Lovers of themselves

Those charged with the responsibility of overseeing and regulating our National Institutions have a huge responsibility. Not only do they need to ensure that the organisations which they regulate operate in integrity and in the best interest of their clients, meaning members of the public, but they themselves have to operate in integrity.

This has not been the case over the past few years. The Independent Committee on Standards in Public life who are responsible for the behaviour of our Politicians does not appear to have been as diligent as it should have been when it came to MP’s expenses. False claims by both Members of Parliament and the House of Lords have been widespread and only came to an end when the Daily Telegraph exposed it. The Financial Standards Authority whose regulation on the banking system failed to deal with the dishonesty in banking, left the British Tax payer bailing out financial institutions which today are still paying huge bonuses to their executives. The Press Complaints Commission and the Independent Police Complaints Commission failed to deal with the corruption of Press and Police and we have seen Editors, Senior Police Officers and Political Leaders working together to undermine normal rights to privacy. I have personal experience of Police and leaders in the education system lying to protect an agenda. I have even seen regulatory bodies such as Estyn the Welsh education inspectorate play down situations in Schools, undermining Policies which protect the rights of parents to complain about poor management and care of our children. The Care Quality Commission has the responsibility to inspect and regulate our health care systems but has buried evidence of poor standards which led to deaths and suffering of the most vulnerable within our society.

The news that the Church of England are investing “Wonga” a company which gives pay day loans at massively high rates of interest to poor families is not therefor surprising. The Church is investing in such companies for their pension funds and to make a profit. Their own regulations allow them to do so. They can invest in a company which has no more than a 25% stake in such business activities. This means that the Church of England could invest in a Company which sells arms to Tyrannical Governments, or pedal pornography as long as that company has less than 25% of their business in such activities.

We cannot say we are innocent in this because it is our generation which has allowed this behaviour to develop. It is a culture which we, born in the late 40’s 50’s and 60’s have allowed to grow. After the Second World War free speech, free will, free love and free me at the expense of others has been top of our agenda. We have sought to build up our empires, no matter how great or small leading to a situation whereby money certainly has become the root of all evil at the expense of Moral, Ethical and most of all Godly behaviour.

We have forgotten the past and have focused, not on the future to make things better for our children, but on ourselves. Christendom is no different, the Church has historically vilified Judaism as being a system of restriction and legalism, when in fact it is just the opposite. Biblical Judaism is the adherence to Gods Laws which were put in place to look after the best interests of others by releasing debts, not stealing from others, obeying Moral laws so that others are not hurt or abused. God gave us the Laws to help us live healthy good lives and told us to teach our children to do the same. Deuteronomy 6 v 7 makes it clear that we are to teach our children the Laws God gave to us. Christendom, having thrown these Laws out in favour of Grace, so that God cleanses us of all sin whether we continue to sin or not is what we now teach. Verse 5 of his passage says you shall love The Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your might. We in the Church and many within our society have changed this to read love yourselves with all our might.

We are so bound up in believing that we should love ourselves, that the messengers of the command that we should Love anyone one else, even God, any more than ourselves are the target hatred and abuse. The Jews, who recorded in the books of the Bible the evidence that there is someone greater than ourselves, a message which is abhorrent to mankind have been persecuted throughout history because of this.

Theosophist Helena Blavatsky who at the end of the 1800’s founded the Parliament of World Religions hated one particular religion, that of Judaism. She said Judaism was; “A religion of hate and malice toward everyone and everything outside itself.”

Today Israel is blessing the Nations, including the Palestinian Arabs, in medicine, |I.T, agriculture and science and yet some in Christendom have such hatred that they call Israel and occupying force by living on 1% of the Middle East. Blavastsky got it wrong, we in the nations hate and have Malice against everything which would oppose us loving ourselves rather than God.

The message that we should love God more than ourselves has caused the Jews to be hated throughout the centuries. We as Christians are called to continue to share that very same message that we should love God and our neighbour more than ourselves. This year again, Christians in summer camps across the country will hear speakers abuse Israel and will do all they can to teach our young children to hate Israel, which is opposite to the teachings of the Bible. Shouldn’t we be joining with Israel rather than trying to destroy them!  

As we have seen, the Church of England would rather invest money in a company who abuses the poor, because like many other social structures many of its leaders are not Christian and love their own pensions and comfortable lifestyle at the expense of others. In fact many in Church leadership, not only within the Church of England but within the Catholic and Charismatic Church movements love mammon more than God. They love power rather than The Power of God and love influence rather than be influenced by The Word of God. They are not living in the world as light in the darkness but have become part of the dark world. The Power of leadership has corrupted the Church as it has in society.

I will conclude now by quoting Paul who warned Timothy;

“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them”. 2 Tim 3:2-5

Michael Fryer