This quiet animal is seldom in the news unless, like humans, it has been accused of something wrong! It was with a sense of relief from all the reports of human ills that I seized upon an article in today’s paper on our native nocturnal species. Written by a local naturalist its secret life was revealed.

Apparently our badger is different from our English neighbour’s badgers. The latter come from central Europe whereas ours are of Italian or Spanish origin.

According to the researches of University College Cork we have 84,000 and the average family size is 3.9 badgers. That would be about right for the family resident in our garden who are regularly visited by our collie, Holly. She has enlarger both entrances to the sett, perhaps hoping to catch a sight of that 0.9 badger!

We also have a badger hotel in a field appropriately called “Badger Burrows” The underlying rock is tufa, a calcified limestone, ideal for tunnelling and gives good drainage. These tufa dwellers have co-existed with us for many years without a trace of tuberculosis. However this has not prevented annual culls in selected areas of up to 7,000 badgers.

These shy animals come out at dusk and shuffle around grubbing for food. Our local family has enjoyed digging out wasps nests that are concealed in the grass banks of the farm road. The grub filled nests are a delicacy which their sting proof noses can enjoy.

I am sure they would be partial to truffles – C.S. Lewis evidently thought so as he named his heroic badger “Trufflehunter” in Prince Caspian, in the Chronicles of Narnia.

Badgers made there way into the Bible. They were valued for their skins which were used in the Tabernacle as part of the coverings. The Tabernacle was where God met with his redeemed people. It was replaced by Christ in whose Name there is now redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So don’t be like the badgers that shuffle around in the dark but put your complete trust in Christ. “He (Jesus) rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians chapter 1 verse 13/14)

An air of respectability has grown up around the two best know American belief systems that have crossed the Atlantic. Indeed the contender for the US Presidency is a Mormon and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are now well established in Ireland.

The latter were in the news this week for all the wrong reasons.

A child abuse case in California was successfully taken against an abuser in one of their congregations. Unusually the victim did not settle for an out of court cash settlement. This led to the revealing of the flawed procedures JW’s have used for many years. They are:

1. The 2 witness rule whereby the victims story is dismissed unless it can be collaborated by a second witness. The likelihood of this ever happening in cases of child abuse is almost zero.

2. The local congregation Elders must report each occurrence to the JW’s Branch Office who then apply the 2 witness rule ending the proceedings.

The Court did not like these procedures and awarded the victim, now aged 26, (who had resisted the temptation of an out of court settlement so these matters could be brought out into the open) compensation of $7 million and punitive damages against the JW’s of $21 million.

If the verdict is sustained on appeal it is likely this case will open the floodgates to further trials. As always considerable courage is required in both the victim and the victim’s family who may be dis-fellowshipped and cast out of the organisation.

What does the Bible say about these things?

Early in the Bible a rule was introduced for capital offences requiring the evidence to be confirmed by two or three people. Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 6.

The JW’s misinterpretation of the text has led to it being used to silence cases of abuse leading to the Court awarding the highest amount of punitive damages ever made against a religious organisation.

In the trial of Jesus the witnesses gave false testimony but could not get their made-up stories to agree! In the end the High Priest took matters into his own hands in order to pronounce the “guilty” verdict. St Mark chapter 14 verses 56/64. The Religious were in a struggle to preserve their way of life. If Jesus had been allowed to continue doing miracles everyone would believe in him and the Romans would step in and their jobs would be gone. St John Chapter 11 verses 45/48. As one of them put it, speaking wiser words than he knew, “It would be good if one man died for the people”.

It is Jesus substitutionary death for repentant sinners that is the only hope for JW’s, their victims, you and me when we meet him on judgement day.

Trust him – he loves you.

As one commentator said the morning after the fateful defeat by Spain – “No-one died!” True supporters of the game would not have been comforted by this as they recalled Bill Shankly’s immortal words, “Football is not a matter of life or death; it’s far more serious than that.”

To have progressed through all the qualifying stages was no mean feat. Hopes ran high perhaps blinding us to the strength of the opposition in our Group. The only thing we had in common with our Spanish masters was the refrain Olé, Olé Olé – Olé, Olé. It had lifted the nation back in the campaign of 1990 but now the Spaniards reclaimed it.

All we were left with was “The Fields of Athenry”. It’s hauntingly beautiful melody alleviated some of the misery of the evening in Gdansk. Fortunately the words, which evoke memories of famine, starvation and deportation on a prison ship, were largely indecipherable. For many the prospect of exile to Botany Bay may have seemed a better option than facing the Italians next week!

But it’s not the end of the world it just feels like it!

The disciples of Jesus knew all about disillusionment. Their Leader lay dead in the grave and with Him lay all their hopes and dreams.

As one of them put it, “We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.” St Luke Chapter 24 verse 21.

What he didn’t understand was that these hopes had been realised and that the one he was speaking to was the risen Christ!

Redemption had been completed. “It is finished” St John Chapter 19 verse 30 was the victory shout of a conqueror not the “I am finished” of a failure. These words, uttered from the cross, proclaimed forever that salvation was completed. Christ had conquered. The rebellion and disobedience of his people had been atoned for. The way had been made for repentant sinners to become part of that multitude in heaven and earth that follow Jesus.

As the poet put it:

My chains fell off, my heart was free;

I rose, went forth and followed Thee.

Followers of the Irish Soccer Team may have to wait for some time before their day returns but need not hinder them from looking to Jesus, whose time is now. Put your faith in him.

We had a good example of something we all do from a member of our parliament this week. He had fiddled his tax and confessed before it became public. Except it wasn’t his tax, he himself was tax compliant, but his limited liability company (of which he is the sole director and CEO) that had the problem.

It really wasn’t done to defraud the Revenue, he always intended to pay the VAT back, but was a temporary arrangement to keep his 60 builders at work. It was the banks who wanted him to stop work on an apartment block before it was finished.

As he had taken deposits from the future owners he used the money to finished the building but the bank then took the money he obtained as sales were completed leaving nothing to pay the tax-man’s €1.4 million bill. As the recession bit deeper the last 10 apartments didn’t sell so there was nothing left in the kitty.

Then there were the sub-contractors and the problems over the workers pension contributions to be taken into account. To cap it all another of his banks got a €19.4 million judgement against him which prevented him (mercifully) from getting any more work.

However on the plus side he was elected to the Dail last year and was a substantial benefactor of Wexford Youths Football Club.

Paying tax has always been looked upon as an irksome chore. “Pay As You Earn” was invented to make the employer extract the money at source and avoid the hassle of dealing with taxpayers direct. For the self employed the tax return becomes a battleground for the conscience which is often defeated! Witness the reluctance in paying the recently imposed household charge.

Interestingly our builder/member of the Dail asked the rhetorical question, “Who’s fit to be a public representative? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I tried to be as honest as I could”.

While it is always good to hear Scripture being quoted the context in which the words were said needs to be taken into account. They were uttered by Jesus to the men who were accusing the woman who they had caught in the act of adultery.

When spoken by the builder it is as if they were said by the sinful woman as she tried to justify herself!

In reality, saying sorry is often ambiguous. He was sorry apartments were not sold; sorry he was found out before the Revenue could be repaid etc.

Repentance, on the other hand, as shown in the Bible by that other tax cheat, Zacchaeus was followed by action in repaying those he had wronged four times over (St Luke Chapter 19 verses 8/10). Jesus recognised the faith that prompted the action and proclaimed that salvation had come to Zacchaeus that day.

Being found out is painful but can be the best thing that ever happened to you if it leads to repentance and faith in Jesus the only one who can justify a sinner.

Few can resist telling the story of their brush with monarchy. It might have only a glimpse of the monarch passing in a car but there seems to be some innate attraction to the institution which is the secret envy of republicans and a source of quiet pride in her subjects!

My own engagement with Her Majesty was more of a near miss! Some of us had been climbing on Lochnagar, a mountain on the Queen’s Balmoral Estate in Scotland, and were returning to the car park at the head of Loch Muick. I cannot remember how we got separated but the others went down the wrong track and arrived at Glas-allt Shiel, a royal hunting lodge, where the Queen and her party were having tea on the lawn. They were invited to join in which they gladly accepted! A case of the right road being the wrong one for the rest of us!

There will be a right British knees up over the next 4 days during which the Queen at age 86 and Prince Philip age 90 will probably wish they were at Glas-allt Shiel at the head of Loch Muick! However, with the stamina they always display, they will do their stuff in a right royal way.

Of course, over the years, the power has been drained from the monarchy. The Queen is largely a figurehead, subject to her parliament and regularly threatened with cuts to her income that would confine her to Buckingham Palace. However there is a subtle power which is unique. It appears in places like the honours lists as many clamber for a piece of the fame which creates its own attraction of a hierarchy coveted by the ambitious.

There is also something untouchable in the royal line. If you are not born into it you are not a candidate! There is nothing you can do about it. The heir to the throne is not elected, bought or earned. It is a birthright.

“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” The Magi’s question, recorded in Matthew chapter 2 verse 2 left King Herod in no doubt but that a new royal line had been formed. His reaction to Jesus Christ’s arrival on earth was in complete contrast to the Magi. Herod saw Him as a threat and wanted to do away with Him. The Magi believed He was the Messiah and wanted to worship Him.

The world is still in these two camps today. Do you want to get rid of Him or do you want to praise Him as your (new) birthright? There is no middle ground.

The hymnwriter catches a glimpse of King Jesus: –

“You seed of Israel’s chosen race,

You ransomed from the fall.

Hail Him who saves you by His grace,

And crown Him Lord of all.”

Not that anyone would these days but her schooling was marred by it. Now at 26 as a Pop-star with the most twitter followers, she was at Harvard University recently inaugurating her Foundation aimed at tackling bullying.

During her teens she recalls, “I was called really horrible, profane names very loudly in front of huge crowds of people, and my schoolwork suffered at one point,” she said. “I didn’t want to go to class and I was a straight A student. There was a certain point in my high school years where I just couldn’t focus on class because I was so embarrassed all the time. I was so ashamed of who I was.”

Whilst a trip to the Principal’s office may sort out physical harassment we now have 24/7 mental harassment by text messaging.

Bullying is usually carried out by a pack of cowards who can extend their school-time chorus of abuse by texting their victim in the evening, at weekends and even on holidays. It’s one thing to say, “Switch your phone off and ignore the emails” but knowing that profanity-laden messages about you are being broadcast to others multiplies the stress.

Bullies not only do damage to others but are damaged people themselves.

The “Sermon on the Plain” in Luke’s gospel records Jesus’ words, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also.” The passage concludes with the “Golden Rule” Do to others as you would have them do to you. Chapter 6 verses 27/29 & 31.

Bullies and those they bully need to hear this as the ultimate solution.

Turning the other cheek assumes that you have the choice of non-retaliation. If this is not present boundaries need to be introduced to first check the abusive behaviour.

How we view each other needs to be revised. When Lady Gaga was thrown into a trash can the boys who did it left her in no doubt as to what they thought of her.

Conversion to Christ changes how we look at each other from checking out the biceps and brains to seeing others as uniquely made in the image of God.

As St Paul wrote,

“From now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” The old way of thinking has been replaced making reconciliation a possibility. Or as St Paul put it “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2Corinthians chapter 5 verses 16-18).

It all starts with trusting Christ instead of self and a commitment to follow him for the rest of your life.

In an article under the heading “Bible not the rule book on gay marriage” the Journalist poured scorn on Archbishop Diarmuid Martin quoting from Genesis.

In response to a question, sparked from Obama’s declaration in favour of gay marriage, as to what his view might be he replied, “the church’s teaching on the sanctity of marriage between man and woman was clear, unchangeable and dated from the biblical account in the Book of Genesis of Adam and Eve”.

This answer was not to Vincent Browne’s liking and he proposed using “arguments based on principles that we presume all agree upon, such as freedom of speech, at least a minimal commitment to the idea of equality, to democratic values, to respect for others”. These he preferred to texts taken from any of the religious books of the world faiths.

He then took us on a selective tour of Genesis proving, at least to his own satisfaction, just how bad it was, or as he put it, “nowadays we would find these stories morally and politically repulsive”.

He should have read on – it gets worse! Not only does the Bible say that homosexual relationships are sinful heterosexual relationships are also sinful (Romans chapter 1 verses 26-32 and chapter 3 verse 10). Marriage provides a safe place for the latter but also a place where the truth of the Genesis chapter 3’s conflict over roles is worked out in ways where sin is not always absent. Marriage breakdown is a witness to this fact.

Our problems cannot be solved by legislation. The law simply adds more prohibitions to curb human traits. Browne’s principles sound fine till you realise that they are seldom displayed in any of the TV programme which he chairs!

None of us are able to maintain our own standards. Our problems go far deeper that that. It’s the heart that’s wrong. We need a love that transforms us.

Rule books don’t teach how to love. We need one who loved so much he laid down his life for even his enemies.

The hymn-writer wrote of Jesus:

In my place condemned he stood,

Paid my pardon with his blood

Hallelujah what a Saviour.

And who by his Holy Spirit is capable of drawing the most unlikely ones to himself even arrogant journalists and egotistical bloggers!

Obama has come out! His thinking has evolved. Gay marriage is OK.

No longer will Gay’s have to be content with Civil Unions they will become old married couples like the rest of us.

Except they wont be like the rest of us. They will all be “DINKS” – double income, no kids. That is unless they resort to donors or technology to overcome nature’s impediment.

Now since the beginning Marriage has had a certain meaning which predated the fall of man. It has meant the union of one man and one woman in a lifetime monogamous relationship. Sadly the ideal has not always been achieved. In the Western world we have been quite determined to see it destroyed. It has that God-given quality so hated by many in the media and by people who want to misbehave. Anything which may resemble the image of the triune God must go. The race to the bottom cannot be hindered…talk about society shooting itself in the foot!

The next step is to shred the meaning of the word “Marriage”. We will not change our behaviour therefore the word must be changed. We now enter Alice in Wonderland country. The Red Queen told Alice that she made words mean what she wanted them to mean no more and no less. 

So the President of the US of A joins the mad-hatter at the tea-party!

What has the Bible to say to all this?

“It is not good for man to be alone” (Genesis chapter 2 verse 18) so God created a companion in a woman. They were to be united with each other.

In the church setting this covenant of companionship is entered into by the taking of vows before God. This establishes the marriage.

Genesis Chapter 3 speaks of children as the product of the marriage and of the different roles for the parents. These latter points are developed by St Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus where they are explained more fully and where he likens the relationship in marriage to that of Christ’s relationship to the church (chapter 5 verses 22-33).

From this high ideal we are now receding at a rate of knots!

What are we to do? Are we like the men of the tribe of Issachar who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do? (1Chronicles Chapter 12 verse 32) or are we to do nothing?

I suggest we take our cue from St Paul where, at Corinth, he must have met similar circumstances. His reaction? “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (chapter 2 verse 2).

Our calling is “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks (in our case Catholics and Protestants) Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (chapter 1 verses 23/4).

What do you call a decent man who is caught up in sins committed 37 years ago? – Seán Brady. It’s impossible not to feel sympathy for him as he is hounded by the media to the very door of his cathedral.

In any other situation resignation would clear the air, give a modicum of satisfaction to the abused and put in place someone who was not a “lame duck” or “wounded healer”, the description preferred by the Cardinal. But not in these circumstances.

Part of the trouble lies in the term “religious” used to distinguish those in church office from the laity. There is a `forever` element to their appointments. The higher up the tree you go the more forever it gets! Voluntary resignation is not an option. The very idea of resignation hints at a mistake having been made in the ordination process clashing with the notion of infallibility which surrounds the procedure.

So the decent man cannot retire at 73 but must continue with a coadjutor Bishop to run the show till the changeover can be made in Rome’s time.

Such is the lot of those with a high profile while the real villains, the Norbertine Order, whose duty it was to deal with the paedophile priest in question, manage to stay out of trouble.

Such are the ways of man.

What does the Bible have to say?

“Put not your trust in princes” the Psalmist advises in Psalm 146 verse 3 and that would include princes of the church. The psalmist goes on to say that mortal men cannot save – salvation comes from the Lord (Jonah chapter 2 verse 9).

The problems arise when we are attracted to those who appear to be in authority; because they are attractive! They look the part.

I once shared a hotel room with a priest who described himself, when decked in his robes, as an alter Christ. He certainly looked impressive although his disobedient dog, who shared the room with us, showed something less than respect!

Jeremiah was well aware of how easily we are seduced away from faith in the invisible God to faith in men or objects we can see. In Chapter 17 verses 5 & 7 he tells it like it is, “Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” And the contrast, “But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him”.

Let’s give the last word to St Peter, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts chapter 4 verse 12). And that name is Jesus who alone is worthy of our trust.

Chuck Colson otherwise known as President Richard Nixon’s “hatchet-man” died last Saturday. His comparatively long life was split into two halves by his conversion to Christ in 1973.

Prior to ’73 he had moved through the worlds of business and politics with a ruthlessness which earned him a reputation for “getting things done”. As one of Nixon’s inner circle his duties entailed listing and dealing with the President’s political opponents. He was described as an “evil genius of an evil administration” who would run over his grandmother to have Nixon re-elected.

The “Watergate” investigation into leaks of classified information brought to light the tape recordings of many conversations which had not been deleted from the White House computer system. These were of an incriminating nature and Colson was the first of Nixon’s henchmen to be imprisoned.

Faced with the enormity of the revelations he repented of his guilt – in his own words, “I got into my car and found myself in the grip of the spiritual crisis which led to my conversion. This so-called White House hatchet man, ex-Marine captain, was crying too hard to get the keys into the ignition; I sat there for a long time that night deeply convicted of my own sin.”

It was during his trial that a friend gave him a copy of S C Lewis’s “Mere Christianity” which he read and committed his life to Christ. When he publicly testified to the change Christ had made, the press were hostile reckoning it was a ploy to lessen his sentence!

In prison he saw the injustice of the “lock ‘um and leave ‘um” approach to criminal justice.

When he was released he said he would devote the rest of his life to Christian work.

In 1976, he founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, which delivers the message of redemption to thousands of prison inmates and their families. The faith based programme has cut the re-offending rate by 66%.

In 1983, he established Justice Fellowship and by the end of the 1990s, Colson had become a leading voice in the evangelical political movement, with books and a syndicated radio broadcast. He helped form a conservative coalition of leaders from the Republican Party, the Protestant evangelical community and the Catholic Church. The Catholics and the evangelicals joined forces in fights over abortion rights and religious freedom, among other issues.

Colson taught a Christian world view to millions through his books, daily radio broadcasts, public speaking and the Colson Center. He spoke out on the rise of moral relativism and the breakdown of ethics in our culture. Only 2 years ago he started the weekly Two-Minute Warning page at ColsonCenter.org calling the Church to action.

Colson’s experience presents us with a high profile view of the reality of Christian conversion put simply by Jesus “you must be born again” St John Chapter 3 Verse 7.

Another case of “Well done you good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master” (St Matthew chapter 25 verse 23).