Mark Ireland's Blog

Radio 'Thought for the Day'

This morning I had an early start in Birmingham, doing my last 'Thought for the Day' on BBC Radio WM, reflecting on some aspect of the week's news. My comments led to a lively interview following with the presenter. Here is the full text of what I said:

In the news this week has been the Queen’s Speech, in which the Government published its legislative programme for Tony Blair’s final  year as Prime Minister. The speech was dominated by concerns about security and terrorism, including measures to introduce ID cards

All this begs the question as to whether more laws and more surveillance will actually help preserve our free society, or will in fact erode the very freedoms we have enjoyed for centuries. A recent government watchdog warned that we are sleepwalking into a surveillance society, as every increase in security measures inevitably means less and less privacy. Now that we live in the country with apparently the most CCTV surveillance cameras in the world, we would do well to heed Jesus’ warning that

‘There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known’ [Matt 10.26]

All this reminds me of a recent weekend break in Prague, where I visited the quaintly named Museum of Communism, which I found with some difficulty, sandwiched as it was between MacDonalds and a casino. The exhibits in the museum recalled the chilling apparatus of the Soviet system, with its mass surveillance, interrogation and torture of suspects. My visit reminded me how much simpler were the moral certainties of the Cold War era, when mass surveillance, house arrest, detention without trial, were all things that we heard about happening only in communist eastern Europe, not in the free West.

This week amid the deepening chaos in Iraq, we have had further allegations about the mistreatment of Iraqis held in detention, with arguments about whether beating up prisoners before interrogation or making them think they are drowning constitutes torture. Christians today need to affirm loud and clear that the end does not justify the means.

It can never ever be right to torture a human being made in the image of God, even if one is trying to extract information to prevent a terrorist outrage. The ill-treatment of IRA suspects by security forces in Northern Ireland was morally wrong and proved entirely counter-productive, creating sympathy for the terrorists. The Bible challenges us to overcome evil with good, not to imitate the ways of evil people. As St. Paul put it, ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.’ (Romans 12.21)

Ultimately the way to deal with the problem of evil in the world is not by more and more security measures, but by changing human hearts – and that is what the Christian gospel is all about.

Colourful Radio

Beware what you say to a journalist! Yesterday I was quoted in an article in The Daily Telegraph about a retired minister in Cheadle, Staffs, who is setting up an alternative gathering in a disused chapel aimed at reaching people who find traditional church boring or irrelevant. It will be café-style with video films and coffee and toast. On the back of that short piece I was invited to do a live interview on a new digital talk radio station called Colourful Radio about how the Church of England is finding new ways to present the Christian message to unchurched young people. What I thought would be the usual 5 minute slot turned out to be a whole half hour with lots of opportunity to put the gospel across. One downside was having to talk to a rather crackpot listener who came online and wanted me to condemn the Talmud for promoting crimes against children! The other downside is of course that hardly anyone might have been listening – it is hard to know with a new digital channel how many listeners it really has.

When I came back into my office the first call was from a Polish journalist wanting to interview me for the Polish edition of the German paper Die Welt on the same Cheadle story! Working with the media is so unpredictable – you struggle to get them to be interested in what you think is a really good story, and then something that you think is just a page filler really takes off.