中英双语新闻 由影子内阁重组所想到的忠诚问题

Good morning. All the talk this week about the Shadow Cabinet reshuffle has made me think a lot about loyalty 1. We invoke 2 loyalty frequently as a virtue 3 and yet it’s complex and multi-layered. On Wednesday at a store checkout 4 I was asked if I had a loyalty card. Our preference for a particular supermarket hardly compares with our loyalty to family or friends. Some writers on the subject argue that loyalty is only properly due to a person or group of people, and when we say we’re loyal to our principles or convictions we’re mistaking loyalty for commitment.

Perhaps, but language like life, isn’t always very tidy. Most of us live with multiple loyalties 5 of different intensity 6 – to marriage partners, colleagues, causes and ideals. Without such loyalties, life would seem empty of meaning. Some of our loyalties may go deep but the strength of them can puzzle others. Think of sport and especially football. In my childhood in Cornwall I chose to support Crewe Alexandra, largely because they kept coming bottom of the Third Division North and I thought they needed my juvenile 7 help. In 1960 the whole team sent me their autographs. They probably didn’t get asked too often. My loyalty was tested when Crewe regularly played Norwich City in my early years here. Now that Norwich are in the Premiership and Crewe bottom of League One no such conflicts arise.

We live reasonably easily with those sorts of divided loyalties. Others are much more testing. I remember someone caught between his loyalty to his company and a job he loved, and his wife. He’d been offered his dream post in America but his wife wouldn’t go. She asked him to choose between that appointment and her. He chose his marriage but it didn’t last. How our loyalty is demanded has a big impact on us. Loyalty doesn’t create love. But love, affection, gratitude 8: these breed our deepest loyalties.

It’s surprising in the gospels that the disciples 9 are sometimes shown as disloyal to Jesus. It’s not just Judas. Think of Simon Peter. He denied he even knew Jesus. And he did so three times. At least he had the decency 10 to burst into tears afterwards, ashamed of himself. Later, he’s forgiven when Jesus asks him, also three times, “Do you love me?” It’s this once disloyal character who turns out to be the rock on whom the Church is built. We’re tempted 11 to regard personal disloyalty as almost unforgiveable. Yet sometimes we learn most from our worst errors of judgement. It’s called being human.

早上好，本周一直在讨论的影子内阁重组问题让我对忠诚这个话题想了很多，我们经常把忠诚看作一种美德，但它是复杂多面的。周三在一个商店结账时，店员问我是否有“忠诚卡”(优惠卡)，我们对某个超市的偏爱根本无法好我们对家人或朋友的忠诚相提并论。一些作家对此撰文，声称忠诚只是针对一个人或一群人的，当我们说自己忠诚于原则或信念时，我们错误地把忠诚当做信守承诺了。

可能如此吧，但语言就像生活那样，并不总是很有条理的。我们大多数人对于伴侣、同事、事业和理想都保持着不同程度的忠诚，没有这样的忠诚，生活似乎了无意趣。我们对一些东西的忠诚度可能较深，但其强度可能会令他人迷惑。想想体育运动吧，尤其是足球，小时候在康沃尔我选择支持克鲁足球俱乐部，这在很大程度上是因为他们在北三联赛中总是名列最末，我想他们会需要我这个少年的支持。1960年整个球队给我送了他们的签名，可能很少人向他们要过签名。在我年少时，每次克鲁队和诺维奇城队比赛时，我的忠诚都得到了考验。现在诺维奇城参加英超比赛，克鲁在英甲联赛垫底，所以我已经没有了这样的纠结了。

有着各种事物不同的忠诚度，日子还算轻松，但有的时候很考验人，我记得有人在对公司的忠诚和对所爱工作之间纠结，他得到梦想的在美国的职位，但他的妻子不想去。她要他在这个职位和她之间进行选择，他选择了婚姻，但这场婚姻却不长久。我们如何表现自己的忠诚会对我们产生巨大的影响，忠诚不会带来爱，但爱、感情、感激，所有这些能滋生我们最深厚的忠诚。

让人吃惊的是在《福音书》里信徒们有时对耶稣不忠，我不是说犹大，想想西蒙·彼得，他甚至否认认识耶稣，他这样做了三次。至少他最后能得体地落泪，为自己感到羞愧。后来，耶稣也问了他三次，“你爱我吗？”然后就宽恕了他。正是这个一度不忠诚的人后来成了垫在教堂下的石头。我们总是容易将个人的不忠诚视作不可原谅的事，然而有时我们能从失误最严重的判决里学到的最多，这就是人性。