The blog of Richard Hall, a Methodist Minister in Wales.

Following the thread of Richard’s post on the NHS …

Such is the apostasy of much American Christianity, particularly of the evangelical variety (though, mercifully, things are changing), that in the US Capitalism is considered to be not only compatible with but expressive of Christianity. Of course given the widespread acceptance of the myth of American exceptionalism and the pledge of allegiance to a flag that often hangs in churches, this Capitalist Captivity is not surprising in a country whose business is - business. Morover, there is a venerable traditon of the “gospel of wealth” in American Christianity. That such beliefs are so tacit and unquestioned demonstrates not that Americans are theological morons (given the existence of Margaret’s Market and Westminster Abbey, the English, if not the Welsh, should not skim stones across the Pond); no, what it demostrates is that Capitalism, and its buddy Militarism, are the Gog and Magog of contemporary (Pauline) powers, which reign, not least, through deceit and absorption.

Now we cannot destroy Capitalism. If we think we can, it simply confirms how complicit in the System we are: the powers are that strong. It also indicates how faithless we are: Christ has already defeated the System - all Systems (cf. Colossians 2:15). So Christians are in a position, at least, to subvert the System both by preaching the word of the cross, naming the devil, reminding him that his days are numbered, and ridiculing him (that really pisses him off), and also through the tactical exorcisms of cooperatvies, Fair Trade, and the like.

And we can teach the two fundamental reasons why Christianity and Capitalism are absolutely incompatible, one sociological, the other psychological - and both, needless to say, theological.

The sociological reason concerns the notion of “private property” that underwrites Capitalism. C. S. Lewis puts it unforgettably in The Screwtape Letters. As the Senior Devil tells Wormwood: “The sense of ownership is always to be encouraged. The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and Hell and we must keep them doing so …. And all the time the joke is that the word ‘Mine’ in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything. In the long run either Our Father [Satan] or the Enemy [God] will say ‘Mine’ of each thing that exists, and specially of each man.”

A perusal of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, Amos and Isaiah, alone shows that the Bible knows nothing of freehold, only leasehold: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it” (Psalm 24:1). The sabbath regulations (above all, the Year of Jubilee), the laws of gleaning (capitalists would call it “stealing”), the admonitions of the prophets regarding the tratment of the poor, etc., all demonstrate that Capitalism is a perversion of God’s socioeconomic order. For the Christian, (following Aquinas) the ownership of property and the possession of wealth have a specific telos, viz. the common good, which, however, is intrinsically impossible to achieve through the self-interest that drives the capitalist machine.

And the psychological reason for the incompatibility of Christianity and Capitalism? Discipleship, sanctification, growth in holiness is a process of the redirection of the self to the other through the reconfiguration of distorted desires. Capitalism, however, lives and thrives on a diet of distorted desires: the conflictual, antagonistic interpretation of the neighbour; the commodification and fetishisation of the “product”; the stimulation of perpetual restlessness, the vicious cycles accumulation and consumption; the transformation of pleasure into a (patriotic) duty (remember Bush after 9/11: we will not let terrorists derail the American way - we will shop the sonovabitches to death!); and so on.

There is also, as I have suggested, an intrinsic connection between Capitalism and Militarism (as the missile-makers and oil tycoons amply bear witness). If Christians need a nail in the coffin of Capitalism, that’s it. But this post is for Mammon. Mars will barge in again soon enough. “The “Lion of Judah”, anyone?

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In the early afternoon of this hottest day of the year, I took my convalescing Angie down to the seaside for a walk (that sounds like Angie is my dog; don’t be silly - I am hers), and then for some lunch by the Black Pill lido (butternut squash, carrot, and coriander soup, with fresh bread and chunks of cheddar cheese - yummy!). We got home around 2:30. Get this: no sermon to write (at least for next Sunday); no comment to make at Connexions (DH is off on one - let him be); no evening meeting to prepare for (you know the old saying: if Moses had been a meeting the Israelites would still be in Egypt); no pastoral visits to make (well, none that is urgent); and no domestic chores to do (ditto).

So I stripped to my shorts, fetched the book I’m reading (Lee Camp’s Mere Discipleship: Radical Discipleship in a Rebellious World - highly recommended), and moseyed out to my lounger in the garden to catch some rays and read. After a few pages I looked up, pleasantly stirred by the slightest of breezes.

The manse garden faces west. On the horizon were clusters of cloud shaped like two groups of South Sea islands as you would see them from a plane as it descends to land. Higher up and to the south the cirrus spread out like gauze. Towards the north one small cirro-cumulus formed a long funnel, while two others looked like spinning tops. The Artist is particularly imaginative with her cloud formations in Swansea (later this evening she will add some colour). And just alighting from its apex, blazing, gazing over all, a molten yellow bullseye. Geez, it was beautiful.

The right response - even if you haven’t been to this town so captivating it’s known as the “graveyard of ambition” - is, of course, “Duh!” The heavens are always glorious, creation is everywhere beautiful. Of course. Because God is good. (To suggest that God might not be good - always - is not so much false as simply senseless.) Yes, God is good. But we often do not recognise it - believe it - or, believing it, we regularly forget it, that is, when we are not taking it for granted. It is a pity that it often takes a happy occasion, some good news - or a lovely day - for the penny from heaven to drop again: God is so damn good.

Then the phone rang. I didn’t answer it. My good deed for the day.

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I neglected to mention that the latest Methodist blog round-up was published the other day. Allow me to correct the omission.

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I was watching Pat Robertson on the 700 Club the other night. They were discussing Obama’s health care reforms, and I heard from Mr Robertson that same sneer that I’ve sometimes heard from other Americans about “socialized medicine”. The comment went something like (I’m paraphrasing from memory) ‘Forcing people to stand in line - it’s terrible!’ And then he added, as if this would make any further comment impossible, ‘Socialism’.

But PamBG, who unfortunately for British Methodism will soon be returning to her native US, has good reason to thank God for the horror that is British socialism.

At about 3:00, Wonderful Husband rings from work to say that he’s seeing ‘flashing lights and black spots’ and he’s booked a check-up at the Optometrist after work. Immediately, I’m thinking ‘detached retina’. … I told him I’d be happier if he went straight to A&E. Which he did. … Anyway, they found that he had a tear in his retina and they have performed laser surgery and sent him home. He can see; his eye isn’t bandaged and there is no worry about driving or travelling.

Modern medical technology is amazing, and it must have been a huge relief to ‘Mr Pam’ to have his eye attended to so swiftly.

And I can’t help pointing out that in this instance, there was no ’standing in line’. Medical emergency, you see. If he’d been the other side of the Atlantic his treatment would have depended upon proof of an ability to pay. And that, as I’m sure I’ve said before, can’t be right.

I’d never claim that NHS is perfect. There’s always going to be things that could be done better. But there’s no doubt in my mind that it beats the alternatives hands down.

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I’ve had an interesting couple of days. Yesterday I shared with Andy Watts and Jub Davis of The Carnival Band in a workshop celebrating the hymns of the late 18th and early 19th century, heavily featuring the works of one Chas Wesley. We had a day of singing and playing a selection of fine hymns and a great time was had by all.

This morning we led the worship at Wrexham Methodist Church. Apart from a bit of a panic about the projection system — Note to self: in future, make sure that this is all sorted before the day of the service — it all seemed to go rather well. Just like the last time I worked with these fine fellows, the worship was given a lift by their fresh approach to music which is too often simply written off as too old-fashioned for a modern congregation. After sharing with them in Swansea I wrote

There really is life in these old hymns and it would be nothing short of criminal to allow them to fall into disuse, especially for the fatuous ‘reason’ that they’re boring. None of the kids leaving church on Sunday morning looked like they’d been bored, and it was Wesley all the way.

What we urgently need to do is recapture the energy that is lying dormant in these hymns. Of course, it is fine music but there is much more to it than that. Wesley’s hymns were written to convey the power of the gospel, to draw people in with their combination of popular tunes and poetic words. The hymns are not an end in themselves, but a tool for the proclamation of the gospel.

All I’ve got to add now is Amen!

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Light of the world, thy beams I bless;
On thee, bright Sun of righteousness,
My faith hath fixed its eye;
Guided by thee, through all I go,
Nor fear the ruin spread below,
For thou art always nigh.

Not all the powers of hell can fright
A soul that walks with Christ in light,
He walks and cannot fall;
Clearly he sees, and wins his way,
Shining unto the perfect day,
And more than conquers all.

I rest in thine almighty power;
The name of Jesus is a tower,
That hides my life above:
Thou canst, thou wilt my helper be;
My confidence is all in thee,
The faithful God of love.

Wherefore, in never-ceasing prayer,
My soul to thy continual care
I faithfully commend;
Assured that thou through life shalt save,
And show thyself beyond the grave
My everlasting Friend.

Charles Wesley

This is a ‘composite’ hymn, made up of verses from 2 of Wesley’s hymns from the 1780 ‘A Collection of Hymns, For the Use of the People Called Methodist’. I’ll be using it in church this morning as an introit, sung to a tricky but beautiful 18th cent. American tune.

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“I am ambivalent about … gays in the military. I see no good reason why gays and lesbians should be excluded from military service … I think it a wonderful thing that some people are excluded as a group. I only wish that Christians could be seen by the military to be as problematic as gays….

“But in some ways this prejudice against gays has worked in their favor. They at least know more about who they are and who their enemy is. If only Christians could be equally sure of who they are. If only the military could come to view Christians as a group of doubtful warriors….

“Christians, for example, might be bad for morale in the barracks. For example, non-Christians may find it disconcerting to have a few people gathering nightly holding hands with heads bowed. God knows what kind of disgusting behavior in which they might be engaged.

“Even more troubling is what they might say to one another in such a group. Christians are asked to pray for the enemy. Could you really trust people in your unit who think the enemy’s life is as valid as their own fellow soldier? Could you trust someone who would think it more important to die than to kill unjustly? Are these people fit for the military?

“Prayer, of course, is a problem. But even worse is what Christians do in corporate worship. Think about the meal, during which they say they eat and drink with their God. They do something called ‘pass the peace.’ They even say they cannot come to this meal with blood on their hands. People so concerned with sanctity would be a threat to the military.

“Having them around is no fun…. Their loyalty is first to God, and then to their military commanders. How can these people possibly be trusted to be good soldiers?

“Finally, consider the problem of taking showers with these people. They are, after all, constantly going on about the business of witnessing in the hopes of making converts to their God and church. Would you want to shower with such people? You never know when they might try to baptize you.

“If gays can be excluded as a group from the military, I hope that it could even happen to Christians. God, after all, has done stranger things in the past.

“However, until God works this miracle, it seems clear to me that gays, as a group, are morally superior to Christians.”

Stanley Hauerwas, “Why Gays (as a Group) Are Morally Superior to Christians (as a Group)”, in John Berkman and Michael Cartwright (eds.), The Hauerwas Reader (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2001), pp.519-21.

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Another day, another supermarket cafe. This time it’s the Morrisons in Newtown that has the dubious pleasure of my company. I’ve had a lovely drive across Wales from Lampeter, but this cup of (Fair Trade) coffee was most welcome.

I really know how to live it up.

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“For over thirty years, Ray Anderson has been quietly writing a body of work that is remarkable in its ability to awaken both theology and the church to a theology that actually intersects with the ministry of the church and a view of ministry that dwells in a deep place of reflection… Donald Mackinnon, the noted Cambridge theologian who has received new interest in recent years, spoke of [his] ‘nervous, restless quality’ …”
–Christian D. Kettler, Friends University

The American pastor and theologian Ray Anderson died on Sunday, Father’s Day. The above quote comes from an obituary that you will find at Ben Myers’ blog “Faith and Theology”. I urge you to read it.

I first came across Ray Anderson four years into my own ministry, when I bought a book of his on spec called Theology, Death and Dying (1986). As a young minister confronting the in-your-face realities of death and dying, I found myself starving on a diet of the work of Colin Murray Parks and Elizabeth Kübler Ross - and even C. S. Lewis’ A Grief Observed - that we had been fed as ordinands. Those were the days of the church’s Counselling Captivity, from which we are just beginning to escape. Blow the psychology, I thought, I need some theology here, and something thick and filling, not the usual pastoral platitudes - grief can’t manage on gruel. Drawing on Barth, Jüngel, Rahner, Thielicke, and T. F.Torrance, Ray Anderson fed me with the bread of life.

Over the last couple of years I have met Ray electronically at “Faith and Theology”, and he has continued to nourish my soul, both in his posts and in the exchange of comments. When I was looking for some “name” theologians to do some blurbs for my book, Ben actually suggested Ray, were it not for the fact that he had heard that Ray was quite ill … Meanwhile I have bought and read his Historical Transcendence and the Reality of God (1975) and The Soul of Ministry: Forming Leaders for God’s People (1997), while On Being Human: Essays in Theological Anthropology (1982) is in my in-tray. I have just moved it to the top of the pile.

Here is an excerpt from The Soul of Ministry (pp. 12-13). I think it is nicely expressive of Ray’s restlessness.

“When truth is pushed to the point of absurdity, it becomes foolishness.

“Theology that cannot stand the ‘absurdity test’ is likely to be a poor theology, if not a dangerous theology. I once participated in a debate sponsored by college students over the issue of divorce and remarriage. My counterpart in the debate argued his position strongly. It was absolutely impossible to permit the remarriage of a divorced person on the grounds that Jesus forbid it in his teaching….

“My argument that the actions of Jesus were as authoritative as his teaching did not cause him to waver. Finally, a student raised his hand and asked: Professor, you say that the sin of divorce, while it can be forgiven, allows for no remarriage; is that correct?’ The answer was yes. ‘Then is it not also true that in the case of the death of one’s spouse the surviving spouse could remarry, as that would not violate the teaching of Jesus?’ Again, the response was affirmative. I quickly saw where the good professor was being led, and remained silent as the lamb was led to slaughter!

“‘Then what about this,’ the student asked, ‘in Bakersfield there was a pastor who became angry with his wife and shot and killed her. When he gets out of prison, is he now free to remarry, seeing that instead of divorcing his wife he killed her?’

“It was too late. The branch had been sawed off, and the professor, consistent with his formal logic to the end, had to admit that, ‘yes, this man could remarry!’ The laughter of the students over the absurdity of this case reduced his agument to folly in their eyes. He, of course, expressing deep discomfort over the logical outcome of his position, remained unmoved.

“What is my point? It was the ministry of Jesus, not merely his teaching, that revealed the character and purpose of God. Over and over again, Jesus appealed to his listeners to practice discernment in evaluating his ministry.

“‘What do you think?’ was a favorite gambit of Jesus.”

And of Ray too. May he rest - restlessly - in peace.

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In celebration of the opening day of Wimbledon, here’s a bit of Monty Python.

Why would blancmanges from the planet Skyron in the galaxy of Andromeda want to turn the human race into Scotsmen?

It’s just possible Andy Murray would argue with the central premise of the sketch.

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Last week I offered five reasons why analogue radio should be left on air. So I was pleased to read Libby Purves’ column in today’s Times: Radio revolution will leave listeners in silence

Take-up of the costly and energy-guzzling DAB technology is so pathetic that we must fight for our beloved analog sets

The word “digital” joins a long line of adjectives too exciting for their own good. Look back in the history of hype and you find its ancestors: “electropathic”, “atomic”, “computerised”, “turbo” or just “state-of-the art”. With Lord Carter of Barnes’s report on Digital Britain, overstimulation peaked.

Starting from Gordon Brown’s startling assertion that only this technology can “unlock our imagination”, it plunged with boyish glee into arias about “seamless connectivity”, converging platforms, twitter, wiki, blogs, telepresence and “e-healthcare”. Fine. We are used to phones that double as movie cameras, music libraries, tellies, games, calculators, diaries, maps and guidebooks. We are grateful for Lord Carter’s confirmation that broadband is essential. However, in the general brouhaha about top-slicing the licence fee and taxing granny’s landline, the most preposterous plan of all has not had the raspberry it richly deserves. If any other report proposed an arrogant, wasteful, environmentally damaging assault on daily life - a copper-bottomed vote-loser, a V-sign to the vulnerable - there would be an outcry. But veiled as it is in glittery stuff about computers, we almost didn’t notice.

Well, we did notice Libby. And I suspect that as this news sinks in, public anger will rise.

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Jesus, we look to thee,
Thy promised presence claim;
Thou in the midst of us shall be,
Assembled in thy Name.

Thy name salvation is,
Which here we come to prove;
Thy name is life and health and peace,
And everlasting love.

We meet, the grace to take
Which thou hast freely given;
We meet on earth for thy dear sake
That we may meet in heaven.

Present we know thou art;
But, O, thyself reveal!
Now, Lord, let every bounding heart
The mighty comfort feel.

O may thy quickening voice
The death of sin remove;
And bid our inmost souls rejoice,
In hope of perfect love.

Charles Wesley

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Betcha didn’t know that there was a Methodist art collection. I just picked this up in my in box:

A masculine Christ, a radiating Cain eyed by a simmering Abel and a floating vision of a dove are just a few of the works of art now online in the Methodist Art Collection

Information on the work and on the artist can be found, together with a relevant Bible passage, in ‘The Methodist Church Collection of Modern Christian Art: An Introduction’ by Roger Wollen, published in 2000 by the Trustees of the Collection (ISBN 0-9538135-0-9). In full colour, it is obtainable at £3.50 from Methodist Publishing.

Or from Amazon of course.

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Let’s see what is going on in the world. There’s a continuing political crisis at home. Romanian immigrants have to flee their homes in Northern Ireland because of violent bigotry. Public sector borrowing has reached record levels. Further afield, there’s the turmoil in Iran. Violence in Somalia. Hillary Clinton fractures an elbow. There’s some real big stuff going on out there.

So what does the Daily Mail put on its front page?

Daily Mail finally loses any sense of proportion

That’s it. Wheelie bins. The single most important issue facing us today. I’m glad we’ve got newspapers like the Mail helping us keep our eyes on the ball.

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The Digital Britain report was published yesterday, coming up with a series of proposals to help Britons into the digital era.

The one which surprised me, though I haven’t yet heard any fuss about it, is the proposal to turn off both AM and FM radio signals by 2015, freeing up the bandwidth for other purposes. Here’s why I think this is a Bad Thing.

1. There are millions of domestic radio receivers that will suddenly become obsolete, creating huge amount of waste.
2. ‘Trannies’ (no sniggering at the back!) are cheap, reliable, and use little energy to run. These are all virtues in an age when we’re supposed to be reducing our carbon footprints.
3. What will happen to the time signal? The delay that’s inherrent to the DAB format makes it useless for accurately setting a watch.
4. Then there’s the format. Only a few years in, DAB is already obsolete and is likely to be replaced by DAB+. That’s a bit if you’re an ‘early adopter’ and have an expensive DAB-only receiver. That’ll be as useless as your FM wireless. (Do I sound bitter?)
5. No RDS - so no automatic traffic updates on your car radio

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Heading south for a meeting in Cardiff. It’s too hot to be driving. Hereford’s a bottle neck. I’m cheesed off, and the Asda cafe is the best I can do.

Yes. I’m after sympathy.

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The Kneeler thunders against the adoption of “management-speak” by the church

Leaving aside the cute in-speak of greens and reds.. of clusters and cores, the bottom line is that the Church has now fully embraced the concepts of governance, management and leadership (in spite of the fact that the report from which this 1980’s business jargon was plundered was NOT adopted by the Methodist Conference of 2005)

So what…? Who cares..? What’s to get excited about?

Well - nothing really - as long as we expect the British Methodist Church to be just another institution with a mission statement in the same way that BP or IBM is. If that were the case I would join the ranks of the delighted professionals and celebrate the fact that there is now approaching something vaguely professional about our Church leadership..

The trouble is, in my heart of hearts, I DO expect something different from my Church something - well - at least vaguely spiritual, or religious or even – dare I say it METHODIST - as well as professional.

BUT If I can’t have both - well then I’d settle for an holy but Godly mess over and above a sterile professional heart to the Church every time.

Dave Warnock offers some further helpful thoughts.

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Jet Pack :: a new site from our friend Wood and some of his chums

Dispatches from the Money-Mouth Interface: Today, we (that’s my colleagues Will Hindmarch and Chuck Wendig and I) launch Jet Pack, a gallery and maybe a storefront for our fiction ambitions. Look out for chapbooks and other stuff in the near future. Right now, though, we’re just doing the fiction.

It’s a very fine-looking site. Pop over and offer some encouragement.

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The Methodist Conference will meet in Wolverhampton this July. The Conference is the governing body of the Methodist Church and is also a festival of celebration, worship and friendship.

More than 300 representatives from across British Methodism will gather at the Civic Hall from July 2 to 9, as well as hundreds of visitors. New Methodist ministers will be ordained in a two-part ceremony and then at services across the Midlands. (Ministers are first ‘received in to full connexion’ by the Conference before their service of ordination)

The Conference will also celebrate new President, the Revd David Gamble, and Vice-President, Dr Richard Vautrey, at the start of their year in office. The ceremonial swearing-in of President and Vice-President will open the main Conference on the afternoon of July 4.

Debates on climate change, young people and leadership and ethical investment are on the Conference agenda.

The Methodist Media Service will run a full press office for the duration of Conference. Journalists wishing to attend for some or all of Conference should contact Anna Drew or Karen Burke.

There will be two ISDN-equipped radio studios for broadcast interviews throughout the week. Audio from the Conference sessions will be streamed live in partnership with Premier Media Group and will later be available on the Methodist Web Radio page. A twitter feed and a daily blog update will also be available.

I’m not at Conference as such this year, but Wolverhampton is close enough for me to pop over for a day. Who else is going?

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