Appalling

There were a few things I heard at my placement church's fellowship group meeting last night which I really couldn't believe. To be frank, I was quiet shocked and, believe me, that takes a lot of doing.

The theme of the meeting was "Your hopes for the year". Of course, peace in the world was high on the list. This led us onto a little discussion about the current bombardment of the Gazza Strip by the Israelis. I didn't want to be political in this blog, but I firmly believe what's going on there has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with human suffering.

My personal take on the current conflict, which stated just under a fortnight ago, is innocent civilian Palestinians are being killed by the Israeli army. Yes, Hamas is firing rockets into Israeli held territory and may even be using schools as shields, but that still doesn't detract from the amount of force the Israeli army are using.

Now, I do not condone terrorism and it could be argued Hamas firing rockets over the wall into Israeli territory is an act of terror. However, there is little food, water and basic medical supplies in the Strip. Only the most seriously injured and ill can receive medical treatment and, even then, it is much less than the doctors would like to do. In that situation, if your child was killed and another was dying from lack of food or medicine, what would you do? I know I wouldn't resort to violence, but I know of many people who would. I can't blame them - their children are suffering.

I tried to express this at the meeting and wasn't listened to. I was told about the rockets from Hamas and how they've killed Israelis. Yes, they may have but no Israeli civilian had been killed since the end of the ceasefire. As of yesterday, there were reports of at least 500 civilians killed in the Gazza Strip. It's not defence - isn't defence supposed to be proportionate?

Now okay, they didn’t agree with me, but they weren't prepared to acknowledge my opinion at all. I am quiet happy to have an intelligent discussion where there is a difference of opinion, but only in an environment of mutual respect. In last night meeting I felt I was being treated with the attitude of your young and your opinion doesn't really matter.

The other part of hope we got onto was (brought up by me again) about how can we give hope to those with none? Especially young people - 1 in 10 don't think life is worth living. I was asked how do we give hope? I suggested by giving encouragement. That was talked down as other people in the meeting could give examples of people they knew who'd been given no encouragement in their early years but had still been successful. That's brilliant, but not the norm. I suggested giving encouragement is like helping someone up who's fallen down (hope being giving them a reason to get up). This was the reply that really got to me:

"That's fine, Mrs Gerbil, but there in Glasgow and Edinburgh, if you there was someone who'd fallen at the edge of the road, they'd probably be part of an ambush. Once you got out of the car, they'd steal it."

WHAT!!! Is there something I'm missing here? You see someone needing help but don't offer any as it might be a set up. I can think of at least one occasion recently where I have helped someone out. It never even entered my head not to. The most shocking thing in relation to the statement was it came from my supervisor. Now I see what kind of man and, by that token, minister he is.

Finally (it is okay, I am nearly finished!!!), my placement church is 40 years old this year. The session clerk's hope, which everyone else appeared to agree with, was the anniversary would help my placement church focus inwards. What more can I say…?