15.0 Shropshire to Fareham.
86 Move To Snailbeach
This event with KK enabled me to make up my mind. After all the Bierton Chris’s and now this I felt it reasonable to consider moving to another area and Church. I looked to God to open up the way.
About that time I had heard there was a minister called Peter Hallihand who was a Baptist pastor of a church in Shropshire and he also was a representative of the Trinitarian Bible Society and he was preaching at a meeting in Dunstable. Mr. Oldham of Leicester had also spoke well of him.
I went to hear him preach and shortly afterward we decided to visit him in Shropshire to outline our position. It was soon evident to me that if the church where Peter Hallihand was the pastor was in Bierton I would feel it right to be joining the Lordshill Church but we lived in Bierton and this Church was in Snailbeach, Shropshire. We both felt persuaded the we should move house and change job if the Lord will and move to Snailbeach to join the church. I felt if God was directing us this way I must make the moves and the way would be opened up to us.
We advertised the house for £97, 500 but dropped the price in to £92,000 in order to sell. We were able to buy a three bedroom bungalow for £37,000 cash in Snailbeach, Shropshire. We moved in January 1986 to and joined the church shortly afterwards. We were both very hopeful expectant and looked to God for support.
I still worked at Luton and travelled there each Monday morning and returned to Snailbeach at the weekend. I stayed with Steven Royce and his family during the week and travelled home at weekends. I had hopes to obtain a lecturing job in one of the colleges in Shropshire.
I was shortly after this that my agony began or should I say got worse. I never did get work in Shropshire and it never happened. I had attended three interviews at three colleges but failed to get any of the jobs I wondered what God was doing.
That year I missed out on my first promotion at work because they understood I was intending to move away. This knowledge all added to the aggravation I later began to feel.
During this time I experienced awful agonies of fear and doubts etc. I began to believe I was like King Saul and the Lord had rejected me. I began to think that all my experience of God was of the flesh and not of God. I felt alone isolated and very depressed. Depression set in and Steven Royce from that time began to call me Mephibosheth who had gone to live at Lo-debar. ( when I look back that was a very good description of my situation and position).
My wife also became very depressed and suffered all kinds of agonies. On a number of occasions she would ring me at work crying about the difficulties she faced. Isaac was being bullied severely and she couldn’t cope. She felt hostility from some in the church and did not know how to manage. It all became too much.
I stayed at the Royce’s for a period of 18 months during the week whilst I worked at Luton College and travelled home to Shropshire at the weekend. I hated the journey and very often on the way back to work on a Monday morning I would have to stop and seek God for strength to continue. I was feeling so ill through depression.
It was during this time I was asked to become a trade Union member and the correspondence we had will help shine light on my thought processes at that time .
87 Trade Union Activity
In February 1985 I was asked to join the trades union Natfhe ( I had not joined as a matter of principle which I have opportunity to explain in these letters) and here is the letter asking me to join. The significance of this letter will become apparent when I write about my forced resignation under threat of dismissal at Luton College in 1989. It was the Trade Union NATFHE who acted in the interest of the Union in negotiating my terms of resignation.
Dear Dave,
As a membership secretary for NATFHE I am writing to you to suggest that you might consider joining the union.
At present education is under attack as a part of the public sector of the economy, and although it is true that as lecturers we have a special interest in being opposed to reductions in educational provision, we can make also a case against these particular reductions in expenditure on more altruistic and objective grounds.
However, although NATFHE is involved in a great many ways in attempts to be a positive influence in education, I would be misleading you if I did not say that our trade union functions were fundamental to our existence.
For the immediate future, these trade union functions are going to include defending jobs, the conditions under which we teach, and as a spin-off the quality of the courses that we offer. ( not to be under-estimated).
In any attempt to increase student staff rations this is always at risk, even if not a certainty, that working conditions can degenerate and become a breach of the agreements made between the Local Educational Authority, (our real employer remember, not the college) and NATFHE. We must be prepared to resist such moves where possible. Our policy must be to preserve the quality of the courses and the work that we do. Naive and simplistic assumptions that raising SSR’s equals more efficiency, need serious questioning. It smacks of “never mind the quality feel the width”. The way in which efficiency is defined requires questioning.
If compulsory redundancy is proposed for any member of NATFHE our policy is to defend that member of the union. Of course, if a none - NATFHE member of staff is threatened with redundancy, then we cannot be enthusiastic about defending that person on a personal basis ( unless it has repercussions for our own members) . Indeed if there is any suggestion that a NATFHE member is to be compulsory redundant we would have to insist that the LEA’s human sacrifice would have to be drawn from the list of non-NATFHE lecturers. Any union has to take the position of “hands off our members” it is its job to do this.
But not only do you have to think of self preservation but also of your colleagues’ positions. Will you be able to oppose a bad policy when directed against other people and act in what you might consider a fair reasonable way, simply by standing alone ? That I leave to you.
For some staff the way in which the Union works is not totally understood and we intent in the near future to issue explanatory notes to make this clear to members. We known that communication can be improved.
I hope that you will now seriously consider joining our ranks and push the proportion of membership above the existing Photo of 91.5 % of full-time staff.
Yours fraternally
88 My Reply To Nathfe Union
5/2/85
and was as follows
Dear Roy,
Re: NATFHE
Thank you for your letter in respect of me joining NATFHE. I can see and understand your points of concern. However I am not a member of the union because of a matter of principle.
I fear God and am a Christian. If I were a member I would, as a matter of conviction, be obliged to contend against all actions, which were opposed to Christ and morality. This is not my calling as a lecturer.
My protection, in respect to my work, is by the hand of the living God. I know also if my colleagues were that concerned they too might seek divine protection, through Christ Jesus, as I do my self. It is He that watches over me and if according to his command I loose my job then who am I to resist the living God.
If you like I could speak on this subject to all the members at national local and national level. I would also be prepared to debate or answer criticism of those that feel the need to do so.
Yours Sincerely,
David Clarke.
I was quite surprised to receive further correspondence on the same subject and it make interesting reading
Dear
David, 5/3/85
Thank you for extending the curtsey of a reply to my note to you.
I understand the position you take in your letter. Of course, in the end it has to be a matter of personal conviction which will decide the matter of union membership and for you this is a stronger factor than for others, what I do not wish to do is of course create a clash of loyalties and principles for any one with genuine misgivings. In the end it will have to be your decision, so anything that I write here is done knowing that fact.
Not knowing the exact religious sect to which you belong I am at some disadvantage in the questions which I would pose to you. They might not seem to be addressing themselves to the points which to you are the most crucial.
However, I gather that you accept the notion of Predestination by saying that if you lose your job this would be “according to His command”
Please explain to me why the act of joining a union might not be counted as being determined by the living God, for how can one event be regarded differently from another in this way ?
This might be particularly relevant if the job loss results from a central Government policy inspired by Monetarism, a creed that the market of capital should dominate the lives of people. Did not Jesus have something to say about the money changers in the temple? Is it a negation of God’s work to be opposing the evil of the destruction educational opportunity for people. Why is it that a struggle against powers that wish to make worse the lives of people is seen in some way as not carrying out God’s work whereas the actions of those damaging education is seen to be an act of God ?
Although as a child I was Christened as a Congregationalist I became one who rejected the idea of God because fearing God did not make sense. To do some thing because I feared the consequences of not seemed to be abandoning one’s human responsibility. Imagine the mass-murderers of the Nazi Regime claiming that they were carrying out Gods work. Of course this is an extreme case I put but it raises the point in an extreme way that personal judgements needs to be exercised in some cases and the act of exercising that judgement might be fulfilling God’s intention. Surely there can be an active interpretation of predetermination as well as a passive one ?
Anyway, if you resolve to maintain your position then it is your decision. At least I felt that your letter deserved some reply,
Yours Sincerely,
Rot Bride.
PS One member of staff has decided to pay equivalent to the annual subscription to the Teacher’s Benevolent Fund, instead of joining.
89 Reply To The Natfhe
I felt it right to reply to Roy and give further answers to his questions as clearly he was not saved and had by his own admission turned away from God. I felt it an Ideal opportunity to speak of God’s sovereignty and love in Jesus Christ. Here is my reply:
Dear Roy
Re: Our correspondence in respect of NATFHE
Thank you for your letter of the 5 th February. I am most intrigued by you response and am pleased you have given the consideration you have to my views, even though I think you may think me a little niaive.
Without wishing to be too personal or cause offence directly may I take the liberty to answer some of you points? It mat possibly be the means of enlightenment, to you, in respect of divine predestination and mans responsibility.
Yes I do believe, absolutely , in divine predestination as you put it; If by that you mean the end of all things is determined, therefore the means to that end are also determined. I would confess to believing the scripture, which states that God has determined all things, and all things come to pass according to His predetermined purpose. That our being made, of created, is for God’s own glory and pleasure. Acts 2. verse 23. and Rev. 4 verse 11.
That God has chosen some of the human race to obtain salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and left others to answer divine justice for their sins. Eph. 1 verse 4-5 and Jude 1 verse 4 and Rom. 9 verse 14-20.
In all this the glory of God is great, for we have a display of the everlasting love of Go; the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. A love which is unchangeable and sovereign in its bestowment. God loving some and not all ( contrary to popular belief) Rom. 9 verse 13-16. The reason for this love has nothing to do with what is found in the sinner, for this choice is without respect to actions done or capable of being done. In fact the choice was before the foundation of the world. Peter 1 verse 2 and Eph. 1 verse 4.
If it were based upon merit none could be saved, therefore it is a choice through grace alone not based upon works. Thus salvation is received by faith and not through or deeds of merit. Rom. 4 verse 16. That respect to these chosen all things work together for their good. That industrial strife, famine, unemployment, sickness, death, in fact all evil, work together for their eternal goo. That these things are set of God to us that we will learn not to rest in our selves but rather cause us to seek our all in him and depend entirely upon that which he has promised us in his own divine word. Rom. 8 verse 35. word.
In respect to our responsibilities: I agree with you we are responsible to do those things, which are right and sensible for our own preservation. And if needs be oppose evils and fight for those things which are right and proper. Nor only for our selves but for the coming generation but all in the bounds of, “If possible live at peace with all men”.
I do not how ever by this mean we should be stupid and allow as you rightly refer to the point of the Nazi oppression, to vanquish all that opposed their Idealism. In fact any such system, whether it be communism, socialism, capitalism or any other ‘ism should be resisted if it adopts those flaws common to corrupted human nature. I therefore say to you, since you appeal to scripture as a basis to oppose Monetarism and claim educational opportunity; suggesting that this is a work of God. Then use the whole of scripture to govern all your policies and by this means I might be inclined to help.
I would suggest the following and give this to you to consider :
1) Never engage in a fight unless it be a righteous cause. ( God is on the side of the righteous)
2) That the battle be one you think you can win. ( In which case God might be sought in prayer and divine aid is asked for).
3) Consider whether God has called you to fight the battle. (In which case there will be principles taught clearly in the scripture).
4) Consider whether the men you fight with are reliable and moved by the same principles and convictions ( a divided army or kingdom is not lightly to win any battle).
5 Fight with all you might for the righteous will hold on his way.
I am fully aware of the Nazi Regime and also the connection with the Roman Catholic Church. Also that the basis of the Third Reich was upon Jesuitical principles ( See the secret History of the Jesuits, Edmund Paris) Not only so but Hitler and Mussolini were both sons of the Catholic Church and so the scripture is fulfilled in that the blood of prophets and of the saints and all the slain upon the earth was found in her ( the Roman Catholic Church). Rev 17-18 verse 24.
My question to you is do you think your contention with monetarism is a holy war ?
I believe a holy war is directed against any that oppose Christ and His Church. Not one ‘ism against Monetarism as you call it. I tell you if I believed this policy of Government were opposed to Christ in this matter of educational cuts then according to my five point plan I would engage in the battle. That if I found none with me I would fight alone, just like David who fought Goliath, and like Samson who slew a 1000 men with the jaw bone of an ass. But I would not fight of join hands with Apostates, atheists, unbelievers or heretics for these would be in the way and could not wield the weapons of truth.
You suggest, might it be according to the will and purpose of God to join the union to fulfil his purpose. To which I answer he would direct me to do so and I would know that calling in the same way I know my name is written in the Lamb’s book of life that I am saved, my sins being forgiven me and I have divine protection. This knowledge I would derive from the scriptures of truth as I employ my reason to biblical principles and walk according to the faith once delivered unto the saints.
You tentatively inquire to what sect of Christendom I belong ?. May be you might review you knowledge of these sect and find a place for me, I would certainly be interested to see which group I am pigeon holed.
Yours very Sincerely,
David Clarke
14/2/85.
90 Recollection Union Views
It is only now as I write this account, when I look back on these things I am beginning to learn some of the lessons I had believed in my head but not proved by actual experience of knowing God in the very depths of ones souls agony.
I now believe the NATHFE union are a valuable functioning body and I have no problem in supporting and being a member of such a union. This is because they have thrashed out with Management rule of conduct which if employed can result in very fair dealings with members. I think Union services should be offered free to no-members. This I think would enlist more members.