One great thing about the Internet is that, thanks to Broadband and the wonders of modern technology, yours truly can sit in Scotland and listen to local radio in Seattle. Some items of news in the States are almost too tempting too resist. My favourite this past week has been the revelation that Michael Jackson has just purchased Mars. Apparently he was approached by a real estate executive who offered to sell him the title deeds to Mars for a mere $4 million. Michael offered $3 million but after being told that Britney Spears had offered $3.5 million, he handed over the $4 million. I loved the quote from one of Mr Jackson’s aides “We try extremely hard to protect Mr Jackson from this kind of thing, but in this case, as it was too late to stop the cheque, it seemed best to allow him to think that the planet is indeed his, than to cause him the upset of realizing he had been swindled”.

That quote stuck in my mind and seems particularly appropriate for the current situation facing us in Britain. It has not been a good week. Drifting snow, power cuts, another railway disaster (13 people killed, over 70 injured), fish stocks running out, and Foot and Mouth. It is the latter which is causing such an air of despair and gloom. Foot and Mouth is a disease which afflicts cloven hoofed animals – it is harmless to humans but devastating to these animals. It is highly contagious and disastrous for the agricultural industry. The last major outbreak in Britain was in 1967 and over 250,000 animals were slaughtered. This current outbreak threatens to be much worse – 25,000 animals already killed; 32 farms all over the country affected; movement severely restricted throughout the country; meat stocks running low; the British farming industry being brought to its knees through this latest outbreak; even the Wales v. Ireland rugby match being cancelled because the Irish government did not want people traveling to Wales and bringing the virus back to Ireland. (This latter action is already outdated – Northern Ireland has two confirmed cases and given that these came from a herd of sheep, of which several dozen have ‘mysteriously disappeared’ – i.e. Smuggled into Southern Ireland as part of the EU subsidy scam so shamelessly exploited by some Irish farmers – then one suspects that it is too late). It is a very depressing scenario – especially for Britain’s farmers and countryside.

Our press have picked up on the mood of despair. After one news bulletin this week the announcer asked if it was the end of the world. Today’s Scotsman, together with the Guardian and The Times have all referred to prevailing gloom over Britain with vivid references to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Times argued that “we are being forced back into a mediaeval mindset of fatalism, passivity and despair”. I am sure that it will not be too long before our apocalyptic Christians start telling us it is a sign of the end. Guess how many sermons will be preached on the judgment of God this Sunday. But is this a legitimate Christian response to such despair?

To some extent, yes. But only in the sense of God letting us reap the fruits of our labours. It could be argued that God is ‘giving us over’ (a la Romans 1) to our own follies. Several things have happened in Britain to show us the fragility of our modern society. Morally even the ‘liberals’ of the 1960’s are beginning to question the effects of their relativistic thinking (they were horrified at Eminems recent appearances in Britain because of his misogynistic and homophobic lyrics). Politically, we are heading away from representative democracy to a kind of party dictatorship. Economically, our fragility has been demonstrated by the fuel crisis and this latest episode of Foot and Mouth. Both events have shown how weak the 24 hour instant supply economy is. In the ridiculous quest for profit for shareholders the food industry has been forced, by the profit motive, to cut some rather sharp corners. One instance of this is the question of transportation. In 1967 the Foot and Mouth outbreak was largely confined to Wales. Why? Because animals were not transported vast distances round the country in large numbers to be slaughtered in mega abattoirs. Instead each area had its own abattoir, providing local jobs and local slaughterhouse facilities. But that was too inefficient. Too labour intensive. And so scores of abattoirs have been closed and now we have large numbers of animals criss-crossing the country. Nobody really bothered about this because it meant cheaper food for the consumer, work for the haulage firms and better returns for the shareholders of the major food suppliers. But then Foot and Mouth struck. And within one week it is all over the country. Almost impossible to isolate. Who knows what the end result will be?

Yes God is judging. By allowing us to suffer the consequences of our worship of the almighty dollar/pound. An economy which is based on debt and consumption is one that is going to demand intensive industrial farming. It is also one that will have to carry the consequences. A society which rejects the concept of public service and replaces it with personal self-interest as the driving force, will one day have to face up to the inevitable fruit. A society which kills its young and old and then argues for its humanity will fall apart. And a society which replaces the worship of God with worship of David Beckham and Madonna will reap the whirlwind.

Which brings me back to Wacko Jacko. Yes he is irrational and dumb. Yes he is egotistical and self centered. Who does he think he is? Owning Mars! And yet he is just a parable of our own society. Who do we think we are? Owning earth! “The earth belongs unto the Lord, and all that it contains…”. We think we are in control. We think we are the height of evolutionary progress. We think we are in control with our social Darwinianism and our genetic technology. We laugh at God. Yet he will not be mocked. Maybe, for a while, he lets us live under the illusion that we are in control and then he lets us see just how out of control everything gets without him. It is in him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17); it is in Christ that ‘all things hold together’ (Colossians ch.2); and it is he who commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17). Are we listening?

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