I always read Patrick Murphy’s column. He is a very clever writer but in some instances, he may be ‘too clever by half’ which could be the occupational hazard of clever writers.
I refer to his column ‘Time to decide if we want religious belief to take precedence over democracy’ (May 25). He begins with “I blame the Bible” and ends with “But would anyone seriously suggest that religious belief, however genuinely held, should take precedence over democracy?” Clever, eh? Well, let’s rephrase that a bit and see what happens: “Can anyone suggest that justice should take precedence over democracy.”
One of my favourite quotes is from the American Protestant scripture scholar Walter Brueggemann: “In Biblical faith, the doing of justice is the primary expectation of God.”
Why, then, is it that in some of the most Christian fundamentalist areas – Alabama/Mississippi, South Africa, Northern Ireland – social justice did not seem to be the norm? Indeed, state-sponsored discrimination was the norm.
And there’s the key term in all of this, that is often not acknowledged regarding racism and sectarianism – “state-sponsored.”
It is much easier for those in power to present the issue as one of individual failure – that individuals lack tolerance, respect and good-neighbourliness.
Individuals, of course, can be anti-black, anti-Catholic, or anti-Semitic, and some will always be, I guess, as in America. That is personal failure, a sin against the virtue of charity/love.
However, there is a world of difference between personal sin and state-sponsored racism and sectarianism – the “structures of sin,” as Pope John Paul II brilliantly terms it in in his 1988 Encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis (Solicitude for social concerns). Furthermore, that is also the first Papal Encyclical to dedicate the Catholic Church to a “preferential option for the poor.” Not too shabby for a “conservative” pope.
What does that do to the sectarian slogan, ‘no pope here’? – which, anyway, was always more about insulting local Catholics and keeping them in their place than it was about theology. It never affected the pope but always effectively showed contempt for local Catholics – the very function of sectarianism.
The fundamental (not to be confused with fundamentalist) issue in any country must be justice, which pulls down the structures of sin and abolishes state-sponsored sectarianism/racism – the twin evils of the world. Justice transcends ideology and party politics. It is the acid test of all political systems. It is also the ultimate test of religious faith, because without justice there is no love: “If anyone says, ‘I love God and hates his brother,’ he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20). Let Patrick Murphy blame the Bible for that too.
Fr SEAN McMANUS
President, Irish National Caucus
Washington DC
‘Apartheid’ term is propaganda smear to demonise Israel
For some years, as with Eurovision recently, there has been a growing but never analysed use of the term ‘apartheid’ against Israel.
The many components of historic apartheid in South Africa are rarely, if ever even, mentioned much less considered, and no attempt is made to examine the validity of applying any of them, much less all or most of them, to a very different society, state and context.
To provide a basis for a rational, objective and impartial analysis of this recent propaganda phenomenon, I can identify 40 key constituent elements which defined historic apartheid in South Africa over the 22 years from 1949 to 1970 inclusive, during which it was gradually developed and extended by the minority, whites-only regime of the Afrikaaner (National Party) which first came to power in 1948.
Any impartial, objective, evidence-based comparison of the State of Israel since its foundation in May, 1948, can only conclude not only that it does not, and never has, incorporated all of these 40 key features of historic apartheid, but that in fact, it does not now, and never has embodied even one of those 40 defining features of the racist white South African apartheid system.
Indeed not only do the 20 per cent Arab minority within Israel have a vote, but the first elected PM in 1949, David Ben Gurion of Labour, was elected only due to a coalition including Arab MKs, while an Arab judge jailed an outgoing president, and an Arab [Druze] MK was then acting president, and both Arab Druze and Sunni Circassian minorities have long been included, at their own insistence, in compulsory military conscription.
The continuing and indeed increasing use of that term ‘apartheid’ is not merely unjustified, and not just going beyond but blatantly against the very definite and verifiable evidence, but is clearly nothing but a malicious propaganda smear designed to demonise one, and only one, nation and state on earth, the Jewish state of Israel and its people.
And as such it is another instance of what the EU working definition on anti-semitism explicitly recognised as a contemporary form of anti-Semitism.
TOM CAREW
Ranelagh, Dublin
Brussels is not the boss of me
It’s all over now bar the bleating and the big winners are the non- political entity, the Greens.
They can’t hurt us too much in Eire, yet they’ll feel right at home in their spiritual home of the EU, yet how they will cope with all that mainland pollution will put them to the pin of their collars when they find nobody will listen to them over there either. But harmless enough, thank goodness.
Just keep them away from us hapless taxpayers – they could be careless in this respect.
That the vote of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil held up, both at home and abroad, is a bit of a mystery when, since 2011 they have only achieved in making austerity part of the national plan going forward. We know all about this aspect of theirs on the road to promised prosperity.
That Sinn Féin have been found out in their heartland among the inner city poor and deprived generally, just as other wind bags who gave themselves the undeserved mantle of “defenders of the people”, is overdue.
As for Labour, let’s not be cruel as we attempt to reconcile their water charges debacle with the needs of the have-nots. But look, we get a chance to vote every now and again and it still means a lot. Yet I never vote in EU elections because I do not consider myself part of that European dictatorship. Deal with it you Europhiles of every hue. Brussels is not the boss of me.
ROBERT SULLIVAN
Bantry, Co Cork
Time to grasp border nettle
Being just on the right side of 80 it’s more than likely I won’t be around to see a united Ireland, unfortunately. However, if another old man – Seamus Mallon – gets his wish my children and grandchildren won’t see it either. Where has Seamus been living all his life? There is no way that up to 40 per cent or 50 per cent of unionists would vote for a united Ireland. Obviously, he thinks otherwise, but he is dead wrong.
With Britain tearing itself apart over Brexit the time for a border poll is now, especially as it’s looking as if the UK could indeed crash out of the EU without a deal. No matter what happens the nettle that is the border must be grasped, and the sooner the better. The unionists simply cannot be allowed any longer to prevent Ireland – all of Ireland – from taking her rightful place among the nations of the world.
SEAN MASKEY
Belfast BT15
