Election 2005

I watched a couple of TV programmes on the election on BBC and UTV- they had representatives from the 4 main parties last night. I was left with the question- who is going to help us to get out of the mess we are in? Who is speaking with the voice of leadership? None of the representatives gave the impression that they were really interested in the needs of the people just in getting power for their party. I know that it is the nature of the party political system to put the party's best foor forward and to leave enough "wriggle space" as possible but do they all expect us all to believe that they are the next Messiah for Ulster/Ireland when they ignore 50% of the population? We had one party who stae their allegiance to the Good Friday Agreement but refuse to leave behind those who have their guns still in operation and so loose the spirit of the agreement if remaining faithful to the word- one wonders if the real reason is not fear of loosing votes to the more extreme party. Then there is another party who have never pledged any allegiance to the agreement yet were ready to take the departmental posts and are now sitting at tables in public with those who have not surrendered, something they said they would never do- never, never , never, and who were just a breath away from mmaking their own agreement. Then there is the party who will kick everyone out who is not of their persuasion even though some of their founding fathers were born outside of Ireland and they have refused to surrender the guns, although we are waiting for that to happen tomorrow, perhaps. And the other party who seem content in presenting themselves as decent people and spend a lot of time looking over their shoulder at the more extreme version of their views. The other programe I saw very briefly had a politician who was part of the team that produced the agrement but changed his mind at the 11th hour and much later changed parties as well. Then my mind goes to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah who looked back to the province of his birth and was humbled by the state it was in- here we had a man who turned to God in prayer and who rallied his people to the cause of re-bulding the city- who is going to re-build Belfast? Who is going to step out of the shadows and lead all the people to the throne of God? This is the time and the hour when Christian men and women need to rise up and take every opportunity to build and not destroy, to reconcile and not separate. I really do get fed up with the negative political stance and yet this is part of what we are and of this community in which we live and God has called us to be here- when Nehemiah's work was finished God re-populated the city and he did it by lot!!! Where are the people, the good evangelical Christians who are radical enough to take their turn to live in the inter-face areas of this divided city so that it becomes less divided? Where are the people fighting over who will take up the privelige of doing this work which no one but the people of God can do? If the local church is the hope of the world- God's hope at that- where are the people of hope on the Shankill Road and on the Crumlin Road and on the Falls Road? Where are they?