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Dear friends,
One of the most beautiful pictures of an ideal society that the Bible paints puts the old and the young inn the foreground: 'Men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets... each with cane in hand because of his age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.' Zechariah 8; 4,5
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Part of a pastor's work is to visit elderly people in 'homes'. I may change my mind if and when the time arrives but over many years I have fomed the resolution: you will never get me into one of those. it is not necessarily that the conditions are bad and staff uncaring. But living a bit recklessly (and so, hopefully, a bit shorter) seems preferable to dying slowly of terminal boredom, stuck in front of a never ending communal television set. I don't think I will want to be separated almost 24 hours a day from everyone and everything that might make life seem interesting and make me feel useful and wanted.
Perhaps we should think less of whether the old folk are safe (for our peace of mind) than happy (for theirs). There must be a better way of enabling the elderly to be interested, involved, wanted and loved - whether in or out of a 'home' - than almost everything I have observed over the last 30 years.
At the other end of the age scale, the human embryology and fertilisation bill reminds us that some 500 abortions are carried out in Britain every working DAY. Almost all of these for social not medical reasons. These are genuinely difficult questions about when exactly an individual human life begins. Nevertheless it is hard not to be shocked by the way we assume the right to terminate so many developing lives for such (usually) slight reasons, often well into a pregnancy.
A society can be judged by the way it treats the defenceless old and young. Given our ongoing record, should there be international protests against the Olympics being held in Britain in 2012?
We Christians could face up to our duty to influence public opinion as far as possible. And, of course, we ourselves should show maximum consideration to those who are weak.
Yours in Christ's service,
Mike
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