Gerry on Jesus – The Revelation

It was a relief to see that Gerry’s search for Jesus didn’t result in a meeting of minds after all. Indeed it was all strangely detached, even a little wistful. Thankfully we were spared a wander round the Holy Land looking for Jesus the revolutionary, some parallels about blood sacrifice, a Christian justification for the IRA campaign. In the Channel 4 film, a theme of his accompanying web article was missing: “ Jesus is about equality, the poor and the disadvantaged.”. It was established that the historical account was dubious. He faced the central morality without embarrassment or irony, reading from the Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are the peacemakers”.. “love thine enemies.” Asking a theologian what was the core, he was told “ In a word, forgiveness.” The limits of forgiveness was the main theme. Adds: I started wriiting this before I saw the posts below.. enjoy the diversity! From Alan McBride, the relative of a victim of the Shankill fish shop bombing, he wasn’t charged with direct blame but accepted his share of responsibility without ever defining it. Although a pall bearer at the funeral of one of the bombers, he exercised his customary freedom to label it as “a stupid operation,” adopting the familiar position of denier which, it must be recognised, has never seemed to compromise his authority as leader. Geraldine Finucane widow of solicitor Pat could not forgive but did not want revenge. As for Gerry the victim: “

I forgave those who beat me senseless.. I did negotiate the GFA which got out of prison those who shot me… But I do not forgive and cannot come to terms with those in powerful positions who sectarianised the differences.”

And there we have it : between Adams the political militant and Gerry the fallible Christian, there’s no contest.

“Let’s not get carried away. I’m a political activist. My religious beliefs are private. My actions are sometimes in tune with the Jesus message and sometimes not. You can pick and choose. We might not be right but we all do it… I am perfectly at peace. ”