Spring is a busy time for rural folk, but there is always the satisfaction of having prepared the land for planting and of seeing life springing anew, whether that is young lambs or nascent shoots on trees and hedges.
Recently the media went into frenzy and described us all as ‘shocked,’ when the Pope decided that he had become too frail to carry the burden and retired to a monastery. Journalists speculated on his bodily frailties but ignored the deep insights of his mind.
For example, in the encyclical ‘Charity in Truth’ (Caritas Veritate) he explains how atheists see charity as an evolutionary process for preserving the species albeit at the expense of the individual. He however, reckons that human life is more than a social evolutionary electro-chemical reaction, but that we have god-given spiritual feelings and that charity is our chosen response to those feelings. In other words, people act charitably because they individually feel compassion for others not because evolution has programmed them with feelings of social guilt.
Why I wonder, does the media ignore such wise words from Christian folk such as the Pope, but have lots of time for the prattlings of the latest celeb! Maybe it’s because TV presenters are bedfellows with those who poke fun at Christian opinion, whilst treating the banalities of pop stars with reverence and awe.
In addition to a Papal retirement, the media also ran stories about horse meat in beef lasagne etc. We had better gloss over pig meat in Halal and Kosher chicken, but can take comfort because, despite the entire population of Britain having now eaten horse and pork, everyone is still alive and well.
The horse meat story sent the media ballistic. What few reported however, was that the real cause of the identification problem was neither the supermarkets nor Defra officials, nor was it the rogues who mixed equine and bovine! Although none of these parties is blame-free, ultimate responsibility lies with EU officials who designed the system for assuring food supply chains.
Although MPs rant over this issue they dare not tell us that food safety, like most other things nowadays, is one of the things over which they have no power. In 2002 Brussels took control (Directive 178/2002) for food safety and compelled the UK and others to set up Food Standards Agencies (FSA’s) to enforce and monitor their rules.
Directive 178 created ‘systems’ including documents to accompany every ingredient wherever it went. However, an unintended consequence was that paperwork rather than product became the proof of identity. This reliance on paperwork then led to a huge reduction in products tested. It was therefore, the belief that systems and paperwork tells you everything you need to know which made it easy for unscrupulous men to mix meats.
Perceptive readers may now be asking, what is the connection between Christians acting kindly and a misplaced belief in the meat supply chain. It is this:
As Benedict XVI said, Christian charity is an individually responsive act borne of concern for the person in distress. It is not merely reactive-evolutionary-chemistry. Similarly, the provenance of our beef comes from concern for the individual product not a reactive belief in paperwork.
Both cases teach, that we are right to exercise our God-given-intellect rather than believing that our thoughts are reactive chemistry or that paper trails can tell us ‘truth.’ As with the beef fiasco, we can be distracted from key issues by ideas and systems which obscure truth rather than reveal it.
Talking of things not being what they seem however, reminds me of the arrogant middle-aged Nebraska man whose wealthy widowed-father was ailing.
He decided he needed to add a trophy wife to his soon-to-be inheritance, and one day he spotted a beautiful woman whose innocent natural beauty took his breath away. He shouldered his way towards her and said, “Honey, I may be an ordinary guy but in a few months I’ll inherit a hundred million dollars.”
He could barely contain his excitement as she averted her eyes and asked for his business card, huskily murmuring that she couldn’t wait to see him again.
A week later she strode purposefully into his office and said, ………… “Hi. I’m Delilah your new step-mother!”
All this goes to show that, as with beef burgers,
First appearances don’t tell you everything.
View from the Pew 