eChurch Blog

A sign of the times.

Jerusalem Post:

The site where tradition holds Jesus was baptized is in danger of being declared offlimits to pilgrims because of pollution in the Jordan River.

Qasar al-Yahud, a few kilometers from where the river spills into the Dead Sea and just south of the Allenby Bridge, has drawn over 100,000 tourists a year, most of them Christian pilgrims who want to undergo baptism there. It is venerated as the most likely candidate for the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus and declared him the messiah.

But drought and diversion for irrigation have turned the lower Jordan River into a stagnant stream as it makes its way from the Sea of Galilee. The brook then swells with raw sewage as it passes Jericho.

Israeli health officials are reportedly considering erecting signs warning: “Polluted Waters. Entry Forbidden.”

The baptism site is smack in the middle of the border with Jordan. The IDF has designated the location a “closed military zone” and visitors from Israel are required to coordinate their entry with the army.

“Tourists are still able to baptize themselves, but authorities are examining the makeup of the water,” a spokeswoman from the Ministry of Tourism said. “At the moment, the ministry is working with the Ministry of Health and the Nature and Parks Authority to ensure that tourists can continue to visit the site.

“It is a very important site,” she continued. “We will do everything we can to ensure that the water quality allows tourists to visit the site in the manner that they so wish and to enter the waters.”

Neglected for decades, the name of the site is Arabic for “Castle of the Jews,” which is also the name of the 5th-century Eastern Orthodox monastery ther

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Intriguing piece of research which seems to indicate that those who pray consume less alcohol and are less likely to have alcohol related problems.

Of course this could be a chicken and egg situation, however, those randomly assigned to regular prayer also reported less alcohol consumption.

US National Library of Medicine

Lambert, N. et al., “Invocations and Intoxication: Does Prayer Decrease Alcohol Consumption?” Psychology of Addictive Behaviors (June 2010).

Abstract

Four methodologically diverse studies (N = 1,758) show that prayer frequency and alcohol consumption are negatively related. In Study 1 (n = 824), we used a cross-sectional design and found that higher prayer frequency was related to lower alcohol consumption and problematic drinking behavior. Study 2 (n = 702) used a longitudinal design and found that more frequent prayer at Time 1 predicted less alcohol consumption and problematic drinking behavior at Time 2, and this relationship held when controlling for baseline levels of drinking and prayer. In Study 3 (n = 117), we used an experimental design to test for a causal relationship between prayer frequency and alcohol consumption. Participants assigned to pray every day (either an undirected prayer or a prayer for a relationship partner) for 4 weeks drank about half as much alcohol at the conclusion of the study as control participants. Study 4 (n = 115) replicated the findings of Study 3, as prayer again reduced drinking by about half. These findings are discussed in terms of prayer as reducing drinking motives.

Previous posts; here, here,  here, here and here.

Another snippet from Diarmaid MacCulloch’s book: A History of Christianity – The First Three Thousand Years.

Pages 381 -382

When Cluny Abbey fostered European pilgrimage to St James in Compostela, it was offering ordinary people the chance of access to holiness, like so much of the Gregorian Revolution. After all, the great attraction of pilgrimage was that it opened up the possibility of spiritual benefit to anyone who was capable of walking, hobbling, crawling or finding friends to carry them. But Cluney was also annexing to that thought another new and potent idea. St James had become the symbol of the fight-back of Christians in Spain against Islamic power. It is still possible in Hispanic cultures as far away as Central or South America to watch Santiago’s image triumphantly processed on horseback, with a second image, the corpse of a Muslim, pitched over his saddle.

The Cluniacs’ investment in the pilgrimage routes to Compostela was a major influence in the balance of power between Christians and Islam in Spain. Thanks to the effective collapse of the Muslim caliphate of Cordoba in 1031, the Christian cause was becoming increasingly successful, and that was one reason why the crowds swelled across the pilgrimage trails to Spain. The order allied itself closely with the Christian Kings of Leon-Castile and Aragon-Navarre who were winning victories against the Muslims. A network of Cluniac houses grew in Christian Spain, and among the Cluniac monks who came to lead the Church in Spain was one who rose to be primate of the Spanish Church as Archbishop of Toledo as well as papal legate (representative) in Spain: Bernard, abbot of the chief Spanish model of Cluney, the monastery at Sahagun. The Cluniacs became familiar with the idea that God might wish Christians to initiate was against his enemies, and under Pope Gregory VII and Urban II, the Western Church took a dramatic new direction in its attitude war.

While Christian leaders had once simply tried to stop Christians from being soldiers, now the Church came to see warfare as something it might use for its own purposes. The notion of a holy war, crusade, entered Christianity in the eleventh century, and was directed against the religion which from its earliest days had spoken of holy war, Islam. The Carolingians had done their dubious best to present their campaigns in Northern Europe as wars for Christianity, but the difference now was that Christian warfare could actually be seen as the means to win salvation…..

Joseph Weissman recently wrote a solid and insightful piece entitled; Paul, Gamaliel & The Jews, which I featured here.

Joseph has now penned part-two, focusing on the Jewishness of the Apostle Paul and his [at times] rather fraught relationship with his own community:

With the thoughts of Howard Jacobson and Geza Vermes reaching wider audiences, reclaiming the Jewish Jesus is becoming increasingly popular. In late 2007, Time Magazine identified the “re-Judaising” of Jesus as one of the top ten ideas that will change the world. Yet whilst the “Jewish Jesus” is widely broadcast throughout the world, the “Jewish Paul” remains more low-key.

Having last left Paul before the Sanhedrin, we rejoin Paul in Jerusalem before Felix in Acts 24.

Paul has made reference to his former teacher Gamaliel in the Sanhedrin, and boasted of his Pharisaic belief in the resurrection of the dead, in order to avoid the judgement of the religious court.

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Gordon has just blogged on the phenomenon of Christian Fundamentalism within the contemporary church. He details its facets and the challenges this presents to  mainstream Christianity.

Well worth a read:

This is a sensitive subject because the mainstream churches want to be tolerant and accepting of difference, but at the same time the activities of Christian fundamentalists impact negatively on mainstream Christianity.

In many ways interaction with fundamentalist Christians is like interfaith dialogue because what they believe is very far from the historical beliefs of the Christian church. For example, fundamentalism tends to be unjust and confrontational which is quite different to most Christian’s understanding of the teachings and example of Jesus.

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Protesting the Pope is fast becoming something of a cottage industry.

You can now buy official ‘Protest the Pope‘ t-shirts to wear with abandon as you march and demonstrate, filling your boots with pride as London buses swish by with demands for the Catholic church to ordain women.

It’s now become so serious that we even have police surveilling the Internet for threats against the Pope during his visit!

Well I’m not the only one heartily sick to the back teeth of it all, as Catholic Deacon Rev Nick Donnelly has set up a website entitled; ProtectThePope.

Here’s some gumpf from their ‘about‘ page:

Do check out his website as it’s a welcome antidote to the usual predictable bile:

www.ProtectThePope.com

Anglican Friends of Israel have just announced the following:

We are pleased to announce the launch of Methodist Friends of Israel.  This comes at a critical time after the Methodist Church in Britain decided to boycott goods produced by Jews living in Judea and Samaria.

We look forward to co-operating with Methodist Friends of Israel on issues of common concern.  We will bring more news on this as it develops.

For background information on the recent Methodist Church National Conference, in which they voted to boycott products from Israeli “illegal” settlements click: here, here, here, here, here, and here .

You can also view my guest post on this topic over at Harry’s Place

There have been two videos doing the rounds of late which have been put together by athesists. I want to share them with you as they are both compelling and insightful in differing ways:

The first is called Welcome to this world and was made by The Thinking Atheist however, the major flaw is simply their lack of understanding of our faith. Sadly, they appear to have latched on to a certain type of Christian expression, namely, fundamentalism and extremist literalism.

The second is an interview with an atheist and again although there is a fundamental misunderstanding of our faith, I discern that there is something important to be learned from it:

Let me know what you good blog readers make of these.

Fr Stephen Smuts notifies us of a Washington Post piece in which Desmond Tutu announces his retirement from public life later this year.

I wonder if this means he’ll no longer be a member of the scary, controlling, interfering, Bransonite band of global Elders?

Here’s a few posts from the past relating to the activities and personalities of the Elders:

The Elders a group of eminent global leaders say Religious and traditional practices discriminate against women and girls

Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, and Other Global Council of Elders Slam Christian Churches for Not Ordaining Women

The Elders – a group of eminent global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela – have announced plans to visit Israel, the West Bank and Gaza at the end of August

Former President Jimmy Carter (One of the ‘Global Elders’) On The Gospel Of Oppression!

Evangelical Leaders Rebuke President Carter (One of the Global ‘elders’) for ‘Reckless’ Discrimination Claims

Former President Jimmy Carter (Global Elders) said he is planning a return trip to Gaza in an effort to focus international attention on what he describes as a humanitarian crisis.

A delegation of former global leaders is to arrive in Israel and the West Bank Monday to garner public support for peace between Israel and its neighbors. The delegation is part of an organization known as the Elders

Richard Branson’s Global ‘Council of Elders’

I think I’ll resume keeping an eye on them as they’ll now have a vacancy and perhaps enough time has elapsed for Tony Blair to become one of their number?

UPDATE: Sadly for Tony Blair it would seem that Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s retirement does not include his role within the Council of Elders:

The Elders – Archbishop Tutu to retire

I seem to be falling over opinion pieces related to David Cameron’s “big society” speech, which he gave on Monday.

I’ve read many articles on this topic, including some with references to the Church, religion, Christian Volunteers and even right-wing Christian positions, however, I’ve avoided commenting, as I felt generally quite puzzled and apathetic by it all.

Anyway, today Bishop Nick Baines has blogged on this topic and I was rather pleased to discover that I’m not alone in being somewhat puzzled about David Cameron’s utopian ‘Big Society’.

Do hop over and read his blog, as I found it encouraging, insightful and written in his usual lucid style:

Bish Nick Baines – Big questions about the ‘Big Society’