eChurch Blog

I was deeply ashamed to read this article, it makes the Christian community look like hate filled, religious extremist, scary nutters, seeking to impose their will on society and censor through intimidation. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

Dr Bridget McConnell: “Those who are protesting are not simply interested in expressing a difference of opinion but want to silence those they do not agree with”

Times

It’s as if they want me executed, says culture chief enduring hate campaign

The letters and emails come in a daily tide. “Filth!” they cry. “Shame on you”; “You are a very sick person”; “The soul that sinneth shall DIE”. For the past six months, the head of Glasgow’s museums and art has been under siege from Christian fundamentalists, who have vowed to oust her from her job.

Dr Bridget McConnell, head of Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG), the £100 million charity in charge of the city’s culture, says she is alarmed by what she describes as a “personal witchhunt” against her.

“It is almost like being phsyically abused,” she said. “You get knocked down by it every day and you pick yourself up, but then you come in the next morning and it happens all over again. It’s attrition.”

Since July, when a row broke out over an art exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) featuring homosexuality and religion in which comments were written on a Bible, Dr McConnell — whose organisation funded the exhibition — has been targeted by an organised group of protesters.

She has received up to 2,000 letters, e-mails and phone calls attacking her and objecting to the art show. There have been petitions and personal visits to her office. Her office has been routinely picketed by groups with a loud hailer, calling upon her to repent, and her staff have been harassed.

Police are known to be concerned at the targeting of Dr McConnell and on at least one occasion officers had to be called to demonstrations outside the art gallery when staff were “seriously intimidated”.

On a website linked to an English organisation called Christian Watch, the campaigners openly declare their intention is to have Dr McConnell removed from her post.

Notably, she has also featured on the front page of the BNP newsletter, in an article which claimed that her “misuse” of public money on this exhibition helped the case for reintroducing the criminalisation of homosexuality.

Sermons have been preached in Roman Catholic churches across Glasgow condemning the art exhibition and this week one man — Paul Mansbacher, a fundamentalist Protestant who has been banned from the Free Church of Scotland — wrote to the Archdiocese of Glasgow demanding that she be “officially and publicly excommunicated from the Catholic Church” for what he described as the funding of “blasphemous events”.

Dr McConnell, speaking exclusively to The Times, said: “It is not an exaggeration to say that on every working day from August last year until now I have had to deal with some protest concerning this issue. What is deeply worrying is the fact that those who are protesting are not simply interested in expressing a difference of opinion — which they are entitled to — but want to silence those they do not agree with. The menace, intimidation and misogny expressed in a great deal of the correspondence is deeply worrying.

“To get such venom and aggression from total strangers gives you the feeling they would like a public execution. They continually express this feeling that it’s unfair — if we were Muslims we could murder you for this. I’m not naive. I know I’m in a public position and I know the way it works. That’s life and I’m not complaining about it. It’s the way this campaign has become truly personal and quite vicious that I find so unpleasant.

“There is an aggression behind it which is really intimidating — and intimidating to my staff too, who have to deal with the calls.”

“It wears you down and you actually do start to feel personally intimidated. You don’t get used to it.”

The controversy began last summer as a result of an exhibition called sh[OUT]!, which contained works by renowned artists such as David Hockney and Robert Mapplethorpe, and had as its theme the representation of gay people in art. The exhibition was part of a wider contemporary art programme on themes including violence against women and sectarianism. A secondary exhibition within sh[OUT], called Made in God’s Image, invited visitors who felt excluded from the Bible, especially on the ground of sexual orientation, to record their names in its margins.

But some people recorded doodles and obscenities. The Bible was placed behind glass but the story reached the newspapers where, in Dr McConnell’s view, it was distorted by parts of the media to suggest that people were being actively encouraged to deface the Bible. The story was picked up by the international media and stirred outrage around the world. “The majority of people who are complaining didn’t see the exhibition, but were responding to the Daily Mail story,” she said.

“The whole thing took on a life distinct from the reality of what was happening. Hundreds of thousands of people actually visited the exhibition and enjoyed it. Despite this fact, this minority group has been given significant media coverage.

“The coverage has given the campaign a kind of respectable anger, when the reality is there’s a viciousness and misogny in response to something entirely manufactured.

“The majority of these people weren’t interested in the facts, let alone a reasoned debate. Their influence is completely disproportionate.”

Dr McConnell said the art exhibition had been “seriously misrepresented by the press”. She said: “The work did not invite people to deface or otherwise vandalise the Bible. All the artwork in the exhibition was made by practising believers in the various faiths (including Muslims) — no disrespect was intended to Christianity or to any of the other faiths represented in exhibition. This was a serious artistic project which addressed important issues.”

Dr McConnell, an art historian who was brought up a Catholic but no longer practises, said she was being attacked by the campaigners for art exhibitions with which she had no responsibility, such as one at the Glasgow School of Art featuring a deep-fried Bible, and a theatre show involving a transgendered woman.

She said the protests had reached the point where they had begun to feel sinister. “It’s a classic witchhunt. The things that comes to mind are the Hieronymus Bosch pictures of the mob. Undoubtedly, given the chance of being abusive and almost violent, they would take it. There’s that sense that there’s no reasoning with them … What I find quite disturbing is the increasing sense they have of being able to progress these sort of fundamental views and behaviours and demand that these people who they hate — there’s no other word for it — should have no means of expression.

“Some days you come in and … you have to respond to a really abusive letter, of which there have been hundreds, if not thousands, and you’re thinking: who is it they are writing about? I’m just a human being and if only I had the time to be as wicked as you suggest I am.”

Dr McConnell, who retains the full support of her board, said her organisation had apologised for any offence caused by the displays in GoMA “because that was not our intention or the intention of the artists”. She added: “But people do not have a right not to be offended, and arguing that this debate involves an attack on Christianity is, in effect, an argument against pluralism and free speech.”

She admits the campaign has had its impact. “What’s damaged me professionally is the indirect stuff — my family members find it appalling.” She also said it had left her more isolated and conceded: “If I want to champion something it makes it harder to garner support, which in turn can damage Glasgow’s cutting edge reputation for art. One of my strengths is to garner a whole range of views and What this campaign has done, completely inaccurately, is make me seem partisan.”

She said there were “undoubtedly lessons learnt” from the controversy, one being that the board of her organisation should have known about the content beforehand. But she said: “We would definitely have done the exhibition. The content would have been very little different.”

On the website set up by Christian Watch, www.csgwatch.com, the protesters state their aim is to stop the city supporting events and programmes that insult Christ, the Bible, Christians and to “have Bridget McConnell removed from her position”.

Bob Handyside, from Bearsden, one of the organisers, said they believed Dr McConnell was conducting a vendetta against them, rather than vice versa. “We’re not militants, we’re ordinary Bible-believing Christians who want a quiet life,” he said.

“She is on a campaign. She has funded, with taxpayers’ money, three attacks on the Bible. Everyone knows these things would never happen against Islam. Our outrage is far more legitimate then hers; that woman is on £132,000 of public money and she is betraying Christ.

“The protest is growing and we have plans for the next six months, but if she promises to change course, it will stop.”

Asked if the protest was misogynist, Mr Handyside, 76, said: “That’s outrageous. What’s this got to do with women? That woman is plumbing the bottom of the barrel to find something to say against us. This is nothing to do with women or gay rights or homosexuality. It’s all to do with singling out Christianity and offending Lord Jesus Christ.”

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said: “We can confirm there was an exchange of correspondence between Strathclyde Police and Culture and Sport Glasgow, and officers from City Centre Police Office gave crime prevention and personal protection advice to staff members.”

To use the famous phrase, is this what Jesus would do? It is one thing to register a protest and voice dissaproval, but this sort of activity from the ‘Christian’ community is counter-productive at best.

And who the heck are Christian Watch? I have just checked out their dismal website, which says all of the old predictable hyperbole:-

Christian Watch was formed in 2001 by a small group of Protestant Christians who were concerned for the future of our nation. Rapid inroads are being made by the forces of Satan to undermine our biblically based Constitution, this is of particular concern.

We observed that the majority of professing Protestants are either content to remain silent or are unaware of what is taking place. We decided therefore  to concentrate primarily on informing those who are willing to listen and to warn them of the inevitable judgements of God upon our nation, if the present trend continues.

And so it would seem that their answer to staving off the impending judgement of God, is to go out and be nasty, aggressive and intimidating, yeah very Christ like.

…..so we should concern ourselves with what might be called preventive social medicine and higher standards of moral hygiene”.

Uh huh.

…..we are to be actively involved in making the world a better place

Really? All sounds like good ol’ dominionism to me.

This is by way of an update to these recents posts; here and here. I for one am relieved about this.

BBC

[.....]

The markings, in the form of coded references, have been appearing on products made by the US firm Trijicon, based in Michigan, for decades.

But on Thursday, US military chief Gen David Petraeus, said the practice of scripture references was “disturbing” and “a serious concern”.

The firm also sells the guns to Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

The inscriptions – which include “2COR4:6″ and “JN8:12″, relating to verses in the books of II Corinthians and John – appear in raised lettering at the end of the stock number.

The company pledged to remove the inscription reference on all products destined for the US military yet to be shipped and ensure all future procurements from the department of defence are produced without scripture references.

Read More

I posted recently about the Vatican synod meeting of Roman Catholic bishops from the Middle East next October, which will discuss Islamic fundamentalism and attacks on Christians in the region.

It would appear that there is a slant to the pre-synod document – entitled “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: communion and witness,” – which seems to lay some of the blame of Middle Eastern Christian persecution on Israel’s so called “occupation”.

Here is a small report from Israel National News:-

Vatican blames Israel for all Christian problems in Mideast

A document released by the Vatican this week blamed Israel not only for the exodus of Christians from Palestinian-controlled territories, but for the plight of Christians across the entire Middle East.

The document will serve as the basis for an October gathering of bishops to discuss the difficulties of minority Christian communities in the Muslim world.

It was largely authored by Arab bishops from the Middle East, most of whom said that the Israeli “occupation” of Arab-claimed lands is the root cause of nearly all oppression of Christians in the region. They suggested that in the absence of the “occupation,” radical Islamic forces across the region would lose support and be unable to cause trouble for Christians.

The document also appeared to justify the use of terrorist violence by Muslims in both Israel and Iraq:

“Violence is in the hands of the strong and weak alike, the latter resorting to whatever violence is within reach in order to be free.”

A Vatican official told reporters on Tuesday that the Catholic Church is not trying to take sides or make policy recommendations, but insisted that the Middle East-based bishops who authored the document “know the situation well.”

Israel is NOT the reason for Christian persecution in the Middle East, radical extremist Islam is the reason, period. To suggest that Israel is indirectly or directly responsible, is frankly disgusting and shameful. I shouldn’t be surprised however, as the vilification of Israel from Arab Christian leaders is nothing new:-

In a lengthy declaration labeled as a message of “faith, hope and love,” dozens of Arab Christian leaders from various churches represented in the region denounced Israel as the main obstacle to peace and rejected the validity of the biblical link between the Jews and the land.

Here is a report from Voice of the Copts:-

Vatican to Study Christian Exodus from Middle East

The Christian exodus from PA-controlled territories continues, religious freedom under Moslem control is not expected – yet the Vatican issues a document blaming the “occupation.”

The document released this week prefaces a meeting that Pope Benedictus XVI will hold nine months from now with 150 bishops in the Middle East. The plight of the increasingly dwindling Christian minority in the region, the reasons for the exodus, and the discrimination faced by Christians will be the main issues.

The document lists several causes for the current situation in the PA, Iraq, and elsewhere, including the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the growth of “political Islam” in countries like Egypt, radical Islamic terrorism – and Israel’s “occupation.”

Though it is a widely accepted truism that the religious freedom granted by Israel surpasses by far that found in Moslem lands, the Vatican report says the “occupation” makes life difficult for daily Christian life, in that access to holy places is restricted.

During a visit of former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to Israel, a very senior figure in one of the main Churches in Israel told her privately that the members of his community are well aware that freedom of religion will only be provided by Israel, and that therefore she should not promote the division of Jerusalem. He further told her of the struggles he and his flock were forced to wage against the PA wherever it received control.

Without noting a specific country, the Vatican document states generally, “The solution to conflicts rests in the hands of the stronger country in its occupying and inflicting wars on another country.”

Many cases of Arab harassment of Christians in PA areas have been reported in recent years, and the phenomenon of Christians seeking to leave the area is not new. Back in May 2004, Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, visited then-President Moshe Katzav in Jerusalem and acknowledged that the “increasing Christian emigration from the Holy Land in general, and Bethlehem in particular, is troubling to the Vatican.”

I have also previously posted on the Palestinian Christian plight under Islamic rule; here and here:-

Seriously, who can blame the passengers, cabin crew and pilots, following all of the recent attempted airline bombings by Jews….no wait, I think I might have got that a bit wrong.

Hold on, I know what caused this, phylacteries look just like incendiary devices, it’s obvious now I think of it

Yahoo News

PHILADELPHIA – A Jewish teenager trying to pray on a New York-to-Kentucky flight caused a scare Thursday when he pulled out a set of small boxes containing holy scrolls, leading the captain to divert the flight to Philadelphia, where the commuter plane was greeted by police, bomb-sniffing dogs and federal agents.

The 17-year-old on US Airways Express Flight 3079 was using tefillin, a set of small boxes containing biblical passages that are attached to leather straps, Philadelphia police Lt. Frank Vanore said.

When used in prayer, one box is strapped to the arm while the other box is placed on the head.

Read More

And

BBC

The incident arose when the man used a phylactery, a small black box Orthodox Jews strap to their head as part of their rituals, police said.

The man was not arrested and the plane landed without incident.

US airports are on high alert after a Nigerian man was held over an alleged bomb plot on a plane last month.

His device allegedly malfunctioned and he was quickly overpowered by passengers and crew on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The latest incident took place on a 50-seat regional jet originally bound for Louisville, Kentucky from New York’s LaGuardia airport. It landed in Philadelphia at about 0900 local time (1400 GMT).

Phylacteries – called tefillin in Hebrew – are two small boxes, usually made of black leather, with straps attached to them.

Observant Jewish men are required to place one box on their head and tie the other one on their arm as part of their morning prayers.

What follows is quite a scathing analysis of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, so those of a sensitive disposition, please don’t read this.

I’m putting this on as I found it interesting and also because I have been a little disturbed by recent proposed Russian laws that restrict the freedoms of non-Orthodox Christians and those of other faiths, which has been fully supported by Patriarch Kirill. He also seems to project an unquestioning, almost sycophantic loyalty to the Russian leadership, who can do no wrong in his eyes.

La Russophobe

Last week, Patriarch Kirill, the Russian Pope, spoke about ” a country of poverty and crime, hunger, drug addiction, corruption, and a loss of moral values.” He opined that “many of these troubles are caused primarily not by failed social policy but by defects in the depths of the human spirit.”

Even though Russia is documented as being one of the most corrupt and immoral nations on the planet, with a raging drug and AIDS epidemic, horrendous crime and one of the highest murder rates on the planet, to say nothing of its vast ocean of poor folks (the average worker earns just $3 per hour, so imagine how the poor are doing) and its obscene disparity between rich and poor, Kirill was not speaking about Russia.  Instead, he was referring to Haiti, which he apparently believes got what it deserved when it was rocked by an earthquake that killed 150,000 of its men, women and children.

Kirill apparently feels that since a natural disaster hasn’t struck Russia recently, this proves Russia is a moral nation which enjoys God’s blessings and approval.  But what about the Beslan and Dubrovka terrorist attacks, and the conflagration of fires that kills thousands of Russians every year, more than in any other nation on Earth.  Aren’t they sings of divine condemnation of Russia, of Putin and indeed of Kirill himself? What of the fact that Russians don’t rank in the top 130 nations of the world for average adult lifespan?  Isn’t that, too, proof that God reviles Russia?

When right-wing nutjob Pat Robertson made similar comments about Haiti, the Obama administration immediately denounced him as “utterly stupid.”  Will they now issue the same condemnation of the Russian Patriarch?  We are waiting, Mr. Obama.

There is, of course, a gigantic difference between Robertson, who is properly viewed by most Americans as a senile extremist, and Kirill, who is not only the official representative of Russia’s dominant religion but who has been invited into the closest councils of power by the Kremlin itself, and who as such can only be seen as the Kremlin’s official spokesperson on religion.

And  such, his crazed ravings are truly terrifying.  It is time for the craven Obama administration to speak out against the increasingly horrifying outbursts being made by the maniacs who govern both the Russian state and its church.

Cross-post by Mariano over at Atheism is Dead. I found this quite powerful.

The Mad Pagan Skeptic, part 1

Atheism is Dead will now begin a tripartite consideration of the mad Pagan skeptic whereby we will consider Friedrich Nietzsche’s virtual prophecy about what would come about due to the death of God.

We will also consider a biblical statement about humanity’s natural knowledge of God and our purposeful negation of such knowledge.

Lastly, we will consider to what atheism has come as they seek to find meaning in a meaningless universe and seek to prop up their favored ideas upon contradictions of their own making.

This essay will be parsed as follows:
1) An Exposition of The Parable of the Mad Man
2) Neo Pagan Atheism
3) The Modern Skeptic

An Exposition of The Parable of the Mad Man

Let us consider “Parable of the Madman.” If you are looking in your Bible’s index for the The Parable of the Mad Man you are looking in the wrong place. This parable was penned by the atheist Friedrich Nietzsche in 1882 AD. Let us consider the entire text of the parable:

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: “I seek God! I seek God!”
As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? Asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? Asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? Immigrated? Thus they yelled and laughed.

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; “I will tell you. We have killed him, you and I. All of us are his murderers.

But how did we do this?
How could we drink up the sea?
Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon?
What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun?
Whither is it moving now?
Whither are we moving?
Away from all suns?
Are we not plunging continually?
Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions?
Is there still any up or down?
Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing?
Do we not feel the breath of empty space?
Has it not become colder?
Is not night continually closing in on us?
Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?
Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God?
Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.

How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us?
What water is there for us to clean ourselves?
What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent?
Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us?
Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?
There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us, for the sake of this deed, he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto.

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. “I have come too early,” he said then; “my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars; and yet they have done it themselves.”

It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”

Let us now parse the parable and consider it in detail:

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: “I seek God! I seek God!”

It is not stated why this person is described as a “madman”—except, perhaps, that he is mad enough to seek God.

Note that he “lit a lantern in the bright morning hours.” But why light a lamp when it is bright? Perhaps due to his being mad. Perhaps the brightness of the world is really darkness and he seeks to shed light; the true light of God.

He seeks God and indeed, God stated, “you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? Asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? Asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? Immigrated? Thus they yelled and laughed.

This seems to be an allusion to Elijah who when confronting the prophets of Baal likewise mocked them due to the fact that Baal was not heeding their request for him to show up, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened” (1st Kings 18:27).

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; “I will tell you. We have killed him, you and I. All of us are his murderers.

The light is lit in the brightness, he cannot find God and is being mocked for his attempts to do so. Thus, God’s death, murder in fact, is proclaimed.

But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea?

This question and statement imply the accomplishment of an impossible task. Indeed, who could drink up the sea? No one. But then; who could murder God?

Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns?

This, and that which immediately follows, seems to imply the recognition that in a godless universe there is no direction, there is no meaning to which we are affixed (I distinguish between “meaning” and “purpose”)

The horizon distinguished between heaven and Earth, it is an absolute differentiation between one and another thing. Without God we are ultimately unchained and the universe has no reason to function as it does, fine tuned as it is, it is merely mass in motion, “Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving?”

Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions?

I wanted to pause at this statement as it reminded me of Peter’s statement, “we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:14-15).

As G. K. Chesterton stated it, “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing—they believe in anything.”

Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?

Here continues the view of a godless universe with no absolute direction. Also note what may be recognizable as the assured entropy death of humanity the universe and everything as we—living on Earth what the atheist Carl Sagan referred to a “pale blue dot”—are merely swirling through the infinite nothing of empty space which becomes colder and closes in on us as the universe dies—the heat death of the universe, the ultimate outcome of entropy the hopelessness of atheism—carpe despero.

Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?

This seems to be why he lit the lantern in the brightness of morning as we attempt to keep lit that which is growing ever darker. This touches upon one of atheism’s consoling delusions: the delusion of subjective meaning in an objectively meaningless existence. We light our little flames and stare at them in wonderment while all around us cold darkness encroaches.

Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.

This is a famous occurrence of Nietzsche’s famous line, “God is Dead” to which Richard Dawkins recently alluded in stating, “God is not dead. He was never alive in the first place.” Next we see how the concept of God’s death leads to certain conclusions which are virtual prophecies of that which was to come in the 20th century; the most secular and bloodies century in human history.

How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

I have collected various statements by atheists who seek atheism spirituality which they practice in the form of nature worship as atheist-neo-Paganism. They also seek to establish a one world atheist religion (also see here for a specific example). Indeed, in the end, atheism is not about getting rid of God but about replacing a supernatural God with natural gods—the self-deification of individual atheists, or as I term it: iTheism.

There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us, for the sake of this deed, he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto.

With God dead and humanity drifting aloft in a dying universe the higher history which was to follow was the terror, unlike that which the world had ever known, of atheism based regimes which not only lost vast portions of their own populace during war but slaughtered them during times of “peace,” by the tens of millions, as they sought to reach their various goals of a godless society. Social Darwinism and eugenics played a part in this. For example, Australian Aborigines were shot, stuffed and displayed in museums as missing links.

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. “I have come too early,” he said then; “my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars; and yet they have done it themselves.”

Considering already “many of those who did not believe in God were standing around” and mocked him; the actual death of God is not that which was too early to declare but rather, that which would follow was to come as atheism gained wide acceptance. It would require time for atheists to incorporate the death of God into their worldviews to the point that they would variously formulate concepts of how humanity came to be, how to corral humans as the animals that they are, how to be simply rid of undesirables like so much waste, etc.

It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”

A “requiem” is basically a non-biblical ritual whereby prayers are offered for the dead and “aeternam deo” means eternal God. Thus, the madman offered prayers (to whom?) for the death of the (apparently not) eternal God. The historical fact of the matter is that according to Friedrich Nietzsche’s rightful judgment it was not atheists who had murdered God, at least not directly, but it was liberal Christianity which in his time and place had basically the ritualistic trappings of theism but due to accepting the fallacious claims of “higher” criticism, etc. had all but abandoned the Bible and traditional Christian doctrine which was replaced by empty—godless—ritual.

Bill Honsberger presented an interesting lecture entitled, “Nietzsche, the Death of God, and the Emerging Church Movement.” While is it ultimately about the Emerging Church movement he arrives at that point via a circumlocution which basically consists of a history of philosophy: download here or listen here.

PART 2 HERE, PART 3 HERE

This essay is copyrighted by Mariano of the “Atheism is Dead” blog at http://atheismisdead.blogspot.com.

It may be republished in part or in its entirety on websites, blogs, or any print media for whatever purpose—in agreement or in order to criticize it—only as long as the following conditions are met:

1) Give credit to “Mariano of the ‘Atheism is Dead’ blog at http://atheismisdead.blogspot.com”
2) Inform me as to which essay is being reproduced and where it is being reproduced via the comments section at this link

A very hard look at the Church of Wales leadership and their attitiudes towards Israel, Jews and Palestinians, written by His Grace, Archbishop Cranmer:-

Bishop of Monmouth: ‘Salvation is of the Palestinians’

The Church in Wales has a long history of standing with suffering Palestinians. When a Church-in-Wales-funded health centre in Gaza was destroyed by an Israeli rocket last year during Operation Cast Lead, the ‘Biggest Coffee Morning’ fund raising effort was just one example of its Christian response to their hardship.

But for some senior figures in the Church in Wales, support for Palestinians has included support for those who oppose Israel’s existence, to the consternation of some clergy and lay members.

Read More

Is this overboard or has the good Bishop put his finger on the pulse? We certainly can’t deny that the secular agenda is on the ascendancy in the UK, as evidenced by so called ‘equality and diversity‘ laws, however, could it get bad enough for Christians to feel that they have to remove themselves from large swathes of public sector jobs?

The New Testament portrays the birth and growth of Christianity in a hostile world, could it be that worldly hostility in some way benefits the Church on a spiritual level and cleanses it of luke-warmness and over involvement in worldly affairs, a condition that many lament today?

The Revd. Fr. Edward Tomlinson today decribed the Church of England in these terms:

…..now looking increasingly less like a church and much more like a vaguely spiritual arm of new Labour.

I fear he may have a point.

Telegraph:-

The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, told peers that councils, police forces and judges are wrongly using equality and diversity rules to punish churchgoers.

He said that some in society now view religion as “undesirable” and want churchgoers to keep their faith “in a little box” rather than express it in public or at work.

The bishop, the fifth most senior prelate in the Church of England, spoke in support of an amendment to the Equality Bill that would ensure worshippers are not accused of discrimination simply for celebrating Christmas, displaying Bibles or saying prayers.

He said in the Lords debate on Tuesday: “Religious faith and practice appears to be viewed in many places as abnormal, exceptional, deviant, as if it alone is ideological and controversial and, for a whole range of reasons, undesirable.

“Your Lordships may think that that is wildly exaggerated, but that is how very many people of faith, Christians and others, feel.

“It seems to be a thread that is at risk of running through the equality and diversity agenda. In fact, in my observation it does run through it; that fundamentally admirable agenda is often popularly followed out in many a town hall, in a significant element of the lower echelons of many police forces, at the more rarefied level of parts of this Bill, in Parliament, and even, if I dare say so, in some of the judgments handed down by the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

“My concern is for Christians, for the churches, for members of other faiths and their attempts to do what any honest believer would by not keeping their faith in some little box, only getting it out at home or with fellow believers.

“There is also a much greater danger for our society in that we could reach a point where Christians, and peoples of other faiths too, find it increasingly difficult to survive in the public service, and, indeed, in Parliament.

“There is a danger that a Government, of whatever complexion, who are coming to rely ever more heavily on faith-based social and voluntary and caring services, may find themselves making it impossible for bodies coming from a faith perspective into social service, which is often for the most deprived and needy people, to continue.”

Lord Alton, the Roman Catholic crossbench peer who proposed the amendment, said it was a response to fears over misuse of the law, which aims to protect groups such as homosexuals and ethnic minorities by outlawing discrimination of minorities in the provision of goods and services.

“My concern is that these provisions may be used, and indeed are already being used, by those whose intentions are hostile to Britain’s Christian heritage. Others, who are more well-meaning, may simply be labouring under the mistaken belief that stamping out religious discrimination means stamping out religion. Under the nomenclature and language of equality, this has led to countless, ludicrous examples of risible things which public and private bodies have done in recent years, all under the guise of equality.”

Notice that the good Bishop mentions that this is something people of faith ‘feel’ or subjectively perceive. It is very important to distinguish between a Christian perception of persecution and the objective reality. I did post about this recently and one commentator (John Thomas) had this to say:-

Sure, Christians are not being persecuted in the UK (as they are in Islamic lands and North Korea/China) but a: The constant negative portrayal and abuse on TV, and in other media, is the kind of thing that media people would never dare dish out to any other group (religious, racial, etc) – Christians are seen as fair game, the media being a very unfair world, and b: what we are surely seeing is the thin end of the wedge. There are many aggressive anti-Christians who would very much like to heighten the pressure, but they know they can’t yet, or they’ll be seen for what they are, their purposes undeniable … but introduce it gradually – and by the time real persecution comes, it’ll be too late to object. But would anyone really deny that real persecution will come one day, to Christians, in our society? Would anyone bet against it, risk money?

Personally I agree with John that we are currently witnessing only the thin edge of the wedge and I think this is the very heart of the matter. Christian persecution anxieties are not so much based on current events, but on the perception of what is on the horizon. We can see the slippery slope and it makes us edgy.

No government will really be able to legislate for ‘offense’ or ‘equality’ for everybody as it is inevitable that as a result of these laws, some will actually become discriminated against. Personally I believe the government should legislate as little as possible in every area of life.

Labour have shown themselves to have a legislation obsession and this coupled with a socialist ideology does not bode well for people of faith. Labour has its favourites and so some will become more equal than others.

Given the hostility of the world towards Jesus, should we always expect the world to be nice and friendly towards us? Is this even a healthy state of affairs for the Church, as it can potentially foster complacency and too much involvement in worldly affairs.

Another question of course is should Christians remove themselves from their chosen vocations, if they are asked to promote something that they object to on a theological / moral / ethical basis?

I’ll leave you with some prayerful words of Jesus:-

John 17: 13-19

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

The Beeb is at it again:-

HonestReportingUK

BBC: Denying Jewish Jerusalem

On 18 January, the BBC’s flagship documentary program, Panorama, focused on tensions in the area of eastern Jerusalem adjacent to the Old City.

Any pretence at balance is thrown out of the window as reporter Jane Corbin makes it clear that, under the BBC’s own interpretation of international law, anything that Israel does in that part of the city is illegal, setting the tone for the entire 30 minute program.

Thus, Israelis are presented as usurpers of Palestinian rights and property in eastern Jerusalem in a one-sided piece of agitprop. As analyst Robin Shepherd writes:

Rarely will you get a clearer insight into the flagrant institutional bias inside the world’s most powerful media outlet than this. The slipperiness of the tactics employed, the unabashed censorship of vital historical context, and the blatant pursuit of a political agenda constituted a lesson in the techniques of modern day propaganda. It was something to behold.

Here we examine some of the assumptions, claims and biases that underpin this edition of Panorama.

Read More

A great guy I know is currently running a really interesting poll on his blog and is planning to analyse and comment on the results if enough people participate, so if you get a mo, pop across and cast your vote and get your mates to do so as well.

This is the blog and the poll is on the top right hand side.

Calvin L Smith – Which best describes your theological view of modern Israel?