Jesus Course

Although I haven’t watched the program (I’m in the UK and don’t follow the series anyway – perhaps my loss) I’ve had my Internet news feeds about Jesus dominated by the story of Larry David ‘urinating’ on Jesus painting in a ‘Curb your Enthusiasm’ episode.

From what I’ve read the event seems to have involved some splashed urine on a painting of Jesus that was then mistaken for tears. I think in some ways the idea was a clever one, although perhaps the idea could have been softened to avoid offense with someone washing their hands (perhaps there is something funny about urine that escapes me somewhat).

This is the kind of issue that constantly comes up in the UK with religion and religious characters (although Jesus and Christianity seems to be the main source for the fun) being the object of ridicule and innuendo on many TV comedy shows ).

So then we have the dilema. Do we laugh at it to show we are just the same as everyone else and can take a joke or do we make a stand to say actually this is really quite offensive?

Not just Christians, of course, see Jesus as a great religious figure and this is likely to be offensive to quite a large percentage of the worlds population.

There is always a fine line between using something for a joke and trying to squeeze some humour out of an offensive situation. There are certainly people who find any offensive remarks to be a great source of humour.

Personally I feel that with so many other things to laugh about (and I personally enjoy a good laugh) any humour that degrades other people is not right.

We already have some restrictions on free speech (and rightly so) where people are not free to say what they like about people of different races or genders. We don’t accept that it is ok to say anything you like about anybody (we don’t accept verbal bullying as being acceptable for instance). So at some point we want to draw the line. Personally I think we need to make sure we don’t draw the line so close that people are not free to express opinions – whatever they may be – as long as those opinions are not expressed in a way that is going to cause a riot. This is about the way opinions are expressed and not the opinion themselves.

So we come back to humour. Humour is not just about expressing opinion it is about the way it is done. People must be free to say Christians are wrong but not to piss on them (sorry for the language!).

I think this is a case of things going too far and perhaps we let too many comedians get away with too much – in the interests of free speech and being afraid we are going to be labeled as humourless killjoy spoilsports.

Perhaps comedians are sometimes themselves guilty of bullying others – how far is it from a good joke to bullying someone (those who have been bullied at school will tell you have most bullies use tactics to make others laugh at them).

Of course humour has been used in the past to make us laugh at: black people for being black, homosexuals for being homosexual, Jewish people for being Jewish, etc. And at the time we all collude with the claim that it’s just humour and people should loosen up and learn to laugh at themselves. I hope by now that we have come to see that humour can play a part in the way people view others. Of course it isn’t the cause of the problem but it certainly can contribute to making some pretty terrible things to happen. I hope by now that even those who hate Political Correctness would understand that some things are just too far.

I didn’t see the episode and we get worse in the UK but I want to make a plea for people not to degrade others (or their beliefs) whether in the name of a good joke – or otherwise.

Thoughts humour, jesus christ

It sometimes makes me sad when I read stuff that makes me think that someone is getting angry at Jesus. What makes me really sad is that too often the people getting angry at Jesus are Christians. To hear some Christians write about Jesus or the church you would think that they were the worst of enemies. I was reading something today on a blog by a Christian that at first I assumed was an anti Jesus blog but it turned out to be written by a Christian.

Why does this happen?

• I guess it could just be bad writing and the writer meant to say something else, but this seems unlikely to me.
• It could have been someone who was caught at the wrong moment and they were letting off steam – maybe but then why write it in a blog?
• Perhaps it was someone just struggling with their faith – this could be true because I know that every Christian faces this from time to time.
• Or perhaps they just thought they were being funny – quite possible, there is an awful lot of anti church stuff written by Christians who think its funny – not my taste though.

Now look. I’ve had my fair share (perhaps more than my fair share) of rough treatment by the church. I’ve felt that sometimes God was keeping his distance and letting things happen to me that in my view he shouldn’t (always seems to turn out best for me in the end though). I’ve also had times when I’ve cried out to God in desparation but don’t seem to have got an answer (although later I found out I had). I’ve been there, felt it, and done it.

I’m sure that deep down the person in question does love God and wants to be a good servant but there is something that has hurt them that makes them want to get angry at God. I understand this. But never forget that despite all the anger God still loves you.

Jesus is pretty used to people being angry at him. If there is someone who can take the angry accusations its Jesus. But do you angry Christians realise that others find fuel for their own anger in yours?

So please don’t burden those who are looking for God with your own anger. Let the anger go and let the rest of us be free to find Jesus.

Thoughts

I came across this page the other day that explains Anne Rice’s conversion to Christianity. It’s well worth reading.

http://www.coffeehousetheology.com/anne-rice-atheist-christ/

Thoughts

Here is a story about how the face of Jesus has appeared on the coat of a workman who was working on repairing a church. If Jesus is going to appear on a coat this seems to be the obvious place for it to my way of thinking.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/2702386/Jesus-appears-on-jacket-in-Glasgow.html

Jesus in funny places

Living with hope is much better than living without it. I know, I’ve tried both. The sad thing is that many people are trying to live with a worldview where there isn’t any hope. Now, whether you like the word or not we all (even those of us who never think about it) live by a worldview. That is we have certain basic beliefs that we live by.

I don’t think many people would actually want to describe themselves as atheists, in fact the statistics suggest that most people believe in God, but the majority of people seem to live by an atheistic view of the world. Whilst they might say they believe in God they don’t believe that God has any part to play in their life.

Just recently I read a heated debate on a blog about the difference between a Christian funeral and a humanist funeral. The discussions nearly exclusively seemed to be focussed on the content of the services. Some argued that humanist funerals are too full of soppy sentiments and easy listening songs whilst others argued that Christian services are all the same and lack the personal touch.

To my mind there was something missing in the discussions and that was the Christian hope. Christians have a pretty unique idea of what life after death means. A life lived with God in a paradise created for us to live in. A place where we will meet people who have died previously and where pain and suffering are overcome by the love and forgiveness of God.

You won’t find this hope in a humanist funeral. Regardless of the songs sung or the words used it is the hope that Jesus offers that makes all the difference.

But what about life before death? Well Jesus was pretty keen on life at all times – not just after death. Jesus wants us to find love, joy and fulfillment in this life as well as in the life to come. So the Christian hope applies to this life as well as the next.

Jesus tells us not to despair because there is always hope. And this isn’t a patronising fluffy pink kind of hope, but a deep real kind of hope that is worth believing in. A hope based on God who tells us that whatever happens he will always love us. The kind of hope that a theif can find whilst nailed to a cross when Jesus says to him: “today you will be with me in paradise”.

I’ve got a few things left in mind for this life yet but in Jesus I have hope for today and for tomorrow.

Jesus

Most people seem to believe that there must be something very difficult about praying. A belief, perhaps, that God will only answer a prayer if it is said in a particular way or using a particular formula.

Many churches have traditions that they follow when it comes to prayer but, as far as I am aware, there is no Christian church anywhere that will claim that these are the only way you can pray.

The disciples of Jesus asked Jesus himself for some help with this difficult question and Jesus gave them the Lord’s prayer to use. It’s debatable whether Jesus meant this as a prayer to say or a formula to follow. Personally I think it’s both.

There are countless books written about prayer and various ways of thinking about the various kinds of prayers that we can use and at what times we should use them.

Then people get pretty obsessive about what ending you put on a prayer to make it work, or whether you should ever say a prayer more than once.

For my part I think an awful lot of nonsense is spoken about prayer and most of it creates so much confusion that people start to think its like writing a PHD thesis every time you start to pray.

Perhaps the biggest load of nonsense I hear – and I’ve heard this one a lot – is that some people say they are just not the praying kind.

“I’m more of a practical person so I leave the praying up to the more spiritual types”.

Rubbish, my friend.

This is like saying you are not the kind of person who eats – I leave that up to the hungry people – or breathes – I leave that up to the breathing people.

The problem isn’t that you can’t pray it’s that you have become so confused by the whole subject that you think it’s best left up to the experts.

Prayer is simply conversation with God. At times you might want to tell God about something that is worrying you or that you want. Other times you might want to tell God how fantastic he is.

Like any relationship things get pretty dull if you only ever talk about the same thing, so make sure there is variety in your conversation.

There are no right or wrong words to use. There is no set formula for how to do it or what ending you must use. There is not even a rule about how many times you should say something. Jesus sometimes makes the point that God doesn’t answer just because we repeat our prayer over and over (like you might on a prayer wheel) but at other times he makes the point that we should keep asking.

So just express what is on your heart and God will listen. The more you pray the easier it feels.

Don’t hold back – pray to Jesus.

Christian living pray, prayer

I was reading a blog the other day and one of those who left a comment on the blog was very insistent that ALL scientists are atheists. They never said where they got their information from but they insisted that those who accept the need for evidence must be atheists.

It may not surprise you to know that I don’t really agree with this.

First of all we need to understand what atheism actually is. Atheism is the assertion that there is no god (a-theism). Now it seems to me that this is as much a claim to knowledge as the belief that there is a god. So the atheist can’t say that there is no evidence for god so I conclude there is no god, they must have evidence to prove that there is no god. It is not logical to make a claim to knowledge from nothing. Now there is no absolute evidence that there is no god (even atheists accept this) so any claim of there not being a god is a faith, just as much as theism (or the belief in god).

So if we want to claim that a scientist must base everything on physical evidence then the best we could come up with is agnosticism (e.g. saying there is not enough physical evidence to prove the existence or non existence of a god). So the logical end of scientific belief, as atheists explain scientific belief, is not atheism but agnosticism. I don’t really agree with this either but the argument put forward by atheists (if you accept is as being true) can at best only bring you to being an agnostic not an atheist.

However, we then have to explore what constitutes knowledge of something. How can we know anything? Some people will respond that our senses tell us what exists and what doesn’t (e.g. only anything physical is real). Yet how do we then explain things like thought, love, beauty, etc. Some people say it is just chemicals reacting in the body but that is not enough because we experience more than a chemical reaction. We can also appeal to logic and say that the only things we can know about with our senses is the physical world but this does not prove that there is nothing that is non-physical, e.g. metaphysics and god.

It seems to me narrow and closed thinking to insist that the only things you can know exist are those things you can physically experience.

Then we can come back to the word “experience”. You will find that the majority of Christians will be able to talk about encounters with God – times that they have experienced the presence of God. Of course they don’t mean they have physically touched him but that they have felt his presence. I have experienced this for myself and find that I can no more deny the existence of God anymore than I could deny the existence of my brothers.

Some will talk about weak atheism (person who does not have a belief that one or more deities or gods exist) as opposed to strong atheism (person who believes that no god exists) but I think this is a red-herring. Some want to claim to be weak atheists (presumably because it sounds better in certain circles) when they are really agnostic.

Others will talk about ‘improbabilities’ trying to use philosophical/mathematical terms to try and persuade us they are taking a higher thinking approach to things when what they really mean is that they have chosen not to believe (which is a much a faith as choosing to believe – neither can claim intellectual authority). Of course I don’t accept the improbability argument anyway because I believe the evidence points to there most probably being a god and I’m in good intellectual company here (take a look at this article).

Anyway I’m getting off the point. The point is that just because you are a thinking person doesn’t mean you must automatically be an atheist – this is a simple lie that atheists have tried hard to push and the gullible have fallen for.

It is that statistically there are more atheists in the scientific community than in the general population. The most obvious explanation for this is culture not intelligence.

Take a look at the following sites where the statistics are discussed. They are mostly from the USA but they are still valid in this discussion because not all scientists are British, of course.

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/why_are_scientists_atheists.html

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/050811_scientists_god.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_n4_v57/ai_19582381/

Thoughts

Trawling through the Internet I came across some other strange places that Jesus (and his mum) have been found that aren’t in my blog. So here is the list.

Jesus in welsh Marmite lid

Jesus in some kitchen curtains

Virgin Mary in some bird droppings

Face of Jesus in an MRI scan

Jesus in funny places

Jesus has now been spotted on the toilet door of an Ikea store in Scotland.

See the story here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6373674/Jesuss-face-spotted-on-the-toilet-door-in-Ikea-Glasgow.html

Jesus in funny places Jesus

During my time at college I had to go through a race awareness course. We were given the chance to try and understand what racism is and what it is like for those who suffer with it. It was a good thing to do and left me noticing a lot more of the hurtful talk (and worse) that goes on.

Recently the BBC has gone undercover to expose the kind of racism that is still very real in the UK. Of course we could excuse it on the grounds that it is only a few families that are responsible.

It always seems to me that there is a wider issue involved than racism because we all tend to get roped in to talking about people that degrades them or puts them down. It could be something as seemingly innocent as a nic-name or something as hateful as blaming a group of people for the way things are in society. I’m sure no one would want to go as far as the fascists did in WW2 but small comments have habits of growing in to big beliefs.

Then again what effect do our comments have on children who are listening to our words. There is nothing more humbling to a caring parent to hear a comment about someone (or worse a group of people) repeated back on the lips of an innocent child.

No doubt some will see my views as political correctness gone mad but whilst I fight against a lot of political correctness I do understand some of the power of words to offend and degrade people. I do believe that it is right to point out to someone when they are going wrong but there are ways of doing this that don’t degrade people.

I don’t think Jesus would have anything to do with degrading talk about people because of their: race, gender, views, sexual preference, or religion and so I will seek to follow Jesus’ example. May God forgive me when I fail.

What would Jesus say? racism