THE CHINA EARTHQUAKE EMERGENCY

One of the abiding memories from my time at Churches Together in Britain and Ireland was a visit to China at the end of 2004, which I reported on here. The work done by Caroline Fielder, Edmond Tang and others in sustaining and developing church relations, encouraging exchange, supporting theological education and promoting China concerns and understanding - on very slender resources - is one of the greatly important but largely untold stories of recent ecumenical endeavour in these islands.

The response of Chinese churches and NGOs is noted briefly here. Caroline adds: "We are sure that you are all as horrified as we are to see the situation in Sichuan unfold. We have spoken [to or] been in contact with all the Amity teachers [we know]. Those in Gansu had some effects from the earthquake, those in Guangxi also but less severe; all are safe."

Humanitarian support is possible through the Protestant-backed Amity, and also through the Catholic Jinde charities. I don't propose to publish the bank account details on the web, but if you want to make a direct contribution (in US dollars or Chinese RMB ), drop me a note and I will pass them on to people I know or who provide credible contact details.

FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES?

This one passed me by at the time. But I see that back in January '08 there was an amusing little story doing the rounds claiming that a motion calling for the disestablishment of the Church of England has been listed in the British House of Commons as 666 (the number of the Beast in the book of Revelation). First picked up by Agence France and Yahoo News UK, it was further syndicated by the evangelical agency Assist, who helpfully noted that "Ekklesia, the UK Christian think tank, was the first body publicly to call for moves towards the formal disestablishment of the Church of England in the wake of the engagement of Prince Charles and Ms Camilla Parker-Bowles, announced in February, 2005" and that "Ekklesia associate Simon Barrow contributed to a recent volume of essays, Setting the Church of England Free (edited by Kenneth Leech, Jubilee Group) among whose authors was an Oxford Professor and other senior Anglicans, including the late Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (pictured)." The book actually appeared in 2002. There are still copies around, and we are endeavouring to liberate them from somebody's store in order to make them available through Metanoia.

GETTING BIBLICAL

"I listen intently to the Book. But I do not acquiesce in it. I rail at it. I make accusations. I censure it for endorsing patriarchalism, violence, anti-Judaism, homophobia, and slavery. It rails back at me, accusing me of greed, presumption, narcissism, and cowardice. We wrestle. We roll on the ground, neither of us capitulating, until it wounds my thigh with 'new-ancient' words. And the Holy Spirit is there the whole time, strengthening us both." - biblical scholar Walter Wink

Here's something I wrote on the Bible a few years ago - for a website thats now rolled into InclusiveChurch, by the way. Not so long ago, I recall my astonishment during a public meeting when a humanist friend made a comment about how easy it must be for Christians, "just having to do what their book tells them."

SO ARE THEY REALLY LISTENING?

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that he will "listen and lead" in the wake of the Labour Party's disastrous showing in the local elections last week, in the opinion polls generally, and in the London Mayoral contest. So I was intrigued to receive the following email in my inbox this morning: "Hi, simonbarrow. DowningStreet is now following your updates on Twitter. Check out DowningStreet's profile here: http://twitter.com/DowningStreet." And yes, it is the Number 10 crew, getting the word out via the latest micro-blogging sensation. I'd better get those 140 character policy suggestions flowing urgently, huh? Here's my first pitch. Judging from this recent pic, I think Gordon's impressed already...

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

"There is hope in honest error. None in the icy perfection of the mere stylist." -- Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Or as Snoopy once put it: "A mistake is evidence that somebody tried to do something." I also liked his, "The world can't end today, because it's already tomorrow in some countries."

CHARITY IN THE CRUCIBLE

Writing in The Spectator (former editor: Boris Johnson), writer and fellow freelance theologian Theo Hobson meets Gene Robinson, the only openly gay Anglican bishop, who says that homosexuals are more open to the Christian message of radical change.

"His book, In the Eye of the Storm, is pinch-yourself bold in its association of homosexuality with authentic Christian faith. Being gay, he says, is his ‘little window into some of what it must be like to be a woman, or a person of colour, or a person in a wheelchair — and countless other categories the dominant culture has controlled, diminished and oppressed’. So being gay enables Christian empathy. No wonder I’ve always found it so tough," says Theo.

On the book, Richard Harries, former Anglican Bishop of Oxford, writes: "‘This is Gene Robinson’s own story, told with simplicity and humility and revealing his passionate faith. He recounts how his experience has made him particularly close to vulnerable groups, such as the inmates of a women’s prison, and how we all need one another for our very salvation. This honest account will encourage anyone seriously committed to the message of Jesus, and shows him deeply committed within the Anglican Communion, even to those who vilify him."

SOME TAXING TRUTHS

Not least through the work of Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice, which has maintained a critical dialogue with radical Christian community campaigner Bob Holman and others (even at the Labour conference!), the Conservative Party seems to have moved on poverty issues - as Church Action on Poverty has acknowledged. However, we are entitled to ask what the policy substance is behind this. As Bob has pointed out, some of the much vaunted concern has been underwritten by a continuing legacy of paternalism and individualism. So the idea that David Cameron is a saviour of the poor whose party has gone progressive is a claim deserves further examination.

Take the "10p tax" issue, which the Tories hope will win them the Crewe by-election. David Cameron has remorselessly attacked Gordon Brown on this -- not because the Conservatives support a truly progressive income tax regime (their policies suggest otherwise), but as an issue of "competence". In other words, they are trying to persuade lower income people that "we're on your side"; but when challenged about re-introducing the 10p tax band, Cameron does not want to be drawn "on specifics". Of course. The gap between rhetoric and reality on this is bound to be large for the traditional party of organised wealth.

The estimable Kerron Cross, leader of Three Rivers District Council and vice chair of the Christian Socialist Movement (which I left when it affiliated to the Labour Party, by the way) has unpicked some of the contradictions here. Deeper issues, meanwhile, are raised by Jon Cruddas and Jonathan Rutherford.

While we are on the subject of the Tories, Jesuit e-journal Thinking Faith has an interesting article (Who will show respect?) on new London Mayor Boris Johnson's 'get tough' youth policies, backed by 'muscular Christian'. It has been put together by researchers from the Heythrop Institute for Religion, Ethics and Public Life.

A LIFELINE TO BURMA

The United Nations and development agencies are furious about the obstructiveness and incapacity of the Burmese military in the face of the "immediate and vast" aid need. St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace in London has a direct link into the devastated country, for those interested in making a personal contribution.

CHURCH ON THE WANE?

A bit of a barney has broken out over the latest Religious Trends data on church decline in the UK. The Times gave a spin to the statistics which included several unsustainable claims. The Church of England reacted with fury, and said it was weathering the storm thank you very much. Christian Research have been accused of bad methodology. But CR has defended its data and the overall situation remains the same. Inherited church institutions in Britain continue to be in decline - dramatically so since the 1950s and 60s. This is not the same thing as saying that Christian faith is dying, however. Indeed the demise of assumptions about being 'the majority' may be good for the moral, political, spiritual and communal health of the Christian churches, if they can begin to see things differently (which is the burden of my comment for Ekklesia ). Thinking Anglicans collates more responses and debate here.

GIVING TO THOSE WHO DON'T GIVE UP

Communicating development issues to a broad media audience is tough. Often, there's an awkward trade off between what the fundraisers say will generate donations and what the educators want to raise awareness of the deeper issues. Christian Aid are to be congratulated in trying to get the two to work together. This video of their current TV campaign makes a simple but important point that disasters hit the poorest worst, and then highlights community-based and longer term solutions that people can see their money being invested in. The graphics are also nifty. Visibility, durability and credibility.

ROOTS AND ROUTES

Land of hope and glory? Ekklesia, 08 May 2008, 18:07. -- The notion and shape of 'the land' means many things to many people, as the contradictory responses to this 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel are showing. Simon Barrow looks at the relationship between rootedness and aspiration.

JUSTICE FOR BOTH ISRAELIS & PALESTINIANS

Over 140 Christian leaders have made a unified call for a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians, to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel. Their declaration is published today in The Independent newspaper.

Never before has such a diverse range of prominent Christians acknowledged that for Palestinians, Israel’s celebration has become a ‘Catastrophe’ (Nakba). They seek a shared solution to the longstanding conflict. Here's the story on Ecumenical News International. And an interesting comment from Jane Stranz.

See also ex-US president, Baptist layperson and peace / human rights envoy Jimmy Carter, on the appalling tragedy of Gaza this morning.

THE END OF HILLARY?

Yes, but can Obama beat McCain? LibCon, 07 May 08, 18.45 GMT -- Convention bloodletting or litigation aside, Hillary Clinton has now almost certainly lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama. Those who want to see "real change" in the USA mostly regard that as good news, including an American I happen to be married to! But I'm not nearly so sure. Can Obama take on John McCain in the campaign that really counts, and how much of his emotional energy will translate into the new politics his backers want?

GETTING AND NOT GETTING RELIGION

I maintain an occasional 'work blog' at Ekklesia. We are seeking to transform this area in the near future using an aggregator facility. In the meantime, here's a couple of recent entries: * Obama, Wright and wrong The Democratic contest has been getting ugly. And Barack Obama's church ties have become both a boon and a bane. * Seeing both the positive and negative in religion Much of the current public discourse on 'religion' assumes that 'it' (actually a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon) is either a good or a bad thing per se.

COMING UP...

The Christian leaders' declaration on a just-peace for both Israelis and Palestinians will be launched tomorrow, the 6oth anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. It's still not too late to sign up. http://justpeace60.blogspot.com/

BURMA CYCLONE ASSISTANCE

Latest news reports indicate that three-quarters of structures in the region were destroyed by fierce winds, rain and storm surge. The number of casualties could rise to as many as 30,000, as relief workers are able to reach hard-hit islands and remote villages. The junta has been pushed into accepting worldwide support. Christian Aid is doing its bit, as part of the Action of Churches Together global ecumenical network. The storm was brewing in the Bay of Bengal for several days but communities in the affected areas would have been ill prepared due to a lack of early warning systems. Here's an eyewitness account from the BBC. Development agencies say that the final outcome of the Burmese cyclone disaster, which latest reports suggest has claimed over 23,000 lives, may be on the scale of the Asian tsunami a few years ago.

CONSIDERING CREATIVITY

"Creativity is the supreme mystery of life, the mystery of the appearance of something new, hitherto unknown, derived from nothing, proceeding from nothing, born of nothing other..." -- Nikolai Berdyaev

Actually, I don't quite agree. Creativity as we understand it (and however surprising or unmerited it appears) is always premised on, or emerging from, something. Only the world as a whole is given ex nihilo, as both atheists and believers accept. Though on very different grounds and to very different ends.

BEYOND TECHNOBABBLING

Oh dear... for reasons I'm still fathoming, I've finally given in to Twitter. You'll find mine (http://twitter.com/simonbarrow) under my profile in the column on the right. Is this a useful new tool, or is the world being buried in meaningless technobabble? As I wrote last month, the jury is out. Unless you're some kind of public figure, a human rights lawyer, or you're being tagged to keep the rest of the community safe, telling people what you are doing every moment of the day really is gratuitous (in the modern, pejorative sense of that word). But the idea of micro-blogging ("less is more", "let them have clips", "to be interesting be interested") has more going for it. I think. We'll see.

Meanwhile, my delightful father-in-law, Willard Roth, has given me a signed copy of friend Daniel P. Schrock's charming book Prayer Practices for Terrifically Busy People for my 50th birthday. It's a little worrying to be thought of in that category, since there is no real excuse at this stage in life. You are most likely to be taking too much on, taking youself too seriously, failing to combat disorganisation (cough!) or filling the void. But that's the point, I suppose. And it is the maelstrom around us that sucks us in, if we allow it. The point is to filter out the twaddle from the twitter - if there's any difference. Gratifyingly, Dan's exercises all take about 30 times longer than micro-blogging. That's about 15 minutes.

I shall conclude by repeating that famous story about Archbishop Michael Ramsey. Asked by an interviewer how long he spent praying each day, he replied, "about two minutes... but it takes several hours to prepare for those minutes."

THINKING INDIVISIBLY

"To think as a Christian is to try to understand the stellar spaces, the arrangements of micro-organisms and DNA molecules, the history of Tibet, the operation of economic markets, toothache, King Lear, the CIA, and grandma's cooking--or, as Aquinas put it, 'all things'--in relation to that uttering, utterance and enactment of God which they express and represent. To act as a Christian is to work with, to alter or, if need be, to endure all things in conformity with that understanding." -- Nicholas Lash, in a fine interview with The Christian Century, December 2007.

"A theologian is someone who watches their language in the presence of God." -- Gerald O'Collins

FILMING THE WORLD

"Pangea Day plans to use the power of film to bring the world a little closer together. We're divided by borders, race, religion, conflict... but most of all by misunderstanding and mistrust. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that -- to help people see themselves in others -- through the power of film.



"On May 10, 2008 -- Pangea Day -- sites in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked to produce a 4-hour program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music. The programme will be broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones.

"Your film could be part of it. The online video revolution has helped spawn a new generation of grass-roots film-makers worldwide. Much of the output, of course, is mediocre. But hidden in there are amazing talents capable of using film to astonishing effect... and capable of telling stories that can create powerful bonds between us."

BACK TO FRONT

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." -- Soren Kierkegaard

Though, frankly, sometimes it isn't understood at all, and is appropriated in strangely backwards ways. But life does, indeed, go on...

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?

Update 23.56: Johnson has won; followed by the BBC report.

Well, I said there was no room for complacency. As Paul Linford makes plain. And while Sunny Hundal has given up for a bit, writer and commentator Dave Hill is still live blogging on CIF from the London Mayoral election count. He says (9pm, 2 May): "I've been talking to Sian Berry, the Green candidate. She's hoping her party will hold on to its two assembly seats but is worried about the BNP. They and the Greens continue to vie for fourth place in the mayoral vote and on the London-wide party list and the BNP showing well in some constituencies. I'm told a bunch of their supporters have arrived downstairs, establishing a presence, as it were. Speculation here in the media bunker is that they will hit the 5% mark and therefore take a seat. Two seats is a possibility."

If fluffy Tory hampster Boris Johnson does win (and it seems he will, driven by the divide between inner London and the suburbs), it will be interesting to look at the differential turnouts. In traditionally Labour areas that could be one of the decisive factors for the successes of the BNP, I'd calculate. We'll see. Sian Berry (pictured) has fought a good campaign, by the way. As I've mentioned, I'd have given her my first preference had I qualified for a vote in London.

My friend Henry Potts, who's also my landlord in Parliament Hill Fields, came bottom of the poll for the Lib Dems in Highgate, I see. Bad luck, Henry. Alex Goodman, a 30-year-old planning and human rights barrister, won the election by more than 290 votes from his nearest challenger, Labour's Michael Nicolaides. That's a breath of fresh air.

Incidentally, I see that 'Christian Choice' (says who?) candidate Alan Craig lost a High Court bid to have its party election broadcast (PEB) repeated last week, after claiming it had been censored. Craig said the BBC had "commanded" the words be changed about the Muslim group planning to build a large mosque in east London; a proposal which he opposes.

But judge Justice Collins said the BBC had indicated that if a legal challenge had been issued before the broadcast it would have "backed down and let them publish as they wished." This had not been done and he has ordered Craig to pay the BBC's £11,875 legal costs. The BBC says the judgment upholds its right to raise proper concerns about election broadcasts.

FAR RIGHT FALTERS

One piece of good election news, especially given the depressing outcome of recent polls in Italy, is that the far-right and racist BNP - in spite of making some gains and taking its first seats in South Yorkshire - has seen its tiny share of the vote fall overall, having surged in 2006 with a spate of additional candidates and then having dropped off comparatively in 2007. The party will not now make anything like its target of 40 seats, though it has made some gains. It failed across the board in Broxbourne and recorded losses in many other areas. This is not to say that there's any room for complacency, of course.

The Anglican Bishop of Barking and other national and local church leaders spoke out strongly against the BNP and extremism before and during the elections, though to what effect is uncertain. It's clearly got to them, and the cracks have been showing. But working with people rather than lecturing them is what's needed at community level. The BNP had previously tried to colonise a certain 'religious' position, and some of the reactionary 'Christian nation' rhetoric around the churches has not helped, as Ekklesia pointed out last year.

The key to outflanking and responding to the far right is to address issues of urban decay and disenfranchisement that act as its breeding ground, without pandering to the anti-migrant and xenophobic instincts that can become the displaced home of disaffection. The problem is, the main parties are struggling with the former and are too tempted by the latter - fuelled by tabloid scaremongering.

BROWN'S ADVISORS AND THE BEEB'S SHAME

Who knows what PM Gordon Brown's confidants [See my Brown keeps politics in the family, Ekklesia, 1 May 08] will be saying this morning, following a truly appalling set of local government results across England and Wales. He'll be hanging on to see if Boris Johnson can cross the line in his clown costume at County Hall this evening, in order to confirm it was all a bad dream, I suppose. Meanwhile, the BBC's election night TV coverage was a comedy of errors and embarrassment for everyone concerned.

What was worse, I wonder. The silly 'Stalin or Mr Bean?' schtick for the PM (which even high profile Tory blogger Ian Dale told them probably crossed the line of political comment), the childish 'Wild West' set (with presenter Jeremy Vine operating in a complete dignity vacuum, apparently!), or the bafflingly inane "homo electus" theme (pictured)? It was so insulting to the intelligence, it beggared belief. And without even the redeeming feature of being remotely funny or witty. Ed Pearce (terrible photo, nice guy) sums it up perfectly.

RIGHTS, RITES AND PLAIN WRONGS

More from me at the Wardman Wire e-zine on Papal authority and human rights (01 May 08). Whether the overbearing, centralist and often impersonal form of power wielded by many of those who now run the Holy See is 'traditional' (as Matt's standfirst suggests) depends, of course, on which bits of the tradition are being read by whom, to what ends. I'd argue that a very different kind of approach is warranted by the shape, form and style of the company Jesus gathered in his movement to free people from the type of religion and politics that claims a monopoly of divine grace, truth, justice and wisdom.

WORKING UP SOME ENTHUSIASM

If democracy is going to work anywhere, it ought to do so closest to where people live, through involvement in vibrant neighbourhoods and communities. But central government wants to retain control for itself, the voting system is skewed against pluralism, grassroots talent has been siphoned off, and the poundingly unimaginative local party machines do their best to keep voters badly informed, frustrated or just plain bored. (See my polling day reflections, Leafleting us into submission, LibCon, 01 May 08). 'Your search - "renewing local democracy" - did not match any documents', Google News has just helpfully informed me. No good moaning, though. Better get stuck in. I shall vote for positivity over world weariness. Meanwhile, an anonymous local government worker has it about right here.

DOWN TO EARTH

"The world is overcome not through destruction, but through reconciliation. Not ideals, nor programmes, nor conscience, nor duty, nor responsibility, nor virtue, but only God's perfect love can encounter reality and overcome it. Nor is it some universal idea of love, but rather the love of God [made known] in Jesus Christ, a love genuinely lived, that does this." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditations on the Cross

TAKE HEART

"Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair." -- Rollo May

RELATION NOT OBJECTIFICATION

(This one was prompted by yet another infuriating radio programme.) Since the recent rash of media-fuelled 'debate' about the reality or otherwise of God takes it for granted that the argument concerns the existence or non-existence of a 'thing' or 'being' that is part of a category of things or beings called 'gods' (about which non-sense, see section two of What difference does God make today?), it is worth being reminded that earlier thinkers worth their salt, like the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, spent a good deal of time patiently explaining why this is not plausible, let a lone desirable:

God is not an object beside objects and hence cannot be reached by renunciation of objects. God, indeed, is not the cosmos, but far less is God 'being minus cosmos'. God is not to be found by subtraction and not to be loved by reduction...[] God is to be discovered, if at all, in relation."

Wading through the internet, it becomes rapidly apparent that the loudest voices for or against 'religion' and its supposed 'object' are invariably ignorant of the long and subtle discussions of the past on such topics, or contemptuous of them (without necessarily knowing what they are contemptuous of), and that there is an automatic assumption that we know what we are talking about when we start to throw around such terms in relation to the divine. Which, invariably, we don't.

All of which reminds me of the comment attributed to irascible theological ethicist Stanley Hauerwas (I paraphrase, but I think it might be in Dispatches From the Front) and directed to his new students at Duke. "Welcome to my class. This is a liberal arts university, which means that someone will have already told you that you are here to make up your mind. I'm here to remind you that until you have spent time carefully listening to all the people and arguments I've been following for years, you haven't got a mind worth making up!"

This is profoundly true, but not popularly so in an environment where we assume that we know more than those who came before us, and where the conditions of debate are those we take as read. How I wish someone had said that to me 32 years ago. It might have made my journey from ignorance to very-slightly-less-ignorant a lot quicker.

THE PATH TOWARDS HOPE?

There are a number of interesting aspects to Rowan Williams' recent talk on The spiritual and the religious - is the territory changing? A ever, he has some creative things to say. But much more attention needs to be paid, I feel, to why 'organised religion' has so often veered in the opposite direction to the one that Williams (rightly) feels is more truthfully inherent in the claims of the Gospel, certainly. I know I would say this, but the missing element in the picture he gives is a clear commitment to a post-Christendom vision - one which envisages the church in theological and practical distinction from the kind of power games that it has played in the past and is still playing. He wants the benefits of this without looking at the institutional contradiction of his position.

It is hard for the head of an Established Church to do more than move around the edges of the post-Christendom argument it seems. As a friend astutely commented to me recently: "In contrasting religion at its best with more mediocre forms of spirituality, it seems to me that he is making the same mistake – albeit in a more nuanced form – as the militant atheists who write or comment on blogs [and] in the newspapers. Above all, he avoids confronting the issue of the power in faith communities." This includes the confrontation within such communities between liberating and constraining imaginations of what 'religion' and 'spirituality' (neither of which are my favourite words) mean, and how to relate to others - including those who are conceiving a journey of hope in a variety of post-religious terms. Hoped-for generosity is not enough.

Some of this will come up in the discussion I have this afternoon with the Fellowship of Reconciliation council in Oxford, I imagine, which is looking at peacemaking beyond Christendom. Here's a key part of Williams' argument, which I'd like to be true, but which needs considerably more work (as I have no doubt he is aware):

The better we understand the distinctiveness of religious claims, the better we understand the centrality within them of non-violence. That is to say, the religious claim, to the extent that it defines itself as radically different from mere local or transitory political strategies, is more or less bound to turn away from the defence or propagation of the claims by routinely violent methods, as if the truth we were talking about depended on the capacity of the speaker to silence all others by force. Granted that this is how classical communal religion has all too regularly behaved; but the point is that it has always contained a self-critique on this point. And that growing self-awareness about religious identity, which has been one paradoxical consequence of the social and intellectual movement away from such an identity, makes it harder and harder to reconcile faith in an invulnerable and abiding truth with violent anxiety as to how it is to be defended.

In short, as religion – corporate, sacramental and ultimately doctrinal religion – settles into this kind of awareness, it becomes one of the most potent allies possible for genuine pluralism – that is, for a social and political culture that is consistently against coercion and institutionalised inequality and is committed to serious public debate about common good. Spiritual capital alone, in the sense of a heightened acknowledgement especially among politicians, businessmen and administrators of dimensions to human flourishing beyond profit and material security, is helpful but is not well equipped to ask the most basic questions about the legitimacy of various aspects of the prevailing global system. The traditional forms of religious affiliations, in proposing an 'imagined society', realised in some fashion in the practices of faith, are better resourced for such questions. They lose their integrity when they attempt to enforce their answers; and one of the most significant lessons to be learned from the great shift towards post-religious spiritual sensibility is how deeply the coercive and impersonal ethos of a good deal of traditional religion has alienated the culture at large.

DARING TO DISSENT

A bit more on England and St George... an attempt to see what the reaction might be to a series of cultural and campaigning events next year exploring the Saint as subversive.

THE LONDON NON-CONNECTION

Watching BBC TV's Question Time special on the London Mayoral election last night was a depressing experience (See my new LibCon column, Paddick stations? - which the Guardian kindly picked out in its 'best of the blogs' section). For a start, the Beeb decided that we didn't need to see the Green candidate, Sian Berry, who stands for a different set of values, and whose second preferences may well decide the final outcome. Then the whole thing was an adversarial charade: much sound and fury signifying little. This is modern media-driven politics. If I had a vote it would probably be Berry one and Ken Livingstone two. Boris Johnson is beyond a joke. [Fab YouTube clip alert]

Lest anyone think I am being unduly hard on the Lib Dems, I have an interview with their leader, Nick Clegg, in the May edition of the revamped Third Way magazine ("Christian comment on culture"), in which I think he comes out rather favourably. The TW 'high profile' slot aims to probe behind the public persona of a well-known figure and look at more personal influences, underlying convictions and so on. Inter alia, Clegg makes it clear that, contrary to press speculation, he's more of an agnostic than an outright atheist, and has respect for religious conviction oriented towards fairness and freedom. It's not available online, I'm afraid. But excerpts and out-takes will appear in due course, when I have cleared my permissions.

Talking of electoral politics. I used to be Labour at heart, but these days my vote floats between whichever candidate I think might inject a degree of principle and freshness into things, based on some practical notion of social justice and sustainability. Not voting has a place, too. The degeneration of the whole political system needs challenging in as many ways as possible - through alliances, associational and independent politics, participatory (rather than purely 'representational') forms of democracy, principled abstention, pressure from without, dialogue across the boundaries, and the strengthening of civil society... plus churches injecting a bit of redemption by acting as contrast societies, not conformist lumps or self-interest groups, please.

The electoral arena cannot be ignored, but it is not one in which I find deep convictions convincingly represented any more.

THE MARKET MENTALITY

"Quite apart from the problems of the Christian church in contemporary Britain, the almost insoluble challenge for many charities [and NGOs] these days, competing as they have to for support, is how to persuade people by what are essentially market methods that they should take up a very non-market-minded position of committed involvement." - Rowan Williams

TAKING OFFENCE RIGHTLY

"To be human is to be in conflict, to offend and be offended. To be human in the light of the gospel is to face conflict in redemptive dialogue." -- John Howard Yoder

CONFRONTING PAPAL BULL?

Today in 2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was inaugurated as 265th pontiff, head of the 1.2 billion strong Catholic Church, taking the name Pope Benedict XVI. For what it's worth, my own assessment of the man remains in line with what I wrote at the time in After Absolutism: The world, the church and the papacy, partly in response to a none-too-flattering TV documentary called God's Rottweiler. Around the time of the Regensberg controversy in September 2006 I also wrote Christendom remains the Pope's real fallibility.

The other day there was a brief discussion of Benedict's profile and work so far, on BBC Radio 4. Author and broadcaster Joanna Bogle offered an almost euphoric defence of the man, and Lavinia Byrne, former sister of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, remained sceptical. Lavinia has every reason to balk at those (including Radical Orthodoxy-type Anglicans) who romanticise Benedict, or focus on certain aspects of his philosophy abstracted from his actual actions.

Ratzinger, as was, headed up the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - John Paul II's 'theological enforcer' - when Lavinia's book Women at the Altar appeared. The 'disciplinary process' that followed was truly appalling, and all for the crime of thinking about women's ordination - something Benedict wishes to put off limits. Lavinia, who I followed in an editorial post at Heythrop College, and later at CTBI, never even got an audience with her inquisitor, nor a proper chance to put her case. Her book was subsequently pulped in the USA, after the Catholic publisher was ordered to do so.

Similar bullying has been meted out over the years to numerous scholars and writers who have raised critical issues arising from Catholic doctrine - including liberation theologian Leonardo Boff (for his fine book Church, Charism and Power), Hans Kung (Infallibility?), Sri Lankan priest and human rights advocate Tissa Balasuriya (Mary and Human Liberation). Jon Sobrino (Christology at the Crossroads), the late Jacques Dupuis (who wrote superbly on the theology of religions) and Roger Haight (Jesus Symbol of God). And that's just off the top of my head. Dupuis, a deeply faithful scholar, died a broken man a a result of the way he was treated.

This suppression of thought is inexcusable and deeply disturbing. It reflects a model of church and of ecclesial leadership which I believe is wholly at odds with the kind of practice needed in a Gospel community. We need to be accountable to one another, to the spirit of free enquiry and to the riches of the tradition. But not subject to threats and censorship. Without exception, all those I have mentioned are people with a passionate concern for the Christian message in the contemporary world, and some of them (Dupuis, Haight and Kung) are among the finest intellectuals of their time.

Jon Sobrino, who I had the honour of meeting briefly in the 1980s, has stared death in the face in El Salvador, and his work is thoroughly grounded in biblical thought and action. His accusers, by contrast, seem to have little grasp of the painful world out of which he writes - or, indeed, of what he has written.

PERFECTLY RESTRAINED

“People ask me how I got to be a pacifist in the church. That’s easy. It’s so there are people around who can stop me killing other people when I’d like to. Which is quite often.” – Stanley Hauerwas, during a question and answer session.

CRY ENGLAND AND ST GEORGE?

It's that time of year again. The one where those of us living south of a certain border, and west of another one, think about the complex weave of myth and history that shapes our national story. Or not, as the case may be.

This time last year I found myself in deep water with the Daily Mail after Ekklesia published a report, largely written by me, suggesting that the stories built up around the largely (possibly wholly) legendary figure of St George around the time of the Crusades were not the only ones - indeed, St George, who was probably Turkish, and is patron saint of many nations and regions other than England, was first known as a Christian citizen who laid down his arms to challenge the Roman Emperor's persecution of believers and others.

Not exactly a militarist of nationally exclusive icon, more a universal symbol of noble dissent, we suggested. Unsurprisingly, tabloid commentator Richard Littlejohn strongly disagreed, though there was no sign that he had read, let alone thought about, the issues. That's one of the things that happens with the stories we tell about our national inheritance. They become emotional ballast to suppress, rather than encourage, more difficult reflection.

This year artist Scott Norwood Witts has unveiled a thoughtful and moving painting called 'St George and the Dead Soldier' at the Catholic Cathedral in Southwark - where there is a week-long festival going on, as well as remembrance of William Shakespeare (whose day this also is) at the Anglican cathedral which was the bard's parish church of St Mary.

Norwood Witts says that ‘St George and Dead Soldier’ was stimulated by the current deployment of British forces overseas and also by the historical misrepresentation of St George. He comments: “The patron saint of soldiers and England is shown battle weary, identifying another fatality of war - exploding the contrived mythical identity developed during The Crusades, to reveal a man in mourning.”

The artist has previously exhibited at the American Church in London and the Carmelite Friary in Kent. Other commissions have included altarpieces at Dover Castle and the Royal Garrison Church at British Army HQ, Aldershot.

REAL TIME OBSERVATION

"A revolutionary age is an age of action; ours is the age of advertisement and publicity." -- Soren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855.

TURKISH DELIGHT?

The stand-off between hard-line religionists and hard-line secularists in Turkey is yet another example of an essentially phony war between two sets of ideologists unhelpfully claiming a monopoly over both their own traditions and one another, rather than seeking a pluralist path. The message that needs to be heard loud and clear is "it doesn't have to be this way". Adrian Pabst, who teaches theology and politics at the University of Nottingham, and collaborates with John Milbank and Philip Blond in developing the provocative Radical Orthodoxy line of approach to Christianity in public life, has written a very good piece for The National analysing Turkey's plight and signalling the alternative to non-productive confrontation.

The Kemalists are wrong to treat religion as a purely private phenomenon with no public import. They must recognise that all belief systems and social practices are political. They should look to the best traditions of secularism that separate state and mosque without divorcing religion from politics. In a modern Turkey that they purport to defend, rival values should be debated freely. Judicial or military intervention will merely push religion underground and contribute to the rise of fundamentalism — in that case, a repeat of Algeria’s bloody experience would be a distinct possibility.

For its part, the AKP cannot simply proceed with fundamental constitutional reforms that are seen as an assault on secularism. Erdogan and his allies are right to reconsider the legal provisions on insulting “Turkishness” that saw the Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk prosecuted in 2007. Likewise, the AKP must tackle discriminatory policies against the Alevi, Kurds and Armenians and work towards their full integration into Turkish society.

RADICAL EX-BISHOP TOPS THE POLL

Like the thousands who are out celebrating as I write, I am absolutely delighted that ex-bishop Fernando Lugo (pictured) has won the general election in Paraguay, his centre-left coalition terminating sixty years of corruption and elite dominance by the Colarado Party which once propped up General Alfredo Stroessner's systematically brutal dictatorship. What the victory will mean in terms of the immediate social and economic prospects of the very poorest, and of regional negotiations about a fairer deal for the country, has yet to be seen. There's a good, critical analysis here.

The task facing Lugo is indeed mountainous, given the grip of the wealthy and their political and military surrogates on Paraguay, the fragile and disparate coalition the president-elect heads, and the hugely raised expectations of indigenous people and those pushed to the margins for many years. But their new leader is a man of principle and determination, if not great experience in the tough arena of governance. Whether he will be able to resist or re-channel the economic and political constraints he faces is yet to be seen. There is a mixture of hope and cynicism in the air right now.

The response of the Catholic hierarchy, both inside the country and in the Vatican, has been predictably unpleasant. Lugo decided that he would have to leave his priestly role to pursue political change in favour of the poorest, but he did so out of deep commitment arising from the gospel. None of this has been acknowledged by conservative Church leaders, who have covertly sided with Colarado and have denounced Lugo for "abandoning Catholicism". He has been pointedly denied the laicisation he sought. It seems that Rome wishes to eliminate any sign of progressive or radical leanings within its leadership.

The treatment of Lugo calls to mind Pope John Paul II's finger-wagging condemnation of Fr Ernesto Cardenal, who took up a post as culture minister in the first Sandinista government in Nicaragua from 1979-90. By contrast, Church figures have been tolerated in their support for, or collaboration with, Latin American dictators. One priest even took charge of a section of the army in Colombia in the 1960s. But as soon as an alliance is forged between grassroots people's movements and clerics, the Vatican stamps down vigorously.

It's all very sad. Lugo was right to set aside his priestly ministry to follow a political vocation, and should be allowed to do so with honour. Many will see the continual thread of ordination in his move; namely his vocation to serve the poor (which is one of the vows a bishop makes).

As Andrew Nickson comments: "Lugo clearly represents a serious challenge to the status quo of Paraguay's traditional non-programmatic political culture, supported by powerful vested interests that arose during the Stroessner dictatorship and that have consolidated their privileges in the subsequent democratic transition." But he will need more than will power to bring about change.

A FLICKERING LIGHT

"Even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such illumination will come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak light that some men and women, in their lives and their works, will kindle under almost all circumstances and shed over the time span that was given them on earth."
-- Hannah Arendt, Jewish political and moral philosopher

A BIT OF A TWITTERER?

Twittering politically. Simon Barrow, LiberalConspiracy, 19 Apr 08.

You thought Facebook was hip? Nah. The latest communications buzz, as of, like, weeks and weeks ago, is a web-based tool that uses instant messaging, SMS or a web interface to exchange quick, frequent updates on what you're up to. Or someone else, for that matter. With Gordon Brown’s PR people as the latest converts on his high profile US visit, the mainstream media is suddenly banging on endlessly about Twitter. But does instant info about who’s where, doing what, have any political significance? Or is it just so much digitized hot air? (See also Aaron Heath's comment.)

THIS YEAR'S MODEL

It's not every issue that Jesus appears on the cover of the historic left-wing weekly paper (now a magazine format) Tribune, whose famous past editors include Michael Foot. Indeed it has probably never happened before. But it did occur on 11 April 2008. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the cover in question - featuring a famous portrait of the cleansing of the Temple. The latest issue has the much less appealing visage of one Boris Johnson adorning it. Many of us sincerely hope that la Boris will not be the next elected Mayor of London come 1 May 2008. Sadly, I don't have a vote in that one, though I do regularly inhabit a room in the capital. However, I got taken off the electoral register due to not being there enough to count as resident. My landlord while I am away from Exeter is actually a candidate in the May local authority elections, so it was self-sacrificial of him to have me removed. Or perhaps he just doesn't trust me. But I digress. The Tribune topic which occasioned this unexpected visual delving into the New Testament was about the global credit crunch and capitalist crash-landings. Concerning all of which, in a tangential way, see Patrick Hynes' article on alternative finance and the estimable Oikocredit.

[Pic: Bernardino Mei, (c) Getty Center, Los Angeles, USA]

CONSTITUTIONALLY UNWELL?

Power to which people, exactly? Simon Barrow column on Ekklesia, 16 Apr 08.
In Britain, the primary instruments of defence against tyranny are the framework of checks and balances embodied in an unwritten set of legal arrangements, the independence of the Judiciary and Executive and the incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights into British Law. However, in recent weeks and months abrogation of many safeguards seems at least to have been contemplated by parliament. Some would say the problem goes much further. And there are theological resonances, too. Continued. [See also: Unlock Democracy]

UNTIL WE HAVE FACES

My latest 'thinking aloud' piece for The Wardman Wire reflects on conflict and confusion in the world today, and suggests that the place to focus is on the human beings in the middle - and on working outwards from there. It also includes comment on ex-US president Jimmy Carter's pledge to talk to Hamas as part of his current humanitarian visit to Israel-Palestine, and suggests that even in the most bitter confrontation the problem has a face. One that cannot be reduced purely to politics, ideology, religion or non-religion.

THE NAKED TRUTH

"In order to swim you must take off all your clothes. In order to aspire to the truth you must undress in a far more inward sense, divest yourself of all your inward clothes, of thoughts, conceptions, selfishness. Only then are you sufficiently naked." -- Søren Kierkegaard

THE CONSTANT GARNERER

"What is constant [in the relations made possible by God]... is a love that can be called 'ecstatic.' * We must take leave of ourselves in order to approach the other and all the more so in order to welcome the other. The more spiritual the encounter with the other, the more complete the 'ecstasy'. By that, Christian faith means that 'God is love.' Of course God is infinite being, but only insofar as God totally gives away the divine being within Godself. Here is the most profound justification for the Trinitarian faith, a faith that confesses that the 'infinite' is 'exchange.' Moreover, not only is God 'self-exchange,' but God has willed a communication outside Godself (if one is permitted to speak this way). This communication can only be the offer of a covenant such that what exists between God and humanity will be the realization of what already exists in God." - Ghislain Lafont, A Theological Journey

"The call to renounce * doesn't negate the value of flourishing; it is rather a call to centre everything on God, even if it be at the cost of sustaining this unsubstitutable good; and the fruit of this forgoing is that it become on one level the source of flourishing for others, and on another level, a collaboration with the restoration of a fuller flourishing by God." - Charles Taylor, A Secular Age

These wonderful reflections come from Artur Rosman's florilegium on T.S. Eliot's Little Gidding - IV, which I cited the other day. A couple of further comments. First, I think Lafont means by 'ecstasy' (life beyond stasis) what Taylor means by 'the call to renounce' (reminding us of Jesus' challenging dictum that those who grasp at life will lose it, and only those who abandon such grasping will gain it - as gift). In this sense ecstasy, which like love is a condition of relation, not a "feeling" (as our superficially emotive culture designates it), also requires - or, rather, evokes - 'eccentricity', the capacity for existence beyond self-centredness. All of these things, Lafont points out, are embraced in the life of God, which is life-beyond-life creating the conditions for the liberation of our own living. This is what is at stake in a Christian theological account of God grounded in generative love, reciprocal love and disruptive love. Divine vocation is in this sense the action of calling into relationship that which resists, wounds or defies it, the hidden work of the 'constant garnerer'.

Second, I think it is more helpful (in the sense of 'less inaccurate'!) to talk of God as 'beyond being' (in the spirit of Jean Luc Marion's hors texte and Merlod Westphal's 'Divine Excess: The God Who Comes After' than it is to talk of God as 'infinite being', as if infinitising one of our most expansive categories gives us a handle on the divine. In this sense, to invoke God in prayer and action (which is all we humans can do, since we have no theory powerful enough to get anywhere near God, however much ardent believers and equally ardent disbelievers may wish otherwise) is to receive the reverberation of the transcendent in the midst (John V. Taylor). This reverberation looks 'for all the world' like unmerited grace, sacrificial love, unplanned forgiveness and life beyond measure - in case you were wondering. It is an overflowing, an excess of excesses. "God totally gives away the divine being within Godself [and beyond]" as Lafont puts it. This is what the Gospel of Jesus' undergoing God, at the point where we might go under, is all about.

[Pic: Mat Stapleton, 'paintbrush in cheek': A Slightly Transcendent Moment]

A TOUGH KIND OF LOVE

"Sometimes it's easier to feel guilty than to feel forgiven." (The chaplain in ER ).

I'm not an ER watcher myself, but the 'Atonement' episode was being watched in my household while I was writing an article. It involves a Catholic patient infected with inconsolable guilt for his past involvement in administering lethal injections at state executions. He has a row with a consolingly inclusive post-denominational chaplain; or, rather, he bawls her out because she has nothing to say to what he is confronting. It's very poignant. Neither the accumulated self-loathing of a certain kind of 'traditional' religiosity nor the morally evasive balm of spiritual self-therapy quite cuts it when the wounding is so deep. What is needed is redemption, which along with forgiveness is neither bargainable nor humanly manufacturable. It is a matter of a grace that is anything but cheap or easy, as the chaplain does realise underneath the protective veil of rhetoric. It also stands and falls by the reality or otherwise of the God beyond manipulative deity, which she doesn't, apparently. Her creed is her instincts. So is his, unfortunately. No one wins. Not that its about 'winning', mind.

(Apparently this clip has produced a bit of debate in certain church circles, albeit a rather bogus one, as Steve Knight points out.)

RITUAL, MEANING AND MEMORIES

There's a good 'Face to faith' article in the Guardian today, by the estimable Sunny Hundal (of Pickled Politics and Liberal Conspiracy, to which I contribute periodically) on Sikhism, ritual and the power of symbolic meaning. That opens up a whole fascinating topic ... but it also brings back specific memories. Sunny lives in Southall, which I've re-visited a couple of times lately. I lived there for nigh on six years in the 1980s. It was a very difficult phase of life for me, but the place is somewhere I love deeply.

The Sri Guru Gobind Singh Sabha gurdwara in Havelock Road (pictured) was a relatively modest converted dairy when I knew it, lying immediately opposite the back entrance of the Anglican church I used to attend, St John's. It was dramatically redeveloped, re-opened - as it happens - on my birthday in 2003 (30 March), and is now the largest Sikh temple outside India. It was fascinating to go there again and witness the dramatic changes first-hand. Extraordinarily, there were some people I knew working in the kitchen at St John's, too. The church itself is being refurbished.

I also visited old eating haunts, including a snack at Rita's Samosa Centre and veggie lunch at Sagoo and Takhar, still my favourite. I used to go there regularly to pick up some stuffed veg parathas on my way to see Southall FC at their old ground in Western Road. Now they are at Dormers Wells Leisure Centre, after huge problems which saw them drop back into a very minor football league and go into geographical exile. I watched them in the comparative glory days of the Isthmian League.

Oh yes. I also picked up some excellent marsala tea when I was in Southall (Indian food shopping is a wonder at the various emporia and small holdings), and Carla is now addicted!

THE UNFAMILIAR NAME

The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.

-- T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding - IV

A VICTORY FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE

Tremendous news today that the High Court has ruled that the Serious Fraud Office acted unlawfully in halting a corruption investigation into BAE Systems' arms deals with Saudi Arabia. The judgement is categorical and tough in condemning the SFO and the government for caving in to alleged threats from the Saudi regime that they would halt security cooperation if the probe and the threat of criminal proceedings went ahead. The judges described the SFO director's action on 14 December 2006 as a "successful attempt by a foreign government to pervert the course of justice in the United Kingdom". You can't get much stronger than that.

The judicial review was brought by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House - to whom great credit is due for persistence in the face of massive corporate and international interests. Development agencies and the Christian network SPEAK have also been involved in work on BAE and arms trade issues. No doubt the government will, overtly or covertly, seek to resist calls for the re-opening of the SFO investigation, so the struggle goes on. But it is a landmark judgement, and attempts at an appeal look perilous.

Symon Hill of CAAT gave a good interview with Radio 4 this evening, but the BBC has not covered itself in glory with its initial reporting. Earlier this morning, before the verdict was handed down, it allowed defence industry apologist Francis Tusa (who happens to be son of John Tusa, managing director of BBC World Service from 1986-92) free rein to rubbish the idea that anything was at stake in the case. Extraordinarily, given what has been revealed in court, he auto-suggested that the SFO had to drop the case for lack of evidence and mocked the idea that BAE's reputation could be harmed because "business is booming" in the USA.

This didn't sound like proper journalism or 'analysis', as it was touted, but a pre-emptive PR effort towards damage limitation, blatantly taking advantage of the fact that the legal protocol barred CAAT or Corner House from doing interviews themselves before the judgment. After the High Court pronounced, both BAE and the SFO refused to comment, and Symon finally got his word. Tusa was also replaced by another commentator. The BBC has covered the case under the 'business' rubric and its online report provided a link to BAE and the Ministry of Defence, but not CAAT. A link to Corner House, which supports democratic and community movements for environmental and social justice, was subsequently provided, but its site was struggling to cope with the traffic by mid-evening. The Beeb's news website has also relegated the story, regarding a domestic interest rate cut as more newsworthy than the government capitulating to a foreign power over military and security issues.

I should declare an interest of my own here. Though I've had nothing to do with the BAE case (other than reporting it), I served on the Campaign Against Arms Trade national steering committee from 1978-1987 and was a volunteer in the late '70s, following on from research and writing on arms trade and development issues for a variety of outlets, including Middle East Magazine and the Latin America Bureau. I also attended several official military export exhibitions as a journalist in the 1980s, uncovering details of the British government's military collusion with regimes involved in major human rights abuses - including Iraq. CAAT does a great job, usually with little publicity. It is testimony to the importance and effectiveness of civic action in calling companies and governments to proper account.

THE COST OF POLITICAL WITNESS

Today, my late father's birthday, is also the 63rd anniversary of the execution of pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer by the Nazis. As Uwe Siemon-Netto, a veteran foreign correspondent and academic, comments: '[E]ven some of his fellow Lutherans did not realize at first how consistently Bonhoeffer lived out his creed. Immediately after World War II, pastors in Bielefeld opposed plans to have a street named after him. Bavaria’s Lutheran bishop Hans Meiser, himself a prominent anti-Nazi cleric, protested vigorously against a proposal to install a plaque commemorating Bonhoeffer as a “witness to Jesus Christ among his brethren” at Flossenbürg concentration camp where he was put to death only days before it was liberated by US forces. In Meiser’s opinion, Bonhoeffer’s resistance was “political, not religious”.'

I disagree with a number of aspects of Siemon-Netto's reading of Bonhoeffer, but he highlights very precisely the fault-line in the Christendom attempt to drive a false wedge between the spiritual and the secular; one that imperils the path of costly discipleship which Bonhoeffer mapped out in his forcibly fragmented life as much as in his necessarily fragmentary writings.

FINDING THE RIGHT WAY OF SPEAKING

In my latest Wardman Wire column, I look at the style and tenor of church engagement with public life and the realm of politics - arguing that Flexing the faith muscle in an overbearing way ends up being profoundly counter-productive. Truthful strength is not measured by the ability to shout the loudest, to demand attention, to moralise, or to seek special treatment. It resides instead in lived integrity, honesty within as well as without, seeking faithfulness ahead of 'success', and a hopeful realism about the place of the Christian community in wider society. None of this is easy. Which is why we need intellectual rigour, prayerfulness and each other.