The Complex Christ | Signs of Emergence

New MA at Kings

Kings College have a new MA which they wondered if I'd be happy to flag up, which I am.

It's in 'Politics, Theology and Faith-Based Organisations', and you can read more about it in the doc attached below.

The Nicene Creed | Constantine and the Beginnings of Power Religion

Last April, in the build-up to Easter, I posted a series of thoughts about Jesus and Paul's journeys toward Jerusalem, and the very different attitudes they took when arrested there. I argued that in Paul's 'strategising' to get himself to Rome, we see the conception of power-Christianity, which perhaps came to full birth with the rise of Constantine and his assimilation of Christianity as a political and military tool.

For those interested in exploring this further, I highly recommend listening to this episode of the fantastic BBC programme 'In Our Time', which discusses the Nicene Creed. What's fascinating is how this statement of faith was actually itself a set of statements designed to allow certain Bishops to 'sign up' to the view of faith Constantine wanted. It was 'delicate theology and robust politics.'

As such, it too is couched in politically loaded language, and thus, as the contributors point out, a creed that helped move Christianity from a religion of peace, to one of war and power; from a 'sea of boats all moving on their own tacks generally toward belief in Jesus, to one mothership, which demanded this creed as a boarding pass.

As you may know, the council was called in part to deal with the 'Arian Heresy', and Arius himself became a figure of hate in the Church. He died in a public toilet as his bowels exploded, and the church later set up a statue of him on that site, encouraging people to piss and shit on him. Nice touch that. Just what Jesus would have done.

 

Crazy for God | Frank Schaeffer at Greenbelt 08

"I'd rather be arrested for shoplifting than ever be an evangelical leader again. There was a certain basic and decent honesty about stealing pork chops that selling God had lacked."

It's only March, I know, but I'll put a punt on Crazy for God still being one of my top 5 books of 2008 in December.

The subtitle, "How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back", pretty much sums the book up nicely. Frank is, of course, the son of the massively influential Christian leader Francis Schaeffer, who was a profound influence on my parents and their generation's view of faith. Francis Schaeffer set up 'L'Abri' in Switzerland where everyone who was anyone hung out at some point in the 60's. The Rolling Stones, Led Zep, Os Guinness and every other star in the Christian constellation all passed by there to argue faith and culture with Francis and the L'Abri workers.

While Frank skiied, avoided school, hit on the scores of girls who passed through and scored with plenty of them, and his right hand too. This is what makes Crazy for God such a refreshing read: here's someone from the true Christian royalty actually telling it like it is, with all the sex drugs and rock and roll edited in. If you don't want the honest truth about a teenager helping a disabled friend jack off, praying for him to be healed by emptying a jar of oil over his head and ruining his clothes in the process, then this book isn't for you.

But if, like so many in the emerging movement, you've wrestled with your parents' faith, wildly oscillated between crazed commitment - and Frank does a very good job outlining how he did set up the Religious Right, and exactly what he thinks of it now - and total rejection, then you'll absolutely love it. Indeed, as the US heads into election fever again I'd say this should be required reading for all who are looking for their candidate to back up their faith perspective. Here's a book by someone who really knows, and has really been through it: extraordinary childhood, celebrity, acclaimed artist, teenage father, Hollywood director, jet-setting evangelical speaker... and he gave it all up, and had so much taken away, and did end up stealing pork chops.

It's a genuine laugh-out-loud read, moving, committed and written like the proper novelist he is (and if you haven't read Portofino, you must) and I'm really excited that he's agreed to come to Greenbelt this summer. That's reason enough to get your ticket now, before the March discount deadline ends.

Technorati: Francis Schaeffer | Frank Schaeffer | Religious Right

Sort it out gays - stop destroying earth!

The Telegraph reported recently that an Israeli MP has blamed the recent spate of earthquakes in the Middle East on gays. The Knesset has recently repealed various laws about homosexuality, and this created the siesmic events.

Gays were also to blame for flooding in Britain last year, according to one Bishop, and one might also argue that with their thrusting steel tubes penetrating and bringing down two of America's largest twin erections, 9/11 was some sort of twisted stunt to highlight the destructive power of gay love, a judgement on liberal America, if you will.

So sort it out gay people - we don't want more floods and earthquakes and terror attacks! Stop it!

The Mergees - Sort it out Emergent, We Want an Award Ceremony

So the Oscars have been wept along to, and we've had the BAFTAs and the BRITs and the Grammys... I think people are missing a trick here. Come on Emergent, give us an award ceremony! We demand a tacky hotel and venue, with numbered tables, free alcohol and cut away shots to Andrew Jones as he shuffles when the Lifetime Achievement category approaches!

Someone should design a gong... I reckon a brass cast of a tea light should do it.

And the award for Best Use of a Video Projector in a Badly Lit Space goes to...

Further categories and nominations welcome. The 'Mergees' start here...

Technorati: BAFTA | Emergent | Oscars | TSK

What Are The 'Grand Challenges' for Theology for the 21st Century?

Wired reported a couple of days ago on the conclusions of Google co-founder Larry Page's working group on improving life on earth, and the list of '14 Grand Engineering Challenges of the 21st Century'. They included things like making solar energy affordable, reverse-engineering the brain and providing energy from fusion. Energy, quality of life, quantity of life, in summary.

This got me thinking: what might a list of the grand theological challenges of the next 100 years look like? Well, I'm no Larry Page, but I mailed out a bunch of people in my address book, texted and called a few others, and had lunch with one, asking them, very simply, what they thought should be on the list.

Actually, not that simply. Because I also asked if they thought whether such a list could even be created. Page's list is more simple: science - our knowledge of our physical world - does progress. We have better materials and technologies than we used to. But has our understanding of God actually moved forward? Or do people simply dig ever-deeper into their rutted positions?

So what did people say? You can find the unexpurgated version here, but, edited down a little:

Brian Maclaren (writer) Grappling with Jesus' good news of the kingdom of God, realizing how it differs from the popular Western gospel of "how to go to heaven after you die and be happy and successful until then.

Nic Hughes (designer) I wish that someone, some group, something, somewhere would develop a theological project that captured the imagination. All the good ideas are elsewhere. Cross-discipline theological labs please?

Vanessa Elston (teacher) In very basic terms how do we move from a reformation/protestant/enlightenment emphasis on the salvation of the individual to one of communal participation in salvation.

So This Is What The World Wants: One Dimensional Men? | Bartlett and Williams

As the Archbishop heads for Synod this afternoon to defend himself and, according to some exaggerated reports, save his job, I've been mulling over exactly why he has been under such pressure for his comments on Sharia Law. Even the shallowest examination of him as a man would reveal a hugely intelligent thinker and a thoroughly, deeply spiritual life. Why would such a man want the UK to come under Sharia Law and start 'stoning women', as the tabloids would have it?

His words have been twisted out of all recognition of course. And yet pundits line up to judge that he has been foolish - of course his words have been twisted. Everyone's are. Which is why people say nothing. And thus runs the plot tension of a whole stack of West Wing episodes: Bartlett knows what should be said, but is advised he can't. Then at the last minute a way is found that he can, and all is good. In other words, we know this stuff should be said, and feel good when it is on TV, so what is stopping people talking intelligently in the public domain?

I tried to touch on this in the book. I think Marcuse's analysis in One Dimensional Man is really good. He writes that there are basically three ways that the dominant powers push people down - flatten them into nicely manageable one-dimensional beings. All three ways are lies, and they run like this:

The first lie: "Things are too big and complicated for you to be able to change them. Things have gone too far to change anyway."

The second lie: "If you do try to change things, you'll be risking all you've got - your own status and position and financial security."

The third lie: "And if you still persist in taking these big topics on, and are prepared to pay the cost, people will just laugh at you."

These are the main reasons why people simply don't do anything: it'll cost me, it's too big, people will laugh. And it's been interesting to note how these three lies have been spun out to attack the Archbishop. 'You don't understand enough about Sharia Law / Islam / the legal system to comment'. 'You're foolish for speaking out - don't you know you'll be putting your job at risk?' 'What a Burkha' etc.

But what is more interesting to note are the groups of people spinning them. As a general rule it's been legal pundits, the broadsheet media and more right-leaning politicians who've spun the first, the church and more left-leaning politicians who've spun the second, and the tabloid media who've spun the third.

What have all these people got in common? Something precious to lose. And this is the nub of the whole furore: in a country under tension from immigration, from European integration, people feel their identities are under threat. And what is perceived as the last bastion of Englishness? Our own legal system with its wigs and theatrics. The political right and the jurists are afraid of losing this precious control over how to tell people what is right and wrong, the religious right are afraid of Britain straying further away from hard-line evangelicalism, the political left are still frightened they won't be taken seriously and will lose their hold on power, and the tabloid media poke fun and stir up a storm to sell papers.

None of them are really interested in what Dr Williams had to say - which was a quite brilliant and brave talk on culture, belonging and identity. Not because they have no interest in it, but precisely because they've invested too much interest in keeping the status quo. Like Bartlett, I hope Rowan stays true to his message, and doesn't stop forcing us to see the multiplicity of our dimensions.

Technorati: Archbishop | Canterbury | Marcuse | Media | One Dimensional Man | Rowan Williams | Sharia

Rowan Williams and Sharia Law

Archbishop Rowan is getting huge amounts of flack for his comments on a selective use of some parts of Sharia law in certain communities in the UK. Typically, his arguments, based on some serious reading, have been caricatured and turned into shock headlines. Which suggests he was perhaps ill-advised - this sort of reaction was bound to happen.

"This means that we have to think a little harder about the role and rule of law in a plural society of overlapping identities....I have been arguing that a defence of an unqualified secular legal monopoly in terms of the need for a universalist doctrine of human right or dignity is to misunderstand the circumstances in which that doctrine emerged, and that the essential liberating (and religiously informed) vision it represents is not imperilled by a loosening of the monopolistic framework....

In conclusion, it seems that if we are to think intelligently about the relations between Islam and British law, we need a fair amount of 'deconstruction' of crude oppositions and mythologies, whether of the nature of sharia or the nature of the Enlightenment. But as I have hinted, I do not believe this can be done without some thinking also about the very nature of law. It is always easy to take refuge in some form of positivism; and what I have called legal universalism, when divorced from a serious theoretical (and, I would argue, religious) underpinning, can turn into a positivism as sterile as any other variety. If the paradoxical idea which I have sketched is true - that universal law and universal right are a way of recognising what is least fathomable and controllable in the human subject - theology still waits for us around the corner of these debates, however hard our culture may try to keep it out. And, as you can imagine, I am not going to complain about that."

The speech is an important one about how we respect difference, and, in particular, how people with allegiances to multiple to frameworks (Britain, Islam...) might benefit from a legal system that accommodates them. In fact, such a system already exists in an ad hoc sense, both in terms of Judaism and Islam, and he is simply suggesting a formalising of it. Is this concept too threatening to our identity as good Christian Brits? Is 'the law' all we've got left?

Don't knee-jerk. Read the full text here.

Technorati: Islam | Rowan Williams | Sharia

God is a Londoner: Time Out

The usually so-antagonistic-its-almost-funny Time Out seem to have mellowed this year. They gave Greenbelt a great write-up as the 'best family festival' and this week have an actually really good series of pieces on religious London: Muslim speed-dating, living in a London monastery, Kensington Temple and a trip behind the scenes at the stunning Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden.

Good on them.

Technorati: Hinduism | Islam | London | Time Out

Autumn

Trees sense a moment when the balance between night and day changes. The shorter days trigger the development of a suicidal hormone in each leaf which creeps down the stem to the joint with the woody twig. Here it stimulates the growth of a sphincter of brittle, hard tissue that gradually closes in on itself, cutting off the supply of sap. Thus deprived of water, the chlorophyll in the leaf disintegrates, and the colours of the leaf's other underlying constituents are revealed, before the stem joint finally snaps and the leaf floats to the floor.

From Wildwood by Roger Deakin

I love autumn, and this passage really struck me. I'd somehow thought that it was the 'core' of the tree that got rid of the leaf, but it appears that it is the leaf that takes the decision to die, for the better of the whole organism.

Somehow this struck a chord. Heat. Life. Lowering sun. Falling temperatures. Ice. Thaw. New life. And so it cycles...

Technorati: Autumn | Deakin

Gaza: Christian Bookseller Murdered | US: Pastors Use 'Shoot 'em Up' Halo Game to Attract Teens

Two stories on two pages in the Independent today:

Gaza's only Christian bookseller has been murdered by the Righteous Swords of Islam. As if Gaza didn't have enough problems, these fundamentalists think they're saving the world by killing off Christians. There are only 3000 or so left.

While in the US, 'church groups across the country are holding special "Halo 3" gaming nights'. Said one, "Halo is all about saving the galaxy from an invading force of aliens. And saving the world is Jesus' message."

This world is too f*cked up for me sometimes. I want to get off.

Technorati: Evangelical | Halo 3 | Islam | Fundamentalism | Violence

Is Your Faith Endo- or Exoskeletal?

Manuel de Landa, in his brilliant book A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History writes of the two skeletons that humankind have developed. Our endo(internal)skeleton "made new forms of movement control possible, freeing [us] to conquer every available niche." Later, around 8000 years ago, we then developed the urban exo(external)skeleton, whereby "bricks of sun-dried clay became building materials for homes [...] and defensive walls."

Snails have exoskeletons. A protective shell within which to hide. Our early cities were simply exoskeletal defensive structures to protect communities against constant pillage and plunder, thus allowing culture and community to grow.

Mammals have developed endoskeletons. Non-protective, they instead allow huge improvements in a body's motion control. We can stand, run, hold, sew, build.

So, in the manifestation of the Body of Christ that you are a part of, is that body endo- or exoskeletal? Is it there as hard external shell to protect and shield us from the plundering of 'the world'? Or is it an internal strength, allowing new forms of motion control, allowing a gathered people to join and stand and build?

The question is pertinent for all of our networks. Are they protective covers that help us feel connected, but prevent real engagement, and are they in fact in danger of being so big-boned that they crush us into inactivity?

Technorati: de Landa | Endoskeleton | Non-Linear History | Exoskeleton

The-No-Longer-Interested-Spouse-of-Christ

As I have mentioned here before, I have recently written an article about Facebook (and other social networks) for Third Way. I sent a copy of it to a simian friend of mine based in the US – who I naturally keep up with mostly via the internet – and her response to a passage where I outline the danger of the Body of Christ ending up simply as ‘the buddy of Christ’ I found really engaging:

I think the Western Church has become something even worse than the “buddy of Christ” I think we’ve become the no-longer-interested-spouse of Christ.  The partner who is so disengaged in the relationship that they are dissolved in apathy and not even interested in divorce but have resigned themselves to a love-less, passion-less living out the rest of their days.  I don’t mean to be a doomsayer but I must say that is what strikes me when I interact with most people in normal American churches, not to mention the feeling that I get when I have to sit in a service.

I found this profoundly moving actually, and quite uncomfortable to read. Which usually means it needs reading and digesting slowly and thoughtfully.

There has been a lot of discussion - virtually around the web, and at almost every party/function/whatever I've been to in the last few weeks - about the digital tsunami that appears to be drowning people. Jonny is resisting Facebook (though in response I've set up a group to force him to give in) and I know other friends who are stripping their digital lives bear in an attempt to pull some kind of real life back. I think the next couple of years are going to be very interesting in this respect, and I think the whole nature of online relationships - and the connected quality of our real relationships hinted at in the quote above - are going to be tested vigorously.

Technorati: Body of Christ | Buddy of Christ | Simian

Signs of Life in the Churches

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been really enjoying Roger Deakin's meditation on trees 'Wildwood'.

In one passage on 'The Sacred Groves of Devon', Deakin goes in search of the 'Green Man' - the woodland spirit of rebirth often seen carved into beams in old churches - in various villages. He notes the oddity of having a basically pagan deity carved into the very supporting fabric of these ancient Christian places of worship - "nowadays such an inspired conjunction would be called 'multiculturalism'" - but then goes on to quote a great piece of Ruskin:

"Go forth again to gaze upon the old cathedral front, where you have smiled so often at the fantastic ignorance of the old sculptors: examine once more those ugly goblins, and formless monsters, and stern statties, anatomiless and rigid; but do not mock at them, for they are signs of the life and liberty of every workman who struck the stone; a freedom of thought, and rank in scale of being, such as no laws, no charters, no charities can secure; but which is must be the first aim of all Europe at this day to regain for her children."

I had never appreciated this before. In the hundreds of tiny country churches - many built around the 16th and 17th centuries, we see local communities expressing, through their craftsmen, their faith and spirituality. Later, as more grand projects emerged, the masons were still able to throw their personal touches into their work through gargoyles and other features.

Have we lost something here? Are the warehouse churches that we throw up or rent just bland, interchangeable shells for an equally bland and interchangeable God?

Technorati: Deakin | Green Man | Megachurch | Ruskin

Rites of Passage | Atheists Marking Life's Big Events

Interesting piece in this week's Time Out: atheist Tim Arthur talks about the privilege of being asked to be 'celebrant' of friends' marriages. He has done so four times, and wonders if he's asked because he is a theatre director and has a degree in religious studies: people think he's like a vicar, and he can make stuff look good. For those interested in following his path, there is a 'Rites of Passage Workshop' at this year's Workshop Festival in London from Sept 4 - 9th.

I'm all for this to be honest. Having seen so many people go through Christian rites when they clearly have no interest in the faith, I'm all for them celebrating and marking life's big events in ways that reflect their beliefs. Sure, some vicars would claim that bringing people in to church at these times, regardless of their faith, is helpful in leading people in to it. But I'd argue that more commonly people see vicars and other 'faith professionals' as having too much of an agenda, and are scared off.

One nice story: Greg in Ventura was telling me how every church leader in town had refused to celebrate the wedding of the leader of the Hell's Angels. Greg agreed, and this did turn into a fruitful relationship.

The article mentioned Arthur's search for resources/liturgies online, but "generally I don't find much useful, practical advice". In light of this, I'd like to flag the Open Office project up again, which is simply an online liturgical resource exchange. Sign up to post stuff from your community; search for and read other people's stuff free.

What the piece does suggest to me is that, again, the church simply can't rest on past norms. People are in search of the sacred in ways that suit them, and if we want to be part of that journey, we need to get where people are at. Would you be prepared to be celebrant at a wedding where the friends asked you because they so respected you, but to 'keep God out of it'? I think we ought to be.

Technorati: Atheist | Rites of Passage | Tim Arthur | Time Out

Web 2.0 | It's All About the Sacred | Festival and Carnival

I guess sometimes you can't see the woods for the trees. I recently posted a piece about René Girard's thoughts on the essentiality of the sacred to human experience - something Dawkins et al ignore in their anti-religion positions - and I also posted something on Facebook and friendship.

But it took a beer with Nic - as so often it does - for the obvious connection to jump out: all social networking sites are simply virtual ways of touching the sacred.

In the Girard piece, Roger Scruton defines the sacred as "moments that stand outside time, in which the loneliness and anxiety of the human individual is confronted and overcome, through immersion in the group"

There can be no better definition of why Web 2.0 / Social Networking has taken off: we are all desperately raising antennae, trying to channel from the web these moments of immersion, moments when someone wants to link to us, wants to comment on our thoughts, wants to tag us, accepts us in their group.

My skepticism about the extent to which these moments actually can occur on the web thus highlight a further problem, and a further opportunity. The historic ways in which people have accessed the sacred have been eroded: community, church, neighbours - even conscription - and yet the virtual substitutes of MySpace, Facebook etc., are proving inadequate. Easy as it may be to whip up a network of hundreds of friends and connections, the actual sacred moment is still elusive.

This is the problem. And the opportunity is clearly this: we need to be providing these sacred spaces, and if we do so in an unthreatening way, people will flock there. Which they already do: check out the huge surge in popularity of festivals recently. Connected to the rise in virtual living, and the demise of the traditionally sacred? I'd say definitely. We all need a little carnival to feel connected. Which is why I'll be off to Greenbelt again at the end of the month.

Technorati: Facebook | Festival | Girard | Greenbelt | MySpace | Carnival | Sacred | Scruton | Social Networking | Web 2.0

The Dead Console the Living?

I am reading through a manuscript for a friend which is partly a memoir of his growing up during 'the troubles' in Northern Ireland. As I've been doing so, I was reminded of a quote by the Irish journalist Jack Holland, who wrote that

"the tragedy of Northern Ireland is that it is now a society in which the dead console the living"

Thankfully, though I have to tread carefully as I'm way outside my area of expertise, I think this is changing, and the final withdrawal of British troops from there is cause for some celebration.

When the dead console the living, there is always an element of deathwish: in the final analysis, people chose death rather than forgiveness or grace, so that they might be re-united with those who have already fallen. And so the bitterness circles round. Breaking that cycle, drawing people from a place where they gain energy from what is living, rather than from what is dead, is difficult.

We see the cycle in the latest round of shootings in Manchester. Gunmen actually attacked a wake for another victim, killing a man. Death circling and taunting; bitterness driving by and corroding all it touches.

Christianity without resurrection would have been just this: consoling memories of a great man, unjustly murdered by an oppressive regime. An acidic religion this would have been; it is one that many seem to follow. Always harking back, always cursing the breakthrough of the new. Finding comfort in opposition, solace in hostility.

But, thankfully, we are not a death cult. The resurrection event, and the words 'forgive them father', demand that we don't find solace in the dead, but new life in resurrection. It's that resurrection hope that I pray continues to spread out in Northern Ireland, that resurrection hope I pray will really impact the lives of communities in Manchester - and beyond.

Technorati: Death Wish | Manchester | Northern Ireland | Resurrection

Mission as Entrepreneurial Activity?

Ben has an excellent and honest post here outlining his doubts about the 'missional entrepreneur' that is in popular parlance.

I've posted a comment outlining some thoughts on how the role of the artist might help us imagine this in a new way.

Technorati: Ben Edson | Mission | Entrepreneur

Emergent, emerging, emergent? | Is Signs 'Just Another Emerging Church Book'?

No this isn't a lesson in Latin conjugation... but language and its evolving meanings are important.

With the release of the book, people have been wondering if this is just 'another emerging church book'. I'd like to answer that with an emphatic no!

Part of the reason for that is, I feel less and less confident about the use of the term 'emerging church' anyway; like verbal spun sugar it appears to mean something, but on closer analysis, appears to shapeshift into anything you like.

Two points to make: firstly, when I wrote the original version - 'The Complex Christ' - back in 2003/4, I had never heard of the umbrella organization 'Emergent'. I think what Emergent is trying to do is, in many ways, fantastic, but my use of the term 'emergent' (lower case) in the book actually refers to the science of emergence/complexity/self-organzation.

Secondly, then, the book is not about the emerging church, but it is about how the church could 'emerge' - it is, as the opening sentence says, a book about change. I strongly believe that all arms of the church need to change - to listen to and adapt themselves to meet the challenges of their local situations. The thesis of the book is that this is what we see God doing in the incarnation, and that 'theomorphosis' gives us an archetype for how we too might change.

So the book is for all Christians who feel the divine itch of dissatisfaction with their church - Anglican, Baptist, Pentecostal, Alternative... I've had some wonderful feedback from all corners. It offers no 'off the shelf' solution for what the perfect church should look like, but rather some DNA code to take and evolve into some wonderful beast totally suited to the local environment the reader may find themselves in, whether that be South London, South Bronx or South Africa.

In other words, it's for you, so click the link and purchase now ;-)

 

Technorati: Signs of Emergence | Emergent | Kester Brewin

More Papal Bull... "If It's Not Catholic, It's Not A Proper Church"

The Times reports today that "The Vatican has described the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as “not proper Churches” in a document issued with the full authority of the Pope."

"The Orthodox church suffers from a wound because it does not recognise the primacy of the Pope. The wound is even more profound in Protestant denominations, and it is difficult to see how the title of ‘Church’ could possibly be attributed to them.”

Great work. Really nice. It's difficult to see how the title of 'Christian' could possibly be attributed...

Technorati: Pope | Ratzinger | Catholic | Orthodox | Protestant | Division

UK Floods Are God's Attempt to Wash Away Homosexuals?

You may not have picked up on this Stateside - unless you've been trying to follow coverage of Wimbledon - but it's been raining here in the UK. A lot. Every day for weeks.

There have been floods, and some people have died. In one tragic incident a man got his foot stuck in a drain and, despite a 4 hour attempt to free him, the waters rose and he drowned. A school boy was swept away by a river. Neither of them were gay.

The Bishop of Carlisle, Graham Dow, commented on Sunday that the floods were "a direct consequence of mankind’s lack of respect for each other, for the planet and for God."

This much I would actually agree with. Proper respect for one another and the environment would have meant our weather patterns were not altered and these freak weather events would not be happening with such frequency or ferocity.

What I find disappointing is Dow's linking of this to judgement. He goes on:

“This is a strong and definite judgment because the world has been arrogant in going its own way. We are reaping the consequences of our moral degradation, as well as environmental damage. We are in serious moral trouble because every type of lifestyle is now regarded as legitimate. In the Bible, institutional power is referred to as ’the beast’, which sets itself up to control people and their morals. Our government has been playing the role of God in saying that people are free to act as they want. The sexual orientation regulations (which give greater rights to gays) are part of a general scene of permissiveness. We are in a situation where we are liable for God’s judgment, which is intended to call us to repentance."

I'm afraid I simply don't buy the line that God sends disasters which kill indiscriminately in order to force particular people to change their behaviour. It's an angry, violent image of God that I just don't believe holds up with the pattern we see Christ living out.

Plus it's one that puts people right off faith - see blog reaction here and here. "Thank God for nutters" "Ha ha ha I tell you they really are clutching at straws to try and make people believe in their ridiculous heirarchal one male god story telling Xtian bullshit" The Independent even compares him with a suicide bomber.

Nice work Graham. Really helped out here.

Technorati: Anglican | Bishop | Dow | Floods | Gay | Homosexuality | Judgement | UK

Christians Forced to Leave Iraq

Thanks to Will for the heads up on this article suggesting that Christians in Iraq are being forced to leave their homes as their neighbourhoods are 'Islamicized'.

One wonders what Qur'an these people are reading, as I'm pretty sure the holy book demands that Christians are treated well and allowed freedom to worship.

Certainly, Surah 6:107 suggests freedom of religious belief for anyone:

"If it had been God’s plan, they would not have taken false gods, but We made you, not one to watch over their doings, nor are you set over them to dispose of their affairs."

This is the problem with fundamentalism: it ignores the conjunctive texts from its own tradition and focuses only on purifying its own space.

Not that Christians are guiltless here. Unbelievably, one guy has decided the best way to minister to Muslims is to "urge all my christian brothers around the globe to use their influence to bed as many muslims girls as possible."

Unbelievable.

 

Blair, Brown, Catholicism and The Protestant Work Ethic

So, after 10 years and a roller-coaster political ride, we say goodbye to Prime Minister Blair, and hello Prime Minister Brown. Personally, I'm optimistic. I think we desperately need some new energy, vision and impetus in British political life, and I think Brown is the right man for the job.

What has been interesting though is Blair's drift in belief. To paint in broad, caricatured strokes - it is well known that he wants to convert to Rome - he began a Protestant, committed to a highly personal drive of 'whiter than white government' and 'ethical foreign policy' - an almost Puritan agenda, and has drifted, personally as well as politically, towards a more Catholic position. Wanting to be an icon. Admiring the pomp, the finery, the rituals, the power... desperate for confession.

Blair, I feel, knows he has really screwed up on Iraq. What will be interesting will be whether he sets up this Middle East envoy task as something akin to his own political purgatory - working off his sins in order to restore his place to heaven.

Brown, even more than Blair, will be bringing his Protestant work ethic, and seemingly wearing it on his sleeve. He has just released a book of his father's sermons. And, unlike Blair, appears more willing to 'do God'.

Classically, Catholicism has been the grand and powerful institution of the church. And it has had to do some desperate spinning over some pretty horrific abuses. Blair too has been the king of spin. And Brown's first job is going to have to be to try to restore some faith in the political system. Will he dissolve Parliament soon in order to do so? Perhaps here's another Charles I ceding to Cromwell... Does Brown see himself as our Lord Protector?

Technorati: Blair | Brown | Catholicism | Charles | Cromwell | Protestant | Work Ethic

Arbuckle: Refounding | Common Roots of All Religions | Why Do We Always Screw It Up?

Thanks to Mark for a great post around Gerald Arbuckles "From Chaos to Mission - Refounding Religious Life Formation".

He includes this diagram, which prodded me to think not only about how renewal occurs within religion, but more generally about how religions are founded.

Mark notes: "Arbuckle talks about three stages; 1) Initial unease, the separation stage. One could talk about a sense of disconnection and a growing awareness of the dissonance between the action and the foundation story of the community/group. 2) The liminal stage or reflection stage "that moment between old patterns of reality and new ways of looking at reality". In this stage Arbucle says there is a point of choice; do we seek to retreat, to wallow in nostalgia, to cling to past securities, do we try to stand still and maintain the status quo, to be paralysed by the chaos or do we "move forward with risk and hope in an uncertain world"? 3) Re-aggregation, or re-entry. A new application of the vision and story of the community."

I wish I'd read it before - it resonates well with the Advent/Incarnation/Emergence path that I identified in the book. More generally, If we think about Abraham, and his unease at life in Ur, and Jesus and his unease at the way Judaism had gone, or about Mohammed, and his dissatisfaction at the way the Makkan's were living, or about Guru Nanak, coming back out of the river after 3 days, claiming 'There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim'... We could go on.

All of these people had some sort of 'epiphany' and saw beyond the local claims of a bounded worship to something unified. All of them radically went through Arbuckle's stages as outlined above, and all of them suffered for it.

And in each case, those who have come after them claiming to lead and carry on their movement have solidified that boundary, have 'kept order' once that place has been found, and made it difficult for renewal to continue.

Why? Why do we always screw it up? Why do we always have to tie things down and bind them? And how long before this happens to the Emerging Church?

Technorati: Abraham | Arbuckle | Hinduism | Islam | Judaism | Mohammed | Nanak | Sikhism

Reflections on Going to Church in Second Life | It's All About Sex

OK, so I went to church. In Second Life. A little late - so that's pretty much par for regular church - but I wandered around and tried to take the thing in.

I didn't last long. I got forcibly evicted - teleported I guess - for having no clothes on. I tried to give the 'Isn't it a bit like Adam?' line, but it didn't wash. To be fair, they apparently had to as that zone was 'PG', which meant 'clothes on', under Linden's rules. But it was amazing how quickly people rushed around to bustle me out. Even when I landed out of the building, some marshall came rushing over and told me to get dressed again! Perhaps they're being sensible and looking to the future, but the rendering is so poor that you look like little more than a naked Action Man. And what kid hasn't seen that? More worrying though are the graphic videos that are now being embedded (see article here); Second Life is becoming a haven for pedophiles to swap material. So fair enough for chucking me.

So how was church? To be honest, pretty boring. I mean, you can activate the audio/video streaming stuff. But that makes it little more than putting a worship CD on. You wander around. Chat to people. Sit somewhere. Like a good male, I hadn't read the manual too well, so it took me a while to learn how to move/gesture etc. Even so, it was still pretty underwhelming.

Personally, I don't think a) it worked as a worship experience and b) it was a healthy way to spend time. Why? Because, however bad or good the graphics, it's still a screen, and still all eyes and fingers. It's all mediated. And not so much 'nonsense' as 'a-sensual'.

Which brings me on to the sex. An article on Wired entitled "Second Life Without Sex Would Be a Sad Life, Indeed" noted:

Urgent Help Needed - Fire at The Simple Way Community

Many of you will know Shane Claiborne, and maybe will have read his book The Irresistible Revolution, or read about The Simple Way community in Philadelphia.

A fire has totally destroyed their buildings. 8 families are homeless.

Please read on and consider supporting these wonderful people in this great time of need:

Salvaged Faith ¦ Baptized in Arial Black ¦ RS Exam Bloomers

We've been having school examinations the past week. I had to mark a bunch of scripts (the kids are 11/12 years old) of an RS paper on Christianity. Some of the answers were just priceless:

 

In a series of questions on parts of a church - what is an altar, what is a pulpit...

What is a font?

"I'm not sure what font they wrote the Bible in, but I reckon it was probably Times New Roman or Arial Black or something."

Genius. Though the cynical francophone atheist might have prefered 'Comic Sans' ;-)

 

What is the Salvation Army?

"The Salvation Army are a bunch of people who salvage Christians."

I think this is going to be a key emerging market! Anyone think their faith needs salvaging? Not sure how much I'd get for mine...

 

 

Technorati: RS | Exam | Bloomers | Font

Full Time Christian Leadership?

On a slightly behind the scenes UK Emerging Church discussion forum, the issue of leadership/ordination/vocation has reared its ugly head.

I've posted on this fairly extensively before (post here / Self-Organizing Leadership series here), and I've a fuller article coming out on the subject in Relevant Leader shortly but wanted to just re-iterate some key thoughts:

1. I'm a very strong believer in the 'ministry of all believers' model. Some would claim it to be idealistic in a modern world of busy professionals. I think precisely the opposite. Why? Because...

2. Full-time paid leaders very much risk creating a situation where the busy congregation with their 'real' jobs out there say "Hey, we pay you, so we expect you to lead us in return"... In other words, we too easily abdicate our spiritual journeys to someone else.

3. So what is required? Firstly, I strongly believe many full-time leaders ought to step down to part-time. This will ease the huge resourcing pressures people feel to pay them. And secondly,

4. 'Followers' need to step up and stop being so passive.

5. I think Jesus' critique of the Temple system left us with a radical model where 'we all have access to God' and where no Christian needs another to mediate God to them. That's the curtain you can hear ripping.

6. But, ironically, I think it's Paul's letters where we have drawn most of our model, and in Paul we have a 'Pharisee of Pharisees' who would naturally have found it very difficult to shake off that style of leadership. I don't think he ever quite did, and we've been left worrying over the interpretation of his various hangovers ever since.

Technorati: Paul | Relevant

Alpha TV Ad to go out during Big Brother...

It's actually rather nice.

Technorati: Big Brother | Alpha

Why Does American Christianity Always Seem to Wait for the Real Thinking to be Done Elsewhere?

A few of us have been reading Marilynne Robinson's wonderful novel Gilead recently. I can't recommend it highly enough.

One episode jumped out at me last night. The trickster, the Prodigal perhaps, of the novel is debating faith with the protagonist, an old preacher, when he asks:

'Do you ever wonder why American Christianity always seems to wait for the real thinking to be done elsewhere?'

The preacher replies:

'Not really' I replied, which surprised me, since I have wondered that very thing any number of times.

They are referring, in part, to Barth's thinking, and the novel is set in the 50's. And I wondered if people thought there was any truth in that, or if still the case, or if things had changed? Is Pentecostalism America's unique gift to the church?

Technorati: American | Christianity | Gilead | Marilynne Robinson | Barth