The real human uniqueness is ...

... rhythm. Apparently. Newborn Infants Detect The Beat In Music: "This phenomenon - termed ‘beat induction’ - is likely to have contributed to music’s origin. It enables such actions as clapping, making music together and dancing to a rhythm. Beat induction is also considered to be uniquely human. Even our closest evolutionary relatives, such as the chimpanzee and bonobo, do not synchronise their behaviour to rhythmic sounds." Which I think probably also means that collective ritual is fairly unique too ...

Meat free health service?

This was always going to be an attractor of adverse comment. However the point is sound and it looks like the idea only amounts to offering more meat-free options. Which, speaking as a vegetarian who has had to spend quite a lot of time in hospitals in the last year, seems a good idea. Particularly as I was looking for options that also weren't going to act badly with my LDL cholesterol count -ie needing not to have a lot of dairy or eggs involved either. So I welcome this and invite readers to take to heart an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint. I must say, I'm also amazed by how addicted to meat so many of my contemporaries seem to be: the thought of not having meat even for a few days seems to terrify.

suggestion that hospitals could cut carbon emissions from food and drink by offering fewer meat and dairy products. Last year, the United Nations climate chief, Rajendra Pachauri, provoked a global debate when he said having a meat-free day every week was the biggest single contribution people could make to curbing climate change in their personal lives, because of the chemicals sprayed on feed crops and the methane emitted by cattle and sheep. Last week, the German federal environment agency went further, advising people to eat meat only on special occasions. Pencheon said the move would cut the relatively high carbon emissions from rearing animals and poultry, and improve health. Last year the NHS served 129m main meals, costing £312m, according to Department of Health figures. "We should not expect to see meat on every menu," said Pencheon. "We'd like higher levels of fresh food, and probably higher levels of fresh fruit and veg, and more investment in a local economy."

Green economic development in Britain

Definitely worth looking at, this publication from NEF. Tackling Climate Change, Reducing Poverty Here's an example of good news which illustrates the point and why our government should be considering this path as a major part of its somewhat Keynesian plan to spend us out of recession: "in a deprived community in Braunstone, Leicester, an alliance of local groups helped raise funds for photovoltaic solar energy systems to be placed on the roofs of 50 south-facing houses. Local small firms were given training to install the solar panels, which have now cut carbon emissions on the estate and lifted residents out of fuel poverty"
And I say, perhaps this is another area that local churches ought to be looking at encouraging as part of their community development mission; something which should also build local resiliance.
See also this article in WorldChanging.

Oaf of office

Stephen Pinker has an interesting explanation of Obama's difficulties with the oath of office the other day. I'm not sure whether the split verb thing entirely convinces me, but it has a plausibility about it. Here's the articleEdge 272 and here's the guts of the claim: "How could a famous stickler for grammar have bungled that 35-word passage, among the best-known words in the Constitution? ... the wayward adverb in the passage is blowback from Chief Justice Roberts’s habit of grammatical niggling. ... President Obama, whose attention to language is obvious in his speeches and writings, smiled at the chief justice's hypercorrection, then gamely repeated it. Let's hope that during the next four years he will always challenge dogma and boldly lead the nation in new directions."

Language Driven By Culture, Not Biology

This may be a blow to certain readings of Chomskyan Universal grammar. The article summarising the findings is here: Language Driven By Culture, Not Biology, Study Shows. In sum, this is what the research seems to indicate: "it is unlikely that humans possess a genetic ‘language module’ which has evolved by natural selection. The genetic basis of human language appears to primarily predate the emergence of language."
What I'm not sure about, though, is that although it would appear that biology cannot evolve as fast as culture, does this mean that there is no biological basis for language as such or that there is simply no basis for its diversity? This seems to be what is meant later in the article; "We conclude that slow-changing genes can drive the structure of a fast-changing language, but not the reverse." I think that means that there could be a biologically-based universal grammar of which actual instantiations of language would be declensions. What that would require in evolutionary terms, would surely be merely the evolution of a 'starting point' 'module' for language. Something that would give the basic structures. The fact that there are families of people (admittedly rare) where there appears to be a genetically based language disability in syntax, seems to indicate at least some 'nature' as well as nurture.
But maybe I've misunderstood something here.

I'm putting myself in peril by posting this ...

... because if the implications of what I'm passing on are played out to their fullest, then I am going to be a marked man. Just in from No2ID.

The Database State is now a direct threat, not a theory.

Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, due for its first debate in the Commons on Monday 26th January, would convert the Data Protection Act into its exact opposite. It would allow ministers to make 'Information Sharing Orders', that can alter any Act of Parliament and cancel all rules of confidentiality in order to allow information obtained for one purpose to be used for another.

This single clause is as grave a threat to privacy as the entire ID Scheme.

Combine it with the index to your life formed by the planned National Identity Register and everything recorded about you anywhere could be accessible to any official body.

Quite apart from the powers in the Identity Cards Act, if Information Sharing Orders come to pass, they could (for example) immediately be used to suck up material such as tax records or electoral registers to build an early version of the National Identity Register.

But the powers would apply to any information, not just official information. They would permit data trafficking between government agencies and private companies - and even with foreign governments.

THIS IS WHY WE MUST ACT NOW!

We need you to do three things:

1) Please ask everyone in your group and/or on your mailing list to write straight away IN THEIR OWN WORDS to their MP via http://www.WriteToThem.com - do it this weekend, if not before. The Bill is being rushed through Parliament, even as we write.

Get everyone to ask their MP to read Part 8 (clauses 151 - 154) of the Coroners and Justice Bill, and to oppose the massive enabling powers in the "Information sharing" clause. The Bill contains a number of controversial provisions, but to the casual reader it appears mainly to be about reforming inquests and sentencing. It is due its Second Reading in the Commons on 26th January 2009.

Request your MP demand that the clause be given proper Parliamentary scrutiny. This is something that will affect every single one of their constituents, unlike the rest of the Bill. There is a grave danger that the government will set a timetable that will cut off debate before these proposals - which are at the end of the Bill - are discussed.

2) Write letters to your local papers. Also, put out a group press release saying you have written to your local MP (once you have!) and pointing out that this will affect every one of his or her constituents. Highlight the fact that the information sharing powers in this Bill are overwhelmingly unpopular.

A YouGov poll in the Sunday Times on 18th January (details here: http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?p=100808 ) shows that the public opposes these new powers by a factor of 3 to 1 *against* - 65% of people asked said they would give government "too much power", only 19% thought not.

The government can't pretend a popular mandate for what it is doing. And it is a mechanism designed to by-pass Parliament in future. It is being done only for the convenience of the bureaucrats.

3) Tell as many people and other groups (local political parties, union branches, the WI, churches, mosques, temples, etc.) as you can. And find out more yourself. We have created a new page on the website dedicated to 'data sharing' which contains links to the key documents and a brief explanation of each.

Please read it, and pass on this link: http://www.no2id.net/datasharing.php

Let your friends, family, colleagues and anyone who might share our concerns know that the battle for their privacy is happening NOW. The more people wereach, the more we hope will act.

Smile from Heaven

I recently received this in one of those round-robin emails. It seems quite remarkable. What the email doesn't tell me is where it's from and the circumstances of its capture (or has it been 'composed'?).
Anyone know anything more?
It's certainly a very arresting image.

Presenter sacked for 'supporting the Bible's teachings' on radio

Hmmm: this looks like a case to keep an eye on. Taking this report at face value it would seem an injustice has been done. Check out the full item here: Presenter sacked for 'supporting the Bible's teachings' on radio - Telegraph And here's the nub of the matter: "The Rev Masih and his co-presenter Afzal Umeed were discussing the views of a prominent Muslim speaker, Zakir Naik, who the Rev Masih accuses of belittling the Christian faith on Peace TV, a digital channel.
The Rev Masih says that Mr Umeed asked Asif Mall, a Christian on-air guest, about Mr Naik's remarks. Mr Mall said Mr Naik's comments showed a lack of knowledge of the Bible and of the Koran.
In particular, Mr Mall disputed a claim by Mr Naik that Jesus Christ was not the only prophet to be 'the way, the truth and the life'."
On the face of it, it looks like a clear case of discriminatory censorship and of not allowing fair comment. However, I've not heard the remarks of any of the parties involved.

Words of forgiveness

An article in last week's Church Times  with lots of perspectives on forgiving, a lot based on the work of Liz Gulliford (a book on the topic has gone out of print and is now at horrific prices -if you can find a cheaper copy -say less than £20- let me know).
There are a few helpful and significant quotes I'd like to draw to your and my future attention.

“For most, though, forgiveness is a hard-won process, and in that process it is not unusual to feel mixed emo­tions. Everyone who goes on a journey of forgiveness will have times when forgiving is hard to hold on to.
“As Christians, we do not have to forgive from our own strength. The commitment to forgive may be all that we can put on the table, and hope and pray that it will be deep­ened. We pray that God will help us.”

That certainly chimes with pastoral and personal experience. It is useful to understand forgiveness as a process.
And when we deal with the issue of forgiveness, we have to be careful because there are lots of misunderstanding which have the effect of short-circuiting the process. One of those seems to be that forgiveness amounts to saying that the wrong is actually 'okay'. As Gulliford says,

Understanding the motive of the person who has injured you will only take you so far — forgiveness is not about condoning

And further down in the article Desmond Tutu is quoted as saying;

“Forgiveness does not mean condoning what has been done. It means taking what has hap­pened seriously and not minimising it; drawing out the sting in the memory that threatens to poison our entire existence. In the telling of stories like these [in the Forgiveness Project website] there is real healing.”

I find this sentence by Gee Walker to be a good framing perspective:

Forgiveness is my sur­vival tool. If I hadn’t, it would have brought anger and resentment into my soul, and I hadn’t got room for that. Forgiveness frees me up to love; it brings me peace and helps me today.

It helps us to understand that not forgiving is giving house-room to a set of attitudes and emotional baggage that may cripple us and that the decision to (learn to) forgive is a decision to make room for love and peace (and, I think, joy).

And a clear example of how what we think forgiveness is affects how we approach things comes in the quote relating to Julie Nicholson who resigned as active clergy following her daughter's murder as part of the London bombings in July 2007 because she didn't feel able to forgive and felt she was in a contradictory place to the ministry she was supposed to exercise.

Her definition of true forgiveness involves establishing a rela­tion­ship between the injured party and the attacker — a relationship that she found impossible to have.

. This alerts us to different dimensions of the term. I think that when we are talking about God forgiving us, then Julie's definition is very important. However, God is always present but in human affairs death, geography or sheer weight of emotional work mean that relationship may not be possible. However, letting go of bitterness, coming to a position where a relationship might begin to be possible in appropriate circumstances, may be. And I wonder whether the issue of condoning lurks here too in Julie's words,

I think I will be angry for the rest of my life for what happened. [But] when a life is cut down, then you should be angry.

. I think she is right. And I suspect that at the heart of forgiving lies the acts of recognising that anger, discerning what 'belongs' with the perpetrator and what doesn't and then forbearing to direct that anger to the perpetrator in punitive fashion, but rather to bear the pain ourselves. Make no mistake, to forbear punitive reaction is painful because it is not condoning or excusing or making light of a misdeed and/or an injustice. It is recognising the wrong, recognising that it deserves a reaction but choosing to forego that reaction. Obviously that is easier to do if there is love, respect, understanding and a sense of common humanity. It is very hard to do when those things are not present in the first place and a stranger is the mis-doer. It is often (but not always) easier to forgive someone we love. Though sometimes a sense of betrayal makes it even harder. Harder too to forgive an act done in malevolence than one out of ignorance or weakness. Perhaps it is the malevolent acts that are those that particularly invoke the need for personal relationship reconciliation?

I'm inching towards a fuller understanding of forgiveness, with the awareness that a lot of the theological debate about atonement is probably too detached from the realities of forgivness. I have a suspicion we would do better to start with forgiveness and reflect on that as a way to theologise about God's forgiveness. I'm still captivated by the idea that the cross is an eikon of the pain that God bears to forgive.

Tohu wa Bohu

I preached in College last Thursday. A number of people have been commenting since then how helpful they had found it. So for those who might value being able to reflect on bits of it again, I'm reproducing it here. I rarely preach from full notes like these, but the style required a closer attention to wording than I normally give. The numbers refer to slide accompaniments.

Gen 1:1 - 5 ; Mk 1:4ff

Riff-Sermon
Introductory slide is [1] -not for viewing start with [2]

Tohu wƏ bohu [2]
A formless void: formlessness and void; chaotic and empty; unstructured and unpopulated; shapeless and blank; formless and desolate; void and empty; disordered and uncultivated; unformatted and awaiting input .... a right mess wi nowt much appning.

To be alive means dealing with tohu w' bohu.

Tohu wƏ bohu [3]
Chaotic and unfulfilled. Peering ever more closely at fundamental particles, quarks, gluons, is to find randomness, mere probability rather than immutable laws, unpredictability at the very heart of what we think so solid and dependable: matter and energy. Our very being emerges from the wildness, the unpredictable, yes; the chaos of fundamental physical reality. Somehow reality is such that the randomness generates fields, areas and spaces of order, and more... and more... Somehow reality is such that even chaos is caught up into the making of order.

To examine through the eyes of physics and maths the nature and the equations of material reality is to find tohu w' bohu.

And in the beginning there is still a new story, a story telling us good news; for the Spirit of God hovers over the equations, and God is still saying “Let there be...” and there is ...

Tohu wƏ bohu [4]
Words to signal a main point in a counter-story for the people of God. Those who oppress them tell themselves a myth of epic primal battle between chaos and order. This story queries the Empire's foundational story in which might is right, and where order and peace are founded on bloodshed and suppression. Where the world, and everything in it, is reconstituted from the offal -the blood-soaked guts- of the defeated opponent. A myth of origins where the message is that peace and order come at the end of a sword. A myth justifying the suppression of the mass of people in the service of the few. A myth to tell human beings that we are worth little and the gods hardly care provided they get their cut.

To be oppressed is to suffer the consequences of other people's fear of tohu w' bohu.

In the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
And the spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters....

Tohu wƏ bohu [5]
No primal chaos monster to be defeated and gutted here. Just a calm scene-setting. A simple bringing-into-being.
No inscribing of violence into the very ground of being here. Just the power and intimacy of God's breath, God's spirit, God's life-force flowing, hovering, brooding, sweeping over all that God makes.
Here is no titanic struggle to give legitimacy to the exploiting of the hard graft of a slave population sweating for others' gain. Just some simple words to bring about
something new,
something beautiful,
something for everyone.

To be exploited means to be forced to handle other people's tohu w' bohu.

In the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
And the spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters....
And God saw that it was good

Tohu wƏ bohu [6]
Unstructured and empty. A phrase that could speak to a people who enter a wilderness. In a wilderness there are no streets, no familiar landmarks no directions. There is no sense of what is dangerous and what is safe. No fields, no food, no visible means of support.
What could a story like this mean to those forced to journey through the wild-erness, the wildness?
To enter a wilderness is to enter into tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the breath of God breathes through the experience. And God said “Let there be...”

Tohu wƏ bohu [7]
Disordered and blank. Chaotic and empty: that's how it must have felt for God's people hoiked off to Babylon; how to make sense of it all? Old securities gone. New ways not yet established. The mess and distress of finding new livelihoods, dealing with the prejudice and contempt of new neighbours, and most of all not knowing what the future could hold or whether we could dare to hope. Where God had been: where Temple had stood ... blank; erased; silence ...

To go into exile is to enter into tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the Spirit of God brooded over it all, and God said 'Let there be light'.

Tohu wƏ bohu [7]
Formless and void.
Later Jesus was to observe that the people of God were like sheep without a shepherd. Sheep!? All over the place. Facing different directions. Direction-less, wandering about. But for now, it's down into the water. Going in with the crowds, part of a people who are all over the place, and awaiting a shepherd. Making common cause with them, entering the turmoil and confusion. Waters of Baptism: waters of creation. And the Spirit hovers over the waters and over the Word-made-flesh.

For, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
And the Spirit of God brooded over it all, and God speaks in flesh and blood ....

Tohu wƏ bohu [8]
Meaningless and empty. To watch one die who had seemed to sum up in himself the hopes of a people, the purposes of God and even the very presence of the Divine caught up in the meaninglessness of an imperial injustice, ground between the competing blind forces of Empire, collaboration and resistance, identity and conformity, money and power. Such a death seems so ... meaningless. And without him life seems so ..... empty

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the Spirit of God brooded over the meaninglessness and emptiness, and God had a further word to speak.

Tohu wƏ bohu [9]
Messy and uncertain.
A young woman lies in the road behind the car that hit her. Her injuries mean that in about 11 hours surgeons will have to decide to amputate her leg.
For her family, for her church and for many many people whose lives that family's touch, there begins a time of messy uncertainty; a formless void awaiting developments form the conflicting forces at work in and around that life.

To be caught up in a serious and life-changing accident is to enter into tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the Spirit of God broods over the experience. And God speaks yet a further word...

Tohu wƏ bohu [10]
confusing and awaiting. A young woman certain of the call of God on her life for ordination. Trained at one of the finest colleges, clearly gifted and creative. Yet stymied time and again in a search for a curacy: passed from diocese to diocese; from bishop to DDO. From pillar to post. A husband needing to know where to request a transfer to for his work. How to make sense of call and lack of opportunity?

To await proper opportunities is to confront tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the breeze of God stirs through the experience. And God speaks a creative word.

Tohu wƏ bohu [11]
Meaningless and empty. A man is told he will be made redundant. This threatens not only his livelihood, but his sense of call, and of value and even threatens homelessness for a whole family. Things don't make sense, information is conflicting, emotional forces swing and eddy around him and within him.

To become jobless is to be rubbed raw against tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the breath of God breathes through the experience. And God speaks hope and creates afresh.

Tohu wƏ bohu [12]
A nation in turmoil; being torn between revenge and justice, hope and coming to terms with a horrendous past of oppression and abuse. Voices and forces compete to offer futures but so many seem to offer peace only through shedding the blood of those designated enemies. The danger is the forces that could be unleashed in reversing the racial power status threaten chaos, anarchy and might is right community building. A world watches in trepidation and ... prayer ...

To rebuild a nation is to stand amidst and be seared by tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the wind of God blows through the nation. And God speaks and old yet ever new word ...

Tohu wƏ bohu [13]
Among the first words of scripture; but not the last.
The Spirit of God still hovers over tohu w' bohu
The breath of God still whispers through the tohu w' bohu
the Wind of God still whistles around the tohu w' bohu.
And God says:
Let there be artists and entrepreneurs
bringers of justice and makers of peace
wise and servant leaders
prophets and pastors
tellers of truth
healers
And there were.
And God saw that it was good.
And evening came and morning came. The sixth day.

Amen. [14]

Government minister talks sense!

I know! A man bites dog story!
David Milliband: "democracies must respond to terrorism by championing the rule of law, not subordinating". It is an argument he links directly with the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. "That is surely the lesson of Guantánamo and it is why we welcome president-elect Obama's clear commitment to close it."
There's more: "Terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution or an ideology,"
It's reported here.
The way it's reported here seems to hint that this is part of a strategic realignment with a new USAmerican administration. Plus cela change ...

It's going to be a long, hard road to defend our liberties

I've not blogged much ID/NIR stuff latel. This not because there haven't been things written, more a sense that the developments are not particularly significant: the juggernaut trundles on through the countryside without reaching any particular junctions. The arguments against are still the same. However, I'm breaking my silence because I think that those who are concerned for the liberties of our older selves, our children and their children should take this moment to pause and make ready for the battle (for it is clear that the juggernaut is still going and hasn't been deterred by a series of cogent arguments or the demonstrable weaknesses of its own). In this pause for reflection, we can do worse than to note this article: Simon Carr: It's going to be a long, hard road to defend our liberties - Simon Carr, Commentators - The Independent. And here's an arresting quote to ponder as to why the argument has not been convincingly won: "most social democrats... enjoy an active state. They feel it's essentially benign, constructive and protective."
I think Simon is right: for in supporting No2ID I find myself sharing political space with some 'dodgy' characters: libertarians and Daily Mail readers who are relflexively anti state in a way that I am not always. And although I have a penchant for self-organising systems, I tend to feel that there are things that are well-done by larger democratically-accountable agencies; health care, for example.

However, more importantly is the appearance of a new argument (I think it is, at least. It's the first time I have sighted it in the wild):
"what does this surveillance and remote monitoring do to our political class? I bet it has a negative effect on their energy and humanity. According to the state, Arthur Koestler said, the definition of an individual is a million people divided by a million. If we, the subjects, become a screen experience, numbers to be crunched, that surely diminishes our masters' capacity to think of us in personal terms.
These vast schemes increase their credulity, arrogance and appetite for autocratic, unworkable solutions. The databases they sign up for at the cost of billions are not only vanity projects, they dehumanise the people who work in them. They reinforce the separateness of the political class from the rest of us."
Though again it may mainly appeal to the thought-out voter rather than the 'no more duty on beer and fags' voter. Yet for all that it will bear the analogy with warfare where the callousness of war increases with the disengagement of those pulling the trigger or pressing the button from the effects on their victims. That's still remote until you realise that we -that means 'I' multiplied by a million or several- are the ones having the missiles rain down on us. We will be the surveillance casualties akin to innocent Palestinians in Gaza. Maybe that's an argument that could get attention? If you think so; blog it, talk about it -influence opinion with it.

Htt No2ID
see also the Guardian's guide to how we got here.

Questions to ask about a technology

These questions based on the work of Jaques Ellul, are definitely worth reflecting on as part of our work of cultural reflection. The headings are; ecological; social; practical; moral; ethical; vocational; metaphysical; political; and aesthetic.
Here are some of the questions from the section headed 'ecological'.
Letters from a Skeptic by Gregory A. Boyd: "What are its effects on the health of the planet and of the person?
Does it preserve or destroy biodiversity?
Does it preserve or reduce ecosystem integrity?
What are its effects on the land?"

questioning cultural artifacts

I agree with Alan Jacobs here: Text Patterns � Blog Archive � questioning cultural artifacts. He pulls out of Andy Crouch's Culture Making something that impressed me recently in its brevity yet pointedness. These are questions that need to be used in assessing cultural artefacts:
"(1) What does this cultural artifact assume about the way the world is? What are the key features of the world that this cultural artifact tries to deal with, respond to, make sense of?

(2) What does this cultural artifact assume about the way the world should be? What vision of the future animated its creators? What new sense does it seek to add to a world that often seems chaotic and senseless?

(3) What does this cultural artifact make possible? What can people do or imagine, thanks to this artifact, that they could not before? Conversely,

(4) What does this cultural artifact make impossible (or at least very difficult)? What activities and experiences that were previously part of the human experience become all but impossible in the wake of this new thing?

(5) What new forms of culture are created in response to this artifact? What is cultivated and created that could not have been before?"

Watch out There's a Google nasty about

Just in the last two or three weeks someone gained access to my gmail account. I've changed my password. The interesting thing was what they did. They reset my signature file and enabled an automatic 'out of office' reply both with an advertising letter. So every time someone emailed me an automatic reply with advertising was sent. Apologies to anyone adversely affected by this and thanks to those who pointed out that it was happening.

The worrying thing was that the password concerned was one that scores well on encryption strength, being a combination of non-dictionary words and numbers (in fact a version of a Bible reference). I'm wondering whether they just got lucky or whether there is something else to be concerned about.

Vicar has 'horrifying' statue of crucifixion removed from church

Well, I had a double-take when I saw the middle of this article: Vicar has 'horrifying' statue of crucifixion removed from church | World news | guardian.co.uk. The words that caused the double take were these: "'The crucifix expressed suffering, torment, pain and anguish. It was a scary image, particularly for children. Parents didn't want to walk past it with their kids, because they found it so horrifying.

'It wasn't a suitable image for the outside of a church wanting to welcome worshippers. In fact, it was a real put-off.

'We're all about hope, encouragement and the joy of the Christian faith. We want to communicate good news, not bad news, so we need a more uplifting and inspiring symbol than execution on a cross.'"

My first reaction was something along the lines of 'but that's the point: that's what the cross is about'. But then it is also worth remembering that Christian symbolism, historically, was late in adopting the cross. It seems only to become fashionable after crucifixion was a regular feature of criminal 'justice'. This would have been, I guess, because of the reasons that the vicar in this case gave: it's a nasty and scary business. Remember the Ichthus symbol was one of the earliest Christian symbols. Remember too that most crosses are symbolic and tidied up compared with crucifixion.
Here's a picture (linked back to the BBC) of the 'offending' sculpture.

I guess it is a bit scary and if you are in a culture which, unlike the medieval, doesn't any longer 'get' the basic image and story, then it may not be the best place to start. Recall that Paul was mistaken once for proclaiming two Gods; Christ and Anastasia (Resurrection), maybe our iconography needs to be more liable to that mistaking than the horror movie version?

So while the Torygraph's commentator may have a point, he doesn't think it through far enough, methinks.

Barrage and gas: energy and generation

There's debate brewing over the proposed Severn barrage; start here for the arguments: Colin Luckhurst: The Severn barrage would be good for renewable energy, but opposition from conservationists is powerful | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "A barrage stretching across the wide mouth of the estuary from south Wales to the northern coast of Somerset could hold the turbines that – judging by the example of the only European example now in place, at the mouth of the river Rance in Brittany – could generate electricity both from the incoming tide and the normal river outflow."

A creative bit of thinking notices that natural gas is very high pressure when released and gets really cold as it is slowed down; perfect candidate for electric generation by turbine and also uses for refrigeration ... check it out.

Eikon within eikon

Starburst begat stardust begat carbon begat protein begat transcriptors begat flesh

A woman's word enfleshes
a word not spoken with human voice

The reflection projects
the archetype

From the inmost germinates
a cosmos reworded

A sound of Word heard not by ear in air
but listenered by participation in flesh

And flesh was made living eikon

(cc) Andii Bowsher

The Word became flesh

I just discovered a poem I wrote a few years back. Some nice touches in it perhaps ...

Creator Christ incarnate
One cell within a girl divides
Maker of the universe
Confined to dividing DNA
How can chromosomes
Code for human and divine?
Yet in this double helix
God and child are intertwined
And nourished by his mother's blood
The Son of God grows in utero.

Depression among the young at alarming level

Check it out: Depression among the young at alarming level, says charity | Society | The Guardian Here's a quote to get you into it: "the majority of young people had a generally positive outlook on life. ... however, ... the serious concerns of the 'core' of unhappy people under the age of 25 'need to be addressed'.... failing to take the issue seriously 'would be storing up big problems for the future'.
Concerns about the mental health and wellbeing of young people have risen sharply following reports about the emotional fragility of the current generation of children and teenagers, and problems around violence and knife crime."
The interesting thing is that this seems to be linked in the article to the figure that "27% said their lives had no purpose.". Could this be further evidence that nihilism is bad for us? Link that, then, with Matthew Parris's article about how God seems to be good for society (here).Further comment here.

"As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God"

Now this is a really arresting admission from Matthew Parris writing here: As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God | Matthew Parris - Times Online: Here's the appetite-whetting bit:

"Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.
I used to avoid this truth by applauding - as you can - the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It's a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.
But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing."

And he ends by saying; "Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete."
Hmmm. Interesting ....

The Museum of Fabric Brain Art

Just have a look, that's all I'm going to say. The Museum of Fabric Brain Art

Radical alternatives proposed for cannabis controls - science-in-society

I think I've become pretty convinced that the present regimes for controlling recreational use of mood-altering substances is driven more by prejudice and moral panic than by evidence. This conviction has been bolstered by a recent report on cannabis. Here's one report: Radical alternatives proposed for cannabis controls - science-in-society - 30 December 2008 - New Scientist And the salient bit of the report: "Despite the undoubted dangers associated with marijuana, the Beckley report concludes that it is far less harmful to users and to society in general than other illicit drugs such as heroin and cocaine, and far less damaging than the legal drugs tobacco and alcohol. There have been only two documented deaths from marijuana overdose, the report notes. This contrasts with 200,000 deaths from all causes each year attributed to other illegal drugs, 2.5 million deaths annually related to alcohol and 5 million to smoking."
The article in NS ends with a resume of the known effects with some illuminating comparisons with alcohol usage demonstrating there's a lot of institutionalised hypocrisy abou the whole thing.

Fifteen reasons people give up

These are definitely worth pondering, and I have a certain sympathy with a number of them. Church Times - Fifteen reasons people give up: "One in three said that their loss of faith was a key reason for leaving. Other reasons given were:

• Excluded by cliques (about half)
• Churchgoing was part of growing up (two out of five)
• Moving to a new area and family commitments (main reason for one in three)
• Tensions with work (one in four)
• Church was too feminine for some men, and too difficult for those sexually active outside marriage
• Inadequate return for time and money (two out of five)
• Disillusionment
• Hurt by pastoral failure (14 per cent)
• Church irrelevant (high proportion)
• Disliked change, e.g. of hymns (one in five)
• Worship too formal/informal and teaching too high/low (one third)
• Church leader was too authoritarian (RCs) or too unclear (Anglicans) (one in four)
• Church was too conservative (one fifth to one third)
• Lack of boundaries between the Church and the world (one in four)"

Now we should note that explicitly or implicitly, a number of these are mutually incompatible: irrelevance may well be contradictory to lack of boundaries, for example, or dislike of change would be a different set of people to those who find the church too authoritarian or unclear -since those have been characteristic for a while of the churches concerned. And the worship style point indicates that there really ought to be a move around of people but instead of transfer clearly a lot of people simply stop attending at all, so there must be other reasons involved too -I'll have to read Gone for Good to see the detail.

It does indicate the need for a variety of church 'styles'; because cleary one size is not able to fit all. This is something that the apparently 'successful' churches need to take cognisence of too because these figures would indicate that their growth masks the fact that there are sections of the population that they will never really reach because, as a general rule, they are too informal, too conservative, too authoritarian and so forth.

How YouTube Changes the Way We Think

At last, a proper grown-up article on new media. By 'grown-up' I mean one that tries to wrestle with how new media are actually used and their actual use and abuse rather than recycling 'woe-fest' laments about how culture will go down the pan or a starry-eyed love-in telling us how we will be ushered into a new era of lusciousness. The final sentence of the article captures, for me, why it's worth looking at. Clive Thompson on How YouTube Changes the Way We Think: "We think of video as a way to communicate with others—but it's becoming a way to communicate with ourselves."

British engineers have developed a new environmentally friendly cement that is carbon-negative | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Now this looks really potenially a kind of win-win thing: read about it here British engineers have developed a new environmentally friendly cement that is carbon-negative . And the reason for optimism is, in a nutshell: "Novacem's cement, based on magnesium silicates, not only requires much less heating, it also absorbs large amounts of CO2 as it hardens, making it carbon negative."
Now this is worth putting in a broader perspective: "Making the 2bn tonnes of cement used globally every year pumps out 5% of the world's CO2 emissions - more than the entire aviation industry. And the long-term trends are upwards: a recent report by the French bank Credit Agricole estimated that, by 2020, demand for cement will increase by 50% compared to today."
It'll all come down to cost and availability, I guess. And it may also be worth keeping an eye open for the particular material qualities of the 'crete compared with other materials. One commenter on the article mentions the conservatism of the building industry as a likely retrogressive force...