Editorial: Love not hate
Since our last edition, the Black Lives Matter campaign has dominated the headlines and so it couldn’t fail to find its way into Adamah’s pages too. While we genuinely deplore all expressions of racism, and have no doubt that many forms of it continue to exist in our world, we equally deplore the violence and hatred which has accompanied some of the demonstrations, proposed actions and opinions voiced. This is powerfully argued in Joseph Evans’ Love not hatred is the way to end racism, in which the author argues that Christian love, as weak as it might appear to some, is a far stronger opponent to racism than any ideology.
Should monuments linked to colonial oppression be removed? Adam Brocklehurst considers this thoughtfully in his Reading a building colonially. Focusing on one particular building in Manchester in the North of England, Adam asks whether buildings constructed through money gained from exploiting the poor should also come down. His answer is balanced and nuanced and we we’ll let you read it for yourself without any spoilers.
Other articles propose beautiful and constructive ways to manage differences, including Bruno Mastroianni’s masterful Learning to disagree without being disagreeable in five steps … or rather in five fingers. Bruno explains how we only need look at our own hand to learn how to engage with others, whatever their opinions. And Lisa Fraser offers some very practical tips on how to share faith in the workplace (whatever the creed might be) in her Faith in the workplace: how to build inclusive environments.
A number of articles consider how we relate to the environment, including stimulating pieces by Richard Bauckham and Francesca Omon, and Zoë Dukoff-Gordon examines the very real and serious problem of first-world hunger. And there’s a lot more besides, including Marie McCoy’s absolute gem about birthdays and motherhood and Ronnie Convery’s strong rebuttal of all public policies which foster division.
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Joseph Evans
Fr Joseph Evans is a Catholic priest and member of the Opus Dei prelature. He has been a journalist and youth worker, and is currently a university chaplain in Oxford. He is co-founder and Editorial Director of Adamah, which he sees as bringing together some of his great passions: good writing, intelligent and honest discussion, and helping young people achieve their full potential.
