Terror Threats: A New Narrative
The USA President makes a key speech about the threats of world-wide terror and the USA use of drones as the least of evils. The UK Prime Minister makes a key speech after killers of a soldier in London declare they want war on the streets. The killer came from a devoted Christian family, converted to Islam, which, said the PM, he betrayed. The PM declared the response must be 'Security. Values. Changing the narrative'.
The narrative of such killers across the world is that wealthy western and so-called Christian nations kill indisriminately in order to gain the levers of power and energy resources; and that the only way to halt this is to practice 'an eye for an eye and kill people in the guilty countries. To dismiss this narrative out of hand is foolish and futile. Anyone can get on the internet and find out facts. To take just one example from Wikipedia: 'The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was an Americanthink tank based in Washington, D.C. established in 1997 as a non-profit educational organization founded by William Kristol and Robert Kagan. The PNAC's stated goal is "to promote American global leadership."[1] Fundamental to the PNAC were the view that "American leadership is both good for America and good for the world" and support for "a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity."[2] The PNAC exerted influence on high-level U.S. government officials in the administration of U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush and affected the Bush Administration's development of military and foreign policies, especially involving national security and the Iraq War.@.
The majority of people involved in this project were evangelical Christians. The imperial model of Christianity which has lasted (with some beautiful exceptions) over 1600 years, needs to be ditched.
The Prophet Mohammed was part of a reform movement which prophetically challenged wrong things in 'Imperial Christianity', but his movement also became subverted by the empire-builders, and the failures of Christians meant that they never saw the real nature of the way of Jesus of Nazareth.
In Celtic lands (Ireland was outside the Roman Empire) a non-imperial expression of Christ's way took root. It was forced underground for centuries. This is now re-surfacing. It can be a Third Way between beliefs imposed by force and practices opposed by force.
The early Irish Christians had a narrative. Jesus' healings and works of mercy that turned former enemies into friends of God, and began to build a community of justice in a small patch of Palestine, can be the narrative of each land. It can happen now. That is the narrative that Celtic Christianity at its best offers our world. It includes honest admission of the sins of our nations, and true acts of restitution. It calls every person to live a daily rhythm of prayer, service and conflict resolution ... and so much more. Please contact www.aidanandhila.org if you would like to explore this further.
