Mr Grumpy-Grumps
Posted: February 21, 2013 Filed under: Church, Culture, Journalism, Personal | Tags: BBC, Belief, Christianity, Church, Culture, Cynical, Grumpy, media, UK 3 Comments »
It was a dreary Sunday morning. I didn’t fancy cycling 30 minutes to church in monsoon conditions. So I took the lazy option and caught a taxi with a friend.
Early on in the journey I announced that although we’d asked to be taken to the local cinema, on a Sunday morning it’s actually a church! Sadly the driver didn’t share my enthusiasm for this exciting fact, but as we went on our way he did point out a new church in the city which I hadn’t seen before. As I looked toward the converted warehouse, I immediately recognised the logo on the front of the building. The church belonged to the fastest growing Christian denomination in the UK.
After I shared this useless piece of knowledge, the driver voiced his concern that the organisation was probably only interested in taking money from its members. Rather than being meek and mild about his comment, I got a little agitated. I wasn’t rude, but I was straight with him. I told him that just because an organisation is big, it doesn’t automatically make it solely interested in money.
In my experience, (and forgive the generalisation) much of the non church going public are quite happy for their local parish church to run a fete, do a little community work and help the poor, but as soon as church membership and resources expand beyond 10 members and 50p in the offering, it’s a different story. Mr Taxi “Grumpy-grumps” Driver emerges to spoil the fun with his own brand of anti-religious cynicism.
This negativity is often reflected back to us by the media. I am a strong believer that we get the media we deserve. Every newspaper and news channel (with the exception of the BBC) relies on consumer interest in order to stay afloat. The Sun exists to give Sun readers what they want. If Sun readers change their minds, the paper changes its mind. The media doesn’t tend to force content on us. It simply gives us what we’ve always wanted.
Why is much of the media negative and cynical? Because much of the public is negative and cynical. And that’s why a story like this one titled “Religious satellite TV show Miracle Hour ‘risking lives’” has made its way onto the BBC.
My issue is not that the TV station has been pulled up on their actions (praying for sick people), but that the BBC chooses to report a negative story despite there being thousands of testimonies from people in the UK – all claiming to have been healed of all sorts of conditions.
The media decides it’s better to criticise people praying, because people praying is a more interesting story than someone actually being healed. They decide this because much of the public has decided this.
In the same way, ‘real life’ magazines decide that a story about a 20 year old having an affair with an 80 year old would interest their readers more than cancer being instantly cured. Welcome to 21st century Western news values. And remember, the media doesn’t create news values. We do.
Who is Mr Grumpy-Grumps, anyway? It’s not the cat. It’s me.
Yes, the title of this post is my fiancée’s (affectionate?) nickname for yours truly. Perhaps I’m proving her point by writing this blog post? Because if you boil my few hundred words down to their most basic essence all you’ll find is ‘a grumpy young man ranting about a grumpy old world’ (this is also known as blogging).
And if that wasn’t shocking enough, I have another bombshell to end on: The Daily Mail published an excellent article this week. I’d go as far to say it partially discredits much of what I’ve written here today. Perhaps our society isn’t as grumpy as I thought? Maybe the problem is me. Mr Grumpy-Grumps.
Parklife 2012
Posted: June 19, 2012 Filed under: Faith, Personal, Southampton, Church, Summer Time | Tags: Christian, Church, healing, Jesus, Life Church, Palmerston Park, Parklife, Southampton 1 Comment »For the last three years I have been involved in a project called Parklife.
The idea is really simple. Put up a big tent in the middle of a Southampton city-centre park, invite people of all ages and backgrounds to come along and show them that God is real, alive and loves them.
The concept really boils down to #churchinthepark. Culture, and in turn the media have moved from a default position of openness to the Christian message to skepticism. Our job as Christians is not to just preach, but actively demonstrate through real down-to-earth actions that God cares and his message really is good and really is for everyone.
Healing
One of my favourite stories from this year was a man who came to the event in a wheelchair, was healed and literally left his wheelchair behind in the tent!
Another lady was prayed for depression. She was so overwhelmed by what she believes is total healing that she became a Christian and was baptised today. And who can blame her? If you were on medication every day for years and were healed in an instant after a normal Christian bloke prayed for you, what would you do?
At the centre of the Christian message is the word “gospel” which means good news. Just because some Christians and some churches have given the impression that Christianity is boring and pointless, doesn’t mean that’s true! I’d like to think that most of the people who saw us at Parklife went away understanding that.
When I’ve written about healing before, I’ve been immediately bombarded with messages explaining why healing isn’t true and how I’m either mistaken deluded or simply lying. The trouble is with that is it’s incredibly arrogant to state that you know for a fact that no one has ever been healed of anything supernaturally.
To put it another way, just because you’ve seen some counterfeit diamonds, doesn’t mean there aren’t any real ones in existence in the world today.
Let’s be clear, there are ‘faith healers’ out there. They do it for money, fame and self promotion. Sometimes they will even plant people in the audience who claim to have been healed when they haven’t. I accept these things happen. No religion or community is immune from imposters. They can creep in.
But, in my view, they aren’t too difficult to spot. If the meeting revolves around their charismatic personality, their entourage of security personnel, there’s lots of money around and they have their own TV channel then we have every right to be skeptical. But the best way to spot a faith healer is by looking at their actions. Are they claiming to heal people?
No one at Park Life claimed to be able to heal people. They merely followed the example in the Bible, which goes something like this: God is an all powerful creator > Jesus was God > Jesus healed people > Jesus allowed his disciples and all who believed in him afterwards to heal > Christians today can pray in Jesus name and Jesus will heal.
Here all the attention is directed away from the individual and put on God. It’s all through Jesus power, not our own. God delights in humility. When people recognise they haven’t got it all sorted and trust in Jesus, things happen. And when people recognise they are nothing special, but humbly ask God to work in their lives, he does.
The Centre of the Christian Message
It’s been wonderful to be reminded of the simpleness of the Christian message again. My favourite aspect of this ‘good news’ is that it’s only good for those who haven’t got life figured out! If you think you’re perfect then you probably will find the Christian message irrelevant.
But I’ve never met anyone who really believes they are 100% perfect.
So if you know you’ve not always measured up to your own standards, let alone God’s standards, then the good news is you can find forgiveness, purpose, healing, joy and hope. No wonder the early followers of Jesus called it ‘good news’.
You don’t have to look far to see people searching for fulfillment in other things. Whether it’s living for the weekend or living for your other half or living for the next drink, everyone worships something. Ultimately we won’t find fulfillment. As Jim Carey put it, “I wish everyone could get rich and famous and everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that’s not the answer.”
Closing thoughts
Finally, I know of no other religion where I can turn up with a Les Paul, whack the Marshall amp up to 11, mess around with some effects pedals, strum a few chords and it be understood and acceptable to God as ‘worship’. Of course the reason for this is true worship comes from the heart, so whether it’s a Les Paul or vuvusella, if you’re doing it for God’s glory and not your own, it’s worship.
It was a pleasure to work with Tim Kendall on preparing many of the songs for the week. Leading the band in singing some of these songs was a new experience for me. I’d like to end by giving a big shout out to them all, they played their hearts out all week. One of the favourite tracks we did was this one:
I think it perfectly captures what we did this week.
All pictures copyright David & Katy Carter [da_carter@btopenworld.com], Debs Ford and Joe Kilby [kilbyphotographic@ymail.com].
No Church In The Wild
Posted: May 31, 2012 Filed under: Culture, Faith, Music, Personal | Tags: Church, God, Jay-Z, KanyeWest, London, message, Rap, Richard Dawkins, Watch the Throne, wild, worldview 6 Comments »Jay-Z and Kanye West have caused “outrage” with their new song and video, No Church In The Wild.
But before any of us are able to make a judgement, we must take the time (in this case just 5 minutes) to watch the video. There’s one bit of bad language and some violence. Don’t let that put you off, it’s an impressive video on many levels…
It’s a great song. Cool guitar riff, killer chorus and thoughtful lyrics.
It goes without saying that the video is top quality too. Accusations levelled at the video are mainly that it, 1) encourages anarchy, 2) encourages attacking police and 3) disses God.
There’s no doubt that the rappers are portrayed as anarchists, or at least revolutionaries (to use the kinder term).
Some kids will undoubtedly think it “cool” to attack the police, but let’s be honest, they thought that a long time before watching this video. That may not justify the rapper’s actions but it should be taken into consideration.
The question of revolution is interesting. The video is surely inspired by last year’s uprisings in the Middle East, and perhaps even the London riots. The important question is, ‘is the uprising the rappers portray partly justifiable like those in Egypt or totally without cause like the London riots?’
Turning to the topic of religion, church and God, I think Jay-Z is both spot on and wrong when he raps “no church in the wild”. He saying that in his culture, in his world, there is no church.
Of course, he’s right. The church has been terrible at relating to gang culture, youth culture and those on the margins and fringes of society.
“What’s a god to a non-believer?” he questions rhetorically. For the rappers, the answer is “nothing”. Non believers don’t care about God. Religion means nothing to these kids, it has no relevance. That’s the claim.
But where Jay-Z makes the mistake is he implies that because there’s no church represented “in the wild”, the church doesn’t have a message for those people.
“I’m wonderin’ if a thug’s prayers reach” he says, questioning if God even cares about the struggle of the young people against the enemy in the video.
“We formed a new religion” This “new religion” exists because the old one (Christianity) is redundant in today’s society.
“Human being to the mob / What’s a mob to a king? / What’s a king to a god? / What’s a god to a non-believer? / Who don’t believe in anything?”
The progression is telling. A gang or mob has no time for the individual, because the mob are greater than the individual. A God has no time for kings, for he is greater than any king. But what is God to a non-believer? The non-believer in this case has no respect for God. Because God does not exist. He has killed God.
When we kill God (as Western society has done, and is slowly doing), anarchy descends, as it does in this video. Without God, what do these people have to live for? Life is meaningless and pointless. Even Richard Dawkins admits this. Without God, there is no purpose.
Even more worryingly, what happens when we kill God is we kill morality. I’ve yet to hear an atheist convincingly argue that morality has evolved. Rather it makes much more sense to believe in absolute morality (ie some things are wrong and not right). When we kill God, who is there to judge and give us a conscience and give us guidelines for the good of society? No one.
This is backed up in the song. In this “new religion” there are “No sins as long as there’s permission’ And deception is the only felony”. Morality disappears.
When we kill God and anarchy descends, as it did in London, the church may be tempted to disappear. There’s no church in the wild. But when people have given up on God and therefore given up on there being hope in the world and there being right or wrong, that is where the church must step up. If it doesn’t, we lose a generation.
The young people that will watch the above video and want to join Kanye and Jay-Z in throwing molotov cocktails are the very people the church cannot afford to ignore. There’s nothing wrong with the message. We just haven’t bothered to communicate it, or when we have communicated it, we’ve done it badly. The church has always belonged in the wild. It’s time to get back there.
Lent
Posted: February 21, 2012 Filed under: Faith, Personal | Tags: calendar, Church, Giving up, Lent, taking up Leave a comment »I’m not normally bothered about Lent.
I tend to make smart-arsed comments when people ask me what I’m giving up for Lent. You know, really childish remarks like “I’m giving up giving up”.
But this year I’ve been strangely up for doing (or not doing!) something.
So for 40 days I will be joining Stacey in giving up chocolate. I’m hoping this will go better than a previous conversations in Starbucks when I commented that giving up chocolate would be easy, while drinking a white chocolate mocha.
“But wait!” I hear you smart-alecs cry. “How will that benefit your spiritual life?” As if our spiritual and “non spiritual” (whatever that is?) lives are separate. Despite not wishing to divide my life up into “spiritual” and “non spiritual”, I do understand where such people are coming from. It is worthwhile taking something up.
I was inspired by my friend Emily’s suggestion of posting 3 things online that I’m grateful for each day. Therefore on my Twitter account, I will be doing exactly that! Follow me here
I have been listening to rather than reading the Bible since the beginning of the year. On top of that I’m going to give Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone series a go.
3 things is probably enough! I will let you know how I get on. Happy pancake day y’all!
The Pope Bashing Begins
Posted: September 16, 2010 Filed under: Church, Faith, News, Politics | Tags: Africa, Catholic, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Christianity, Church, Denominations, Edinburgh, Pope, Religion 17 Comments »
So the Pope touched town in Edinburgh this morning, amidst a flurry of activity online as the protests gather momentum.
I’ve been watching the news unfold and have been amused by a number of tweets. This one being my favourite.
But all joking aside, people really are up in arms about the Pope’s visit. While birth control, gay rights and abortion are issues of widespread disagreement among all Christians- it’s the recent church/child abuse scandal that we all view as inexcusable. How the Catholic Church could have allowed such widespread abuse to happen is beyond me.
But rather than continue to slate the Pope on that issue, perhaps we should take a moment to remember his apology on June 11 when he said the church must “insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again”.
The Pope continues to meet with the victims and their families to offer personal apologies over this whole issue. Of course that could never put things back to the way they were, but what more do we want Benedict to do? (And please do not mention the disgusting practise of flagellation.) Although this issue of abuse is by far the biggest issue the Catholic church has had to deal with in recent decades, this is not the issue the “Pope Protests” will focus on.
Instead the problem appears to be a religious leader making comments (from a religious point of view) on issues such as homosexuality and the distribution of condoms in Africa. Although his comments are controversial, isn’t it his job to make statements on such things? Sure, we don’t have to agree with his words (I often don’t), but that’s no reason to slate him. He’s perfectly entitled to say what he likes. He knows better than most that the majority of people in the world (including some Catholics!!) won’t be paying a blind bit of attention to what he says. So let him speak!
Then again, perhaps I’ve missed the point? Maybe the point is that the government has invited him over, not the Catholic Church. So in theory- tax payers money is funding his (utterly ridiculous) pope mobile, and all other costs which will inevitably result from this visit.
Fair enough, I agree the money would be better spend elsewhere, but is that really a reason to take to the streets and protest against this figure? After all, as a friend was saying to me today- we often have expensive state visits from other world leaders that no one complains about.
For the record, I don’t like the way the Catholic church is structured, and I find the idea that the Pope is infallible quite ridiculous, however, I think we need to cut this guy some slack and remember there are millions of Catholics in the UK, for which this is a highly significant event. As a Christian I would like to stand beside my Catholic friends and whilst acknowledging our differences in theology, be happy for them that their Pope has made the effort to come to the UK and encourage not only Catholics, but all of the Christians in the UK.
So go on, tell me I’m wrong…
God Loves Gay People
Posted: March 6, 2010 Filed under: Ethical Issues, Faith, Love | Tags: Christian, Church, Eastbourne, Faith, Gay, God, Homophobic, Homosexuality, Kings, Lesbian, Love 4 Comments »
I’ve just finished listening to a podcast from my home church -Kings Church Eastbourne.
In it, the pastor says…”If I had enough money, resources, or even enough guts…I’d put a big sign on the side of the building saying ‘God loves gay people’ or ‘Kings Church loves gay people…”
The most important commandment for Christians is ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and spirit. AND love your neighbour as yourself’
If Christians were to do that, would so many of them be labled ‘homophobic’?
There’s a difference between agreeing with what people do and loving them as people. A huge difference.
