The high profile deaths of Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya, the state censorship of the media, the crackdown on true government opposition are ominous signs coming from
Do they have the courage to stand up to Putin or are they too worried about
Just back from a great weekend in the smoke-free air of the republic, hanging out with friends in Maynooth. Saturday was the Christians in Science Ireland day conference with a couple of heavyweight scientists/theologians in the guise of Alistair McGrath and Denis Alexander. It was an incredibly stimulating day thinking through Dawkins challenge to faith, and theistic evolution.
The talks are online here.
Now I think its vital that Christians be committed to rigorous thinking about how faith interacts with every area of life, and a comment from an Oxford professor lingers in my mind - "we have to be very careful in these areas that we don't damage the integrity of our witness".
Some of these debates always stir up quite a lot of emotion, and I want to plead for humility and grace to be the guiding principles in these discussions. It would be ridiculous for me to tell a neurosurgeon they don't know what they are talking about and have got it all wrong, and sometimes Christians blunder into these debates, without understanding science to tell scientists they are wrong. A great deal of patience, understanding ad humility is required. That humility was evident among the speakers on Saturday. One of the key themes that came through was that scientific theories does not tell us that there is or isn't a God, and we often have to recognise that theories are often hijacked by ideological systems (people such as Dawkins) and used to say or mean things they don't. Science and religion are not mutually exclusive.
Christians, although they may differ in their understanding of how, do all believe that God is the creator and sustainer of all things (despite what some may have you think), and we need to recognise that as a starting point. It worries me when people who take one position on this are quick to label those who don't disagree with them heretics. Its not just in science, I encountered it in the area of the Holy Spirit with people at a training conference for my job in England. This is a serious charge and too often is done in an arrogant manner that says 'I'm right and if you don't agree with me you're not a proper Christian'. Its an attitude that often seems more interested in writing people off than building others up, and engaging thoughtfully with humility recognising we all have much to learn. Grace and love I seem to remember are things Jesus modelled and the biblical writers appear to think are pretty important. Often it seems to ignore that people have thought deeply and wrestled with the issue in hand.
Our approach to the bible also needs considered in this area. The bible is God's revelation to us - it is not supposed to be a piece of scientific literature (the genre of which is fairly recent). The early chapters of Genesis are not eyewitness narrative in the way Acts is. In the Hebrew they are tightly structured in ways our English translations don't pick up. When we come to the bible we always need to recognise it is a collection of different sorts of literature, we don't interpret some of the apocalyptic writings in Daniel or Revelation the way we interpret Mark. Interpretation can often be hard work, and if we are humble enough to recognise that some passages can be legitimately interpreted differently then we should be gracious enough to recognise that there are things we will disagree on, and be gracious in that. Always making sure that we're not adding to the gospel, have a read at Galatians 1 to see what the apostle Paul thought about people who added on categories for believing in and following Jesus. Our purpose is to point people to the life that Jesus offers, not make them agree with us in all the secondary issues.
Continuing on the Dawkins theme, it seems the Humanist Society in NI are sending a copy of the God Delusion to every Westminster MP in Northern Ireland. Obviously some people are getting a bit hot under the collar about this, but to be fair Christians have been doing it for years. Gideons being the classic example. Slugger and Will Crawley's blog have some interesting debate, especially around the question - if you could send our politicians one book what would it be?
It all came from a guy on the pledgebank website - which seems an interesting concept. Instead of trailblazing alone you pledge to do something only if x people will sign up to join you. Cybercommunity at its best?
As a student we had one of those 'no dumping' signs in our toilet which amused us no end. However it seems in Japan going for your daily constitutional could be hazardous, with a toilet manufacturer offering free repairs after some of their products have caught fire. Brings a whole new meaning to 'a burning sensation while unrinating'... Not only is there a 'World Toilet Summit' every year - must create havoc in the sewer systems - but there is a World Toilet Day - so make sure you remember that next November 19!
Continuing the toilet theme this japanese toilet training cartoon is good for a laugh
I spent the weekend in the alien surroundings of Greenmount Agricultural College. Not often city boys like myself make it to farming school. I must admit it was pretty beautiful. I'm off to Peru for a month this summer with a bunch of students, going to work with my IFES counterparts in Lima and to build a community centre in one of the poor areas. Greenmount was the site of our orientation from the amazing folk at LatinLink. I was stunned to hear that there are 8 million people in Lima, living under a perpetual blanket of smog. Its one of those cities constantly growing as more people come from the countryside looking for work. I spent a month in Bolivia a couple of years ago, at an amazing place called IBSJ in Sucre. 
Bolivia is a stunningly beautiful country. We visited the mines in Potosi where miners still work in the conditions they worked hundreds of years ago. Bolivia, more famous for its President Evo Morales (and his jumpers) recently, is the poorest country in South America. It wasn't always that way. Potosi used to be one of the richest cities in the world, and supplied two thirds of the Spanish Empire's silver. It was one of those moments that I felt incredibly guilty for being European, as I realised just how much Europeans had raped and exploited what are now some of the poorest countries in the world.
You'll be glad to hear the great fundraising drive begins soon, so expect to hear from me looking some sponsorship for running a leg in the Belfast Marathon Relay. Which reminds me I should get out pounding the streets again...
On an entirely different note i'm off to hear one of Zoomtard's heroes this weekend and looking forward to having my brain exercised (by Zoomtard and his wife-unit as well as the venerable McGrath on faith and science). I'm sure you're aware of the hoo-hah around Richard Dawkins book - the God Delusion. I've just started McGrath's response - the Dawkins delusion, although feel slightly lacking in integrity as I haven't read Dawkins original. As a God-follower you'd expect me to not be the biggest fan of Dawkins, although i'm not alone as various atheists, Guardian columists and even the magazine that voted Dawkins one of the worlds 3 leading intellectuals have reservations about the God Delusion. McGrath is someone who you should take notice of - especially if you're appalled by some of the shocking science from some of the louder christian voices currently opening museums. Maynooth - the place to be this weekend.
There's been quite the storm in the US over an artist's chocolate depiction of Jesus being crucified. The outrage has caused the gallery to pull the plug. Without getting into the rights and wrongs of representations of Christ, it is an interesting reminder at this stage of the year as we 'celebrate' Easter. It's Easter so that means eggs -right? is an attempt at an amusing look at what to do with leftover Easter egg in the Guardian's special section on chocolate, which says more about living in post-Christendom than the meaning of Easter. Easter eggs are everywhere, I have been indulging in my weakness for creme eggs but Easter is about so much more than chocolate, than consuming. At Easter as we reflect on death and resurrection, maybe Chocolate Jesus (the sculpture or the Tom Waits song) has much to say to us as we consider what we have been replacing Jesus with and what must die in order for new life to rise. Those earth shattering (literally) few days in remote outpost of the mighty Roman Empire, including the ripping of a curtain symbolising the end of a series of rites and restricted access to God, and opening up access to the creator to all of us require reflection and celebration. Celebration of not just the death of Jesus (which evangelicals can obsess over) but also the resurrection - the new life on offer from God (although going on lots of Christians, especially the Phelps family/cult in Louis Theroux's latest programme you wouldn't know much about the life to the full), and about this wonder of God inviting mere mortals into the 'dance of the trinity'. On this Easter Sunday we have so much more to enjoy than just chocolate, and much more than just the death of Jesus. Thanks to Zoomtard and Jaybercrow for some thought provoking comments on Easter, suffering, the Phelps and a magnificent quote from MLK.
I leave you (trembling with holy awe, and caffeine - which may explain the disjointedness of this post) with quotes from the two Anglican Archbishops in England:
"Give up the struggle to be innocent and the hope that God will proclaim that you were right and everyone else wrong. Simply ask for whatever healing it is that you need, whatever grace and hope you need to be free, then step towards your neighbour.
Easter reveals a God who is ready to give you that grace and to walk with you."
"There are those who might wish that we were a little quieter in our celebrations or were a little less public in our joy. The problem with such a request is that it ignores the fact that in the resurrection of Christ, God is speaking to the world, and when God speaks you can’t ignore Him."
(Archbishop John Sentamu)
Take a deep breath. There is a rant coming...
'Are you busy?' appears to be quickly replacing 'how are you?' as a commonplace greeting. I've been noticing it more and more over the last few months, its been annoying me but its taken me a while to figure it out. 'So what?' you may think, but what does it tell us about who we are? It seems to me that this seemingly innocuous question is a symptom of something much deeper. No longer are people interested in how I'm doing, what I may be thinking about, the questions I'm struggling with. Instead all they want to know is if I'm productive - am I justifying my place on the planet by doing stuff.
Well excuse me if I happen to feel that there is more to me than what I do - phew some of you who are aware of my coffee drinking, talking about God career might think. It seems to me its a sign that our worth is not found in the depth of our character as Martin Luther King dreamed of but instead in how much we are doing. To stop in the fast-paced world we live in is almost criminal. The pressure to keep going, to do more, to work longer, to earn more, to keep learning keeps getting greater. Now I'm an activist and I love doing stuff, but as I get older, the more I realise how much I need to stop and take time out, to allow myself to slow down, and remember that the world revolves around God and what he's doing, not me. Time to think and read is so valuable, to follow the model of Jesus taking time out is more important than ever with the pace of life we live today. To ask each other how busy we are simply confounds this lie that our value lies in what we do, not the content of our character, not in following a God who rests when his work is done and who calls us to a balanced not a frantic life...
On a slight side issue, the whole greetings thing is interesting, and I realise I'm pretty guilty of this so its something I need to work on. When I was in Tanzania (not a phrase I've used for a long time!) one of the things that struck me was the amount of time people made for each other, how they valued each other, how when they stopped to ask how someone was, they meant it and waited until they had heard everything. Today we ask 'how are you?' and don't even wait for an answer or expect a 'fine' or 'grand', and not for people to actually open up and share what's really going on. We're good at the niceties but how much do we really care?
How prepared are we to take the challenge of thinking about what we say when we ask people questions and meaning what we say?
