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Showing posts from August, 2017

Journey with Jonah: What's More Important?

Well today brings our journey with this most inept prophet to an end. The image on today's blog is one of Jonah in the Sistine Chapel. with him under the shelter of the short-lived plant and a fish nibbling on his leg... Given his longing for judgement to rain down on Nineveh, I find it interesting that his painting is perched just above Michelangelo's troubling "Last Judgement" that he painted some 30 years after the chapel ceiling, including dear old Jonah.... Was the artist saying something to the princes of the church who at the time it was painted would have entered opposite the Last Judgement and have seen Jonah and this frightening tableaux (which I am told includes images of a few of his opponents in the Vatican within it)? I don't know, and I won't get into this today in Belfast South, but sometimes I think that artists understand Jonah better than preachers... There is perhaps too much of him in many of us... (Jonah comes in gasping and cove

Journey with Jonah: A Postcard from Nineveh

I didn't send any postcards on my own holidays this year, but on my return I "found" this postcard waiting for me...  Just incase you can't read it, here's what it says... Dear all in South Belfast Methodist, Well, made it to Nineveh at last. Don’t know about “Wish you were here,” but I wish I wasn’t.  It’s every bit as bad as its reputation... even worse than Belfast. And it’s huge... I’ve been trekking across it on foot all day (the public transport is non-existent... that’s government cutbacks for you), and I still haven’t got to the city centre.  But I think I’ll set up stall here, and let them have it. See you soon. Should be finished here in forty days. Nineveh should be finished in forty days too. Yours in God’s service, Jonah, son of Amittai. This morning at the Agape Centre we're going to read the third chapter of Jonah's surreal story and find out how things turned out… as well as what it means for us... Selah

Truth, Post-Truth, Facts, Opinions and Other Nonsense

A few months ago I got involved in an online spat with a friend of a facebook friend, breaking my self-imposed etiquette of  not negatively engaging with someone I don't know on someone else's thread... But what had pressed my bells was that she was sharing some fairly awful anti-vax stuff about MMR on a thread read by people who have autistic children. Having worked both with autistic children and their families AND with children and families whose lives have been radically affected by rubella and measles I get a bit hot under the collar about such things, particularly when the people posting such things have no medical or scientific training... But anyway, the unpleasant dialogue ultimately resulted in me saying something like "I'm going to stop because it's clear I'm not going to change your mind..." To which she replied along the lines of "LOL No! Your not... But then were all entitled to are own opinions." (Smiley face, smiley face.)