Posts

Showing posts from 2014

Festival Song

A Word should not be a Sentence

Words are important. Freudian slips are accidental but no less significant. "I didn't mean that" can be both a genuine and a bogus excuse. With some of our news coming in a one sentence tweet you need to choose your words very carefully and woe betide the birdie who drops a bomb like 'suicide'. It's not really surprising that someone has said that suicide is selfish. In a proper debate that point of view would have to be aired and examined. It would need to be tested from different angles and according to different criteria. The definition of 'selfish' has to be established. Does it simply mean I did it for myself or does it carry the caveat that it has no consideration for others? Is being selfish, of itself, a bad thing or does it depend on how you are being selfish? Maybe it shouldn't but it bothers me a little seeing article headlines saying suicide isn't selfish. It's not that I believe it is but it seems that everyone has to defend Ro

Peek-a-boo

Image
Now you see Hamas, now you don't. The answer to, "Is Hamas a terrorist organisation?" is neither yes nor no. It can't be 'no' because they clearly are terrorists. They are terrorising Israelis with their indiscriminate bombs and they undoubtedly terrorise Palestinians. So why can't the answer be yes? No one in the media is defending Hamas but do they not at least deserve a fair trial? Go back to the troubles in Ireland. From the mainland we could look at loyalists and republicans and wonder how they could support their respective paramilitaries. The IRA and their counterparts were thugs (no doubt there) but so long as there was an 'us' and 'them' there was no hope for peace. The Sinn Fein were never flavour of the month except among republicans but they won elections, even to the UK Parliament. Ian Paisley was never a terrorist and Martin McGuinness was never a saint. Neither garnered much support outside their respective camps and if eithe

Obama, the antichrist

Image
Many American right wing nut jobs will claim that Obama is the antichrist. It sounds ridiculous but I would suggest a rational argument can be made to justify the title. Before you decide to disown me please allow me to explain. In what is now the Holy Week, churches throughout the world are centring on the Passion, the final hours around Jesus' crucifixion. According to John's gospel, Jesus was taken before Pilate and questioned. Pilate asked Jesus if he was the king of the Jews because the Jewish leaders were accusing him of claiming that title. Jesus confirmed that he was a king but not of this world. If he were, then he could command an army to defend him. Outside the specific context of his trial and execution this has massive implications for us who claim to be Christians. First of all it means we are citizens of a spiritual kingdom and, as Christians, have no nationhood as its understood in an earthly sense. Secondly it forbids us to assault those who do not claim Christ

Moral Camels

Image
It seems to me that Christians are their worst enemies when it comes to alienating those who do not share their faith. I am aware that Christians are persecuted for their faith throughout the world more than any other faith but we should distinguish between raw persecution, reasoned dislike and difference of opinion. Setting aside the principle that any discussion on religion is bound to spark passionate debate and raise the usual suspects, its the moral dimension that I want to address. We should distinguish between morals and moralising. Society requires moral fabric, accepting that stealing, murder, rape, fraud etc. are not acceptable. But inevitably we each become arbiters of what is morally acceptable and judge others by our moral code which, for each of us, is different in degree if not in content. Stealing is a crime but the principle is that you do not acquire the property of another without their permission or by some sort of legitimate contract. But its a rare person who can