“I can’t breathe”
The two major disrupters in the world today suggest an even deeper issue … of the human heart
The image of George Floyd being held down by the policeman and saying “I can’t breathe” is a very potent one. Now is a pivotal time for our culture, a Kairos moment. We have been watching images for a number of weeks of COVID-19 patients on ventilators where “they can’t breathe.” It is as though there is a resonance in the community mind: a being “held down” by oppression in one form or another.
We are in the midst of an unprecedented event, having to remain indoors to “protect the NHS” and secondly to protect those most at risk from catching the virus. People are feeling more anxious, fearful, aggressive, unloved and, in a sense, rootless.
Ironically, this eruption of violence in the “Black Lives Matter” campaign, contains a seed for the hope for the future: that in making life better for others we make life better for ourselves. But where are our leaders in this rising tide of anger and resentment? What is their response in this time of political correctness which is stifling freedom of expression – “we can’t breathe?”
Deeper issues
Brexit has lost centre stage. Looking back was that also a reflection of the “we can’t breathe” resonance? The European Union had pursued a policy of free market and liberal democracy, hoping to spread and conquer the world by extolling the ideas of freedom. As that community grew from seven to twenty-five member states it proved to be more restrictive of personal freedoms. Authority passed from the electorate via national leadership to a faceless, non-elected conglomeration, imposing controls on all aspects of our daily lives. Ironic, really that COVID 19 resulted in nations rising to re-establish their borders. Would that be considered an “unlawful” activity within EU? What will happen post- COVID? Will we retain this freedom, or will we exchange it for the free flow of goods between the EU countries and Britain? Currently we do not have a trade agreement in place.
What is waiting round the corner? Is it the rising authoritarian regime of China, who currently operate a two-currency system of the Renminbi and the Yuan?
A system that has allowed it to undervalue its currency against the US dollar, thus procuring an unfair advantage for its exports? Although there has been movement to mitigate these factors. In the Bretton Woods agreement the US dollar was fixed at $35 per ounce of gold; other currencies could then be fixed relative to the dollar, including the Yuan. Changes, of course, occurred during the time of Nixon when he cancelled a key component of the agreement, because the value of gold was higher than the value of the dollar, resulting in the dollar floating independently of gold. It was a move from economic stability to a confidence factor. Is it not time that we familiarize ourselves with the process of how money is printed, what factors are involved?
Money matters
How would the worldwide financial markets react if the value of the US dollar plummeted and went into hyperinflation? Move back into gold? Or, possibly into something called SDR (special drawing rights) issued by the IMF whose value is made up of a basket of 5 currencies including the US dollar, the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan. Central banks already carry SDR reserves. Moving towards a one world currency. Follow the money.
In a recent YouGov poll, just 9% of Britons want to return to ‘normal’ life post- COVID 19. Significant changes in cleaner air, less traffic pollution, cleaner rivers, a greater appreciation of wildlife and a stronger community spirit are challenging us. What would we be prepared to give up economically to retain these changes?
These words expressed the deeper feelings of a trapped society.
Empty gestures?
Social media is inundated with slogans depicting the “Brotherhood of Man.”
As David Andrew pointed out at the Foundations 13 online conference in April, we need to think carefully how slogans are used. Do they encapsulate the majority of the general public’s view of reality? And if so, as he points out, what happens when someone doesn’t line up with that reality? Crowd hostility is easily stirred up in that atmosphere. We need to “consider our ways” if God is seen as an undesirable element in these things.
We have been party to daily briefings from the government on COVID 19, emphasising the need “to protect our NHS.” Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, in November 2019, posted a short video on her Facebook page in which Dominic Cummings says, “People think, by the way, and I think most people are right, the Tory Party is run by people who basically don’t care about people like me, right? That’s what most people in the country have thought about the Tory Party for decades. I know a lot of Tory MPs, and I’m sad to say, the public is basically correct. Tory MPs, largely, do not care about these poorer people, they don’t care about the NHS, and the public, kind of, has caught onto that.”
The words below the mural of George Floyd, a name that has become known worldwide, are ‘I can breathe now’.
Think about that when we reflect on government policy on protecting care home clients, many of whom now “can’t breathe.” Dominic Cummings’ name will be familiar to many having broken Lockdown rules. Yet he remains Boris Johnson’s chief strategist. What price is our Prime Minister paying reputation- wise by retaining his services? Many will recall our Prime Minister being on the receiving end of NHS ministrations.
Seeds of hope?
Globally, other leading figures have valued economic security above the security and well-being of their peoples. Who can forget the pictures of poorer communities where even the supply of water for hand washing means a trek to the nearest river or well? Why are we still in this situation in the twenty-first century?
And yet we see another seed of hope, in children’s paintings of the rainbow displayed everywhere, as a “thank you” to NHS staff who daily risk their lives for others. What will be their memories of these harrowing times where they were part of the community demonstrating gratitude for other’s actions? And the relief of Christians, who remember the rainbow as a sign given by God that He will not destroy the earth by flood after Noah’s intercession. Can the LGBT lobby dare to try to reclaim the sign of the rainbow for their purposes after this?
After years of inaction from the church, it was children that restored the rainbow as a sign of hope.
Returning to our ‘seed thought’… Christian presence ought to make life better for others – but Elijah prayed for drought to bring people back to God. Will it take further tragedy for the Good News to get a hearing?
The Daily Mail carried an article recently on a forthcoming book published by a scientist that warns of the danger of a pandemic triggered by chicken farms; of a virus “crossing over” to humans that could kill half the world’s population.
Time for God’s people to arise!
I think of this period as an interval, an intermission almost – for intercession. Who will cry out to the Lord for the lost? And who will cry out to the lost for the Lord? Do we fear offending others, or do we fear offending the Lord? Jesus who came to reconcile the world to the Father. Who came, speaking, in the face of murderous opposition – from leaders. Dare we be silent “at such a time as this?” And Jesus came “for such a time as that” correcting wrong interpretations of the Scriptures, to restore their purity, so that “We can breathe.”
We entered a new decade in the Hebrew yearly recording system, in September 2019. It began with the year of the mouth, the Peh. Looking at the letter Peh פּ it looks like the profile of a face with a nose and a mouth and a dagesh, a ‘dot’ for an eye.
A baby cannot focus properly for about the first six weeks of life, but the mouth is more important than the eye, being the means for nourishment. And through the mouth the baby breathes. At this time, when mouth-to-mouth can be physically life threatening, will we see that we need God’s breath, His ruach, more than ever before?
Come, Holy Spirit, we call on You, breathe on us, let dry bones live.