C S Lewis on Capitalism

An interesting observation on capitalism from C S Lewis:

Now another point. There is one bit of advice given to us by the ancient heathen Greeks, and by the Jews in the Old Testament, and by the great Christian teachers of the Middle Ages, which the modern economic system has completely disobeyed. All these people told us not to lend money at interest: and lending money at interest—what we call investment—is the basis of our whole system. Now it may not absolutely follow that we are wrong. Some people say that when Moses and Aristotle and the Christians agreed in forbidding interest (or “usury” as they called it), they could not foresee the joint stock company, and were only thinking of the private moneylender, and that, therefore, we need not bother about what they said. That is a question I cannot decide on. I am not an economist and I simply do not know whether the investment system is responsible for the state we are in or not. This is where we want the Christian economist. But I should not have been honest if I had not told you that three great civilisations had agreed (or so it seems at first sight) in condemning the very thing on which we have based our whole life.

- Mere Christianity

Thoughts?

Michael Luenig & Rowan Williams: a reflection on things of the Spirit

At the end of May 2002 Archbishop Rowan Williams and Age cartoonist Michael Leunig held a public conversation at St John’s Southgate on the things of the Spirit. Former ABC Broadcaster Terry Laidler chaired the discussion. What follows is an edited version (it was originally published in the anglican.com.au media files)

TL I was thinking that you are so similar in that you both speak of things of the spirit, one in pictures and the other in words. But there is another sense in which you are different: Michael’s message finds its natural home in a broad mass audience and Rowan’s message finds its home more naturally among a body of believers. So that got me thinking, why is it that the church finds it so difficult to speak to that mass audience?

RW There is a “good” reason and a “bad” reason. I think the bad reason is that religious language often comes across as possessive, defensive of its territory, and it can build up a very considerable sense of power and privilege. If you are talking about God, and God is the most important reality you can imagine, then you can think there is a lot of reflected glory, and want to hang onto it. And the bad reason therefore is something to do with the way in which religious language is meshed in with a particular kind of power. The good reason is that it ought to be difficult to talk about spiritual things to a mass audience, which is, of course, why it’s best done in pictures very often.

ML I agree with you Rowan. I find that a language has developed in journalism which is glib, facile and restrictive, and it’s difficult to talk about all manner of truths. And a cartoon is meant to break that. And yes, certain things can be touched on in pictures because they break through the cult of cleverness. We are trapped by an expectation that we shall be articulate and clever. Yet the closer we come to the nub of things the more inarticulate we become. But there is this restriction on being inarticulate and stumbling and we expect so little of our fellows in the way of patience that we have to get it right, and quickly. So there is always that problem in the media that you have to be slick. Yet spiritual matters are often awkward and embarrassing and all the things that society is not.

Peeling back the Western Comfort bubble

Mark Sayers posted an interesting observation following the recent tragic earthquake in Christchurch.

You can have a read here.

It becomes so clear to most of us, that when, as Mark mentions, our fragility is thrust in our face, consumerism holds no answers. Just as revealing is a our hasty retreat back into the arms of our idols (comfort, security, money). Sounds a bit like the Israelites doesn’t it?

Chuck Colson vs. The Fire & the Rose

There is an interesting little (well not so little really) discussion going on between an article that Chuck Colson wrote for Christianity Today entitled “Doctrinal Boot Camp” and David Congdon with his response to Colson’s article “The truth will make you free“.

Many of you may have been brought up on a staple diet of the likes of Colson, Piper, Packer, Driscoll et al, who would all fall in to the category of protestant evangelicals; my problem here is that much of the time this tradition is (often overtly) accompanied by an expectation that we unquestionably believe whatever we are preached (but  testing everything by Scripture, as long as it is in a specifically protestant evangelical way! Congdon comments on the idea of Sola Scriptura are very interesting in this regard). Whilst there is surely much to learn from such folk, to my mind it’s always good to read/hear some really good theological debate, have our understandings challenged, and be willing to question and challenge those statements that we believe are wrong (regardless of who has espoused them).

And to be honest, I’ve got to say I find myself falling heavily on Congdon’s side. I’ll let you read the articles, as I have no chance of doing it justice in a summary here, but I will quote a portion of each to whet your appetite:

Colson relating a discussion with another former marine:

I asked him about younger evangelicals who believe that we oldsters aren’t being sensitive enough to their concerns. ‘Can you imagine,’ he asked, ‘what would happen if a scruffy young recruit were to tell his Marine drill instructor at Parris Island that he ought to be more sensitive to his needs?’ We both chuckled, knowing what would happen to the poor recruit. If he survived, he’d be doing 100 pushups a day for weeks.

Congdon responds:

The commanding authority that Colson sees as the analogue of the drill sergeant is not Jesus or God, but rather the church. It is the authority of the church, not the authority of Christ, that demands our formal, blind obedience. Colson’s theology is the deification of the church, and thus the deification of a particular cultural form. Despite his best intentions, the gospel on such an account is simply propaganda.

Yeeee haaaaawwww!

So, if you feel inclined, jump in and have a read of both – although I must warn you, you’ll probably need a dictionary to follow along (or maybe that’s just me!). It should keep you busy and thinking for a while!

(P.s. Although Chuck Colson’s glasses are awesome, the fact that Congdon quotes T S Eliot in his blog title, likes micro breweries and smokes a pipe makes him alright in my book!)

HT to Ben Myers

Following Jesus & doing the dishes

Dave Berlach ponders the benedictine spirituality of doing the dishes.

…

I have been pondering for sometime now the issue of commitment in our culture. Just chewing it over, ruminating, and chewing it some more, and I think I’m starting to come to a conclusion, which I thought I would share with you here.

The current them of Stoop is “Looking backwards, Moving Forwards” - in relation to this issue, if we look back in time a few decades, commitment and social duty or social responsibility were a big deal – they were a part of growing up and “becoming a man/woman”.  Today however, drenched with choice and options, there is little need for commitment, and moreover definitely no celebration of it as a marker of our social status. My question then, has included what can I take from the past that should be re-learnt as I walk into the future. I’m also careful not to be nostalgic in looking backwards – clearly there were problems in the past and things that should not have been so, and it with this mindset that I proceed. The biggest catalyst of all for this, I suppose has been becoming a father; what that means and what I want to teach my children; so, let’s begin.

Christian Illusion

Soren Kierkegaard was a prophet. Australia is by no means a Christian nation, but our churches would do well to remind themselves of these words – we definitely still operate under a Christendom paradigm:

The illusion of a Christian nation, a Christian “people,” masses of Christians, is no doubt due to the power that numbers exercise over the imagination. And yet how many are able to say of their Christian acquaintances that they are truly Christians in the New Testament sense, or that their lives are even close to resembling those of the first disciples. But when there are thousands upon thousands who confess to being Christian, one becomes easily confused. Perhaps we are all Christians after all. Why be so harsh?

- Soren Kierkegaard, excerpt from Attack upon Christendom

What we need is less consumers and more disciples:

I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

Revelation 3:15-17

Love is hard & bloody

Dave Berlach muses on the hard and bloody love of Christ…

There have been countless number of words written about love, indeed, the most memorable stories throughout history are inevitably stories of love and sacrifice, redemption and justice, stories of unrequited love or love lost, of longing and passion. It seems that we have a natural gravitation towards them – as if our souls have been indelibly marked by this mysterious search.

On Stooping – Part 1

Here, Peter Orchard provides a short glimpse into his slow descent into shambling derelict sabbatical shepherd, and discovers something profound in the process.

…

This Sabbatical year has been good for me in many ways, though ‘image management’ would perhaps be the least of them; the scrutiny of the congregational eye compels one to maintain certain ‘standards’ – but from the back pews I’ve felt no such compulsion.

So to be honest I’d hardly noticed to what pass I’d come; the immediate results of letting nature take over in the grooming department were of course obvious every morning, but I’d just plain forgotten to think of how others would be seeing me.

Public Service Announcement: Refugee Email circulating

Recently you may have received an email similar  claiming that refugees living Australia are provided significantly more by the Australian Government than Aged Pensioners.

Apart from the email being ridiculously nationalistic and racist, the claims within it are completely false – the email is a hoax that initially appeared in the US and Canada and subsequently made it’s way to Australia. Both the Department of Immigration and the Refugee Council of Australia have issued Media releases refuting the claims made in the email (or it’s similar permutations). The releases can be found at the below links:

http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/docs/releases/2010/100309%20Updated%20Response%20to%20email%20on%20Centrelink%20benefits.pdf

http://www.immi.gov.au/media/letters/letters09/le090902.htm

The issue of asylum seekers in Australia has been largely based on myth in the public discourse, with the 4 main myths as follows:
Myth 1. Asylum seekers / boat people are “illegal”
This is wrong – the United Nations Declaration, to which Australia is a signatory, states that every person has the right to seek asylum – it is not illegal. There are in fact about 50,000 illegal immigrants in Australia but the majority of these are backpackers who have overstayed their visa’s
Myth 2. Australia is being flooded by boat people
Again this is clearly wrong – 90% of asylum seekers come by plane with boats making up only 10% of an already small migration quota
Myth 3. Most boat people are not real refugees (rather just queue jumping scoundrels)
False – more than 90% of refugees are eventually deemed genuine and given asylum in Australia
Myth 4. Refugees are harming Australia’s economy
Again this is untrue – refugees make up only 3% of Australia’s total immigration quota, and equate to only 1% of Australia’s population growth

So hopefully this has cleared a few things up.

As an aside, my wife and I lived next door to a young Afghan refugee couple for a few years and, despite what the media would have you believe, they were some of the most generous, kind people I’ve met – maybe it’s time people actually started to see refugees as human beings rather than some abstract caricature portrayed on the 6 o’clock news.

If you receive this email, feel free to copy this text and reply all to set the facts straight and hopefully change some perceptions.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

Ring a Ding Ding, let the Goat people in!!

Steve Gero ponders the thought of an unstoppable wave of goat people and why we must stop them.

…