nearly as hard hitting. 

Seeing Immigration Through Biblical Spectacles

A good set of principles on immigration.

Link: God's Politics: A Blog by Jim Wallis & Friends.

Britons fear race violence - poll

This then is our challenge ...

Link: BBC NEWS | UK | Britons fear race violence - poll.

Equality chief warns of race ‘cold war’

Link: Equality chief warns of race ‘cold war’ - Times Online.

Provocative yet thoughtful words from Trevor Philips. The question is how to move past this place. We clearly cannot go back and start again. For me here I guess the paradigm of redemption in my Christian faith offers hope: admit we got it wrong, apologise, reckon on the consequences of what was done wrong, and seek a new start.

That is what I trust we can do here in Luton. The interactive map of various communities in Britain, produced by the EHRC, certainly makes for a colourful Luton!

Bishops Warning Over Threat Of Bnp (from The Northern Echo)

Link: Bishops Warning Over Threat Of Bnp (from The Northern Echo).

and the email from Bishop Tom himself: Local elections and BNP from Bishop Tom.  The bishops email concludes:

".... None of us (in other words) can be complacent. Opposing the BNP isn’t simply a matter of saying ‘the status quo is working fine, so please reject these idiots’. It should be a matter of saying, What does a healthy society look like and how can we make it clear to our whole population that we are working in the best ways towards that goal? Part of the calling of the churches, following Jesus in his work of bringing God’s kingdom, must be to help communities ask that question and to work with them towards finding robust and positive answers.

Of course as so often the comments reflect views we should expect:  'concentrate on religion', agreement with the BNP, the Bishop is a hypocrite, etc.  But thanks goodness for a Bishop who preaches faith, teaches good theology, engages with real social issues and does so with grace. 

(More regular posts will resume in two or three days.)

Archbishop of York on Wealth, Immigration and Britishness

John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, brilliant as ever:

Link: Preaching the gospel of John Lewis - Times Online.

" .... When we arrived here we were treated with dignity, with love; and in the rest of the nation there was this sense of magnanimity, the will to meet another person,” he remembers, before drawing a sharp contrast with a recent visit to an immigration detention centre. “I found it shocking that you had failed asylum seekers in with foreigners about to be deported, people who had committed violent crime or were drug abusers. It was awful – it was not the Britain I believe in.”

At the root of public anxiety over immigration, he says, is Britain’s loss of identity since its loss of empire. He detects “a lack of knowing who we are as a people and as a nation”. People who lack a sense of identity “put up fences thinking they are living in safety; actually they are living in a prison of fear”.

He wants an honest debate about immigration that recognises that this small island cannot sustain everyone who wants to come here while making sure there is no discrimination against any group because of ethnicity, religion or colour. Sentamu arrived in Britain with a ready-formed sense of identity as a Christian and an Anglican. He took up theology at Cambridge and began his ascent through the ecclesiastical hierarchy. His real security, he says, comes from his identity in Christ.

“I don’t find any threat from a Muslim because I am a deeply committed Christian and my faith wants to treat them with dignity, love and care.” But with a grin he adds, knowing it’s not politically correct to say it: “Who knows, they may be converted in the process!”

An Honest Look at Illegal Immigration

In Time last week: a review by Tim Padgettof new Colombian movie Paraiso Travel:    An Honest Look at Illegal Immigration

"There is a hellish scene in the new Colombian film Paraiso Travel that should be watched by any American who has ever hired illegal immigrants —and, for that matter, any American who has ever shouted for their deportation. A group of weary Colombian migrants, having waded across a rushing river from Guatemala to Mexico, is violently set upon by the Maras, bloodthirsty gangbangers who prowl that border corridor. Men are shot, women are raped, children are terrorized. It's an almost daily occurrence of migrant life in this hemisphere, and the film captures it with haunting authenticity.

He looks at the heart message of the film:

"... Immigration cranks like Lou Dobbs, but also the immigration advocates he lambastes, would do well to stop the cable cacophony for a couple hours and see this movie when it hits U.S. screens. "I wanted to make a film that makes Latin Americans think twice about traveling to the U.S. illegally," says its Colombian-born director, Simon Brand, "but one that also makes Americans think twice about how these people are treated once they get here." He scores on both counts. Adapted from the novel by Colombian author Jorge Franco, Paraiso Travel (paraiso is Spanish for "paradise") makes you consider the darker consequences of open borders and closed minds alike."

The motivation of Columbian producer Santiago Diaz in making the film:

"I'm fortunate to live in the U.S. legally ... but we all know people living here illegally, and their story should be told. We made this film for them."   

Padgett is left with two questions:

".... is it [America] really worth the trials [Marlon's] suffering?   And perhaps another: Is our immigration dysfunction really worth the human pain it causes migrants and the political pain it causes us?"

An Honest Look at Illegal Immigration - TIME

Link: An Honest Look at Illegal Immigration - TIME.

There is a hellish scene in the new Colombian film Paraiso Travel that should be watched by any American who has ever hired illegal immigrants —and, for that matter, any American who has ever shouted for their deportation. A group of weary Colombian migrants, having waded across a rushing river from Guatemala to Mexico, is violently set upon by the Maras, bloodthirsty gangbangers who prowl that border corridor. Men are shot, women are raped, children are terrorized. It's an almost daily occurrence of migrant life in this hemisphere, and the film captures it with haunting authenticity. ...

... Immigration cranks like Lou Dobbs, but also the immigration advocates he lambastes, would do well to stop the cable cacophony for a couple hours and see this movie when it hits U.S. screens. "I wanted to make a film that makes Latin Americans think twice about traveling to the U.S. illegally," says its Colombian-born director, Simon Brand, "but one that also makes Americans think twice about how these people are treated once they get here." He scores on both counts. ...

Rejecting Intolerable Rhetoric

God's Politics blog offers a wonderful story on church leaders speaking out on immigration issues.

Link: God's Politics - Jim Wallis blog, faith blog, religion, christian, christianity, politics, values.   The leadsers submitted an opinion piece to their local paper.

As ministry leaders and pastors of churches in this county, we do not ask people of faith to prove their legal status before they can participate in fellowship. In the process, we have watched the lives of immigrants become increasingly intertwined into the lives of our congregations. This has given us an up-close and personal look at the human toll borne by the men, women and children caught in the crosshairs of politicians who use a broken immigration system as an opportunity to build personal political capital. Instead of solutions, we are offered slogans from soapboxes. Worse still, we are offered poor uses of our state and county's limited resources that cannot begin to solve this clearly federal issue. Local posturing is sure to only drive families further into the shadows - families we care deeply about. ...

From a published statement from Church Pastors in Arizona:  If you're a foe of illegal immigration, at least knock off the hateful speech