"From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea" we sang "Creation's revealing Your majesty" we went on.
"All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God"
Yeah ok, it's a bit sycophantic but basically if you love Jesus it never hurts to tell him that...but wait:
"Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go"
Whoa there! Are you claiming sentience and decision making capacities to lightening? Surely not! I could be wrong but I think lightening is just a bunch of energy it doesn't have ears, it really doesn't listen and it doesn't take orders.
"Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow"
Hang on what storehouses? Is there some gigantic freezer somewhere that God uses to keep snow in during the summer? Does he use it to keep his ice-pops cool?
"Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light"
fair enough, it's quite conventional to claim God thought up the whole universe thing.
"Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night"
Hang on a second! It's not concealed....it's still giving light to other side of the planet.
I like singing modern worship songs, but I do resent having to commit such a gigantic and blatant act of mauvaise foi on a Sunday morning.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Seen on a comments page today
"When choosing a new speaker, members of the house of commons have stuck two fingers up at the electorate and gone for an MP."
Um...?
Um...?
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Yellow Liquid and Jesus
Jesus walked on water.
What a miracle!
But to be honest there's a question in my mind: Would it have been more or less of a miracle, if he had turned the whole of the sea of Galilee into Custard first. After all we know our Lord is not above a spot of water based transformation.
Admittedly that would have made the actual liquid based promenation significantly less miraculous. It could, and indeed should, be pointed out that the walking upon custard in fact does not violate the laws of nature in any way. Thus pushing the event below the threshold of the miraculous (at least given the medieval scholastic definition).
But this would demonstrate the existence of this sweetened dessert sauce a full fourteen hundred years before its invention. Not only that, but this would give demonstration to a non-newtonian liquid, at a time when fluid mechanics was in it's infancy. Thus giving an irrefutable divine signature to the event and subsequent validation of the Bible as scripture.
It's a difficult one to work through, isn't it?
I suspect the reason our Lord chose to act in the manner he did, is due to the envirmomental impact that the other course of action would have caused. For example I suspect suspention within custard would render fish gills non functional. Not to mention those who relied upon the water drinking and irregation. Finally the sheer quantity of bananas that amount of custard necessitates is beyond the abilities of humankind.
Once again Jesus, well ahead of his time.
I've been discussing this with the CU, anyone who thinks they're just a bunch of unreflective fundamentalists is clearly nuts.
What a miracle!
But to be honest there's a question in my mind: Would it have been more or less of a miracle, if he had turned the whole of the sea of Galilee into Custard first. After all we know our Lord is not above a spot of water based transformation.
Admittedly that would have made the actual liquid based promenation significantly less miraculous. It could, and indeed should, be pointed out that the walking upon custard in fact does not violate the laws of nature in any way. Thus pushing the event below the threshold of the miraculous (at least given the medieval scholastic definition).
But this would demonstrate the existence of this sweetened dessert sauce a full fourteen hundred years before its invention. Not only that, but this would give demonstration to a non-newtonian liquid, at a time when fluid mechanics was in it's infancy. Thus giving an irrefutable divine signature to the event and subsequent validation of the Bible as scripture.
It's a difficult one to work through, isn't it?
I suspect the reason our Lord chose to act in the manner he did, is due to the envirmomental impact that the other course of action would have caused. For example I suspect suspention within custard would render fish gills non functional. Not to mention those who relied upon the water drinking and irregation. Finally the sheer quantity of bananas that amount of custard necessitates is beyond the abilities of humankind.
Once again Jesus, well ahead of his time.
I've been discussing this with the CU, anyone who thinks they're just a bunch of unreflective fundamentalists is clearly nuts.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Peterson Toscano
We recently hosted a guy called Peterson Toscano, who came along to do a play in a lecture room.
At the time I thought I should tell other people about it...so here is my review:
It often helps when you are doing something really unpleasant, if you can remove the more human elements of it. Ask anyone who ever got fired from a job. Did they follow procedure? You bet they did! Look at George W. Bush and his messy war with Iraq. Time and time again we were told this was about spreading democracy and combating extremism. At a stroke this makes the whole thing an intellectual argument and that doesn't really involve the actual dropping of explosives on a city full of people – although to be honest if you are going to drop the collective works of John Locke from a couple of miles up you're definitely going to kill someone. You may as well use a bomb.
In the same way conservatives in the church have transformed the debate about gender and sexuality entirely into a dry and dusty intellectual debate about Biblical interpretation. It is no longer about listening to those affected by these issues, it is not about individuals, it is about which theologians have the correct understanding of the text.
Peterson Toscano's answer to this is emphatically personal and yet not in an 'in your face' sort of way. An actor and writer who has given unique voice to this debate with his previous shows in which he dramatically drew upon his experiences as a survivor of the ex-gay Christian movement. His new show “Transfigurations--Transgressing Gender in the Bible” gives voice to many Biblical characters who do not fit into the binary of gender. You, of course, like me are labouring under the impression that there are no such individuals. Gosh not in the Bible! However as Toscano makes clear it's very easy to see them when you realise that the Bible is very clear about how different genders should behave. Once you note that, then, all of a sudden there they all are; Deborah the warrior, Joseph and his interesting choice of outfit, Ester's Eunuch, the man with the water jar, who led the disciples to the upper room, and many others. Toscano impressive acting skills allow him to move seamlessly from character to character. Delicately he places you firmly into the living text, transporting you back thousands of years. The whole thing held together by his narrator, a first century Christian.
Along with the Biblical stories, he brings in the actual words and experiences of the contemporary transgender community. So his work owes a debt his own community of the US, and many of his characters are also rooted in American culture. The eunuch would be at home in Greenwich village, and Esau seems to be the sort of man's man who would look perfectly at home on a fishing trip in Wyoming (perhaps to Brokeback Mountain). Although there is a distinctly American flavour to this piece is communicates effortlessly to a British audience, perhaps because Toscano is saying something universal and human. It does represent a helpful antidote to the usual portrayal of American Christianity, heavily focused on people like Fred Phelps, most beloved of the British media.
So all of this comes together, not only to inform and challenge but actually to entertain. There was laughter, there was a compelling story, there was great theatre. It is well thought out and beautifully executed. Like a skilled educator he does not labour the point but rather leaves his audience to work it out for themselves. Though Toscano is an activist, the only thing we were confronted with in this play was Bible truth.
Rarely is entertainment this well researched, or indeed, this Biblical, or even this entertaining.
If you care about the Bible and want to hear it speak clearly this show is for you. If you want to confirmation only of what you already believe, avoid it like the plague!
Ultimately I do not know what the answer to all the questions of gender and sexuality are, but I do know this: Listening to Fred Phelps makes me feel rubbish and like I want to give up Christianity, watching Peterson Toscano at work, makes me feel fabulous!
“Transfigurations--Transgressing Gender in the Bible” is happening all over the place, if any of them are near you, you should definitely check it out.
At the time I thought I should tell other people about it...so here is my review:
It often helps when you are doing something really unpleasant, if you can remove the more human elements of it. Ask anyone who ever got fired from a job. Did they follow procedure? You bet they did! Look at George W. Bush and his messy war with Iraq. Time and time again we were told this was about spreading democracy and combating extremism. At a stroke this makes the whole thing an intellectual argument and that doesn't really involve the actual dropping of explosives on a city full of people – although to be honest if you are going to drop the collective works of John Locke from a couple of miles up you're definitely going to kill someone. You may as well use a bomb.
In the same way conservatives in the church have transformed the debate about gender and sexuality entirely into a dry and dusty intellectual debate about Biblical interpretation. It is no longer about listening to those affected by these issues, it is not about individuals, it is about which theologians have the correct understanding of the text.
Peterson Toscano's answer to this is emphatically personal and yet not in an 'in your face' sort of way. An actor and writer who has given unique voice to this debate with his previous shows in which he dramatically drew upon his experiences as a survivor of the ex-gay Christian movement. His new show “Transfigurations--Transgressing Gender in the Bible” gives voice to many Biblical characters who do not fit into the binary of gender. You, of course, like me are labouring under the impression that there are no such individuals. Gosh not in the Bible! However as Toscano makes clear it's very easy to see them when you realise that the Bible is very clear about how different genders should behave. Once you note that, then, all of a sudden there they all are; Deborah the warrior, Joseph and his interesting choice of outfit, Ester's Eunuch, the man with the water jar, who led the disciples to the upper room, and many others. Toscano impressive acting skills allow him to move seamlessly from character to character. Delicately he places you firmly into the living text, transporting you back thousands of years. The whole thing held together by his narrator, a first century Christian.
Along with the Biblical stories, he brings in the actual words and experiences of the contemporary transgender community. So his work owes a debt his own community of the US, and many of his characters are also rooted in American culture. The eunuch would be at home in Greenwich village, and Esau seems to be the sort of man's man who would look perfectly at home on a fishing trip in Wyoming (perhaps to Brokeback Mountain). Although there is a distinctly American flavour to this piece is communicates effortlessly to a British audience, perhaps because Toscano is saying something universal and human. It does represent a helpful antidote to the usual portrayal of American Christianity, heavily focused on people like Fred Phelps, most beloved of the British media.
So all of this comes together, not only to inform and challenge but actually to entertain. There was laughter, there was a compelling story, there was great theatre. It is well thought out and beautifully executed. Like a skilled educator he does not labour the point but rather leaves his audience to work it out for themselves. Though Toscano is an activist, the only thing we were confronted with in this play was Bible truth.
Rarely is entertainment this well researched, or indeed, this Biblical, or even this entertaining.
If you care about the Bible and want to hear it speak clearly this show is for you. If you want to confirmation only of what you already believe, avoid it like the plague!
Ultimately I do not know what the answer to all the questions of gender and sexuality are, but I do know this: Listening to Fred Phelps makes me feel rubbish and like I want to give up Christianity, watching Peterson Toscano at work, makes me feel fabulous!
“Transfigurations--Transgressing Gender in the Bible” is happening all over the place, if any of them are near you, you should definitely check it out.
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