Virtual Methodist

After announcing my groundrules for Lent (ie. keeping it positive) things have gone a bit quiet here on the VM blog, prompting one way to suggest that I was finding it difficult to maintain a positive demeanour...  But no... the problem has been that in the run up to my sabbatical I had so many meetings and so much admin to do (it felt like I was having to do 10 week's work in 10 days) that I had neither time nor energy left to devote to the blog... But I've still been reading lots, and so here is a link-dump of the pieces that have caught my eye over the past 10 days or so... I've tried to weed out the pieces that are now out of date in this ridiculously fast-paced world, and those that don't fit my "keep it positive" criterion (on that basis I am keeping two in cold storage for a few weeks!) Given that I am exhausted trying to get ready for sabbatical, and have spent a ridiculous amount of time since getting off sitting around in what some call "...

I'm tired... I'm tired of people in power laughing and joking over capping benefits for the poor, sneering at them as "shirkers" or "skivers" in contrast to "strivers"... I'm tired of the wealthy bleating about losing child benefit, and fuel tax hikes that will make their gas-guzzling 4x4's marginally more expensive to fill up... I'm tired of an economic system that is based on greed and dissatisfaction... conspicuous consumption that is destroying the planet, impoverishing more and more people (while a few get richer), and causing profound depression among those who are never content... I'm tired of a Christian sub-set of that system that has bought into it uncritically, and constantly seeks to sell me the next big spiritual breakthrough in a book/programme/speaker/event... I'm tired of all the strands of the media, music, film, TV, newspapers, internet et al that are filled to overflowing with the celebration of igno...

Those on Facebook and/or Goodreads will already have read the guts of this post as it is largely a review of David F. Wells book "God in the Wasteland" Subtitled "The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams". You can imagine from that that it doesn't have many laughs in it, indeed as I posted on Facebook it is a tough read... I bought it nearly 10 years ago originally and it took me 3 or 4 false starts before I got through it. But it is worthwhile, because, again as I said on my facebook post about it, I believe when it was written nearly 20 years ago now, it was a prophetic word in the wilderness of contemporary evangelicalism... and one that has, sadly, largely gone unheeded... On Goodreads I gave it a 3/5 rating, which, for those uninitiated in that site means "I liked it" but it also reflects the fact that throughout the book I found myself agreeing with the author and being frustrated by him in roughly equal measures...  Dealing with the ...

We're taking a break from our reflections on the New Creation, just as the Biblical narrative has God resting on the seventh day and Christ's body is pictured as resting in a tomb on the Saturday of Holy Week. Which gives me a chance to do my usual round-up of stuff that caught my eye this week. And I suppose it is appropriate that I start with this piece in the Huffington Post about an attempt by a small group in the United Methodist Church in America affiliated to Answers in Genesis to rewrite that denomination's position on "Creationism" and science. Currently the United Methodist Church affirms scientific method, seeing nothing in conflict between science and Biblical Faith, and it expressly opposes the teaching of creationism within the public school system. The fact that they had to make such a ruling in the first place speaks of the depth of polarisation in the US on this issue, and should be a salient lesson to us on this side of the Atlantic about ...