07 August 2008
Now in French; priest academy
a few years back there was a programme on British TV about a priest in a new parish. Well the RC diocese of Besancon has come up with this and if your French is not too bad how about having a look; there are embedded videos in the site. Pr�tres academy | Vivre l'aventure au quotidien | Une initiative du service des vocation du dioc�se de Besan�on - Accueil
06 August 2008
Spiritual and the Religious: Is the Territory Changing?
It's almost a mantra that contemporary westerners are more likely to be warm about spirituality than religion (which is a bit of a boo word). It is important that we take notice of this an respond. Rowan Williams has helped in what he said/wrote which is to be found now here: The Archbishop of Canterbury - The Spiritual and the Religious: Is the Territory Changing?. He begins in earnest a little way in: "I do want to confront the idea that the future of human spiritual awareness and maturity can lie only with a post-religious consciousness, with what might be 'sacred to any human being', over and above the affirmations of any specific religious body."
It is a closely argued piece, and so does not lend itself to extracts. I think that the main thrust would echo the concern that arose for me in my MA dissertation about life coaching and spiritual direction in relation to contemporary western culture; that 'spirituality' is in danger of failing to offer a perspective that can critique society; that without the 'backbone' that religious practices and even institutions at their best can offer, spirituality is likely to fall into the role of dupe to the status quo, a breeder of false consciousness and inauthentic living.
Altogether, though, we need also to be able to affirm the critique of religiosity at its worst. I think that we need a fuller theology of the Powers that be articulated in relation to religious bodies. We also need to be able to articulate Christian faith in a way that relates well with the subjective turn where extrinsic authority (heteronomy) is suspect and self-integrity and unfolding is a core value.
It is a closely argued piece, and so does not lend itself to extracts. I think that the main thrust would echo the concern that arose for me in my MA dissertation about life coaching and spiritual direction in relation to contemporary western culture; that 'spirituality' is in danger of failing to offer a perspective that can critique society; that without the 'backbone' that religious practices and even institutions at their best can offer, spirituality is likely to fall into the role of dupe to the status quo, a breeder of false consciousness and inauthentic living.
There's the problem; if you can recognise patterns of cosmic interconnection and yet not know how to start asking question about what sort of actions are revealing of the sacred order of things, something is missing, something that has to do with motivation for radical challenge and possible change in what we take for granted. Deciding that you are obliged to be responsible is not something you can instantly derive from belief in an interconnected universe. Responsibility has about it an irreducible element of being called to 'answer' for and to other agents; its roots have a lot to do with the sense of being the recipient of something at the hands of another. Something is bestowed which both enables and requires an answer. Yet to speak like this of 'bestowing' or 'endowing' is to move immediately into a realm in which I confront something like another personal presence. A generalised 'sacred' dimension of reality may be independent of my mind, but doesn't in itself need or suggest this language of 'bestowal'. Talking about God, not just about the sacred, assumes, on the contrary, that there is not only a sacred reality but an initiating agency that is independent of anything in our world. I am invited to make myself answerable for the good, the human welfare and spiritual health, of the human other, to make myself disposable in some measure for them, in part because of how I have learned to 'read' the world around, reading it as suggesting that an agency independent of any circumstance within the world has 'taken responsibility' for my welfare – has not only given life in general but put at my disposal the life that is its own.
Altogether, though, we need also to be able to affirm the critique of religiosity at its worst. I think that we need a fuller theology of the Powers that be articulated in relation to religious bodies. We also need to be able to articulate Christian faith in a way that relates well with the subjective turn where extrinsic authority (heteronomy) is suspect and self-integrity and unfolding is a core value.
World officialdom makes faking passports easy
This is one of the better articles on ID cards/passports. It's here -Guy Herbert: World officialdom makes faking passports easy | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: and the reason why I think you should read it is probably best summed up in the final paragraph. "The trouble is not technology. It is not expense. It is that world officialdom would much rather track us all around, so that if the detail of our movements might be useful to someone in authority one day, it will have been secured."
Quite so. Because security works best with the presumption of guilt rather than innocence.
Quite so. Because security works best with the presumption of guilt rather than innocence.
Smoking youths throw woman commuter on to train line
This report Smoking youths throw woman commuter on to train line | UK news | guardian.co.uk brought back an incident that I was involved in a little over a year ago: "the woman had asked the youths to stop smoking on the platform, where it is banned. A scuffle started and she was thrown on to the track."
In 'my' incident, I asked a man on a Tyne and Wear Metro Train, between Gateshead and Jarrow, to put out his cigarette and was abused and narrowly missed having the matter come to blows; the guy actually seemed very keen to have a fight. The incident I believe was contributory to me finding going into work by that route quite stressful after that. The worrying thing is the kind of reaction to someone asking someone else to do the right thing: In both cases smoking is unlawful in the areas concerned. I was concerned that no-one else in the carriage seemed at all willing to acknowledge something was occurring. Would they have left me to be beaten up had I not taken steps to avoid physical violence (in essence to back down)? Did this woman attempt to remove the cigarette from the offender? Is that what sparked the incident? Certainly, I tried that, but wasn't willing to go any further.
In 'my' incident, I asked a man on a Tyne and Wear Metro Train, between Gateshead and Jarrow, to put out his cigarette and was abused and narrowly missed having the matter come to blows; the guy actually seemed very keen to have a fight. The incident I believe was contributory to me finding going into work by that route quite stressful after that. The worrying thing is the kind of reaction to someone asking someone else to do the right thing: In both cases smoking is unlawful in the areas concerned. I was concerned that no-one else in the carriage seemed at all willing to acknowledge something was occurring. Would they have left me to be beaten up had I not taken steps to avoid physical violence (in essence to back down)? Did this woman attempt to remove the cigarette from the offender? Is that what sparked the incident? Certainly, I tried that, but wasn't willing to go any further.
‘Fakeproof’ e-passport is clonable
... and it's not a hard job if you know what you're doing. This appears to pull more rug from under the 'need' for ID cards and the NIR. The article is here: ‘Fakeproof’ e-passport is cloned in minutes - Times Online:
"In the tests, a computer researcher cloned the chips on two British passports and implanted digital images of Osama bin Laden and a suicide bomber. The altered chips were then passed as genuine by passport reader software used by the UN agency that sets standards for e-passports."
It's really time to stop throwing good money after bad with the ID card project.
"In the tests, a computer researcher cloned the chips on two British passports and implanted digital images of Osama bin Laden and a suicide bomber. The altered chips were then passed as genuine by passport reader software used by the UN agency that sets standards for e-passports."
It's really time to stop throwing good money after bad with the ID card project.
05 August 2008
GraphJam
I love this site! Some very funny pseudo-charts. Including, for fans of The Princess Bride, this one.
more graph humor and song chart memes
Or for the more sophisticated this one:
more
Or just plain funny:
more
GraphJam: Pop culture for people in cubicles. (AKA Song Chart Meme)
more graph humor and song chart memes
Or for the more sophisticated this one:
more
Or just plain funny:
more
GraphJam: Pop culture for people in cubicles. (AKA Song Chart Meme)
Christians do not need to fear Islamic take-over in UK, says Interserve head
You may recall my writing about this a few weeks back; Well, I was pleasantly surpised to see this being part of what was part of the Keswick convention this year, as that is probably reaching the constituency who most need to hear it (along with the New Wine network, I suspect). I say this from a prejudiced and jaundiced perspective which I'd be happy to see refuted evidentially; that Keswick is probaly the heart of Daily Mail Evangelicalism. Anyway, skip over here:
Christians do not need to fear Islamic take-over in UK, says Interserve head:
What Steve says is important and challenging but surely needs to be heard.
"A sub-replacement birthrate was one of the causes of the decline of Christianity in Europe and it looks set to do the same for Islam in Europe.
Not only is an Islamic takeover in this country unlikely, but Bell also believes that the UK is providing a safe place in which Islam can change: 'Muslims in the West are finding they can practice Islam without pressure from Islamic governments. So here in the UK both dangerous Islamists and freethinking reformers are emerging. The West is now the crucible in which Islam is being openly debated and modified for the
21st century. I suggest the outcome of the debate in this country that is going on between Muslims could well affect the outcome for the future of Islam worldwide. A reforming process is already painfully underway within the house of Islam ... God is at work in these days and it is exciting that He should choose Britain to be the crucible of that debate. The presence of two million British Muslims (accounting for the illegals) cannot be a mistake or God is not sovereign. It is God who is steering human history to His appointed end.'"
Christians do not need to fear Islamic take-over in UK, says Interserve head:
What Steve says is important and challenging but surely needs to be heard.
"A sub-replacement birthrate was one of the causes of the decline of Christianity in Europe and it looks set to do the same for Islam in Europe.
Not only is an Islamic takeover in this country unlikely, but Bell also believes that the UK is providing a safe place in which Islam can change: 'Muslims in the West are finding they can practice Islam without pressure from Islamic governments. So here in the UK both dangerous Islamists and freethinking reformers are emerging. The West is now the crucible in which Islam is being openly debated and modified for the
21st century. I suggest the outcome of the debate in this country that is going on between Muslims could well affect the outcome for the future of Islam worldwide. A reforming process is already painfully underway within the house of Islam ... God is at work in these days and it is exciting that He should choose Britain to be the crucible of that debate. The presence of two million British Muslims (accounting for the illegals) cannot be a mistake or God is not sovereign. It is God who is steering human history to His appointed end.'"
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