Reading and Wriding

Naff title I know - but that's me!

Had my first decent ride of the year today - the canal path is dryer and harder, and when I set out it was mild(ish) so I toddled off to Salts Mill for a decent (if small) cappuchino. Found out I'd overreached myself coming home:

1. The wind had been behind me all the way out.
2. I've not done a 40 mile ride for a while.
3. One small cappuchino is not enough fluid or sugar.

Once revived by lunch and a large cola - finished a fantastic book:

The Islamist by Ed Husain

I have to say (to my shame) I have not read enough about Islam - but I think this book made up well for the oversight.

Ed tells of his conversion to a radicalised Muslim (an Islamist) and then back to a more moderate mystical (Sufi) form which he claims is still the predominant though unvoiced Moslem belief in the UK.

Reading the book you follow his journey, in belief and also on his "Road to Damascus" (yes he understands the allusion - but in his case he goes to Damascus to learn Arabic and find Sufi Moslems and Christians co-existing peacefully). He also finds the Hijab as the traditional clothing of - not Moslems - but Arab Christians! He also sees elsewhere, the horrors of a racist dictatorial regime - in the name of Islam.

All of this makes him all the more keen to pursue the loving peacable form of Sufism he has discovered.

Fascinating for me as an "evangelical" Christian is the parallels between some of the worst facets of evangelicalism and their equivalents in some streams of Islam. One example being the negative effects of "celebrity".

I'd lend it to you - but I borrowed it (from my son).

Sensible Work Shirt

Flash movie removed to protect the sanity of visitors - click here to see the movie.

Humor is everywhere, in that there's irony in just about anything a human does.

Bill Nye

Taking Offense

I've just finished an enjoyable read - "Brick Lane" by Monica Ali - Flora bought it in an airport bookshop. At the end of the book is an article written by the author after the book was published. It is titled: "The Outrage Economy". Clearly Monica Ali took some flak for stuff in the book/film.

As she points out, stock in the market for "outrage" or offense is rising. To put it another way - it is the trump card of the protestor: "I was outraged/offended/hurt (delete as applicable)".

As someone said I think - implicit in freedom of speech, has to be the possibility of giving or taking offence.

But is that a defence for being offensive? Answer: Maybe. I suspect that giving offence is sometimes the only way to make an important point (Jesus did it). But not always.

Sometimes offensive humour works - sometimes it is crap.

Taking offence - that is another issue - I think that playing the "I'm offended" trump card is just fueling "offence inflation".

It seems that some Christians see it is their role in life to be offended and make a lot of noise about it. That is so far from the core of the Gospel. "Im deeply offended" - is such an un-gracious response.

I'm not saying that people who find something morally wrong should stay silent. We do need to speak out sometimes - but let's not fuel offence inflation. We need signposts on the moral map not cowpats.

I find this mental tape a good one to play: "I am not responsible for what happens to me, but I am responsible for my reaction".

Would someone like to remind me of this post next time I act all offended?

Is faith private?

Recently I heard of a Home Office argument when trying to deport an Iranian Christian, that despite the clearly real danger of them being persecuted for their faith, (maybe even being killed) that they could just practice their religion "in private".

Now that is clearly a load of tosh! Faith is not a private thing (however coy we may sometimes be about it).

So I was interested to hear the episode of "Beyond Belief" on Radio 4 yesterday, driving home from Glasgow. (31st Dec 2007) The subject was religion in the workplace - and the key question was - "Can we keep religion out of the workplace?"

The speaker that kept making me shout back at the radio was Douglas Murray A Neo-Con apologist from the "Centre for social cohesion" (I was in the car on my own!)

Murray said "We have to divorce the private spiritual lives of employees and the situation they are in in the workplace" He goes on to point out that (Faith) "Affects your personal life - your spiritual life- it is not something you take to the workplace - it is totally irrelevant."

The totally irrelevant bit really got my goat! Douglas seemed to be appealing to some "higher" form of morality (of his own invention) to rule in the workplace - denying the relevance of any scripture (Christian, Jewish or Islamic)

A refusal to handle alcohol by Muslims in Sainsburys was denounced by Murray as hypocritical, yet he seems comfortable with one set of values at work and another elsewhere.

At the end of the program, Lord Brian Griffiths brough some sanity when he said that is was "Impossible to privatise religion".

Trick is to "publicise" it without being too cocky.. (Glen has a good post on this)

Happy new year...

Ann outdoes herself again!

Well my beloved sister outdid herself again this year. Last year's pants were pretty amazing - this year she continued her long tradition of misspelling one of our names in a fairly permanent way. Jono spent some time as a child wearing a Tshirt with a brilliant original Anne design featuring what was nearly his name ("Jonathen").

This time she managed to mis-spell my first name - a real achievement! The wrapping was pretty cool I have to admit - and I smell nice today (I think).

Got my own back (pre-emptiveley) by giving her a bag of pigfood for her present. The deal is we pay a couple doing an amazing job among the Aeta Indians in the Philippines (Pam & Martin Scott) and we give a card to people (like my sister) so effectiveley Ann&Renzo (& Phil/Gabrielle & Bal/Noodle) have supported this brilliant work!

The pigfood was because I gave my brother (featured in flourescent yellow lycra pants on last years Christmas blog) a pig. We named the pig Peppa (Phil is the producer of "Peppa Pig").

Spent a lot of Christmas day watching Dave Gilmour's "Remember the Day" DVD (thanks Jono) - even my mother liked it.

This article in "The Inquirer" from the Philippines puts Pam & Martin's work in context brilliantly. Doing Jesus stuff in Jesus' way - wholistic - body, and soul.

Missed This... Missional Church & Communal Salvation

A great piece on the relationship of Mission to church. On Glens blog. (sorry - that sounds sooo patronising!!!!)

Must confess to having uncritically taken on board the idea that salvation is communal - and that is (as with a lot of good ideas) partially true.

I suspect that the communal dimension to salvation is very culturally conditioned. Reading Vincent Donovan's excellent "Christianity Rediscovered" a culture that is very group oriented responds village by village - the whole village accepts or rejects the gospel. And we individualistic westerners think - "I wonder if some of them have decided that the gospel is true?"

Answer: "Does not compute" And for some X / Y (whatever) gen people it seems to compute less.

Cherish the contradictions is perhaps a better reponse!