The freedom to disagree

The right to free speech is a precious gift, to be exercised wisely. As I write this blog, the storm about Gary Lineker’s recent tweet criticising the government’s policy on illegal immigrants is slowly fading. Now reinstated by the BBC, he has,  I understand, changed his twitter profile picture to a photograph of himself standing by the Orwell inscription outside the BBC headquarters. It reads, 'If liberty means anything at all,  it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.'

How interesting. I was at a Bible study recently, and as part of a discussion, I said I didn’t believe that God is in total control of the world. I said we had prayed for the people of Ukraine in church and in our daily lives for over a year. The people suffer on and the war shows no sign of ending.

The two study leaders didn’t pause to consider my point of view. Rather it was slapped down (metaphorically of course), with the remark, ‘Ah, God’s timing is not our timing.’ They smiled and nodded knowingly.

I wanted to ask if they thought, therefore, that we are more compassionate than God. Because that is what their point of view sounded like to me. However, they moved swiftly on, and I decided to learn what I could from this experience.

We are all of us individuals. God, being a multi-talented linguist, understands the language of devout Roman Catholics, joyful Methodists, thoughtful Quakers, happy Episcopalians, serious Plymouth Brethren, merry Anglicans… please, continue the list yourself, and change my adjectives if you feel the need. In my view, God also speaks the language of gentle Buddhists, of kind Hindus, of generous Sikhs, of caring Muslims, in fact the language of anyone who is truly trying to discover Him or follow His peaceful, loving paths, and/or get to know Him a bit better. Including doubters and questioners.

I don’t mind if people have opinions which are vastly out of kilter with mine, but please, listen to the doubters and questioners. Don’t set out to change their minds. Encourage them on their way by all means, but don’t dismiss their points of view as nonsense, when all they’re doing is trying to make sense of it all. 

Veronica Bright is a prize-winning author of short fiction and drama. She runs the Plymouth Christian Writers and the ACW Writing for Children group. She apologises that the latter has been sadly neglected of late, but normal service is about to be resumed.