View From The Basement

Sadness after Joy

In much of Glasgow, indeed across much of Scotland yesterday their was an air of hope and expectation. Rangers fans, and people who just like Scottish football (I count myself among the this latter rather then the former) were filled with the joy that Rangers had reached the UEFA Cup Final and while they were perhaps under-dogs they had a reasonable chance of winning.

My two older boys like Rangers so straight after school we headed over to Ibrox Stadium where the game would be shown for free on a giant screen. We arrived about 4pm and the gates did not open till 6pm. The crowd waiting to get in was massive. We met a friend and her son who were leaving saying that they had been told there were 60,000 in the que already and only 25 - 28,000 would get in.

While there were many in the crowd that where just happy to be there, there were too many in the crowd for my liking that had drank too much. Indeed when we walked through the car park at the east end of the stadium you were walking through a carpet of broken Buckfast and bear bottles. There seemed to be an unpreparedness on the part of the football club and the police on the size of the crowd that would gather for this event. We left deciding to watch the game on the TV at home.

As for the actual game - well at points watching paint dry would have been more exciting.

To wake up to the news that there had been trouble by the Rangers supporters in Manchester was very disappointing. There are just no excuses, and while you can appreciate the frustration that the big screen in the city center failed, to trow bottles etc. at the poor guy who tried to fix it and then to turn on the police, to turn this frustration into violence is just unacceptable. I suspect like many Scots this morning I feel ashamed and embarrassed by the behavior of these fans (not all of whom would have been Scottish, but the majority of whom would have been). At is so often the case the actions a minority overshadow the good behavior of the majority.

The joy and hope of yesterday has also evaporated with sad news of the death of Celtic's first team coach,Tommy Burns at the age of 51. Burns came up in conversation once with a Baptist Pastor from the Glasgow area. He had met Burns once for a meeting. It was Burns who suggested that they pray together and latter commented that what the people of Glasgow needed was to know Jesus.

Tripoli

The BBC and other new outlets are carrying reports that the violence in Lebanon has now spread north to Lebanon's second city Tripoli.

When I visited Tripoli a few years back it seemed a far more radical place than Beirut. Indeed the couple who took us there had lived in Tripoli until someone put a bomb outside their house and tried to blow them up.

When in Tripoli we overlooked the city from the walls of the citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gillies. We prayed and as we did so a flock of white doves took off from some rooftops and circled in the sky - a sign of peace? We prayed that it would be a sign of peace, of a lasting peace - still we pray for what else can we do?

Valuing Theology

Went across to New College yesterday to get some stuff from the library, meet some friends for lunch and go to a seminar by Dr Janet Soskice called "faith, hope and loveliness (which was very good) and the Gifford Lecture by Prof. Robert Veatch. It was a good day.

At lunch the old chestnut of finding funding came up. Funding is hard to come by for post graduate theological study. Most funding bodies make awards on a competitive basis, and many have restrictive criteria (e.g. will only consider you if from a particular denomination). For me this raises the question of who values theology?

The lack of scholarships etc. for theology would suggest that the answer is a rather negative one, i.e. not many people value it (or those that do have no money to invest in the next generation of theologians!)

Expressions