Remembrance
Today was Remembrance Sunday in the UK – the day when we remember those who have died in wars. However, there’s a big question over what we should remember and why. Ekklesia has been suggesting that Christian churches should encourage their members to wear the white poppy rather than the red one – to remember all those who died in wars, not just “our soldiers”, and to support non-violent resolution of problems. This has proved somewhat controversial. (For foreigners: it is customary in the UK to wear a red poppy to commemorate the fallen, after the fields of the First World War sprouted poppies once the fighting was over. The sale of these poppies raises money for the British Legion, which takes care of old soldiers.)
We recall the military downfall of Hitler, for example, but not the aftermath of the extravagently wasteful war that helped bring him to power. According to John Gaunt of TalkSport Radio, I am ‘despicable’ for even mentioning this complexity – just as President Bush has recently called those who question the impact of American military adventurism ‘enemy comforters’. These are political attempts to repress different memories. The awkward truth is that it is always might, and not always right (when those two things can be clearly distinguished), that wins wars.
Presiding clergy and other secular officiants often wrestle hard with these matters around Armistice Day. But they know that sensitivities around the defence of an ingrained ‘natural’ patriotic and military outlook are so high that there will be hell to pay for even the least sign of dissent.
Mention the fact that Britain has armed all its own most recent enemies (notably Argentina before the Falklands and Iraq under Saddam) and there will be discomfort if not outrage. Suggest that an altar is not the place for national flags and military symbols, because it is a symbol of reconciliation for all, and you will be accused of being ‘a troublesome vicar’ (as a friend of mine was no so long ago).
Another friend who is a German minister in Britain was even required to bless military colours, though in her own country (given the terrible experience of ‘church and nation’ being identified so disastrously under Nazism) this is little short of blasphemy (From Ekklesia.)
Fortunately, this message is getting out and spreading. Even at the official ceremony at the Cenotaph today, in London, members of military families who have lost loved ones in the war in Iraq laid wreaths of both red and white poppies..
pax et bonum
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