Sacred Images for Polish young people

A new exhibition in Plymouth explores through photographs the things that young migrants from Poland consider to be sacred or spiritual. Fourteen Polish people in their 20s were each given a digital camera and asked to take photos of what represents something sacred to them. They were then interviewed about the photos.

Some of the photos are what you might expect – photos of Catholic church buildings, statues of Mary (there are a number in Plymouth that I had never noticed) or other things obviously associated with religion. Other photos, however, were more surprising, such as a mobile phone with showing an incoming Skype message or a photo of friends on a picnic. One person simply took ten photos of his wife.

These things, although not obviously spiritual, offer a connection to their families and the traditions that have been left behind. For some, finding equivalent outlets offer the support and connection to home. So, a picnic with friends, for example, is not the same as a traditional family meal but it suffices as a substitute. Practising their religion here is also different. Catholicism is a way of life in Poland and is done almost without thinking because it is so steeped in the culture. In the UK, where religion is no longer as embedded in people’s habits, church is a conscious choice. For them, it reminds them of what it means to be Polish.

The exhibition, entitled “Why Religion Matters To Young Polish Migrants”,  runs in Plymouth Catholic Cathedral from 21st November for two weeks.

I’ll post up some photos when I can.

 

Amos, greed and the economy

In this short piece from the London Institute of Contemprary Christianity, Margaret Killingray relates the prophecy of Amos the the present day. The West may have been sitting around in relative peace and comfort whilst there has been violence all around (Amos 1), but perhaps the global credit crunch is a natural manifestation of people’s greed. As usual however, it is not the most greedy that are paying the biggest price…

Israel and Judah were called to be beacons of God’s light and love in a world of violence and greed. They failed and judgement followed. Their calling is now ours, Christians, children of light, his church, in a world of violence and greed. There are many battlegrounds for us. In a time of economic hardship, crippling debt and uncertain futures, maybe we should model a simpler lifestyle and from our church communities provide networks of support. In a world of violence, we should maintain our giving to those charities which seek to help the poor, encourage fair trade, mop up after wars, and rebuild shattered communities.

And Amos’ calling to speak out a word of warning to those who are responsible for violence and greed is ours as well. And like Amos we speak primarily to our own people, our own nation and ourselves.

 

TNT Photos

Photos from our last TNT weekend away taken by me, Simon, and Rachel.

 

 

You can’t help who you fall in love with

BBC News are carrying an article about a former prison officer, Kelly-Anne McDade, who has just been sentenced to jail time for two things. She had a sexual relationship with a male inmate, resulting in her getting pregnant, and she also smuggled in mobile phones for use by inmates.

I’m not going to probe deeply into the case, but what struck me was the excuse/defense that her solicitor was trying to put forward.

Richard Germain, defending McDade, told the court: “There is no doubt it was an inappropriate relationship, but Ms McDade would say ‘You can’t help who you fall in love with’.”

via BBC NEWS | England | Beds/Bucks/Herts | Inmate-sex prison officer jailed.

This is a myth. You can help who you fall in love with. Perhaps you can’t help who you find attractive, but love is a completely different thing. Love is not an uncontrollable emotion.  Once the impulses of attraction come along, we choose whether to act on them. We choose whether to show love to someone else. There certainly are feelings associated with love, but these feelings themselves are not love. They are merely associated with it. Over all, love is a choice.

If we are attracted to somebody, it doesn’t mean we have to love them. For example, if a married man is attracted to another woman (this itself is not a crime) but he must choose what to do with that attraction. Hopefully he will put in boundaries to remove or reduce the temptation, for the benefit of his marriage. He may avoid that woman and make sure he is never alone with her. Or if he has to meet her and part of his job or something, he could always meet in a public place. He could also confide and be accountable to someone else. There are many ways to reduce the temptation that would inevitably destroy his marriage, and avoid the attraction turning into something else. Each little step is a choice.

We can help who we fall in love with and it is the result of hundreds of little choices.

 

The Berlin Wall

We used to live in a flat beneath a German man and his wife. One day he was telling us that as a student in East Berlin, he had a quiet night out with friends. He went to the cinema to watch a movie, came back to one of their flats for a few drinks, then they all fell asleep. He woke up the next morning to hear on the news that the Wall had come down. He’d been in Berlin the whole time and missed it.

 

What Precisely Is the Gospel?

Jeff Purswell from Sovereign Grace ministries helps us understand.

If the gospel message expands to include “discipleship in the kingdom,” then the objective nature of Christ’s work is minimized. When the gospel is redefined as a call to a social or political movement, Christ’s work is replaced with ours. When the gospel includes my response, then the ground of my assurance lies in me rather than in Christ. Indeed, anytime we shift the definition of the gospel from God’s objective accomplishment to our subjective appropriation, the rock-solid foundation of our faith is misplaced—and the glory of God in the gospel is obscured.

via What Precisely Is the Gospel?.

 

Fight for your love.

Celebrity gossip doesn’t usually interest me but I was listening to the radio a couple of days ago and became intrigued by the new song from Cheryl Cole. I’m not usually a fan of hers, I don’t have any of her singles or albums and haven’t really paid her that much attention. But I had picked up snippets from her life so far.

For example,  I knew that Cheryl was born and brought up not to far from where I was brought up… just outside Newcastle. But I also knew she lived in an area that had a lot of problems with high rates of crime, addictions, teenage pregnancy, poor school attendance, and a high proportion of single parents. I knew that Cheryl didn’t have a good start in life.

I also knew that she managed to get on a TV talent show – Pop-Stars:The Rivals in 2003, which she won with the group Girls Aloud which instantly had a number one hit with Sound of the Underground. She now has a solo career and has become a judge on the X-Factor.

I was also aware that Cheryl was married to another famous person, the Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole. He proposed in 2005 and they were married in a lavish wedding ceremony in 2006, with exclusive photos carried by OK! magazine.

I had also heard, unfortunately, that Ashley was not a nice boy. I didn’t really like him anyway because he played for Chelsea. But, it was reported, back in 2008, that Ashley had been unfaithful to Cheryl. He had allegedly had an affair with a hairdresser called Aimee and with a model. So, after that Cheryl and Ashley had a brief separation during which, apparently, Ashley apologised and supposedly grovelled to Cheryl to take him back…which she did. Ashley wronged Cheryl but she was willing to forgive him and they are now back together.

So, no, I don’t really follow her life, but this is what I’d picked up.

Now, what caught my attention was the song that was on the radio. It was a love song, but a love song with a difference. It’s called, Fight for this Love, and it’s as if all of Cheryl’s experiences of her life, and her relationship with Ashley Cole, have been rolled up into this song.

The song recognises that in relationships, things aren’t always rosy

“Now everyday aint gon´ be no picnic
Love aint no walk in the park“

It recognises that relationships are difficult, as in her case when her husband has wronged her. But even in relationships where there is no unfaithfulness, the song recognises that there’ll be good days when the feelings of love are wonderful, and there will be bad days when you have to muster up every ounce of energy that you have to forgive the other one.

Anything that´s worth having
Is sure enough worth fighting for
Quitting’s out of the question
When it gets tough gotta fight some more
We gotta fight fight fight fight fight for this love

Relationships are not easy, but they are worth sticking at and working at. Because it is in the forgiving, the discussing, the working together, and the thinking of the other person that the relationship is deepened. As each partner recognises their failings and comes to the other in humility, the sense of dependance and consequently, the marriage relationship is deepened. A deep long lasting relationship needs to be worked at.

When we think about it, that’s true of all the good things in life, why should marriage be ay different? If we want the best things from life, we need to commit to them and work at them. If we want to have a good career, we need to commit to that goal, and work towards it. If we want to play a musical instrument, we need to practice. Want to be good at sport, we  need to work at our skills. Apparently David Beckham used to stay back a long time after training was over just practising taking free kicks.

Likewise, if want a good, long-lasting, deep relationship we must be prepared to prioritise it and put into place good practices: spending quality time with each other, doing kind acts for each other, buying gifts that show appreciation every so often. And, most importantly, being prepared to forgive a when there is genuine repentance.

All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. (Prov 14:23)

 

A blessing for the International Day of Climate Action

May God,
who in Christ created the heavens and the earth, and saw that it was good,
who in Christ, entered into our broken and fallen world to restore it,
and who in Christ, gives us a spring of water which wells up to eternal life,
perfect in you the image of his glory;
and the blessing of God Almighty
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
be amongst you and remain with you always.
Amen

 

Philosophy on the raising of children

Here’s some quotes from the great philosophers on what to do with children.

First, Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic, 4BC to 65AD.

“Mad dogs we knock on the head; the fierce and savage ox, we slay; sickly sheep we put to the knife to keep them from infecting the flock; unnatural progeny we destroy; we drown even children who at birth are weakly and abnormal. It is not anger but reason which separated the harmful from the sound” (On Anger 1.15.2)

Ouch. Total lack of mercy there. Surely the Greek philosophers offer a better way? What about Aristotle?

“Let there be a law that no deformed child shall be reared.” (Politics 7.14.10)

Hmm. OK. Plato then? Nope. He said that defective children should be “done away with” (Republic, written 4BC).

Against this backdrop, Jesus said “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy”. Mercy is the way in which God deals with the world.

 

War and Peace

Having finished Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace about a week ago, here are some thoughts. I think it is almost impossible to fully review a book this big, but here are some of my reflections anyway.

1) Tolstoy has a funny relationship with history. Writing about 5 years after the events described in the book (Napoleons invasion into Russia in 1812), Tolstoy is aware of what the historians have written on the matter. He brings this into his descriptions of the course of the war but also a more down to earth approach based on his experiences serving in the Russian army. Historians like to explain things in terms of orders, plans and strategies of generals and admirals. His problem with that is that generals and admirals are often a long way from the battle lines, so when their strategies are not implemented, it is difficult to respond to the battle play-by-play. Tolstoy prefers to use other forces such as the spirit of the troops, the ideas of the day, the on the ground reactions of the individual army units. All of this combines to produce events of war that no-one is really directing. Tolstoy takes great pleasure in describing how Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, the commander in chief of the Russian Army, defied all the other general’s wishes by stepping back in retreat. This allowed the French army, which was a long way from home, had suffered heavy losses at the battle of Borodino, and crucially, did not know how to deal with the Russian cold, to effectively defeat themselves. This, Tolstoy thinks, was the work of a master who read all the signs and spirit of the war. Tolstoy seemed to think that the French were always going to defeat themselves in this war, and Kutuzov had the courage and the foresight to enable them to do it for him without risking more of his own soldiers than needed.

Tolstoy’s final chapter (Epilogue II!) is an essay on what are the forces that drive nations to war? What is power and how is it appropriated and allowed to flourish by the people. His conclusion is complex, but he remarks that nations do not go to war simply because of an Emperor’s will. He implies that the ancients might have got it right when they attributed this kind of thing to the outworking and sovereignty of God. It is only relatively recently that this has failed to be a good enough answer.

2) Tolstoy’s characters are complex, well rounded and deep. The central character, Pierre, is portrayed as a likeable buffoon who is lumbering through life trying to find truth and meaning and something he enjoys, and he always seems dissatified with the society of nobility that he is a part of. To him, it seems shallow (and is epitomised in his wife, Helene, who is only interested in social advancement). Pierre’s search for truth leads him to join the Freemasons, to get involved in social improvement for his peasant labourers, to try and make a mark on history buy coming up with a ridiculous plan to assassinate Napoleon. In the end he finds it is the simple things of like that make it worthwhile and fulfilling – having one’s personal needs met and being thankful to God for it, having a deep, true, and real relationships including a secure marriage relationship (in his second marriage after his first wife, Helene, dies), and in his family. For Tolstoy, meaning is as simple as this. (If Pierre had discovered this sooner, the book would be shorter)

3) The book is full of examples of how to and how not to do life. As in one of Tolstoy’s other books, Anna Karenina, it is stability, faithfulness and sense that are promoted. The continual lust for money, power, social advancement are all found to be empty, unfulfilling, and the path to destruction.

For the LORD gives wisdom, 
and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just 
and protects the way of his faithful ones.

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, 
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths 
to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. (Prov 2:6-11)