Fighting for peace: Tony Benn at Charities Parliament
Lots of MPs public careers end badly but Tony Benn seems to have gone from strength to strength getting wiser with each passing year.
He is one of Britain's most popular politicians and we were privileged enough to to have him attend Charities Parliament on the 13th of September for a jam-packed discussion on peace.
Tony shared with the 250 strong crowd representing NGOs and activists from across London and beyond about what keeps him going in his fight for peace.
"Human progress is made possible by two flames burning in the human heart, the flame of anger against injustice like war and the flame of hope you can build a better world."
It made me think how often we get angry about the wrong things. It also made me think about what in our wildest dreams we hope for as people of faith. Are we rallying around the right causes? Shouldn't peace be something that unites us more than it currently does? Every generation has a blind spot. I fear that ours may be our inability to act in unity against the injustices of war.
Tony left us with these words: "If people organise and campaign it is possible to win arguments; history shows us that that is how progress is made." Perhaps we could follow in the footsteps of Tony Wedgwood Benn and the great pacifist our saviour Jesus Christ and spend a little more time campaigning for peace in our world.
Pete Brierley, Faithworks