Month: November 2010
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Why Are Governments Chasing Benefit Cheats, but not Tax-Evaders?
A brilliant ad in The Times today, which comically captures the absurd tragedy of the government’s new idea to tackle the lazy, work-shy unemployed: make them do voluntary work. Which will benefit the councils having to put thousands out of work because of spending cuts. Discussing this today with a colleague he mentioned the disparity…
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Going Up in Smoke | Guy Fawkes and the Protest Against Power-Abuse
This time last year I asked what might be a suitable guiding thought as we headed for bonfires and fireworks in this peculiarly English celebration on 5th November. A year ago it was a time for lamenting the parlous state of our democracy: Nick Griffin’s BNP sweetening the fascist message again, government advisors being sacked…
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Dear America, What the HELL?…
Have to say, I’m totally bemused by American politics. A banking crisis caused by a too-lightly regulated financial system totally screws the economy under a dumb Republican administration… and then the Democratic one subsequently voted in is punished for not fixing it quickly enough, battered by a movement who want… much lighter central control. Give…
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What Exactly is Community? | Gathering Around an Absent Christ [2]
In the previous post I looked at the apparent need for a community to gather around a common purpose, and how the beauty of Christian community is that it paradoxically gathers round an absence – thus both preventing those in the community from having a purely inward focus, and driving them to encounter and engage…
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What Exactly is Community? | Gathering Around an Absent Christ
Whilst doing some sessions at St John’s College in Durham recently, the question of what community is was raised. There’s a whole lot of talk about ‘living in community’ and ‘faith communities’ and going out to plant ‘missional communities’ – but whilst a lot is written about what faith and mission may be, there seems…