Mam Said ...

My sister has recently made contact with a lady who used to live near to us when we were all growing up.  That started us reminiscing about her and her family.  One day, the lady who lived 3 doors away from us (the said lady's mother) came and knocked on the door of our home.  She wanted to talk to Mam.  She was obviously upset about something.  Mam invited her in, put the kettle on and 'suggested' to us that we should go outside or upstairs and do something.  We knew that that meant that we were not to be around when they were talking adult stuff!  The woman's young teenage daughter (who had recently contacted my sister)) had told her that she was pregnant, and I'm talking about the late 50s early 60s - not at all acceptable!  Mam sat and listened.  They drank tea and talked for quite a while before the woman went back to her house a little less stressed.  That young teenage daughter, now more than 50 years on, is a mother and grandmother and still very happily married to her childhood sweetheart.  The thing about Mam was that our home was open to anyone who needed help, whoever they were.  My sister and I smiled at the thought that she probably knew some intimate secret about most of our neighbours who had at some point confided in her.  She didn't preach at people or spout Bible verses at them, didn't invite them to accompany us to church on Sunday, didn't even criticise them and never repeated a confidence.  Whenever we made some snide comment about anyone, her reply was always, 'God loves everybody and so should we.  It's not our place to judge.  Our job is to help.'  She didn't just believe in God's all-embracing love, she lived it.

The death of Atahualpa, ruler of the Incas

The news recently has had much to concern us about terrorism, kidnappings and persecution.  Many are sharing thoughts and prayers for Christians who are in such a position in Iraq, and rightly so.  How dreadful that they should be threatened with death just because they don't want to accept the religious biases of their captors.  I couldn't help thinking though about many centuries ago when Christians did the same thing.  We are often reminded of the crusades and how still today they are remembered by many but we sometimes forget about the persecution of those of other faiths during the Spanish Inquisition and hardly ever think about the thousands of Incas who were slaughtered because they couldn't understand the Trinity and didn't want to embrace Christianity.  They were a peace loving race of people who had a very good way of life when they were suddenly invaded by a people who had travelled thousands of miles across the ocean, killing and stealing as they went.  All who didn't accept their way of Christianity were mercilessly annihilated.  The verse 'he who is without sin let him cast the first stone.' comes to mind.  


I am not saying that we shouldn't be concerned and intercede for those we love, those who belong to our particular religious group.  Of course we should.  But sometimes I think it is easy to feel that somehow God is more concerned about Christians than others.  We often don't give a second thought about a situation unless some westerner or Christian is involved as though somehow it's not as bad if someone from another religion is suffering but woe betide if it happens to a Christian!  Let us be clear, God is not a Christian.  God is God.  God doesn't love Christians more than he loves anyone of another religion.  It's like, yes, but God leans more in favour of Christians than other religions surely.  After all we accept his son as Saviour, others don't.  The story of the Prodigal Son tells us differently.  God loves all whether we accept his ways or not, remain within his household or reject him.  We are all equal in the eyes of God and he never stops loving us, no matter what.  Jesus cried out to God to forgive those who killed him.  God is Love, all-encompassing and unconditional Love.  Of course He hates the persecution of Christians.  He also hates the persecution of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists or any other religious group.  People suffer persecution for many reasons.  How many times have we heard of  a young woman being killed to restore some idea of 'family honour' when she didn't want to marry the man of her parents' choice?  The 200 young schoolgirls are still missing in Nigeria, taken into captivity just because they were female and seeking to be educated and going to school.  Homosexuals are being killed in parts of the world just because of their sexuality.  There are those who are persecuted because of their nationality/tribe or shunned and left to die because of some disability.

God's love is all-embracing,  all-inclusive, unconditional.  I ask God that he will help me to not be narrow-minded, thinking only of my own particular religious group but

to see all people as he sees them,  be concerned for all his creation, wherever they are and pray for all who are persecuted for whatever reason.  As Mam said, 'God loves everybody and so should we.'