Love is the Spur

“Geoffrey Bingham was awarded the Military Medal for acts of outstanding courage during the Malaya campaign of the Second World War. In one incident on 11th February 1942, surrounded by the enemy, Bingham led several men in a successful counter attack. Not long after this Bingham joined many of his comrades in the unexpected humiliation of sitting out the rest of the war as a prisoner. ‘Love Is the Spur’ is the story of how Bingham and his friends, suffering in the degrading conditions of Changi and Kranji prison camps, began to seek answers to the core motivations for being and action. A transformation occurred as these men began to draw on the resources of a Presence outside themselves. Bingham goes on to tell of his experiences as a returned prisoner-of-war. The society at home had not struggled with the ethical issues thrust on the war prisoners. There was disillusionment at times as he tried to share what he had learned. ‘I believed,’ writes Bingham, ‘that what we had learned about authentic community was at the heart of the gospel of love.’ Geoffrey Bingham is now 85. As a farmer, a journalist, a writer, a minister, a missionary and a theologian, he continues to share the inspiration of authentic community, and the immense power of such communities ‘to be with and serve all humanity.'”