The Good Friday Blog - Extinction rebellion and the crucifiction

There are only a few days of the year where I blog about faith and morality. Good Friday is one of those days. I have been watching with interest the coverage of the extinction rebellion protests in Central London. In the Catholic faith, this week is known as Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter Sunday). It starts with Palm Sunday, where according to the legend Jesus made a triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. Today marks the point in the story where he was executed by the state for heresy and purportedly fermenting rebellion. Whatever your faith, there are many interesting aspects t to the story, most of which Christian theologians have little or no interest in.

The first is the way that the "powers that be" reacted to what they perceived as a threat to their power. It is pretty clear that they had no interest at all in the message that was being spread, the issue was that they wanted to crush a popular figure spreading a message that resonated by whatever means they could. They did not have mass media, internet and mobile phones. What they did have was a network of people who supported the status quo. This was effectively mobilised to build a case that would persuade the Roman administrators to allow them to get rid of the threat.

The second thing that interest me is what happened afterwards. The powers that be assumed that in the act of the brutal execution of Jesus, the whole thing would go away. Whether you are Christian, or an atheist, it is pretty clear that this failed miserably. You do not have to believe in the resurrection to accept that the message that Jesus tried to spread has hung around long after the people who put him to death shuffled off this mortal coil. You don't have to believe that Jesus rose from the dead to see that many aspects of his message still have a huge impact on society today. This week we saw the tragic fire at Notre Dam cathedral. Even some of the most committed atheists I know have been heartbroken by the fire and there is no one I know who doesn't want to see a Phoenix rise from those ashes. Most of us accept that forgiveness and reconciliation are better in the long run than hatred and revenge. You don't have to believe in an afterlife to accept that the ten commandments (or the last six at least) are a relatively sensible basic code for living if you want a happy and uncomplicated life.

Just for the record the last six are

5. Respect your father and mother.
6. You must not commit murder.
7. You must not commit adultery.
8. You must not steal.
9. You must not give false evidence against your neighbour.
10. You must not be envious of your neighbour's goods. You shall not be envious of his house nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbour.

Reading the bible with a critical eye will highlight all manner of contradictions and for many rational people this undermines its credibility. For the fundamentalists who take the bible as the "word of God" and view the whole book as containing literal facts, there are all manner of convoluted arguments to justify these. It is pretty clear to me that books were written by people who, acting in good faith, documented what they saw as best they could. But that is a world of difference between someone doing their best chronicling difficult events and it actually being an inarguable fact.

Which brings us to the extinction rebellion protests and the parallels. There is little (rational) argument that the protesters are completely wrong or that there aren't major issues facing the planet and its population. We all know there is an issue. Most of us do not know whether the protesters are right that we have six years to fix it or whether the timescale is more manageable at say 50 years. Some argue that technology will fix the problems. Some  claim that in the west, the falling birthrate of indigenous populations will make the problems go away (ignoring the fact that those passengers on the Planet Earth journey, who are travelling third class will always seek to join us).

Just as the powers that be in Jerusalem see their comfy lifestyles being threatened, the same is happening with the protesters. Politicians continually speak of the "disruption to ordinary people". The press and media highlight celebrities who lead luxury lifestyles hypocritically jumping on the bandwagon. Whilst no protesters will be crucified, the calls for "firm action" build daily. The police have thus far stated that as the protesters are courteous and well behaved, they have no justification for violence. It all rather reminds me of the biblical account of Pilate's dealings with Jesus. It states that Pilate could find no wrongdoing, but ultimately gave in to a baying crowd to take "firm action".

The great and good of this country would do well to consider the last three commandments. Firstly "You must not steal". There are many forms of theft, but perhaps the worst and most dangerous is stealing from future generations. If we don't take some sort of action, if we don't address the plastic crisis and get serious about global warming, we could very well be stealing our children and our grandchildrens future. Then there is the "You must not give false evidence about your neighbour". In short don't tell porkies. Sadly none of us believe a word the politicians tell us anymore. I've no idea what the true situation regarding climate change is. I've read quite a lot of articles in scientific publications over a period of 40 years. If the worst of these had been true when I first got interested, planet Earth would already be a dead dustbowl. But every day that goes by, the evidence gets stronger and the models of what we are doing get more accurate. Arguments that could be made ten years ago are now completely debunked and new challenges have been identified. People like David Attenborough have done amazing work highlighting the risks of plastics, but we still flush wetwipes down our toilets and buy spuds in all manner of plastic boxes. Will we ever learn?

Then there is the "You must not be envious of your neighbours goods". Doesn't this just sum up consumerist society. You are perfectly happy with your Ford Cortina until the bloke up the road gets a new 7 series BMW. All of a sudden, you feel like you are a second class citizen and you want one. We are all so obsessed with our social status and keeping up with the Jones's that we have lost sight of what being happy is.

Some believe that rules such as the Ten Commandments were constructed to control us. It seems to me that in many ways they are there to help us be happy. If you follow the prohibitions, ultimately you are likely to live a happier life and society will function better. I am not advocating that anyone follows my path, you all have your own path and own choices, but if we don't learn the important lessons of history, then we risk making many painful mistakes.

For those powers that be that are choosing to besmirch the young people out protesting for their future, they should consider the biggest lesson of the Crucifixion. They did it to get rid of the "Jesus problem". It had the complete opposite effect. Both Christians and Muslims recognise Jesus as a huge figure in their traditions. between them, that is around half the worlds population. I would suggest that a far more sensible path for the powers that be would be to start taking serious action to address the issues that the protesters are highlighting. If they are putting forward arguments that are not scientifically supportable, call them out by all means, but do not try and shut down a serious attempt to fix the problems of planet earth by claiming that the protesters are making people's buses late.