postmodernbible

Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)- - 100 Artists See God

Link: Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)- - 100 Artists See God.

This looks interesting. There was an article about it and the the Arts and God in general in yesterday's Independent Arts&Books review. Some highly questionable understandings of Christianity...but interesting concepts going on.

Hope to go and see this after my meetings in london next Tuesday afternoon and then get the late train back to Sheffield.

Pete

Vanunu

I was saddened to receive this message from Bishop Riah in Jerusalem:

It is with tremendous grief and sadness that I inform you that the Israeli special police force entered St George's Cathedral Close today without permission and took Mordechai Vanunu into custody. Approximately thirty officers, many with guns, entered the cathedral gardens and interrupted breakfast in the Pilgrim Guest House. It was a traumatic event that terrorized many of our tourists, pilgrims, and staff. In the 100 years of the cathedral's history, such an event has never taken place. 

Immediately I related how they have come into a sacred place, and that their guns were not welcome. The officers with guns withdrew to outside of the Cathedral Close; however, it came to my attention later, that at least one of the officers still carried a concealed weapon. This was after I had been reassured that all weapons had been removed from the church grounds. It is inconceivable why such force is mandated for procedures like today's.

Mordechai was calm during the search, questioning the need for the interrogation, and they searched his room in his and my presence. They took his papers, laptop, and other possessions into custody. I called his lawyer, and he will meet Mordechai in Petah Tiqva.

This type of entry into a sacred space must not be tolerated by the churches throughout the world, and it must not be accepted by those who respect the rights and dignity of every person. We ask the government of Israel to stop such actions as these, and we call for the respect of sacred places in the Land of the Holy One. It is with extreme sadness and disappointment that I must write this letter, and please continue to pray for us in these difficult times.

Peace of God to all of you,

The Rt Revd Riah Abu El-Assal
Bishop in Jerusalem

Blessed are the persecuted...

Pete

History according to 'the Feed'

"...First, in the deserts and veldts arose oral culture, the culture of the spoken word.  Then in the cities with their temples and bazaars came the pictographs, and later, symbols that produced sounds as if by magic, and what followed was written culture.  Then, in the universities and under the steeples of young nations, print culture.  These - oral culture, written culture, the culture of print - these have always been considered the great epochs of man.

But we have entered a new age.  We are a new people.  It is now the age of oneiric culture, the culture of dreams.

And we are the nation of dreams.  We are seers.  We are wizards.  We speak in visions.  Our letters are like flocks of doves, released from under our hats.  We have only to stretch out our hand and desire, and what we wish for settles like a kerchief in our palm.  We are a race of sorcerers, enchanters.  We are Atlantis.  We are the wizard-isle of Mu.

What we wish for, is ours.

It is the age of oneiric culture.  And we, America, we are the nation of dreams."

On remembering Arafat, on reading Feed

I heard the news with some sadness that Yasser Arafat had died.  I hear all the stuff that he never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.  I hear all the stuff about him being a terrorist rather than a politician - he was indeed, as someone said last Friday on Radio 4, no Nelson Mandela.  And yet, he was a respected father to the Palestinians.  He led them to partial autonomy; he stood up against the bullying and harassing policies of the Israelis and the Americans.  Flawed, broken, hammered - I mourn the loss to the Palestinian people.

I finished reading Feed by M T Anderson last night.  It ends with the death not only of a young girl but the probablilty that society is dying in the background.  The book is set in the future when we have direct feeds from the internet into our brains - wired to our limbic system.  Violet's goes wrong.  It paralyses her.  The tragedy is that she, and just about only she, understands how much the feed has already paralysed the society in which she lives.  Everything has been sacrificed to consumerism - life is about being a consumer, about living the American dream, about focussing totally on hedonistic pleasure and sod the rest of the world.  Titus is completely locked into the feed - he cannot cope with the emotions he has about Violet's impending death - consumerism has robbed him of his passion - she is broken and needs to be thrown away - he reacts by drug abuse and denial.  His reaction is to go on a spending spree and to sit naked in his room in catatonic shock.  A tragedy of young love.  There isn't that much new in the book - you will find the same stuff in the much better book by Doug Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma - which picks up a much more apocalyptic imagery.  But it certainly made me think and feel and hope that the feed is not making me. 

In a week when  the American press slammed Global Warming as a European Conspiracy, when a Denver medical research centre said that the masive increase in winter asthma levels has nothing to do with air pollution caused by carbon emissions, when the country gears itself up for the consumer blitz of Christmas, I found the book so unsettling.  It really was as though Feed was not a future prophecy but a present analysis.  There's a quote from the book which I will add when I bring it down to work later...all about the oneiric era - the era of dreams...God help us!

Today, as I mess around with College paperwork - pleasing the bureaucratic overlords - my soul is grieving...grieving for Arafat, grieiving for Palestine, grieving for Violet and Titus, grieving for our planet...and wondering what in the world God can do to bring salvation.  It's good for your prayer life, all this grief!  Oh yes...remembrance day...

Pete

Adjusted election maps

Link: Adjusted election maps.

Some amazingly scary stuff coming out on the American Election. Pretty graphics here.

Plus Jonny Baker has listed some (surely spurious) information on IQ results vs. voting preferences.

I am sure they cannot be right. I mean...what are you suggesting - that people who vote for Bush don't know the difference between a politician and a monkey! The man's a born again Christian - how could he be wrong. The only way he got elected was because the Lord appointed it be the case...what, why would I need a straightjacket....what do you mean...you've been reading my blog...no, please, not the one way ticket to Guantanamo...

Pete

The Lamb Wins!?

Well, stayed up last night to watch the rather strange American democratic process grind out the result I have been rather dreading. I can't see that Kerry can do it. My evangelical colleagues will probably be delighted that Bush has done it - the born again believer has been blessed by his Lord. In fact, my good friend Andy said just that on the way into work this morning. I wasn't so convinced that Romans 13 should be applied in this way. On the one hand, part of me wants to rejoice that the more excessive liberal agenda has been put on ice - especially with republicans getting the Senate as well as the White House. Looks like there is going to be some major change in moral decision making - although I reckon this will lead to even more dissent and anger over in the States. But on the other hand, what does this say about Iraq? Will Bush use this as a mandate to invade Iran? Will this be seen as an approval of his disastrous environmental policy - is the Day After Tomorrow even closer to reality? On the third (?) hand, will we now get some action on Palestine? will Bush come of the fence and address some of the justice issues which I know are close to God's own heart. God shout louder - the man from Texas needs to hear you!

I taught an introductory class on Revelation yesterday and was reminded of the Czech church noticeboard following the Velvet Revolution - "The Lamb Wins" - in the end it is not about partisan politics or bashing up the other side in favour of human gain. It is about what God is about. As Revelation teaches us, the whole point of seeing the unfolding of human history in apocalyptic terms is not to focus on the chaos that is human stewardship of creation, but on the FACT that the Lamb wins and that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and that every tear shall be wiped from every eye. Mara Natha, Come, Lord Jesus.

Pete

Taking Da Vinci Code way too seriously

Taking Da Vinci Code way too seriously

Great response to the Da Vinci issue.

Pete