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Dear Friends
Last week I attended a conference. Perhaps the highlight
for me was being able to listen to Tim Cross, a retired General from the
British army. He is also a practising Christian and a Reader in the
Church of England.
He was talking about leadership. Amongst other issues he
described how the Army assesses the fighting capacity of other armies.
They consider not only the physical nature of the army and their tactics
but also something called the ‘moral component.’ The beliefs and values
of an army are crucial to the way it fights.
As I have thought about this what strikes me is that
‘moral component’ is vital to us all. It is vital to the way we conduct
our affairs and to our wider world. Last month I watched the Diary of
Anne Frank on BBC1. Those who worked for the Frank family showed great
moral courage as they hid the family in the upstairs room and found ways
of providing for their needs.
We continue to experience the fall out from the credit
crunch and the on going recession. Some in our banking system have
clearly over stepped the mark. In theory deregulation of the Banks and
the financial system should have been safe. However the moral component
seems to have been lacking in some board rooms or at the very least
slowly squeezed out.
Yesterday I listened to Dwain Chambers on the radio. As
an athlete he is banned from competing in the Olympics because of drug
use. Some of his statements were surprising. When he was 21 he claimed
to be too young to make decisions for himself. Whatever the rights and
wrongs of his ban he lacked the moral courage when it was needed.
Standing up for things is not always easy. It is far
easier to swim with the crowd than to stand against it. Yet if we
believe in God seen in the person of Jesus sometimes that is what we
must do. Yes we need to remain loving and compassionate yet we do need
to stand for the truth as we see it.
Let’s commit ourselves to pray regularly for all who face
moral choices day by day, particularly in public life. And when we are
faced with issues that really matter may we have the moral courage to
stand up for the things that we believe to be right.
Every Blessing
Norman Shave. |
