An easy trap to fall into is to see an evil dominating white South Africa on the black south African victims, fortunately Rian Malan does not allow us to indulge ourselves in simplification. Through the many stories Malan tells he weaves stories in a way which gives you both perspectives, make you understand both points of view and then leaves you to draw your own conclusions. One particular shocking story described Dr Melville Edelstein, a white sociologist, who refused to leave Soweto (a black suburb ) when the riots started up. Edelstein claimed he was not scared, he knew which side he was on. When the mob came he went out to greet them, they trampled him to death. You see he was white, and nothing else mattered. Another easy trap is to wonder whether the answer to the problem of...
This post has 3 parts, comments will be closed until the 3rd post. I was interested to see how racial integration was approached within the Christian community and asked our host who would be taking us to her Church whether blacks and whites attended the same church, she assured me immediately that blacks were very welcome and that they had even set up a minibus service for blacks in the local townships (mostly shacks) to attend the Church. When we arrived I discovered an excellent church, superb preaching, worship times, programs and vision statements, but I didn’t see many black people. I don’t mean to say in anyway that the activities the Church were meaningless without the attendance of the Christian black locals, or that their outreaches to the townships weren’t...
In retrospect after reading this post it would be better to say that these posts are more of a collection of thoughts from the book ‘My Traitor’s Heart’ as I don’t make comments systematic enough to warrant the title of review. This post has 3 parts, comments will be closed until the 3rd post. As most of you know I recently went to South Africa with my new Wife Rachel for our honeymoon. We had a lovely time and found South Africans to be unbelievably hospitable, open and full of joy. One interesting thing I observed about South Africans both white and black is how they were generous with their time, maybe it is the influence of a continent that is famous for its non-western approach to time keeping but I was amazed at the way in which people were relaxed with...
I said this as soon as both the UK and US government discovered some spare change with which to bail out private institutions whilst neglecting their aid promises. It doesn’t really matter who said it, I’m glad at least that someone with a louder voice (if not a a worse dress sense) has said something about this. It`s extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can`t find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases. Bono, rock star and anti-poverty activist...
Race: A Theological Account: J. Kameron Carter: Books
Appended to the end of my already long, must-read books is the above Race: A Theological account. Fortunately I am able to taste of the book through various blogs who have mentioned it and particularly Jesus Creed who have run a series on it. My interest in race and theology has been rekindled through my recent trip to South Africa where I read the fascinating "My Traitors Heart" by Rian Malan which gave a terrifying account of the feelings and actions surrounding 20th Century Apartheid. I was somewhat astounded though to read the following quote from Carter: “modern racial discourse and practice have their genesis inside Christian theological discourses and missiological practices, which themselves were tied to the...
Tha an làrach-lìn ùr aig Naidheachdan Pinc beò a-nis, faodaidh sibh tadhal air aig http://naidheachdanpinc.co.uk/ agus ur beachd a thoirt anns an fhòram ùr againn.
Tha new Naidheachdan Pinc site is now live. You can visit it at http://naidheachdanpinc.co.uk/ and why not leave a comment in our new......
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I was recently asked quite a common question so I thought I would share my two cents and see if any of you had any thoughts on the subject. The Question was really more of a statement which wanted an answer: "Sometimes I wonder what use theology is for real people in real churches" When seeing the enormous breadth and depth of Theology it is very easy to wonder what real use it is for the Church, when you hear of someone spending years studying the dialectic intricacies of deutero-Isaiah, the question can often be, "What does that do to build the Church?". In a world with pressing physical need, the need for Christians to live out the realities of Matthew 25:37-40 and the need for people to serve in local churches as teachers and pastors are very clear, but I...
I was asked recently quite a common question so I thought I would share my two cents and see if any of you had any thoughts on the subject. The Question was really more of a statement which wanted an answer: "Sometimes I wonder what use theology is for real people in real churches" When seeing the enormous breadth and depth of Theology it is very easy to wonder what real use it is for the Church, when you hear of someone spending years studying the dialectic intricacies of deutero-Isaiah, the question can often be, "What does that do to build the Church?". In a world with pressing physical need, the need for Christians to live out the realities of Matthew 25:37-40 and the need for people to serve in local churches as teachers and pastors are very clear, but I...
Floyd and Sally McClung share stories from what is happening on the ground in south africa here.“There was Alvin from Angola, whose brother was killed on Friday, and who was so traumatized by the guilt of leaving the body to save himself, he could barely speak. There was Maria (not her real name) from the Congo, who was raped on Thursday, didn’t know where her teenaged son was and just wanted to be given a pair of panties and a place to sleep. There was Noor-Ali from Somalia, a very smart young man in a stylish leather jacket, who had spent years working his way up from cleaning cars for change to owning his own business, only to have absolutely everything he owned snatched away from him in minutes. They, and most of the estimated 1500 people there, were in an extreme state of...
Many of you will have heard about the xenophobic attacks which have been taking place in South Africa, largely against displaced african people groups already living in serious poverty. I stumbled across Tom Smiths blog through Scot McKnight yesterday and came across this superb quote about the true nature of generosity: True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes
which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and
subdued, the “rejects of life” to extend their trembling hands. True
generosity lies in striving so that these hands — whether of
individuals or entire peoples — need be extended less and less in
supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work
and, working, transform the world. Paulo FreireGo here...
We had dinner with our friends Graeme and Kate Young the other day, it was nice to catch up with them. Graeme is probably one of the most ‘experienced’ Christians I know, if that is indeed a catergory distinction and is one of the few Christian ministers who has taken seriously and continues to explore Jesus’ statement in Luke 18:16But Jesus called the
children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do
not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Graeme has currently been working on a commentary on Luke which should be a very interesting read, he descibed it as a commentary which works the same way as the old Children’s encylopedia, completely accesible for Children (above 8) but still containing the truth and facts of...
UPDATE/APOLOGY: To those reading the RSS feed (who likely wouldnt read this update anyway) I published this before some re-formats and spell checks and so it may look a horrendous mess in the feedreader. …and plenty of it! I have been busy this week, but not to busy to pick up some interesting news, links and posts. Apologies for the massive length of this post, but its two round ups in one as I didnt manage my normal mid week round up this week, enjoy:Apple is thinking about offering subcription-based unlimited iTunes downloads Ft reports: "Detailed market research has shown strong appetite among consumers
for deals bundling music in with the cost of the device, or in exchange
for a monthly subscription, executives said. One executive said
the research had shown that consumers...
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This scripture hit me from the message noted on Vicky Beechings Blog Isaiah 58.6-8 6“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:to break the chains of injustice,get rid of exploitation in the workplace,free the oppressed,cancel debts.7What I’m interested in seeing you do is:sharing your food with the hungry,inviting the homeless poor into your homes,putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,being available to your own families.8Do this and the lights will turn on,and your lives will turn around at once.Your righteousness will pave your way.The GOD of glory will secure your passage.This also makes me thankful for the clarity that Peterson interpreted when writing the message.
Similar Posts:Fasting for Madeleine McCann
Lent with the Jesus Creed
A little overwhelmed
The...
Out of Ur have featured The God Strategy a new book which speaks about the use of religious imagery and rhetoric for political capital. The subject has crossed my mind over the last few weeks as the US party nominations have dominated the news headlines so I am glad for Out of Ur to articulate some of the central points on the subject which I have used to stimulate my own thoughts on the subject. My only disclaimer to this, a post on the two most divise issues on earth, is that I am writing my thought process and not my conclusions regarding this and am very open to thoughtful, peaceful dialogue on the issues.Part one of this post from the start of the month is here Republican vs. Democrats - The issues in Christian Political alignmentDomke and Coe identify four strategies politicians...
Out of Ur have featured The God Strategy a new book which speaks about the use of religious imagery and rhetoric for political capital. The subject has crossed my mind over the last few weeks as the US party nominations have dominated the news headlines so I am glad for Out of Ur to articulate some of the central points on the subject which I have used to stimulate my own thoughts on the subject. My only disclaimer to this, a post on the two most divise issues on earth, is that I am writing my thought process and not my conclusions regarding this and am very open to thoughtful, peaceful dialogue on the issues.The Republican platform opposes abortion and defends family values. But
the Democratic platform seems more sympathetic to the poor, orphans,
and widows—as is God. As a result,...
On Sunday I played Djembe for Andy Park who came to Aberdeen Vineyard after being involved with the Compassionart writers retreat. Andy was a nice guy, at church he spoke about the link between justice and worship in amos and how the outworking of worship always has to be justice, and at lunch he spoke about song writing, worship and his church plant in Vancouver.Chris Tomlin didn’t make it after getting ill apparently, but there were plenty writers about, Martin Smith wrote a 4 day blog detailing the retreat herePart of the press release copied below - click here for the full release
Songs To Be Forever Donated To Help the Poorest of the Poor
Unprecedented Retreat Features, Michael W.
Smith, Chris Tomlin, Steven Curtis Chapman, Darlene Zschech, Matt and
Beth Redman, Tim...
I have been reading some of Hauerwas’ thoughts on non-violence in light of my own grapplings with it, Even if I can’t be quite a fully paid up memer of club Hauerwas I really appreciate the consistent willingness of Hauerwas to pin his christian-ethical convictions down into practise, surely that is the only way we as Christians, theologians and ethicists can meaningully take part in ethics.
As with all the Christian ethics the task within just war/pacifism thinking is not to set up an emotive context and react from our compassion or anger (with regards to 9/11 particularly) as much of this confuses us: what we think is right and what we feel is right are often 2 very different things. The task for Christian ethics is to establish a thoughful response which is...
First up,I was sorry to see that Burnley Mik and The Cloud have quit their blogs, as they were two of my favourite daily reads.All the best to both of them, as they continue to chew the poker fat, over at the Raisetheriver forum and blog.I've not much to report on the poker front as I've not played very often since my last post.I did enjoy playing a couple of wee $5 Full Tilt sng's with Rosie ,but I don't think either of us were taking them too seriously.I think Rosie was more annoyed than me when a fish called my raise( I had AJ) with his 45 and crippled my stack.When she remarked that she was pleased when Mr fish finally bombed out,I disagreed, as I wanted a fishy like that around to help me double up and get me back in it!I even disagreed with Rosies comment that "at least he can't win...
"Donald Rumsfeld must be feelinghowSaddam Hussein felt when US forces were hunting him down.”Donald Rumsfeld, former US Defense Secretary and the man who authorized the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, attended a breakfast meeting with Foreign Policy magazine in Paris the other day.According to unconfirmed reports, Rumsfeld had to flee France after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against him alleging the “ordering and authorizing” of torture.The authorities in France are obliged to investigate when a complaint is made while the alleged criminal is on French soil.Protesters in France believe that the defense secretary fled over the border to Germany.Read: RUMSFELD FLEES FRANCE FEARING ARRESTRINF...
I have written a few times about the killings of the amish schoolgirls and the subsequent forgiveness of that community, here and here,
I came upon an amazing reflection on forgiveness, the righteousness of anger, and our prayerful and practical response the admiration it evoked by Susan Widley Daouist HT: Northwoods Contemplative
Ive quoted one of the most interesting passages below but click here for the fulll story, it is well worth your time to read.
So much of resistance to forgiveness is about power: clutching to grievances rather than letting go of the power of the past to move to a healed future. This does not mean we should cease defending what is good against evil, detailing compensation, recompense, apology: all those things are desirable and right, as a...
When the amish responded to the horrendous tragdy that happened in their community, I said I thought it was one of the best testimonies of Jesus to this world in the last few years, I still stand by that, and I was heartened again to hear that they had made further gestures towards the gunmans family, there is so much of God in this Im not even sure I can put words to it, all I can do is pray that God would give me the same grace, character and heart that has led the amish community through these times.
HT: Scot McKnight...
BBC NEWS | Nick Robinsons Newslog - This is as ever, a good interview by the BBC Politics correspondant to Tony Blair only a month before Tony Blair packs in his deacde long headship. Its interesting to see what seems to be his frank opinion on the current affairs.
NR Just finally, this is your final G8 summit, you will be saying farewell to some world leaders who won’t see again as world leader - has it sunk in yet?
TB It doesnt affect me like that because the important thing is to get something positive out of the G8 and if we get a recommitment to Gleneagles and substantial commitments to Africa and what I have been working on for the last two years since Gleneagles which is the essence of a new climate change deal - I mean that is better than any valedictory you can get...
This is maybe a little late in the day for you to participate today but My Friend Emelie is encouraging everyone to Fast today for Maddie, I am joining in for Breakfast and Lunch, but need to do some serious revision this evening and will need some energy for it.
Please read below, and read the news if your unsure about how to pray.
Latest BBC News Report detailing the latest with her Family can be found here, earlier reports are linked in the side bar.
Official Website here http://www.findmadeleine.com/
"I am going to be fasting and praying on Monday the 21st of May for Madeline. The Jews did for Esther and look how powerful that was, they saved a nation. All of you who pray, fast with me.pass this message on to all the Christians you know. Or just anyone who is...
What follows is an amazing testimony of faith which was sent to me from my good friend John, it seems it came from Floyd’s Blog but it seems to have since dissappeared it is, in parts difficult to read. But I Hope it inspires you as it did me to pray for them, and to live with a radical faith in Jesus, knowing he is worth everything.
Liam - PDF document here, text below. (more…)...
And so the contentious issue of the age, as somehow arrived at through looking at Augustine’s City of God, the War in Iraq. I first feel the need to premise this post with an invitation for any responses or discussion from this post to be full of humility, and motivated after a desire to maintain unity within the Church.
Flickr Photo Iraq-N by member photoLuna25
Can we have just War? Many would happily give out one word answers to this, or instead shoot off one liners which were either pro or anti war, but even with the benefit of an indirect relationships to this war, (in the presumption that the readers of this post aren’t leaders of nations nor servicemen and women serving in Iraq) the response to just war in the case of Iraq needs to be approached...
The Ministry of Defence, ordered yesterday by a coroner to produce the cockpit video from a US plane which fired on a British army convoy, killing a serviceman, has failed to get permission from the US to show the tape today.The coroner has now adjourned the inquest, allowing high level diplomacy to take place with US authorities, saying it is crucial the court see the video before taking more evidence from witnesses.It was left to the coroner, not the MoD, to apologise to the family of the dead man for the delay and their further suffering.The MoD have been given till next Friday to release the classified video.See all recent...
Oxfordshire Coroner Andrew Walker, hearing the inquest on Lance Corporal Matty Hull, who was killed in 2003 in Iraq when a US plane fired on British troops, was ‘shaking with rage’ when he heard the Ministry of Defence say it did not have the authority to allow a cockpit video of the incident to be played in court, because the US regards it as highly classified.Perhaps highly embarrassing would be more accurate.Tonight the coroner demanded that the tape should be made available for viewing by Friday morning (2nd Feb), rejecting a request by the MoD to be given a week to negotiate with the US authorities.Thankfully, while our Prime Minister may be a poodle to the US, this coroner is not.See all recent...
Yesterday in the House of Commons Conservative leader David Cameron told Tony Blair it was time for him to quit, saying: "When is he going to realise it is all over?"Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish Nationalists, the party that triggered the police inquiry into cash for peerages, gestured to Mr Blair that he would be put in handcuffs before long.Last night Labour MPs were warning Blair that the Government was in danger of "falling apart" after police handling the investigation arrested Lord Levy over an alleged cover-up.Today it emerged that the Prime Minister was interviewed last Friday for a second time, shortly before the arrest of Levy, and that the meeting was kept quiet, apparently at the request of the police, till today.Although Blair was not interviewed under caution but as a...
If your in London, you might want to have a look at this, I would love to go, but its mid-week.
Act Justly Church Leaders Conference 2007 / 6th March1:30pm - 5pmThe church is exploding with social justice activities. Whether its cleaning up graffitti of campaigning to Make Poverty History, UK Christains are involved. The Act Justly Church Leaders Conference 2007 is organised by Christian Aid and Faithworks. Bishop Tom Wright will be the keynote speaker at the event which will examine the theology of social justice, explore how it is being worked out in the local community and in international projects and offer resources to help churches connect and engage. ...
Accusations of rape, harassment, abuse of power in sexual relations, obstruction of justice, illegally accepting gifts - perks of the job for President Moshe Katsav of Israel, perhaps?"Don't believe the libel, the defamation, the lies. There is only one truth ... I am the target of one of the worst attacks in the history of the state of Israel," he says.How amusing to watch the downfall of the holier than thou, watch as they blame everyone but themselves, squealing in indignation at the mere thought that anyone could doubt their honesty and integrity, their morality.Katsav has blamed the media for their coverage, decision makers, the attorney general, the complainants and, born in Iran, has blamed the allegations on racism against Jews from the Middle East. "I saw myself as a symbol for...
