iGod

Easter is not just for the religious type

A local vicar and pastor stood by the side of the road holding up a sign that said, "The End is Near! Turn yourself around now before it's too late!"

"Leave us alone, you religious nuts!" yelled a driver as he sped by. Then from around the bend they heard a big splash.

"Do you think," said one clergy to the other, "we should just put up a sign that says, 'bridge down' instead?"

I have heard people say that they are not the religious type, insinuating that, perhaps, I am.  As if I came out of my mother’s womb clutching an open Bible with a full-robed choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus by the bedside. I mean who sets out in life to be religious?

For some strange reason though a few atheist writers recently, such as Alain De Botton and Richard Holloway, find “religion” attractive. In fact, the former writer has gone so far to try and set out a religious life for non-believers. Then there is AC Grayling who has even written a bible for the atheist.

Someone once wrote, “To be is to be connected. And to be connected is to be plugged in.” The Bible states that we are all “made in the image of God”. These are both big, big statements and this is a small, small brain here that reflects upon them. Yet, life is a big experience and so I think it deserves a little of our time to dwell on the big stuff once in a while, don’t you?  And it is also okay not to have a conclusive answer in two minutes. Some things are meant to be pondered over a lifetime. Maybe even over eternity.

I guess for many people though “religion” in the UK stands for a shrinking minority of church-goers who hate gay people, resent women and despise those who have abortions, but anyone with a bit of savvy will know that this not quite the case but, of course, it makes a convenient headline.

However, personally speaking, if my faith does come across as judgmental, intolerant and exclusive, it bothers me and the finger needs to be pointed firmly back at my face.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Sadly, I think at times he is right. I have met many non-Christians whose conduct is better people than Christians. Religion in itself does not make anyone a better person - Christian or atheist. But, of course, choosing to follow Jesus is not principally about ethics, it has to do with an awe-inspiring divine-human relationship.

Shortly our local churches will be celebrating Easter, a time we celebrate new life in Christ through his resurrection, but maybe we could see as the time when Jesus Christ, the son of God, came as the non-religious type for the non-religious type to draw all people to himself into a real, relevant and restored relationship with God the Father.

I truly believe the message of salvation is still as powerful and pertinent as it was 2,000 years ago, because you see Jesus’ death happened in a secular setting, not in a private religious community. It was not really a religious event at all. It happened in the city of one of the busiest and most important trading outposts of the Roman Empire.

On Good Friday we remember how Jesus, isolated and with a minority following, gave his life in a divine act of love for the majority, regardless of belief or faith. Now, I am not wanting to impose my position on anyone, but I do want to put it out there to our community.

We are all free to accept or reject, but let me leave you with this last thought: did Jesus really die just to make us religious? It just doesn’t stack up for me.

Maybe see you at Stour Valley Vineyard Church 10.30 am on Easter Sunday at the Delphi Centre.

Happy Easter!

ASD

'Red Rev' Giles Fraser?

Just reflecting about the resigination of the Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, Rev Dr Giles Fraser. While left-leaning The Guardian fetes the man, I hear, maybe not surprisingly, the Daily Telegraph takes another view.

Whatever side you take, he typifies the need for the Christian to speak up and get involved in politics and injustice, even when it doesn't always make you universally popular with your own peers.

US Christian activist Shane Clairborne says:

"Theologian Karl Barth said, 'We have to read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.' For too long we Christians have used our faith as a ticket out of this world rather than fuel to engage it.

"In his parables, Jesus wasn’t offering pie-in-the-sky theology… he was talking about the real stuff of earth. He talks about wages, debt, widows and orphans, unjust business owners and bad politicians. In fact Woody Guthrie breaks it all down in his song “Jesus Christ.” The song ends with Woody singing, “This song was written in New York City. If Jesus were to preach what he preached in Galilee, they would lay him in his grave again.”

"The more I read the Gospels, the more they seem to confront the very patterns of the world we live in. At one point Mary, pregnant with Jesus cries out: “God casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly… God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty…”. You can’t help but think if she were alive in contemporary America some folks would try to accuse the Virgin Mother of being Marxist or promoting class warfare. But all through Scripture we see this–over 2000 verses about how God cares for the poor and most vulnerable.

"What would Jesus say about Wall Street?"

 What would Jesus say about the Square MIle?

Would he be for locking up St Paul's Catherdral or for an open air church service?

The thing I am taking away is that if we want our message to be heard we have to first hear what culture is saying. This is not so much about wanting to sound populist like a politician, but to help us avoid sounding pompous like an old fogey.

May God grant us wisdom and courage in these times!

ASD

Steve Jobs - living life, expecting death

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford University Commencement Speech

Full text here.

Pax.

ASD

Evolution, IQ & footballers

In the light of the recent John Terry scandal, findings just published by Dr Santoshi Kanazawa of London School of Economics and Political Science make interesting reading. They show that apparently due to our evolutionist tendencies men with a low IQ struggle to stay faithful to one partner.

On the other hand, more intelligent men are more likely to live in an exclusive relationship. I am not sure whether premiership footballers will have read this research, but they may feel it lets them off the hook somewhat - if we waiver that little thing called personal accountability.

Just as interesting, Kanazawa goes on to say that people who believe in God are less intelligent and tend to be ‘paranoid’.  Furthermore, ‘religion is the by-product of human tendencies to perceive agency and intention as causes of events to see the “hands of God” at work behind otherwise natural phenomena.’

The report in the London Metro concludes “more intelligent children are likely to grow up against their naturally evolutionist tendency to believe in God and become atheists.”  Really?

Now as a ‘bear with little brain’, but I would have thought atheist-biased evolutionists would argue that there was no God to “grow up against”.

I am not sure it is ‘natural’ in our increasingly secularised country to start life believing in God. At least, that is not my experience.  Aren’t we all conditioned by society in some way? How objective can we really be?

I think what I am hearing is that as we have evolved to become more intelligent and therefore less prone to believe in God. This would take us neatly back to the Enlightenment argument of the ‘God of the gaps’ theory.

The problem I have with these findings is that, by its nature, it is has to be culture-bound, therefore the commentary which goes with it is conjecture. For instance, on a totally human level, men who have affairs tend to be called ‘dumb’ because the relational fall-out on their spouses and children is often huge. 

Human responsibility and a relational values system are, of course, seldom part of the evolutionary conversation. More the pity. But then that would introduce an ethical and moral dimension into the debate, however I appreciate that may not have been in the remit of the research.

Nevertheless, to suggest that God is made redundant because of an evolutionary intelligence argument is a brave, but hardly an original line to take.

In truth, I am just not sure that the alternative gives us a better world.  

ASD

Church-Tank - a scary thought.

 

Hm...I wonder if this is how other religions see the church?

Sculpture by Kris Kuksi.

I’d like to share an uncomfortable conversation with you

I had a difficult conversation with someone who is not a Christian, which made me feel deeply uncomfortable and incredibly sad. I was asked a simple question: “Doesn’t being a Christian mean living your life in a different way to the rest of us?

Er...yes,” I slowly replied.

Behind this question there was a whole heap of stuff kicking off. Their experience of Christians has been far from a good one. He has seen them blatantly lie, be foul-mouthed, lewd, be two-faced, put the proverbial knife in the back of others. The list goes on.  In short, he has seen them at their most pious and their most duplicitous.

In a not too gentle way, he was telling me that Christians’ ethics seem confused and leave a lot to be desired. Furthermore, it was not attractive to him.

And if that is not enough, let me now tell you that part of that picture was formed by working with Christian organisations.

How does this sit with you?  With me, it makes me want to squirm.

Now please hear me, I don’t write this from a sanctimonious attitude or am I about to suggest that Stour Valley Vineyard Church is the one getting it right, but my motive for sharing this is because someone else has been denied access to the real Jesus - and that just breaks my heart.

To be honest, I found it hard not to go on the defensive. I said some things such as people will always do people stuff, whether they are in or outside of the church.  I also said that Jesus held his greatest judgement on the religious people of the day who lived by the letter, but not by the spirit.

What would you have said?

At the end of the day I recognise that we are all hypocrites at one time or another and used to being hoisted on our own petards, but the main thing is to recognise this and repent of our ungodly attitudes, and work towards living a pure and holy life in Christ.

My heart’s desire is that people come to know the real Jesus and experience authentic Christianity. The trouble is authentic Christianity has a habit of showing up our worst features to ourselves and those around us.  It exposes us and makes us feel naked.  (If you are not a Christian and reading this please don’t give up looking. It is out there. It really is!)

However, we can’t hide the truth that with God’s mercy comes judgement. The Bible says clearly that all who profess to know Him and live in Him will be called to account for their actions, as much as those who reject Him.

 Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthian church to beware of those who water down the gospel. He says, in effect, that they preach a false Jesus, a false gospel. He goes on to say ‘their end will be met with what it deserves’. Sober stuff!

I am of the firm belief that becoming a Christian is nothing short of a miracle, because left to only us we would make a right old hash of it. Sometimes I think too much blame is put at the convenient door of secularism, when really the problem is inside.

We live with the dialectic tension that we are the body, hands, feet, and voice of Christ, but without his perfection. Yet, by his grace, he still continues to use us.

And what an amazing grace it is too!  It stops me feeling condemned by uncomfortable conversations. However it is a grace given at a price – God’s own son tortured and murdered for you and me. That makes me want to value it not cheapen it.

Following Jesus has got to be a way of life, not a convenience, surely.

ASD

Cadbury's changes its brand image and goes Fairtrade

It was interesting to read this week that good old Cadbury's has undergone something of a revolution by aiming to go totally Fairtrade by Autumn of this year. Not only that but they have bought into social network marketing by stepping into the blogosphere to get their message out. However, I am not sure it works for them. If they had a tribe, as Seth Godin, sees it, maybe this would be a cool tool, but they lack a following, unlike Green & Black.

Now I know that I risk being branded cruel talking about chocolate when I am aware that people have given up the cocoa bean for Lent, but I thought you should know all the same. Sorry.

ASD

Reclaiming Christmas from rampant consumerism

There's an interesting article on Ekklesia's site about Abbot Christopher Jamison, star of the BBC television series The Monastery, who has warned that rampant consumer culture is taking over people's moral purpose, and must be tackled in order to address climate change.

"Even our souls are now consumerised and marketing is taking over not only our material imagination but also our spiritual imagination."

He talks about how our higher purpose is being redefined in earthly terms, rather than spiritually.

"Having saturated the world of our material needs, consumerism is now taking over our need for cultural goods such as music, entertainment and even moral purpose."

He cited the example of a section of Nike's website, called 'Addicts Gallery', in which runners talk about sport as their "higher purpose".

The monk is really quite outspoken about these things, but, hey, someone has got to say it.

As Christmas now fast approaches his words are worth reflecting on.

ASD

One Christian’s personal view on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

I must confess that until the end of the last week I was unaware of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill going through the House in an open cross-party vote. We need to understand exactly what is going on here.

Last minute emails and conversation abounded this last weekend about the apparent immoral and clandestine behaviour of research scientists to push through a bill that would open the floodgates of the desanctification of life.

By nature I am a cautious person, so when I became a Christian, I also became a cautious Christian. Can’t help it, it’s just the way God wired me, which in some way the point of the bill. The vote has come about because the biological wiring in people has gone wrong through contracting a disease.

Medical research charities like Parkinson’s Disease Society and Motor Neurone Disease Association are desperate to find a cure sooner than later. These are two charities that I have had personal contact with and both do fantastic jobs.

I remember spending a wet Wednesday afternoon in North London with a guy called Stephen in a pub, not too dissimilar to my age.

From his wheelchair with heavily restricted movement he told me his story and what it was like to live with the hell that was Motor Neurone Disease. I was only meant to be there an hour, but ended up spending four hours with Stephen, laughing and crying together. He knew his fate.

There would be a time shortly when he would only be able to communicate by the battering of an eyelid because the facial muscles would stop working. His muscles in his body would continue to close down one by one, so in the end the muscles that support his lungs would simply collapse and he would drown in his own liquid. A truly dreadful way to die.

As a Christian my heart just went out to him. I just wanted to hug him as I believe Jesus would do. I got a phone call a couple of years ago to tell me he had died. The memory of meeting him that Wednesday afternoon hasn’t.

It is with this background that I have struggled in the last 48 hours to know what side to take. I guess if I was seeing copious miracles around me of people getting healed of terrible neurological diseases my position could be easier, but they aren’t.

Am I concerned about Frankenstein science? You bet. Am I concerned that embryo research will try and reduced the norm of a balanced family in a mother and father figure? Of course! Do I feel fathers are being more and more devalued in their worth to society? Yes.

However I am starting to think, like Lord Winston, that the church might just be a little ‘misinformed’ about the debate and therefore muddying the waters a bit. It might just be that we, the Church, are firing at the hip without having time to fully assess the argument.

For instance, as I understand the term ‘hybrid embryo’ is a bit of a misnomer.

The experiments that some British scientists want to conduct involve transferring nuclei containing DNA from human cells, such as skin cells, into animal eggs that have had almost all of their genetic information removed. The resulting cytoplasmic embryos - known as admixed embryos - are more than 99% human, with a small animal component, making up around 0.1%.

Actually, a true hybrid embryo would be 50-50, such as, say, the Toyota Prius, to put it in automotive terms.

Is this really another case of Galileo and the Pope – science and theology falling out?

On the other hand, I am so grateful for the Catholic Church and my own denomination, the Vineyard, for speaking up and at least raising the issues with intelligence. 

Unless the thinking church speaks up the ground will be hijacked by the much vocal, well meaning but misguided members of our beloved church family, who come across not so much with eloquence as nuttier than as a high protein fruitcake. Heart-felt views need substance.

Last night I watched Channel Four’s Dispatch programme cringing behind a cushion, which explored the growth and increasing influence of Christian fundamentalists. It was excruciatingly painful.

The production company, of course, comes with its own programme agenda with leading questions put to the interviewees on the classic hot potatoes: young earth creationism, Islam and homosexuality. The interviewees might have thought this was free PR, the rest of us were thinking this is putting the head in the lion’s mouth.

Today sees the House of Commons take a free vote on Abortion timings. The proposal is to reduce the time to 20 weeks and less, rather than staying at the current 24 weeks. Can all Christians agree on this amendment?

I would like to think so.

In an age when everyone talks about human rights, isn’t it time to extend that right to unborn babies? In my books abortion surmounts to murder. Who are we give or take away life as mere mortals anyway?

Yes, I am aware of the painful illustration of rape victims, but tell a rape victim’s child at 21 that their life is worth less than someone born out of a loving relationship and I think we are on dodgy ground. Out of suffering and personal disaster good can always come. That seems to be the Christian message of hope anyway.

In these times when we are confused as a nation over what is right and wrong, we need to watch, pray and reflect like never before. We need God’s wisdom and grace to help us be Jesus-minded, to be theologically grounded in the Bible and lovingly connecting with our society.

Yes, please, speak up and be bold, but let’s do it with faith and reason, and with accountability of our words that continues to love all people, regardless if their position is different to ours.

ASD

 

A year of living biblically

I have been reading an extract in Saturday’s Guardian from an autobiographical book by AJ Jacobs, an American agnostic Jew who decided to see if he could survive a year living biblically – in a very literal way.

This meant, among other things, letting his hair grow (“You shall not round the corners of your head” Leviticus 19:27), not wearing mixed fibres in his clothing, and of course, stoning adulterers. Not exactly activities to make new friends.

He writes: “I grew up in an extremely secular home in New York City. I am officially Jewish, although the closest my family came to observing Judaism was the Star of David on top of our Christmas tree. But in the past few years, religion has become my fixation. I fret. Is my blindness to spirituality a defect in my personality? What if I'm missing out on part of being human, like a guy who goes through life without ever hearing Beethoven or falling in love? And, most important, I now have a young son - if my lack of religion is a flaw, I don't want to pass it on to him.

I decided to explore religion - the question was how. The germ of the idea came from my own family: my uncle Gil. At some point along his spiritual path, via Hinduism and Christianity to Orthodox Judaism, Gil decided to take the Bible literally. Completely literally. Millions of Americans say they take the Bible literally, but my suspicion was that almost everyone's literalism consisted of picking and choosing the parts that fitted their agenda. That would not be my approach.”

He talks about the challenge of trying to know God, love Him and changing long-held attitudes.  For instance, how hard it is not to tell little white lies just to keep things sweet?  The truth is the Bible is 66 books of thousands of years of history with all its cultural baggage in tow.

It is really quite impossible for us in the UK living in the 21^st century to really appreciate what it must have been like to live in a time and place like the Ancient Near East, let alone to make sense of Scripture that tells you that you shouldn’t sit in a chair where an unclean woman (menstruating) has sat. You just starting thinking what is it all about and how on earth it finds relevance to us today.

 So do we scuff our feet in embarrassment and find a way to conveniently hide it away from secular eyes?

I remember watching an episode of The West Wing where an Evangelical Christian woman who is anti -same-sex civil marriages is lambasted by the President. He throws texts from Leviticus back in her face, accusing her of hypocrisy and double standards. For TV, he appears to make a pretty good case. However, even the brilliant script writing is no substitute for grappling with the reality of the texts, along with its numerous commentators’ multifarious views.

Living a year biblically is a formulaic approach to finding God design for selling books, and by the author’s own admission, it does not bring him much closer to finding real faith.  It would be like me parking my unsexy Vauxhall Zafira in a Ferrari sales room for a year and expecting it turn into a premium sports car.

We are dealing with a supernatural God, not merely the psychology of a religion

Faith is a gift from God and sometimes rather annoyingly defies human understanding. Maybe, this gives us a clue into Leviticus and the intention of the editors of the Bible who could have so easily have left it.  Its inclusion illustrates God is not in the business of being put in a box and catalogued under Religious Experiments.

ASD