Virtual Methodist

Fidei Defensor

2009-11-13T04:09:00.000-08:00

Prince Chuck has long professed that when (if?) he is crowned King he would prefer to be known as "Defender of Faith" rather than "Defender of the Faith." Now any half competent Latin scholar knows that this is a perfectly legitimate understanding of the title "Fidei Defensor" from a linguistic perspective. What is much more questionable is whether any English monarch can legitimately claim this title given that it was bestowed on Henry VIII by the Pope after his defense of the Roman understanding of 7 Sacraments in the face of Luther et al, prior to the same king throwing his rattle out of the pram because the Pope wouldn't grant him a divorce...

But I'm thinking about this question today not because of the origins of the breakdown in relations between the Churches of Rome and England, which are currently being "repaired" by the current Pope's "generous invitation" to disaffected Anglicans to come back to the one true church, but by an event I was at in London yesterday launching the first Inter-Faith Week in England and Wales (though Wales, typically, never got a mention from the platform...). I may blog further on this over the next few days (if I can summon up the enthusiasm)... but what got me typing today was the introductory letter in the day's programme, written by our esteemed Prince of Wales...

This is what the defender of faith had to say:

'I have long believed that we are all united by a common bond of faith - faith in a sacred dimension beyond ourselves [Are you listening, Richard Dawkins?]; faith in, for want of a better description, a divine "essence" to the meaning of existence; faith in the integrity of life itself.'

An understanding of faith like that certainly NEEDS a defender... because it is so feeble that it certainly couldn't defend itself!

Cheers

A Psalm for Remembrance Sunday

2009-11-08T05:24:00.000-08:00

Praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD, O my soul.

I will praise the LORD all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Do not put your trust in princes,

in mortal men, who cannot save.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Israel
Those whose hope is in the LORD his God
the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them
the LORD, who remains faithful for ever.
He upholds the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free;
the LORD gives sight to the blind and lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the foreigner and supports the fatherless and the widow,
the LORD thwarts the ways of the wicked.
The LORD our God reigns for ever, throughout all generations.
Praise the LORD.

From Psalm 146

Shalom

Tom and Toby Separated at Birth?

2009-11-07T03:58:00.000-08:00

Here's one from Ship of Fools. Have you ever seen Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham and the West Wing's Toby Ziegler in the same room?

Cheers

What's the Point in an Expert Panel?

2009-11-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

In this time of public finance cutbacks can I suggest a means of saving a lot of money and wasted time and effort? Ditch all the expert panels and commissions that the government has been establishing... funding for various periods of time and then dismissing their findings when they don't think they will be able to sell them to the wider public... Rule No. 1 of being an expert on a government appointed panel... When they want your opinion they will give it to you.

Recently we've had the sacking of the government drugs adviser, the deliciously named Professor Nutt, for daring to suggest that government drugs policy was politically based rather than based on any evidence of the medical or social dangers of cannabis or ecstasy, and the subsequent resignation of some of his colleagues... And before that we had the public binning of recommendations from what was said to be the most comprehensive review of primary education in England and Wales for 40 years, which suggested that starting kids into formal learning at age 4-5 has no educational benefit. I suspect that these 2 examples, however, are merely the tip of a very large iceberg. But there is no point in appointing these panels if you aren't going to pay attention to what they have to say...

Why is this happening?

Are there wider agendas on the education question regarding getting mothers out to work earlier to swell the workforce and reduce the burden on the welfare state? Then why can't they be honest about that?

On the drugs question is it simply an issue of them going for the lager-drinking Sun vote rather than cannabis smoking Guardian hippies?

Are they trying to show themselves to be champions of the ordinary person and "common sense" in the face of these ivory tower intellectuals who don't have to live in the "real world"?

Is this all just a function of New Labour spin over substance and will the Tories with Blairite-retread Cameron be any better?

But then why should we be critical of the Westminister crowd, when we have reports on education, community relations and dealing with the past which have been parked in a dark alley at the back of Stormont for political reasons (which all largely come down to the Unionists hating the Republicans and vice versa).

I've got opinions on all of the above subjects although I am an expert on none of them, and while I don't believe that you should always go with the expert opinion on any one subject, because of the wider consequences or context, you should at least offer a rationale as to why you have just poured thousands (if not millions) of taxpayers hard earned cash down the drain. Professor Nutt was undoubtedly politically naive in his public comments. His government paymasters don't appreciate being rubbished by their underlings in the full glare of the media. But if there is a compelling social case for rejecting expert opinion then the public should be told why.

But if the reason for rejecting such opinion is simply a matter of it being hard to sell to the wider population, well that is what being a leader is all about... Not simply finding the front of a baying crowd and getting yourself into the front row, whatever way it's heading...

Cheers

New? Life Transforming? Bible-Reading?

2009-10-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Among the huge pile of sludge fiction I took with me on holiday this year, were 2 or 3 books I wouldn't be embarrassed being seen to be reading by anyone who actually knows me. One was this offering by Richard Foster, chosen by our church book group as their summer reading.

However, whilst I am not one to judge a book by its cover, two things annoyed me with this book before I opened it. First was the fact that the author's name is printed bigger than the title. This, to me, speaks of the alarming trend in Christian literature, as in the rest of contemporary literary culture, to treat respected authors as brand names to be exploited to the full, resulting in some very poor books being released under such brands. This feeling was further enhanced when I noticed that this particular book was written 'with' Kathryn A. Helmers, although to notice this you had to look very carefully as her name is less than a 12th the size of Foster's and in a much lighter type, indicative, I suppose of her relative reputation and selling power, if not her contribution to the final product. (Indeed I notice in the picture of the book which I have posted here, her name does not appear at all.)
The second thing that irked me, however, was the sub-title, which was in a bolder type than the title itself: 'A life-transforming new approach to Bible reading'. Clearly I am not the intended audience for such hyperbole, because my thran approach to such a claim normally would be to run a million miles rather than buy the book, much less read it. Others whom I respect, however, had highly recommended it, and our church book group had chosen it for our summer reading, so I overcame my annoyance at the front cover and delved in to the pages within.
What I discovered there, however was not accurately reflected in the sub-title.
It is not entirely, or indeed primarily an approach to Bible reading, but rather Foster returning again to his main area of expertise, that of spiritual disciplines, but this time using Bible reading as the through line to understand the other disciplines . He did something similar with his book 'Prayer' some years ago, using the discipline of the title as the lens through which to view the other ones. I suppose his publishers must rub their hands in glee at the thought of a whole string of books in which Foster uses each of the disciplines he originally celebrated to help understand the others. However, there may be a law of diminishing returns in such an endeavour, as readers get weary of the repetition, especially now that he has already used the two more readily undestood disciplines of prayer and Bible reading.
The claim that he offers a new approach to Bible reading is also nonsense. What he does do is offer to a readership that has never heard of it before (because it has not had an STL-backed big brand author endorsing it previously), the centuries-old appoach of lectio divina. This ancient monastic approach to scripture has been very much in vogue over the past few decades thanks to writers like Nouwen and Merton. But Foster is to those two as Primark is to Versace and Chanel, making their thinking more easily accessible to the person in the pew if not the street, and that is no bad thing. He does not fall into the trap of some other populist theological writers of trying to offer, as the sub-title seems to suggest he does, a ready-made programme for reading the Bible more effectively. In fact he sensibly warns against programmatic approaches to spiritual development.

He makes a passing reference to the so-called 'Wesleyan-Quadrilateral', first referred to by Albert Outler in the 1960s, to describe the role of scripture, tradition, reason and experience in the thinking of John Wesley. However, Foster, like many others before him (and who could blame him as a Quaker when so many Methodists have made the same mistake), forgets that Outler referred to this quadrilateral in contrast to the Anglican triangle, or three-legged stool that Wesley grew up with, of scripture, tradition and reason. The role of personal experience (particularly experience of the Holy Spirit) was vital in John Wesley's understanding of how we comprehend the will of God. But Outler was not suggesting that Wesley saw the four axes of the quadrilateral as equal. Rather that tradition, reason and experience are 3 windows which shed light on the key revelation of God's will in scripture. Foster never states this explicitly in the book with regard to Outler's Wesleyan-Quadrilateral, although it is implicit to his own entire approach to scripture. Also implicit to that approach, though only sketchily outlined is viewing all of scripture through the lens of the life, teaching, death resurrection of Christ.
I was pleased to see, that he warns against the intensely individualistic reading of scripture which has become more prevalent since the advent of printing, and achieving its zenith (or nadir depending on your attitude) in evangelicalism. The community that God has placed us in with its inherited tradition as well as its collective experience and reason is vital to a true reading, or hearing of scripture.
He does include a beginners guide to the various categories of literature within scripture, and this was one of the few areas where, I believe, he gets things wrong. In dealing with the Old Testament scriptures he tends to follow the schemata beloved of old style Sunday schools of Law, History, Wisdom and Prophecy. Instead I would argue that we should learn from the categorisation employed within Jewish tradition of Law (1st 5 books), Prophets (Judges-2nd Kings, and what we recognise as prophets, ie. Isaiah-Malachi) and Writings (ie. everything else). This places all the theological reflection of the Old Testament within the context of story, if not history as we know it, and offers an interesting parallel between the Old and New Testaments of Law//Gospels (and perhaps Acts), Prophecy//Letters (with both more interested in forthtelling in response to contemporary problems than foretelling future event) and Writings // Revelation and perhaps James (both of which owe a great deal to the Old Testament Wisdom tradition).
But that's just my opinion, and I'm not a big brand author and am never likely to be. However, my other frustration with the book is where, in his concluding section on the key principle grace whole sections referring to Bonhoeffer, Mother Teresa and Babette's feast might well have been direct quotes in their entirety from the magnum opus of that other big brand writer Philip Yancey. Whilst "What's So Amazing About Grace?" is almost seminal on the subject now, Foster should at least have acknowledged that he was covering the same ground, if not, preferably, finding alternative illustrations. There remains the possibility that he hasn't actually read Yancey's book (I once was nearly kicked out of university for plagiarism because I unwittingly used a similar extended metaphor to one used by the great Richard Dawkins in a TV documentary, when describing the process of recprocal altruism... so it can happen to anyone), but I doubt it.
However, all that said, if any of us were to take this book seriously then the sub-title is at least right in that it is potentially life changing.
I'll let you know how it goes.
ps. Apologies to those on facebook who have me as a friend... This 'review' will pop up as a note by me as well as having appeared some time ago in a truncated form as a review on Living Social... Life is too short for me to post significantly different reviews in 2 different places.

Cheers

Toleration of the Intolerant

2009-10-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

Managed to turn up for my live radio slot on Downtown yesterday morning without my pre-prepared "Review of the Week"... Ooops... so I had to quickly write it from memory... and given that this was at 7am, even with an extra hour in bed it was a miracle that I wrote anything vaguely coherent...

Here is an amalgam of the pre-prepared script and my improvised one...

Should we show tolerance to the intolerant? Should we afford the full rights of a democratic society to a party, which, if they gained power even for a nanosecond, would completely overturn that democracy, in the same way that the Nazi Party did in Germany in the 1930s? Were the BBC influenced by their respect for the 1,000,000 people who voted for the BNP in the recent European elections, or by the thought of the extra 4,000,000 viewers they were likely to get for Question Time by stirring up a media storm around it? And did Nick Griffin's subsequent appearance reveal him to be the "squalid racist" and a "21st Century pipsqueak heir to Hitler and Mosley" as former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey claimed, or did he come across as the pluck advocate of "Christian Britain" thrown into the modern day equivalent of the lions' den, the media circus where the mouthpieces of modern multi-cultural Britain were lying in wait like a lynch mob.
These and many other questions have been rolling around in my mind this week regarding the appearance of Nick Griffin on Question Time. In the end I didn’t see it because I had something more important to do that evening… but given the amount of coverage that it has received before and since I feel as if I did… and that frustrates me, because it shows how our priorities can be seriously skewed by the agendas of small numbers of people fuelled by hatred and bigotry… and how the policy of government and other public bodies can be derailed by having to kowtow to whatever the media decides is the issue that will gain them most viewers or sell the most papers.
I am not saying that if you ignore bigots and racists they will go away… far from it… there are times when you must stand up, speak out and counter those who stoke up suspicion and peddle half truths that promote hatred and division. But you have to be careful how you engage them and how much oxygen or legitimacy you give them.
Simply to say that because they have passed a certain arbitrary electoral threshold that entitles them to certain political rights is naive to say the least. Just because people vote for you, doesn’t mean you are right. Right and wrong are not decided by a political poll. Even what the majority says is not always right, any more than the loudest voice is the one that should be listened to. Justice… real justice, is not swayed by public opinion. Which is why the Kingdom of God is a kingdom and not a liberal democracy. A kingdom where God's word is the final word, but also a kingdom whose borders are wide open to whoever will come. A kingdom open to people of all races, nations and denominations: all cultures, creeds and colours, to all ages, stages and genders, and people of all political, theological and sexual preference.
All are invited to become citizens of God's Kingdom…

ps. Yesterday's News of the World also revealled that the Queen has "declared war on the BNP". First the generals who led the British Army, then the former Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the national church, now the head of State... But what would any of them know about being British!?

pps. Following on from Lord Carey's refutation of the BNP's Christian credentials the Evangelical Alliance has released a statement saying that the BNP doesn't speak for British Christians... That of course isn't to say that EA speaks for all Christians either, but I'm certainly right behind them on this one. This in turn has sparked a facebook campaign so if you are unsure about how you might be able to vent your frustration and demonstrate your opposition to the BNP, if you are a devotee of fb then perhaps this is a small way of doing so...

Shalom

The Wise and Not So Wise Builders

2009-10-25T02:36:00.000-07:00

A sketch for children requiring 2 readers, 2 builders, 4 children acting as “walls” for the wise builders house, all the same size with small umbrellas, 4 “walls” for the not so wise builders house, of various sizes with napkins, 2-4 children acting as “rainclouds” armed with water pistols.
Reader 1: There was once a wise builder…
Builder 1: Good morning!
Reader 2: And a not so wise builder
Builder 2: Bout ye!
Reader 1: And one day
Reader 2: Both of them decided to build a house
Reader 1: The wise builder studied the plans
Reader 2: Tested the ground carefully
Reader 1: And dug the foundations deep down on to solid rock
Reader 2: He built slowly and carefully with the best of materials
Reader 1: Because he wanted his house to last
Reader 2: Meanwhile the not so wise builder
Reader 1: Got started as quickly as he could
Reader 2: He built his house on a nice level piece of sandy ground
Reader 1: And he used anything he could get his hands on
Reader 2: So he could get finished as soon as possible
Reader 1: Eventually both houses were finished
Reader 2: And the builders moved in
Reader 1: And lived happily ever after
Reader 2: Until one day
Reader 1: The rainclouds came
Reader 2: And didn’t go away
Reader 1: And it rained (Raincloud 1 squirts congregation)
Reader 2: And it rained (Raincloud 2 squirts congregation)
Reader 1: And it rained (Raincloud 3 squirts congregation)
Reader 2: And it rained (Raincloud 4 squirts congregation)
Reader 1: The wise builder looked out at the rain from his nice dry house
(Two of the rainclouds squirt the wise builder’s house. The “walls” put up their umbrellas)
Reader 2: While the not so wise builder didn’t need to look out at the rain
(Two of the rainclouds squirt the not so wise builder’s house. The “walls” pull the paper napkins out of their pockets and hold them over their heads)
Reader 1: Because the rain was falling inside his house
Reader 2: The rain fell on both houses
Reader 1: But while the wise builder stayed dry
Reader 2: The not so wise builder got very
Reader 1: Very
Reader 2: Wet.
Reader 1: the rain fell
Reader 2: the floods rose

Reader 1: and the winds blew until
Reader 2: the not so wise builders’ house fell down. (all the "walls" of the not so wise builder's house collapse)
Reader 1: Jesus said:
Reader 2: Everyone who hears my words and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Reader 1: The rains may come,
Reader 2: the streams may rise,
Reader 1: and the winds may blow and beat against that house;
Reader 2: But it will not fall
Reader 1: But everyone who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
Reader 2: The rains will come,
Reader 1: the streams will rise,
Reader 2: and the winds will blow and beat against that house;
Reader 1: But it will fall
Reader 2: With a great big
All: Crash!

Cheers

A Brief overview of the Bible

2009-10-22T07:21:00.001-07:00

Actually posted this almost a year ago, and was planning on using it this Sunday... however, can't seem to find a way of downloading it... Any ideas?

Cheers

Psalm for Bible Sunday

2009-10-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

The Bible Society has ordained that this Sunday is "Bible Sunday". Don't know what was wrong with the old tradition of having it on the second Sunday of Advent, apart from the fact that with everything else in Advent it gets swamped by the approaching behemoth that is the modern Christmas. But anyway, for those celebrating it this weekend, over the next couple of days I'll be posting various resources we are using this weekend... Here's a responsive psalm to start with:

The law of the Lord is perfect, strengthening the soul.
The promises of the Lord are trustworthy, offering insight to all.
The signposts of the Lord are straightforward, bringing joy to life.
The commands of the Lord are clear, giving light to walk by.
The fear of the Lord is right and good, enduring for ever.
The decisions of the Lord are sure and altogether unquestionable.
His word is more precious than gold,
than a bank vault full of gold;
His word is sweeter than strawberries in summer,
Tastier than ripe red strawberries
God’s word warns us when we’re on dangerous ground
And directs us to hidden treasures.
What man can spot his own mistakes?
What woman can tell when she is fooling herself?
Father, forgive my hidden faults.
Lord, keep your servant from deliberate error.
May my sins not rule over me
So I will be blameless before you.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my mind be pleasing in your sight,
O Lord, my Rock and my Rescuer. AMEN

From Psalm 19

tipping the hat to Eugene Peterson for a line or two...

Selah

Real Talent

2009-10-20T02:32:00.001-07:00

I wonder what Simon Cowell would make of this?

Being a little under the weather over the weekend I ended up watching the nonsense that is "The X Factor" and remembered again why I loathe these programmes... What passes for talent in Britain's pop culture these days is so mass-manufactured and over-produced that it has no real depth or authentic poignancy. That is occasionally subverted in the auditions and more frequently in "Britain's Got Talent" but in both, the genuinely talented is more than swamped by those who are simply wanting to ape other artificially produced celebrities and those who are more to be pitied than scolded.

The following entry from "Ukraine's Got Talent" would never make it within a million miles of its British equivalent because of form, subject matter and, most importantly, its length ("Sorry dear, it has to be less than 3 minutes...")...

It's long even by the standards of most of the things I post here... but it is worth every second spent watching it...

The artist is Kseniya Simonova and in this she depicts the Soviet Union's ‘Great Patriotic War’ against the Nazis in the 1940’s.

Thanks to Jonny McEwan and Pete Rollins for flagging it up... How they came across it I do not know... I would have to be very ill before I started scanning the satelite channels and the internet for "Ukraine's Got Talent"!

Shalom

That's Entertainment...

2009-10-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

As promised I am returning to the "Top 10" format again... this time my favourite cinema musicals... I know that making such a list immediately casts my masculinity into doubt, but who cares. As with my previous list there's a house rule... no animations, or partial animations (I feel another list coming on), which excludes Mary Poppins (which might have been excluded on the grounds of Dick van Dyke's accent anyway)... But that said here's my choice for what it is worth:

1) Singing in the Rain: It's funny, the dance routines are amazing, the songs are memorable, and it takes a huge rise out of the movie industry. What's not to like?

2) High Society: Take a great film like the Philadelphia Story, add some great songs and a wonderful cast, and you got jazz!

3) West Side Story: The only version of Romeo and Juliet I like (despite being a huge Shakespeare fan)... A superb score and book, great dancing and a grittiness that was unseen in musicals up to that point. Brilliant.

4) Calamity Jane: Not exactly an accurate record of the lives of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock, if it doesn't leave you with a smile on your face you need serious pharmacological assistance.

5) Chicago: A great modern musical, using the artifice of the show as the thread holding the film together. All the main characters are superb, the score, lyrics and choreography brilliant.

6) Cabaret: Strangely one where I prefer the stage version to the film, except for the compelling Liza Minnelli and creepy Joel Grey. Whilst Fosse's choreography is superb, a lot of the edginess of the stage show is fudged in the film.

7) Grease: A great, nostalgic feel-good movie with a great soundtrack and Olivia Newton John. What more need I say?

8) My Fair Lady: A great musical with a great cast based on a great play... with a lead actor who can't sing a note, yet is perfectly cast.

9) Fiddler on the Roof: One of the most poignant and powerful of musicals if a little long. Topol made the part of Tevye irretrievably his own.

10) Sound of Music: I'm not one of those who knows every word, but this show's ability to weave together music and romance against the background of the Nazi occupation of Austria, without producing gales of laughter, is no mean feat.

Cheers

Top Ten Funnies

2009-10-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

The Radio Times and the BBC, in an exercise in cheap TV have resorted to that old perennial of "Top 10..." in this case the Top 10 Comedy films of all time. First they compiled their top 100 then asked readers/viewers to vote for their favourites... The results can be found here... But it got me thinking about my top 10, and why. In order to thin them out I imposed a few rules over and above those imposed by the Radio Times list

a) No Musicals... even though many of them may be funnier than the others on the list (eg. High Society or Singing in the Rain)... I might do a top 10 musicals when I'm bored some time.

b) No Animated Features... as above.

c) As few as possible by any one writer/director, leading to the impossible choice between Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles and The Producers, or Life of Brian and Holy Grail.

d) Nothing with Ben Stiller in it or Judd Apatow directing... like any of them were going to feature anyway!

By the way, if you are expecting any perceptive, sociological or theological reflections on these films go check out Gareth Higgins blog... This is just a bit of fun... But I would be interested in your selections...

1) The Producers: the original non-musical version with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. Nearly laughed myself sick at the "Springtime for Hitler" number... For it comes out top of all and so "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles" don't feature at all which I'll admit is a travesty.

2) Monty Python and the Holy Grail: completely insane and just displaces "The Life of Brian" in my book, not because of any quibbles re the latter's blasphemy (which is nonsense) but simply because I think Holy Grail is marginally funnier.

3) Gregory's Girl: A perfect evocation of the awkwardness of being a teenage boy. Bill Forsythe has never done better.

4) Groundhog Day: Ramis and Murray at their best as director and actor respectively. So wonderful even Andi McDowell couldn't spoil it.

5) Kind Hearts and Coronets: Not so much black and white, as gloriously black British comedy.

6) Some Like it Hot: Marilyn Munroe shows herself to be a wonderful comic actress under Billy Wilder's deft direction, with superb performances by Curtis and Lemmon, and the finest closing line of any film.

7) Duck Soup: The Marx Brothers at their anarchic best.

8) Carry on Screaming: Carry on films are one of my guilty secrets... and this (or Cleo) has to be the sharpest of these cinematic equivalents of the saucy seaside postcard.

9) Airplane: the original, and best over the top movie spoof.

10) When Harry Met Sally: the original, and best of that dreaded genre - "RomCom..."

What do you think? Am I a complete philistine for missing out Woody Allen? Have I had a sense of humour bypass for omitting Steve Martin? Am I unpatriotic for omitting any Richard Curtis movie?

Cheers

Dishonourable Members

2009-10-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

Over the past year MPs and public representatives in general have taken a bit of a hammering for their acquisitiveness, racking up huge and unjustifiable expenses claims while so many people are feeling the pressures of the credit crunch. And the attempts of some MPs to resist the findings of Sir Thomas Legge's enquiry will not endear them to the public at large, particularly after a few weeks of party conferences where they have cheered to the rafters various proposals to put the squeeze on public sector workers and those claiming benefits...
But whatever claims for moat-cleaning or multiple-homes have occurred, most of them pale into insignificance when compared with the selfishness of John Ward MP who, many, many years ago, owned a large part of Dagenham. When he died, among his papers there was said to be found the following prayer which he had written.

“0 Lord, Thou knowest I have mine estates in the City of London, and likewise that I have lately purchased an estate in fee-simple in the County of Essex. I beseech Thee to preserve the two counties of Middlesex and Essex from fire and earthquake, and, as I have a mortgage in Hertfordshire, I beg of Thee likewise to have an eye of compassion on that county; for the rest of the counties, Thou mayest deal with them as Thou art pleased. . .”
Typical, we may say… "So long as I'm alright, God, the Devil take the rest..." But hold on… We may laugh at the selfishness of John Ward’s prayer, but let us beware of the selfish shopping lists that we sometimes present to God in prayer. And whilst we may disapprove of the outlandish expenses claimed by MPs let us beware of condemning them yet ignoring the times when we have been a little flexible with our expenses claimed or in our tax returns.
Our actions and prayers may not be open to public scrutiny, but the same God who hears our prayers knows our hearts.

This is an adaptation of a "Just a Moment" broadcast on Downtown Radio on Thursday 8th October, 2009.

Selah

Harvest...

2009-10-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

Today we're having our harvest services, as many churches are, but like many urban churches it is often a little surreal, as our church sanctuary becomes transformed, for one day only, into a giant greengrocer's shop. That isn't happening in our own church this year as we have asked members of our congregation to either support the Belfast Vineyard Church's "Storehouse" programme by bringing along unperishable foodstuffs, or to support our "Nets for Nets" Fundraiser with financial donations, to help purchase mosquito nets for Zambia. This has caused a little disquiet among some of our older members, particularly those with a farming connection, as it won't quit seem like a proper harvest service for them...

But if harvest services were to truly reflect the nature of farming in Northern Ireland these days, the piles of fruit and veg at the front would be largely supplanted by large plastic wrapped bales of silaged grass!

Increasingly though, those of us not living, working and worshipping in a rural environment have no real understanding of the importance of harvest and the sense of relief that comes with a harvest "safely gathered in." We take for granted the fact that we can get fruit and vegetables from our supermarket shelves 24/7 all year round, in season and out of season. It's one of the joys of a global market. New Zealand strawberries in December - no problem! Brussels Sprouts from Bylorussia in August - straight away!

One year, when I was attending a church in inner city Edinburgh, they managed to forget the harvest services - and the thing is, no-one noticed.

We are sadly out of tune with the natural world; out of time in relation to the rhythm of the seasons. That is one of the reasons our environment is in such a mess.

But harvest services are not just a matter of giving thanks for a local harvest safely gathered in, but for the very fact of harvest... and we should not restrict ourselves to one Sunday in the year for such thanksgiving, but should live our lives in thankfulness to the God who gives all good gifts.

But this day may we give thanks for the fact of harvest, recommit ourselves to share God's good gifts more fairly, and take care of this wonderful world that he has entrusted to our stewardship.

This is an adaptation of a "Just a Moment" written for Downtown Radio, broadcast on Friday 9th October 2009.

Selah

Peace in our Time?

2009-10-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

Over the past 4 weeks, each Tuesday morning a significant proportion of Northern Ireland has had the unfortunate experience of waking up to my dulcet tones (with the notable exception of our own house where, mysteriously one Tuesday the clock radio reset itself to Radio 4 and I awoke to the much more appealling and perceptive words of Joel Edwards). Over those weeks I've been pondering on various anniversaries (I think it's a function of my time of life)... my own 20th wedding anniversary, the 40th anniversary of our local church, the 30th anniversary of Pope JP2's visit to Ireland, and finally, last Tuesday, the 30th anniversary of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Dalai Lama...

But that was before the bombshell of this year's Peace Prize announcement. Now many already know that I lean towards Obama politically, but I'm not convinced... Many suggest that he is effectively recieving it as a reward for not being George W. Bush... others suggest that is simplistic and patronising and that if nothing else he deserves it as the first African-American incumbent of the White House... which frankly strikes me as a whole lot more patronising. Others consider it as an encouragement to Obama, his team and the US in general to keep heading in the right direction, but given that the right wing in the US regard Europeans in general and peace organisations in particular as deeply suspicious, this will not win Obama much support back home.

Ruth Gledhill suggests that we may as well award the Strictly Come Dancing award to Obama as the Nobel Peace Prize, and there is a certain extent to which she could be right. I want to see the US use its global authority as a peacemaker; but that needs to be peace in its fullest sense, that is peace with justice, not simply an imposed peace... Pax Americana taking the place of the Pax Britannica or Pax Romana of previous imperial powers... And for that to be the case it cannot simply flow from the barrel of a gun. The fact that Samuel Colt's famous 45 revolver was known as the "Peacemaker" deeply inhabits the American psyche, and, through the magic of cinema, has been woven into the mythology of the western world... But the peace that such weapons brought about then and now, was the peace of "Boot Hill" and should never be lauded by Mr Nobel's successors.

But as well as public peace there is also the issue of personal peace, which is often hard to track down. And that is what I was reflecting on in this week's Thought for the Day, below in its amended text form. Strangely it isn't available on BBC's iPlayer... I hope that isn't due to anything I said! The lawyers haven't been in touch... yet...

30 years ago on Tuesday, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is one of my few claims to fame that I actually met him. That was when he visited Belfast in October 2000, and I hosted a meeting for church and community workers at Forthspring Inter-Community Group where he spoke… The sad thing is that I remember so little about the whole event or what he said. It all went by in a haze… My wife was expecting our second child in less than a week, and because her first birth had been particularly traumatic I was more than a little anxious on that point… Then I had been negotiating with local community leaders, paramilitaries and police on either side of the peaceline for weeks beforehand to make arrangements for the visit of the Dalai Lama and everything had looked like unravelling on the eve of the event… But after a Iot of phone calls through the night and some straight talking on the streets, the whole thing went ahead.
All the people present were delighted… while I was simply delighted that it was over and hadn’t been a complete disaster. Indeed I was feeling so grotty that I had to go to the doctor to get checked out… only to be told that I had become diabetic… The Doctor explained that while stress doesn’t cause diabetes it can sometimes be the final straw…
So, occasionally I make the outrageous claim that the Dalai Lama made me a diabetic…
But I do find it ironic that there he was, a Nobel peace prize winner, and peace was a million miles from my heart and mind… I had allowed it to become the most frenetic and fraught few weeks of my life.
Jesus told his disciples, in preparation for the most traumatic days of their lives, with his upcoming arrest and execution, that he had come to bring peace… a peace that this world can never offer…
A peace that it not the absence of trouble but a peace that sustains us in the face of trouble… even when a peace prize winner comes to town.

Shalom

Think on Such Things...

2009-10-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

Last night something happened to me that, thankfully, rarely does... After a couple of hours of fitful sleep I woke up around 3 am and could not get back to sleep. As a rule I don't get a lot of sleep, but that is usually due to working into the wee small hours and then the rest of the world expecting me to function within the usual hours of 9-5. But normally when my head hits the pillow I sleep the sleep of, if not the just, then the sleep of the just exhausted...

I don't know what caused last night's anomally... whether it is a side effect of the flu jab I had a few days ago, another bug at work on me, or some sub-conscious anxiety (although the last is very unlikely as most of my anxieties are very conscious...) But no matter what I did I couldn't get back to sleep for ages... the time dragged and my mind was filled with all the things that I really didn't want to think about in the middle of the night... various pieces of work I've got to do... pastoral issues... health problems... financial pressures... Robbie William's annoyingly memorable "Bodies..." Eventually my tossing and turning woke my wife, who, whilst she is normally grace personified, is usually not to be trifled with in the middle of the night. I suggested that I would go to the spare room, but, as we, in a fit of not atypical incompetence managed to run out of oil last night, she allowed me to stay in the marital bed... she even allowed me to turn the light on to read, after she had donned one of the masks that we brought back from some transatlantic flight or other.

I read two things... first a large portion of one of the books I'm reading at the moment Alex Boese's "Elephants on Acid" - which records some totally bizarre scientific experiments. The section that I read last night included an experiment where participants were asked to verbalise their thoughts... then after a period of time were asked to try to avoid thinking about a white bear, and ring a bell every time they did so... Of course, despite a white bear never having entered their thoughts before, after having been instructed not to think of such a thing, they could think of little else and were soon ringing the bell like Quasimodo on speed.

Conclusion of experiment: Simply try to suppress oppressive thoughts and they will overwhelm you.

Then I turned to my Bible and read:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:6-9 (ANIV)

Timely.

I would love to say piously that I then switched the light out and drifted off into a deep and peaceful sleep after pondering all that is noble, right, pure, lovely admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.

But I didn't... exhausted I drifted back into a fitful sleep with dreams of white bears moving to a background soundtrack of Robbie Williams "Bodies"!!!!

Cheers

Jesus, Robbie Williams and Gok Wan

2009-10-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, Terry Wogan, in the midst of his early morning witterings, played Robbie William's latest ditty, "Bodies", asking after it had finished "has Robbie got religion?" A few moments before, Owain, my teenage son, had asked a another question: "What on earth is he on about?" I'm not sure about the answer to either question... Even less so after looking at the lyrics below for longer than I should have...

The words are all there: God, Jesus, died for me, save me, perfection, rapture... Assembled in a different order they would be perfectly at home in a revivalist tent-meeting... (Although the reference to a Bodhi Tree clearly owes more to Eastern religion/new-age pick and mix spirituality)

But what's all this stuff about looking good naked? That certainly owes more to Gok Wan than the gospel, although it may be an easy summation of what the gospel is up against in modern western culture. If the big questions that others are asking are of the order of "how do I look good naked?" (not a question I have wrestled with personally or in my preaching) then perhaps the church is actually answering questions that no-one is asking...

But that is probably reading far too much into this piece of pop pap... The problem is, it is annoyingly memorable, "an ear worm" as my youngest son Ciaran calls it.

If only the sermons that use the words God, Jesus, died for me, save me, perfection and rapture, were as memorable... and made as much sense!

(If anyone would like to offer a coherent exegesis of this "text" please feel free to comment)

God gave me the sunshine,
Then showed me my lifeline

I was told it was all mine,

Then I got laid on a ley line

What a day, what a day,

And your Jesus really died for me

Then Jesus really tried for me

UK and entropy,

I feel like its s****in’ me

Wanna feed off the energy,

Love living like a deity

What a day, one day,

And your Jesus really died for me

I guess Jesus really tried for me

Bodies in the Bodhi tree,

Bodies making chemistry

Bodies on my family,

Bodies in the way of me

Bodies in the cemetery,

And that’s the way it’s gonna be

All we’ve ever wanted
Is to look good naked

Hope that someone can take it

God save me rejection

From my reflection,

I want perfection

Praying for the rapture,

‘Cause it’s stranger getting stranger

And everything’s contagious

It’s the modern middle ages

All day every day

And if Jesus really died for me

Then Jesus really tried for me

Bodies in the Bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
And that’s the way it’s gonna be

All we’ve ever wanted

Is to look good naked

Hope that someone can take it

God save me rejection

From my reflection,

I want perfection

Bodies in the Bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
And that’s the way it’s gonna be

All we’ve ever wanted

Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it

So God save me rejection

From my reflection,

I want perfection

Jesus didn’t die for you, what do you want?(I want perfection)

Jesus didn’t die for you, what are you on?Oh Lord(Jesus really died for you)

Ohh(Jesus really died for you)

(Jesus really died for you) Ohh

Selah

Funeral Service for the Church?

2009-09-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

Oops... Haven't been paying attention... This was supposed to go online on Tuesday, but I've been a tad busy over the past few days... However, it seems as if a lot of you had picked up on it already. It touches on some of the issues I raised in my post on Sunday, but was originally inspired by the fact that for various reasons I, and others have been looking back to significant anniversaries over recent weeks. You can find it online for the next few days at BBC's iPlayer at 26 and 86 minutes, but here is the original text.

Two weeks ago was my 20th wedding anniversary. Last week it was the 40th Anniversary of the opening of our church building in Dundonald. A few people remember the first of those 2 anniversaries… many more remember the second… But infinitely more will remember the events of this day 30 years ago…
Because today in 1979 Pope John Paul II became the first Pope to step onto Irish soil. Those who subsequently saw him at Phoenix Park, Drogheda or Knock will never forget it… even I a northern Methodist who as only in his mid teens at the time remember it vividly from the TV news footage…
Father Brian Darcy, who was involved in a lot of the preparations for the trip, recently described it as the funeral service for triumphalist Catholic Ireland… It was quite a wake but certainly it is questionable whether the current Pope would receive the same rapturous welcome. For various reasons Catholic Ireland is not quite so Catholic any more. Some more conservative Protestants may glory in that, but the statistics actually show that most denominations are heading the same direction. We are very much in that phase of history which the sociologists and historians term “post-Christendom” when the old allegiances of church and state, south and north of the border, are no longer as strong… When old certainties are shakey, and authority must be earned rather than taken as read.
But we cannot live in the past… if my wife any I were to spend our lives mooning over the wedding photos of 20 years ago rather than working together to build a secure future for our family, then our relationship might not last much longer…
If our church spent its time harking back to the good old days of 40 years ago when the building was newly opened, then it might speed up the day when the doors will finally be closed.
And if any of us spend our time looking over our shoulder to the time when the church was top dog in Ireland, or in our local communities, then we will miss the opportunities that lie before us…

Shalom

Who is My Neighbour?

2009-09-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick question for you that comes from my morning reading... Is James a hypocrite? As in James the writer of the New Testament letter...

I'm one of those who is fully signed up to the idea that in scripture we find a bias towards the poor (whether that significantly affects how I live my life is another question altogether, but I at least have accepted the principle). As a result I often speak about that, and in particular the implications of that for the ministry of my current church, which is in a relatively low-income public housing estate, set within a much more affluent suburb of Belfast, which in global and historic terms is part of the most prosperous societies in world history. Often when I raise this, one of my congregation challenges this analysis and reminds me that "God so loved the world" not just the poor and the marginalised. He is one of the more economically comfortable in my congregation, so it might be easy to write off his comments as defensive, but I also know that he grew up in circumstances of grinding poverty. He is also, in large part, correct. One of the times he challenged me on this was when we were studying the Letter of James together.

And today as I was reading James chapter 2, I was struck again by the fact that the writer encourages his correspondents not to show favouritism, but then goes on to write off the rich as oppressors. Read for yourself:

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favouritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbour as yourself," you are doing right. But if you show favouritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as law-breakers.

James 2:1-9 (ANIV)

The question I would have for James is whether we would be convicted as law-breakers if we were to show favouritism towards the poor?

As James rails against the rich who are exploiting church members and dragging them into court, so we rail against fat-cat bankers and corrupt MPs, but are they not our neighbours too?

Or is this a question of being counter-cultural? Is James not simply saying that we should not show favouritism in the same way that the world shows favouritism... that just because the world dismisses the poor we should not... and that just because the world writes off bankers or MPs we should not...

Answers on the back of a suitably large banknote to my home address, please...

Shalom

The Bridegroom and His Bride

2009-09-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our Anniversary Service, and in the morning, Des Bain was preaching from Revelation 21. So I wrote this short piece as an introduction...

I was waiting… it seemed like an eternity… I was waiting for her to arrive… I wasn’t nervous, as such… I knew she would be there… But I was excited… I just couldn’t wait… My whole life had led up to that moment… There were those who said she would let me down… some said she wasn’t good enough for me… But I knew different… I loved her and that was all that mattered… and the time had come for that love to be made known… That I was hers and she was mine forever… The waiting was over… The music struck up, and there she was… radiant with beauty… Now everyone could see her the way I always saw her…

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband...

Revelation 21:1-3

Selah

Back to the Future?

2009-09-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Today the Church of England and other mainline churches were celebrating "Back to Church Sunday" (Patrick Comerford has been preaching/blogging about it here). According to Des Bain, the Home Missions Secretary of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the churches here in Ireland have been considering an extension of the campaign to this island. He spoke about it at our leaders' event yesterday in church, as part of our Anniversary Celebrations. In effect today was a bit of a "Back to Church Sunday" for us, as former ministers, members and friends joined with us to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the opening of our current premises, and it was great to see them.

However, if we do adopt this campaign, I truly hope that we at least find a different name for it. I don't want to encourage anyone to come "Back" to anything... Indeed, I would want to encourage the church to stop looking back to some mythical golden age, and instead look forward with a sense of realism, hope and imagination.

The western world has turned its back on the church as we currently know it. Why would they want to come back to something that has a tendency to act a bit like a spiritual version of a railway preservation society? A trip on a steam train is OK for a bit of one-off nostalgia, but you wouldn't want to travel anywhere in a hurry on one.

Instead of encouraging people outside to come back to church (where they percieve they will be used as pew fodder and open wallets) we need to encourage those at church to go away... At least from Sunday to Sunday... Not so much "Back to Church" as "Go Be Church."

Shalom

Church Anniversary

2009-09-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

This time last week I was looking forward to my 20th wedding anniversary. This week I’m looking forward to the 40th Anniversary Celebrations of the opening of our church premises in Dundonald. We’ve all sorts of things planned and I hope that it will be both enjoyable and challenging for all who join with us.
But one of the things that will be said, and has already been said a hundred times over, is that despite us celebrating the 40th anniversary of the opening of the church building… the church itself is NOT a building, but the people who meet within and minister from that building…
It was Winston Churchill who once said “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” I don’t think he was talking about churches specifically when he said that, but it is a statement that was never truer than when referring to places of worship.
On the negative side, church buildings can be erected to facilitate certain actions carried out in God’s name at a particular time and place… But time moves on and so do people, and often churches are left with buildings that may be beautiful but are no longer fit for purpose, and they find that the buildings end up dictating what they have to do, which often involves an inordinate amount of fundraising to pour into building maintenance and repairs, a situation which may become more difficult for historic church buildings in future because of cut-backs in public spending. We should never forget that church buildings are primarily venues for worship, and should never be objects of worship in their own right.
But on the more positive side, buildings erected to the glory of an eternal and ever present God, rather than a temporal and temporary human agenda, can serve to inspire generation after generation to higher things (for a more developed reflection on this, see Glenn Jordan's paper presented to the Methodist Conference this year on "Sacred Space.")
Our church building is on a hill in the middle of a 60s housing estate, and while it may not stir the soul like a soaring Gothic cathedral, I pray that it, and the work that goes on within it, may continue for another 40 years and more to help lift peoples eyes from the everyday, towards the eternal... To something more solid than mere bricks and mortar…

This is the second of a series of pre-recorded "Thought for the Day"s broadcast today on Radio Ulster in a slightly abbreviated form, and available here for one week only! (At 26 mins 10 seconds and 1 hour 56 minutes).

If you are interested in joining us for our Anniversary Celebrations this weekend, the details are:

Friday 25th September
7.30pm Anniversary Concert: with Salvation Army Youth Choir
Saturday 26th September
10.00am Day of Discovery: with Rev. Des Bain, for all interested in helping to shape the future direction of Dundonald Methodist Church.
Sunday 26th September

11am Anniversary Service with Rev. Des Bain (Home Missions Secretary)
1 pm Celebration Lunch
7 pm Service of Reception into Full Membership with Rev. Donald Ker (President of the Methodist Church in Ireland)

Hope to see you there...

Cheers

The Coasters

2009-09-18T09:15:00.001-07:00

In the light of recent rioting in Lurgan and the Short Strand/Mountpottinger interface in East Belfast, the murders of soldiers and a policeman earlier in the year and the many manifestations of impasse at Stormont, the fact that this year is the 40th Anniversary of the start of the most recent batch of "troubles" in this little piece of green real estate should give us pause to reflect... Especially those who think that we have nothing to do with all of that... Last week at a meeting someone gave me a copy of this poem by John Hewitt, written in 1969... Some of us have continued coasting from then to the present day... Indeed in many ways Hewitt's analysis is even more pertinent today...

You coasted along
To larger houses, gadgets, more machines
To golf and weekend bungalows,
Caravans when the children were small,
the Mediterranean, later, with the wife.

You did not go to Church often,
Weddings were special;
But you kept your name on the books
Against eventualities;
And the parson called, or the curate.

You showed a sense of responsibility,
With subscriptions to worthwhile causes
And service in voluntary organisations;
And, anyhow, this did the business no harm,
No harm at all.
Relations were improving. A good
useful life. You coasted along.

You even had a friend of two of the other sort,
Coasting too: your ways ran parallel.
Their children and yours seldom met, though,
Being at different schools.
You visited each other, decent folk with a sense
Of humour. Introduced, even, to
One of their clergy. And then you smiled
In the looking-glass, admiring, a
Little moved by, your broadmindedness.
Your father would never have known
One of them. Come to think of it,
When you were young, your own home was never
Visited by one of the other sort.

Relations were improving. The annual processions
began to look rather like folk-festivals.

When that noisy preacher started,
he seemed old-fashioned, a survival.
Later you remarked on his vehemence,
a bit on the rough side.
But you said, admit, you said in the club,
‘You know, there’s something in what he says’.

And you who seldom had time to read a book,
what with reports and the colour-supplements,
denounced censorship.
And you who never had an adventurous thought
were positive that the church of the other sort
vetoes thought.
And you who simply put up with marriage
for the children’s sake, deplored
the attitude of the other sort
to divorce.
You coasted along.
And all the time, though you never noticed,
The old lies festered;
the ignorant became more thoroughly infected;
there were gains, of course;
you never saw any go barefoot.

The government permanent, sustained
by the regular plebiscites of loyalty.
You always voted but never
put a sticker on your car;
a card in the window
would not have been seen from the street.
Faces changed on posters, names too, often,
but the same families, the same class of people.
A Minister once called you by your first name.
You coasted along
and the sores supperated and spread.

Now the fever is high and raging;
Who would have guessed it, coasting along?
The ignorant-sick thresh about in delirium
And tear at the scabs with dirty finger-nails.
The cloud of infection hangs over the city,
A quick change of wind and it
Might spill over the leafy suburbs.
You coasted along.

John Hewitt 1969

Selah

Love and Marriage

2009-09-15T07:16:00.000-07:00

In my usual morning trawl through the news I came across two quirky stories... The first involves a young Taiwanese lady called Ya Ya Ching, who is blogging on her attempts to snog 100 different people in the romantic city of Paris... I won't be starting any such endeavour soon, largely due to concerns for my health... Sally would kill me. But if you are interested in seeing how this young lady is getting on, or indeed in helping her along, you can check out her progress here (so long as you can read Chinese)...

But if you are interested in more than just a swift smooch (although it may not last much longer given the age of the person involved and her past record) the second story involved another not-so-young lady who is interested in getting married again. Having got married to a young man 70 years her junior, who also happens to be a drug addict, 107 year old Malaysian, Wook Kundor (pictured above with her beau) is thinking about divorcing him and marrying someone else before he runs off with a younger woman when he finishes his drug rehab programme.

People these days... they have no staying power...

But all of this is just a rambling intro to my "Thought for the Day" on Radio Ulster this morning which is focussed on the issue of marriage... It's relatively insubstantial, but given that they asked me to write 4 with a couple of days notice, what do you expect! Anyway, for what it's worth here it is, and you can hear the audio version here on iplayer (at 25.35 mins and in a mangled form at 1:25.38) until it does its "Mission Impossible"-like self-destruct in 7 days.

Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary… my 20th wedding anniversary and I plan to spend at least some of today looking for a gift for my wife. Most people I know think that she deserves a medal, but apparently the 20th Anniversary is marked by the gift of China… which may not be a bad idea given that a combination of our dishwasher and our children has knocked lumps out of the dinner-service that we were given when we got married.
Mind you, it’s not just our wedding china that is showing its age… Recently, one of the clocks that we were given 20 years ago terminally stopped ticking, and the chairs around our kitchen table are slowly but surely disintegrating… There’s only so many times you can glue and screw them together.
When we were first married we took special care of all our wedding gifts… but down through the years we started to take them for granted. And that can happen not only with wedding gifts but also with the marriages they were given to mark, so much so that sadly the gifts often last longer than the marriages.

When we got married our gift list was fairly rudimentary, which is why we ended up with 96 towels. But I’m amazed by what I see on some lists these days. For many of our bigger purchases we had to save up, whereas I’ve seen dinning room suites, washer-dryers and plasma screen TVs on some lists… But whatever else we hope that others will give us we cannot expect “a perfect marriage” to be another gift that we simply receive. For one I don’t know where you would go to find such a thing. I personally don’t know any perfect marriages, certainly mine isn’t. I DO, however believe that a good, healthy marriage IS a gift, a gift from God… But it is a bit like one of those flat-packed wardrobes from a certain scandanavian furniture shop… It doesn’t come ready assembled. Following the makers instructions, you have to work at it… From day 1 through to year 20, and beyond…

Cheers

Blood is thicker than Water... But Oil is more valuable than Blood...

2009-09-08T02:05:00.000-07:00

I used to be a supporter of Gordon Brown. I've been left-leaning in my political sensitivities for decades, and while I supported the "modernisation" of the Labour Party under the leadership of Blair, I was always deeply suspicious of his grinning spin. Whilst I appreciated that he claimed a Christian moral compass, I believed that it deviated because of his proximity to the bigger, brasher version used by George W. Bush.

I believed that in Brown, you still had a profound sense of Christian (Presbyterian) morality, leading to his interventions on global debt etc., but that it was more substantive and less about surface impressions... that is, that what you saw was what you got.

Sadly, over the past months I am more and more convinced that he's just the same as Blair (and Cameron), just not as good at the game.

Almost since he took over as PM he has been flailing around like a drowning man. Some of the circumstances, such as the global recession and the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan, have been beyond the power of the PM to change quickly if at all, but there is no doubt that some earlier decisions made when he was chancellor eg. "light touch" regulation of banks, budgetary restraints on military, have made it more difficult for Britain to face these challenges. Some of his recent decisions have not seemed terribly assured either... the cut in VAT which seems to have had no real effect on spending, but has, and will cause extra work for shopkeepers and has depleted the treasury, and encouraging a relatively secure bank, Lloyds, to take on the basket case that is HBOS, forcing them into a financial crisis. Other PR disasters like the right to British residence of Gurkha veterans, the home-allowance chiccanery of ministers and the recent Al-Megrahi debacle have created a picture of complete and utter incompetence.

Now, as to the latter, unpopular though the decision is, the Scottish Government were the ones who made the decision, and seemed to do so entirely in keeping with Scottish law and precedent. Compassionate release is part and parcel of the British justice system, even if it is not part of the American system, and if the FBI director or the US administration is unhappy with that, then they should never have agreed to the process for Megrahi's trial and imprisonment in the first place. For American leaders to subsequently treat Scotland like some sort of pariah nation, urging the boycott of Scotch whisky and Pringle knitwear, because they have given succour to terrorists, is rich coming from a nation which for years was the main source of funding for the IRA and is still best buddies with Saudi Arabia, the real source of most funding for international Islamic terrorism. Everyone is entitled to their opinions about it, but no-one else had the difficult decision to make that Kenny MacAskill did. And he, nor Gordon Brown, are responsible for the all-too predictable behaviour of the Libyans on Megrahi's return to home soil.

However, I fully believe that whilst he was not directly responsible for the release of Megrahi, Brown's government clearly have been trying to clear the way for "normalisation of relations" with Libya, including the negotiation of lucrative oil deals. Megrahi being in jail was clearly inconvenient in this process, and his diagnosis with cancer, whilst unfortunate for him and his family, offered a fortuitous way out of this impasse.

Another inconvenience was the fact that Libya had been a supplier of arms to the IRA and whilst the US, with greater economic and military muscle negotiated a financial settlement whereby Libya compensated the victims of alleged Libyan terrorism (as well as the victims of the American bombing of Libya), Britain had neither the same clout nor will, and did not take up the case of those affected by Libyan-sourced IRA weapons... The calculation had clearly been made that oil was more valuable than people's lives (if I was being particularly cynical, I might suggest that the majority of those lives were worth even less because they were Northern Irish and don't vote for Gordon Brown and Labour). The pathetic recent U-turn, backflip or triple somersault with a 180 degree rotation, call it what you will, with Gordon Brown offering official "support" to those seeking compensation, is nothing more than another feeble attempt to regain lost ground in the pursuit of improved public opinion.

But it has always been thus in democratic society. In the public eye politicians will promise almost anything to gain popular support... otherwise they cannot gain or retain power to do what they want to really do, for good or ill. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, cold calculation occurs, including the assessment that oil is more valuable than blood. They will never say such callous things in public, but it's true... And every government makes such assessments. It was true in the 70's at the time of the first major oil crisis, when the magazine cover above was produced, illustrating the USA's foreign policy under Ford and Kissinger... It was true in the First Gulf War and the fabricated rationale for the subsequent toppling of Saddam... It is true in the US's continued support of the heinous Saudi regime. Indeed, with the increasing depletion of world oil reserves this equation will get more and more biased in favour of oil over blood... And, if we mess with our climate any more, then we may be asserting that blood may be thicker than water, but water (like oil) is more valuable...

And that is an equation that all our political leaders are likely to make, whether in the US or UK, England Scotland or Northern Ireland, new labour or old labour, conservative or even lib dem...
Although we may never find out with the latter as they are unlikely to ever be elected...

Cheers