Crisis of Confidence. Why not, it's just a daily occurrence

Sometimes we are talking about what is commonly named, ‘crisis of confidence’. It happens in all walks of life, even myself is not immune from that. I have been a Christian for most of my life and many times I wondered what in all honesty was going on. I have read most of the Bible, and many times I wondered what sort of individual wrote such stuff. Great parts of the New Testament text seems just to be some fanciful thoughts occurring to the writer whilst sitting on the shores of Lake Galilee blinded by the rising sun in the east over the Golan Heights. I don’t want to be super critical, the Bible gives much and in particular guidance about how life ought to be. As a communicant member of a local church I get great comfort from the spiritual dimension. There has to be much more about life than just sitting drinking coffee and working, five days a week, your very b*lls of just to pay for your gas to cook the dinner. Or even just to buy enough petrol to get you and your car to work!

Crisis of confidence? Oh sure, I have one. In fact I have a few. Firstly, in the governance of the Church in Wales, having changed the parish system to something called Ministry Areas without really telling anyone why this was necessary. It just seems to have been an attempt to centralize the finances from individual churches or parishes and secondly to close those churches no longer viable. All this will be denied of course, the Church will use the same methods as central governments, deny everything and just carry on. As we know, democracy only really exists in the minds of those who think they live in a democracy. In reality all governance is plutocratic. A great word meaning a society controlled by the richest people. A plutarchy is a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income (Wikipedia). Just look at today’s Russia and there you can see a plutarchy controlled by a Mafia. Also, look at Westminster, could you say different?

Everywhere on this planet it is the same thing. Some people desire power, they obtain it, subsequently they become rich. Next you will see friends and family becoming richer as well. It is fun, isn’t it? All under the disguise of ‘We care for the people’!

Even august bodies like the Church suffers from this. The Roman Catholic Church must be one of the richest bodies on Earth. On its own it is not a terrible thing if you could say that these riches were used to alleviate poverty or hunger. Or even aid in the battle of life, medical help and proper governance of resources. Similarly with most other religious bodies. It all is about getting in the finances to support the top echelon. Once these are established and in place, other monies are then free to do a few things like financing more priests and upholding empty buildings.

But as I said, you can be critical, truthfully I don’t have the answers either. That is, if there are answers! But instead of the status quo I would like to see some real change. More realistic change. And if that means the closure of our church then so be it, I can again sit on the closest mountain top contemplating my navel. It is like history is just repeating itself!