David Puttnam on "A duty of care"

This is an interring short talk and worth a watch. It raises a number of issues, particularly around the role of the media, but it has implications beyond that. For those who access the Bible, the theme of "a duty of care" should certainly not be unfamiliar and echoes of Isaiah and the story of the Good Samaritan, to name but two, come immediately to mind.

I guess the really big question from the talk is how do we go about reengaging in a democratic system that has lost it's soul as ours appears to have done.

Gaza appeals and the BBC

I've been wondering over the past few days about the issue of the DEC appeal and the BBC. They are of course in a corner now, so I don't expect any changes. But here's my question: Has their reluctance to show the appeal got anything to do with the Iraq affair?

Remember how the then Government went after the BBC over the Iraq dossier? Whether the report was accurate or not, I do wonder whether we are paying a price for the nearest thing to a witch-hunt we've seen in recent years. At the time, as I listened to the report at the heart of the dossier debacle, I wondered then what the impact of it would become. 

Probably a good idea, but mock with caution

Christians welcome Atheist London bus campaign

So reads the banner headline for an article on Christiantoday's website. 

Whilst it's good to see Christians taking a positive and dare one say humorous view of the proposed campaign, I fear that we are in danger of going over the top. The more we ridicule atheism, and who doesn't find humour in the proposed wording that  there "probably" isn't a God as if even the atheist can't be sure, the more likely we are to alienate them from meaningful discussion.

Personally it looks to me like a great opportunity, in the right circumstances, to actually ask people what they think. I just hope we don't add fuel to the fire by getting drawn into some great debate and, heaven forbid, a series of special prayer meetings to pray against the campaign. Some of us remember the calls for prayer about the EU and the beast!

Simon Barrow suggests that the campaign slogan: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" is the unbelievers equivalent of "God may very well exist. Now have a nice day" in case anyone is short of an idea for an answer or an alternative publicity campaign.

Knols

Just got an email from Google about their new project "Knol". It looks quite interesting as a way of writing articles and papers that are longer than a typical blog entry should probably be (I say probably because no one I know has ever defined what length a blog post ought to be, if that were possible). Anyway "knols" are "units of knowledge" and you can visit the Google Knol site here. 

As yet I can't see a way of connecting any knols to my blog in a sidebar widget or the like, but I guess that will come. As it stands you have to know that an article is there or just go to the site and search. Some sort of RSS feed along the lines of Goggle alerts would be nice. 

I've added a knol about how we are trying to develop pastoral care at Cotton End. If you search "pastoral care" from the home page you should find it should you wish to read it.

I've tried using Google Groups for collaborative projects but that relies on specific people picking up the thread and using it. This may be a way of inviting wider interaction. 

We will see....

Nuisance calls

Snozwangler is a website that traces telephone numbers. If you get those silent calls, or pick up the 'phone and dial 1471 wondering who has just called, then this might help. Just enter the number and it will tell you what it knows.

Unrecognisable faith

Having read Joel Edwards response to a recent Dispatches  documentary about "Fundamentalist Christianity" in the UK–In God's name–and having missed its transmission, I thought I'd have a look for myself using Channel 4's "watch again" feature on their website. 

In order to watch the internet replay I had to fire up my Windows PC, download Windows Media player 11, update it and then only in Internet Explorer could I watch the programme. I wish I hadn't been so persistent. 

After less than two minutes I had to stop watching. It wasn't the portrayal of faith that bothered me, it was the faith that was being portrayed that bothered me. In the opening few minutes I saw a version of Christianity that worried and, if I'm honest, offended me. Is this kind of militancy a true reflection of Biblical faith? No wonder the scientific community think we hate them, no wonder the gay community think we hate them. In those two minutes I heard no mention of grace no sense of sharing the pain of a broken world, no attempt to engage in dialogue. All I heard was judgement and condemnation.

This is not the faith I share. This is not the faith I want to share.

It's sad to think that some evangelicals are rejecting the label "evangelical" in favour of "red letter Christian". If the kind of militant, venomous expression of evangelical faith I saw in those two minutes of TV is going to become the only expression of evangelicalism that society sees, then I guess I too will need to find another label to describe myself.

Whilst I recognise that Channel 4's documentary, as do many documentaries, focused on the sensational, I do get the uneasy sense that it points to an underlying mood swing in some sections of the church which not only offends ordinary people in the streets, but actually contributes to alienating them from the God who loves them.

If Jesus came to save the world rather than condemn it, how come some of his followers only appear to use the vocabulary of condemnation?

The Passion

So, we've just watched the final part of the BBC/HBO The Passion. Although there will doubtless be endless debates about the narrative inaccuracies, I still remain positive about the whole thing. 

What I particularly liked was the ordinariness of the world with which we were presented. It must be very difficult to portray the miraculous without the whole thing looking like a CGI version of a blockbuster movie. Given that most of our modern-day heroes have to be spectacular, it's probably not a bad thing to portray Jesus as an ordinary man. No Mr Anderson in dark glasses this time.

A nice touch, I thought, was the use of two different actors portraying the risen Christ along with the original. Those who know the story, know that there was confusion: Was it him, wasn't it him? So I thought this was a neat little device to show that. And the walk away at the end too was simple yet effective, if inaccurate as far as the New Testament goes.

To be honest I'm less worried about the problems of narrative inaccuracy than I am excited about the possible conversations that might arise. I'm not about to suggest that this is the greatest evangelistic opportunity of the 21st century so far, but I do think the BBC has done us a great favour in that they have given up something to talk about with our not-yet-Christian friends. They've given us a portrayal of Jesus that sits in an historical context as well as a faith context. 

It was, for me, good television and worth watching.

Did you watch?

So, we sat and watched the first part of the BBC's retelling of the final week of Jesus' ministry leading up to the cross. Overall we really enjoyed it. I liked the developing of the characters through the different intertwined plot lines. It shows promise.

The Passion

The BBC's retelling of the last week of the life of Jesus begins on Palm Sunday at 8:00pm. It looks fascinating and runs through the week. There's an outline of the running order on both the BBC website and Premier.

Unlike Mel Gibson's film and unlike the release of The Da Vinci Code, this series doesn't seem to be getting hyped up in the Christian media as the greatest opportunity the 21st century church will have for evangelism. That, for me, is a very positive thing. I found all the emails and publicity that came my way about the other greatest opportunities just too much. Every Sunday is a great opportunity, every day is a great opportunity to share the life and death and resurrection of Jesus with those around us.

I remember going to see the Gibson film and wondering if any of my unchurched friends would actually comprehend it; whether they would simply come out of the cinema shocked and bewildered by the whole thing. Good as it was, it didn't produce a rush of interesting conversations. And, if the truth be told, I'd rather have sat down with a group of friends and watched Bruce Almighty and talked about our images and understanding of the nature of God than try to use Mel Gibson's Passion.

I hope there will be many opportunities for conversations, many opportunities for pointing people toward Jesus. I'm certainly going to watch it carefully so that I can use what I can on Easter Sunday. But I also hope that we will learn how to be Christians in plain view, how to share our faith in positive ways and how to engage our friends in conversations that might nudge them towards Jesus.

And my prayer? It's very simple: "Lord use this drama in ways we cannot imagine to make yourself known in our nation."