Just be glad you're not a politician!

I guess it is a lot easier to make popular decisions when there is money in the kitty to spend. There are a whole load of politicians caught between a rock and a hard place by the current economic conditions.
Unpopular decisions of the year so far include changing the way that welfare benefits rise each year. They have been tied to inflation thus far, but suddenly someone has realised that benefits have risen with inflation over the past 3 or so years, whilst wages have either been frozen or made very small gains, below the level of inflation. "It's not fair," someone cries- and maybe it isn't. We have all got used to a reasonable sized slice of the cake and now that the cake is smaller, we all want to argue that our slice should stay the same size. The only trouble is that that means that someone else's slice must get smaller!
If you were a politician, what would you do? If you please the education lobby, you will have to disappoint health, or roads, or funding for the arts........ 
It's not popular to feel sorry for politicians, but I do. They cannot win. If they give in to all the different special interest groups, the country will be bankrupt and everyone will lose. If they make tough choices, there will always be a significant chunk of the population who disagree with them and think they should have chosen differently!
Another tough choice has been the stance to take on those claiming benefit because they are unable to work. Many people are incensed because of stories publicised by the media of benefit cheats who take advantage of loopholes to claim benefit when they could work. This has led to an unpopular assessment system which has seen many vulnerable people being told that they are able to work and that their benefit is being stopped. Criticism of the heartless way in which the frail and ill are being treated is growing, especially as people see their own friends and relatives being targeted.

Can there be a way through this economic and moral maze? I am sure that economically we will emerge eventually in a more stable place than we are in at present. What seems inevitable is that there will be winners and losers as politicians make their decisions. Unless we, as individuals, are prepared to uphold the rights of others and not just look to our own self interest, poverty, abuse, cruelty and disease will strengthen their grip on our nation(s). 

A man shows his humanity when he sacrifices his own desires for the welfare of others.

That Sin-King feeling

Okay so dogs took over the blog yesterday. I had to get my moan out of the way! Now back to sin.

I was thinking about what I would call this post and, being rather partial to puns, was thinking of words that start with "sin". When I thought sin-king, that seemed quite good, but the more I have thought about it, the more I realise how appropriate it is.

The reason we all find it so difficult to talk about sin is that we are all people living in glass houses, who really shouldn't throw stones.
Well I haven't murdered anyone- yet- but I have found that sin has a persisitent hold on my life. Anger, pride, self-centredness and greed are neighbours who spend a fair amount of time in my house. Despite my good intentions, I can't seem to stop them visiting. Even moving to Wales hasn't thrown them off the scent!

I have to face the fact that sin is often king of my life, which makes it all the more difficult to talk about sin as a real issue for our society. Nevertheless, it is.

In my previous post on this subject, I talked about the financial cost to our communities, but really the human tragedy is the cost that we as a society cannot afford.
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Just take a few moments with me to think about the many ways in which individuals are mangled and torn apart by sin.
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It's horrendous. Within a couple of minutes the list grows longer than one can bear to contemplate.
That's why sin is an issue which needs our urgent attention.

Who really believes that there is no such thing as sin or morality, right or wrong? When the rubber hits the road, nearly every one of us recognises that people do good things and bad things, and we applaud the right and hate the wrong, the unjust and the cruel.

So what can we do to address sin in ourselves and in others?