The Space Bishop

A pre-senior moment

2011-12-30T19:22:00.000Z

So there i am surrounded by my wifes family (two brothers and their wives and 4 kids and two grandparents) and my own two children when i find myself thinking about a song that i like. Actually im thinking about the video. Its above. Its got a very catchy tune and ive watched it on that great jukebox youtube tons of times. The video is a sterotypical video. Footage of the band playing gigs, walking around, fooling around no plot just random clips of them. Suddenly out of nowhere i think to myself.

These guys are wasting their lives, they should have kids and be married by now.

holy crap. Where did that come from?

If you had a magic wand

2011-09-28T12:43:00.000+01:00

I have asked a certain question of christians who are leaders in their field. From asking it ive got some interesting responses. The questions is this

If you had a magic wand and could unearth from history one artifact what would it be? It can anything that is known to have existed or anything that you suspect might have existed (so it cant be say "proof that the egyptians were aliens" but it could be "legal documentation from the rain of Rameses II" ( which would be helpful to see if he was the Pharoh of the exodus)

The best answer ive got so far was from Craig Blomberg who said that students of Rabbi's always took notes when their Rabbi's spoke. So, he wanted to see the notes the apostles took when the listened to semon on the Mount.

Andy Halpin a curator in the National History Museum wanted a primary source that would show us how Ireland was christianised. Apparently we know when the first missionarys came and that 100 years later Ireland was a christian country but the details of how this happened are non-existant.

I'll take answers from anyone regarding any topic.
The bishop of the curious.

Irish Geography is Politics and Politics is Theology. So maps tell us what you think God thinks about others. I think.

2011-09-27T22:40:00.001+01:00

What is it about the 32 counties that Irish people find so attractive? Can the GAA have such a hold over us?

Whilst county councils run according to the traditional boundaries, it might come as a surprise to know that the republic has doesn't have 26 counties but 30.. Tipperary being split in two and Dublin into 4. In the north counties where abolished as administrative units in '73 they only exist on license plates, peerage awards and the postage system. They now use districts. (co-incidentally they have 26 of them)

Anyway what i want to point out is the interesting phenomena that every time RTE have a show that needs a graphic of Ireland they will show one with 32 counties.

I'm mostly interested in this because of my ties to the north and the fact that alot of my future life will being dealing with people from a unionist/loyalist background. Yesterday i saw a program talking about the presidential election that had a graphic about what county councils voted for what candidates. Not only did they have Tipperary unseparated and not show the cities (which are separate entities aswell) and not show the 4 dublin counties but they also showed the north as six counties..

In fact now that i think of it. Do you ever see a map of Ireland without the north? I just googled "Ireland Map" and out of 8 pages of images, there was the above and one other. 2 out over 100..

To me this is more than just the obvious latent republicanism within most Irish people, (I mean if one could guarantee that there would be no trouble then what Irish person wouldn't want a united Ireland ?) but its a sign that to the average Irish person there is no such people as the unionists. They are bogey men that we have never met. They are ghosts that we don't want to talk about. but the reality is they are a large group of people that we share an Island with. And its not like this is some bullshit poncey liberal idea im coming up with! The north is a different country!! Its not a part of Ireland, its a constitutive part of the United Kingdom. Yet we casually and constantly draw maps with no border and maps with county divisions that haven't been correct since 1838!! Of course the GAA has reinforced this tremendously but you'd have to wonder how come a sport has come to override all other ways of thinking the shape of ones own land. Methinks it just easier to let sport guide our thinking then deal with the fact that we share our island with over seven hundred thousand people who we don't know what to do with.

The bishop of shite no-one gives a damn about.

The rain in Spain only makes hookers look better.

2011-07-26T11:57:00.000+01:00

I was away on a stag weekend. It was full of drinking carousing and much debauchery amongst other more wholesome activities aswell. With me in the middle of it all.

I've managed a few times to justify my place with the lads not least because i do enjoy the weekends to some degree but because whatever else it is being there must constitute as mission. Ive learnt much in the last two years about how the biggest sins of the middle and upper class are those of greed and neglect of the poor and the needy as opposed to the sexual ones that some Christians obsess about but those sins are still ugly and more so when seen under the sun of Spain so yes to walk with these friends of mine is surely mission but i must confess that i struggle with this justification.

Clearly my presence in some way can be seen as a condoning much of what goes on. Sure the lads know that i don't want to get hammered, they know i wont be chatting up women in the bars and wont be getting high or stoned and i wont be buying hookers but they hear me laugh at the stories involving hookers, drink, sex, the police, violence, lying, cheating etc. When they exclaim about the ass on that wan or the tits on her I'm expected to look and i often do. Much of their talk revolves around reinforcing or living up to identities that the group has given them. Within these identifies that lads find their place in the group, even when they don't like these identities or even when living out of this identity causes them harm they rarely if ever try to act in another way - do they even know how to ? The ease at which i present myself in the middle of all this surely has to send some kind of message of acceptance of such living, the ease at which i go along with some of the identity games has tell them "i believe that this is who you are".. Mind you on the last point i do occasionally speak to the truth that i see about them which is that they are more than the messer or the wild one or the loud one etc

On the weekend i had 5 conversations that were about God, 4 of those went into apologetics of some kind. In one conversation i got to explain something of Jesus and the cross. My status as a Christian was often raised -always through slagging me in someway.

I feel its fair to say that both mission and evangelism took place.

Yet I'm not happy with being there. It occurred to me that i would not know how to behave myself if i had friends from either work or church with me. I speak differently and act (or rather re-act) differently when I'm with the lads. So much of what is said with them is as i said above about living out of and reinforcing an identity they have. I don't really know if my presence there is actually contributing to bringing Jesus to bear on these false identities that the world and the devil give them. I hope it is.

Besides the times where i drink too much, besides the many opportunities to speak against very clear sins my biggest problem is that my presence only points them to God around the edges of their lives. The boys have a formed a community that is not life giving. It serves to reinforce the groups' false idea's of who they are and not what God thinks they are of what they think life is about and not what God thinks life is about. I fear that to stand up against this will cause me to lose my friendships with them. I also don't know how to go about tackling it.

Actually you're a bit of muppet as well.

2011-06-29T11:28:00.000+01:00

It's simply the case that the overwhelming majority of scholars in biblical studies (including NT and Christian Origins) come to their studies in the context of their own personal involvement in Jewish or Christian faith. Critical study, however, which rightfully means self-critical study requires scholars to try to avoid their own personal faith and commitments from influencing unduly their conclusions. But it's sometimes assumed that this is a concern solely for those who identify themselves with a religious tradition, and that those who don't so identify themselves, or who no longer do so, are immune from what I've called "personal stakes".

Indeed, occasionally scholars make much of their departure from religious faith, sometimes even making that a major subject in its own right (I mention no names, and ask any comments to avoid doing so too). But surely a moment's reflection should indicate that there is no really neutral ground, and that those in negative reaction against their own faith are in danger of being unduly influenced (skewed?) in their work as any apologist for a given religious stance.

Years ago I read one of the finest statements about a scholar that I've ever encountered. In a letter of reference for a younger colleague, a more senior scholar said of him, "He is neither captive to his tradition nor in reaction against it." That would be a worthy stance for anyone to my mind.

http://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/scholarship-and-personal-stakes/

H/T Tribalogue

3 things.

2011-05-18T10:09:00.001+01:00

I've learnt alot from Zoomtard in the last two or three years. He will say that his blog is but only the scraps of his disorganised brain that come from his caffinated early morning head-rush. But still even the dogs under the table will eat the scraps!! And i am very happy to identify as a dog. :)

Anyway one big theme that he has alerted me to is the idea of christendom and its demise and that this is something we should be happy about. Those who would be a part of the church for reasons other than love for Jesus his teaching his work and his self are disappearing. I've heard them called the "Mushy Middle".

This morning i read Psalm 3 where david says "Many are saying of me , God will not deliver him" Here we have ( i think) an example of people who knew about God, referenced him, had him as a part of their daily lives and yet also missed him. That might not be good exegesis but surely ancient Israel was a "Yawehdom" and much of the OT speaks to people in this context. I'm not sure we can expect that disappear forever. It was around before and surely will come again. I was a meeting the other night surrounded by people who grew up in a church and whilst wanting more, have no problem with the christendom world. I had no idea how to speak to them. I'm more used to the blatant atheist, the i couldn't give a shite about god, the neo-pagan, the your-a-fucking-eejet-for-believing-but-i-like-you-all-the-same. I've gotten so caught up in thinking through the world from the lens of those who are very adamant about believing or not believing that I have forgotten how to relate to those in the middle. Considering that if (IF) i go down the road of working with the PCI where a great many of those in the churches are these type of people i will need to consider how to speak to them much much more.

If its fair to say that if their is such a thing as a "reformed spirituality" then whatever it is one of its cornerstones is having a healthy appreciation of just how bad you are. Thinking about how bad you are does not come easily and is nearly always resisted by people when you put it to them as a good idea for them to do.

Forgiveness isn't actually all that hard to understand. I've had a good few conversations with people who don't believe Jesus is lord of the universe about this and they quite easily grasp what it is. However imputation of Christ's righteousness to us is a humdinger to explain. There is no popular knowledge of this that we can tap into. It just don't compute. Even if as a Christian you are not sure about imputation anyway and call it incorporation into Christ, being in Christ, or future vindication :) whatever.. the part of the Gospel that says that we our identities are now wrapped up with Jesus and the consequent practical outworkings of such a belief are very hard to explain to others. I suspect because we Christians have not thought about them much. Am I wrong in this?

Does anyone recognise this picture?

2011-03-29T06:37:00.000+01:00

This picture is in a book i have called "the thinker's guide to evil" Its in a section talking about the holocaust. For some reason out of the many pictures i've seen of the holocaust this one haunts me the most. If you know a source for it or could point me in its direction please tell me.

HISTORY!! get your history !

2011-01-16T22:06:00.000Z

The more i learn the more i realise that what i say is probably a load of shite. I cant remember how many times ive said some generalism only to come to learn that had i learnt a bit more of history i would not have spoke so forcifully.

Heres a brilliant example of this regarding the common assumption that american politics has recently got worse than ever in its personal attacks

Deadmau5 update, new drugs and new ways.

2010-12-22T21:39:00.000Z

So i recon i was a bit harsh on the Mau5. For starters that was only my 4th concert ever. I'm a bit young in the tooth to be criticising gigs yet. I will say that i went back to the worlds greatest jukebox and listened to him some more and his music is defo all over the place but i like all of it ( well most of it) its just that i wouldn't go to a gig to hear all of his music- I'm particular about what i dole out 55 euros for. Like i said earlier i love proper bangers...

Anyway i was also wondering about the drug situation at the gig. I knew that people were doing something. But it didn't "look" they were doing ecstasy as the tell-tale signs i knew from days of old were not present. Not that they couldn't have been and indeed I was offered some to buy on the way home ( from a lad who's face defined the look of dodgyness:)) but it just seemed they were more chilled out a little...

I heard from a young fella that talked to me that Deadmau5 has incorporated a new style into his repertoire. Its called Dubstep. When i listened to it tonight on YouTube I recognised its signature sound but overall the whole thing was new to me. I don't know what to make of it. I love bass so i will listen to it. But its a bit slow.
Anyway whilst listening to it i found a video for a song that has made it(only very recently) to mainstream radio

When i was watching this two things happened, one is that i saw something similar to what i saw at Deadmau5 and the second thing is that both the music that's played and the feel of the video reminded me of a night i had a good few years ago where i swallowed a bottle of ketamine that i robbed from the hospital...

Sure enough, google confirmed this. It slows you down and sloshes you around a bit. It supposedly gives you synaesthesia (seeing sounds and hearing sights) .. Bass and drugs keep their marriage fresh.

So then all thats to say that the last generation were generation e it seems the next generation is generation K.

Which bears some thinking about cause E was a "love" drug.. K from what i can tell evokes more of a sense of introspection and has spiritual overtones.

The bishop of what fucking drugs do they give to mothers escaping somalia death and rape crossing the gulf of Aden seeing their kids been thrown to the sharks because their scared and naturally making crying noises???
The bishop of torn between hate and hope. Come Lord and stay away that we might be cups of grace and truth for a few more.

Some good news on Irish economy?

2010-12-22T17:31:00.003Z

Interesting to see this. Wonder who made it.

Deadmau5 at the O2

2010-12-15T17:42:00.000Z

I went to the mighty Deadmau5 last night. Here's what I thought of it.

I was in the balcony in the seats. Watching the crowd below was like watching people winning the lotto... mind you it did get good but i won't be sitting again.
At first I thought I was going to the oldest person there. 20 was definitely the most popular age there. Turns out I probably wasn't. I saw one young lad there with his father. I would love to have gone and watched them for a while. What a weird dynamic. Great dad I suppose.
I was surprised to see that wearing painters suits is still going.
I saw some women wearing dayglo ballerina costumes with dayglo leg warmers. I was in Newcastle two years ago and the place was full of this kind of thing.
The hot pants has evolved into something smaller, i'm going to call 'em not pants.
Occasionally i would think about people being raped maimed and killed in the various conflicts around the world and wonder what the fuck am I doing here? or what would they make of your wan down there bolloxed drunk and wearing only her bra or what would they think of me, a Christian? These thoughts would then go away and I would go back to dancing. or watching.
I was reminded again of something a classmate told me that nightclub music is like worship, people regularly put their hands up like any charismatic church. In fact the guy alongside me bowed to Deadmau5 a few times.
Either less people are taking e's these days ( i was offered some on the way home) or the content is much different to ten years ago; as I saw no-one chewing their jaw in the tell-tale sign of extacsy taking.

The management of the O2 fail in integrity. Psalm 15 is about whats needed to stay in the presence of the Lord. According to this psalm one needs to have integrity and according to this psalm business is one area that demands integrity. So management of the O2 if you are reading this; charging punters who have no other choice of place to buy drink 6 euros for a pint is sinful and is putting distance between you and God.

Didnt stop me from buying three of them. And they closed at 11!!! the concert ended at 12.

Overall i had a good enough night but i was disapointed with both Deadmau5 and Calvin Harris. Calvin played some of his songs but they were extended hard mixes which was a bit not what i wanted to hear. Deadmau5 is a different kettle of fish. He has said in the press that he doesnt want to be easily classified and when he sees people arguing over what kind of musican he is he feels his job is done. I think this is a bit silly. He releases A LOT of music, every time I go onto youtube i see some new mix of his. He has 3 studio albums in the last two years and many many singles and even released a free 54 track thing before that. His music is of many different genres and it is wrong to call him this or that because he does make songs in lots of different genres. Heres my problem, I like headbangers- proper stompers if you know what i mean and songs with good buildups and blow your brains out breakdowns. Deadmau5 has plenty of these (and according to youtube these are his most popular) but he didnt really go for them last night. He might have played two or three i couldnt tell. So there it is, if another Deadmau5 had shown up on the night I might have a deadly night as it was i only had an interesting one.

The bishop of those who wish to SAVE THE RAVE!!

Bit of help anyone? Please?

2010-12-13T10:10:00.000Z

Can someone please explain something about this here graph. This is the total number of people that are listed as Presbyterians. As you can see its getting smaller. By my calculations the rate of decline is a steady 4000 a year. What i'm puzzled about is that i thought that rate of declines should be percentages i.e. the rate of decline is 5% or whatever. But here the rate of decline is a constantly changing percentage.. I'm a bit clueless about all this but if anyone could help me understand id like to know.

BTW if the this keeps going at the rate it currently is there will be no PCIers left by the year 2071.

The bishop of hope.

On the dvd of my life there will be close up shots of my face with a blue tinge to indicate that I am repenting.

2010-11-30T06:46:00.002Z

I was at a youth weekend away recently with the youth group i help out at along with two other youth groups. The teaching was done by the youth pastor of the other church. He gave 3 talks during the weekend. It was standard fare: if you had a dvd of all of your life played back to you how much would you be embarrassed to have others see; God knows all of this dvd and yet still loves you. He died for the contents of that dvd- give your life to him.

It wasn't as totally simplistic of that but thats the jist of it.

I found myself being convicted of arrogance during his talk. I found myself convicted of not trusting what the Spirit can do with his word. It is not the type of talk i have given over the years - i try to be "more real" whatever that is and yet why cant a old fashioned simple talk about sin and justification also help these kids. In fact it might be very possible that in my attempt to be real I have forgotten to tell them that Jesus died for their sins and confess him as Lord.

Im happy that i repented on the weekend. In fact seeing such a thing happen for me was a big highlight. I have been learning about repentance and faith all over again these last few weeks.

Heres a things ive seen: Yesterdays repentance can easily become today's self-righteousness. In other words every day brings with it new things to repent off, we are so incurably legalistic that we turn the good faith of the previous day into a law to full fill this very day.

The bishop of REPENT!-ers

What do people mean when they say homosexual???

2010-10-31T10:12:00.001Z

Christian-couple-who-cannot-accept-homosexuality-challenge-their-fostering-ban.html

In the link above we find the following statement " But Derby City Council withdrew their application after a social worker discovered that their traditional views on the family meant they could never tell a child that homosexuality was acceptable."

What is meant by homosexuality in this statement?? Increasingly (and thankfully) christians are using this word to describe the sexual orientation of a person that finds they would be most satisfied sexually with someone of the same sex BUT NOT to also mean that the person involved is sexually active.

When people hear christians condemnation of homosexuality they automatically hear condemnation of the person. Christians are only to point out that it is the sex outside of marriage that we think is wrong.

Christians need to be clearer about saying that the homosexual is acceptable to God just like everyone else. We also need to challenge the paradigm that collapses a homosexuals identity to one of someone who has a sexual relationship with someone of the same sex. It is entirely possible to be homosexual and celibate!! why do we even have to say that!!

Interestingly splitting the homosexuals identity apart from their sexual acts is something that gay campaigners can agree with for have they not for so long being asking us to judge people not on what one does between the sheets?

Until Christians are better able to draw the necessary distinctions on our beliefs in this area statements like the above will still be doing the rounds.

Here's a test for us. As far as I'm concerned homosexuality can be the orientation of anyone (i.e. its causes are not environmental) so the Christian must accept that their daughter or son could be homosexual. How will we help them understand and accept this and follow God? How can we raise them to accept that their path is one which will include singleness and some level of opposition? Which btw the way is also why I think homosexuals who are Christians are God's gift to the western church as by definition they challenge the two main idols of ours- that of a happy family and comfort. That might also explain why they get such a hard time as I'm quite sure that the devil don't want those two handy little sins challenged...

Prods

2010-10-04T23:02:00.002+01:00

Im thinking that one of the elephants in the room of evangelicalism in the Republic of Ireland is that we are Protestants.

Ive met many who'll tell you they are a christian not a Protestant. and to be fair to them I understand the difference they are making. They dont want to be asscociated with the baggage that comes with being protestant, very often they mightnt have had anything to do with that history and also by word and deed do not display any of that histories hallmarks, they neither feel nor think like a Protestant.

I think that's bullshit.

Ive been going to Protestant churches for ten years now. I did not grow up as one. I dont have family or life long friends ( I have ten year old freinds) that are Protestants.I take some things as for granted because of this upbrining e.g. I want Ireland to be united. I dont support rangers blah blah blah .... I am now a Protestant. I might not have the Protestant upbringing or the sense of a place in the Protestant stream of Irish history but I am a Protestant. Why? because I go to a Protestant church and I believe in Protestant theology. They are all after all what qualifies one as a Protestant and Evangelicals need to remember that.

Heres why I am making a fuss over this. No one wants to become a Protestant. Even with the scandals of the last twenty years there's a great many people who will never join our churches because they are Protestant. We might not like to admit what we are but they have no problem throwing on us this most glaringly obvious of labels. I dont think we need to be with out insecurity before we can engage others about Christ but surely it can't help if we can't even admit who we are!!! Personally I recon that Evangelicals who try to sidestep this issue by playing the aforementioned im a Christian not a Protestant game only win in the short term. The long term loss is an accepted place in society (even the christians that were thrown to the lions where still romans!!) and a terrible paucity of belief- what do any evangelical hold in common besides justification by faith and believers baptism? also i recon that the success of pentecostals churches here in Ireland might be down to the fact that they at least demand that people in their churches believe a list of things.

Acknowledging our Protestantism can only lead to one of two things. Evangelicals will either join traditional protestant churches like the Presbyterians or the Methodists etc or start a few denominations themselves, kinda like an EAI but with teeth and an elected leader with teeth. The Irish Protestant Church perhaps? or maybe the Evangelical Church of Ireland or the Irish Evangelical Church? Whatever. I just want it to happen.

The bishop of prods but only the "right hairy" ones

Laser surgery is great but their adverstising is misleading.

2010-09-04T12:39:00.000+01:00

Just like it says on the tin.

The advests of telly will say that its priced from 400euros. Fair enough your thinking, cant get more than that then.

Actually they charge you on a scale that corresponds to how bad your eyesight is. If you have eyesight that is nearly normal its 400. Per eye.

My friend who discoverd this had bad enough eyes but not that bad. He was charged 1200 per eye.

The bishop of the Anti-Dickwad League.

There is a large piece of flesh sticking out of my mouth.

2010-09-04T12:28:00.000+01:00

I got this from John pipers QnA blog on miraculous gifts. He dont mentions tongues. He has some guidelines that make sense to me. I'd like to see this happen.

Where would you say the place for gifts like tongues, healing and prophecy is in the life of the church today?

I will tell you what I do, whether it is the right thing or not. I'm not going to die on this hill, but I will tell you what I do.

I think that these kind of gifts are most effectively and appropriately ministered in smaller groups rather than on Sunday morning. Sunday morning meaning the large gathered body of lots of people with lots of strangers and the need for some kind of movement in the service, rather than the whole thing being devoted to individual expressions.

So when I think of trying to do whatever elements of 1 Corinthians 12:13-14 are appropriate for today, I would want my people to know that I believe in those things and that I want them to flourish in those things.

I think that we should, spontaneously in relationships and especially in smaller groups, take the time to ask people, "Did you bring anything from the Lord tonight that you think we need to hear?" You could use whatever language you want. You could say, "Do you have a word of knowledge for us. Do you have a word of prophecy?" And If you are scared to use that kind of language you could say, "Has God impressed upon you in some way something that you think another person in this room, or all of us, need to hear from your walk with God?" And open yourself up to that.

Someone might say something that just penetrates right through to the core of another person. Or maybe they will minister a healing, or whatever. So, that is my answer.

Now I know that there are groups today—reformed groups—that try to fold certain prophetic elements into Sunday morning. They have a little microphone at the front where people can come up, and they have an elder or two standing there. The words that people want to share are first tested by one of the elders who judge whether the Scripture they are going to read or the poem they are going to read or the word they are going to deliver is appropriate. And while there is music playing in the background, during the interlude in between songs, the person can give whatever they are going to give at the microphone in front. And where this is done I've seen it done with decency and order the way Paul would like. But we've never gone that route at Bethlehem.

Thats kind of cool aint it? I could definitely see that happening at our bible study group. Im sure twould open the door to occasional mentalness but sure how bad.

One time i was in a group where a woman from IFES got us all to read a passage and ask God to give us a message from it and then turn the message into a personal applictaion and repeat it to the person on our left. We were to read the passage and the first thing that came into heads from the passage was to be our meaning. Seems a bit mad right? It turned into one of the best things ive ever done. There was about 12 of us and not one of us thought that what was said to us was crap. There were a few tears. Whats that about then?

The bishop of the confused.

If Jesus ruled the world plus two things for free

2010-08-30T13:43:00.000+01:00

Heres an interesting thing that I was reading.
Lets say that when satan tempted Jesus by saying to him you can have all the authorithy and splendour of the world if you worship me that Jesus turned around and said O.K. What would our world be like.?

Ok so its impossible for Jesus to have done that as it would mean the destruction of God which would surely not be good for us!! but lets say he did and leave aside the yeah buts and the it cant happens and imagine a world where Jesus ruled.

There would no violence, no abuse, no wars, no sex industry, one religion, no nuclear weapons, peace, security ecological harmony... etc

BUT there would still be sin and death.

Heres the point. If we get more worried about the great things of the Kingdom - justice, peace, rebuilding, revival, conversions etc than we do about worshiping Jesus we are actually worshipping Satan.

At least thats what I got from what I read this morning. Ive been talking to some friends of late who would say that the narrative that the bible is about redemption of sin and death is itself missing the point. Well, thats what they say they havent backed it up with evidence:) and of course I also realise that little bits of talking like this are often used by christians as excuses to not think about whether they are doing what God would have them do in terms of justice building, peace making, discpleship and evangelism and go back to "just worshiping God". That is not my aim.

Heres the freebies
A question: how do we know that Satan wasnt lying to Jesus about his ability to offer the leadership of the world to Jesus? Ive heard christians riff on Satan as ruler of the world but is there somewhere else that this is shown?

A quote from the aricle that got me thinking about the above: "If the churches are not forming consciences, consciences will be formed by the status quo"

The bishop of everything- including your mama.

a litle bit of northern ireland

2010-08-19T08:55:00.004+01:00

I was in Coleraine a couple of days ago. It was my first real taste of all the flags. The north is a broken broken place.

This could be all a load of crap but I recon that when people put up those flags they aint doing it to say "i'm british" or "i'm irish" I recon they're doing it to say what they are not.

I recon the only way for the island to have its inhabitants live at peace with their neighbours is for the Republic and the North to be united. Just not united in the ways Adams or O Bradaigh envision. It has to be "agreed" as well as united. Whatever comes would have to a new identity that fully takes in the unionist/loyalist community. Here's what I think some of that would mean

We'd have to unite our National Day of Commemoration with their Remembrance Sunday.

The tricolour will (unfortunately as nearly every Northern Protestant I've talked to doesn't know the symbolism of peace between the two religions that it stands for) have to go. Too much blood has been spilt under its banner, so a new flag will have to be made and probably one with no green red blue or orange ( incidentally and unfortunately orange and green makes brown...) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ireland

Amhran na Bhfiann will have to go. Its a war song in general but its primarily against the English (Saxons) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amhr%C3%A1n_na_bhFiann

Here's another idea that came to me today. One thing that is a major sticking point on any talk of uniting the island is the unionist love for their royals. So why don't we reinstate the King of Ireland. Here's the catch. We could get one of the English royals to be the King or Queen. I'm thinking of asking Prince William to abdicate his position over there and come over here with Katie to be the King and Queen of a new Ireland. He'd have to learn Irish of course and possibly ulster Scots.

Well that's the task!! Off with ye!

The bishop of possible.

If Jesus were a Calvinist.

2010-08-10T23:03:00.003+01:00

He would teach us this :

Total

Unlimited

Love

Is

Perfection

Go and tell.

2010-07-05T19:09:00.007+01:00

The Whitefield post yesterday got me thinking about street preaching.

I said that I had many reasons why i though street preaching was largely ineffective. I recon I have about 4 or 5.

1. Like I said yesterday I don't think the street preachers of today have much in common with their fore bearers other than they preach in public. Today's guys lack an audience that actively seeks them out, or actively hunts them down and also the preaching is done by way of warning or informing of the consequences of rejecting God as opposed to a deep desire to see people fall in love with Christ. That last point is a bit harsh but I'm afraid its often what i was doing when I street preached and is often what I still hear today.

2. Recently my own minister who is from the north said that he was starting to realise that he needs to rethink words like grace, redemption, sanctification etc because they have different meanings in the south or they need to be explained differently for a southern audience. The same applies to much of street preaching. Its often done with the presumption that people understand words like grace and righteousness. [Once I had a discussion with a friend of mine outside the entrance to trinity about how i thought no-one understands what "righteousness" is. He disagreed and asked the first person to pass him by, did he know what righteousness meant. This person was a heroin addict and I can still see his disfigured face expressing pure perplexity] Furthermore it is also assumed that not only do they understand these words but how they understand the words corresponds with Protestant theology. As a remedy I would encourage street preachers to listen to catholic theology and explain theological terms.

3. The reality of hell and the reality of the offer of forgiveness only makes sense in wider story of the bible. Preaching on these two topics cant reach people who are almost completely ignorant of the story of the bible. Genesis to Revelation. Preach the story and they will come. I see street preaching becoming effective once again when men or women find ways in which to tell the whole bibles story in a way can be reduced to a sermon fit for a microphone. The Bible's story connects with Irish people in that it touches on national redemption, individual purpose and hope for eternity. Preaching on forgiveness or hell alone is like reducing the shawshank redemption to that one shot of Andy Dufrene raising his hands in the rain repeated over and over for an a hour and a half.

4. This is not really a point of why it ain't working but probably the biggest difference between the street preachers of today and yesterday is that the big guys of yesterday where all very well educated. For the most part the street preachers of Ireland that Ive met are either from Brethren background or from small conservative evangelical churches. Neither of which are renowned centres of biblical study. In fact the brethren churches have often discouraged their own from going to seminary. Overly simplistic, sectarian and sometimes even hostile sermons on the street are often the result of bad or at the least anemic teaching.

Lastly let me say this. All though most of us have good reasons why we don't go street preaching the main reason is quite simply cause we are scared to. Behind every christian who decries the efforts of our fundamentalist's siblings there is a heart that wonders how they do it all the same.. Also whatever about the content or results of street preaching one other truth about it that I want to share is this. It's an almighty buzz!! Seriously such a joy I had when I would be finished preaching. Maybe its just the performance aspect- I don't know but I have never met a single christian who did not enjoy the experience and did not over the following years recall the experience with fondness. We should not therefore leave all the goods to be had by our fundamentalist brothers and sisters. With some thought and a lot courage I think we could see some amazing things.

The original George W that christians loved.

2010-07-04T21:03:00.009+01:00

I read a book that was given to me by my minister. Its a biography of George Whitefield. It was surprisingly easy to read given that the cover looked like it was an old book. I usually find books from the distant past about people from the even more distant past to be terse and dense. This was neither.

I don't think I'm wrong to say the George was one of the first evangelicals. He was not the first open-air preacher ( a guy called Howell takes that claim.. and besides you'd really have to give Jesus that title as what was the sermon on the mount but open-air preaching? even more so I'd recon that what many of the OT prophets could be counted as such. I guess now that I'm thinking of it the first man who did open-air preaching was Noah telling people that the rains were coming but the first instance of open air preaching was God telling Adam and Eve that they shouldn't eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the Garden.) but he was the first to become well known and incredibly successful with it. I learnt that it was he who encouraged another famous open-air preacher- John Wesley- to try it out. He seemed like a very gracious man and i ended my reading thanking God for him and being encouraged in my own evangelistic efforts.

A couple of things hit me.

One is that all three men, the Wesley brothers and himself all were converted after an intense period of doubt over their personal salvation. They honestly felt that they were not good enough for God and it troubled them greatly. I mention this because the Gospel presentations that we have today we have inherited from these lads. In light of Scott whatyoumacallit's presentation in the IBI and many many others' writings and words over the last ten years regarding what really is the Gospel - is it any wonder that our evangelism is devoid of mention of Israel or the cost of following God or the ongoing nature of salvation and is entirely (well almost) focused on forgiveness and entry to heaven?

Now to be fair Whitefield an co did not simply preach only about forgiveness of sins as entrance to heaven.

Another thing- after I was born again I had a lot of friends who did street preaching. There is a lot of talk in these circles that they are right to go on street corners and preach of being born again, heaven, hell, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus etc simply because this is what has been done for so long and also has been done by men that they admire. The idea then is that they do their work because they are following a long line of Godly men who did what they do.

The reason (as i see it) that they resort to saying this is that many people point out the incredibly obvious fact that no-one is listening to them. Now without going into the many reasons I have about why i think street preaching as it is done by most in Ireland is largely ineffective ONE thing that the street preachers have wrong is that the lack of an audience does not mean that God is not blessing their work. I think it does. Mostly people ignore and walk by Street preachers hear or they get annoyed, whilst they got annoyed with Whitefield too they also crowed in their thousands (at a time when populations of countries where often measured in their thousands!!) to come and hear him. The main difference is that whereas both were mocked the street preachers of old had God send them many many people to hear them. No one comes to hear the street preachers of today.

Also whilst street preachers are abused here they don't get the level that Whitefield and co did. Whitefield was attacked a good few times, shot at and beaten. One time a mob over ran the church he was in, beat some of the men, stripped and abused some of the women so badly that a few of them dived over the balcony to escape further molestation. He also had some of the media of the day set against him, a play mocking him was written about him which became so popular that kids in the street would sing lines from it at him. Howell was hit with stick so hard that his head cracked ( in fact he went a bit crazy after it). I know that street preachers get abuse but not to this level.

Finally i never felt in my street preaching days that we really loved the people we were talking to . Whitefield talks of being overwhelmed with desire for the people he was speaking to. All the quotes from his sermons belie a man who really really really wanted these people to enjoy God in the way he knew was possible. I never felt that out on Grafton street.

My friends of those days would often claim that their street preaching endeavours were legitimate by implying that what they did was the same thing as the greats of the past. In my view their attempts are so very unlike their street preaching fore bearers in many many crucial ways that they have no right to claim to be cut from the same cloth.

The bishop of all the middle-class and fearful

Check this out

2010-06-05T22:35:00.002+01:00

The oil spil in the Gulf of Mexico is by all accounts the worst enviromental disaster in that area in recent and not so recent history.

To get a grasp of it though you really must try this website which superimposes the oil spil on to a map of your location... Its quite impressive.

www.ifitwasmyhome.com

Respect the foggesters!

2010-06-05T10:01:00.004+01:00

So whats up with respecting the elderly?

On Britians got Talent the other night , the lady who is over 85(?) got through to the final. The judges all said something to the effect that her voice isnt up to the same standard as the rest but because of her age.... and sure enough she was voted through by the public in first place. It seems Britian has a thing for old people, btw the im assuming that it would happen in Ireland as well. We defer to old people here also, just look at how we que up for things.

Anyway I'm wondering whats fueling it this respect for the elderly. As far as I know most cultures -if not all -have a similar respect for the elderly but nothing is guaranteed. For example no women that I have ever met in Ireland or Europe or the States for that matter would think that their body and sex with that body is not for them to decide about but recently I watched a reality tv/documentary thing about a group in Namibia called the Himba. In a line I will never forget a woman in the tribe said "we never refuse a man". All though they get married, adultery is de facto . In fact should a man find that his wife is not commiting that much adultery he will take it as an insult to HIM!!!
So nothing is for granted, I found myself totally understanding the judges on Britians Got Talent and also wondering why they would act they way they did. Simon Cowell is mostly a man who wants only good talent on his shows and has little qualms about turning down the crap but here we see him totally overiding that particular internal mechanism of his. Thats a strong thing right there.

Also you sometimes get the idea from talking to people that we live now in new world where all the presuppostions of the past are bad and need (and have gotten) rethinking and rewiring. I would point to that show last night as proof against this. Should Simon or Amanda or Piers have said to the that old lady anything to the effect of "listen girl tis great your doing your thing at your age but you sound like a duck taking a dump" .. I propose they would have been lynched.

Incidentally I see a similar if not the exact same thing happening with some of the children who appear on the show, ( see what happened when that little girl from last year started to cry and Simon promised her another go) which I think means that whats happening is a desire to protect the vulnerable. Other cultures definetly do not have same value on protecting the vulnerable.

The Bishop of bastards.

:)

2010-05-07T07:54:00.001+01:00