We have just marked 20 years from the fall of Berlin Wall. the fall of Berlin war started a domino effect and in 1989 people in country after country in the Eastern Europe raised against their own national communist regimes and forced changes. Those changes differed from country to country.
A friend of mine pointed out to me a youtube video of the 2009 winner of Ukraine’s Got Talent. You might ask what does this have to do with the collapse of the communist regimes. The winner of the show, Kseniya Simonova, a sand animation artist tells the story of her country, the struggle they went through. She has a great talent and the way she tells the story is moving. Even though I know very little of Ukraine history, I do recognise symbols and struggles that were common to many Eastern European countries.
What a wonderful talent and what a powerful story!
This is my first encounter with sand art, and I am very impressed!
The Jewish scholar Shlomo Sand has written a book ‘The invention of the Jewish people‘ in which he challenges, what he calls, the historical myth of the formation of the Jewish people. He argues that there was no massive expulsion or migration of Jews from Palestine during the Roman Hellenistic period, contrary to the common held believes. He argues that the Jewish diaspora came into being through conversions throughout the years (and he gives a few examples). As a result he suggests that Jewishness is not a blood acquired identity. He even suggests that the Palestinian peasant population could well be more “Jewish” (in the sense of genetic identity) than the ‘returning Jews’.
His theory has a great political implication for the current situation in Israel. For more see his book and the video of a lecture he delivered at New York University.
A polemic started on Guardian website on whether a schism begins to emerge within the atheist ‘movement’ (but some don’t even see atheism as a movement). The polemic is getting hotter and hotter (by the day, if not the hour). It was started by Michael Ruse with an article “Dawkins et al bring us into disrepute”.
In this article Ruse unleashes a devastating attack against “new atheism”, seeing it as dangerous as all religious forms of fundamentalism. Here is the final paragraph from Ruse’s article.
“Back in 1961, in the depths of the cold war, terrified as we were by the threat of nuclear annihilation, John Whitcomb Junior and Henry Morris published The Genesis Flood, a six-day-creationist account of origins. Because of its dispensationalist message – God clears things out every now and then, as he did at the time of Noah, and we should expect the next (literal) blow up fairly shortly – it became the fundamentalist bible. But don’t worry. It’s all part of God’s plans, even the Russian bomb. Today, nearly a decade after 9/11, terrified as so many still are by the terrorist threat, the atheistic fundamentalists are finding equally fertile soil for their equally frenetic messages. It’s all the fault of the believers, Muslims mainly of course, but Christians also. But don’t worry. In the God Delusion, we have a message as simplistic as in The Genesis Flood. This too will solve all of your problems. Peace and prosperity await you in this world, if not the next.
Forgive me if I don’t sign on”.
I am looking forward to see where the debate will go.
Guardian published an article written by Hans Kung, the well known Catholic Theologian about the Pope’s recent initiative towards the Anglicans. Kung describe the current Pope as “stubborn and intransigent”. Some may argue that there is some bad blood between Kung and Ratzinger. However I think that Kung’s criticism needs to be taken seriously. Here are some of his remarks:
“The Fisher of Men is angling in waters of the extreme religious right.”
“Pope Benedict is set upon restoring the Roman imperium. He makes no concessions to the Anglican communion. On the contrary, he wants to preserve the medieval, centralistic Roman system for all ages – even if this makes impossible the reconciliation of the Christian churches in fundamental questions.”
“The old-fashioned call for a “return to Rome” raises its ugly head again, this time through the conversion particularly of the priests, if possible, en masse.”
“Just as we have seen over many centuries – in the east-west schism of the 11th century, in the 16th century Reformation and in the First Vatican Council of the 19th century – the Roman thirst for power divides Christianity and damages its own church. It is a tragedy.”
If you thought you heard it all, wait for this: an American Pastor of a Baptist Church is going to burn bibles on this year’s Halloween! He thinks that the only “inerrant” and inspired bible is the King James version and all other versions of the bible are of the devil, or Satanic as he puts it. He plans to burn copies of different versions of the bible, books by many Christian authors such as Billy Graham, Rick Warren, etc.., and music by all sort of artists.
The whole church will have a party and a barbecue around the fire. They are inviting the whole community to join them in their holy sacrifice ceremony! Needless to say though that this church has a huge membership: 12! Yes twelve!
A friendlier burning ‘ceremony’ I suppose. In the past we used to burn witches, didn’t we? I like my NRSV though. The Greek New Testament is often handy (not sure if this one is on the list), but also the Romanian translation now and again. I am not sure that Pastor Grizzard could read the Bible in other language, because if he did I am sure he might think again about what fuel he might use for this year’s Halloween barbecue.
Suggestions for books to burn are welcome!
Update:
The ‘grace Baptist church’ announced that ‘burning’ was a great success! Well actually they were hiding in a house overwhelmed by protesters and the rain! Here you will find their glowing report! If you scroll down the page you will see the reasons for burning the said books. you will also see that the pastor’s reasoning is from ignorance rather than careful research, hermenutical analyses, or knowledge! As I presumed in the original post he has no knowledge of biblical languages or any other language but English (and that one probably limited to his dialect).
This week the Vatican announced that they are going to open the way for the Anglicans to join the Catholic Church and making provision for those that join to keep some of their Anglican traditions. As one that worked for a number of years closely with Catholics, Anglicans, Scottish Episcopalian, etc.. this move from the Vatican saddens me so much. I have so much respect for my brothers and sisters from the Catholic Church, but personally I have lost respect for the current Pope. I think he has made so many blunders over the past few years (see for example: daming all other churches as non churches, ambivalent attitudes towards paedophile priests, embracing the Nazi bishop, making stupid comments about condoms and HIV, etc …), and as such discredited the office, caused a lot of damage to the Ecumenical movement and has damaged the reputation of the Catholic Church.
Taking this action without full consultation with an Ecumenical Partner the Vatican under the direction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (previously known as the Inquisition department) have showed not just disrespect but lack of judgement and un-Christian like behaviour. It is also surprising to hear that the decision was taken with disregard to the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, the body that does ‘ecumenical’ work on behalf of Rome. Out of this episode I think that Rowan has shown again character and in the long term I feel that this move rather than weakening the Anglican Church it will liberate Her. The Catholic Church in the long term has lost.
Now it seems that through his actions the Pope shows his character of an inquisitor, intolerant and one might be forgiven by suggesting that his Nazi past is catching up with him after all. His visit to the UK next year will be for sure overshadowed by what happened this week. The Pope in his wisdom (or better say foolishness) has undone much of the constructive ecumenical work that has taken place over the past decades. I stand to be disproved, but I feel this was one of the sadest moments for Christian witness and testimony in this generation.
I wonder if the Vatican’s pronouncement this week was made to overshadow the publication of a report in Ireland on child abuse and paedophilia in the last century under the Catholic Church instruction. A thought to ponder on! See the Article in the Times.
It is reported that members of a jury in Texas used the Bible (as an inspiration and a law book, it appears) to sentence a man to his death. What are the dangers in replacing the legislation of the land with the (selective?) rules of a sacred text?
If we use one sacred text should we not allow those people of other faiths use their sacred texts or sacred legislations (i.e. Sharia law) when reaching a court verdict? These are only two of many other questions that arise from this case and should give us Christians food for thought.
Just read an article in the Guardian by Jennifer Abel in which she talks about her ‘healthcare insurance plan’. I thought some of my friends from across the pond might want to comment on this ingenious solution.
“My healthcare plan is called ‘Don’t get sick’ and it’s worked so far. But here’s my emergency back-up plan: marry a(n) European”
I am still here but with less time available for blogging. Apologies to those who expected more from me!
Just read Andrew Brown’s post on his Guardian Blog. Well I didn’t heed his advise and clicked on the links and I was left with imagining the nightmare world that would result should such a conservative project remotely succeed in practice. It is ironically that the initiators of this religious project do not see that their thinking is clouded by an ideology which if given political power could become demonic.
For me though God’s realm (or kingdom if you wish) looks compleatly differently. It is a reality where God’s presence and his love (shown in Jesus) transforms people from inside out. Now if this is liberal nonsense and utopia, then so it be. But I believe that Jesus layed his life for this.
“Truth of redemptive significance is bound to be counterfactual. God, therefore, is bound to be counterfactual. To be sure, the world is full of people who have no need of redemption. They are the wealthy. They will never have a need to criticize God or the way things are”. John Hobbins on his blog in a post where he suggests that only when one is ‘wrestling’ with God and the scripture (and could bitterly disagree and criticise both), one could find the (redemptive?) ‘truth’. He gives as examples the story of Jacob wrestling with God and Ernst Käsemann’s dislike of Romans 13 after he lost his daughter.
Thanks to James for drawing attention to this post.
of the Jewish people. He argues that there was no massive expulsion or migration of Jews from Palestine during the Roman Hellenistic period, contrary to the common held believes. He argues that the Jewish diaspora came into being through conversions throughout the years (and he gives a few examples). As a result he suggests that Jewishness is not a blood acquired identity. He even suggests that the Palestinian peasant population could well be more “Jewish” (in the sense of genetic identity) than the ‘returning Jews’.
Guardian 
inspired bible is the King James version and all other versions of the bible are of the devil, or Satanic as he puts it. He plans to burn copies of different versions of the bible, books by many Christian authors such as Billy Graham, Rick Warren, etc.., and music by all sort of artists.
to join the Catholic Church and making provision for those that join to
