Listen to the Experts!

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This Weekend…

…We’ve enjoyed some wonderful sport – cricket, tennis, football… For each sport there are the ‘experts’, presenters who analyse games, express opinions, describe how they would do the job better.

This World Cup has created thousands of new experts. Ordinary folks who previously have had just a passing interest in football now are experts on team selection. People who’ve never watched a game in their lives are now experts in the offside laws or what constitutes a penalty…  

A section of the Bayeaux Tapesty showing men riding horses and arrows being fired
Image: The Making of Heritage in Normandy, Antoine Cazin

…The Bayeux Tapestry arrived in the UK, for the first time since its creation nearly 1,000 years ago. The 70m-long embroidery depicts the events leading up to the 1066 Battle of Hastings…

Experts from the British Museum, where it will be displayed in September, explained its artistic and historical significance. Security and transportation experts took down the tapestry in Bayeux, put it inside a crate and outer cage, regulated temperature and humidity, created shock absorbing springs, arranged practice runs, timed night operations…

Image: BBC

…We learnt of the death of Ann Widdecombe, who was never afraid to speak her mind and fought hard for what she believed.’

She enjoyed the cut and thrust of political debate, serving as a formidable MP for twenty-three years. She often sparked controversy because of her socially conservative views and strong Christian values. She said and stood for some things I disagreed with, but, respecting her deep faith and consistent integrity I see Ann Widdecombe as an expert politician.

…We head from war experts in Iran. This morning, in Isaiah, I read of the God who will ‘settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.’

I remember the idealism of 1960s peace protests… singing ‘I ain’t going to study war no more…’ I love the picture of redundant weapons being repurposed into useful tools…

Experts in sport, art, history, security, politics, religion, war… Above all we need experts in peace.

6 thoughts on “Listen to the Experts!”

  1. reading your blog reminded me of a couple of songs from the 60’s and 70’s

    simon and Garfunkel’s “Last night I had the strangest dream” and the song “The world is black, the world is white together we learn to read and write.”

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these two songs were true.

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  2. I get very irritated at TV news programmes that employ political pundits to tell us what to expect, especially from budgets.  I say “just let’s wait and see”.

    I also get angry at political experts who tell lies.  For weeks we were told how many people had died “with” Covid.  Dr John Campbell, not one to be polemical, was the only expert I saw who said that the average age of people dying “due” to Covid was 83 with co-morbidities.

    The “with” meant that if you had Covid and fell off a ladder and broke your neck it still mentioned Covid on the death certificate.

    When I took my History degree one lecturer told us to “know your historian”.  By that they meant that even respected historical tomes are the writer’s interpretation.

    I wonder if one should read Isiah with a similar view.

    Isiah 13:6-18

    Is Isiah not foretelling of a second coming? I am interested as to whether Christians still hold that belief.  I say that because a good friend of mine, when we worked together some fifty years ago, believed that the second coming would be sooner rather than later.

    And, I have since discovered that Muslim experts believe that Isiah 42:1 is foretelling the coming of the prophet Muhammad.

    Perhaps we ought to “know our experts”……..just saying

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