The New Statesmen asksed an important question this week: Why do we care more about Cecil the Lion than we do about the “swarm” of migrants at Calais? They report: 

In the early hours of yesterday morning, a young asylum seeker was crushed to death trying to make it to the Channel Tunnel. I would use his name but the British press prefer vague descriptions. (“Sudanese” and “aged between 25 and 30”). Perhaps if he had been a lion called Cecil it would be different.

So, why do we care more about a lion? It’s an important question to ponder and as a follower of Jesus, I need to  

be able to evaluate where my concern and attention lie. As I’ve pondered this week’s media coverage it can be summarised for me by ‘a tale of 2 dentists.’ One that shamefully and cruelly killed Cecil the lion as some kind of trophy sport (boy, don’t we just know about it) and the other who has fled war between Islamic State and the Syrian Goverment who was fleetingly interviewed by the BBC on Thursday evening news. So breif was the interview that if you had blinked you would have missed it.  It’s not that his profession somehow brought about a sense of justification for seeking to live in the UK, what got me was the stark contrast of the hours of media coverage of a dentist who killed a lion and a dentist who is escaping killing.

The New Statesmen summarises this media slant by stating that this is plain and simple the power of de-humanisation. We have reached a point where animals are easier to identify with than so-called migrants

Please join me in praying for those that live in the ‘Jungle’ in Calais and the people who have had to escape the hell and brutality of war who are seeking help in the UK. 

I would like to do something to help other than pray, so if you know any church or volunteer groups who are helping people there please do get in touch and let me know and perhaps we can raise up a team to go and do something practical…