Watching the legendary footballer sobbing as he realized he had broken his Achilles tendon and would not make it to the World Cup, I felt real sadness. Not just for England’s World Cup chances but for the man himself, whose serene attitude exemplifies a kind of oneness at odds with the fractured celebrity-culture the Beckham “brand” paradoxically embodies.

It has not always been thus. His early wunderkind career was characterized by a brittleness that reached its Cavalry during the 1998 World Cup Finals when he was sent off for lashing out in a match against Argentina. He subsequently attracted much of the blame for England’s elimination from the competition. An effigy was hung of him outside a London pub and his performances were met with boos for years.

Yet in the face of this opprobrium the footballer transformed in to a figure of calm and fair play. He told the Guardian:

I could have done interview after interview to try to explain myself, but doing it on the pitch counts for more… In that sort of situation you can either go home and cry, which I felt like doing at times, or you can come out fighting… I worked hard at it, to get where I am today.  

Beckham is known for his rigorous training regime, commitment to the art of football. The multi-millionaire could have wound down his days at LA Galaxy were it not for his love of the game and desire to get in the England squad – hence his move to AC Milan to stay in shape, just as US players like Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan are seeing out the season in England’s Premier League.

One of the things I like about Beckham is how his marriage to “Posh” Spice Girl Victoria (in fact every bit as working class as him and raised down the road from me, as it happens) appears to have hardly changed him at all. He has cheerfully acquiesced to Victoria’s preoccupation with fashion, enjoyed it clearly too, adorning himself with tattoos like a Maori warrior, but has rarely sought the affirmation celebrities so often seek. He has nothing to prove, no interest, plainly, outside his commitment to his art. For all the Gucci trappings, David Beckham remains an “uncut block” bobbing along with the river’s flow.

Now of course he has hit the rocks, risks being pushed under – his very meaning called in to question. I hope however his inner-resilience, the sense of self he has cultivated through adversity will stand him in sufficient stead to weather the storm.

Back in the late 1990s, when he was approaching national pariah status, a church put up a sign reading

GOD EVEN FORGIVES BECKS

David would do well to reflect how true this turned out to be, and how a kind of resurrection remains within the grasp of us all.

And nothing was more divine than his call to be humble. Humbleness is closest to holiness.

The saying that the meek shall inherit the earth is easily misunderstood from a human perspective. At times when brutality and power triumph over the “little person” it is hard to see the sense of it. But with respect to humbleness in the sight of God it makes perfect sense. It actually serves to remind us that we are human, not perfect. We are not Gods.

I was reminded of this when I read about the execution of two young men in Iran for their part in the protests against the state, the planned hanging of another nine, with the promise of more on the way.

There is something particularly chilling about judicial murder, the attempt of a regime not to hide its sordid crimes but to actually legitimize them. The show trials in Tehran echo those of Stalin and Hitler, and in particular bring to mind Sophie Scholl and her friends – the young German students who peacefully protested against the Nazi regime and were tried and guillotined in 1943.

Wikipedia notes Sophie’s firm Christian belief in God and in every human being's essential dignity formed her basis for resisting Nazi ideology.

Meanwhile in present-day Tehran Ayatollah Ahmad Janati commented: May God not have mercy on those who are lenient with the corrupt on earth. There is no room for clemency. It is time for severity.

Judicial murder characterizes Utopian politics. From The Terror of Revolutionary France there is clear line of sight to present day Iran.

Certainly on the surface the fundamentally atheist France of Robespierre bears little resemblance to the Islamist fundamentalism of Ahmadinejad, but both are borne of Utopianism – the belief heaven can be built upon the earth. Yet whether it is in the name of Reason or God makes no difference – the deed must always be done by human hands, with the inevitable blood-soaked consequences.

Jesus saw this danger clearly. Time and again he emphasized our imperfect humanity, fallibility; our need therefore to be humble, meek. Not to cast the first stone. His was the authentic voice of God. The vengeful pronouncements of priests and politicians in the name of a higher authority are human, all too human.  

Perhaps, just perhaps, this declaration might one day be ranked with the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, or at least raise Manhattan to the equivalent historic significance to that of Boston.

We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.

We will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriage or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family.

We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral.

And there’s the rub, what makes this declaration by 125 Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox leaders, which Cranmer describes as quite possibly the most formidable ecumenical gathering in US history, consisting, as it does, of eminences, graces, archbishops, bishops, reverends (most and right), professors, doctors, pastors, presidents, CEOs, deans, directors, founders, editors, not to mention a 'TV Host' and the 'National Facilitator of Spiritual Unity so depressing.

Step back, if you will for a moment, spiritually-liberal reader. Although it sometimes feels like a lifetime, it is not nearly a decade since 9/11, yet how the psyche of society seems to have changed. Religion – organised, orthodox religion – rose phoenix-like from the ashes of the Twin Towers, and not just militant Islam. The totalitarians of all faiths were given a fillip by that ultimate act of impotence and rage.

Writing in the Jerusalem Post Neo-Conservative Daniel Pipes recently referred to the rise of what he termed “Islamism 1.5”, which he defined as an unholy alliance of hard-line preachers acting within the law abetted by terrorists, who they would be of course careful to distance themselves from.

We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral.

The Declaration provides a green light to the abortion-clinic shooter.

It eggs on the homophobic killer; the gunman who recently murdered two at Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church and said he acted because he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement… he would then target those that had voted them into office.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”