Archaic English, the book of Mormon and religious English

An interesting article in Language Log Language Log � Archaic English verb endings and the Book of Mormon, where we are reminded of some interesting grammatical mistakes in the Book of Mormon.

And that the Urim and Thummim breastplate did not aid the grammarless translator, or his uninspired amanuensis, or even his village printer, is evident from such eccentric irregularities and bold departures from the "well of English undefiled" as:
“thou remembereth” (page 27); "and I have not written but a small part of the things I saw" (page 35); "therefore they did not look unto the Lord as they had ought" (ibid.);…"and this he done" (page 225); "and the words of Amulek which was declared unto the people" (page 245); "now the object of these lawyers were to get gain" (page 251);…
I pause out of breath, with this result of a most cursory inspection of the inspired pages under examination

Now, the speculations about what this may or may not say about the alleged divine origins of said book are not entirely convincing, though the comments do help develop this aspect of the article.
Why I want to comment is to note the phenomenon of archaisms for religious speech. Needs more investigation but there surely is something to investigate: a number of Anglicisings of the Qur'an opt for KJV English (Pickthall being the most prominent). And then listen to what happens in programmes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed when they want to wheel out some serious ritual ...

So are we missing something important in terms of contextualisation in going for prayer in contemporary English?

World is facing a natural resources crisis worse than financial crunch

This is important, and I'm just putting this together in my head with the fact that I need to rework some teaching and learning materials for a course on parish mission. It's a report on a report: World is facing a natural resources crisis worse than financial crunch. The main thing to get our heads round is this: "The Living Planet report calculates that humans are using 30% more resources than the Earth can replenish each year, which is leading to deforestation, degraded soils, polluted air and water, and dramatic declines in numbers of fish and other species. As a result, we are running up an ecological debt of $4tr (�2.5tr) to $4.5tr every year - double the estimated losses made by the world's financial institutions as a result of the credit crisis - say the report's authors, led by the conservation group WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund. The figure is based on a UN report which calculated the economic value of services provided by ecosystems"
And I am reminded that this issue, therefore, puts all our arguments about church governance and cultural change into a very different perspective. Our response as Christians and communities of faith needs to be analogous to the way that 'the Irish Saved Civilisation', albeit that we have to do it as a matter of intention. It will affect mission for the next few centuries (assuming we have them). After all, just think; what will apologetics look like if we've been part of the solution rather than blessed the behaviours that have caused the problem? For a comparison, think about the slave trade.

Drug use falling, says British Crime Survey

Who'd 'a' thought it? Not me, that's for sure. But I'm not unhappy to find this out.Drug use falling, says British Crime Survey | Society | guardian.co.uk: "The use of illicit drugs is in decline in Britain, according to figures published today, with cocaine use falling and cannabis use at its lowest for a decade."
What I can't find a clue about though is 'why?'. What is or are the causal factor/s. Anyone got some clues?

Jeremy Leggett: Peak oil is just five years away, and we must start to plan now to avert a truly ruinous crisis |

This is important. Personally, I think we may already have hit peak oil, but maybe we've a handful of years left. This is a serious call to prayer and action. Jeremy Leggett: Peak oil is just five years away, and we must start to plan now to avert a truly ruinous crisis: "First, continuing growth in demand in China and India is likely to drown out any reduction in demand from structural changes in the west. Second, the oil industry has – almost incomprehensibly – been investing less in exploration in recent years. Too much of the vast profit we saw from BP earlier this week goes on share buybacks. Third, the industry is relying on aged oilfields, aged infrastructure and an aged workforce just at the time when oilfields are becoming more difficult to find and are taking ever longer — sometimes more than a decade — to bring onstream even when found. Fourth, the oil- and gas-producing nations have massive and growing infrastructure programmes that increasingly cut into their scope for export. Fifth, we worry that Opec has been subject to the same irrational exuberance about delivery capacity as the international oil companies have been. If we accelerate the green industrial revolution, we believe we can soften the blow of the oil crunch, set up the recovery and get out of oil dependence surprisingly quickly."
Accelerate the greening of industry could be a Godsend at this point in history: a kind of Keynsian virtuous cycle moment. This is the kairos moment ...

US presidential preference of voting machines

For those of you who have picked up some hints in news reports ... "
more music charts"
US presidential preference � GraphJam: Music and Pop Culture in Charts and Graphs. Let us explain them.:

Why People Hate Windows

Yep!
"
Why People Hate Windows � GraphJam: Music and Pop Culture in Charts and Graphs. Let us explain them.: "

more music charts

Motivation and creatives

Now this sums up where I'd got to in thinking about this but hadn't yet put into words. I think I instinctively understood this but haven't always been very good at acting on because of lack of experience in the past (as I look back).

... you can only really shout at people a couple of times a season if you want it to be effective — if you do it every week they just get used to it and ignore you. And if you have to shout, encourage and cajole your people to put the effort in every week, then something’s wrong.

And then comes a really nice metaphor/analogy which helps to conceptualise what's going on.

I once went to a seminar with psychotherapy guru Bill O’Hanlon where he talked about motivation in therapy. He drew an analogy with curling, the winter sport in which players take turns to throw a stone across the ice towards a target, while their teammates sweep the ice in front of it with brushes, to reduce friction and help the stone slide further. According to Bill, it’s not the therapist’s job to throw the stone — the impetus for change has to come from the client. The therapist’s role is to sweep the ice and help the client keep going, facilitating rather than pushing. I think the same applies to management — if you’ve got people who put plenty of force and direction into their throw, you can do a fantastic job scrubbing away the ice in front of them. But if there’s no energy coming from them, you can sweep all you like but the stone won’t move.

I thought that it also potentially helps understand the role of a life-coach: a lot of coaching is about motivation but it isn't about creating motivation, ultimately, it's about identifying it and connecting it up with life situations. And, I think that it also relates to spiritual direction: helping people to access the tradition/s in ways that are congruent with their kairos. This includes noting their personality, life-stage, history and motivators, but sweeping the ice before the stone is a good picture. There is the desire a person has to connect and live with God, but there is friction as sin derails and slows. A soul-friend's job is to help brush away the friction and even to help steer the stone (judicious sweeping can help make some pathways more likely) but the hurl is the befriended's job. As the sum up says:

So you can’t ‘motivate’ anybody else. You can show them the target, smooth the way and cheer them along. But motivation is something you draw out rather than put in.

Of course, in leadership this can make for a somewhat laid-back style, but outside of military or pay-disciplined environments, that's necessary otherwise the heavy-handedness demotivates. In church terms, I've come across successful clergy-leaders but some of them have had a high attrition rate among those they have brought in to partnership with them; their momentum and 'success' has been bought at the expense of a lot of burnout or collaborator-churn. Of course, there are also potential cultural problems; if leadership is culturally defined, in effect, in Il Duce terms this working-with leadership is always going to seem weak and anaemic. However, it is likely to be longer-term and to grow others better. The one thing that can carry the Duce leadership is a strong ability to envision others so that collectively individual motivations and concerns are firmly connected up in people's minds with organisational or ministry goals. The problem that can arise from that is that rhetorical power frays in contact with realities.

Have a look at the article for further thoughts on how to maintain motivation. Again this can apply to both coaching and spiritual accompaniment by helping to identify actual motivations and realities and vocations and to examine these against the false consciousnesses created by gift-envy, church 'ideologies' and ministry projection.
I'll be watching the further episodes of this...

Spirituality religiosity and depression.

Actually this seems to be a set of results that will require further research. Spirituality Protects Against Depression Better Than Church Attendance But it is worth noting this: "Researchers also found that those who attended religious services were 30 percent less likely to have had depression in their lifetime, and those who had high levels of existential well-being were 70 percent less likely to have had depression than those who had low levels of existential well-being."
It just seems like the irony is that if we have evolved, somehow, we have evolved to function better with God ... a bit of a beggar for the no-god squad.

Muslim woman takes lead

With a tantalising lack of detail the Church Times carried this report. Church Times - Muslim woman takes lead: "History was made in Britain last week when a woman Muslim scholar, Professor Amina Wadud, led Friday prayers and delivered a sermon at an Oxford mosque, writes . Traditionalists argue that the Qur’an stipulates that only men can lead prayers, but other scholars cite the example of Umm Waraqa, a woman allowed by the prophet Muhammad to lead household prayers and to teach her neighbour. About 15 people were reported to be present at the event."
More details from Muslim perspectives here and here is the Independent report. It would seem that to see this as something hopeful may well be well optimistic.

The Real Story -Christmas resource

Check this out for a potential resource in commending the Christmas story Bible Society: The Real Story

Hurrahleluia! Climate bill 'to include planes'

Good news ... BBC NEWS | Politics | Climate bill 'to include planes': "MPs will vote later on a bill to enforce an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.
More than 50 Labour MPs have backed an amendment calling for the law to cover emissions from planes and tankers."

One in five is against monogamy, according to The Observer's Sex Uncovered survey |

THis is a trailer article One in five is against monogamy, according to The Observer's Sex Uncovered survey it trails for a longer section, and it's got a catchy (do I hear 'sexy'?) come-on: "One Briton in five does not believe that monogamy is desirable, while three out of 10 do not think it is natural, according to The Observer's Sex Uncovered survey,"
I'm interested because I think that we need to realise how deep the PR job we have to do for Christian values in our post-whatever culture. And we have to 'sell' them in terms that make sense to our host culture. That is if we think that some Christian values, such as these, are actually good for society and individuals in it. I would say that at present we have a major difficulty even being heard on such matters past the expectation that we are going to simply repeat the 'just say no' mantra that 'everyone' thinks we have tattooed to us when we're baptised. So where do we start?

Anyway have a look at the articles: there are some interesting surprises in there: most men are happy with the size of their willy, for example (who'd have thought it looking at the emails that clog our spam filters?). Also 82% of respondants denied having ever being unfaithful to their partner and of those only 10% had done so regularly (I make that something just under 2% of the whole sample). Furthermore 79% do believe monogamy to be desirable (that's the glass is half-full interpretation).Interestingly, too, the rating of the importance of sex in a relationship varied: "Compared with those who are married, those who are single are twice as likely to view sex as the most important factor" Which puts an interesting perspective on the result that there was nearly a 50/50 split over the issue of whether respondents considered that it would be possible to maintain a healthy marriage without sex.

Every time we turn round we find we're stuffed in a new way

At least that's how I sometimes feel after reading an article like this: Flatscreen TVs turn up the heat on climate - earth - 24 October 2008 - New Scientist Environment: And here's why "Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) is 17,000 times more effective at warming the atmosphere than an equal mass of carbon dioxide. Yet the Kyoto protocol does not set limits on NF3 emissions because it was made in tiny amounts when the protocol was agreed in 1997. The colourless, odourless, non-flammable gas is used by the electronics industry mainly for equipment cleaning, for etching microcircuits and for manufacturing liquid-crystal flat-panel displays and thin-film photovoltaic cells. It was brought in as a replacement for perfluorocarbon gases (PFCs), a class of gases which are regulated by the Kyoto protocol. It was not until earlier this year that its potential as a powerful greenhouse gas was brought to public attention"
Anyone it the frying pan fancy joining us in the fire?

Faith groups spreading the word on the wings |

To get some provocative view of religion, crime and punishment, then this is an article to read: Faith groups spreading the word on the wings. The reason is that Christian faith clearly makes a difference "There are thousands of others like Emmett who 'have found the Lord in prison' and made spectacular breaks with their criminal pasts, the sort of brutal splintering that secular groups working with reoffenders rarely achieve. For the unspoken truth is that, in an increasingly irreligious society, Jesus continues to walk the wings of Britain's prisons, offering salvation to those who have no other chance of saving themselves."

Now on the one hand 'alleluia', on the other there are issues about fairness and equality and also whether the effects are universally benign. "'In probation officers' experience, confronting offending behaviour becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible, after the individual has converted,'" -Now that's in relation to one particular group of offenders and one particular religious group but it does indicate that care may be needed. And that alerts us to the issue of which groups are acceptable and which not. Once we ask that question, of course, it becomes difficult not to widen consideration beyond Christian groups. "Certainly other faiths are showing an increasing interest in building up a following among prisoners. Several jails in the UK have entire wings now dominated by Muslim gangs and most have a visiting imam."
And that raises a whole other set of issues as well, but I've not time to go into that now.

Facebook needs a fade-friend application

Now this article makes an extremely good point: (Scott Brown on Facebook Friendonomics) and to cut to the chase it's this: "we've lost our right to lose touch. 'A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature,' Emerson wrote, not bothering to add, 'and like most things natural, friendship is biodegradable.' We scrawl 'Friends Forever' in yearbooks, but we quietly realize, with relief, that some bonds are meant to be shed, like snakeskin or a Showtime subscription. It's nature's way of allowing you to change, adapt, evolve, or devolve as you wish—and freeing you from the exhaustion of multifront friend maintenance. Fine, you can 'Remove Friend,' but what kind of asshole actually does that?"
This is sooooo true. In fact the use of the term friend in facebook has meant a devaluing of the term to cover what really ought be be 'acquaintances'. I've got to the point of distinguishing between 'friends' and 'facebook-friends'. So the solution offered here is very attractive. "A Facebook app we'll call the Fade Utility. Untended Friends would gradually display a sepia cast on the picture, a blurring of the neglected profile—perhaps a coffee stain might appear on it or an unrelated phone number or grocery list. The individual's status updates might fade and get smaller. The user may then choose to notice and reach out to the person in some meaningful way—no pokes! Or they might pretend not to notice. Without making a choice, they could simply let that person go. Would that really be so awful?"
No; it would allow to happen on Facebook what seems to happen in real life; we just lose touch and that's sometimes alright. I'm as interested as the next person in sometimes finding out what happened to old friends and acquaintances, I like Friends Reunited for that. I like being able to renew old acquaintance; but I have noticed in reunions and even facebook, that just a catch-up every so often is sufficient. We aren't 'wired' for indefinite extension of 'meaningful' relationships. It's no coincidence that we tend to work with networks consisting of between 30 and 200 people in total.

Downturn a death knell for web2.0?

But is he right? Internet Evolution - Andrew Keen - Economy to Give Open-Source a Good Thumping: "One of the very few positive consequences of the current financial miasma will be a sharp cultural shift in our attitude toward the economic value of our labor. Mass unemployment and a deep economic recession comprise the most effective antidote to the utopian ideals of open-source radicals. The altruistic ideal of giving away one's labor for free appeared credible in the fat summer of the Web 2.0 boom when social-media startups hung from trees, Facebook was valued at $15 billion, and VCs queued up to fund revenue-less 'businesses' like Twitter. But as we contemplate the world post-bailout, when economic reality once again bites, only Silicon Valley’s wealthiest technologists can even consider the luxury of donating their labor to the latest fashionable, online, open-source project."
First off note that "positive consequences": here's someone keen to see off stuff that rattles the cage of good ol' capitalism as we've grown to know and love it (let the reader understand). The article shows, imho, a misunderstanding of what's going on in open source and does that really equate with web2.0? I don't think so, no. Open source predates the 2000 start of bubble by, what? something like 10 years, if not more. Web2.0 has plenty of paid-for apps and clearly a number where the business model is ad-supported or loss-leader to sell premium services. Then there's the model that gives content away in order to sell other services or goods.

I think I'm unpersuaded by this thesis. Must try harder Mr Keen.

Olympic mosque could promote uncohesive Islam

Because this is said by Philip Lewis, I'd take it seriously. It's reported here Olympic mosque could create breeding ground for extremists, says senior Anglican - Telegraph: "Dr Philip Lewis, an interfaith adviser to the Bishop of Bradford, said that the plans threaten to establish a ghetto of Muslims taught to embrace jihad. Tablighi Jamaat, the group behind the proposal, are 'isolationist', 'patriarchal' and has a narrow reading of Islam that leaves it vulnerable to extremists, he said. ... 'Tablighi Jamaat does not try to engage with wider society so there must be clear worries that such a mosque would lead to a ghetto,' he said.'The danger is that this becomes a self-contained world, which would be vulnerable to extremists."
Note, however, his careful expression. The organisation is not demonised, but the potential roll-on effects of their approach are warned against. That's important nuancing. Also important is noting the terms in which other Muslims distance themselves from it.

Psychological priming

This, it seems to me, relates to what elsewhere I refer to under the term 'mimesis' (probably I've broadened the scope of the term). Here's an insight into the significance from Edge: EDGE MASTER CLASS 2008—CLASS 4: "... people are responding to the symbolic representation, in a way as if it were the real thing. It goes on from there. I'll now give you a few more examples. That's called a priming paradigm. But the word 'priming' in this context is like priming a pump, and you'll see it the most clearly in the case of recognizing a word that is presented. You are primed, you are ready, to recognize that word; more ready than you are to recognize other words."
It's fascinating and important to understand for reasons of realising how priming predisposes us to certain ways of reacting (and in a sense we see that underlying the temptation story in Genesis) and also demonstrates the way that language is rooted in our bodily -neurosomatic- experience/being.

Crofty is the new Bishop of Sheffield

Okay, this is old news now, but I've only just been able to get back to blogging after a few days otherwise engaged. Here's the fount of the news Fresh Expressions - home: "Fresh Expressions' Team Leader and Archbishops' Missioner, Steven Croft is to be the next Bishop of Sheffield."
I'm pleased, having worked with Steve in Halifax and having cause to be grateful for his intervention in a situation a few years ago which enabled my family not to be homeless (yes it was really that serious), I'm pleased that someone I have happily tipped for a bishopric has reached a position where his gifts may be able to effect good missional changes within the CofE. I pray that he will be able to make wise decisions and exercise inspiring leadership with continued integrity.

Sharia law incompatible with human rights

This article shows the dangers of headlines quite neatly, and, indeed of simplifying complex issues too much. As it is, the Guardian doesn't do a bad job with the article even if the headline could be interpreted misleadingly. Sharia law incompatible with human rights legislation, Lords say. One of the issues is to recall that, for example, while this statement is true: "The comments followed months of debate over the appropriateness of incorporating sharia courts into the UK's legal system. Such a move has been advocated by figures including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and Lord Phillips, the new senior law lord.", Rowan Williams' advocacy was caveated by saying that such allowance of sharia should be applied in such a way as to be compatible with existing human rights legislation. The other issue is to note that there are several interpretive traditions of sharia -though most of them would still be critiquable in this way. "'The fact is, however, that sharia law as it is applied in Lebanon was created by and for men in a male-dominated society,'" And that should alert us also to another dimension of the whole debate, that Muslim feminists would argue that Qur'anic principles are far more women-friendly than much traditional interpretations have allowed. However, that is a struggle that the Muslim Ummah largely still has to face; I'm not optimistic that it has the resources to respond well to that agenda given how the relevant doctrines have developed in Islam; it would mean going back behind developments now seen as normative. Still, you never know...

The One Flag

It's a childhood thing, I think, but I really like this idea from Adbusters: "We invite you to create a flag – free from language and well-worn cliches – that embodies the idea of global citizenship." Now leaving aside the current UN flag -is that cliche'd? (with the olive branch?)- how could we do that? The UN flag's global map is a good idea, particularly to show it from the north pole and to centralise international waters rather than someone or other's country. Anyway, the article has a few examples of ideas already submitted. I've just been reading Stephen Baxter's Transcendent, where the sigil of united humanity is a green tetrahedron. If only I had time to give it a go; I love that kind of design work ...

Creative commons explained

Plus ca change...

Yeah, check it out: Martin Wainwright on Victorian gang violence | Education | guardian.co.uk: "They ran the grimy streets of Manchester and filled the city's courts and police cells, while the media described their codes and gang names in lurid detail - the Bengal Tigers, the Meadow Lads and the She Battery Mob.

But this wasn't another outbreak of modern gun crime, teenage stabbings or hoodie trouble-making. The 'scuttlers', as the whole of Britain learned to know and detest them, were a serious social problem in the 1870s and 80s."

Green rebuild of world economy

I'd been thinking this myself; so I'm dead pleased that it is being suggested by people with influence and moral credibility. Do read this article: UN says investment in in clean technologies and natural resources will rebuild world economy | Environment | guardian.co.uk And here's a clue as to why I think you should read it: "The United Nations today called for a refocusing of the world's economy towards investments in clean technologies and natural infrastructures such as forests in a Green New Deal that could revive the stumbling global economy, combat climate change, and cut poverty."

UK overtakes Denmark as world's biggest offshore wind generator

This is good news in that it shows a step forward, UK overtakes Denmark as world's biggest offshore wind generator | Environment | guardian.co.uk However, we should notice that it is quite a restricted area that is being reported. The other side of the matter is this, however: "despite today's announcement, the UK is still near the bottom of the European league table when it comes to harnessing renewable energy, campaigners say."
Still, we, as a nation, really ought to be one of the highest in usage of offshore wind power, so this really is important. The vital thing is not to let it lull us into thinking we've done our bit already.

Our economy is killing the Earth

I had a sense of deja vu when I read this: Special report: How our economy is killing the Earth - opinion - 16 October 2008 - New Scientist: "A growing band of experts are looking at figures like these and arguing that personal carbon virtue and collective environmentalism are futile as long as our economic system is built on the assumption of growth. The science tells us that if we are serious about saving Earth, we must reshape our economy"
Because, this is not new; it was a key plank of environmentalist political thinking in the late 70's and into the 80's. Some of the inflation we are seeing is due to resource-depletion. The question is whether market solutions (ie price rises) can work fast enough to prompt the kind of huge infrastructural changes that are needed to help enough. Many of the contributors to the New Scientist issue on the matter seem to think that they can't.

McCain has to douse flames he fanned

Watch this. Does McCain manage to put the genie back in the bottle? The most despicable thing I've been seeing in the US presidential elections has been the racist comments and incitement to murder Barack Obama from some Republican crowds. Here's an interesting video of McCain being forced to backtrack these trends. The hopeful thing is the amount of cheering when he does.


An important letter to Senator M - Brian McLaren

The greenhouse effect that may be cooling the climate - earth - 10 October 2008 - New Scientist Environment

Have a look at this: The greenhouse effect that may be cooling the climate - earth - 10 October 2008 - New Scientist Environment it's interesting because it seems to show that there could be other man-made actions which could help mitigate climate-warming trends. Based on metereological research in Spain relating to the effects of greenhouse agriculture: "In the greenhouse region, air temperature has cooled by an average of 0.3 �C per decade since 1983. In the rest of Spain it has risen by around 0.5 �C. The satellite data revealed that the white greenhouses were much more reflective than farmland."
Of course, the effect of this agriculture on the water table is another story.

Hurry as violence

In a thought-provoking article a colleague pointed out to me comes this new-to-me quote:

“Hurry is actually a form of violence exercised upon God’s time in order to make it ‘my time’.”
(Donald Nicholl, Holiness.

)
Credo: Living in time with the rhythm of the Church’s year -Times Online.
It's a terrific soundbite. Is it true (or true enough to use)? It's true in that it should help us to recognised that there are limits to our efforts at time-saving and that hurry builds into our habiti (habituses?) things that tend to rush us past people and events that we really should attend to . At the same time, I'm concerned that it could generate a rather luddite backlash: it seems to me that it could be taken to mean that we should walk everywhere rather than take a bus or a train (we know of course that taking a car is a more environmentally perilous option, so I don't mention it in the main bit)...
Am I being a bit oversensitive? -not to mention enjoying the time I have on trains for working on stuff and reading.

More tea wicca?

...that's what I said to a pagan (solitary, self-describing as Wiccan) friend of mine as we chatted about life the universe and stuff; it was a flip remark, made to amuse; but it has stayed with me as somehow eikonic of real interfaith dialogue: exchanging ideas about things we find mutually interesting albeit from different perspectives, and having a chance to laugh about the oddities and quirkiness of situations around the edges of religion, faith and spirituality. Later she said that, in the whole town, why was it that she had to talk to a Church of England priest (vicar=wicca, get it?) to find someone that understood her.
Indeed.
Maybe it was because the path she was on was one I had trodden to different degrees myself: before hearing Christ's call and responding, I had heard the call of nature (no, not that call) and reverenced sunlight on greenery, the woods, the creatures, the cycles of nature and was drawn to an awe-filled response and a desire to express that in 'religious' ways. I was breaking free of the materialistic reductionism of my cultural background but I was not at all drawn to the church of my early childhood.
Maybe it was because like my wiccan friend, I was interested in the implications of quantum physics and chaos theory, and (unlike her?) understood them reasonably well.
Maybe it was because, like CS Lewis before me, I experienced my Christ-ing not as a disenchantment from nature but as a deepening appreciation of it/her and as a way to begin to deal with the root problems of our ecocidal civilisation.
I grok many things that I read Pagans saying. I don't find many of the core things Pagans seem to be concerned about alien to my own faith.
I even grok the distancing from the Christian faith as it is seen and distressingly often experienced by many in our societies. I recall well beginning my own spiritual search with the attitude that the churches had nothing to offer sincere seekers of spiritual truth and experience.
So I hope we can have Christian Pagan encounters where we can listen to one another; laugh with one another; grow to understand one another and finally to dissolve stereotypes and mutual disinformations. It's a risky path though, because the first to tread it (and yes I know that some are already treading it), will face misunderstanding from their peers and even hostility. I know in experience something of that too. I choose carefully whom I tell of my own interest in these spiritual paths. Some of my fellow Christ-followers get rather overly scared about it. They are victims of disinformation, and sometimes perpetrators and it is not an easy fix to challenge what their personal authorities have told them. It must be the same for Pagans.
Tell me: is it?
Here are links to the other participants in this synchroblog


* J. R. Miller (Christian) of More Than Cake on A Christian Approach to Interfaith Dialogue"

* Liz Dyer (Christian) of Grace Rules on Interreligious Dialogue: Risky Business

* Matt Stone (Christian) of Glocal Christianity on Is
Interfaith Interfaith enough?

* Steve Hayes (Christian Orthodox) of Notes from underground on Interreligious dialogue

* K.W. Leslie (Christian / Pentecostal / Assemblies of God) of The Evening of Kent on Gathering with the pagans.

* Phil Wyman (Christian) of Square No More on A Christian Presenter at Pagan Pride!?

* Beth Patterson (Liberal Christian w/ Celtic undertones) of Virtual Tea House on Same Stove, Different Teapots

* Jarred Harris (Pagan/Vanic Witch) of The Musings of a Confused Man on Interfaith relationships

* Yvonne Aburrow (Wiccan Unitarian) of the dance of the elements on Only connect


And here's a link for some matters arising from this synchroblog.

MetaPagan: Synchroblog on interfaith dialogue

"You Can Do It!" Prosperity teaching reconsidered

Peter Berger, imho, deserves a listening to. And certainly this article is a helpful corrective to a too-easy dismissal of prosperity teaching. "You Can Do It!" - Books & Culture In particular this quote probably encapsulates the challenge nicely: "Is there a theological warrant to propose that God wants us to be poor? Any more than he wants us to be sick? The prosperity gospel contains no sentimentality about the poor. There is no notion here that poverty is somehow ennobling. In that, speaking sociologically, the prosperity gospel is closer to the empirical facts than a romantic idea of the noble poor—a notion reminiscent of another romantic fiction, the noble savage. Such notions, of course, are always held by people who are not poor and who do not consider themselves to be savages. The notions are patronizing. They are implicit in the famous slogan of liberation theology: 'a preferential option for the poor.' Mind you, not of the poor, but for the poor—pronounced, as it were, from on high."
This is important, along with the sociological reflection based on Weber etc. However, I did feel that before we get too cosy with prosperity teaching, we should consider that the way that trade systems operate works against the poor. And in this I have, therefore, to place a question mark against Berger's assertion later on: "One does not have to be a dogmatic "neoliberal" to understand that the major beneficiaries of capitalist growth are, precisely, the poor—in the aggregate if not without exception, later if not sooner, and if the political context is not one in which an élite forcefully hoards the fruits of growth. If one truly cares for the poor, one will hold a "preferential option" for capitalist economics—and ipso facto will be cautious in one's criticisms of the prosperity gospel."
The question mark is that it is too easy to overlook the qualifier 'if the political context is not one ...'; because in international terms, that is precisely what we have. I have little quarrel with the decentralisation, devolution and subsidiarity that markets represent at their best; but let's be clear that markets 'at their best' require regulatory frameworks to make sure that they resist monopolisation and enforce level-playing fields and also to mitigate the human cost of their wastefulness at times. Frankly, global financial and trading arrangements do not do this. Real 'prosperity teaching' needs to take seriously the structural economic issues: and that is precisely part of our prayer-in-action in global solidarity. Part of the problem with prosperity teaching is that it absolves the rest of us from reflecting and acting on what it means for us to pray for daily bread not as 'I' and 'me' but as 'us' and 'our': our role is also to make sure that others' prayers for daily bread can be answered in the aggregate by systems that are not 'kleptic'. Until that happens wealth will not trickle down.

Chaplains: ahead of the Curve?

Brian McLaren makes an interesting observation which chimes with my experience. "I've been noticing more than ever how many chaplains are 'ahead of the curve' in dealing with the 'great emergence' we're part of. Many (not all!) pastors, professors, and denominational officials can stay in their comfortable echo chambers in a way that chaplains can't - whether they're serving in hospitals, prisons, universities, retirement centers, or elsewhere."
One of the perspectives that University chaplains wanted to put over in the CofE report a handful of years back 'Pillars of the Church', was that in terms of Fresh Expressions, we were often already doing the business and that our ministry was exploring territory others tended to follow. In other words, in post-modernity or post-Christendom (or whatever epoch we're in), chaplains are pioneers almost by definition. We are forced to engage with people 'where they are' and to handle their honest opinions of church ministry (they have no need to keep us sweet as we have little institutional clout and we don't do their christenings or stuff). And if we are to help them to expressions of corporate Christian faith, then it has to be 'relevant' for the most part.
interesting question ... - Brian McLaren:

Voting 2008

Go to the site under the title to vote on what you think are the global issues that are most important to be discussed by Simultaneous Policy. You can register as you go. Voting 2008

Corporate socialism: badged 'free markets'

This is provocative:

There is not and has never been a free market in the United States. Why not? Because the Congressmen and women now railing against financial socialism depend for their re-election on the companies they subsidise. The legal bribes paid by these businesses deliver two short-term benefits. The first is that they prevent proper regulation, which allows them to make spectacular profits and to generate disasters of the kind that Congress is now confronting. The second is that public money which should be used to help the poorest and weakest is instead diverted into the pockets of the rich.

It comes a propos of a reflection on the bank-shore-up in the USA. Read the rest of the article before you throw chairs at me; but I would be interested in responses if there are any.
Monbiot.com � Congress Confronts Its Contradictions: "There is not and has never been a free market in the United States.

The log in my eye has a hole

Fingerynth

I missed this at Greenbelt; but this video has me charmed.

The Atlas of the Real World

Htt the Telegraph for reproducing some of these images which I find quite helpful in showing important stuff. Take this historical move through wealth. First in 1AD

The size of each territory shows the GDP, adjusted for local purchasing power, of the equivalent territory in 1 AD. The Americas appear small, partly because fewer people lived there in year 1 AD."
Then we move to 1900

Then look at the projection for 2015.

Note the economic resurrection of China.
I may add the source book to my wish list ...
The Atlas of the Real World - Telegraph:

Innocent yet jailed: why 42 days is insupportable.

Read this true life occurance. Don't quibble, just do it, it won't take long.
Hicham Yezza, an employee of the University of Nottingham, was arrested and detained without charge for saving a declassified, freely available document entitled 'al Qaida Training Manual' onto his computer. Hicham was sent the document by his friend Rizwaan Sabir, who he was helping with his research into terrorism for a Politics PHD. Hicham never opened the document, it sat forgotten and unread on his computer.

On May 14, Hicham and Rizwaan were arrested; it was 48 hours before Hicham was told why he was being held. He was detained without charge for 6 days.

The Counter-Terrorism Bill would allow the police to lock you up like this not for 6, but for 42 days. On its first reading, it was pushed through the Commons by only 9 votes; that's only a few MPs whose minds we have to change.

Don't let other people go through what Hicham has endured, sign the petition.
Petition actions | Protect The Human

The only way that it could be countenanced would be to have a strong jeopardy system: if you arrest and detain someone and you are wrong you do the same time or pay them compensation: you personally, and any judge that grants the extra time, same deal. That should focus minds. Perhaps someone should offer the government that deal: yes you can have it provided this is the quid pro quo and furthermore each member of the cabinet is accountable in a similar way.

Microwave factory to act as carbon sink

I generally approach these kinds of stories, having read the headline, with a degree of skepticism: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. However this does actually sound like a worthwhile plan, and what's more it's in the New Scientist, so not flaky. Microwave factory to act as carbon sink - earth - 01 October 2008 - New Scientist Environment: "Carbonscape, based in Blenheim, New Zealand, has developed technology that turns organic waste, such as wood and wood chips, into charcoal using microwaves. Turney, who advises Carbonscape, says that at full capacity the plant can produce a tonne of charcoal a day. And even when the plant is using electricity generated by conventional non-renewable sources, the process will result in a net reduction of one tonne of CO2 in the atmosphere every day,"
The comments at the bottom are worth checking out. One of them points out that we'd need 27 million of these plants to offset current conversion of fossil carbon into gas. But it could help and if there were decentralised and preferably renewably powered solutions (partly financed from carbon offsets?) it could be more significant.

And the potential value doesn't end there, because charcoal is a good thing if used wisely: "Nearly 500 years ago, tribes in the Amazon used to smoulder their domestic waste, and the resultant charcoal was mixed into the soil. In places in the Amazon, this terra preta, or black earth, is nearly half a metre thick. Charcoal makes the soil more fertile by binding nutrients to itself and making them available for plants, and is extremely resistant to breakdown. "You do quite often get a very significant boost in soil fertility and water holding capacity," says Michael Bird at the University of St Andrews, UK." I've written about terra preta elsewhere on this blog (look it up in the search box)...

Webmail security

Webmail users really should read this article if you ever log on to your account in a public place. Make Your Webmail More Secure - Wired How-To Wiki: This may be OTT for normal usage, but if in doubt it's a great tip: "If you're using a public computer, just enter part of your userid, then use the mouse to go to the password box and enter part of your password, then mouse back to the userid... throw in some mistakes and backspaces, too. This technique will scramble userid and password keystrokes captured by hardware or software spy tools."

Bank of Mum&Dad

I can't decide how much of a story this is. Though the fact I have felt moved to blog it probably answers that. I identify with it. Not reluctantly: I help fund my sons through university. But my motives for doing so comment further on this summary statement.
"'The bank of mum and dad is still a key contributor to students affording further education, even with the additional funding that is available to them.'"
About that additional funding: would that be the meagre burseries or the extra loan? In the former case, it's great to have something, but it's not enough to do without the latter. And while the loan is about as non-toxic as a loan can be (index linked, minimal rate of interest, collected by PAYE like a top-up tax, debt cancelled on retirement if you've not managed to pay it off, and so forth), it is still a loan and many of us don't want our kids to have more of that hanging round them when they start work than they have to. And what's more it's a bit of a disincentive to do voluntary work or to take work for the public good rather than remuneration because the interest still accrues. So, since many of us are actually funding our kids in part, is there an argument for grants paid for out of taxes and squeezing the regressive element out of the equation?
Most university students funded by parents | Education | guardian.co.uk: