QUOTE OF THE WEEK [from Sojourners]
As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say, "That's a terrible statement," I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack. And I'm going to be probably the only conservative in America who's going to say something like this, but I'm just telling you: We've got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, "You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus." And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had ... more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.
- Mike Huckabee, offering his perspective on the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
28 March 2008
26 March 2008
Split Enz in Christchurch
And a few days ago we took my old school friends Tony and Carolyn Bunting to see Split Enz in the Westpac Centre in Christchurch. What a night! The band were in great form - playing all those songs that we grew up with as if they were still 25 years younger! I had all of their records from the True Colours/Frenzy era onwards but had never seen them live. We were dazzled by the set, lighting and costumes (thanks to Noel Crombie's brilliance) but the musicianship was the highlight... brilliant keyboards, guitar, bass and drumming and then the Finn's singing. It was good to see Neil Finn playing in the band that formed him - he and Tim Finn were a great tandem act - in Split Enz they both offered as much as each other, whereas since then Neil's light has shone brightest.
It was also fun being in an audience of people predominantly my age and older! The opening band was The Phoenix Foundation a rising star in the NZ music scene who I hadn't really heard before.
How spoilt we are - Crowded House in November and Split Enz in March - awesome!
Juno
Anne and I watched the movie Juno yesterday (before the movies stopped showing it!). It was great! It dealt with the serious issues of teenage pregnancy, infertility, parenting, and what makes for a good relationship with humour and grace. It didn't seem to be like most American movies which can at times seem a bit too far removed from reality or the script a bit corny. This could have been set in NZ or Australia given the style, the undergirding humour and the gentle way the issues were handled.
We enjoyed seeing Alison Janney (CJ in The West Wing) in a different role as Juno's stepmother. Both the parents in the movie modelled something very good - a few deep breaths, seeing the lighter side of what loomed as a dark situation, cna being slow to judge and quick to care... good stuff! Highly recommended!
We enjoyed seeing Alison Janney (CJ in The West Wing) in a different role as Juno's stepmother. Both the parents in the movie modelled something very good - a few deep breaths, seeing the lighter side of what loomed as a dark situation, cna being slow to judge and quick to care... good stuff! Highly recommended!
22 March 2008
Barack Obama takes us to a greater threshold
Obama's recent speech on race issues and politics could have just been a defence of his different views to his pastor or worse, using his pastor as a scapegoat - a political discard (Easter revisited!) - instead he opens up a whole new dimension of how everyone needs to give some thought to where next and how people want to be... it is a powerful speech written by Obama himself - no speech-writers here... thus we gain a great insight into his heart...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/18/obama-race-speech-read-t_n_92077.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/18/obama-race-speech-read-t_n_92077.html
20 March 2008
an idea for Easter that sounds reasonable!
Last year some people from my church presented me with this little card they picked up in England - facetiously suggesting that it might be an idea around here! I tried it out but there were no takers! But this is a new year - a new Easter...
19 March 2008
Holy Week
There is a green hill far away,
Outside a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.
We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.
11 March 2008
Vanuatu Truck Purchase
THE EBULE TRAINING CENTRE
IN PORT VILA, VANUATU HAS A NEW
TRUCK!
Rob Meier (pictured with a couple of students) recently purchased a Citroen diesel 1.9 litre, 2002 model with 78,000 km on the clock. It has a 3 month mechanical warranty and drives like a dream. It is very multifunctional with room enough for full size sheets of plywood lying flat. The cost was 1.350 million vatu, and rego and warrant a further 112,000vt. This leaves sufficient money for the insurance and maintenance for the next year.
Thanks for your help!
Once again it has been proved that anything is possible when a few people get together. We are very grateful for the support from seventy-two households, churches or businesses. We are reminded of Jesus sending out 70 (or 72) saying: “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” We risked asking, and the harvest was plentiful! Well done!
Martin & Anne Stewart March 2008
IN PORT VILA, VANUATU HAS A NEW
TRUCK!
Rob Meier (pictured with a couple of students) recently purchased a Citroen diesel 1.9 litre, 2002 model with 78,000 km on the clock. It has a 3 month mechanical warranty and drives like a dream. It is very multifunctional with room enough for full size sheets of plywood lying flat. The cost was 1.350 million vatu, and rego and warrant a further 112,000vt. This leaves sufficient money for the insurance and maintenance for the next year.
Thanks for your help!
Once again it has been proved that anything is possible when a few people get together. We are very grateful for the support from seventy-two households, churches or businesses. We are reminded of Jesus sending out 70 (or 72) saying: “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” We risked asking, and the harvest was plentiful! Well done!
Martin & Anne Stewart March 2008
26 February 2008
rubbish free
I've just been reading www.rubbishfreeyear.co.nz/ - a Christchurch couple attempting to live rubbish free all year. They offer great tips for recycling, avoiding waste etc. They have hens - we've been thinking about getting some as well as we try to live more simply.
who looks?
In the latest magazine of Spanz (my denominational magazine which can also be viewed online at http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/) my colleague Fyfe Blair (from Highgate, Dunedin days) and I contributed some ideas about blogging - you can read the article here: http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/4800.0.html.
I am rather cautious about the whole concept of blogging and even more so after reading Ben Elton's latest and excellent novel Blind Faith. Elton exposes how many of the things of our culture can be taken too far, get too serious, be too personally invasive etc etc.
In the last week I've had a couple of encouraging emails from overseas ministers who say they enjoy my blog - which is encouraging (though I have no idea how they found their way to it). But I do wonder how many people do look, and whether those who do might have any suggestions about what kind of content they enjoy and would like more of.
Would you dare to email me martin@ststephens.co.nz or hit the comment header below and share a thought?
I am rather cautious about the whole concept of blogging and even more so after reading Ben Elton's latest and excellent novel Blind Faith. Elton exposes how many of the things of our culture can be taken too far, get too serious, be too personally invasive etc etc.
In the last week I've had a couple of encouraging emails from overseas ministers who say they enjoy my blog - which is encouraging (though I have no idea how they found their way to it). But I do wonder how many people do look, and whether those who do might have any suggestions about what kind of content they enjoy and would like more of.
Would you dare to email me martin@ststephens.co.nz or hit the comment header below and share a thought?
24 February 2008
address at rochester & rutherford halls
I've picked up the chaplaincy responsibility at R & R Halls - a student residential college at Canterbury University. We had our commencement service and meal last Thursday. I gave the following address on freedom and boundaries, mentioning among other things a reference to Yann Martel's Life of Pi and the outcome of the Tea Ropati rape trial...
I wonder how you are going as you settle into life in Christchurch, at University and at R&R in particular.
Because of talking with you tonight I’ve thought a lot about my own experience starting at university – living in a hall and what it was like (Knox College in Dunedin for me).
Actually I revelled in the residential hall experience – after a few days of adjustment that is. I recall dealing with the competing feelings of excitement at the great adventure of it all, along with the grief associated with moving away from a life I had known and enjoyed… everything had changed…
I think home-sickness is a lot about the grief associated with letting go what was good and safe and secure… it affects people differently because some people are more attached to the life of home than others…
In my observation, come the second weekend away, almost all home-sickness finds its rightful place – not so overwhelming, more a gentle reminder that you are loved and you are missed and that whatever this place becomes, there is always another place called home.
Mostly I recall the sense of freedom associated with shifting away and going to university. It was great – I had entered another world with significantly fewer constraints – if I was absent from something no one checked up on me – if I wanted to go out I could – if there was something on that I wanted to go to I did.
Are you enjoying that freedom?
But I also recall the sense of security that went along with that freedom because of where I lived – the security of knowing where my next meal was coming from – the comfort of a warm place to sleep at night surrounded by my things – the sanctuary of being in a community of peers, many of whom I got to know and enjoy and whose support I valued.
As much as I revelled in the freedom of being at university, I also valued the boundaries that were in my life, especially because of being in a hostel. I could go out but there was always a base to head back to.
That’s the strange thing about freedom – it seems to need boundaries around it for it to exist.
I’ll try and explain.
There’s a great little novel by Yann Martel called Life of Pi. Have you read it? It’s mostly about a boy who ends up on a lifeboat with 227 days with a tiger named Richard Parker. Pi’s father owned a zoo in India and they were relocating to another country when the ship sunk. The bit about freedom that I found fascinating was Pi’s observation about whether the animals in the zoo were freer in the wild or in the zoo. He observed that in the zoo the animals could relax in a way that they never would in the wild. Surrounded by fences they were free of the threat of predators and free of the worry over their next meal. Zoo life was almost stress-free for these animals – and they generally lived much longer because of it.
I think it was the same with my children – by having some rules and boundaries they have been able to be free to grow without great stress in their lives. They have known lines that are not to be crossed (mostly for their safety and my sanity), and they have known who is in charge, and as they have grown those boundaries have loosened as they have been ready for more independence. Around me at times have been other parents who have not provided such boundaries – their children act out, always seemed to be over-tired, and many of them struggled among their peers and in their schooling. They were stressed. Why? Because those kids were in charge before they were mature enough to handle the responsibility – those kids were in charge, whereas the adults should have been.
What do you get if life has no boundaries? Anarchy. Of course, every so often the boundaries need to be challenged. That’s the problem with boundaries – the fences can get too high and too unyielding and they begin to oppress people. But if there are no boundaries then people have no security – no safe-guards and no freedom.
I don’t know if you are familiar with the 10 Commandments [Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21]. The ‘thou shalt not’s’ of the Old Testament. For a long time I kind of resented the way they were used in the church as a kind of stick to beat people around with. But lately I’ve come to understand their role as being the boundaries for human freedom. Kind of like a fence that we can live within and be free. The commandments were given to Israel when they were in the desert having escaped enslavement in Egypt and before they entered the Promised Land. These boundaries were about how the people could be truly free in their new land and how they could achieve that freedom by being attentive to how they were before God and before each other.
I want to suggest that if there are not some good boundaries in place in your new life in Christchurch then you will be vulnerable to some things that might cause you considerable harm and distress and work to rob you of your freedom.
I don’t know if you caught up with the outcome of the Tea Ropati trial a week or two ago. He was acquitted of a rape charge. It appears that the woman who had laid the complaint of rape was grossly intoxicated and in a blackout phase (which doesn’t mean she was comatosed but rather that she could function but without any clear memory of what was going on). But it also appears that Ropati was aware of that state and still pursued a sexual encounter with her.
Was it rape? No, the court determined. But was it honourable on Ropati’s part? No, but there is no law against being dishonourable. Was the woman free? Hang no, she was incredibly vulnerable – very at risk, and fundamentally she put herself into the position where it was unclear whether the sex was consensual or not. She didn’t have appropriate boundaries in her life. But neither did Ropati – who also had a partner and family. Both of them have a lot to think about.
The Apostle Paul had given thought to the freedom that he experienced in Jesus Christ. He saw that once he had been a slave to a life of having to get everything right in his own strength – and he had even overseen the killing of followers of this Jesus thinking that he was right. But it all changed for him in knowing Jesus.
“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life,” he wrote to the church in the region of Galatia (modern day Turkey). “Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?”
My prayer is that as you enter this new season in your lives and enter into the adventure of it, that you will also find your security and thereby your freedom in some of the boundaries offered to you in the discipline of study, the loyalty of new friendships, and especially in your life in this Hall. Keep yourselves safe and God bless you and keep you! Amen.
I wonder how you are going as you settle into life in Christchurch, at University and at R&R in particular.
Because of talking with you tonight I’ve thought a lot about my own experience starting at university – living in a hall and what it was like (Knox College in Dunedin for me).
Actually I revelled in the residential hall experience – after a few days of adjustment that is. I recall dealing with the competing feelings of excitement at the great adventure of it all, along with the grief associated with moving away from a life I had known and enjoyed… everything had changed…
I think home-sickness is a lot about the grief associated with letting go what was good and safe and secure… it affects people differently because some people are more attached to the life of home than others…
In my observation, come the second weekend away, almost all home-sickness finds its rightful place – not so overwhelming, more a gentle reminder that you are loved and you are missed and that whatever this place becomes, there is always another place called home.
Mostly I recall the sense of freedom associated with shifting away and going to university. It was great – I had entered another world with significantly fewer constraints – if I was absent from something no one checked up on me – if I wanted to go out I could – if there was something on that I wanted to go to I did.
Are you enjoying that freedom?
But I also recall the sense of security that went along with that freedom because of where I lived – the security of knowing where my next meal was coming from – the comfort of a warm place to sleep at night surrounded by my things – the sanctuary of being in a community of peers, many of whom I got to know and enjoy and whose support I valued.
As much as I revelled in the freedom of being at university, I also valued the boundaries that were in my life, especially because of being in a hostel. I could go out but there was always a base to head back to.
That’s the strange thing about freedom – it seems to need boundaries around it for it to exist.
I’ll try and explain.
There’s a great little novel by Yann Martel called Life of Pi. Have you read it? It’s mostly about a boy who ends up on a lifeboat with 227 days with a tiger named Richard Parker. Pi’s father owned a zoo in India and they were relocating to another country when the ship sunk. The bit about freedom that I found fascinating was Pi’s observation about whether the animals in the zoo were freer in the wild or in the zoo. He observed that in the zoo the animals could relax in a way that they never would in the wild. Surrounded by fences they were free of the threat of predators and free of the worry over their next meal. Zoo life was almost stress-free for these animals – and they generally lived much longer because of it.
I think it was the same with my children – by having some rules and boundaries they have been able to be free to grow without great stress in their lives. They have known lines that are not to be crossed (mostly for their safety and my sanity), and they have known who is in charge, and as they have grown those boundaries have loosened as they have been ready for more independence. Around me at times have been other parents who have not provided such boundaries – their children act out, always seemed to be over-tired, and many of them struggled among their peers and in their schooling. They were stressed. Why? Because those kids were in charge before they were mature enough to handle the responsibility – those kids were in charge, whereas the adults should have been.
What do you get if life has no boundaries? Anarchy. Of course, every so often the boundaries need to be challenged. That’s the problem with boundaries – the fences can get too high and too unyielding and they begin to oppress people. But if there are no boundaries then people have no security – no safe-guards and no freedom.
I don’t know if you are familiar with the 10 Commandments [Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21]. The ‘thou shalt not’s’ of the Old Testament. For a long time I kind of resented the way they were used in the church as a kind of stick to beat people around with. But lately I’ve come to understand their role as being the boundaries for human freedom. Kind of like a fence that we can live within and be free. The commandments were given to Israel when they were in the desert having escaped enslavement in Egypt and before they entered the Promised Land. These boundaries were about how the people could be truly free in their new land and how they could achieve that freedom by being attentive to how they were before God and before each other.
I want to suggest that if there are not some good boundaries in place in your new life in Christchurch then you will be vulnerable to some things that might cause you considerable harm and distress and work to rob you of your freedom.
I don’t know if you caught up with the outcome of the Tea Ropati trial a week or two ago. He was acquitted of a rape charge. It appears that the woman who had laid the complaint of rape was grossly intoxicated and in a blackout phase (which doesn’t mean she was comatosed but rather that she could function but without any clear memory of what was going on). But it also appears that Ropati was aware of that state and still pursued a sexual encounter with her.
Was it rape? No, the court determined. But was it honourable on Ropati’s part? No, but there is no law against being dishonourable. Was the woman free? Hang no, she was incredibly vulnerable – very at risk, and fundamentally she put herself into the position where it was unclear whether the sex was consensual or not. She didn’t have appropriate boundaries in her life. But neither did Ropati – who also had a partner and family. Both of them have a lot to think about.
The Apostle Paul had given thought to the freedom that he experienced in Jesus Christ. He saw that once he had been a slave to a life of having to get everything right in his own strength – and he had even overseen the killing of followers of this Jesus thinking that he was right. But it all changed for him in knowing Jesus.
“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life,” he wrote to the church in the region of Galatia (modern day Turkey). “Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?”
My prayer is that as you enter this new season in your lives and enter into the adventure of it, that you will also find your security and thereby your freedom in some of the boundaries offered to you in the discipline of study, the loyalty of new friendships, and especially in your life in this Hall. Keep yourselves safe and God bless you and keep you! Amen.
22 February 2008
So long Madge
Madge Allsop has died.
Actress Emily Perry, who played Dame Edna Everidge's glum-faced, brow-beaten bridesmaid, died in an English retirement home on Wednesday, aged 100.
Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna) commented that he thought if Dame Edna was to pay tribute, she'd say: "I'd wish I'd been nicer to her."
I have from time to time wondered if a Madge Allsop-type figure sitting near the pulpit of most preachers would be a good foil for those times when the preacher is a bit excessive and over-the-top. To have a Madge sitting deadpan and unresponsive would be the perfect foil - a counter-measure to any flights of ego.
In her blankness Madge was a perfect foil to Dame Edna's flambouyance - a reminder that some balance helps the world go around as it should.
08 February 2008
great site
I've just linked up with free range studios and their stunning series on YouTube: "The Story of Stuff" - my friend Bruce Hamill pointed me in that direction, and in the direction of an acquainatnce Jolyon White who is attempting to live on $1 a day in Dunedin starting 5 Feb. You can track him by hitting: http://www.onedollaraday.net.nz
http://www.youtube.com/Freerangestudios
http://www.youtube.com/Freerangestudios
31 January 2008
a quote from Sojourners Community
The Creator goes off on one wild, specific tangent after another, or millions simultaneously, with an exuberance that would seem to be unwarranted, and with an abandoned energy sprung from an unfathomable font. What is going on here? The point of the dragonfly’s terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows, is not that it all fits together like clockwork—for it doesn’t, particularly, not even inside the goldfish bowl—but that it all flows so freely wild, like the creek, that it all surges in such a free fringed tangle. Freedom is the world’s water and weather, the world’s nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.
- Annie Dillard Teaching a Stone to Talk
- Annie Dillard Teaching a Stone to Talk
29 January 2008
Bernard's poem
My friend Bernard Thornton writes poems - the ones I see are often related to conversations we have - he picks up something and takes it somewhere special. His latest came through a couple of weeks ago and he wasn't unhappy about it appearing in the blog...
Disciple
For our New Year’s resolution
let us agree
to find new ways
of letting things
enter us
shoals
simply having the faith
to put out our nets
without question
without anxiety concerning outcomes
let us be ready
standing quietly
patiently
at the edge of things
listening looking
Bernard Thornton
Disciple
For our New Year’s resolution
let us agree
to find new ways
of letting things
enter us
shoals
simply having the faith
to put out our nets
without question
without anxiety concerning outcomes
let us be ready
standing quietly
patiently
at the edge of things
listening looking
Bernard Thornton
Barack Obama
Anne and I are big fans of Barack Obama - the attached speech on reconciling faith and politcs from 2006 is very interesting... we hope he makes it this year but are nervous about monsters with guns in the land of polarisations.
Power, madness & victory Part 2
the rant on power etc from last Tuesday turned into the following sermon by Sunday...
http://www.ststephens.co.nz/ministry/sermons/collection/20080127.1201313698.php
http://www.ststephens.co.nz/ministry/sermons/collection/20080127.1201313698.php
folly of our ways
Foolishness
by Bertrand Russell
Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish forever.
Source: In Praise of Idleness
from: inward/outward
by Bertrand Russell
Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish forever.
Source: In Praise of Idleness
from: inward/outward
26 January 2008
Thoughts on the church and power
I'm enjoying receiving daily 'thoughts' from the 'inward/outward' site of the Church of the Savior in Washington DC. You even get a chance to interact! Here's one thought they sent a couple of days ago and my interaction - these can be viewed at http://www.inwardoutward.org/?p=620
Moving From Talk to PowerWritten by admin January 24th, 2008 in on the way
By John Perkins
If we as Christians can see the issues of our day—the poverty, the racism, war and injustice—and if we can use the skills and resources that we get from our training at school or on the job, and if we can really be open to being equipped by the Spirit of God, then we will be used. We must lie on our beds at night and wrestle with how we can individually and collectively bring our faith from talk to power, how we can bring our faith and works to bear on the real issues of human need.
I believe that right now we are facing a most difficult time in history. We are discovering that old strategies have failed and that the new ones, or rediscovered ones, will not let us hold onto our old lifestyles.
Source: A Quiet Revolution
and...
Martin Stewart Jan 24th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Parts of John’s words work for me and other parts cause concern - without a doubt he is right to say that our faith should move to action. But what kind of action. His use of the word power (instead of action) makes me nervous. Being a Power is not the calling of the church - rather we are to call the powers to account and remind them of their vocation which is to serve. Excellent work on this has been done by Marva Dawn in recent times, and the likes of Jacques Ellul and William Stringfellow in the past 50 years. If we become a power and powerful then we will oppress, we will cause injustice, etc. Our posture before the world is that of Christ - who acted, spoke out and exposed the powers, and then submitted to them. He never called us to power, but to serve.
Moving From Talk to PowerWritten by admin January 24th, 2008 in on the way
By John Perkins
If we as Christians can see the issues of our day—the poverty, the racism, war and injustice—and if we can use the skills and resources that we get from our training at school or on the job, and if we can really be open to being equipped by the Spirit of God, then we will be used. We must lie on our beds at night and wrestle with how we can individually and collectively bring our faith from talk to power, how we can bring our faith and works to bear on the real issues of human need.
I believe that right now we are facing a most difficult time in history. We are discovering that old strategies have failed and that the new ones, or rediscovered ones, will not let us hold onto our old lifestyles.
Source: A Quiet Revolution
and...
Martin Stewart Jan 24th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Parts of John’s words work for me and other parts cause concern - without a doubt he is right to say that our faith should move to action. But what kind of action. His use of the word power (instead of action) makes me nervous. Being a Power is not the calling of the church - rather we are to call the powers to account and remind them of their vocation which is to serve. Excellent work on this has been done by Marva Dawn in recent times, and the likes of Jacques Ellul and William Stringfellow in the past 50 years. If we become a power and powerful then we will oppress, we will cause injustice, etc. Our posture before the world is that of Christ - who acted, spoke out and exposed the powers, and then submitted to them. He never called us to power, but to serve.
23 January 2008
Prayer
A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening.
- Søren KierkegaardChristian Discourses
- Søren KierkegaardChristian Discourses
Power, madness & victory
Today's news... kind of bleak really - that five top military advisors to Nato and the US are promoting the idea of pre-emptive nuclear strikes as a way of the West protecting their way of life and dealing with other countries that are going down the nuclear weapons road. Great! Here is the way to handle people different from us - hit them with the very thing we want to discourage them from having! Yeah right! Why is the military option always the only option? In what ways does escalation and threat prevent a repsonse of escalation and threat?
God help us!
I popped onto the website of The Press the Christchurch daily, and here is a fairly sad list of what else is going on...
More World Stories
Zimbabwe opposition challenges protest ban
Sick Indonesian man has bird flu
Russia to investigate opposition challenger
Militants kill five Pakistani troops
Chess champion Bobby Fischer buried in Iceland
Transport problems persist in flooded UK
No peace deal if Israel keeps building
Diana bodyguard to reveal details of her final moments
Double killing shocks Tonga
Israel agrees to ease Gaza blockade after protests
Italy govt wobbles as party withdraws support
US White House contenders celebrate King legacy
Musharraf pledges free elections
Beijing denies 10 deaths at Olympics stadium
Heavy rains kill 17 canoeing on Zambia lake
Parliament challenges Brown on EU treaty
Bomber kills 15 at funeral in northern Iraq
Israeli blockade deepens hardship in Gaza
Security breach after UK defence ministry laptop stolen
Ukraine family seeking asylum saved from Swiss Alps
Kenya condemns opposition 'sabotage' plan
France's oldest man - a WW1 vet - dies
Top Fiji businessman slams military regime
Graffitists swept to death in Sydney drain
Nationalist ahead in first round Serb president vote
New pictures of Madeleine 'suspect' released
Metal detectors to fight knife crime in British schools
McCain, Clinton look to next White House battle
Lights go out in Gaza as power plant shuts down
Man dies after police taser gun shot
Cambodian police block Mia Farrow's rally
McCain expects to do well in Florida
Japan follows Europe by tapping offshore wind for power
Three killed in Kenya clashes, opposition defiant
Pakistan forces press attack on militant stronghold
Georgia, Russia pledge better ties at inauguration
Mountain searched after Angolan plane crash
Sometimes it is getting hard to breathe and I need to go up for air...
I subscribe to a daily 'thought' from the Church of the Savior in Washington and got the air I needed today from these words of William Stringfellow (one of my heroes)
"It is worse than you think it is and you are freer than you think you are. The powers are raging beyond your control and they are already overcome in Christ. The division is an uncrossable spiritual chasm and it's been crossed."
Source: Conference on Religion and Race, Chicago, 1963
We Christians live into another reality - the victory won and the kingdom coming... it is our Christ-given, hopeful, radical posture before ther world with all its travail and woe... "God help us, God give me hope. Amen."
http://inwardoutward.org/
God help us!
I popped onto the website of The Press the Christchurch daily, and here is a fairly sad list of what else is going on...
More World Stories
Zimbabwe opposition challenges protest ban
Sick Indonesian man has bird flu
Russia to investigate opposition challenger
Militants kill five Pakistani troops
Chess champion Bobby Fischer buried in Iceland
Transport problems persist in flooded UK
No peace deal if Israel keeps building
Diana bodyguard to reveal details of her final moments
Double killing shocks Tonga
Israel agrees to ease Gaza blockade after protests
Italy govt wobbles as party withdraws support
US White House contenders celebrate King legacy
Musharraf pledges free elections
Beijing denies 10 deaths at Olympics stadium
Heavy rains kill 17 canoeing on Zambia lake
Parliament challenges Brown on EU treaty
Bomber kills 15 at funeral in northern Iraq
Israeli blockade deepens hardship in Gaza
Security breach after UK defence ministry laptop stolen
Ukraine family seeking asylum saved from Swiss Alps
Kenya condemns opposition 'sabotage' plan
France's oldest man - a WW1 vet - dies
Top Fiji businessman slams military regime
Graffitists swept to death in Sydney drain
Nationalist ahead in first round Serb president vote
New pictures of Madeleine 'suspect' released
Metal detectors to fight knife crime in British schools
McCain, Clinton look to next White House battle
Lights go out in Gaza as power plant shuts down
Man dies after police taser gun shot
Cambodian police block Mia Farrow's rally
McCain expects to do well in Florida
Japan follows Europe by tapping offshore wind for power
Three killed in Kenya clashes, opposition defiant
Pakistan forces press attack on militant stronghold
Georgia, Russia pledge better ties at inauguration
Mountain searched after Angolan plane crash
Sometimes it is getting hard to breathe and I need to go up for air...
I subscribe to a daily 'thought' from the Church of the Savior in Washington and got the air I needed today from these words of William Stringfellow (one of my heroes)
"It is worse than you think it is and you are freer than you think you are. The powers are raging beyond your control and they are already overcome in Christ. The division is an uncrossable spiritual chasm and it's been crossed."
Source: Conference on Religion and Race, Chicago, 1963
We Christians live into another reality - the victory won and the kingdom coming... it is our Christ-given, hopeful, radical posture before ther world with all its travail and woe... "God help us, God give me hope. Amen."
http://inwardoutward.org/
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