Malcolm Muggeridge - Jesus Rediscovered

This post has been written by Greg Thiele, an Associate of CASE and a regular contributor to the CASE blog

Malcolm Muggeridge was one of those extraordinary individuals whose thought and writings cast a spotlight on many of the concerns and issues of their age. For Muggeridge, the age in question was the twentieth century. He lived through most it (1903 – 1990), and given his various roles (writer, journalist, editor, soldier-spy and media commentator, among others), was perfectly positioned to record and comment on the events, trends and follies of that momentous passage of human history.

Muggeridge was born in London, the son of a Labour politician, and his own early political leanings were decidedly left wing. He was brought up, he later wrote, to believe in the religion of the age: utopianism, and one of his early ideological flirtations was with Soviet Communism. In 1932, having been employed as a freelance journalist by the Manchester Guardian, Muggeridge and his wife, Kitty, settled in Moscow, with a view to living there permanently. It didn’t take long for disillusionment with the Soviet system to set in – the start of a gradual shift away from a belief in the politics of the left as the great way forward for humanity.

During World War II, Muggeridge was active in the British Secret Service. After the cessation of hostilities, he worked as journalist or editor on a number of British newspapers and magazines. In due course he became active in the electronic media as a radio and television commentator.

In his early and middle adult years, Muggeridge achieved a reputation as a drinker and womaniser. This began to change in the 1960s, however, as his writings and other pronouncements revealed a growing commitment to the ideas and ideals of Christianity. Having earlier claimed to be an agnostic, Muggeridge, from the early ‘60s onwards, produced a collection of books, essays and other writings affirming his faith in Christ. Increasingly, Muggeridge came to express contempt for what he saw as the spiritual barrenness of contemporary thought and life, particularly as exemplified in the popular culture and mores of the day, and for ideas of human progress in general. In so doing, he made himself widely unpopular – not least with many leaders of the British religious establishment.

Malcolm Muggeridge defies easy categorisation. While left-leaning politically early in life, and then becoming disillusioned with the socialist agenda for human betterment, to say that he moved progressively to the right is a misconception. He had a deep-seated disbelief in all human agendas, including the attempts to create a “kingdom of heaven on earth” with which the twentieth century was littered. He was, therefore, a man out of step with his times in early adulthood, yet can be seen as having been prophetic in his dismissal of such agendas, as the various attempts to create economic and social utopias came to their (mostly ignominious) ends late in the century; or only managed to stay upright by means of fierce suppression of human rights.

In terms of his religious beliefs, too, Muggeridge is not easy to pin down. In his essay 'Am I a Christian?' he comes to the conclusion that the answer to the question depends on one’s definition of “Christian”. On the one hand, he considered himself enormously privileged to be counted among certain of his heroes (the “small, sublime band” as he often referred to them: writers and thinkers such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Bunyan, Pascal, William Blake and Simone Weil). Yet if it meant being lumped in with, for instance, most of the leading figures of the Church of England of his day, he was delighted not to be associated with such people even in name!

'Jesus Rediscovered' was published - a collection of essays and other pieces (the title being derived from Muggeridge’s feeling that in some sense he had always belonged to Jesus, but had for most of his life resisted His call). Muggeridge described the content as “the effort of one ageing twentieth-century mind to give expression to a deep dissatisfaction with prevailing twentieth-century values and assumptions, and a sense that there is an alternative – an alternative propounded two thousand years ago by the Sea of Galilee and on the hill called Golgotha”.

The form that “expression of dissatisfaction” took was often highly critical (albeit extremely witty). Science he saw as the “particular fantasy” of his age. “A seventeenth-century man like Pascal”, he wrote, “though himself a mathematician and scientist of genius, found it quite ridiculous that anyone should suppose that rational processes could lead to any ultimate conclusions about life, but easily accepted the authority of the Scriptures. With us it is the other way round”.

The spirit of protest that burned so strongly in the ‘60s received short shrift from Muggeridge: “Public benevolence can never be a substitute for private virtue; it is more important, and more difficult, to check one outburst of temper, however trivial, than to engage in any number of public demonstrations against collective brutality and injustice”.

Institutional Christianity, by and large, did not fare a great deal better. The Church of England of his day he saw as being so ineffectual as to be little more than a joke; and upon the notion of ecumenicalism he heaped scorn. In the essay 'Consensianity', written after a visit to the World Council of Churches at Uppsala, Sweden, in 1968, Muggeridge noted that “the most vital elements in the Christian story have…derived from dissidence, rather than agreement – St Francis, Ignatius Loyola, Luther, Pascal, Wesley, Kierkegaard, etc. At Uppsala…they were able to agree about almost anything because they believed almost nothing”.

The churches – in the West, at least – had concentrated on their social responsibilities while ignoring the spiritual, Muggeridge felt. In so doing, they had effectively signed their own death warrant: by proclaiming that a better world was worth seeking, and indeed attainable, they couldn’t fail to be involved in the subsequent disillusionment when it turned out not to be the case. The language of mysticism and transcendentalism, on the other hand, “had ceased to be comprehensible”.

Are Muggeridge’s thought and writing relevant for us today? Thirty or more years since the bulk of his literary output was published, a certain amount of what he had to say has no doubt lost a measure of relevance. Nevertheless, there is much, I believe, that will repay rereading – or reading for the first time – by Christians now; for at the centre of Muggeridge’s message, from first to last, is the person of Christ, and his Kingdom which, ultimately, is “not of this world” (John 18:36).

Muggeridge saw life in terms of an endless drama between the competing forces of the Will and the Imagination. Out of the Imagination come love, understanding and goodness; out of the Will: lust, hatred and power. Those belonging to the former will be saints, mystics and artists; to the latter belong power maniacs, rulers and demagogues. Muggeridge saw these two forces as struggling for mastery in each individual soul. In a piece called 'Credo', he writes: “One is of darkness and one of light; one wants to drag us down into the dark trough to rut and gorge there, and the other to raise us up into the azure sky, beyond appetite, where love is all-embracing, all encompassing…”.

For Muggeridge, the Christian religion “has expressed this ancient…dichotomy in terms of breath-taking simplicity and sublimity…I believe, as is written in the New Testament, that if we would save our lives we must lose them; that we cannot live by bread alone; that we must die in the flesh to be reborn in the spirit…”.

Like many of his famous exemplars, Muggeridge had an unorthodox understanding of the gospel. He described himself as a “theological ignoramus”, and expressed impatience with, or even indifference to, creeds and dogma of all kinds. Despite the unconventional nature of his beliefs, however, it is possible to see Muggeridge as someone whom God used in shaping a message for his times, and ours.

For those of a naturally skeptical disposition, Malcolm Muggeridge can perhaps be seen as a kind of patron saint. While “seeing only fitfully”, and “believing no creed wholly”, he was able to say, finally, of Jesus: “At the intersection of time and eternity – nailed there – you confront us; a perpetual reminder that, living, we die and, dying, we live. An incarnation wonderful to contemplate; the light of the world, indeed”.

Some other publications by Malcolm Muggeridge

1. 'A Third Testament: A Modern Pilgrim Explores the Spiritual Wanderings of Augustine, Blake, Pascal, Tolstoy, Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, and Dostoevsky' (here).

2. 'Conversion: The Spiritual Journey of a Twentieth-Century Pilgrim' (here)

3. 'Chronicles of Wasted Time: An Autobiography' (here)

Mandela, Forgiveness & Reconciliation: A review of Invictus

Carmen and I went to see 'Invictus' on Saturday. The film is an inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with Francois Pienaar the captain of South Africa's rugby team, to try to win the 1995 World Rugby Cup and in the process to help unite South Africa. At the time rugby is hated by Black South Africans, being seen as symbolic of the all-powerful white South African culture and the oppression and violence of the past. Mandela's supporters want it stripped of its traditional colours, name and traditions. But Mandela as the new President senses that at a time of reconciliation, forgiveness and generosity must be demonstrated by everybody, including the victims of South African apartheid. As well, he believes that the Rugby World Cup could be a unifying force for the nation. The film has two overlapping plot lines, the politics of the new South Africa and the drive to win the rugby world cup. Its big themes are reconciliation, forgiveness and the quest to create a new 'Rainbow Nation'.

There is a memorable scene in the first 30 minutes of the film when Mandela's head of personal security rushes in to question the arrival of the previous President's white bodyguards as the back-up staff in response to his request for more staff. Mandela's security chief enters agitated about the situation. Mandela responds to his protests by leaving his desk and gently challenging him - wasn't he the one who requested more security staff?

Mandela says gently, "The Rainbow Nation starts here. Reconciliation starts here."

His security leader responds:

"Not long ago these guys tried to kill us."

Mandela responds, "Yes I know, forgiveness starts here. Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon."

You can view the 60-second video clip below.

I enjoyed the film a great deal. While it has more than its share of clichés and it tends to paint Mandela as a man without fault, it does offer an insight into the power of forgiveness to change the hearts and attitudes of others.

I don't want to try to claim Mandela as a warrior for Christ, but the movie is inspirational and tells a powerful story of forgiveness and reconciliation that in its own way demonstrates the expectations that Jesus places on his disciples. Reconciliation and forgiveness are obviously at the heart of the Christian gospel and the Bible teaches that above all God's forgiveness is indeed a powerful force that changes human hearts, lives and their eternal destiny. All other forms of forgiveness are in effect a pale shadow of God's grace and kindness, shown in his forgiveness of a rebellious people. God's people are meant to live lives marked by a willingness to forgive.

The parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35) is just one of many places you can go in Scripture to learn just how essential forgiveness is.

Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." (Matt 18:21-22)

Jesus is essentially saying, keep forgiving without keeping count. And of course the foundational truth that underpins his comment is that if we have received the forgiveness of God then we too should show forgiveness to others. Those who have been freed of guilt due to Jesus' sacrificial death on our behalf (Colossians 2:13-14) should be so moved with gratitude towards God that they are prepared to forgive others. Jesus of course includes this in the Lord's Prayer when he teaches his disciples to pray "and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matt 6:12).

Finally, Paul teaches us in his letter to the Colossians that the Christian lifestyle is heavily dependent on the demonstration of forgiveness (Colossians 3:12-17). When others wrong us we are called to forgive. Paul writes, "as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive" (Col 3:13).

I hope others enjoy the film. Mandela's life is inspirational and is a remarkable demonstration of forgiveness in action and the impact that it can have reconciliation. Of course, the ongoing struggles in South Africa continue to demonstrate that true transformation in people requires them to accept the forgiveness of Christ. As John the Baptist taught as he prepared the way for Jesus, all must "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt 3:2).

Holistic Approaches to Indigenous Educational Disadvantage

I wrote a blog post back in February 2008 (here) on Indigenous educational disadvantage. The post was motivated by an apology by the Prime Minister and the Australian Parliament on the 13th February 2008 that was focussed on the injustices that Indigenous Australians had suffered since white settlement began in 1788. The apology was met with widespread support, but many people (including me), called for action to address disadvantage now that this first step had been taken. In my post I pointed out by way of an example, that Indigenous Australians were greatly disadvantaged in educational opportunities. I cited the National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy published in 2000 by the Commonwealth Department of Education Science, which concluded that:

a) Seven out of every ten Indigenous students in Year 3 are below the national literacy standard, compared to just three out of ten 'other' Australians.
b) Indigenous students miss out on up to one day of schooling every week, compared to around just three days every term for other Australian students, meaning that Indigenous students, on average, miss out on more than a year of primary school and more than a year of secondary school compared to other children.
c) That 18% of Australia’s ‘at risk’ youth are Indigenous.

I concluded my post by saying that "my hope is that we won't be reading 2008 reports in 2010 that have not been activated, nor should we able to read them in 2013 and say little has changed."

I write again 2 years later in 2010 and report that more recent data are discouraging. A report by the Australian Council for Educational Research as part of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) published in 2009 is depressing. The report draws on data from PISA for the period 2000-2006. It brings together analyses of the achievement of Australian Indigenous students in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy in each of the three cycles of the PISA conducted in 2000, 2003 and 2006. I serve on the National Advisory Committee of PISA as one of three academic representatives. The key findings are as follows:

1. Indigenous students have performed at a substantially lower average level in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy than their non-Indigenous peers.
2. In each domain, the average for Indigenous students was more than 80 score points (or more than one proficiency level) lower than non-Indigenous students and more than 50 score points lower than the OECD average.
3. Indigenous students are over represented at the lower proficiency levels and underrepresented at the upper levels in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy.
4. In terms of year level proficiency standards, there is a gap of around two years between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.
5. Internationally, Indigenous students are performing well below the OECD average and nationally perspective, and they are well below the performance of non-Indigenous students.
6. More than one third of Indigenous students did not achieve a proficiency level in reading, mathematics and science literacy considered to be the minimum level necessary to meet the challenges faced in life beyond school.

The PISA report concludes that "...initiatives to improve the education of Indigenous students through educational policy have to date had little effect."

The above has been followed in recent days by the release of a United Nations report - State of the World's Indigenous Peoples - that has shown that Indigenous people in Australia and Nepal had the lowest life expectancy of all indigenous people around the world. Life expectancy was the lowest amongst the 90 nations, with Australia's Indigenous people dying up to 20 years earlier than their non-indigenous counterparts.

All groups within Australian society must take collective responsibility for addressing the significant disadvantage of Indigenous Australians. A number of Christian organizations and many individuals have been working in Indigenous communities for decades but much more needs to be done. A good example of grass roots action is Yirara College run by the Lutheran Church in Alice Springs within the Northern Territory. Similarly, a good example of efforts in urban areas is the initiative of St Andrews School in Sydney that has established a special campus in Redfern that is tackling Indigenous educational needs head on. Gawura is a small community based school of about 25 children in mixed staged classes from Kindergarten to Year 6 is focussed on the teaching of literacy, numeracy and elements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and tradition.

These are good initiatives but it will require many more initiatives of this kind if we are to make a difference. It is also obvious that Indigenous health problems, high levels of adult unemployment, various addictions, and poor housing are all related. We need an holistic approach and we've been saying this for a long time. But far too often our efforts in addressing educational disadvantage have been tokenistic and have lacked persistence and follow-up. It will require all levels of government and communities of interest that grasp the injustices facing Indigenous Australians and take positive action to make a difference.

Related Reading

'Aborigines have worst life expectancy' (here)

United Nations Report on 'State of the World's Indigenous People' (here)

New York Times report on high levels of educational disadvantage in USA southern states (here)

Australian Human Rights Commission Report (here)

Educating Indigenous Young People from Remote Communities (here)

The Ethics of Shopping

This post is a repeat of one posted on the 22nd December 2008

Carmen and I spent some time in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong about a year ago. On the Saturday before we left Hong Kong for home we did what many people do when they travel to Asian cities, we went shopping for a bargain in one of the well-known markets. We were mainly looking for Christmas presents for our grandchildren, but as we wandered up and down the rows of merchants there was one very consistent cry:

"Copy watch, you want copy watch sir?"

Typically this was a question asked of me and it occurred at just about every second stand. It was sometimes followed with statements like "We've got Rolex, copy Rolex out the back, you want one, very cheap".

I had no trouble resisting the pleas of the many sales people. For a start, I wouldn't want my friends and the residents of New College to see me wearing a watch that looked like it was worth $5,000 (even though it was only worth $20); I'm not one for bling! But I'm also strongly against people ripping off the trademarks and intellectual property of other individuals and companies. I'd thought this through as a Christian long before I started receiving 6-10 SPAM emails daily offering me similarly wonderful 'replica watches' as the spammers call them. This decision seems like an easy ethical dilemma to resolve. But this made me think, what other ethical shopping dilemmas will I face this Christmas season. And which ones am I not even aware that I'm facing? What does it mean to shop ethically? What guidance does the Bible give us?

The problem of selectivity

Part of the problem with thinking ethically about shopping is that we tend to focus on one area of concern. For example, I know people who act (quite rightly) as campaigners for Fair Trade. Their concern is driven primarily by their desire to see justice for workers and suppliers (fair pay for products as well as the labour that produced them). Others campaign to ensure that we don't encourage the sale of wooden products that destroy the environment. It's easy to pick some issues that you can quickly make an ethical decision about while missing other areas of perhaps equal ethical concern. I suspect that we face ethical decisions as shoppers every day. Here are a few examples:

• You are given too much change by the shop assistant - should you give it back?
• You wear a piece of clothing but decide you don't like it - you are tempted to take it back for exchange after wearing it (just once), but should you?
• You have to answer questions about your driving record when seeking a new insurance policy which will affect the premium you're charged - do you tell them the full story?
• You see products that have most likely been manufactured by workers who have not been treated justly, (often clothing, but also household items in wood or cane). The workers might have been poorly paid, child family members could have been forced to work long hours and may have been denied education (especially girls), slave labourers may have been used, staff within family sweat shops may have produced the clothing and so on. How do you assess this and should you buy the products?
• You have the chance to buy something that will tempt you or the recipient of the gift to break the law or act unethically themselves - e.g. police scanners that allow people to listen in on the police broadcasts, machines for multi-copying of DVDs and CDs, devices for detecting speed cameras so that you can speed in 'safety'. Should you buy such a device?
• You see a book, CD, video or clothing item that is obviously a copy of a well-known brand (like my 'copy watch'). Do you purchase it?
• You know that the seller is desperate for a sale (often this can occur in Asian countries) and you think you can drive the price even lower to the point that it is costing you almost nothing. Should you? I can well remember bargaining for a painting in a village in Indonesia about 5 years before I became a Christian and getting it for a ridiculous price. I recall later realising that it cost me 14 cents and feeling very guilty, as it was hardly a fair price.

This might all seem a bit much, you might think I'm going over the top! But am I? If you're a Christian reading this blog then like me you need to consider what the Bible has to say about ethical shopping. Even if you aren't a Christian it is important to think ethically about issues like honest shopping.

What the Bible has to say that can help us?

The easy part is that if your action or choice is going to lead you or others to break the law then you shouldn't do it. While we are to be obedient to Christ first, we are to be obedient to the laws of the land that are set by authorities appointed ultimately by God. So, a 'copy watch' is out, as is an illegal video, copied music etc. Romans 13:1-7, Titus 3:1 and 1 Peter 2:13 are helpful here, especially Rom 13: 1,2 & 7:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment....Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honour is owed.

But the Bible teaches more than simply obedience to the laws of the land; we are called to pay attention even to the 'spirit of the law' not just the 'letter of the law'. Jesus teaches about this in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17-20) when he says:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus is suggesting to the Scribes and Pharisees that the righteousness that he expects is nothing less than complete conformity to God’s law. Jesus is teaching that it is the heart not just the outward deed is that is ultimately most important. This is God-given righteousness; hearts transformed by the saving grace of Christ, not a righteousness of outward compliance. Jesus demands more than just an outward pretence of honesty while all the time acting unethically and unjustly by seeking some level of right action, to keep up appearances, but quietly pushing the boundaries of what is right in one area while trying in another.

I’m challenged by Jesus’ words for I know that in my heart I’m tempted constantly to ‘cut corners’ so to speak, hiding behind a façade of ethical action a heart that while viewed as free of guilt because of the righteousness of Christ, is still engaged in a daily war against the flesh. Jesus teaching is hard teaching here. What is expected of us? Mere token observance of the laws of the land? No much more than this. As Christians we must not relax “one of the least of these commandments” and what’s more I must flee the false righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees that fails to satisfy the heart and the mind, that seeks to glorify self in our actions, that is self made, not reflective of a repentant and obedient heart.