View From The Basement

It's not the cost it's the value

Back in January I put up a very short post called chicken out. In it I was trying to draw attention to a campaign here in the UK about the ethics of our food in general and in particular the conditions in which most of the chickens that find their way to our dinner tables are reared.

In this original post I said with regards to buying free range chicken, "Hey if we can do it on a student budget, then most people can". One person commented that we must be financially doing ok if we could afford to do this. Well the truth is that we can't really afford to buy free range chicken. The answer is not however to buy broiler house chicken but to change how we eat.

So the free range chicken I bought last night is the first chicken we've bought for a while. It's much smaller than a broiler chicken for the same price, but we will still get two meals for 2 adults and 3 boys out of it. Sure it means less meat in each meal, but we bulk the meal up with veg we get from the whole shebag.

It's tempting to replace the chicken we are not eating with pork, but this is also a meat - unlike beef - which can be produced in near factory like conditions. So we also try to limit our pork consumption. This often means wandering around the supermarket and leaving not having bought any meat for a meal.

What keeps us going in trying to be more ethical with regards to our food is a mindset where it's not about the cost, its about the value.

Sleeping Out

I'll be sleeping here (see pic) tonight, George Square in the center of Glasgow. I think Stuart will also be doing this, and Lynn would have done likewise but as she's already split herself into about four bits so she can be in several places at once she won't make it.

This is not however some mad Glasgow bloggers sleep out, but is part of the Still Human Still Here campaign in protest against the enforced destitution of asylum seekers.  This grand old square has a history of protest, most infamously "Bloody Friday" in 1919 when Tanks were stationed in the near-bye Salt Market area of the city, and English Troops sent to quell any trouble. Hopefully tonight will be a good deal more peaceful than events in 1919!

why am I doing this?

In my work and daily life I’ve come across many people who are either in or have been part of the asylum system. I’ve been struck by their deep humanity, by their fortitude in believing that life can be good, that we can be kind and caring , when many of their experiences mitigate against such a view. I therefore want to take part to show my solidarity with them, to say ‘we care even if the system does not’. I also want to help highlight to the wider public the issues that surround asylum – yes these are complex but if we peruse justice (i.e. sending people “home” who are not genuine asylum seekers) without any grace, mercy or compassion, then what we end up with is not justice but tyranny.

an ethics of numbers?

Is there an ethic of numbers, or to put it another way "what are the ethical concerns in how we use numbers"?

We are confronted by this issue every day in the news, but should we be more horrified because 100 were killed than when one person dies in violent circumstances. Is there a danger that by focusing on the numerically large we subconsciously raise the threshold at which we become outraged or concerned?

Numbers can also be used as a tool of oppression or humiliation. How does the vicar who has ten faithful in his flock feel when the guy with 250 in his church says, "so how big is your church"? We at least tacitly acknowledge that "size does not matter", but if this is true then why do we number everything we do?

I'm guilty of it too....over-obsession with blog hits, etc., etc.

As a form of resistance against the hegemony of numbers I've written my AGM report of the youth work and omitted any reference to numbers!

Carbon Neutral Mission

Last summer I lead a Youth Mission Trip to New Orleans to get involved in some relief work following Hurricane Katrina. We flew from Edinburgh to Atlanta and then on to New Orleans. I've calculated the CO2 for this trip  @ 1.6 t , and tried to work out how many tree's I'd have to plant to off-set this.

The amount of CO2 a tree will absorb depends on many variables, so any calculations are a bit of a guesstimate. I reckon 20 trees will over 4 - 5 years will off-set my CO2 for this trip.

So this month I'm going to give to Greenbelt. Not this Greenbelt, or that Greenbelt, but the Greenbelt Movement . This movement was set up by Wangari Maathai the 2004 Nobel Prize winner. What I like about it is that it's not just an environmental project planting trees in Kenya, but looks to provide employment for women, both in the planting of the trees and then in the management of the planted area.

Child Poverty

For more than just my sins.

If you've been reading this blog for a while then you should have picked up that I'm passionate about the environment and about reducing our impact upon it.

This topic came up in conversation with someone the other day who is a global warming sceptic, so is not going to let anyone advise him, much less make him drive less! [in an earlier version of this post I said who this person was. This caused offense and embarrassment which was not my intention and for that I apologise for any offense caused. It was mean as an example to show that many people are glabal warming secptics and that persuading them otherwise is difficult. Thus was I propose below is meant as a third way, a reason for creation care that does not rely on proof or otherwise of global warming]. The next day Channel 4 showed a "documentary" called, The Great Global Warming Swindle in which the parade a bunch of scientist who disagree with the view that global warming has anything to do with man or the carbon we are pumping into the environment.

For the record, I think we are contributing to the rate of change in the global climate, but even it such a view was to 'scientifically' be shown to be wrong it would not change my attitude to the environment.

For me the issue comes down to a similar logic that Paul employs when he says, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!" (Romans 6:1 - 2) I do not deliberately sin thinking that "well God will forgive me anyway and transform me in the end", yet I've met many people who would use a similar argument to this for their abuse of the environement. "Why should I change my habits, I mean God's going to destroy the earth and make it all new anyway" is how the argument is some times framed.

Yet in Romans 8 Paul clearly links our salvation and transformation to that of the rest of the created order. Jesus did not just die for my sins but for the transformation of all of creation. It is perhaps no surprise in our self obsessed society that salvation is so often framed in solely personal / individual terms, yet throughout scripture we see that God's purposes are much wider than this. Thus just as I desire and know God's grace in my life effecting sanctification, so as agents of God's grace we participate in the sanctification in the transformation of the rest of creation. Fernando quotes the following from the Pope, the Christian people, in giving thanks to God through the Eucharist, should be conscious that they do so in the name of all creation, aspiring to the sanctification of the world and working intensely to that end.

There is so much more that could be said on this but the Pope's words seem good to end on, Amen.

Trident (again)

MP's will today participate in a vote on wither the UK should re-new it's Trident nuclear missle system.

It seems that there is a reasonable number of MP's who will vote against it's re-newal. I pray they will not loose their nerve, that God would add to their number that they would have a vision for a more just, less dangerous world.

update - the Government won the vote to replace Trident.

IPod = insecure, Pressured, Overtaxed and Debt-ridden

Hat tip to Brad who highlights a Newweek article called, Europe's New Young Generation of Losers. The article outlines the growing rift and tension between those of the boomer generation and their kids. One paragraph in particular jumped out at me;

"Lacking well-paid jobs, the young have been thrown back on the generosity of their parents. That's fine for the middle class, but much worse for the poor. "Progress was once produced by the state; now it comes from family solidarity,"

The growing gap between the "haves" and "have not's" is something that greatly concerns me, but what to do? A while back I went to hear Tom Sine speak. He touched on many of the issues the Newsweek article does. His challenge to those of us there that day was to find Kingdom solutions to these problems. Yet so often the church undergirds the status quo rather than challenging it.

Strange Blessing?

I've got Alison my wife reading Gibbs & Bolger's book on emerging churches. Last night she was reading the bit where they describe what was happening at the Nine O'Clock Service in Sheffield. In the book they describe how this service was one of the most exciting places to be in the UK and that for many there was an experience of God's presence that they had not encountered before or after. Yet while this great blessing was happening there were major problems with some of the leadership of this group with regards to sin.

So Alison's question was, "so how does that work...why did God choose to bless NOS, show up there in an incredible way when there was lots wrong, and yet you many churches where they are doing everything right, leading godly lives and they are seeing decline"?

Hmmmm.....answers on a post card to..yes the comments section.

The Belief / Practice Chasim

Jason has got me thinking again. I left a short comment to his post Disconnect between belief and practice, but my thoughts have spun off at least to a quantity where they need their own post. So to make sence of what I write here your best to read Jason's post first.

Jason’s post raises lots of questions and issues, too many to reflect upon in one post.

I therefore want to reflect briefly on the relationship between beliefs and practice and the role of faith, sin and wisdom.

Beliefs inform practice yet practice also informs belief. I’m suspicious of theories that suggest a linear progression from thinking to character, belief to practice, and would want to al least introduce some sort of “feed-back” loop. The relationship between beliefs practice is therefore something that is perhaps circular or dialectical.

For example - I believe that God heals, From time to time I pray for someone to receive God's healing (i.e. my belief informs my practice). That said I know people and have prayed for people who have not received healing. My experience of a lack of healing also informs my thinking. It has not destroyed my belief that God heals, but has shaped and is shaping my thinking and thus altering my practice.

So in our belief / practice interaction I would want to as a Christian introduce the "element" of faith. Not an issisponsible, blind or ill-informed faith, but a nuanced, informed faith in God. 

Where does Romans 12:2 , “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” fit into this. Does this not suggest that thinking / belief is the locus of character formation and practice?

I think all I want to say about this here is that the injunction to be transformed by the renewal of our minds cannot be separated from the act of presenting our bodies as living sacrifices (v1). It is also worth noting that both are present passive imperatives – in other words not one off events but ongoing.

There are things that we would count as beliefs, even as core beliefs, but we don't really understand them, thus are unsure of the implications for our practice. Robin Parry states;

For many Christians, the Trinity has become like something akin to their appendix: it is there but they are not sure what its function is; they get by in life without it doing very much; and if they had to have it removed they wouldn’t be too distressed

In other words we've been told that belief in the Trinity is a core belief but we don't understand it, and don't see any practical implications that flow from it. My earlier post Mission / ecclesiology interplay is perhaps an example of how understanding added to a belief can be an impetuous to action and transformation of practice.

Ellen Charry in By The Renewing of your Minds advocates a return to a pre-modern way of knowing she calls Sapience.

Sapience includes correct information about God but emphasizes attachment to that knowledge. Sapience is engaged knowledge that emotionally connects the knower to the known.(p4)

Despite all the talk of postmodernity there are aspects to all of us that are stubbornly modern. Many of our beliefs are modern in the sense that there is a separation of believer and belief. We view our belief in say the divinity of Jesus as something that is external, as something we can dissect and play around with in our thought laboratory. We lack an emotional attachment to such beliefs because we’ve not integrated it into our identity. People react, people act on beliefs that are connected to their sense of identity. This is why people will become actively involved in issues around race, gender, women’s rights etc.

I’m not too clear on how we learn sapience, on how we become emotionally attached to beliefs that should matter, but I’d hazard a guess that being part of a believing community has a part to play.

Then there's the issue of sin. I am that wretched man of Romans 7 who knows the thing he should do and then does the very opposite. There are at least four levels to this problem of sin. One is my own rebelliousness, my selfishness my weakness. Another is "structural sin". I believe that war is wrong; I believe that for the

UK

to have nuclear arms is immoral, yet I pay my Taxes that pay for these things. I could refuse to pay my taxes, but the fear of the consequences from this weigh heavier than my belief that this is wrong.

The third level is what I'll call "societal sin". As Maslow’s hierarchy of needs tells us a sense of belonging is a fundamental need. This need means that our egos can be easily manipulated to conform to the crowd. We know we should care for the poor and be compassionate, but the message from the rest of society to "look afar number one" bends our will away from that which we know we should do. We want to fit in and not be different, so we conform and look after number one.

An issue with many of our churches is that rather than act in a positive, non-manipulative way, in informing our behaviour / belief matrix, our relationships at church are so shallow that they lack the ethical currency to exert any real influence. Just as above there is a lack of emotional attachment to our beliefs so for many in our churches there is a lack of emotional attachment to their brothers and sisters, so there is an ambivalence to what I think about what they think about what I am doing.

These are my initial ramblings