The Wardman Wire

Which of the following is the odd one out?

- Football
- Cricket
- Formula 1
- Horse Racing

The answer is Horse Racing - each of the other 3 is involved in an ongoing enquiry over some form of corruption, whilst the trial of Keiron Fallon and 2 other jockeys for race-fixing has just ended with an acquittal.

Of course it doesn’t stop with sport. Canoeists, political donors, supermarkets, the whiff of financial corruption seems to be everywhere.

Why is this?

Are principles worth more than pragmatism?

It’s been fascinating to watch the section on Tony Blair’s Christian faith in the recent ‘The Blair Years’ TV series. The most bemusing part was Ming Campbell’s comment on Blair’s faith:

“Well the people didn’t know about this strong ethical position. The public might have been less willing to give him the triumph of three consecutive general election victories if they’d known the extent to which ethical values would overshadow pragmatism.”

There’s a thought: Unethical pragmatism.

Well, at least we know what he stands (stood?) for.

But pragmatism always has a viewpoint anyway

The trouble with pragmatism is that it’s always valued-laden while appearing not to be, and that can undermine an honest and objective analysis.

What sort of pragmatism are you going to be guided by? What’s most convenient? Most popular? Most cost-effective?

Well, Ming, we have more of a pragmatist PM now. Eating at our local award-winning curry restaurant, the staff proudly showed us the brochure from the 2007 British Curry Awards. There was a congratulatory letter from Gordon Brown, which barely had space to say ‘well done’ before he got onto how much money the curry sector made for the British economy. But he has principles too: fair play to him for boycotting Mugabe’s little jaunt.

And can principles only survive on the outside?

Jesus was born outside the power structures of his day, and resolutely stayed there for the whole of his life. Tempted by the devil to use his power for economic/personal gain (’turn these stones into bread’) celebrity status (’throw yourself off the Temple and God will save you’) or to take a pragmatic short cut to power and control (’I'll give you all this if you just worship me’), Jesus had none of it.

A supreme irony is that we celebrate, by spending money and consuming goods, the birth of a man who told us that there was more to life than money and possessions.

Wrapping-Up

Each of the financial scandals tells us, if we didn’t already know, that there is no such thing as ‘enough money’. People at the top of their sports, with pay somewhere between very good and astronomical, but how much is enough……. ‘just a little more’. Once we let cash call the tune, we’ll never stop dancing.

We have to have some kind of value system that trumps money. Steven Covey, author of ‘7 habits of highly effective people’, puts it this way: ‘the way to say no is to have a bigger yes burning inside you’. Jesus had a bigger yes, he knew his God, and he knew that he was on earth to love, serve, heal and liberate.

Sounds good to me.