Our humanity can’t survive in a minefield
IN the recent TV programme Mammals, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, there was a very thoughtful and poignant episode on how animals can/cannot survive in a minefield.
Vast areas of arable and grazing land are now minefields where few mammals can survive except species such as the wolf.
Large swathes of arable and pasture countryside in the Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, Africa and other places on earth which once were able to feed their people can do so no longer.
Human beings (mammals as we are) are responsible for minefields. This scourge on the surface of our planet is a direct result of “man’s inhumanity towards man.”
We still refuse to answer God’s basic question to our conflicts which started with the murder of Abel by his brother, Cain.
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:8,9 and 10). This is the age-old defiant attitude to our actions as nations. We still hold fast to the belief that war can settle human disputes.
It is not only the blood of our fellow humanity that pollutes the land but the discarded weapons of war. We put our humanity at risk if we ignore these rubbish dumps.
We need to be reminded that our continued neglect of them also threatens the natural order in the world, for they imperil other forms of life.
We can ill-afford to let the minefields remain and fester when we need good land to help reduce poverty, malnutrition, and disease. Massacres may win votes but do not feed the hungry refugees.
Is it not strange that we use the word “minefield” as a symbol of situations which are full of hidden difficulties and dangers which impede our attempts to end conflicts and resolve disputes?
The minefield is the symbol of our madness and insanity until we recognize that we are all our brother’s keeper.
Sir David tells us how adaptable mammals are to changing environments. Can we not also as human mammals do the same?
One way we can show love in action is to work together to remove the landmines of their dangers and restore food production and the beauty of nature. The catastrophic effects of global warming ought to encourage us to do this as our food productions etc are at risk.
Would we not find through a shared sense of survival and cooperative effort our common humanity? We all have much more in this world with one another than we often realize and sitting around a table can open new dimensions in how we look at one another.
We need to discover our natural, God-given ability to be adaptable in an ever-changing world.
As St Paul reminds us, “God has made of one blood all nations to dwell in all the face of the earth.” (Acts 17:26). We are created to live in peace with one another.
Christian Aid has an important slogan for us all this year: “Peace is worth praying for.”
Canon George Burgon,
Barton Seagrave