Great Things America Does
Lovely spiritual cards. My wonderful pastoral visitor (and friend) always sends me the most lovely cards with lots of cute sheep and an uplifting biblical message. They're called Day Spring and have an e-card capabilities.
[27-02-09]

Happy Twelth Night
And for the last time may I wish you all a Happy Christmas.

Now take down your decorations.
[06-01-09]

The American Religious Right
Ahh, no, not another rant! Rather a correction... well, an ammendment anyway.

While I frequently whine one about how there are such hiddious examples of religiousosity in America - JW's Scientologists, Mormons, Westboro Baptist Church, End Timers, Jesus Camp - I forget that there are also fabulous examples of the brilliance of faith and Christianity - Civil Rights Movement, the Gay and Lesbian Church movement, the simple way community, Salvation Mountain, and the general faithfulness of people.

What we need is more of these great things being shouted about so that they can help drown out the all the loud-mouthed religious wrong. America is a great country, I love it and I love the people, and while boasting about the great things great Christians (and other faithful) are doing is hard due our inbuilt negative reaction to boasting, but I think it's necesary just to right the balance to give us over the pond, and the rest of world, a full view of what's going on in America. George Bush has been extreamely damaging for you, and it's going to take alot of healing to recover from it, but there is a lot to shout about.
[03-01-09]

American Insanity
Don't get me wrong, I don't for a second believe that all Americans are deluded. However, I did spend about an hour on a cold street corner talking to a couple of Mormons (Latter Day Saints, LDS) over from America on a 3 month evangelism tour. Sadly I must report that they were disturbingly narrow minded. And just the other Saturday I had three JW's come a-knocking, so I invited them in and discussed religion for a few hours.

Now some of you might think that I'm an idiot in the first place for believing in the bible, Jesus, forgiveness, God, love, etc. And that for me to spout out criticism of the more ludicrous versions of Christianity is simply irony in the extreme. But I'd like to make one point and one observation.

First off my observation: all these crazy religious nuts seem to frequently come from America - LDS, JW, Christ Scientist, Scientologists... Frankly the only ones that don't are the Korean Moonies (`Moomins'). As I understand it, the beloved "Pilgrim Fathers" are in fact the odd religious nuts that we wanted rid of and so shuved on boats for the new promised land. They then founded America, where all religions are free and hence forth all kinds of fireks and wierdos (but not in the positive sence) arose.

At this point, in a moment of political correctness, I'd like to appologise on behalf of the United Kingdom for this mistake.

My point is this. While some may scoff at my Christian beliefs I would like to say that my beliefs are based on just that, belief. I don't hold that there is this ONE truth that all must believe to be saved. I belive in life before death (to steal Christian Aid's tagline), I believe in living life to the full (Jesus' tagline) and I believe in loving God, and loving your neighbour as yourself. Around this I have theology, but this theology is more as a matter of perosnal investigation and interest. It is a flaxible medium in which I can invesigate ideas and suggestinons to see which works and which look like rubbish. For me, as a scientist, this is removed from my scientific worldview (though I do implement scientific thinking into my theological arguing). The importance is fluidity.

In both my run ins with the LDS and JW's what I was stuck by, and what I react against, is their total inability to self-question. With the JW's it was their total focus on the name of God being actually Jehovah. They could not accept that, for a start, in the Jewish tradition there are three main names for God (of which one is missing, one is addoni and the other is YHWH - from which Jehovah is translated), and secondly, seeing as how we now know that Jehovah is a translation of Yahwhe, why not just use that name. They actually suggested that when I use simply "God", I could accidentally call on another god by mistake!! Like God is that stupid. As for the LDS, one of the things they were set on was the use of the King James Version of the bible. Being the oldest it is therefore the closest to the original (time wise) and therefore the most accurate. Oh dear! They also could not grasp either the fact that the book of Mormon follows a totally made up history of America, and that is simply does not corroborate the way God works in the Old Testiment. It just doesn't make sence when compared with the other evidence of God.

SCM Autumn Gathering

This weekend Southampton SCM hosted the national Student Christian Movement's Autumn Gathering. The gatherings are weekend away trips that happen every term and are a space for people from the wide SCM community to gather together for fun, fellowship and focus on the direction of SCM. SCM is committed to student leadership and, as such, values the ideas and desires of its membership. This, I feel, is one of the strongest points of SCM. It keeps it fresh and relevant, and can lead in a wide variety of directions. This is also its most vulnerable point, but I like the risk SCM takes by refusing to adopt a hierarchical leadership structure.

This weekend was begun with dinner (take away pizza), a trip to the pub and evening worship - with an excellent song "walk his way". On Saturday we had workshop sessions planning various aspects of SCM from the conference to the magazine as well as a bible study and meditation. The main speaker was Alison who was a former SCMer and she lead us to investigate further our impressions of feminism and gender in relation to society and the bible. During the free time I took four folks on an 'interesting' tour of the delights of Southampton (not many) and in the evening we had a couple of presentations, including a report from the recent WSCF General Assembly. We followed this with some games, including the inevitable game of RISK.

On Sunday morning we gathered for a simple communion service lead by Yellow. Afterwards the SCM General Council (the student body that oversees SCM) had there meeting. It was a great weekend and I think everyone enjoyed it. Thanks to all who came, and we look forward to seeing you all at the Conference in February.
[30-11-08]

The Ideals of Christian Conservatism
It was only when I came to university that I first came accross conservative Christians. I'd come accross conservatives at school - there were many from the country and I'd freqently be embroiled in arguments despite having little political insight. One particular occasion involved being the only available person to stand agains on a debate regarding fox hunting despite never having taken part in a debate. Anyway, when I got to uni I was surrpised (even a little shocked) to find that there were Christians who were outwardly conservative. I couldn't get my head round it and, to be honnest, I still can't.

After many long complex conversations I found the explanation to this conundrum. And interestingly enough Stephen Fry uncovered it in Texas during his BBC series "Stephen Fry in America" last night. It's this:

So the idea is to earn as much money as you can so that you can give it away in charity. The prime example being Bill Gates.

In an ideal world, sure, but how well does it work in practice? When have I earnt enough to give it away? If I hold off I could earn even more and then give more away... I just can't see it working. For every saint who does give millions how many other are there who hide behind the idea but give none.

What might Jesus' opinion be? Try Mark 12:41-43
[03-11-08]

A Christian Perspective on The Inevitable US08 Election Rant
From Mark 12:29-31:

I was musing this morning realised that this verse describes the difference between the Republican and the Democratic party. The Republicans stand proude, declaring their Christian faith (yes, not all are religious) and extolling how important it is to follow Jesus/God and that is the most important thing.

Meanwhile the democrats are busy loving their neighbours as much as each other, making sure those who need it have enough. Sure some are faithful, but that's not the important message. The focus is to love each other.

So Jesus says these are the most impotant commandment - singular. Not 'both of these are important, pick one', but together this is what you do. As you'll gather I'm on the side of the democrats. And this fits. Because while I am a follower of Christ (and currently working for the Church) and truly love God, I would far rather love and help one another as I simply feel this is more important.

I guess the argument against me that my perhaps more conservative brother and sisters would hold (and do argue), is that if everyone followed the first then naturally everyone would follow the second also. If we all became Christians then life would be heaven. Litterally.

My problem with this argument is reality itself - not everyone will become a Christian, and not all Christians are nice people! And while we still live in this real world we have to sort out and love everyone else, especially those who can't do it for themselves. "What ever you did for the least of my brothers...", "...and the last will be first", "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners".
[02-11-08]

Truth vs. Faith
Many months this issue of truth and faith came up in a conversation with my brother. I'm still mulling it over and have not coaleced my thoughts in to a coherent understanding. But its something that continues to come up in my new role as Chaplauncy Assistant.

Here are some thinking points:

• Jesus declared himself the 'truth'
• is there just one truth?
• what is truth?
• is truth personal or global?
• with so many differences just within the belief of Christianity, how can we claim we have the truth.
• is truth simple or complex - what should it cover?
• Why do we need truth - is it not simply a construct to control and include/exclude.
• How can we have faith if we know our faith is true

I keep coming back to this undersanding that God is simply beyond understanding. Sure Jesus came as a way to God, and Jesus was God, but that does not mean God was Jesus.

Yikes, what I'm saying there is that God is not entirly contained within Jesus, i.e. God is bigger than Jesus and thus God can not be constricted to the confines of the Human. I think we frequently try to do this as we focus simply on Jesus and leave God behind. Jesus is after all far more tangable than God and so this attitude is totally understandable.

Yes I believe Jesus is the way. Jesus is awesome and his message is revolutionary (why I am Christian). But he was around for only a finite period of time and as such could not have explained the entirety of God's awsomeness. It's silly to believe that Jesus would have had the time, in the same way that it would have been silly for God to sit Moses down and try to explain evolution. God understands humans, he made us after all. So he understands how to reach us. And if that's the case then I can accept that he can reach us through Jesus and in other ways.

I'm not saying that all faiths are equal or lead to God (though I'll not exclude that), but I don't want to be so arrogant to assume that I possess the truth of God.

Isn't it such a wonderfully human trait to be arrogant enough to believe that we own the truth. Come as Children, with simple faith.
[17-10-08]

Jewish Christian Muslim Interfaith Conference
I'm on my way back from a conference in Brighton bringing together Chaplaincies from all over the south coast to talk about interfaith dialogue in the context of Chaplaincy and higher/further education. Brighton gave a great report on how their Chaplaincy has been developing inter-faith relationships over the past six years to the point where they have joint services with many different faiths.

A lady from St Ethelburgers gave us a good talk on how to encourage and facilitate dialogue within multi-faith groups. Following lunch we had a great talk from a lady from Gender Trust about the challenges of trans-gender people. We used this as a basis for developing a dialogue around gender and identity.

I think that the chance to meet chaplains from different universities together as a group was excellent. I was there representing both Southampton and SCM, and what struck me most was the openness of the attendees to maintain dialogue and the sad but frequent comment that their main trouble came from the various Christian Unions who oppose inter-faith or actively seek to target those of other faiths for conversion. One chaplain who considered himself as an evangelical Christian lamented how he is not invited to speak at CU simply due to his association with inter-faith activities.

While I am not passing judgement on CU or UCCF, I was deeply proud to be there representing SCM. I am also deeply proud of the Southampton SCM group which I believe, while not perfect, is really acting on its principle of inclusively.

Inter-faith does not mean to loose ones faith, nor to pollute it or water it down. Dialogue is about listening, learning and growing in faith while sharing with those of other faith (or religion if the word 'faith' is not appropriate) traditions. The outcome should be in breaking down the barriers of ignorance and fear that get built so easily when we think that we own the 'truth'.
[17-10-08]

Sharing Faith cont.
Later in that same week I had a quite inspiring conversation with a new mature student nurse. We talked about church, about faith, about being environmentally conscious, about harvest festival, and experiences. At no point did we discuss the nature of Jesus' death, not his divine/human nature. It simply didn't come up, it didn't need to come up. We had different opinions but that didn't seem to matter. We shared our faith and I believe it was worship.

Neither of these conversations do I believe was right or wrong. It doesn't work like that. I feel the second brought about growth in both parties whereas the first resulted in the conclusion that he would and could not worship God if I were present. This I find deeply saddening about conservative viewpoints - that simple the presence of people with other views and experiences threatens their faith to the point where they believe that only in isolation can they achieve the purity to worship God without compromise.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a UCCF staff worker and she remarked how she is so excited with her job because she gets to talk to students about Jesus every day. This challenged me. It made me worry that as I don't find myself talking about Jesus all the time I must be missing the point. But then I realised that I am talking about him, but I'm talking about God and about faith, experience of church and spirituality and all the other things as well as Jesus. He is important. No one is more challenging then him. But I don't find myself hitting people with Jesus as soon as I start a conversation.
[13-10-08]

Inspiring Sport
I'm not a big sport fan, but Mark Barrett's sermon today at Bethesda Methodist Church in Cheltenham was quite inspiring. The main point was to finish the race - which is quite apt for me considering my current state of finishing my PhD, which has seemed like a marathon effort. His sermon was illustrated with stories of sporting un-heroes, those who did not win, came last even, but for them it was the completion of the race that counted above all. While I'm not big on sports I do enjoy the Olympics, but what I find fascinating about sports - which are so often focused on the winning - is those odd stories it creates where unexpected people overcome amazing odds to achieve so little, yet so much.
[12-10-08]

Sharing Faith
Yesterday I bumped into an old friend from my CU days and we had a long discussion about the principles of faith. Well, the principles of his faith. Basically it boiled down to a discussion about the doctrine of atonement, in particular 'penile substitution'. This is the understanding that Jesus literally took on every sin, in particular my sin (being as I am totally sinful in the sight of God) and died from God's wrath. I kind of hold this belief, but not to the point where I'd want to shout about it. Whereas my friend was very convinced that this is the very crux of Christian faith, and must be accepted to be saved. I'm not wanting to comment on this theology, but it was an enjoyable conversation that made me think.
[30-09-08]

This Bank Holiday Weekend
I don't usually get annoyed by the modern lack of consideration for Christian festivals. In fact I get more annoyed by people 'celebrating' things that they don't believe in. But something I heard on BBC Radio 5 Live this week saddened me. It was quite simply the following phrase as part of an program advert:

It's not a bank holiday weekend, it's Easter weekend. Sure Monday is a bank holiday, but at least say 'this Easter bank holiday weekend'. I know England is becoming more secular, and in a sense I'm at peace with that (rather that then everyone pretending in some faith they don't believe), but for me it is a loss of something special.

Unlike the gross over-commercialisation of Christmas, which I hope and pray won't last (and secretly believe can't due an increasing wiseness to the lie of commercialisation), Easter is being simply removed. Dropped out of public consciousness as it's just too difficult to deal with. At least Christmas has a cute baby, animals, candles and cosiness. Easter, however, has a bloody body hung out naked to die, followed by the difficult-to-grasp sudden rising from the dead. It's all a bit tricky. But it is all a bit amazing and awesome too, which is why I love Easter.
[22-03-08]

Other Things to Go Here
I recently realised that I'm quite proud of being a Methodist despite knowing so worryingly little about the Wesley brothers. I'd like to share with you about why I'm a Methodist and why I like Methodism. And you can point out how I worship at an Anglican Church on Sundays.

The other note is on Faith and Truth. I've not forgotten about this, as I think it's quite an interesting subject. But my brother alerted me to another kettle of fish concerning these two seemingly opposite pursuits. So I'm still mulling it over and will write my thoughts down at some point.
[01-02-08]

Second SCM Meditation Inspiration
During the silent half hour at Wednesday's meditation I came across the idea of writing specific prayers for uploading to this website. It would mostly be for my (future) benefit, but could provide a resource for others. The prayers would be simple and more along the liturgical lines rather than confused waffly crap* ones.

My reason for wanting to write simple ones is that I hope they can be direct and to the point, but still honest and heartfelt. Being concise with words is also a discipline I do not necessarily posses (as you might have gathered), so it will be challenging. As for topics, I'd like to explore prayers for things that might not usually get prayed for. Perhaps these will be challenging prayers to say (let alone write). And I think that will be another difficult thing to aim for.

So watch this space (or more likely a space somewhere else on this site).

* naturally I believe that God listens to confused waffly crap prayers. In fact I have a sneaking suspicion he possibly prefers them - as they often resonate from a much deeper internal mess of requests, longings and hopes. What I'm less convinced about, however, is his like of the deliberately long and well rehearsed 'passionate' prayers that usually start "umm, yes lord, jesus, yes jesus lord, umm yes, yes jesus lord jesus god, oh jesus, yes jesus, umm jesus, jesus jesus jesus" etc.
[01-02-08]

SCM Medtation - A Reflection
Last night's SCM medditation session I felt went quite well. Despite forgetting one of the session's I had planned to do (studying the beatitudes - now saved for another occasion) we started with a little Lectio Divina then half an hours silence (which got a little restless but I pushed to the full time). Then we ended by working through the Lords Prayer very slowly.

It was this last slot that I found particulary powerful (despite it being me leading the session). We started by collectivly reading through then I read each line out with a long pause between each. The idea was to mull over each line in turn (by either continually repeating the line or thinking about each word deeply). At first I found myself quite distracted, but gradually I relaxed into it and let my mind explore the words. By half way though I'd had a revelation, and here it is:

Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us out tresspasses,
as we for give those who trespace against us.

What I realised is that the middle line can be removed (as it's in-between commas. So it reads:

Give us this day our daily bread as we for give those who trespace against us.

SCM Meditation
I'm leading a three phase meditaiton session at SCM this evening. I think I've got it planed, but I'm not totally sure how it will pan out. I should probably have planned it more so that I can take part rather than worrying about the next bit. If you're coming then bring something comfortable to lie on (partners not counted).
[30-12-07]

Safety in Fear
This is something else I've been meaning to write about, so this note is mostly as a reminder to myself. It's partly regarding the use of the media to generate a low level of fear in a populace to keep it under control. You'll not be surprised when I take the American media as an example, but the same is also true to a weird extent in the farming community, and more generally any sort of ignorance or prejudice. It seems to be some deeply ingrained human (possibly animal?) trait that war unites a people unlike anything else - everyone has a common enemy, a common fear, and local inter-personal differences are ignored.

Hmm... I might have drifted off topic from what I was originally mulling over. But perhaps the two (fear and hate) have similar responses. My thought on fear is that when scared people gather together to find strength in numbers. But more importantly they look for a strong leader. It happened with Jesus - the Jewish people were united against Rome, but needed a strong champion, a leader, a warrior to take them into battle to defeat the enemy. And this can happen all to easily in modern church. Get a particularly charismatic leader in charge of a church and preach a little fear (such as the devil is all around / Muslims are the evil ones) and bingo - suppression of the masses through the use of fear and many eager minions to do your bidding. How can any one person ever be trusted with such leadership? (It was one of my responses from visiting Hillsong in London - so many passionate (vulnerable) young Christians (like thousands) and just one 'pastor' (all to frequently said in an American drawl) up front. Sure there was a leadership team, but I was deeply suspicious that that one man could ever be the pastor to all those people without naturally acquiring a somewhat superhuman aurora.

Still more to think about this topic... Comments via email please.
[23-01-08]

Southampton Street Preachers
The still piss me off. I just can't appreciate that they are really taking the message of Jesus to the people. Sure lots of people will 'hear' the gospel (if it is the gospel they preach), but I fear rather more will hear the noise of the gospel, or worse still, the noise of Christians telling them that they are sinful. Yes, I can accept that biblically we are all sinful, hence Jesus coming to take away the sins of the world, but exactly this is the point - he came to take our sins, not to heap us in them making everyone feel bad for how sinful they are, requiring us to grovel to his white throne. No way. He came as an undercover bringer of love. Love love love love love. Love in such a difficult and raw sense that he was nothing, and took the path of death because of it (and certainly not in a 'look at me' kind of way)*.

And it's just that which jars with me about street preaching. It's loud, crass, in your face. Not the 'retreating to a quite place' which Jesus was (quite the opposite - it seems he was permanently on the run from the hordes). Sure their argument that at least people will have heard the gospel holds some water. But it can't be the best way. Take a look at the following two YouTube videos and have a think about which speaks most love (hopefully this is not a biased sample - both were posted as positive videos).

Preaching?
Reaching?

It is the subtlety, and beauty, and difficulty of Jesus' love that attracts me. Yet it is what I find hardest to do.

* Even if you can't grasp or accept the God-ness of Jesus, but think he was just a bit of a dude, then his loving is still a powerful testimony.
[18-01-08]