Musings From The Methodist Manse

A response to the events in the US

Dear Friends,

I sit down to write these musings just a week after the awful terrorist attacks on America and I do so with trepidation. Whilst I feel it is necessary to make some response, I am also aware of how quickly events may overtake anything that I write and how inadequately words express what I feel. Shock, disbelief, horror, fear, anger, pain, determination, hope, - these are just some of the emotions with which we respond to events which our minds cannot begin to comprehend. Even the reality of the attacks is questioned as we try to get our heads to make sense of something so senseless and devastating. It can't possibly be real. It shouldn't, wouldn't, couldn't happen - but it has.

And where is God? Did God have a day off on Tuesday 11th September?

Whose side was God on - those who may believe that they have a divine right to destroy or those who feel God is theirs to claim when it suits them or perhaps there are more gods than the one claimed by Muslims and Christians - who share belief in the same God?

And are we justified in blaming God for events that are politically motivated?

God does not need my defence.

In the midst of all the confusing questions that are being asked at political, religious and social levels across the world, is a tragedy that cuts to the heart of what it means to be human beings. That we can, as a species, cause so much damage to each other is a reason for much soul searching and sadness. For as often as we condemn violence in one part of the world, we condone it in another. As frequently as we feel shock and horror, we are apathetic to the agonies of others whose lives are further removed from us.

I hope that by the time you are reading this, we have neither seen the escalation of violence across the globe, nor allowed the events of 11th September to slip too quickly from our minds.

Let us pray for peace, for whatever questions we might ask about God, peace is both what He desires for us and offers to us.

Every Blessing

Revd Jackie Goddard