Thought for the Day, 17 May 2005
Rhidian Brook
Good Morning,
A few years ago there was a commercial for a newspaper in which a man with a shaved head is seen charging up a street looking like he's about to do some serious damage; the action cuts to a terrified woman clutching her handbag and it seems certain that the skinhead is going to rob her; until we see the action from a different angle and notice that a pile of bricks is about to tumble onto the street and the man is actually going to save the woman from injury.
The ad brilliantly illustrates the dangers of judging by appearances. And in the light of the recent reaction to our 'yob culture' it would be good if they could re-run it, substituting the clothes of the skinhead for the uniform of today's supposed most likely offender - the hooded sweat shirt and baseball cap. It might help us think again about judging groups of people based on what they wear.
Ever since Adam and Eve pulled on breeches there's been a connection between wrongdoing and covering up; hoods keep your ears warm but they can also preserve your identity if you want to engage in criminal activity. How else do you think Robin Hood - the original hoody (or hoodlum) - got away with it? But as my hoody-wearing son would tell you: good guys and bad guys wear hoods. For every Sith Lord about to destroy the universe there's an Obi-Wan Kenobi battling to save it.
The most evil regimes in history have worn the smartest uniforms. Indeed, you could make a strong case for the most criminal group of people in this country being suit wearers: isn't it people in suits who are largely responsible for robbing pension schemes, selling arms to countries that can't afford them, and starting wars?
Scripture has some helpful advice on clothing (don't worry about what you wear; and don't judge people by what they wear); but it's what's going on beneath the dark hoods, the fine robes or the Armani suits that really counts. Clothes are a poor gauge of someone's character or intentions. God notices behaviour before he notices clothes; inner adornment before outer.
The intimidating behaviour of kids in shopping centres is not to be defended; but instead of threatening to exchange their hoods for orange penal suits, maybe we should be asking why they behave the way they do. Is all the anger, boredom and frustration that roams the nation remedied by a change of clothes?
In some ways, I suspect that these kids are not so different to us. They're probably even asking the same questions - How can I enjoy myself? What's it all for? What is real? Maybe the people who are abusing shoppers are not so different to those shoppers, harming themselves buying things they don't need and can't afford. Are they just medicating the emptiness in a different way?
Dissatisfaction with life and a lack of purpose is a spiritual issue before it is an economic or social one. If we really are spiritual beings, wired for relationship, for fulfilment, for meaning, then we are only going to be moved and changed by spiritual answers; answers that education, culture and politics are limited at providing. If meaning and reality is found in God, then everything else is killing time.
When the prophet Isaiah wrote that 'before God our righteous actions are but rags' he was saying that no matter what we do or wear, in a fundamental way, we are all dressed the same. We are all in need of new clothing. And only God can clothe us as we should be clothed.