Happy are the Conservatives

No, this isn't another blog on the results of last week's local elections on the other island, but a reflection on a report I found via the satirical Christian website, Ship of Fools, which suggests that those of a more conservative bent, socially, politically and theologically are more content than those who have more liberal tendencies. Conservatives apparently reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than more left-leaning individuals and scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person's tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities.
Now this doesn't explain the right's tendency to moan, and stir up fear about everything from asylum seekers to the World Council of Churches, but certainly is borne out by the tendency of most social activists I know to slip into a collective slough of despond every time they come together.

The issue for me is not one of theological orientation, but complacency, feeling that everything is black and white, and that we (whoever "we" are) have all the answers. Where conservatism drifts into the position that even though "the rest of the world is going to hell in a rocket-powered handcart but I'm out of here on the rapture elevator" then there are problems... Just as when liberalism drifts into the "we're all headed for heaven on earth, and would get there a lot quicker if you evil conservatives thought and acted like us," mentality...

But I don't think we should be adding this particular analysis to the amplified versions of Jesus' beatitudes...

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A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that ...

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the ...

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