The Easter Story, Jeremy Corbyn, anti-Semitism and
lessons in media management
We shouldn't be surprised when apparently good people are
subject to false attacks on their character by vested interests, especially
when they challenge those interests. They are in good company. For this is
exactly what happened to the greatest man who ever lived; Jesus Christ (eg Mark
14 v 56-58 Luke 7 v 34) and he warned his followers to expect the same
libellous insults (e.g. Matthew 5 v 11 and 10 v 22) And of course it's not only
his followers that can be victims of such campaigns of falsehoods.
This Easter we remembered the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His followers like me believe he was and is “God made flesh”; the perfect, sinless divine Son of God, who took our place in dying for our sins on the cross to free us from the punishment of death we deserved (Isaiah 53 v 3-7). And we believe he proved this by rising from the dead (Acts 2 v 24) and by belief in him anyone may share in his eternal life (John 3 v 16). These are the great truths of Easter.
This Easter we remembered the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His followers like me believe he was and is “God made flesh”; the perfect, sinless divine Son of God, who took our place in dying for our sins on the cross to free us from the punishment of death we deserved (Isaiah 53 v 3-7). And we believe he proved this by rising from the dead (Acts 2 v 24) and by belief in him anyone may share in his eternal life (John 3 v 16). These are the great truths of Easter.
But there are other lesser truths that we can also learn
from the Easter story that can help us come to terms with the world we live in,
whilst we struggle in this world waiting for him to return and heal it. For Jesus gyarantees that "in this world you will have trouble... but take heart I have overcome the world." (John 16 v 33)
Our world in the UK in 2018 in some ways is very different
to Palestine 2000 years ago. Yet in many ways it’s very similar. In our times
words fly around the world to millions in a blink of eye through social media
and internet sites and TV and radio channels; words of truth, words of love,
words of healing, words of lies, words of hate, words of violence. Yet in
Jesus's world similar words of truth and lies travelled pretty fast and widely
too, not through the internet and TV of course, but through the social media of
his day; word of mouth. That's how pretty soon after the start of Jesus's
amazing ministry he was attracting crowds of thousands. They had heard from
others about this remarkable teacher and “holy man" who preached a new
message of “good news” of God's love and forgiveness, justice and peace, especially
for the poor and outcast (Luke 4 v 18 & 19) and how he displayed that message
through his miraculous healings. And so, they flocked to see and hear for
themselves. (Luke 7 v 16 & 17).
Yet through the same social media of word of mouth vicious
untruths about Jesus then also spread very quickly: that this so-called great
prophet was a fake, that far from being a holy man he was a drunkard and a
glutton eating and drinking with sordid prostitutes and those dishonest greedy
collaborators, the tax collectors (Luke 7 v 34)? And how dare he break God's
holy Sabbath and other laws as interpreted by the true holy men - the religious
establishment of the Pharisees and lawyers (Matthew 12 v 1 & 2)? If he was
doing any miracles then it must have been, not through God's power, but the
devil's. (Luke 11 v 14 & 15). And the human source for this campaign of
lies against him was that religious establishment, because his message
threatened and challenged their vested interests as the respected leaders of
the people. For Jesus dared speak out directly against what they stood for as a
distortion of the truth- a legalistic religion which had forgotten God's
central message of love and mercy. (Matthew 23- almost whole of, and Luke 6 v
11)
But even at this apogee of his popular appeal, the
establishment interests were plotting to bring him down, spreading lies about
him to try to trap him and turn his followers and the wider public against him
and bring about his destruction (Luke 19 v 47, Matthew 26 v 4).
These lies eventually got to one of his inner circle, Judas,
who turned against Jesus (Luke 22 v 4). This lead to his arrest and then trial
by the religious establishment with more false accusations (Matthew 26 v
59-62). By the time Judas realised he had been deceived about Jesus it was too
late. (Matthew 27 v 3-5) Then came the culmination of the establishment
plotting against Jesus- their false messages stirred the popular crowd to
demand the Roman Governor have Jesus crucified. (Matthew 27 v 15-23). One
wonders how many of those calling for his crucifixion had been hailing him as
Messiah only days earlier.
And so, in the greatest act of injustice this world has ever known, the one perfect sinless human suffered the ultimate punishment, shame and pain of death on a cross. As one of the criminals crucified with him said, “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” (Luke 23:41) (Good for us all to remember this when we are treated unjustly- we are in good company). And even as Jesus hung there and died, and even after he was laid in his grave, his opponents were still determined to manage their social media campaign against him. On the cross they taunted him to reinforce their point that he was a fake: “... the rulers even sneered at him. They said, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.’” Luke 23:35.
It seems to me that
the establishment interests decided they could not allow their power and wealth
to be so threatened and were determined to stop this man from disrupting their
world. And so they used the means at their disposal -their great power and
wealth- to launch against this rebel a campaign of lies to persuade the people
that this man was a dangerous impostor: far from being a man of peace and love
he was a man who associated himself with the hateful and the violent; a friend
of terrorists, a treacherous former spy, a sympathizer of Russian infiltrators
and murderers, a man who tolerated and
even encouraged his followers to build factories of hate manufacturing anti-Semitism-
like a man who rode in Hitler’s car. 
To lend their message
plausibility they’ve taken words that he or his followers have used and twisted
them or take them out of context. Most especially they have used against him
hateful words of violent men who claimed to be his followers, even though they
said things that directly contradicted his message. And many good people are being deceived by their deceptive
campaigns against him. They can see the hateful messages of those claiming to
follow him and blame him for not stopping the vile sewage of their words that
discharge into the ocean, even though that ocean is vast and beyond the control
of anyone. And he is also blamed that he and others who walked with him had
swam in that same ocean even though they hadn’t seen the sewage there. And
those blaming him have failed to see in this the hidden hands of the vested
interests who plot against him.
And so through spreading false rumours, distorted half-truths
and lies, the establishment interests are seeking to bring this good man down;
to get him nailed to his own cross and buried in a sealed tomb so there could
be no chance that he or his followers could rise again and challenge their
position in society. The issue of anti-Semitism within the Labour party is a serious one, which Jeremy Corbyn himself has sought to fight and where he acknowledges efforts need to be redoubled.
But it is also an issue being used
as a tool by establishment interests to continue weaving their narrative of
lies and half-truths against him to stop him gaining power and undermining
their privileged positions. The extent of the genuine problem within his party
has therefore been exaggerated, particularly by attributing to his party vile
anti-Semitic comments posted on open public social media sites that have no
link to the Labour party, but which some party members follow. Yet these are
sites many thousands participate in and where hundreds of messages a day can be
posted by anyone and no one sees all the many messages that go on them.
Similarly, he is blamed for anti-Semitic private emails from people claiming to
support him, despite their message directly contradicting the principles he has
very publicly espoused. And then there are the genuinely innocent if careless
mistakes - like his support for the infamous 2012 mural which in reality was
not obviously anti-Semitic as opposed to anti-Capitalist and where the capitalists
vilified were not exclusively Jewish. And the NEC member who carelessly
supported a candidate without properly looking into his history and so was
unaware that he’d shared an abhorrent anti-Semitic article denying the
holocaust.
Constant insidious seeping of social media messages and
the almost infinite risks of guilt by association truth present extremely
difficult problems for our politicians today that did not exist in the same way
even 10 years ago. We see this in the way some have tried to use social media
to directly manipulate opinions and votes in major elections like the EU
referendum and the US Presidential election. We see it in the daily inflammatory
Twitter rants of the US President. We see it in the hundreds of abhorrent anti-immigrant
and anti-Islamic posts that cling to many pro-Brexit Facebook groups which some
Conservative party members and politicians follow. And yes, sadly we see it too
in vile anti-Semitic posts that can cling to certain left-leaning Facebook groups
that some Labour party members and politicians follow. Is it not strange that compared to the attention lavished on
anti-Semitic comments and Jeremy Corbyn, the national media has given a
fraction of the focus on similarly outrageous racist comments in Brexit
supporting groups associated with many Conservatives? But once we recognise the
interests and world views of those controlling most of the national media it's
not so strange: we can see they are aligned with the very interests and world
views that Jeremy Corbyn threatens. And just as we saw with the other greater
JC, where establishment interests are threatened they will use all means at
their disposal to manipulate the message about their opponent to make sure he
is stopped. So, when the establishment
media interest in anti-Semitism has waned, you can be sure they will find
another issue they can use to brief the pubic against their opponent. And if we
are supporters of his cause then, just as the great JC encouraged his own
followers to be, we need to be as “wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew
10 v 16). Now from what I've seen on anti-Semitism as on so much else Jeremy Corbyn in reality is as "innocent as a dove" and indeed puts many Christians like me to shame. Where he may not always be so good is being as "shrewd as snakes" in the way he handles the media. However see his very good answers to questions in his Jewish Chronicle which they still labelled "not good enough" or the ridiculous offence taken to his sharing passover with a local Jewish group on the grounds that they were the "wrong sort of Jews." You then realise that for many of Jeremy's opponent both within and beyond the party (just as with Jesus's opponents) they will find ways to take offence and will never be convinced by him. Certain Jewish leaders in Jesus's day were not even convinced when he rose from the dead! Any rather lesser political miracle that Jeremy might perform is not going to convince most of his detractors 
