Religion

  • The divide in Church and culture is a separation of parts

    The anti-Church league are present in UK society. In our culture it’s expected to have a view on it, and in politics it usually comes up as a problem.

    The same can be said elsewhere in the English-speaking world, where thoughts have grown up alongside Priests as much as prophets of secular warning.

    It’s driven by those who have an antipathy to the interruptions that such considerations bring in their daily life.

    This is not just a Sunday value but a principles-based way of thought and life that affects their thinking. It doesn’t easily – or helpfully – define the issues that preoccupy other minds, like war, injustice, and poverty.

    The substance of religious practice doesn’t change much either, and other matters are pushed to the fringes. In our time, there’s not a lot of room left to go around.

    There’s a multitude of concerns that each one of us have to consider before a religion even has a chance. The purpose of opposing institutional forms of spiritual belief and practice is not so clear, though.

    These provide places for others to pursue their own changes. The trouble is if it crosses paths in secular realms, like Parliaments and Courts. This is a conflict zone of misunderstanding and constant beat and retreat.

    There are hostile ‘forces’ on either side, however, and one may have the megaphone while the other has a pulpit at other times. The tones are the same on either side.

  • Long Report: Driving home a point

    The New York Times likes to say its has a ‘great’ reputation, but the reality is farther from the truth than the Mexico border. It doesn’t have a great reputation in many parts of America.

    This is the fact I found as I spoke to people in America. I was visiting as part of a research trip and managed to encounter those who had things they wanted to say about their own culture.

    I find Americans are adept at making complaints. They have a reasonable attitude and like to settle matters into the issue. Any dispute is not with God, guns, or gold in the slightest.

    Seeing the truth

    The matter of religion is not settled there. It’s an ongoing narrative that’s the mainstay of popular debate. In fact, more than politics, it remains an unresolved mystery for the new republic.

    I found that everyone I spoke to wanted to move the topic of conversation to churchgoing and what it means to be religious. It’s the type of interest that exceeds Trump or even abortion.

    The insights I gathered centred on what religion can do fundamentally for people, underneath initiatives like a New Deal. There’s a question over the strength it provides for society.

    Hardline attitude

    The contrast is in a popular press. It’s in frequent headlines that belittle a state and its people. It’s in columns that often decry organised religion as a disease for everyone else.

    The conclusions are stark. They state that at least in a popular sense church going isn’t welcome. It implies having a private practice is a problem. It says worship is anathema.

    The sentiments are poisonous. They read like comments made over a drink, not in academia. The sort of beliefs that come about by bitterness, and not by a sense of enlightenment.

    Freedom of press

    As I read The Times over there, I found a distaste for what it meant. I knew others were less sure about it. It was obvious they wanted to know more. It was clear finding out was tricky.

    The freedom felt by a team of writers to collaborate over a damning story about a Pastor’s iniquity was not shared. It contrasted with a lack of it felt by those taking in all its points.

    My conclusion is America finds religion to be a private matter because it’s still an open controversy. Yet the discussions are seen as lively rather than as a bleak outlook for society.

  • The interplay of politics and religion

    Those who insist on pointing out similarities in religion should be careful not to believe the same can’t also be done in politics. If a belief in things that exist is there, such as the same figures or the same rights, the debate is over the facts of right and wrong.

    It’s also true that while people differ, a sense of purpose requires people to come back to do it again, just like it does in religion. It often hinges on the living and not just the dead in either. Individuals play a huge part in how people feel and the way it’s done.

  • On a corner, finding religion

    Looking for a church? Look no further, they’re everywhere. It’s uncommon not to see a Christian place of worship somewhere.

    Fulham Broadway Methodist Church

    So perhaps the question has a deeper nuance under the surface.

    It may be the type of church that’s a crucial factor for many people. It’s a choice those with a pre-existing background in religion have to consider.

    It may have been a particular childhood Sunday school, or a youth group that had a distinctive feel.

    Exterior Seating
    Noticeboard

    It’s usually a specific denomination that comes back to mind, after a time away.

    The reminders bring it back to memory that faith and spirituality also have a physical home.

  • Life at Westminster Cathedral

  • Charity in an era of conflict

    It’s takes little imagination to think life must be increasingly difficult for either side of a conflict, such as those which erupt in the region of Israel/Palestine in the Middle East. The sights and sounds of war frighten most of us, but a life lived under the skies of rockets flying and near to where an army is moving must make the air at times disconcerting to breathe.

    The reality for aid organisations is their clients need food and water quickly, as well as short-term supplies that make life at least bearable until the warring is over. The charity Colel Chabad for instance says 100,000 people have fled their homes in the North of Israel and they face a mounting issue not easy to overcome.

    In their latest communication they say the removal of such large numbers of people pockmarks the community and leaves positions unfilled in the neighbourhood. It also means in actuality many people are not working, aren’t learning, and don’t have the proper spaces in which to live their lives in dignity, and in respect of their faith.

    “Who among us isn’t wondering how ordinary Israelis are coping? Especially the 100,000 men, women and children who have been displaced from their homes in the north because of Hezbollah’s murderous missile attacks? Yes, 100,000 productive citizens have had to abandon their fields, grocery stores, pharmacies, and jobs in factories and hotels. Meanwhile it’s been nearly a full year with no work, no paychecks, no income.”

    Chabad, founded in Jerusalem, has been working for over 230 years in and amongst the Jewish people and, of course, in modern day Israel. The survival of a continuously operating charity in the heart of the Middle East is a testament to what people want; a sustainable way of life which values humanity and does not take away from it.

  • Is the Pope losing ground?

    The visit of the Pope to Luxembourg and then Belgium in recent days suggests a symbolic outreach by the Catholic Church to a part of Europe that is said to be in the throws of a religious decline.

    The import of it is without question, since any visit by a Pope is a serious gesture to a local religious community, and a region at large.

    Yet the question is whether the strength of an evangelical sort of Catholicism alive in many parts of the world but suffering a din in parts that says no regularly is still strong enough to survive it.

  • Exposed: “Homeward”, a thought life group

    It’s not easy sharing your thoughts or feelings. It’s not easy exposing your sins, either. We feel awkward as it’s normal to keep it back. We don’t want to articulate the unsayable. It feels odd to do it. It’s natural to our respective walks of life.

    There are those who find a faith or a friend who make them feel different. They can share and not be judged. It just makes it easier. It’s a different way of doing it. However, it might not sit well with others and misunderstanding can result.

    A community is joined around a central feature such as a common philosophy, set of beliefs, or a meaningful lifestyle. This sort of emotional outlet can disturb its sense of settledness and rile people.

    This is the backdrop to a group known as “Homeward”. It emerged in Europe after the Second World War and started because people needed to feel safe again. It turned into a strange philosophical cult that didn’t work out. It left people feeling sad, and bitter.

    In its “centre”, as it were, people made “teachings” to attentive listeners. These were filled with sayings, slogans, and types of thinking that relieved people of ideas they had been lead to believe were incorrect. These were religious statements such as doctrines they remembered.

    The thrust of the group was a trust in “new” teaching and not emotions because this was felt to be unreliable. Therefore they repeated and even created their own teachings to guide people away from confession or therapy sessions which relied on memory.

    The group expanded but had to leave its disparate settled state. In other words the pressure against it made it come together in a more coherent state and it fractured the settled “circle” it was felt to be.

    Their belief was in a constant motion “homeward” and its central practice was to maintain a state of believing in the journey. This entailed a focus and a consciousness of thought that was undisturbed. The opposition to it (due also to worries of abuse) led to difficulty in doing it.

    Their key figures were scattered and had to reorientate their lives to restore unity to their movement. They tried in their different ways to either be religious to this end or set up their own groups to signal to each other they were ready to come back together.

    There were a few who made it to establishing their own standing so they could begin to reform, but by that time former members were more proactive in making sure it didn’t happen. They had sufficient evidence to show it couldn’t come back together with those figures.

    The existence of religion in its different forms helps us each to proactively find a way to share who we are without being told what it is we need to say, think, or do at times. There are rules and doctrines but there’s also freedom in it beyond the controlling authority of cult figures.

  • The pumped up heads of evangelicalism

    The fallacies at the heart of evangelical life are deduced into two points; the false raising of revenue, and a need to revive interest in the trade.

    These are things that we know from criminal history, or our sordid pasts as nations.

    The threat of religion in Europe is that it retreats back because it appears more comforting to do so. This is the false witness of cowardice and it reigns supreme in some contexts.

    It’s neither painless nor more noble in its suffering. Indeed there is also a whisper of false humility that comes through its way of profession, too.

    Our times are fraught with people who need to raise funds, and push a false premise to do it. This reals in a sort of false religious voter, who spends more time defending it than enjoying a dividend.

    The reality is also a felt need to constantly pump up the values – and value – of this sort of way of life.

    It’s the impulse to draw in and crucify a desire for anything else than a religious version of it.

    Unfortunately many religions have this problem today.

    It stems maybe from a hesitancy to really understand the times and to exalt patience over miraculous immediacy. Those who start well also finish well, surely?

  • The way of being evangelical

    The religious ‘world’ is a turn of phrase for something we believe generally to understand. It’s not as simple as that of course but like the weather it helps if it can be.

    The simple ways in which things are described leads us to such conclusions as to not understand it.

    “If my life is any example to go by, maybe yours is too”, is one such statement made to me once. I didn’t agree but he was so cock sure of it I let it fly.

    The entrance made into a church is long and arduous for some. They are those who have a long road ahead of them because they’re ready for the journey. They also know it takes a lot to start out.

    In the other camp are those who take us along for a ride. It’s not always bumpy, they promise, and it can be fun. This isn’t always the case, but their intentions are laid out first by promises.

    It’s a minefield to navigate around and beyond with care because no one really understands what happens in there. The religious part is the mystery found anywhere else but the people are a real conundrum.

    It’s what I and others find out constantly as we tour religious groups and buildings.

    It isn’t a superior way of seeing things, it’s just a way of saying it.

    In my distant past I met a few key leaders who themselves did greater things than me. The miracles only ever come out of the best of us and folks like me don’t get there at all.

    It’s supposed to be another mystery we just can’t understand yet. The only remaining question is why they think it’s so.

    They’ve never been a mystery and neither are we.

  • Rushdie case progresses

    The FBI have pursued a case on the assault of Salman Rushdie on stage in August 2022.

    Hadi Matar, the alleged attacker, appeared in a federal court on Wednesday.

    The author was speaking in New York as Matar mounted the stage. He is alleged to have attacked Rushdie with a knife.

    Rushdie has since written about his ordeal.

    In 1989 Iran issued a fatwa against him because of The Satanic Verses, a book he wrote which offended some Muslims.

  • London Rathayatra

  • A change at Westminster Cathedral