Virtual Methodist

Just incase I didn't give you enough to read yesterday, here's a round-up of some of the interesting links I came across during the week that were too substantial to simply pass on via facebook... Carrying on a them from last week, there have been a number of lent-related posts, and many turning their backs on the "self-denial" discipline for various reasons. One of the more interesting reflections, was this piece by Mark Galli on "Giving up self-discipline for Lent."  But if you are still looking for resources to help you through this season you could do worse than check out Rachel Held Evans' "40 Ideas for Lent" . Meanwhile, a lot has been made recently of another attempt by Richard Dawkins and his atheist acolytes to demonstrate that the UK is not a Christian country, on the basis of a half-baked survey asking people basic Christian facts like "What is the first book of the New Testament?" Giles Fraser memorably derailed that...

This past Sunday the lectionary reading from the gospels moved things on from Simon Peter's confession of Jesus as Christ (Matthew 16: 13-20) to the confrontation between Jesus and Simon over the direction Jesus was headed (Matthew 16: 21-28) and Jesus' challenging words: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24 (ANIV) I've just recently completed Robyn Young's "Templar Trilogy" dealing with the latter years of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the downfall of the Templar Order. If you want to read my full review of the final episode " Requiem " you can find it here , but basically all three were a bit of a slog, with the author trying to cover too much in any one book. She does manage to avoid a lot of the conspiracy-theory nonsense that many other "Templar" books are founded on, but she does seem to import a 21st century multi-faith/secularist mindset...

There may be dangers of this becoming a review site given the number I've posted recently, particularly film reviews, but I tend to just comment on what strikes me rather than offer any profound critical analysis of the films that I see... which is a good job when it comes to reviewing "Paul" the latest offering by Frost and Pegg, as there isn't much profundity to be had in it. Two trips to the cinema in a fortnight to see vaguely adult films almost speaks of a social life. But the rating is where the overlap between "The King's Speech" and "Paul" ends, and I won't try to compare them. I've reviewed "Paul" through LivingSocial on Facebook, so if you can be bothered with what I think about it you can check it out there. All in all it's an amusing but relatively "safe" "slackers-do-sci-fi" comedy, taking potshots at fairly obvious targets. And as I noted on the review, on of their targets is (and this is ...