Sincere Apologies!

10 March 2010

It's been a long journey back, so sincere apologies for not keeping the site up to date (whether posting or responding to comments) over the last couple of days or so. Trying to get back into the swing of things, though jetlag calls. Anyhow, I listened to a lecture strongly embracing liberation theology from an Evangelical perspective a couple of days ago, which for me raised all sorts of issues and I really want to comment on, so this will be my next comment/post in the next 24 hours.

Blog From America 15 (the last hurrah)

8 March 2010

With some hours to kill before the flight, I took the tram to the Mall of America after all and it is indeed pretty huge. And there is a whole theme park right in the middle of it. But the highlight was the no-holds-barred steak meal I'd planned (I have, after all, been working pretty hard so saw no reason why I shouldn't treat myself). Stuart, Dad, you're going to like this.

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Why Does the BBC Do This?

7 March 2010

See this story on the BBC News website concerning horrific violence in Nigeria overnight leading to the death of over a hundred people, mainly women and children, macheted to death. Now read the same story as reported on the CNN website. Notice the major difference in how the story is reported? (Hint: One of the report identifies the religious affiliation of the victims, the other expressly avoids doing so, even to the extent that the report seems incomlete and somehow artificial).

Why does the Beeb do this? Is it driven by fear, either of opposition from or alienating a proportion of its Muslim audience? Or perhaps disdain for Christianity? All of the above? Lest someone feel I'm being overly-sensitive here, it's important to note the BBC doesn't have a particularly good track record when it comes to Christianity, while many feel Islam gets rather better treatment. Whether that is the case or not is for others to decide. But I suggest when a Christian village is attacked on a Sunday morning and a hundred people - predominantly women and children - are slashed to death with machetes, yet our national tax-funded broadcaster fails to report the full facts, it has hardly a wise act by a corporation regularly fending off accusations of anti-Christian bias.

Blog From America 14 (wrapping up)

My trip's coming to an end and I fly back tonight,. But guess what? Minneapolis has grown on me. The skyway system allowed the other day tgo walk around the city for a couple of hours visiting dozens upon dozens of these skyscrapers, replete with shops and businesses, all linked by walkways. Some of the lift doors are highly ornately decorated with fabulous marble and other decorative effects, while the shops are pretty classy. Streets still look empty though (too cold to walk around in them, it gets almost Artic here), and I still maintain the roads are crumbling.

My hotel room I've been staying in has this huge kingsize bed. The problem is, it is an electronic bed with a hundred different position settings! You'd think I would have had the best sleep ever. Unfortunately, I spent most of the first night going through all the settings and actually slept very little. I had to hide the remote control box eventually so I wouldn't keep messing with it. Plus my bed has seven or eight pillows (all different sizes and levels of firmness), so unfortunately this affected my second night's sleep as I indecisively shuffled them around, trying to ascertain which combination was the most comfortable (I never did find out). You can definitely have too much choice.

Will be catching the light rail to the airport in a few hours, then it's hanging around there for six hours (yawn). Flights worked out badly for this trip. But if I can drop my baggage off early I might go to the Mall of America, which is just a couple of stops from the airport. Supposed to be the biggest and one of the most spectacular in the country (it even has a theme park right in the middle of it). Anyway, if I go I'll let you know about it, and either way I might write another post from the airport.

When Blogging Makes a Difference

Archbishop Cranmer's blog has the story of a Methodist minister who is also a Labour councillor being deselected by his local Labour MP because he refuses to canvass on Sundays as this is when he's leading his church in worship. What's great about this story is how it has clearly got under the skin of the MP in question, who writes a rather shrill letter of complaint to Cranmer demanding he take down the post (he does no such thing, of course, choosing instead to comment on the inadequacies of her position and successfully highlight how this government is the most illiberal and anti-faith ever). It's worth pointing out that Cranmer's site is one of the leading UK political blogs with many thousands of readers, hence the MP feeling she had little choice but to respond. Oh that this blog might some day become so big as to wind up politicians like this. (I can dream, can't I?)

The Christian Academy and Christians in Politics

At the Evangelical theological conference I've been attending I am struck by how a substantial number of people I've listened to at debates or chatted with lean towards the political left (I think the preferred term is "progressive"). Now it is a truism that the academy always tends towards radicalism and the left. But it is also the case that in politics many politicians on the left move somewhat towards the right when they gain power (according to my politics professor during my MA studies, a classic historical example is the British Labour Party). Of course, there are exceptions to this and most rules. Thus, some people within the academy are on the right, while some on the left do seem to shift further leftwards when in power (though some of these, I think, are actually populists employing leftist rhetoric, but that is an issue for another day).

So the exceptions aside, what are the reasons for a left-leaning academy and politicians who shift rightwards towards the centre? I'm not sure, though I suspect in the case of the academy it is a place driven by idealism, as well as an arena in which to exchange ideas and in doing so challenge the status quo and the Establishment. Meanwhile, I suggest the cold, hard realities of the political world arguably lead politicians to ditch idealism in favour of pragmatism, firstly to get things done, and secondly, because there is a realisation that academic idealism and utopianism is somewhat of a pipedream in the real world. Enter Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian realism.

Whatever the reasons for both these political tendencies, I do not believe these two stereotypes of the academy and political world should be permitted to influence Christians in either arena. The Christian academy should certainly not be shaped by the world's currents, trends, political outlook, worldview and philosophy. Such postmodern ideals will pass one day, as indeed the scepticism of modernity's biblical criticism - and indeed various philosophical influences upon Christianity during its 2000 year history - has now passed into oblivion. And that's the point, isn't it? When the Christian academy permits the world to influence its mindset and worldview it enslaves itself to the dominant fashion of the pervadign Zeitgeist. This is, in a very real sense, worldliness, that is, allowing the world's values to rub off and influence the Church and its actions. Instead, the Christian academy should be thoroughly biblicist in its approach to issues (and not just issues but in shaping its own agenda and worldview), seeking to establish and walk its own path rather than emulate that of the secular academy. It should be radical by all means (after all, Jesus was incredibly radical), but being radical means being something completely different to what is already out there. Yet all too often, Christianity offers a carbon copy (and a poor one at that) of what the world has to offer. In short, the Christian Evangelical Left should not look much like the Democrats or Labour Party, while the Evangelical Right should not be a religious carbon copy of the Republican or Conservative parties. Indeed, there should be no Evangelical Left or Evangelical Right in the first place, as these are simply examples of how the world has rubbed off on us so that we even categorise ourselves on that basis. But of course human nature and things like political cleavage make it hard for us to shake off these ways of thinking.

Meanwhile, from the political perspective (and here is why, perhaps, Christians don't make good politicians) Christian politicians should not be driven by pragmatism and realism, because this is the route of compromise and watering down one's Christian, biblical values. Rather, the Christian politician should be driven by idealism and firmly challenging the status quo. But of course in this route lies a short political career.

It seems to me, then, Christian radicalism means a Christian academy which espouses realism and pragmatism, while Christian political outlook and activity should be zealously idealist and keen to challenge the status quo. But of course the opposite very often seems to be the case. Everything just seems so messed up, doesn't it?