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Last weekend, a 41-year-old man died at the Big Church Festival in West Sussex after a large sign fell at the site. At least six other people were injured, the festival was brought to a close, and police and the Health and Safety Executive are now investigating what happened.
It is an awful, tragic story. A man went to a festival and did not come home. Somewhere there is a family trying to comprehend that, friends who were expecting to see him again, and people who witnessed what happened and will probably replay it in their minds for a long time.
Before anything else, there is simply a human tragedy.
And yet, as news of what had happened began appearing online, I noticed something else. Almost immediately, some people seemed to see not a dead man, but an opportunity. Because the event was a Christian festival, some of the comments turned into jokes about Christianity, prayer, God, or the supposed foolishness of those who had chosen to attend.
I probably should not have been surprised, but I was. There is something particularly upsetting about watching someone else’s tragedy being processed first through the question of which tribe they belonged to.
I have found myself wondering whether we are becoming increasingly good at doing this. Not simply disagreeing with one another, but seeing categories before we see people.
A Christian dies, and some people see Christianity. An immigrant commits a crime, and some people see immigration. A disabled person receives financial support, and some people see benefits. A Muslim does something terrible, and some people see Islam. A politician makes a mistake, and people who dislike the party sometimes seem almost pleased.
The individual disappears remarkably quickly.
