This quiet animal is seldom in the news unless, like humans, it has been accused of something wrong! It was with a sense of relief from all the reports of human ills that I seized upon an article in today’s paper on our native nocturnal species. Written by a local naturalist its secret life was revealed.

Apparently our badger is different from our English neighbour’s badgers. The latter come from central Europe whereas ours are of Italian or Spanish origin.

According to the researches of University College Cork we have 84,000 and the average family size is 3.9 badgers. That would be about right for the family resident in our garden who are regularly visited by our collie, Holly. She has enlarger both entrances to the sett, perhaps hoping to catch a sight of that 0.9 badger!

We also have a badger hotel in a field appropriately called “Badger Burrows” The underlying rock is tufa, a calcified limestone, ideal for tunnelling and gives good drainage. These tufa dwellers have co-existed with us for many years without a trace of tuberculosis. However this has not prevented annual culls in selected areas of up to 7,000 badgers.

These shy animals come out at dusk and shuffle around grubbing for food. Our local family has enjoyed digging out wasps nests that are concealed in the grass banks of the farm road. The grub filled nests are a delicacy which their sting proof noses can enjoy.

I am sure they would be partial to truffles – C.S. Lewis evidently thought so as he named his heroic badger “Trufflehunter” in Prince Caspian, in the Chronicles of Narnia.

Badgers made there way into the Bible. They were valued for their skins which were used in the Tabernacle as part of the coverings. The Tabernacle was where God met with his redeemed people. It was replaced by Christ in whose Name there is now redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So don’t be like the badgers that shuffle around in the dark but put your complete trust in Christ. “He (Jesus) rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians chapter 1 verse 13/14)

An air of respectability has grown up around the two best know American belief systems that have crossed the Atlantic. Indeed the contender for the US Presidency is a Mormon and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are now well established in Ireland.

The latter were in the news this week for all the wrong reasons.

A child abuse case in California was successfully taken against an abuser in one of their congregations. Unusually the victim did not settle for an out of court cash settlement. This led to the revealing of the flawed procedures JW’s have used for many years. They are:

1. The 2 witness rule whereby the victims story is dismissed unless it can be collaborated by a second witness. The likelihood of this ever happening in cases of child abuse is almost zero.

2. The local congregation Elders must report each occurrence to the JW’s Branch Office who then apply the 2 witness rule ending the proceedings.

The Court did not like these procedures and awarded the victim, now aged 26, (who had resisted the temptation of an out of court settlement so these matters could be brought out into the open) compensation of $7 million and punitive damages against the JW’s of $21 million.

If the verdict is sustained on appeal it is likely this case will open the floodgates to further trials. As always considerable courage is required in both the victim and the victim’s family who may be dis-fellowshipped and cast out of the organisation.

What does the Bible say about these things?

Early in the Bible a rule was introduced for capital offences requiring the evidence to be confirmed by two or three people. Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 6.

The JW’s misinterpretation of the text has led to it being used to silence cases of abuse leading to the Court awarding the highest amount of punitive damages ever made against a religious organisation.

In the trial of Jesus the witnesses gave false testimony but could not get their made-up stories to agree! In the end the High Priest took matters into his own hands in order to pronounce the “guilty” verdict. St Mark chapter 14 verses 56/64. The Religious were in a struggle to preserve their way of life. If Jesus had been allowed to continue doing miracles everyone would believe in him and the Romans would step in and their jobs would be gone. St John Chapter 11 verses 45/48. As one of them put it, speaking wiser words than he knew, “It would be good if one man died for the people”.

It is Jesus substitutionary death for repentant sinners that is the only hope for JW’s, their victims, you and me when we meet him on judgement day.

Trust him – he loves you.

As one commentator said the morning after the fateful defeat by Spain – “No-one died!” True supporters of the game would not have been comforted by this as they recalled Bill Shankly’s immortal words, “Football is not a matter of life or death; it’s far more serious than that.”

To have progressed through all the qualifying stages was no mean feat. Hopes ran high perhaps blinding us to the strength of the opposition in our Group. The only thing we had in common with our Spanish masters was the refrain Olé, Olé Olé – Olé, Olé. It had lifted the nation back in the campaign of 1990 but now the Spaniards reclaimed it.

All we were left with was “The Fields of Athenry”. It’s hauntingly beautiful melody alleviated some of the misery of the evening in Gdansk. Fortunately the words, which evoke memories of famine, starvation and deportation on a prison ship, were largely indecipherable. For many the prospect of exile to Botany Bay may have seemed a better option than facing the Italians next week!

But it’s not the end of the world it just feels like it!

The disciples of Jesus knew all about disillusionment. Their Leader lay dead in the grave and with Him lay all their hopes and dreams.

As one of them put it, “We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.” St Luke Chapter 24 verse 21.

What he didn’t understand was that these hopes had been realised and that the one he was speaking to was the risen Christ!

Redemption had been completed. “It is finished” St John Chapter 19 verse 30 was the victory shout of a conqueror not the “I am finished” of a failure. These words, uttered from the cross, proclaimed forever that salvation was completed. Christ had conquered. The rebellion and disobedience of his people had been atoned for. The way had been made for repentant sinners to become part of that multitude in heaven and earth that follow Jesus.

As the poet put it:

My chains fell off, my heart was free;

I rose, went forth and followed Thee.

Followers of the Irish Soccer Team may have to wait for some time before their day returns but need not hinder them from looking to Jesus, whose time is now. Put your faith in him.

We had a good example of something we all do from a member of our parliament this week. He had fiddled his tax and confessed before it became public. Except it wasn’t his tax, he himself was tax compliant, but his limited liability company (of which he is the sole director and CEO) that had the problem.

It really wasn’t done to defraud the Revenue, he always intended to pay the VAT back, but was a temporary arrangement to keep his 60 builders at work. It was the banks who wanted him to stop work on an apartment block before it was finished.

As he had taken deposits from the future owners he used the money to finished the building but the bank then took the money he obtained as sales were completed leaving nothing to pay the tax-man’s €1.4 million bill. As the recession bit deeper the last 10 apartments didn’t sell so there was nothing left in the kitty.

Then there were the sub-contractors and the problems over the workers pension contributions to be taken into account. To cap it all another of his banks got a €19.4 million judgement against him which prevented him (mercifully) from getting any more work.

However on the plus side he was elected to the Dail last year and was a substantial benefactor of Wexford Youths Football Club.

Paying tax has always been looked upon as an irksome chore. “Pay As You Earn” was invented to make the employer extract the money at source and avoid the hassle of dealing with taxpayers direct. For the self employed the tax return becomes a battleground for the conscience which is often defeated! Witness the reluctance in paying the recently imposed household charge.

Interestingly our builder/member of the Dail asked the rhetorical question, “Who’s fit to be a public representative? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I tried to be as honest as I could”.

While it is always good to hear Scripture being quoted the context in which the words were said needs to be taken into account. They were uttered by Jesus to the men who were accusing the woman who they had caught in the act of adultery.

When spoken by the builder it is as if they were said by the sinful woman as she tried to justify herself!

In reality, saying sorry is often ambiguous. He was sorry apartments were not sold; sorry he was found out before the Revenue could be repaid etc.

Repentance, on the other hand, as shown in the Bible by that other tax cheat, Zacchaeus was followed by action in repaying those he had wronged four times over (St Luke Chapter 19 verses 8/10). Jesus recognised the faith that prompted the action and proclaimed that salvation had come to Zacchaeus that day.

Being found out is painful but can be the best thing that ever happened to you if it leads to repentance and faith in Jesus the only one who can justify a sinner.

Few can resist telling the story of their brush with monarchy. It might have only a glimpse of the monarch passing in a car but there seems to be some innate attraction to the institution which is the secret envy of republicans and a source of quiet pride in her subjects!

My own engagement with Her Majesty was more of a near miss! Some of us had been climbing on Lochnagar, a mountain on the Queen’s Balmoral Estate in Scotland, and were returning to the car park at the head of Loch Muick. I cannot remember how we got separated but the others went down the wrong track and arrived at Glas-allt Shiel, a royal hunting lodge, where the Queen and her party were having tea on the lawn. They were invited to join in which they gladly accepted! A case of the right road being the wrong one for the rest of us!

There will be a right British knees up over the next 4 days during which the Queen at age 86 and Prince Philip age 90 will probably wish they were at Glas-allt Shiel at the head of Loch Muick! However, with the stamina they always display, they will do their stuff in a right royal way.

Of course, over the years, the power has been drained from the monarchy. The Queen is largely a figurehead, subject to her parliament and regularly threatened with cuts to her income that would confine her to Buckingham Palace. However there is a subtle power which is unique. It appears in places like the honours lists as many clamber for a piece of the fame which creates its own attraction of a hierarchy coveted by the ambitious.

There is also something untouchable in the royal line. If you are not born into it you are not a candidate! There is nothing you can do about it. The heir to the throne is not elected, bought or earned. It is a birthright.

“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” The Magi’s question, recorded in Matthew chapter 2 verse 2 left King Herod in no doubt but that a new royal line had been formed. His reaction to Jesus Christ’s arrival on earth was in complete contrast to the Magi. Herod saw Him as a threat and wanted to do away with Him. The Magi believed He was the Messiah and wanted to worship Him.

The world is still in these two camps today. Do you want to get rid of Him or do you want to praise Him as your (new) birthright? There is no middle ground.

The hymnwriter catches a glimpse of King Jesus: –

“You seed of Israel’s chosen race,

You ransomed from the fall.

Hail Him who saves you by His grace,

And crown Him Lord of all.”