You probably won’t have been able to ignore it anymore, what started as a local news issue, bin strikes in Birmingham and the second city/largest single local authority bankrupt has moved up the agenda to a national news story with reports of rubbish bags piled high in the streets and rats the size of cats.
I must admit that I’ve been a little bit defensive of my adopted home city recently when I’ve seen other Christians from outside the city looking in and calling the city a dump. Am I just being a bit thin skinned? Do we just need to laugh it off? I want to explain why not here.
First of all, I think it is helpful to tell the truth about our city. First the bad news, our city is in a mess. The Council are bankrupt as the result of a mixture of bad decisions and like with many other cities lack of national investment into local government. Secondly, having the refuse collectors refuse to collect has been challenging. We have not had our recycling collected since January . We’ve got round that with regular trips to the tip. When the union moved to all out strike, we went several weeks with no rubbish collections at all. It’s been harder to get tip visits booked. There was about a week when the rubbish started to mount up and we were having to navigate ripped open bags and spilled rubbish.
However, the other side of the story is that in the past week moves have been made to clear the backlog and we’ve seen our bins collected. Local volunteers have also done a great job of picking up the spilled rubbish too. I suspect that the reality is that whilst the images bags stacked up in mounds capture the news headlines that most of us haven’t experienced that although some places have been hit harder than others. I’m also a little wary of stories about rats the size of cats. That’s not because refuse doesn’t attract rodents nor because there haven’t been reports of some pretty large ones around in recent times. Rather it’s because I suspect the rat population hasn’t suddenly mutated in a few weeks.
There’s more to the other side of the story as well. There are lots of challenges about life in a large urban conurbation. There are areas of quite desperate economic and social deprivation. More importantly much of the city suffers from serious spiritual deprivation. However, that’s only part of the picture. When I think of Birmingham today, I think of a city that is seeing lots and lots of building projects, an impressive tram system and really good public transport generally. I think of the pride we took in hosting the Commonwealth Games, of cricket at Edgbaston and two football teams who seem to be very much on the up.
Spiritually I reflect on what we’ve seen in the West Midlands over the past 15 years of church planting and revitalisation of increasing diversity in our churches and at last some interest in reaching the less reached parts of the city. So, factually we want to respond and say “No, Birmingham is not a dump.”
It matters in other ways too. I note comments about the benefits of being self-deprecating. That’s true actually of Brummies and those from the Black Country too. It’s true of my home city, Bradford. In fact, let’s face it, that’s true about the rest of the country generally, perhaps with a couple of exceptions. Yet, even with those places not known for self-deprecating humour, I’m not convinced its really our business if that is their outlook. If people from Bradford or Birmingham or wherever have that kind of shrug it off humour then that’s for them to decide and no one else.
But it also changes when the attack comes from the outside. That feels wrong. That’swhy I got defensive of my home city. There are things that Bradfordians can say about their little bit of West Yorkshire but not anyone else. That applies too to those of us who are really recent incomers. I am still in many respects a guest of the West Midlands after 15 years and much more so of Birmingham after just three years here. I don’t consider myself to have the right to talk down a city that has welcomed me and showed hospitality. I certainly don’t think it’s on when I’m here for the sake of the Gospel. Incidentally, this is something that I’ve heard church planters acknowledge and something we picked up on in our discussion about somewheres and anywheres recently. It doesn’t help the Gospel if we are seen to look down either patronisingly or disdainfully on the city. This should be even more of a concern for Christians from outside of the city. How are their words and views helping or hindering our gospel efforts.
Finally, I wonder if that self-deprecating nature should even be challenged gently occasionally. It can be a way of hiding how you are really feeling both about the snide comments of others and about the way that you feel let down by those who have power and privilege. Lets face it, many of our towns and cities have been let down badly by businesses, local Government and national politicians. It can also begin to be a reflection of what you’ve learnt to believe about yourselves as a community because of the dominant voices from outside. We know this about individuals and I think it can be true about communities too. The problem with both is that it can become a way of deflecting and therefore a means of distraction from the real issues. Self-deprecation can distract us from our lack of hope. I talk down my football team to avoid the coming crashing disappointment when they bomb out the of automatic promotion places and lose badly in the play-offs to the team currently sitting in 10th place. I talk down myself because I don’t think real change is possible and I talk down my community for the same reasons.
Self-deprecation also distracts individuals and communities from the hard truth about our real problems. This is serious because our real problem is sin and we don’t want people distracted from that because we want them to discover the real hope of the Gospel.
So, please, let’s stop this habit of trash talking our towns and cities.
Faithroots 