The unlikely prophet

The human pillaging of the earth for profit and the empty political promises of endless economic growth has been a disaster.

NOW here is something to think about on this February morning as you ponder the mysteries of the universe.

It seems that if we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following: there would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere, and eight from Africa. Fifty-two would be female and 48 would be male.

Still with me? Seventy would be non-white, 30 would be white, 70 would be non- Christian, 30 would be Christian, 89 would be heterosexual and 11 would be homosexual. Six people would possess 59 per cent of the entire world’s wealth – and all six would be from the United States. Eighty would live in substandard housing, 70 would be unable to read, 50 would suffer from malnutrition. One would be near death, one would be near birth, only one would have a college education and only one would own a PC.

These are mind-blowing stats. When we look at our fragile world from such a stripped-down perspective, we cannot but be mindful of the stark choices facing the human race. Our very existence as a species is on the line. When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for mutual acceptance, human kindness, understanding and education becomes clamant.

I’ve recently re-read Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch’s magisterial tome A History of Christianity. (I love its subtitle: The First Three Thousand Years.) The book reminds the reader that the Church has survived many crises in its perilous journey through human history. God has raised up prophets in times of strife and desperate challenge.

While that should give us hope, it should not invite complacency. The human pillaging of the earth for profit and the empty political promises of endless economic growth has been a disaster which has impacted most heavily on the poor and the dispossessed of the earth.

What jumps out to me from the litany that begins this article is the prevalence of inequality in God’s world. The biggest existential threat to the planet, though, is man-made climate change. The warnings have been building for a long time. We have been fiddling while the earth burns.

Will God raise up a prophet who can get through to preening princes and pestilential presidents with an end time message of radical change?

Well, He has already. The unlikely prophet’s name is Greta. With the help of God, her generation may yet help undo the vast damage that our thoughtless and uncaring generation has inflicted upon them.

On the other hand, it may already be too late.

Let G K Chesterton have the last word: O God of earth and altar, Bow down and hear our cry; Our earthly rulers falter, Our people drift and die; The walls of gold entomb us, The swords of scorn divide, Take not thy thunder from us, But take away our pride.

This article appears in the February 2020 Issue of Life and Work

Click here to view the article in the magazine.

To view other articles in this issue Click here.

If you would like to view other issues of Life and Work, you can see the full archive here.