True Stories
I remember – over a decade ago now! – when Big Brother hit Channel 4 for the first time. We were promised a new era of television. Sir Peter Bazalgette’s televisual reawakening was going to be as revolutionary for society as his great-great grandfather’s noble work of sanitising London. In an ironic twist of inter-generational fate, all we got to watch was sewage.
I love stories, and whatever joys fiction might conjure up it will never rival the great stories of real life. I am partial to biopic-style epics of men getting trapped in rocks for days at a time or squadrons attacking German dams with the innovative weaponry of bouncing bombs. These stories are great and they are real, but the reason they are great is that they are unusual. We rarely hear about the great stories of normal living.
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Posted in Culture
Sixpence none the richer
When the offering is taken at my church, we say ‘All things come from you, O Lord. And of your own have we given you.’ Here, each week, in 15 words, is a comprehensive sermon on the theology of everything. It’s about wise living; about humility. And it’s a lesson taught by everyone’s favourite Texan pop/rock band.
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Posted in Christianity
#Digidisciple(ship) is nothing new
I write a monthly article for the Big Bible Project on using digital innovations in discipleship, church and outreach. This is the first of them: the whole archive can be found on my Big Bible page.
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Posted in Christianity
Lessons from the AV Referendum
The referendum on the Alternative Vote has resulted in a resounding “no”. While the political repercussions of the result begin their long and inevitable echo towards 2015, I want to highlight a couple of lessons that we can learn from this before the dust settles.
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Posted in Politics
The God who can’t be moved
We held an acoustic cafe night with the Christian Union in college yesterday. I ran the technical side of things (which gave me the chance to wear my brand new tech stash) but the talent came from our talented musical acts. Tom has his reflection (and even a photo!) on his blog.
The evening was that rare thing – a Christian event which did exactly what it said on the tin. It was a chilled night where people could drop in and out, listen to some quality acoustic music, and hear a little about what the songs people were singing meant to their Christian faith. Dave sang The Man Who Can’t Be Moved by The Script, and introduced it in a way I had never considered before: God might well sing this song about us.
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Posted in Christianity
Strange words from a writer of such tales as ‘Alice’
I recently read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’ve been told that it’s “a little girl’s book” – I concede that it’s for children, but I disagree that it is gender specific. At any rate, it’s not the kind of thing you should read in Starbucks unless you want the group of people on the table opposite to talk about you loudly and take photos on their phones. That was humiliating.
I wanted to read the book because it forms part of a cultural heritage that I am trying to rediscover. Lewis Carroll was a creative genius and his fantasy world of Wonderland is a truly fantastic invention. His characters are brilliantly drawn, and the logical subterfuge and flights of verbal fancy are as inspiring as they are entertaining. Ultimately, I think there is a real beauty in the fact that there is no hidden message or moral to the story. It is simply a story – a supremely intelligent one, but a story nonetheless.
So if this is just a book of nonsense, it is a complete waste of time for children (let alone someone who has just turned 21!)? Carroll answers the critics in a fantastic postscript, “An Easter Greeting To Every Child who Loves Alice”.
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Posted in Christianity
The Reason for Reading
For someone my age, I have a pretty impressive library of Christian books. And nobody is more impressed than myself. I periodically browse my own shelves for an hour or more with a kind of false curiosity, as if I am browsing in a bookshop as part of a mental test, and will have to recall the title and main thrust of each book from memory in six months’ time.
Books are beautiful. They are solid. Secure. The feel of a book in your hands is wonderful: turning each page is a multi-sensory experience. Reading books is a poor mark of knowledge (anyone can read, but how many truly understand?) but is a perfect measure of curiosity. I pride myself in having a sparky interest and desire to learn, so I read Christian books.
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Posted in Christianity
Batman is no Superhero
A few weeks ago, I got into an argument about Batman. I suggested that he was not a superhero as he has no superpowers; he is simply a rich man with a dubious ego and a penchant for fast cars. In response, I was accused of heresy (really!). But beneath the humour of the situation, there is a serious point that demanded an airing.
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Posted in Culture