That would be an ecumenical matter?

I watched the TV last night - a rerun of the 102 minutes programme originally shown on TV somewhere back in 2008 about the 9/11 attacks on the USA.  Re-living the images of the twin towers in flames and the reactions of the people of New York city.  Whether it was those who were on the street or on the far bank of the Hudson looking across at the towers as they belched smoke and flames into a gloriously bright blue sunny morning.   Also of the folk locked away in their apartments or on their balconies and rooftops giving running commentaries on their rudimentary smart phones just before the world went mad with social media.  

I'm sat curled up on the sofa wide eyed as I relived those moments.  Of the pain and suffering and awe and disbelief on the faces of everyone that day.  Gobsmacked.  Unable to find the words.  But sadly also of the cameramen and news reporters who's only concern was to get someone to say something to the camera about what was unfolding in front of them.  Like reporters in a conflict zone their steely determination to get the story irrespective of the carnage that was unfolding around them gave the impression that they did not care.  They did not think one jot about the person they were pressing for a sound bite.  There's something strange about people who can do that; that is to remain steely determined in the face of such gravity and not get affected by the situation.   

An image from last night will stay with me forever.  The face of one of the firemen looking up and then watching as his eyes slowly lower as he follows someone as they jump and freefall; and of his face and how he threw his arms up in disbelief as that person hit something with a WHUMP!  Oh God, what is happening.  How must that man be feeling.  There just cannot be another situation that would allow anyone to watch the last 10 seconds of someones life run down in front of their eyes.  

I remember I was in a meeting in London that day.  I had recently joined the internal audit team and was sat in a towering edifice on an upper floor in an office doing a preparatory interview for our next big IT Audit of the year.  Someone sticks his head around the door.  Guy's have you seen the TV?  My new mobile phone rings.  It's my brother.  Where are you he asks?  The world is under attack.  Planes are crashing into buildings everywhere.  You're in London are you?  Come home.

From the ashes of New York came the long war on terrorism.  Of 20 years in Afghanistan.  Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Taliban all under the focus of the smart bombs and guided missiles laser eyes.  I recall one concrete dust spattered guy on the TV screaming destroy them, destroy them all!  Terrorists.  Suicidal humans who have an unbreakable belief like the cameraman that what they are going to do is the right thing to do because the reward is that they will for sure go to a better place?  Promotion huh?

How does one deal with Terrorism?  Was the war in Afghanistan the right thing to do?  I'll let you make up your mind but for me the question might be what was the alternative?  What realistically was gonna happen after 2996 people were killed and over 6000 injured on that day alone.  Embargoes?  Exit strategies?  How is it possible to plan for that?  Like the Vietnam War some 30 years earlier how could anyone ever plan to leave a place when its the moral belief of the people that you are fighting that they are right and so not to give in but to fight for what they believe in?  Not lines and lines of troops and tanks and planes put together by the angry clown politicians that from time to time raise their ugly red noses above the pools of detritus through which they swim.  No the conventional wars of the early / mid 20th century will never ever be re-run.  Nuclear bombs and the associated mutually assured destruction process guarantees us all peace in that respect.  But to fight a belief?  Now that's a different matter.  

Forget future conventional war as ever being something we need to worry about.  Even the mad stance at times of North Korea and perhaps China will all be tempered in the long run.  Although China is worryingly trying to make a religion out of the way folk live day to day.  But without a God.  So perhaps I have a worry there.  World domination using the capitalist tools that pervade our modern world.  Buy everything.  Produce everything.  Give loans to everyone.  Make the world dependent on you.  How would everyone else survive if China were to hold the Monopoly on the Earth?  Anti competitive behaviour.  Surely there's a world wide law about preventing that?   Er, no....

Nonetheless it is having a personal belief, a one sided view of things that is at the centre of all of our troubles today.  That plus the belief that yours is the right way, the only way, how things should be, how people should be.  Yer asking for trouble if you think like that!  

Religion I fundamentally think (no not believe cos I'm not sure about it) was invented in our societies as a tool to control folk.  To lay down the rules of how to be a good person on this earth and to give us all a reward to look forward to as we perhaps enter a kingdom of everlasting life; with or without a multitude of virgins in one's arms.  I don't know about you but my experiences as a young un says for feck's sake don't ever make me or give me a virgin ever again!  Wow, was that an experience not ever to repeat!

Of course all beliefs and religions have developed in isolation.  One way for one, another way for the rest.  And so in today's society we see even more clashes of beliefs simply because the world has opened its arms and become a place for all.   Commerce and aircraft and social media make for a globally connected world which is at odds with the beliefs and teachings of yore.  Mine is better than yours innit?  Influencers influencing.  Followers following.  Social media is just another religion isn't it?  Praying to the God's that are Facebook and Twitter ...

For others, and this is where I stand.  This is an ecumenical [1] matter.  Brilliantly thought out as the de-facto answer that one might give to an inquisitive member of the congregation by the writers of Father Ted.  Ecumenism describes a Christian commitment to work for a different type of unity; a unity between all that is more like a multi-coloured coat, in which there are different denominations and traditions and beliefs but we are all one in a common commitment to God and a common commitment to each other.  Father Ted is such a fantastic comedy about the Catholic religion.  One episode raised the question of how a Catholic priest might ever deal with the hard questions about belief.  Father ted replies ‘that would be an ecumenical matter’ thinking that’s the easy way out - and it is in fact the right way! 

While it's not impossible, I cannot imagine ever becoming a Presbyterian, a Roman Catholic, a Moslem or, indeed, a user of Facebook or Twitter.  

But I do hope for a unity that is based in a common commitment seen in a respect for each other, and a unity of purpose in our common mission to let the love of your God, for I think (no not believe cos I'm not sure about it) that there is only one across all of our faiths and beliefs, be seen in the world.

Ciao for now..

[1] From Wikipedia - The terms ecumenism and ecumenical come from the Greek οἰκουμένη (oikoumene), which means "the whole inhabited world", and was historically used with specific reference to the Roman Empire. The ecumenical vision comprises both the search for the visible unity of the Church (Ephesians 4:3) and the "whole inhabited earth" (Matthew 24:14) as the concern of all Christians.