The Complex Christ | Signs of Emergence

Clinton? Obama? McCain? This Guy Gets My Vote...

Thanks so much to Shane and his people for sending me a copy of his new book, written with Chris Haw, Jesus for President. It's gorgeous to look at and hold, fabulously designed, and perfectly balanced between seriousness and playfulness... starting with the title. Why can't every Christian book be like this? I just hope people get it, and read it thoroughly as they think about the coming US elections.

Worst case scenario: Shane gets asked to be Obama's advisor on something. As Campolo is quoted in the book: "Mixing the church and state is like mixing ice cream and cow manure . It may not do much to the manure, but it sure messes up the ice cream." Stay pure and creamy Shane!

Check http://www.jesusforpresident.org for details / reviews / news.

Technorati: Claiborne | Don Carson | Jesus for President | Politics | Poverty | Power | puppy

Saviour Sibling?

A bill regarding the use of human embryos is currently passing through parliament at the moment, and, naturally, causing a huge amount of debate. One piece on the BBC caught my ear the other morning - a Bishop was asked what he thought about the creation of so-called 'saviour siblings': human beings created for the sole purpose of saving another. And I thought, this is going to be interesting, how is a Christian going to respond to that?

He didn't go there of course, but it remains a difficult area of theology: is Jesus just a 'saviour sibling'?

Technorati: Embryo | Saviour Sibling

"If It's On Google, Why Teach It?" | Intel | Education

At a recent education conference I was at, one of the big-wigs at Intel gave a keynote about the future of technology and education. He talked about Moore's law, and some of the probable developments in educational tools, and also about the effect connectivity is having / will have on our lives.

Holding up his Smartphone, he gushed 'look at this thing! Who a couple of years ago would have thought that I would be able to have 300 emails waiting for me on a mobile device this size!'

And I thought, 'who the hell would want to have thought that?'

But it was one comment that interested me in particular. 'If it's on Google,' he said, 'why teach it?' And I just thought that displayed perhaps the poorest understanding of education, and technology's place within it, I have ever heard.

Just yesterday, as I sat reading in the evening light, the laptop shut, kids in bed after a day in the park, I pondered this.
Books and people make me a better person, I thought; the internet does not.

I think this is something to do with space and time. It is not internet access people need to be educated.
It is space and time to think and read and talk to people, and to be guided by a teacher. One cannot educate children by loading them with a smartcard pre-loaded with information. One might as well say 'If it's in the Bible, why preach it?' But that's a whole different can of worms.

Technorati: Education | Google | Intel | Smartphone

The Final Word on Politics, The Credit Squeeze, Iraq, Boris and Everything...

A wonderful letter in today's Independent:

Sir: After a decade in which the electorate have been treated like idiots; when alternative political visions became a thing of the past and voting became a choice between different sets of accountants or fund managers; when a prime minister takes us into a catastrophic war based on lies, and is not held accountable, when the terrible results of the most obscene and idiotic schemes of greedy financiers are called a "credit squeeze", the people of London elect a celebrated fool.

This is either a fascinating piece of knowing irony or it is the completion of something far more disturbing.

Hear, hear, Mr Curtis of Nottingham, though, despite irony permeating every bloody area of life and sapping its blood, I increasingly fear it is the latter that is true.

I recall something from a review of a work by Kundera:

"In a world where everyone, in order to attract attention, turns somersaults, the man who stands on his own feet will be taken for an acrobat."

We need these tricksters, with their feet firmly on the ground.

Dear Boris...

It looks like you're going to win.

One simple message, from a city that in the last 8 years has got greener, more tolerant, more vibrant and taken radical steps to improve public transport:

Don't

Fuck

This

Up.



Please excuse my language, but this is a place I care about deeply, which is genuinely at risk from a racist, snobbish, reactionary buffoon who couldn't run a solo silent retreat.

I'm off to Bristol to sulk.

Technorati: Boris Johnson | London

Cans Festival | Get Your Stencils Ready

"A street party of stencil art"

Leake Street, London Waterloo. 3-5th May.

Technorati: London

So What's Worse...?

Your one-time minister saying some outrageous things about 9/11,
or being married to a man who had his cigar smoked in the Oval Office?

I don't get it - surely Bill should be the persona non grata on the campaign trail?

Technorati: Clinton | Obama

Don't Piss About London: Vote Ken Or The Monkey Gets It.

London goes to the polls this week. While the rest of the country has local council elections, London votes for its Mayor. It's the biggest directly-elected budget-holding post in the UK: £13 billion annually to spend, employing 103,000 people and a £39billion transport investment programme over the next 10 years.. And there are some massively key decisions to make which will impact on London for generations: the nature of the cross-rail project, the renewal of the contracts for the modernisation of the Tube...

And people are still seriously thinking of voting for Boris Johnson? Don't piss about London - this is serious.

Let's be clear - I really like Johnson. He's very funny, and articulate on TV. But he's simply no idea, or experience, of the complexity of running of major urban economy. The biggest job he's previously held is editor of The Spectator. While doing so he gave a lot of support and work to one Andrew Gilligan. Gilligan currently works on the Evening Standard, and has spent the past 17 weeks writing the most vitriolic attacks on the current Mayor, Ken Livingstone. The Evening Standard is the only proper London evening newspaper, and their hugely biased campaign has been disgusting.

Ken is no angel - he likes a drink, and a couple of his people have been less than perfect - but Boris would wilt in a day under the same scrutiny. Boris is:

• prone to terrible gaffes, mostly on the issue of race. Not what you need in the most diverse city in Europe.

• a political chameleon, who has u-turned his way through elections since his student days.

• a useless economist, who has screwed up the figures on his flag-ship transport joke policy.

• given to violence. It is well known he offered to sort out 'disposing of' someone who had offended a friend.

So, London, don't piss about here. If you live in London, explore the issues properly and I'm sure you'll Vote Ken, and put Green at number two. The Boris joke is over. We need more than a monkey in charge. And if you know someone who lives here, make sure you tell them to get out and do something sensible with their ballot.

Technorati: Boris Johnson | Evening Standard | Gilligan | Ken Livingstone | London | Mayor

The New Conspirators

There are lots of reasons why you really should go and buy Tom Sine's new book 'The New Conspirators', and none of them are that it's got a quote from me telling you to on the back.

One of them would be that I think it's the best looking Christian book I've seen for ages. Really good design work. Unfortunately, the US version is the usual pap, so you'll have to go direct to Paternoster and get the one that'll properly grace your shelves.

Another would be that Tom Sine is a genuinely incredible person. Carson can talk about 'Becoming Conversant With the Emerging Church', and others can prattle on about the emerging conversation; Sine actually is conversant with a massive number of people from around the world. When he tells stories, people ought to listen.

When the great book of life is opened, some would see it that it'll be the stellar Christians like Mclaren, Baker, Rollins and Wallis who should get all the plaudits. I wouldn't want to take anything away from any of them, but quietly, 'one mustard seed at a time' Tom has been actually inspiring people to do the stuff. It's a quiet, background role, perhaps, but I think if you could trace the significance of his words and actions through all the things that have happened because of them, you'd have quite an amazing list. Vaux certainly owes him its existence in many ways.

So go buy the book and get some low down on the real stuff people are doing beyond the spun-sugar of so much else that markets itself as the emerging conversation. And you'll have a nice looking cover to boot too.

Technorati: Carson | Sine | Rollins

Clinton Defaults to Conflict: This is Washington, not Hollywood

"One of the things that makes Mrs Clinton so psychologically fascinating is her tendency to portray everthing in terms of conflict and confrontation. And one of the characteristics that makes her so interesting politically is that she is a much better candidate when things are going badly than when they are going well." From BBC News.

This is precisely why I think you Americans should not vote for Clinton. When she says in an interview that she would completely destroy Iran if they attacked Israel, her rhetoric is getting dangerous. It is highly unwise politics to threaten another nation in order to win votes in your own.

The world does not need another US President who defaults to conflict. It's fine in Hollywood: the victim finds their metal and fights back. It's just not good enough if the White House is going to be a force for good.

"America deserves a President who doesn't quit." Perhaps Hillary, but it also needs one who knows when stopping fighting is for the greater good.

Go vote Obama.