A House Divided

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." ( Matthew 12:25 )

These words were spoken by Jesus to the Pharisees following their comments about casting out devils. But they seem to fit the bill in many modern day situations. Most recently, they have become a metaphor for the Church of England.

I speak of the latest gaffe perpetrated by Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, who has shocked the world by calling for parts of Sharia law to be introduced in Britain.

"Sharia law in the UK is unavoidable." These were the actual words he used.

Dr Williams is not an unintelligent man. He must, undoubtedly, have satisfied the higher echelons of the Church of England as to his ability and acumen to be the best banner man to lead the church into the twenty-first century. Really?? Surely, he has failed to look deeply enough into the thoughts behind these words and the repercussions they would have on society.

My view is, he has fallen into the old but ever enduring pit of apologetics where it is always fashionable to give deference to the 'away' team at the expense of the 'home'. Sadly, we have turned it into an art form in Britain. We do it ad nauseam.

Why did he not realise that by advocating fundamental forays into state law, he is attempting to undermine the whole structure of society? This could only lead to unrest and division on a gargantuan scale.

As I write, I learn that Dr Williams has now faced the synod, the church's governing body, and has staunchly defended his words. Already, I detect the stench of yet another schism. Is there a hidden agenda? Time will tell. Interestingly, though the Archbishop has plenty of supporters, his predecessor, Lord Carey has just said "Acceptance of some Muslim laws would be disastrous for Britain."

Perhaps Dr Williams needs to look more closely at the above scripture. The words of Jesus should ring loud and clear. For any invasion by Sharia law would indeed make the church, and the country, a house divided.

Sacrifice: Blind Obedience or Obsessive Barbarity?

Question: What kind of god requires sacrifice? Compare and contrast the moral implications of sacrifice with regard to human rights, with the principles of ritual and appeasement.

This question may never appear on a college paper but I would like you, the interested reader, to imagine you are the student and you have been given this assignment. How would you tackle it. Of course, I'm taking for granted the fact that you have done extensive research on the subject and your essay writing skills are beyond question. Feeling generous, I'm disposing with the normal time constraints. Go on...you can do it!

However, just in case you don't feel too confident I shall endeavour to offer some assistance by going over a few salient points. For starters, let's have a dictionary definition, or two, to get the juices flowing.

Sacrifice: n. (1) The slaughter of animal or person, surrender of possession, as offering to a deity.
v. (2) The giving up of a thing for the sake of another that is higher or more urgent.

You have probably learned from past teaching that sacrifice is synonymous with archaic religious rituals. That much blood was spilled and many innocents died. When you think of the word 'sacrifice' you think of ancient civilisations like the Aztecs and the Incas who practised the art frequently. That such offerings would appease angry gods or guarantee a good harvest next year was the natural expectation of the people. But you might say that these civilisations were godless in Judaeo-Christian terms, and that men of God such as Moses, Joshua and Abraham would never get involved with the idea. Wrong! In fact the principle of sacrifice is prevalent throughout the bible right into the New Testament.

The Bible sets the Scene

The original plan was to sacrifice animals. Most of the book of Leviticus is taken up with the ritual slaughter of birds and animals 'to cleanse lepers'. Can you believe this?

"And the priest shall command that one of the birds shall be killed in an earthen vessel over running water."

(Leviticus 14:5)

"And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering in the holy place."

(Leviticus 14:13)

Scapegoat?

In most cases the blood of the animals was sprinkled over the people. For what purpose? In Genesis, Abraham's obedience was 'tested' by God who demanded that he should offer up his beloved son Isaac as a burnt offering. The killing didn't take place as it seems that Abraham had passed the test by placing his son on the altar. But instead of everyone packing up and going home, Abraham felt it necessary to offer up an animal. Why waste an altar? It so happened that a ram was "caught in a thicket by his horns" and this poor animal was offered up to God in place of Isaac. I'm pleased for the sake of Isaac but why needlessly destroy the animal? This slaughter was not for food.

The New Testament

"And almost all things are by the law purged with blood. Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins"

(Hebrews 9:22)

Here, St Paul is referring to the crucifixion of Christ who was regarded as the ultimate sacrifice to atone for the sins of man. Whose idea is this? First of all, you have to believe in the principle of sin. If like me, you don't, there is no need for senseless, ritual slaughter. Do you imagine for one moment that a sane, intelligent, all-seeing and all-knowing God would stoop to this barbaric level? No way! But then if you think about it, all down the ages, man has anthropomorphized deities. He has endowed God with human characteristics. He does it to animals and inanimate objects. And he has certainly done it to God. This is why God is seen as judgemental one minute and merciful the next. This is why God is called "a jealous God" who is easily angered.
This is why the God of the scriptures must be appeased and prayed to by penitents who need to suffer some form of deprivation so that there will be a change of mind, so that disaster will be averted.

Man has projected his feelings and emotions on to something on the outside. He has created a means whereby an outside entity can take all the blame for his own shortcomings and problems.

What am I saying here? That man has invented God? I think that will have to be another question paper.

I look forward to receiving your answer sheet with interest.

On the Breadline

"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

(Matthew 4:4)

Fruit of the Earth

Here in the West it is hard to imagine life without bread. It is the fruit of the earth, the staple by which we measure physical sustenance, and the cornerstone of our very existence. It will always be here in its diverse forms. Well, maybe.

We often hear the phrase 'bread basket of the world', an indication of its importance in the world's economic machinery. Over millennia, we have called upon the pagan deities, offered sacrifices and invented a whole gamut of seasonal rituals to ensure a good harvest in the coming year. The annual Thanksgiving ceremonies are a testimony to the continuation of such rituals. Corn dollies and corn-sheaf bread are symbolic of the pagan infrastructure which still exists.

Body of Christ

Bread plays no minor part in the scriptures either, but has achieved dynamic status as a parable medium. Ravens brought bread to the prophet Elijah when he went into hiding. The miracle of the five loaves and two fishes feeding the five thousand is well documented and often quoted. And who has not learned of the importance of bread as a representation of the body of Christ at the Last Supper? This is one of the fundamental beliefs of the Catholic Church which maintains that the communion host is actually the body of Christ.

"...Take, eat; this is my body" ( Matthew 26:26 )

Leavened or Unleavened?

Leavening is the biblical word for yeast. Unleavened bread, therefore, contained no yeast and was somewhat flat, since it is the yeast which makes the bread rise. Leavening was also equated with sin and was to be avoided at all cost. Of course, this presupposes that you agree with the principle of sin. Hmm! Could be another article there.

St Anthony's Fire

If you've ever wondered how a belief begins life, this account might proffer a reasonable explanation. In the middle ages in Europe much of the bread was made from rye flour. But rye bread had a problem. It was prone to attack by a fungus called ergot. The result of prolonged consumption of the diseased bread was a painful burning sensation in the legs. It was known as St Anthony's Fire and those with the disease in its advanced stages would gradually watch their limbs turn black and gangrenous. Many sufferers in the early stages of the problem were advised, or felt the call, to travel far away from home to a shrine in order to be at peace with God and pray for forgiveness and a healing. Well, guess what? After a month or two they got better, which encouraged an even stronger faith in God. However, there was no one around at the time to tell them that by moving away from home, they moved away from the cause of the disease and simply lived on bread totally unaffected by the ergot.

My point is that here was a belief born of ignorance of the facts. You may be thinking - what does it matter how belief is arrived at or how faith is formed as long as it is there. If you are thinking along those lines, I would like to hear from you.

Write now!

Curses: Ancient and Modern

The Tradition of the Curse

What do you think of when you hear the word "curse"? Long-forgotten fairy tales with stereotypical, ugly witches in pointed hats? Or biblical stories like this one?

"And he turned back and looked on them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood and tare forty and two children of them." (2Kings 2:24 )

I have a big problem with this scripture. The story goes that Elisha, a 'man of God' was on his way to Bethel when he was followed by some children from the city. They mocked him, calling out "Go up thou bald head, go up thou bald head" (2Kings 2:23). Well, come on! Kids will be kids and they can be cruel sometimes, but to curse them with two vicious animals is a bit over the top don't you think? Wouldn't something more humane like temporary blindness or dumbness have been more appropriate? Or perhaps even forgiveness?

What makes it worse is that it was done in the name of God! Does God really hate children that much? Somehow I don't think so. This is not what you'd call good publicity.

In the 1800's Richard Harris Barham, in the Ingoldsby Legends, published his famous poem "The Jackdaw of Rheims". In this saga, the Cardinal Lord Archbishop loses his ring and suspects someone has stolen it. Out comes the bell, book and candle, plus a large helping of "holy anger and pious grief". The main elements are as follows:

He cursed him at board, he cursed him in bed
From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head
He cursed him in sleeping that every night
He should dream of the devil and wake in a fright

The curse gets worse and the big surprise is that nobody seems to be affected by it. That is until a sad, crumpled and limping jackdaw appears.

This is fiction of course but it demonstrates the ethos of power held by the clergy. Here is yet another man of God who would rather punish someone harshly than play the merciful card. The fact that curses are against the teachings of Christ seems to be irrelevant.

The Power of the Modern Curse

You may be thinking - OK, this is interesting historical stuff but nobody curses these days. You think not?

If you have had perfect parents and a truly excellent schooling you need not read further. For the benefit of the others who haven't, I would ask you to cast your mind back to childhood. Let's say you wanted to learn a skill such as building model aeroplanes or knitting, and in the process of learning you made a mistake. Your father, or mother, chastised you for the error saying something like "You'll never be any good at it, you haven't got what it takes." This whole sentence is a curse. There's no bell, book and candle but the effect is just as devastating. Why? Because children look up to their parents and see them as experts. In fact they see their parents as gods who know everything, are always right and always speak the truth. You only learn this is not the case as you get older.

The child with the modelling kit will give up the idea of making anything, and the wool and the knitting needles will probably be given away unused simply because of the curses. The terrible part about it is that the children's creative minds have been dealt a severe blow.

School is another danger area. How often have you heard it said, "You're useless at maths. You'll never pass your exam." The teacher is sadly right. He or she has laid down a curse of failure and without the curse being lifted by copious amounts of positive input (see last post), failure is the only outcome.

If you have your own tale of curses from the past, do write and tell me about them.

Incidentally, in case you don't know the poem, the jackdaw's curse was lifted and he was back to normal in the end.

Don't Think of an Elephant

Hasn't this year gone quickly? Is it my imagination or is time really speeding up? Whichever it is, 2008 is upon us already, and millions of us will reflect and steadfastly make high-flying new year resolutions which will mostly be shot down by the artillery of procrastination.

Never do today...

I know all about procrastination. I have turned it into an art form. I'm not sure but it could be the philosophy of someone who believes he is going to live well into three figures and has all the time in the world - my excuse and I'm sticking to it. However, statistics don't support this belief. They would proudly cling to the well-worn theory that in terms of longevity, children generally follow their parents. My father died at 70, which statistically gives me 7 years of life. But thanks to visionaries like Louise Hay, it is possible for me to buck the system, and it's all down to positive thinking, positive vocabulary, and how I react to situations.

The elephant and the 'F' word

Be honest, when you read the title did you automatically think of an elephant? I did when I first heard the spoken command. Most of us will do the same because the brain needs to go into immediate action to search the archives for an image of an elephant. The word "Don't" hasn't a prayer because it is essentially an invasion of our personal freedom of thought. and therefore we dismiss it. It's the same with the 'F' word. I'm referring to the word 'fear' of course, and the bible is full of examples ( 117 altogether ) where we are told not to fear. If we are told "Don't be afraid" the word we latch on to is 'afraid' because the brain gets the message that there is something to be afraid about. Then worry sets in and we no longer feel safe.

Self-preservation

Imagine you are climbing a rock face with a friend who is more experienced in mountaineering. Halfway up your friend shouts down to you "Don't look down!" The compulsion to look down would be overwhelming, even though you have been told many times that it is psychologically unsafe to do so. If, on the other hand, your friend had said "Keep looking up!", you would have followed that order without the fear element because the word 'up' is the dominant one. I reckon there's enough adrenalin in rock climbing without adding to it. This is all about using positive commands instead of negative ones.

I am reminded of an old song which I believe was written by Willie Nelson:

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
And don't mess with Mr Inbetween

Shame about the last line but the general idea is good.

Happy positive thinking.

Sun God or the Son of God?

So you think Jesus Christ was born on 25th December?

Most experts conclude that Jesus Christ was not born in December at all but rather September. They say shepherds would not be tending their sheep on a cold winter's night. So why have we adopted December 25th as Christmas ( Christ Mass ) day?

Pagan Tradition and the Christian Takeover

When we look into man's pagan history it's not difficult to see why December was chosen. It is, after all, the month of the winter solstice, a day of great importance in pagan times. The 'sol' part means sun, and sun worship was the high point of man's existence. In addition, all the paraphernalia surrounding this worship, the Yule logs, the holly and ivy, the mistletoe and not forgetting the tree, are all pagan fertility symbols still in use today.

When in Rome

Around 350 AD the Romans were still chiefly pagan and Pope Julius 1 probably got orders from the top to increase subscription and rope in more converts to the faith. Then he had a brainwave. He didn't want to tell the people they could no longer worship their sun god. They would probably have rioted. So he simply superimposed new feast days on top of the existing ones. It worked! Everyone continued with their merrymaking whilst the Pope happily told them they were now honouring Jesus Christ. Perfect!

And now, when you go into a church and see the lighted candles, what you are really doing is paying homage to Mithras the sun god.

What do you make of Christmas?

Christmas seems to have many faces. One face is the face of great joy and happiness, and family get-togethers. Another face represents heartache and sorrow, the nadir in emotional turbulence. Yet another face is the face of enterprise and commerce with its miasma of sales, bargains, gadgets and gifts. Whole industries have mushroomed around it. The lights have their purpose too. They chase away the winter blues, thereby replacing the sun's weak winter light.

Christmas can be a roller coaster ride for families and individuals alike. According to the Samaritans, there is a greater potential for suicide at Christmas than at any other time of year. Why? Have we been indoctrinated so well by rose-tinted tradition, with fairy tale images of joy and happiness and the sound of Bing Crosby singing 'White Christmas'?

For those whose emotions are not so robust, these images can be a dangerous foray into fantasy. Like Cinderella, the clock must strike twelve at some point and then comes the reality shock. For some people it's too much.

I have another face for Christmas. It is the face of each individual looking in the mirror and saying to their reflection "I love you", and saying it with confidence and joy. It is the face of you and me loving ourselves for who we are regardless of where we come from or the colour of our skin. By doing this on a regular basis we are laying the foundations for loving other people. For we cannot love others until we have first learned to love ourselves. This has the potential to change the world. All we need is the will to do it.

A merry Christmas to my readers ( all three of you ) and a prosperous new year.

God:The Real Time Lord?

"...one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." (2 Peter 3:8 )

Time: Reality or Construct?

Does time exist in reality, or like the internet, is it a construct? Could it simply be an invention of man's imagination adopted for the procurement of power and stability?

The earth and moon have provided man with natural periods from their rotational cycles and he has successfully subdivided these ephemeral giants into pocket-sized chunks of time. Greenwich Mean Time was set up as absolute time to ensure that trains always ran on time. I have bad news for them. They failed!

A wealth of expressions has grown up around time. We talk about killing time, wasting time, that time and tide wait for no man. This suggests time is marching on inexorably and therefore we can't afford to relax for one moment. This means no time for meditation or reflection. No time for nature and the inner peace we so desperately need. The clock has become our god - our master rather than our servant.

Is time necessary?

The above scripture is curious. It appears to be as irrelevant as it is enigmatic. To say that a day is as a thousand years seems to imply that time is non-existent. Perhaps God is really saying "Hey! I don't need time. I'm timeless. I was here before the beginning of time and I shall still be here after the end of it."

Yet other scriptures are so time-oriented. One in particular has been popularised through song:

"To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

This is popular because it doesn't challenge anyone's comfort zone. It is a metaphor for the zeitgeist principle, the rise and fall of fashion, the vogue of human existence and the changing nature of life on earth. But we are told that God does not change.

Does this mean we have taken on board time as a false god? Have we drifted so far from the original blueprint, the God-given prototype of how we should live our lives? Or is God the real time lord, who can travel through a thousand years in one day?

It's your call!