Sir, —
I want to thank Seán Murphy for his brilliant article ‘Speaking With a Foreign Accent: Recovering Moral Courage, True Leadership, and the language of the Gospel’. It was challenging and thought-provoking. We must indeed speak and live with grace, not grievance.
Seán is right to highlight neglected problems of the marginalised, like access to housing (and other services). But it might have been wiser not to contrast that with apparently better provision for those newly arrived. It’s not as though but for migrants there would be enough houses, or school places, or dental appointments to go around. The truth is that, as a society, we have not invested in the services we all need. And it’s a political choice made by the people we have elected.
The problem with the framing Seán used is that it echoes the language and accent of the far right, not the Gospel — grievance, not grace; Christian nationalism, not Christianity — and it distracts us from how we can solve the problems. It diverts anger and blame from where it belongs, onto another marginalised group.
So whilst we must listen to marginalised people with real problems, we must use the accents of the gospel when we discuss the problem — not the accents of grievance.
Yours, etc.,
Mr Paul Dundas
(by email)
