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Solutions to
corruption
August 3, 2008 - Dale
Yesterday I felt as though I was living in two different worlds.
And yet the two worlds seemed quite similar. As though a person living in one
would feel quite at home in the other.
One of the worlds is that of Noah, Abraham and the people of
Sodom and Gomorrah. Stories of ambition, incredulity, scepticism about the
existence of righteous people. Stories of a world and a city overtaken by
corruption. They are stories from the ancient world, and yet they seemed like
the same kind of stories that were told in the conversation I had with friends
last night about modern day morality and corruption.
Are there any righteous people? How can endemic corruption and
immorality be changed? Is the Sodom and Gomorrah solution the only one that
works? Did it work? What about the Noah solution? Or the Babel solution? ...
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Limits to
tolerance
February 17, 2008 - Dale
It seems a bit hard to avoid commenting on Rowan Williams’ willy-willy**. The main issues have
been well and truly explored by a variety of commentators. You can see a round
up on
Ruth Gledhill's blog
Some of the more significant religious issues are probably too sensitive to
write about from here. But one which I think is relevant to those who live in
the western world is the issue of accommodation. For a long time now the church
in western countries has been under pressure not from followers of other
religions but from those with a secular religion.
The pressure has come in the form of not offending others. So churches and
Christians have been intimidated into virtual silence in case some group is
offended by what Christians believe or practise. ...
Into this atmosphere of accommodation and privatising of Christianity has come
another religion with clear and forward moving agendas. I think it has taken
both the secularists and the Christians by surprise. ...
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The hijacking of
history
January 6, 2008 - Dale
Have you noticed the way “historical” movies tend to adapt the story to fit the
views or prejudices or interests of the modern audience? I am thinking of films
like the Nativity Story, Alexander the Great, and so on. No doubt a certain
amount of “adaptation” is necessary. The same happens with old drama.
Shakespeare’s plays are regularly set in a modern context.
But history is different to drama. It is not that only a selected part of the
history is described. Historical description is always selective. It is more
that the history gets hijacked by modern concerns. At one level this may be a
way of saying that the people of the past faced similar issues to us. But at
another level it is a means of co-opting the history to support a particular
modern point of view. As though the people in the past held the same view that
we are supporting or opposing.
One example in the Nativity Story was the strong message that Mary’s arranged
marriage was against her (and any sensible woman’s) wishes. While this is an
important issue for many modern women, there is no evidence that it was an issue
for Mary (or even that her marriage was actually arranged against her wishes).
History also seems to be co-opted fairly regularly in films in the cause of sexual
propaganda (from the point of view of a variety of “preferences”).
One of the effects of this is to distort the history. Historical revisionism is
not a new idea, ...Read the rest of the Article.
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