Under The Sun

With rising tension in Iraq and Iran, the IPCC report on climate change and, for us in Britain, bird flu in a Norfolk turkey farm, Michael Spencer has a timely post on Christian anxiety about the “End of the World”

Christians should be a community who looks at any apocalypse with hope. Not just hope that there is a resurrection beyond, but hope that Christ gives us victory over fear in the here and now. The likelihood of a nuclear detonation, viral epidemic or environmental catastrophe may be real, but Christians have always been able to minister, serve and love in the midst of the worst of times precisely because they believed all these events were under the control of the Lord of history and could not, ultimately, take anything of real value away from us.

Creationism — as a belief — is to be included in the syllabus for some state secondary schools in the UK. OCR, one of the three UK exam boards, will ask teachers to “explain that the fossil record has been interpreted differently over time (e.g. creationist interpretation)”. Creationism will not be taught as a scientific theory but as a “scientific controversy arising from different ways of interpreting empirical evidence”.

I received a copy of this email from Zimbabwe describing the madness that is being perpetrated by Mugabe’s government.

The BBC has reported on the situation and pressure is mounting against Mugabe but as yet there has been no action.

Subject: News from Zimbabwe - PLEASE PASS ON FAR & WIDE

Please pray for these people and keep this email rolling.

A letter from Zim……
Sent in by John Winter:

I reckon that these are the last days of TKM and ZPF.
The darkest hour is always before dawn.

We are all terrified at what they are going to destroy next……..I mean they are actually plowing down brick and mortar houses and one white family with twin boys of 10 had no chance of salvaging anything when 100 riot police came in with AK’s and bulldozers and demolished their beautiful house - 5 bedrooms and pine ceilings - because it was “too close to the airport”..so we are feeling extremely insecure right now. You know - I am aware that this does not help you sleep at night, but if you do not know - how can you help?

Even if you put us in your own mental ring of light and send your guardian angels to be with us - that is a help - but I feel so cut off from you all knowing I cannot tell you what’s going on here simply because you will feel uncomfortable. There is no ways we can leave so that is not an option. I just ask that you all pray for us in the way that you know how, and let me know that you are thinking of us and sending out positive vibes… that’s all.

You can’t just be in denial and pretend its not going on. To be frank with you, its genocide in the making and if you do not believe me, read the Genocide Report by Amnesty International which says we are IN level seven (level 8 is after its happened and everyone is in denial). If you don’t want me to tell you these things then it means you have not dealt with your own fear, but it does not help me to think you are turning your back on our situation.

(more…)

American right-wingers like Tom Tancredo who want to destroy Muslim holy sites are showing how little they understand Islamic fundementalism — the Wahhabists are doing the job themselves:

Almost all of the rich and multi-layered history of the holy city is gone. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 per cent of millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past two decades. Now the actual birthplace of the Prophet Mohamed is facing the bulldozers, with the connivance of Saudi religious authorities whose hardline interpretation of Islam is compelling them to wipe out their own heritage.

Guardian Unlimited Books Review: The Impact of Inequality by Richard G Wilkinson

Richard Wilkinson is a professor of social epidemiology, an expert in public health. From that vantage point he sees the world in terms of its physical and psychological wellbeing, surveying great sweeps of health statistics through sociological eyes. He has assembled a mountain of irrefutable evidence from all over the world showing the damage done by extreme inequality. However rich a country is, it will still be more dysfunctional, violent, sick and sad if the gap between social classes grows too wide. Poorer countries with fairer wealth distribution are healthier and happier than richer, more unequal nations.

As a writer of Proverbs put it:

“Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” [Proverbs 30:7-9]

Scientists are questioning the safety of a Star Wars-style riot control ray gun due to be deployed in Iraq next year.

The Active Denial System weapon, classified as “less lethal” by the Pentagon, fires a 95GHz microwave beam at rioters to cause heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds.

The discomfort is designed to prompt people caught in the microwave beam to move away from it, thereby allowing riot-control personnel to break up and manage a crowd.

It may be “less lethal”, but I find the prospect of a device that causes excruciating pain at a distance without any physical evidence more than a little disturbing. It seems that black magic and machinery are coming ever closer together.

And it’s interesting how Iraq seems to be becoming the laboratory of the US military technology industry.

The Register: One third of Americans believe in ghosts

The article notes, with some puzzlement, that there is a left/right and young/old correlation to belief in the paranormal: 42% of “liberals” vs. 25% for conservatives, and 45% for 18-29 year olds vs. 22% of the over 65’s.

I rather suspect that what makes the difference is Christian belief, more prevalent in older and conservative Americans. In the words of G. K Chesterton’s famous (and probably apocryphal) observation, “When a Man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything.”

No matter how great the outrage, death and injury, there will be someone who finds that it furthers their own agenda:

The following exchange between Fox News host Brian Kilmeade and Fox News business contributor and substitute host Stuart Varney occurred during breaking news coverage of the attacks on London subways and buses on the July 7 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends:

KILMEADE: And he [British Prime Minister Tony Blair] made the statement, clearly shaken, but clearly determined. This is his second address in the last hour. First to the people of London, and now at the G8 summit, where their topic Number 1 –believe it or not– was global warming, the second was African aid. And that was the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1. But it’s important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world’s advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened.

VARNEY: It puts the Number 1 issue right back on the front burner right at the point where all these world leaders are meeting. It takes global warming off the front burner. It takes African aid off the front burner. It sticks terrorism and the fight on the war on terror, right up front all over again.

KILMEADE: Yeah.

Disgusting.

via Uche Ogbujis