connexions

Have a good one y’all.

Believe me, It’s Torture

You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it “simulates” the feeling of drowning. This is not the case. You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning—or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying the pressure. The “board” is the instrument, not the method. You are not being boarded. You are being watered. This was very rapidly brought home to me when, on top of the hood, which still admitted a few flashes of random and worrying strobe light to my vision, three layers of enveloping towel were added. In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited for a while until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of water going up my nose. Determined to resist if only for the honor of my navy ancestors who had so often been in peril on the sea, I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and—as you might expect—inhale in turn. The inhalation brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face. Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, and flooded more with sheer panic than with mere water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled upright and having the soaking and stifling layers pulled off me. I find I don’t want to tell you how little time I lasted.

via Bene Diction Blogs On

U.S. Presidential candidates Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, have written companion pieces for Parade Magazine on the meaning of patriotism. Sen. McCain writes:

“Patriotism is deeper than its symbolic expressions, than sentiments about place and kinship that move us to hold our hands over our hearts during the national anthem. It is putting the country first, before party or personal ambition, before anything.”

Before anything. Even before faith? Even before conscience formed through grace? Where is the sense that our country for love of another peoples might need to give up something for better conditions and greater justice for all of humanity? Is patriotism primarily phileo love rooted in fondness of one’s own people or place or an agape love enacted from above where out of gratitude for blessings bestowed on us we reach out to others?

Later, Sen. McCain writes:

“And if we are to replicate the spirit of our founding age, if we are to be genuine patriots, we must remember also that we are patriots because we love the countrymen we will never know, who will be born after we are gone.”

Can someone truly love themselves unless they love others, too? MCan makes no mention of loving peoples of other lands, of a patriotism that respects, honors and cooperates with the ideals and dreams of citizens of other countries. Where is the sense of being citizens of the world? Is there no patriotism attached to living on planet earth?

One day, whether that be 100 years in the future, 500 years or 1,000 years, it is likely that the United States will no longer be the most powerful nation on earth. I find that a humbling thought. Other Americans see it as humiliating. However, if God is sovereign, the ideal is to accept the gift of sanctifying grace, and in cooperative and community agape love to strive for excellence rooted in character, truth and fairness. And to do all this by way of humbly accepting our place and purpose in creation as God gives us.

For me, a starting point to patriotism might be the first stanza of I Want a Principle Within (public domain):

I WANT A PRINCIPLE WITHIN (words by Charles Wesley)
I want a principle within of watchful,
godly fear, a sensibility of sin, a
pain to feel it near. I want the first approach to feel
of pride or wrong desire, to catch the wandering
of my will, and quench the kindling fire.

Country before faith? Love of countrymen before love of all those whom God has “fearfully and wonderfully made“?

Joel Betow
Stroud, Oklahoma USA

Randy has a great quote. Go see.

Bene Diction reflects on the news that Stephen Green (he of Christian Voice fame) is facing bankruptcy.

Because he took two individuals through the legal system he has been ordered to pay costs - 90 thousand pounds.
He is not a sympathetic figure, authoritarian zealots rarely are, and his repeated attempts to be David against Goliath has generated a counter-petition to have him pay up, polarized against his petition to be let off the hook. ‘Sod off’ may feed his persecution complex, his pleas aren’t going to pay the bill.

Richard Bartholomew finds a bit of sympathy for Green (“legal costs can be excessively high”) but you don’t walk impulsively into High Court action. He must surely have taken advice about the possible consequences of failure. Now it looks as though he’ll have to face those consequences.

Bishop Alan compares some of the recent goings on in the Anglican Church to trench warfare

Whether you’re running the Lambeth conference, pathfinding for the Anglican Communion, getting life expectancy in Zimbabwe higher than it was in England in the 11th century, or finding how to be radically inclusive in a fully traditional church, the only method is not Power Play, Militant Entryism and Dumb-Boy Thuggery, but FAITH!

He’s got a very nice video to illustrate his point. I promise you’ll enjoy it, even if it does appear to come from an American daytime TV programme.

I’d like to say that Methodism is immune from the sort of embittered standoff that Alan describes, but I fear it isn’t so. I don’t want to downplay the deep disagreements that are to be found within my church, but I do sometimes wish we’d be just a bit more Wesleyan about them. I mean to say, that we can disagree vehemently, even stridently, and yet refuse to bear a grudge or nurse wounded pride, trusting that our opponents are acting with integrity and according to their understanding of the gospel. I’m reminded of the story that John Wesley, when asked if he expected to meet theological sparring partner George Whitfield in heaven, replied “I fear not - for George will be so much nearer the throne of grace.”

The Methodist Conference will soon begin. There’ll be plenty of opportunity there for ‘free and frank’ exchanges of views, and I hope they’ll happen. There are some important subjects on the agenda. But whatever happens in Conference debates or elsewhere, I hope that we can remember that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, sharing a family bond which is greater than any difference of opinion. Unity is not an option. It is an obligation.

OK, I know this is the second video of the day, but I couldn’t resist this bit of bit of lunacy. It’s probably the largest slab of fruit cake you’ll come across anywhere on the internet during 2008. Really, it should be up for some sort of award. Here’s the summary: apparently, the Large Hadron Collider that’s being built at CERN has a specific purpose. It is to open up the Van Allen Belt and enable the return of the Nephilim from a planet, the name of which escapes me for the minute. So now you know. The flying saucers will start arriving this summer. Probably.

The narrator concludes with: “You can call me nuts if you like.”

Absolutely. Stark raving bonkers.

via Staring into the distance

It’s Canada Day today. A very happy one to all you Canucks!

Todd Bentley continues to kick up the dust around the blogosphere.

Bene Diction shares the following disturbing video showing Mr Bentley assaulting someone who is reckoned to have cancer of the colon.

Commenting on the same incident, and responding out of his own experience of sharing with cancer sufferers, Dave Warnock writes

All these people I have loved that have died from cancer have had excellent loving care and have been surrounded by prayer, all who knew them are confident that they are now safe with their Lord, Jesus.
When I think of the pain they went through my blood boils at the slightest hint of a thought that anyone would have kicked them while they had cancer. It is inhuman, it should be enough to convict someone of assault. I know I am reacting out of emotional pain here. But all these folks were aware of the love of Jesus for them and that love was about healing (it turned out to be in the eternal sense), wholeness, peace and strength. In the arms of Jesus and filled with his Spirit they felt secure and safe.

It has become perfectly clear that whatever is happening in Florida has very little to do with the Holy Spirit. (Which is not to say that God can’t work through what is happening, but that’s a different issue) What you see on God TV is a show, an entertainment. Todd Bentley and his people know how to work a crowd, but what they offer is no gospel.

John Cooper posts a beautiful song and dedicates it to his ministerial friends who are on the move this summer. A lovely thought, and I thank him from the heart of my bottom.

Ben Myers shares a pornographer’s dream.

Thy ceaseless, unexhausted love,
Unmerited and free,
Delights our evil to remove,
And help our misery.

Thou waitest to be gracious still;
Thou dost with sinners bear,
That, saved, we may thy goodness feel,
And all thy grace declare.

Thy goodness and thy truth to me
To every soul, abound,
A vast, unfathomable sea,
Where all our thoughts are drowned.

Its streams the whole creation reach,
So plenteous is the store,
Enough for all, enough for each,
Enough for evermore.

Faithful, O Lord, thy mercies are!
A rock that cannot move;
A thousand promises declare
Thy constancy of love.

Throughout the universe it reigns,
Unalterably sure;
And while the truth of God remains,
The goodness must endure.

Charles Wesley

I’m not blogging tonight. I’m too tired. I’ve been away from home overnight, sorting out some stuff about the house I’ll be moving to in August. It’s all coming together, but these things take time. If I had been blogging though, I would certainly want to have mentioned the story of the cardboard bicycle. It sounds ludicrous, but if you think about it, a bike which is both light and cheap is a remarkable thing. Even if you could only get 6 months of riding out of it, it would still be worth the sort of money they’re saying it might cost.

I’d probably want to do a post about the news that family meals help pupils achieve better exam results [Note to the Times editor: Remember i before e except after c!]. This shouldn’t be a surprise. I’m convinced that the social benefits that come from family meal times are enormous. If I could make them compulsory, I would.

I’d certainly have to blog the return of Davros to Dr Who tonight. Brilliant! The storyline was lunatic, of course, but to see Davros and a Dalek host again was a wonderful sight. If you saw it, what did you make of the ‘cliffhanger’ ending?

And I’d definitely, definitely want to link to our friend PamBG as she looks forward to her ordination at the Scarborough Conference. God bless, Pam!

That’s what I do if I was blogging tonight.

If.

We might never know how many whales there are in the oceans, according to a fascinating article from the BBC.

Counting whales may be difficult, but weighing them is dead easy.

Where do you weigh whales?

At a whale-weigh station!.

I’m so dreadfully sorry for that. I don’t know what came over me.

If you’re thinking of changing some electrical at home or in your office, sust-it.net will help you compare the energy efficiency of various models. Even if you aren’t interested in reducing your carbon footprint, you’ll want to know how much that telly, computer or washing machine is likely to cost you to run, right?

Some of you know that there was a time when I worked in a rather splendid wholefood co-op. It was a good while ago, but I learned alot about the food trade in a short space of time and could get quite animated on the subject of wholefoods, given the opportunity.

I remember once someone had an idea for promoting the sale of prunes, and put up a large notice next to the proper shelf, where it said simply

The sign didn’t last long — not all of our customers were endowed with a sense of humour — but the phrase has stuck in my mind for some reason.

So I smiled when I read on The Church Times Blog (and PamBG’s, to be fair) that the GAFCON conference is being proclaimed as “the beginning of a movement”.

Quite.

Wood has got you in his sights.

Another great rant from the rant-meister himself.

Backburner offers this subtitled worship song. Just don’t be eating or drinking anything while you watch. I almost choked.

Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion turns our attention back to Todd Bentley and the Florida ‘revival’, revealing that Todd has resolved the vexed issue of the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews. We now know that it was, despite what many scholars think, authored by St Paul. How do we now this? Because St Paul says so!

I discovered while conversing with Paul that it wasn’t only Jesus Christ who taught him in heaven. I say this because Paul told me: “Abraham taught me, in heaven, and that’s how and why I wrote the book of Hebrews. What I heard was from the lips of Abraham himself.”

Thus saith the Lord Todd at any rate. So now you know.

Richard Batholomew also comments on the spin-off “Dudley Outpouring”. In days gone by I spent a fair bit of time in Dudley (my friend’s grandmother lived there, and we spent happy summers with the lads from Vicar Street Bible Class - sadly now closed) and if you’d asked me before I’d have said that the folk of Dudley were too grounded to fall for this kind of nonsense. Looking at the videos on YouTube suggests I’d have been right: they certainly aren’t packing them in there as they are in Lakeland, despite the claims being made.

One thing I noticed on the videos is that the evangelist in Dudley does that same funny head-shaking thing that Todd Bentley does. I’ve seen Todd Bentley’s associates do it too, when they’ve been standing in for him in Lakeland. Is this a sign of ‘the annointing’? It’s been a while since I’ve regularly attended charismatic meetings, but I don’t remember head shaking ever being a feature. A holy twitch or tic seems like a strange sort of manifestation to me.

Christ, from whom all blessings flow,
Perfecting the saints below,
Hear us, who Thy nature share,
Who Thy mystic body are.

Join us, in one spirit join,
Let us still receive of Thine;
Still for more on Thee we call,
Thou Who fillest all in all.

Move and actuate and guide,
Diverse gifts to each divide;
Placed according to Thy will,
Let us all our work fulfill.

Sweetly may we all agree,
Touched with loving sympathy,
Kindly for each other care;
Every member feel its share.

Never from Thy service move,
Needful to each other prove;
Use the grace on each bestowed,
Tempered by the art of God.

Many are we now, and one,
We who Jesus have put on;
There is neither bond nor free,
Male nor female, Lord, in Thee.

Love, like death, hath all destroyed,
Rendered all distinctions void;
Names and sects and parties fall;
Thou, O Christ, art all in all!

Charles Wesley