Postcard from the Front Lines

We saw the Narnia movie last night, which, besides being an excellent allegory of the Gospel, is also an interesting window into the world behind our world. The idea that just because you don't see something, doesn't mean it isn't there. A powerful example of this is the spiritual state of war that we exist within, a frightening picture of the potential invisible gravity of the consequences of our actions and the use (or misuse) of our gifts. Do we unknowingly stand in the midst of a raging battle? If so, who are we fighting for? Or are we standing there denying a war is on at all?

I have recently been blessed with a window into the war in two forms. The first is through my involvement with the Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network, and the second is in my new job as a debt counsellor with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. I have always been aware that asylum seekers and people in debt exist, but it has never been more than that - a mere awareness. Until now, I have never sought them out, thought about what I could do to help, or really understood the immensity of their suffering.

Asylum seekers in the U.K. face a horrific trial in that the government and much of the population are so worried that the system could be used as a vehicle for terrorists (despite the fact that it would be much safer for a terrorist to get a fake passport and pose as a tourist than to run the administrative gauntlet as an asylum seeker) that they have constructed an absolutely inhumane system as a deterrant. There is no proof that the system has ever been abused to the extent that would justify this inhumanity, but fear drives a legislative hammer onto its ever-hardening blade. Asylum seekers flee here to escape torture, murder, rape and circumstances we could never imagine, and instead of compassion and assistance, they face mistrust, destitution and discrimination. The people we should be fighting for are the people we end up fighting against for no reason other than unfounded prejudice.

The issue of debt, which may seem comparitively trivial at first glance, is in fact another largely unseen major battlefront. The number of people crushed under staggering debt is increasing dramatically every year. Most of them are not in debt because of bad planning or a lack of knowledge, but simply due to changes in circumstances they were unable to forsee. Loss of income due to sickness or the death of a partner, redundancy, divorce. It is so easy to get credit to survive that it spirals out of control before they realise it, and suddenly they are in tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, often facing a defecit just trying to balance essential costs like food and rent, and unable to pay anything to their creditors. Can you imagine what it would be like to look at the future and only see debt that you could never hope to repay? To starve yourself trying to pay it off? Losing your home, your family, your friends?

People in these situations are all around us. We probably see hundreds of them every week and don't even realise it. It's not like everybody has to do something about it, but if you recognise a war is going on and you decide you have a responsibility to fight then you have to enlist, and this is where it seems I've been posted. I'll let you know how I get on.

Ian