When did 'we' stop telling 'our' sad stories?

Recently I've been working on a number of history projects, absorbing and learning stories which are new to me. Last week I was over in Scotland for a few days - literally a flying visit, from Belfast to Edinburgh - and spent a day on the old town where I re-visited some of the historic Covenanter sites. The photo above is of current restoration work on the famous monument to '18,000' martyrs in Greyfriars kirkyard. As ever, this has caused me to think and has also brought back some memories.

The 'we' and 'our' in the title of this post are references to broad present-day Ulster Protestant evangelical communities. I grew up on many sad stories - like the Covenanters, like Corrie Ten Boom, like Richard Wurmbrand and many others who suffered behind the Iron Curtain, like 'Brother Andrew', like Jim Elliott, of my grandparents and parents' personal stories of their own poverty during the 20th century in rural Ulster. Stories of suffering and one might say 'injustice'. We had a few copies of Foxe's Book of Martyrs which I eagerly read. There are many more examples. Even the many innocents who were murdered during the Troubles are mostly brushed aside.

For some reason 'we' have stopped telling our sad stories. They are socially impolite. A mixture of stoicism and amnesia, a 'press release' mentality and shallow optimism has skewed our self-image, and therefore others' impression of us. Stories stay 'safe' out of concern of causing discomfort or offence. But if 'we' insist we have always been comfortable - or victorious - then we have nothing interesting to say, and that somebody else, or some other group, must have been victims.

I know plenty of people - on both sides of our 'divide' - who have no idea of these histories and experiences. I gave my illustrated talk on the Covenanters a few months ago, to a mixed audience, and at the end one man in the Q&A session said "I had no idea you people had suffered too'.

Modern evangelicalism, in particular musically, emphasised up-tempo major keys and positive themes and notions of triumph and victory. Sermons have morphed into pep talks and life lessons and 'applying the text to Monday'. No wonder many whose life experiences are mostly minor keys and doubts and difficulties have stopped turning up on Sundays.

The 'We Are The People' slogan is not true. 'We' have suffered too. So 'We' need to tell our stories in a more rounded way, furthering both our own understanding, and the understanding of our neighbours and how they view us.