A bright light in great darkness...
... and reflections on 1984, family, negativity & the media
I’ve plugged the work of Justin Brierley to you before - he wrote the book and podcast series “The surprising rebirth of belief in God” which argues that we are seeing a return in interest to Christian faith. He is a former editor of Christianity magazine and the founder of the apologetics podcast Unbelievable at Premier, where I worked with him. Justin interviewed me for his new series that has a variation of his theme, on whether the rebirth in faith is “right wing”. This has some justification, because many of the well known recent converts are on the right politically.
I was a little hesitant. I’m no fan of being interviewed on video at the best of times - but mainly this was because he wanted to talk about immigration and last year’s riots, a subject that is so complex and easily misconstrued. I decided that it’s more important to try to discuss some ‘unmentionable’ topics in a healthy way than to avoid conflict and controversy. He’s used a lot of my interview in his first two episodes.
At some point, if I have the spiritual, emotional and physical energy, I plan to write about this subject in more detail, reflecting on some unusual life experiences I have had that lead me to very different opinions than the two main camps of ‘for and against’, who seem to have an extremely narrow range of debate.
Subscribers to Justin’s work get an early preview of the podcast right now - but I think it’s out to the public in a couple of weeks. Before I spoke to him I wrote out my thoughts in response to his questions to help me think more clearly - I may post this to my own subscribers if it’s of interest.
Family values
On the subject of politics, I happened upon an interesting conversation between a politician and a think tank exec about the importance of the traditional family. This vital subject has been something of a taboo in the politics of my lifetime - so is well worth paying attention to if it gathers new interest. Here’s my report on this discussion, and a few other signs that marriage and family are once again part of the conversation.
There is no subject I can write about that is as dark as the worship of God’s enemy. But I’m constantly amazed by the divine light that can shine into the blackest darkness. When asked to investigate this rather spooky story, I felt nervous and relied on prayer for protection. But soon enough, although the details can be scary, I came across a personal story of the light and love of redemption that dispelled any fear about evil powers. In any negative or nasty news story, there is always goodness, love and truth somewhere to be found. Think, for example, of the courageous people who try to stop school shooters and terrorists in their crimes, or the thousands of rescuers of Jews in WWII. Or, the stories of redemption of the most brutal and hell-bound of people, whose lives are tranformed from hate and violence into love and kindness of the most inspiring kind. (See for example, Nicky Cruz, Tass Saada, Joseph Pearce, among many, many others.)
I had an interesting chat with believing Christians recently about the news and its incessant negativity. At present a grave danger is the bias we can see towards one or the other side of the political spectrum, which fuels division and misunderstanding between people. This is a subject I’ve often written about, and I try to put both perspectives fairly in the articles I write in order to lessen these divides, even when I align with one particular side.
The reality is that nowadays, the media knows exactly which articles interest the public, because they can measure what gets the most ‘clicks’ and therefore is the most likely to fund the news going forward. Sadly, it’s a certain kind of partisan rage-provoking story that tends to get more interest. The media is full of negativity because they are motivated to publish what more people want to consume. So - if you want to change this - deliberately search for positive news and click on it, share it, support it. We can be the change we want to see.
I write as a clip of an unpleasant exchange between world leaders is flying round the internet and provoking rage on both sides. While George Orwell’s 1984 is a dark read, I really think it’s essential to listen to its warning. The partisan rants on X (Twitter) in the past 24 hours remind me so much of the “two minute hate” in the novel. It’s a book that has helped me to reflect on my own reactions and consider how I contribute to the dystopia we find ourselves in. May we instead pursue faith, hope and love and bring more of God’s light to this world.
