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Feeling Safe
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PB+ ResourcesTHEOLOGICAL REFLECTION ON THEME 1 OF THE PROTECTIVE BEHAVIOURS PROCESS"We all have the right to feel safe all of the time" Nowhere does the Bible guarantee physical safety in every aspect of life and neither does the Protective Behaviours process. However, the latter makes the distinction between feeling safe and being safe. Perhaps the very concept of feeling safe needs deeper exploration from a Christian standpoint, since I suspect that many members of the public, including those from a Christian background, backed by Government policies and initiatives would not be content with the right to feel safe, asserting that they have the right to be safe. Personal safety is a concern in our society and it's important to have a balanced attitude, rather than swing between the extremes of paranoia and irresponsibility. This is the position advocated in the Protective Behaviours process. In the Bible there is a tension about the safety of children between the ideal and the pragmatic. Whilst there are strands which stress the view that children are a gift from God to be cherished, nurtured and protected, there are other texts illustrating that sometimes innocent children get caught up in tragic events like everyone else and that at times they can be wilful and bring disaster upon themselves. Similarly there are strands of teaching originating in Deuteronomy suggesting that if from their earliest years a person keeps the commandments and obeys the rules, then they will prosper and be blessed with a long life and material goods. A reading of the books of Job and Ecclesiastes can give another viewpoint, suggesting that suffering afflicts the upright and that all too often the wicked escape unscathed! Throughout the Old and the New Testaments, there are striking stories and images suggesting that whilst the faithful are not guaranteed physical safety, their security comes from the knowledge that in the end they will be vindicated by God. In the literature of the Exile and the books that form the Apocrypha, the people are exhorted to remain steadfast in their devotion to God despite their desperate circumstances. Isaiah is given this word of encouragement for the anxious, "Be strong, fear not, your God is coming with judgment, coming with judgment to save you." Some of the stories handed down to us from the Hebrew Scriptures demonstrate that the people of God suffered greatly and a number chose death rather than surrender their beliefs. From such reading we may deduce that faith in the living God becomes the place of ultimate safety in adversity. Indeed, one strong image from the psalms and the prophets is that of being held in the palm of God's hand, an image of love, safety and protection. In what way might a Christian talk of such belief as engendering a feeling of safety? Perhaps it can only make sense to us in the context of Jesus' teaching. In John's Gospel there is a long discourse at supper on the night that Jesus is arrested. It draws together a number of threads of Jesus' teaching and echoes may be found in the other Gospels. Jesus makes it clear that the path of the disciples will not be an easy one, involving hatred, expulsion from the synagogue, persecution and death - hardly a recipe for feeling safe at all times! Yet in the course of the evening Jesus says, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." The Book of Acts and the New Testament letters bear witness to the resurrection life the disciples and the first Christians enjoyed, in spite of all that the Establishment of the day could throw at them. Clearly, faith in Jesus Christ gave them a sense of security which was greater than anything else. Though our context is not one of overt persecution or oppression, for some of our children and young people being identified as a Christian might mean taunting or other forms of bullying. Similarly for adults in the workplace facing ethical dilemmas, it might mean that this sense of being held in God's love could be equated with the Protective Behaviours concept of feeling safe, even when physically unsafe. In the past, especially during the great persecutions of the Roman era, such a feeling could be used as a pretext for irresponsible behaviour by those who deliberately sought martyrdom. There may be a danger of a Christian holding so lightly to life that personal safety is compromised on a regular basis and their witness compromised. Such behaviour is not evident in the life of Jesus, nor of the early leaders of the Church, like Peter and Paul. The Gospels tell how on more than one occasion Jesus escaped from the threat of physical violence, because of reactions to his teaching, by walking away. There is a sense in which he was protected by his authority and because his hour, or time, had not yet come - a phrase in John's Gospel which can be taken to indicate divine protection; or the powerlessness of the religious authorities to act until the appointed moment. When the hour eventually came in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus forbade the disciples to resist his arrest, because he saw it as part of God's plan: the tree of shame is to become the cross of glory where the Christ is enthroned. Paradoxically from the standpoint of Protective Behaviours, our hope and salvation derive from the passion and crucifixion - the ultimate unsafe place. Similarly in the Book of Acts we hear of occasions when Peter and Paul escape life-threatening situations by the power of God, until such time as they are assured that arrest and possible death are to be to the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom. The general picture is of a group of disciples and believers at peace despite the fulfilment of all that Jesus predicted. Therefore we might conclude that faith in Christ does not lift the follower out of trouble in this world, but it does give the believer a different perspective on events, especially when they involve danger and attack arising from that faith when it threatens the status quo. In a sense, conflict is inevitable because Gospel values are countercultural, but in the disciples' actions, which mirror the actions of Jesus himself, it is possible to find the seeds of what has become known as the passive resistance movement popularized in modern history by Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King. In terms of Protective Behaviours this is expressed in the statement, "Violence is never an acceptable way to solve problems." It could be said that aspects of the Protective Behaviours process have counter cultural overtones too, since they also seek to challenge and change a culture of violence and abuse. However, there is something of a paradox here, for as has been noted above, whilst we may wish to eschew violence in all its forms, one of the central tenets of the Christian faith asserts that the atonement was effected by the violent death of the sinless Son of God. According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus tended to meet conflict with vigorous debate, teaching about the nature of the kingdom and a refusal to take the path of armed struggle. The only recorded occasion on which Jesus could be construed to have used violence was during the episode of the cleansing of the Temple. Here Jesus is filled with righteous indignation at those whose stalls were erected in such a way in the Temple courts that they were depriving the blind, the lame and perhaps the Gentiles of the possibility of gaining access for worship. Mark and Matthew record the incident simply in terms of driving out all who were trading, overturning the tables of the money-changers and declaring the Temple to be a house of prayer rather than a den of robbers. Luke omits the overturning of the tables, whereas John has the most graphic account of all, in that he describes Jesus as making a whip out of cords, using it to drive all from the Temple area, then scattering the coins before overturning the tables. Zeal is the motive attributed to Jesus by the disciples. Does this mean that on this occasion he abandoned his principles, or is there a deeper principle at work, one which has implications for the way we approach the Protective Behaviours process? In the Old Testament, zeal can carry the connotation of God's jealous concern for Israel and its welfare: the whip or scourge a symbol of God's judgment. Both judgment and the ultimate welfare of the people are inextricably linked and are consistent with the holiness of God, which calls for obedience to the commandments. God's holiness finds corruption and disobedience intolerable, so judgment must follow unless there is repentance. Whilst God's judgment may be viewed negatively, in fact it can be a positive event, for the same holiness that brings judgment also brings the hope of restoration and new life. This can be illustrated by the way in which the prophets deliver a warning of impending judgment because of breaches in the covenant. However once that judgment has been executed they are called to preach a new message. In Jeremiah it is a promise of newness; in Ezekiel hope; in Isaiah all things are possible with God. Such is the paradox surrounding the holiness of God that both judgment and welfare are held in perfect tension. In New Testament terms this can be understood in the light of Easter: there can be no resurrection without the cross; no salvation for broken humanity without God's righteous judgment. Anything else would be cheap grace, to borrow a phrase from Dietrich Bonhöffer. One of Bonhöffer's concerns was that Christians acknowledge the true cost of grace and therefore not presume upon it. For him, repentance, confession, discipline and discipleship are hallmarks of the Christian life lived under the daily gift of costly grace. Such awareness can be seen as indicative of true humility. In the Old Testament this might be known as walking in the fear of the Lord. In this context, it is not a fear that paralyses, rather it means reverence, or an awesome awareness that opens the believer to both heed and respond to the initiative of God. Jesus Ben Sira, following Jewish tradition, equated this fear of the Lord with wisdom, which is a gift of God leading to discipline which in turn leads to the keeping of the Lord's commandments. In New Testament teaching, this fear of the Lord is understood as a stimulus to the pursuit of holiness and a reflection of one's attitude to others. In both the Old and the New Testaments there is a sense in which the believer is overcome by a sense of insufficiency in the presence of the awesome Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of the universe. C.S. Lewis wrote "Servile fear is, to be sure, the lowest form of religion. But a god such that there could never be occasion for even servile fear, a safe god, a tame god, soon proclaims himself to any sound mind as a fantasy." A.W. Tozer stated, "To fear and not to be afraid - that is the paradox of faith." Thus holy fear is an inescapable feature of the Christian life, an essential counterbalance to the sin of presumption. Rather than being restrictive and life denying, walking in the fear of the Lord can be liberating, facilitating a change in life-style and behaviour as God's values and priorities are taken on board. In his actions in the Temple courts, Jesus appears to demonstrate the need for God's people to walk in the fear of the Lord, to have regard for God's holiness that all may have access to the Almighty. Let us not forget that his righteous anger was directed towards those who should have known better. The message regarding the Kingdom of God has been accepted by those on the edge of society, but rejected by the religious authorities. Because the latter have not repented, therefore judgment follows. In a symbolic act, the Temple is cleared and in the Gospel accounts there follows healing of the blind and lame, teaching and miraculous signs . Jesus' actions seem to indicate that when the occasion demands it, when all other avenues have failed, God will use drastic measures and that may include the use of force. God's love is a tough love; a love that has the ultimate welfare of the people of God at heart. To deny this aspect of the divine nature could be seen as an attempt to domesticate God Whilst the Protective Behaviours process recognises righteous anger as a safe emotion or motivation to work towards a better world, such an idea contrasts quite starkly with the underlying philosophy of its originator. Peg West is credited with teaching that "feeling safe is our communal birthright, and that each one of us can play a part in interrupting violence to bring about a safer world," which sounds like an appeal to an Eden-like existence. From a Christian perspective, humanity forfeited that birthright through disobedience to God's holy will ; the cycle of sin and violence has been broken only by the blood of Christ shed on the cross and the powerful witness of his resurrection from the dead . Failure to recognise the atonement in any work with Protective Behaviours could lead to the mistaken assumption that humanity can achieve personal and corporate change in its own strength, rather than in the power of God the Holy Spirit working through our redeemed humanity. For a Christian, salvation by works alone is not possible and without our acknowledgment of Gospel values, the Protective Behaviours process could be seen in the parishes as just another secular humanist tool trying to effect social change, albeit from the best of motives. In conclusion, there are aspects of Theme 1 "We all have the right to feel safe all of the time" which do not square immediately with Christian theology. God as a safe place, a haven is a strong biblical image, yet we cannot deny that God also has the capacity to make us feel uncomfortable and unsafe, especially when asking us to risk stepping out in faith. However, it may be that the Protective Behaviours strategy called Risking on Purpose could provide the key both to how Christians live out their faith in a hostile or indifferent world, and to how we sometimes approach our encounter with God. There is a risk, but we trust that the height, breadth and depth of God's love mean that the risk is for good, in terms of our witness to the world and our encounter with the living God. If we were to turn this strategy of Risking on Purpose around and try look at it from God's perspective, we could explore a strong strand in the theological and spiritual tradition to support the proposition that God risks on purpose: for example, in creation; in the incarnation; in the atonement; in giving humanity free will. In addition, it may be possible to explore and illustrate as many of the Protective Behaviours principles as possible from what we attribute to the nature and life of God. It could be a very compelling theological starting point that our behaviour, welfare and fulfilment are best developed as we learn to imitate and then to live God's life, as revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Thus, our vocation and pattern as Christians is the divine life made manifest in Christ and our flourishing is served by growing into the life of God. Digesting these ideas will take time and your reflections to add to the discussion will be most welcome. Andrew Pattman |
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