All Publicity, Good Publicity?

I went through period when I felt there was nothing I could or should comment upon. Suddenly it seems to have changed! The latest piece of info-speak that I have come across that seems intellectually incredible comes from the Humanist Society’s website where there is comment upon their ‘billboard campaign’ against labelling children, complete with comment from Richard Dawkins. Expounding on some of the bad rationale from the God Delusion this dogma declares:

We also believe that labelling children is coercive because it:

• places an expectation on the child to conform to her parents beliefs
• removes choice and decreases autonomy by limiting the options available; by constraining the child to think that their religion is “a given”.
• can act as a threat, either because there is an implied risk of parental disassociation if the child rejects the religious beliefs, or because inherent in the religion itself are explicit metaphysical dangers (judgment, Hellfire etc) associated with disbelief or apostasy.

Now I have some well-founded objections to this as follows:

1. Intellectual Dishonesty playing with half-truths

I come from the Christian part of the world that is neither Anglican nor Catholic and I have so say that in my reasonably wide experience, children from our families are not labelled, and we do not label other children. Yes, I understand that where there are ‘faith schools’ there is often a bias in favour families from a clear faith, but that is more linked with the work and ethics ethos that goes with Christian faith and “The faith” is not the big issue at many such schools. In Catholic schools there appears to be a stronger leaning towards identifying children as coming from Catholic families but, I would suggest from local knowledge, the emphasis is on the family and not the child. I suspect the same is true of the Muslim families.

The vagueness of the dogma is thus all-embracing and does not cover the majority of the Christian population (I’ll say more on this below). It is only a vague truth therefore and there would be a sense of integrity in this dogma if they specifically aimed it at faith schools (which they do in other posters) and at specific religious groupings. Aiming at the whole audience is careless and sloppy, and intellectually indefensible.

2. Utterly Inaccurate

In the Christian world at least, links to faith schools are minimal – most of our children don’t go to such schools, simply because there aren’t enough of those schools. Put those schools aside, therefore, and my experience tells me that these three ‘reasons’ above are unrealistic and verging on the absurd.

My wife and I are both practising Christians. We have three children who are now in their late twenties or early thirties. They are all bright kids who think for themselves. Where there are religions or religious expression that is authoritarian then it may be that there could be a shred of truth in these things – but the vast majority of Christendom does not fit in the category of authoritarian. My own children came to church with us, made their own decisions to be Christians without pressure put on them. They have had plenty of opportunity to reject those beliefs whenever they wanted but have not done so, seeing their faith as the best alternative in a world of mixed values and being very happy with their choices, being aware of all the others!

I have also known a number of other children who grew up in a Christian environment but rejected the life and beliefs of their parents and went their own way. They have also turned out to be those who have struggled with life and have not got a happy outcome – but that has nothing to do with their supposed feelings of ‘guilt’ of leaving the Christian fold (which is absent), but simply because of the life choices they have made, similar to so many of their peer group in the world, who similarly are struggling with the wonders of a humanistic lifestyle and its outcomes.

3. He who lives in glass houses….

Possibly the greatest hypocrisy and deception in this dogma is the implied claim that while Christians impose values on their children, atheistic humanists don’t! You must be joking! Richard Dawkins is crusading for the hearts and minds of the children of this nation on a platform that many of his scientific peers think is abhorrent. From my own observation, I would suggest that crusading humanists may well be those who impose their views far more than their Christian counterparts.

My wife is an RE teacher and her curriculum requires the students to analyse the historical evidence for Jesus Christ and the resurrection. What she increasingly finds is that many of her students who come from atheistic families (i.e. mother and father deny belief) are literally incapable of objectively analysing the factual evidence that is there in history. They have been so indoctrinated by their parents that they are intellectually incapable of being objective when presented with accredited historical data. They are UNABLE to be unbiased. Now that is far more worrying, I suggest.

I recently came across the following quote which starts with a supposition and goes on to recount an experience. It is worth bearing in mind:

“people who have been given a faith-based education are generally more tolerant when dealing with people of other religious and non-religious faith traditions than those who have been nurtured in an intentionally anti-religious or ‘secular-humanistic’ environment. The way in which Muslim parents actively seek out Christian ethos schools is testimony to the fact that they believe those schools are more likely to encourage a tolerant and warm attitude to their own religious beliefs, than a school which may deliberately exclude the idea of the divine. Lord Sacks was educated at St Mary’s Primary School. Comments the Chief Rabbi, ‘I got more tolerance in that Christian school than I suspect I might have had if I had gone to a secular school where no faith was taken seriously at all. That was when I discovered religiously based tolerance – the religious roots, the foundations of tolerance.’

Intolerance is clearly alive and well in the humanist camp, but here is my closing thought. I am aware that there are many unthinking people who mindlessly subscribe to the thoughts of the Humanists, but it strikes me that anyone who knows anything about the reality  of the individual child’s ability to make up their own mind, will know that this language from the humanist website is empty posturing and must simply be a means of gaining publicity – except it does not show them up in a good light, and one wonders if, in fact, this publicity is good publicity, or rather it shows them as bigoted zealots with an intellectually empty cause?  Sad!

I am calling the mayor with both hands! Everything in this joint is nutella-related. It is both a restaurant and a store. There are locations in Italy (Bologna), Frankfurt, and that’s all I can find so far but I’ll keep you posted….. I’m wiping away tears of joy that such a thing exists. It’s like Our Lady just reached down and kissed my forehead, I swar to gar.

the Cappy: it is a glimpse of heaven
Christopher Rouxbin: heaven does exist!
Jonohs: That’s a lot of hazelnut.

Way to kill the spiritual mood, Jonohs.

If you’re not a godless heathen and would like to know more, here is an Italian PDF telling you all about the Bolognese location. There are also locations in Frankfurt and in the works for altre citte. Check it out on the official UK and U.S. Ferrero websites.

Photo by Jordan Smith of He Cooks, She Cooks, who modified Giada de Laurentiis’ Chocolate-Hazelnut Ravioli to make Nutella Wontons for Valentine’s.

Perhaps you are all like, “What’s nutella?” Oh, my heavens, I swan. Exactly what the fuck is wrong with you?! You just fall out of a tree to earth?? Quick history.

Nutella® spread, in its earliest form, was created in the 1940s by Mr. Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker and founder of the Ferrero company. At the time, there was very little chocolate because cocoa was in short supply due to World War II rationing.

So Mr. Ferrero used hazelnuts, which are plentiful in the Piedmont region of Italy (northwest), to extend the chocolate supply.

Mmm… just … I need some time to myself now. Excuse me. Carry on!

There are many ways to skin a cat…

Alright so I’m obviously not talking about skinning a cat, thats just wrong.  But the saying is very fitting for todays topic.  Today’s topic lays with finding your way to “God”.  Alright now I understand God is a tricky term because well lets be honest, we all believe in something different.  And thats the magic in it!  We all ARE different!

When I started my journey I was not looking for God in the least, actually I only began to look for him recently.  And let me tell you, it is not hard at all to find him.  Just take a look around you.  Look at that plant, the table, the sky, you, your mother, and everything else you can or can not think of.  Thats him, say hey he enjoys the love you send him. 

Alright so now I sound crazy, how could God be that table, let alone me?! Well thats an understandable response to something like that but I suggest you listen to what I have to say, it could make the difference for you as it did me.  Then again we are all different and there is no telling how this will resonate with you. Listen to your feeling as you continue, listen to your feelings with all aspects of life.  They will never let you down.

Imagine a God who is none judgmental, absolute infinite love and willing to join us on our journey called life no matter where it takes you… Alright, so far sounds good right?  Now imagine if God has always been there with you, he is always sending you messages, signs and blessings.  Oh and lets not forget he is giving you everything you dream of.  He is able to connect with us through our thoughts, this is where all the magic happens.  

The reason I titled this “All Paths Lead to One” is because no two people will ever find the same God, he comes to us each differently.  Who and what he is in your mind is of no importance, what is of importance is the fact that you have never been or will be without him/her/it by your side.  God is always loving you, he does not judge.  Now doesn’t that take a big wait off your shoulders.  Go ahead, let a nice little Phewwww out, we all are going to “Heaven”!

Sure most people will say or think something like that at first, but after you reflect on what this means for a little you’ll realize you should never have feared death in the first place and our time on earth is not Hell, it is the Heaven! This is the place all spirit wish to be, for when you truly understand where we are you see just how magnificent this place is.  

It’s a little strange to think the big guy has always been starring you in the face, I mean for many people, including my old self, thought I would never get to see him.  Even in heaven I assumed he was untouchable and unseeable.  Boy were we wrong.  Now I go throughout my days with confidence and joy, I mean come on look who’s walking beside me!  All things that were once impossible… well lets just say there is no such thing as impossible anymore. 

So for all people who are interested in “Finding God”, I tell you open your mind.  Put aside all things you have heard of this God we have all been taught about for years and years, and use your imagination. Begin to see God all around you, begin to see the signs he sends you, allow yourself to embrace his love!  This may not be easy for all, I understand some people will be reluctant to give up on their old beliefs and thats fine.  He will find you when you are ready, and until then remember he’s always there and always has been.  

Peace and Love

Richard Dawkins is about to launch his latest shot in his crusade against God – The Greatest Show on Earth – not, he says, intended as an anti-religious book, yet still part of his anti-religious campaign. Today The Times Supplement printed an extract from this new book which comes out soon.

It appears to be a book founded on science and inference: “Given that, in most cases, we don’t live long enough to watch evolution happening before our eyes, we shall revisit the metaphor of the detective coming upon the scene of a crime after the event and making inferences. The aids to inference that lead scientists to the fact of evolution are far more numerous, more convincing, more incontrovertible, than any eyewitness reports that have ever been used, in any court of law, in any century, to establish guilt in any crime. Proof beyond reasonable doubt? Reasonable doubt? That is the understatement of all time.”

Now that language I find most interesting because it is exactly the same language that I would use to describe why we can be confident in our acceptance of the Bible and its veracity as a revealer of God. The only difference, I suspect, is that when I look back on the evidence for the Bible and use ‘inference’, I look at all possibilities before I arrive at a conclusion and Richard Dawkins considers only one possibility and ignores all others – well actually he doesn’t ignore, he denigrates!

Whatever he may try to convince us about evolution – and I am not anti-evolution (but wait before you rush to comment) – he comes at the subject, it appears from his past writings,  loaded with emotional, historical prejudices that are tantamount to a form of blind faith.  He believes on the basis of partial facts viewed, it seems, through the skewed eyes of atheistic emotional prejudice – and is utterly convinced he is right – just like the flat-earth extremist is.

Now if you think that is an unkind, unjust and unfair comparison, I can only say that that is how it appears to some of us watching from a slightly less emotionally charged position. In fact what I have just done is the same as he does when he denigrates those who wish to have open minds to other alternatives to atheistic, mechanical evolution, by equating them with holocaust deniers, which is what he does in the book.

Rather like some of Job’s comforters, he appeals now to questionable traditional figures such as some Church of England Bishops, who aren’t always known for their traditional beliefs. But let’s start from the opposite end of the scale, from the Biblical perspective, about which neither Dawkins nor his followers appear to have much knowledge. The Biblical picture of God is that He is both Creator and Sustainer of the world and interacts with it as He deems fit – both with people, animals and what we might call inanimate creation. (This is a tremendous subject, but it will have to wait for another time).

If we accept for a moment the general concept of evolution – and I have to say that although I am quite open to the concept of evolution, there appear to be a considerable number of question marks which throw doubt on the idea of ‘fact’ that Dawkins espouses – what is impossible to determine is WHY things happened (if they did) as the evolutionary scientist maintains.

If there is no God, then anything that happens is chance and given sufficiently long periods of time, anything can happen. Whether it is behavioural or genetic change it has to be purposeless. To speak of survival ‘instincts’ makes a major leap of faith, a questionable leap, I suggest. It prejudges. Why should ‘life’ want to ‘survive’? Chemicals don’t have that instinct.

Now if there is a God as revealed in the Bible then there is nothing to say that changes that have been observed have not been God-directed changes, i.e. it is simply the way He worked to bring about the present end result – IF those changes did happen.  Whichever way it is, it is a faith issue, and the starting point is whether you believe from the outset in God or that there is no God. Your end result follows from there. Thus I would suggest that Dawkins’ latest trend of trumpeting how wonderful this world is, is simply what the Bible has done for centuries before him – except it declares that it is not a mechanical accident, but the purpose of a benign and loving God.

Our applause, or otherwise, of Dawkins’ latest “controversial book” will depend entirely, I suggest, on our starting point, but it will be left to others commenting upon it to add light for those who want light.

I came across an interesting quotation recently – one I’d seen before, but it came afresh: “There is a long-standing tradition in Christianity that God wrote a Book of Works (Creation) as well as a Book of Words (the Bible).”

For the last two weeks my wife and I have been out in the midst of God’s “Book of Works”  The Psalmist wrote “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” (Psa 19:1,2) and “The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.” (Psa 97:6). The apostle Paul wrote, “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Rom 1:20)

The clear declaration of those verses is that God’s greatness is obvious and should be obvious in what we might call ‘nature’ or ‘creati0n’.  I have lost count over these past two weeks of the number of times my wifre and I just stood and looked at the wonder of the country before us and just went, “Wow! That is incredible!”

Many years ago when I was having to write an essay with a strong philosophical base for part of my Teacher-Training Course, I chose to write about the existence of rainbows.  I’m reminded of that when I pick up Richard Dawkins’ book Unweaving the Rainbow. It is a book to show how wonderful creation is – without any God, it is wonderful. That is the message of it, I believe. it is a defensive book because in the preface he quotes from his colleague, Peter Atkins: “We are children of chaos, and the deep structure of change is decay. At root, there is only corruption, and the unstemmable tide of chaos. Gone is purpose; all that is left is direction. This is the bleakness we have to accept as we peer deeply and dispassionately into the heart of the Universe.”

I like that quote for it reveals all that is left when you take away God from the equation. Solomon, in his latter years, when he had drifted away from faith and lost sight of God, declared similarly, “Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless.” (Eccles 1:2). What is fascinating is that Dawkins agrees with that quote YET feels he has to revel in the glory of the wonder of this incredible world.  He too recognises the wonder of the world in which we live. You can’t avoid it – only try and ignore it.

But I noted some interesting reactions within myself as we gazed over tremendous vistas or stood in awe in an arboretum of nearly three thousand specimens of trees, shrubs & bamboos from around the world. The variety of size, colour and shape was incredible. We marvelled at such beauty.

But hold on! Why should it be that if I am simply the product of random time and chance molecular activity that I should have such feelings and such concepts. Surely ‘beauty’ is a mere illusion, a chemical reaction? Why should I feel refreshed and restored  after spending time in these environments where my eyes and (sometimes) ears were made accutely aware of the amazing beauty around us? We can rationalise it, categorise it and try and explain it, but it is something that still has the capacity to make all such intellectual exercise seem rather pointless. I was reminded of the poem:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

(William Henry Davies)

As I have stood and stared, I have found a response rising within me, “Lord, that is wonderful. Thank you so much.”  I feel sorry for those who have no one to thank.

She followed the crowd. Why are they shouting like this? He hasn’t done anything! Well, no, that’s not true. He’s done so much. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.

The doctors had been no help; they hadn’t known what was wrong. I knew behind their whispers that people said I must have done something wrong, but it wasn’t like that. I didn’t know if I had done anything. All I knew was that I was ill and that they said I was dying. Then he came to my town.

My mother had helped me out to see what all the noise was about. We’d heard rumours. Then there he was with a big crowd around him, walking down the street. The crowd was noisy. We held back in the doorway and watched, but as they came level with our home, he stopped and turned towards us. He obviously said something to those with him, for they stood aside as he came across to us.

There was nothing special in what he did, and yet everything. He just smiled at us and said, “Hullo.” I found myself just gaping at him with tears running down my face; I don’t know why. Somehow… somehow, it was as if he knew, knew all about me, and still loved me…. He reached out and gently placed his hand on my head and almost whispered, “Be healed.” And then he was gone and we both stood there weeping and I was well. Yes, I know it sounds too simple, but I was. I was completely well. I can’t explain it, but I’m alive and well – because of him. So why are they treating him like this?

The soldiers are so brutal. They’re making him carry a large wooden cross. Why? Surely they can’t be……. They push at him and snarl at him. He falls. Oh why? They drag a man unwillingly from the crowd to carry the cross. They pick Jesus up and I see his face. There is blood all over it. There’s a crown made with long thorns that’s been pushed on his head, now askew, but the wounds from the thorns mean the blood runs down over his face. He can hardly stand, and then I see his back, or rather what is left of it. I am sick in the street. The crowd moves on and I stand there in shock. Why are they doing this to him? What has he done to deserve this? I remember the look as he stood before me. Here was utter goodness; it was that which broke my heart then – and now.

The crowd has gone. I am alone in the street. I must go. I must follow him. I must see where they are taking him. I follow the sounds down the street. Where is this all going, on this Friday?

I took a wrong turning. I found myself alone in the back streets of Jerusalem. Here there was silence. But then across the city came two stretched-out screams, just two. I eventually found my way to one of the gates of the city and there across the valley I saw three crosses being erected, three horrible symbols of man’s inhumanity to man. Even from this distance I could see he was one of the men being crucified. Why? What had he done except be good! I slumped down against the city wall and watched. The hours passed and eventually I saw them take the bodies away. It is over. I am past weeping. I am angry, no I am furious! Why? Why did they have to do this to him?

Two days later, when I woke on Sunday morning, something was different. No one else in the place where I was staying was awake yet, and so I quietly made my way outside. Something had happened! What was it? I still had that awful ache inside, but something was different.

I wandered down the street. There was hardly anyone else around. A woman scuttled by laughing and crying, but I hardly noticed. I came to one of the city gates and looked out over the graveyard area. I heard a sound of panting and two men dashed past me. Now it was my turn to be hardly noticed. I watched as they ran down through the olive groves to the grave areas. What a terrible place this is. Death hangs over it condemning all of us.

“I’m not there,” a gentle voice came from behind me. I started and turned and gasped. Again I found myself just gaping at him with tears running down my face. It was him. No, it can’t be. “It is,” he said reading my thoughts. “But why,” I sobbed, “why did it happen… and how are you alive?” Words were meaningless. I just sobbed.

“It’s all right,” he gently replied, “it will all become clear. The most important thing is that I’m here, so you can go home now and live and tell your family and friends what you have seen.”

“But they won’t believe me,” I sobbed.

“Not at first, but many will eventually. You’ll never be the same again now you know I’m alive. Go now.”

“But when will I see you again?” I managed.

He smiled, “When you come home.” Then he was gone, and I was never alone again.

Good Morning, Class. Welcome to “Diva 101″. In this class, you will learn about the divas of dance, the darlings of disco, the demi-gods of the dance floor – from the 70s to today. This is in no way a complete list of all divas – just the basics from A to Z.

A – Aguilera, Christina:  Just a pop singer with a killer set of pipes until 2001’s cover of “Lady Marmalade” from the soundtrack of Mouiln Rouge. This LaBelle remake crossed her over. Recommended Listening: “Beautiful (Valentin Club Mix)”

B – Black Box: Italian House group who illegaly sampled Martha Wash and Loleatta Holloway’s vocals and set them to some of the best house beats of 89/90. Recommended Listening: “Everybody Everybody (Le Freak Mix)” with vocals by Martha Wash.

C – C+C Music Factory: Robert Cliviles & David Cole began remixing house music for others in the late 80s. When they took Martha Wash’s command “Everybody Dance Now!”, set it to music, and shot to number 1 on the charts in April 1990, the olny problem was that Ms. Wash wasn’t shown in the video. Zelma Davis (who is a damn good singer on her own, just not on this song) was. Scandal ensued, and Ms. Wash settled in court, and today, the video has a disclaimer that the vocals are not provided by the lady on the screen. Try this: “Just A Touch Of Love” – vocals by Zelma Davis.

D – Donna Summer – This Boston native is the Queen of Disco. Since 1975, she has been churning out some of the highest quality dance music while still staying completely relevant. Her latest album, 2008’s Crayons, brought her first album-length collection of new music in 17 years. Lost gem: “Romeo”, from the soundtrack to Flashdance.

E -  Etta James – Recent comments about President Obama & Beyonce aside, this lady can saaaaaaaaaaang! Any and all of her tunes are just amazing, the best arguably being “At Last”. In 2002, she released in INSANE cover of the Rolling Stones 1978 “Miss You” as a bluesy-rock tune. Can’ t  miss remix: “Miss You (Illicit Club Mix)”.

F – “Finally” was released by CeCe Peniston in late 1990. The subject of one of my first blog posts, hearing this song for the first time was a religious experience on the dance floor. Best Mix: The original 12″ album mix. This one is impossible to improve upon.

G – Gloria Gaynor, singer of the ubiquitous disco single “I Will Survive”. Released in December 1978, the single has proven to be a survivor in itself, still a regular radio standard 30 years on. Ms. Gaynor has released so many memorable songs, and is one of my favorite disco divas. Check out: “Never Can Say Goodbye (12″ Extended Mix)”

H – Heart – the best balls-out rock group fronted by women ever! Okay, so this blog is usually dedicated to dance music, but divas are not genre-specific. Ann Wilson’s powerhouse vocals and her sister Nancy’s hot guitar licks made for a kick-ass combo in the 70s for such songs as “Barracuda”. In the mid-80s, they came back to the forefront with a string of big haired power ballads like “Alone”, “These Dreams”, and “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You”. Don’t miss: “Crazy On You“.

I – Iceland is the home of one of music’s most quirky and thought-provoking songstresses, Bjork. Since getting her start as the lead singer of The Sugarcubes, she has made her indelible mark on the music world. In my opinion, the most iconic images of Bjork are the music video for her single “It’s Oh So Quiet” anof the much-parodied swan dress she wore one year to an awards show. Finest Moment: “Violently Happy (Masters at Work 12″ Mix)”

J – Janice Robinson was the voice of the mid-90s dance “group” Livin’ Joy, whose hits included “Dreamer”. Janice released a new mix in 2006, aptly titled “Dreamer 2006″ – Must Listen: “Don’t Stop Movin’ “

K -Kristine W. has been a staple of the dance charts since 1994, cranking out hit after hit. From “One More Try” and “Land Of The Living” to “Stronger” and last year’s cover of “The Boss”, she’s a can’t miss powerhouse diva. Try this: “Some Lovin’ (Peter Rauhofer Reconstruction Mix) – Murk vs. Kristine W.”

L – Loleatta Holloway is one of the most sampled vocalists ever, thanks to her 1980 stunner “Love Sensation”. Sampled into hits such as “Ride On Time” by Black Box and “Good Vibrations” by Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch, her legendary voice is worshipped in the dance community. Her Finest Hour: “Relight My Fire” by Dan Hartman. That’s Loleatta as the background vocalist.

M – Martha Wash came into the spotlight in the mid-70s as a backup singer for Sylvester. In the early 80s, she was a Weather Girl. The late 80s and early 90s brought more notoriety when it was discovered that her voice was illegaly used by both Black Box (“Strike It Up”, “Everybody Everybody”) and C+C Music Factory (Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) . Her first solo album in 1992 brought hits like “Carry On”. In 1998, she teamed up with RuPaul for a remake of her 1982 hit “It’s Raining Men” Still going strong after more than 30 years, she’s still releasing killer singles and playing club dates. Her Finest Hour: “Catch The Light (West  Mix)”

N – “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” is probably the best Diva Duel of them all. An 11-minute epic of proportions only seen during the height of disco’s meteoric rise, Paul Jabara wrote and produced this masterpiece for Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer. This gem has been covered many times, most notably for me by k.d. lang and Andy Bell of Erasure, recorded for the soundtrack to the 1993 film The Coneheads. Best Mix: The original 12″ album mix. This one is impossible to improve upon.

O – “One” was a hit single by U2 from their 1991 album “Achtung Baby”. In 2006, dive Mary J. Blige recorded the track as a duet with U2. Mary J. is a true R&B diva of epic proportions, beginning with 1992’s “Real Love”to her 1995 duet with Method Man “You’re All I Need” to her blazing 2006 jam “Be Without You”. Try this: “Family Affair (Spanish Fly Remix)”

P – Patti LaBelle has been in the biz since the early 60s as a member of the Blue Belles. In the 70s, she fronted the amazing LaBelle (“Lady Marmalade”), and since the 80s she’s been releasing solo work, and acting. In 1995, she contributed to the soundtrack of To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar with “Turn It Out”, and most recently, it has been announced that LaBelle will reunite after more than 30 years apart. I can’t wait. Try This: “New Attitude”.

Q – Queer. You really can’t have divas without the gays. WE MADE YOU BITCHES!!!! And we loved every minute of it.

R – RuPaul is the (drag) queen of all media – there is nothing that he can’t do. Since his major-label debut in November 1992, the unforgettable single “Supermodel (You Better Work)” RuPaul has been on a non-stop ride of singing, acting in TV and film (in and out of drag), being the first spokesperson for M.A.C. Cosmetics, hosting his own talk show, and appearing in ad campaigns for such diverse products as Bailey’s Irish Cream, WebEx, and Jack In The Box. His newest venture, RuPaul’s Drag Race, an elimination-style reality competition, premeired on the LOGO television network last week. Fierce Track: His 1997 cover of Bonnie Tyler’s “If You Were A Woman (And I Was A Man)”

S – Sylvester was a cross-dressing dance legend. Fifteen years before RuPaul, Sylvester burst on the scene in a big way with such hits as “Dance (Disco Heat)” and “Do You Wanna Funk”. Backed by the Two Tons O’ Fun, and working with producer Patrick Cowley, he was a forerunner of the Hi-NRG genre of the early 80s. His Finest Hour: “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”

T – Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way” was a dance chart-topper in 1977. It’s been released and remixed more times than I can count. More than a one-hit wonder, but she still is best known for this dance classic. Lost Gem: “Love Masterpiece” from the soundtrack to the infamous disco film Thank God It’s Friday.

U – Ultra Nate is a prolific diva, putting out hits since the Early 90s. Usually dragged out around Pride season, the lyrics of her 1997 hit “Free” celebrate freedom and brotherhood of all mankind. The mix usually played on radio is the Mood II Swing Radio Edit. Not bad, but much better if you can find it is the “Free (Full Intention Club Mix)”.

V – The Village People are not necessarily considered divas, but Victor Willis, the lead singer from 1977-1979 and co-writer of virtually all of the hits has one hell of a voice, and his replacement (still with the group today) Ray Simpson also has a great voice. These guys are two of my favorite male disco divas. Must Listen: “Village People” with vocals by Victor Willis, and “Liberation” with vocals by Ray Simpson.

W -The Weather Girls. Originally called Two Tons O’ Fun, Martha Wash & Izora Armstead were the long time backup singers for Sylvester, mentioned above. In 1982, they hooked up with Paul Jabara (writer of Donna Summer’s “Last Dance”) and recorded the ULTIMATE diva single – “It’s Raining Men”. Covered multiple times by such artists as RuPaul, the Young Divas, and one of the Spice Girls (her version sucked so I will not give her the courtesy of a full mention) it’s still a campy disco standard to this day. Best Mix: The original 12″ album mix. This one is impossible to improve upon.

X – “Xanadu” was a disco masterpiece written by Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra for the roller-skating train wreck of a film in 1980. Sung by Australian diva Olivia Newton-John, you cannot help but wish you were on skates… Best Mix: “Xanadu (Direct Hit Re-Edit)”

Y -”Young Hearts Run Free” was a smash 1976 single by Candi Staton. It was covered by fellow diva Kym Mazelle for the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet. More from Candi Staton: “Victim (12″ Extended Mix)”

Z – Zelma Davis was caught up in a firestorm in 1990 after being accused of being a talentless model lip-synching vocals by Martha Wash, despite having sung several tracks on C+C Music Factory’s debut album. She is a great singer, and most recently released a cover of “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” with Amber in the summer of 2008. Lost Track: “Live Happy” by C+C Music Factory – vocals by Zelma Davis.

Well, you’ve earned your degree in Diva 101. This is a beginner’s course – for further research and reading, keep reading this blog.

Just inside our front door hangs an old barometer, not very valuable I’m told, but at least of some sentimental value. It’s been around in our family for a while, and there are many people who come into our home who I catch just gently tapping it to see which way the arrow is going. It’s an indicator of the weather which means, in Britain at least, it goes up and down regularly. There’s something about that old barometer, I believe, that is more homely and, obviously for many people, even more interesting than the detailed weather forecasts on TV.

I’ve found myself pondering thanks, praise and worship recently and I believe collectively they act like a barometer revealing our spiritual state and spiritual direction. I believe that that order – thanks, praise and then worship – involves a development of understanding of truth and takes us from the state of self-centredness to the state of complete un-self-centredness. Let me explain.

‘Thanks’ is an expression of gratefulness and when you are thankful you are grateful. When you thank someone you express your gratitude and inevitably it is thanks to a person. We thank someone when they have done something for us or given us something. Now with Christmas approaching I can’t help thinking of the somewhat strained thanks that we give when the present we have just received is definitely not what we wanted.

There was, I believe, a number of years ago, bad bit of teaching going around Christian circles that said “Give thanks for all circumstances” whereas the Biblical teaching is “Give thanks in all circumstances.” It’s a simple change but a vital one. So there were all these poor people struggling to be thankful for being abused, raped, mugged and goodness know what else. Nowhere are we called to be grateful for sin or for the perpetrators of pain through sin on us. When God hates those things, I think we’re doing mental gymnastics when we start trying to justify or make ourselves grateful for such things. It is something quite different to be thankful in the midst of circumstances that have their origins in sin. We can thank God that He is there for us in the midst of them and thank Him that His grace is sufficient for us, just as the Bible says. Similarly if our own sin brought the bad circumstances upon us, then it is folly to be grateful that we were so stupid. Repentance is a much more apt expression than thanks, in those circumstances.

But I started by suggesting that each of these things involves understanding. So much of modern thinking (call it post-modern thinking if you like) is nihilistic, full of negativity and it is not surprising that many people suffer depression and many others attempt suicide. Listen to the preface of master-atheist, Richard Dawkins, in his book Unweaving the Rainbow:

“A foreign publisher of my first book confessed that he could not sleep for three nights after reading it, so troubled was he by what he saw as its cold, bleak message. Others have asked me how I can bear to get up in the mornings. A teacher from a distant country wrote to me reproachfully that a pupil had come to him in tears after reading the same book, because it had persuaded her that life was empty and purposeless. He advised her not to show the book to any of her friends, for fear of contaminating them with the same nihilistic pessimism. Similar accusations of barren desolation, of promoting an arid and joyless message, are frequently flung at science in general, and it is easy for scientists to play up to them. My colleague Peter Atkins begins his book The Second Law (1984) in this vein: We are the children of chaos, and the deep structure of change is decay. At root there is only corruption, and the unstemmable tide of chaos. Gone is purpose; all that is left is direction. This is the bleakness we have to accept as we peer deeply and dispassionately into the heart of the Universe.”

Although Dawkins could not take back his first book and its effects on people, he desperately tried to counter this ‘nihilistic pessimism’ by showing the wonder of the world that science reveals, but all he is able to do is basically say, look at the wonderful facts we have revealed. Of course in his mechanistic approach he is unable to answer the fundamental yearning that most of us have, to understand something of ‘meaning and purpose’ in life, because a ‘machine’ (the world of evolution) doesn’t have ‘meaning’, it just develops.

Perhaps Dawkins’ writing here may be summed up by the person who said, “I feel really sorry for atheists, who feel thankful but have no one to thank”. All of us want ‘someone to thank’ and when we are told there is no one, we feel cheated. But the very sense of feeling thankful, should tell us something. Why should we feel ‘grateful’ if we are just the result of accidental evolution because being ‘grateful’ implies being grateful to someone.

But I also started out by suggesting that ‘thanks’ is a self-centred starting point, but that isn’t always bad if it leads us on somewhere better. Again, when we speak of being grateful, we are recognising that we have received benefit and we feel good as a result. But it’s all about what we feel. Hence my initial starting point.

So what about praise? Praise is about acknowledging achievement. When we praise our children, we are acknowledging when they have done well. Praise takes the focus from on me to on them. Unlike thanks, it may be that we are acknowledging something that has not brought personal benefit to me. We are simply acknowledging how well someone has done.

The first time ‘Praise’ is used in the Bible was on the lips of Abraham’s servant: “Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.” (Gen 24:27). He was praising God for the way that God had done good for Abraham and for the way he had led his servant. It was about what God had done.

There is an interesting use of praise when Leah, one of Jacob’s two wives bears him three sons, each of whom she names according to the emotion she feels in respect of what God had done for her so far, and by the time she bears the fourth son, she realises that this has all been the hand of God on her: “She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah.” (Gen 29:35) and Judah, the note in your Bible will tell you, ‘sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for ‘praise’’. Now she was acknowledging the goodness of what God had done.

Some time later Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, gives an interesting response to what he hears has been happening: “Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the LORD had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. He said, “Praise be to the LORD, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians.” (Ex 18:9,10) so again praise was the response to what the Lord had done.

When we come to consider ‘worship’ we find something quite different. Worship refers to a bowing before a sovereign by a lesser subject, to kiss their hand or even feet, as a sign of subjection. This is what real worship is. It is not singing songs or reciting creeds, it is actually bowing before the Supreme, Almighty God, acknowledging His wonder and our smallness. We can see again and again in Scripture that bowing down is part of worship. It is submitting to and acknowledging the superiority of our God. Worship is getting God in perspective. When we realise who He is, of what He is capable of doing, and what He does, there really can be no other response.

Do you see now why I said at the beginning that this involves a development of understanding of truth and takes us from the state of self-centredness to the state of complete un-self-centredness? When we see God for who He is, we lose all sense of ourselves, for our vision is filled with Him and Him alone. We have developed or changed from being silly, puny individuals who make silly noises about God, to see that the One revealed in the Bible is truly like what we find there and, like those who had a vision of heaven, we fall on our faces in acknowledgement of our smallness and His greatness. If we don’t do it this side of death, we will do it the other side when we will see Him clearly!

So those things act like a barometer of our spiritual state and direction. If we never give thanks we live in a cold, sterile world of facts but nothing more. When we realise that there is a hand behind all the good and wonderful things in this world, we start to give thanks. When we develop our understanding, probably by reading His word, we see more and more His hand on all good things and we find praise starts taking us away from our self-centredness to starting to be God focused in a much bigger way. When we eventually realise His greatness and our smallness, we fall in worship and adoration. It’s there in the Book, and it’s truth. So what, I wonder, is the ‘barometer’ telling about you?

My first dance club experience was with a group of friends in October 1991. We put on our coolest outfits (Vuarnet, Cross Colours, Marithe & Francois Gribaud, and Boss Jeans abound) and headed out to the best (and only) teen club in the area – Club 21. Shortly after arriving, I found myself on the dance floor, a 14-year-old high school freshman, having my first music-related Religious Experience…

With brown cocoa skin and curly black hair, the object of my affection was seated at a table just yards away with his girlfriend. So many reasons for us never to be together, the largest hurdle being that I, too, was a fourteen year old teenage boy. Regardless, I could still look.

I lost myself in the music – finally, it had happened to me. I instantly became a disco queen. “Finally” ended and the unmistakable opening notes of “Jump Around” by House of Pain began. Spent of all energy, I returned to this plane. I was never to be the same.

LINK to the song download coming: I’m on my laptop in the living room right now, and want to get this posted. LOL

I have been in love with Kristine W’s music since the first time I heard this song back in the summer of ‘96. “One More Try” was her first big US release that broke into the charts. I was nineteen and working in a pizza joint with a bunch of my buddies – this song came on the radio and I cranked it out. My friends were less than impressed, being the disco queen that I am, I recognized the makings of a true diva.

Two years later, I was in a club and I heard this remix for the first time. It was one of those “religious experience” moments that happen with me when I hear life-changing beats. To this day, Rollo’s Big Mix is in my top five remixes of all time. Enjoy!

One More Try (Rollo’s Big Mix) – Kristine W.

A while back I wrote three blogs about some thoughts I had been having about heaven, and the possibility of seeing my father again. I found myself pondering the other day about how God prepares us for heaven – at least I think that’s what He does.

When we are young we rarely give a thought to death; we feel we are immortal or, if not immortal, at least those with a long while to go. Hitting middle age many of us look back over the years and start to wonder what we have achieved, what it is all about. Instinctively we wonder about the future – are our years limited? Yes they are. But how many years have we got left? We don’t know but our time IS limited. We wonder what we can do with the remaining years. Facing old age can be a fearful thing. There is the possibility today of living to what we once called ‘a ripe old age’, but for so many the length of years is not accompanied by a strong mind and a strong body.

I wrestled with this several years ago. I didn’t want to become geriatric in old age and said, “Lord, please let me burn out before I get to that stage.” But then I pondered it over the following months and eventually came to a place where I said, “Lord, please keep me in good health and clear mind so you can use me, until you let me burn out before getting geriatric.” I began focusing on, not burning out early, but of being used up to the point of burning out early. But then i thought some more and thought this was a place of limited faith and so eventually prayed (when i was 60), Lord, please give me another twenty-five years and may I be able to serve you, bless you and glorify you, every one of those years. How we approach our eventual death, I have concluded, is important.

I have written these sorts of words a number of times before, but they bear repeating. I have been challenged by the psalmist’s words: “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.” (Psa 93:12-15) Did you see the reference to old age?

I’ve asked for it, because it seemed right and good. Whether I get it, only time will tell. Reading Job, I agree with his assessment of life and death (and I know I’ve said this before!) : “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21) The Lord decrees when we leave this planet and I will go not a minute before He decrees. He may decree this year, next year, twenty years time, or whenever. He is the Lord, and His timing will be right.

Why do I say all these things? Because I am certain that the latter years (maybe all the years) of our lives are preparation for heaven. Twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, even a hundred years, is merely a drop in the bucket in comparison with eternity. I’ve suggested before that the Biblical hint is that heaven is a place of activity and blessing. I’ve also suggested we may be granted a glimpse back. There does seem a Biblical link between what we do on this earth and the eternity to follow. I don’t want to suffer too much culture shock when I get there. I hope that however many years I have left, they will be years when I sense more and more something of heaven on earth.

Can we ever prepare for heaven? In as much as we seek for God and know Him today through His Son Jesus Christ, yes we can. In as much as we learn to be led by His Spirit, catch His heart, and catch what He feels and wants for us and for those around us, yes we can. Why do we slow up when we get old?   I’ve concluded it is so that we can gradually detach ourselves from the attachment to this earth and start catching something of what is to come. No, not infirmity in heaven, but infirmity helps me become less earth-orientated and gives me the opportunity to become more heaven orientated. Heaven IS a reality. I want to be ready for it.

I have had, this week, running around in the back of my mind, the picture of Jesus getting into Simon Peter’s boat (you find it in Luke 5), and the phrase ‘invading your space’ keeps coming round. I remember thinking about private space – that bit of space in front of us, where, if people invade it, we feel uncomfortable.  I once heard a tourist guide in Canada saying that the private space for a grizzly bear was about 160 feet.  I don’t know whether that is true, or even if it should have been yards, but we understood the concept -  keep out of his private space otherwise he will get upset!  We don’t like people being in our private space; it makes us edgy. Perhaps that is why when Jesus does it today, we’re hardly aware of it.

But back to Peter. He’s in his boat after a fruitless night’s fishing, washing out his nets, presumably getting rid of weed and bits of flotsam, when along walks Jesus and climbs into his boat. He is now in Peter’s private space and Peter must be wondering, hullo, what is happening here? Then Jesus asks him to push out a bit from the shore so Jesus can use his boat as a  preaching platform. Now John’s Gospel tells us that Peter had met Jesus before (see John 1) so Peter knows something of this man and is intrigued or, perhaps, just hasn’t got the courage to say no.  At the end of his teaching Jesus tells Peter to throw his nets out for a catch. Now Peter is a fisherman and fishermen know the waters and Peter knows that last night there were no fish and now there are still no fish, but something about this man intrigues him or, perhaps, he hasn’t got the courage to say no. Whatever it is, he throws the net over and to his horror finds it full of fish. He is scared silly!

Now that incident has been going round in my mind this week. It seems it is analogous to what happens in life.  We are minding our own business and then suddenly Jesus comes along and invades our space – but we’re not aware that he’s there, because today he doesn’t have a single human body; he comes by His Holy Spirit.  So does it matter that he’s ‘there’?  Well yes, because he doesn’t remain silent; he says stuff.  Now because we’re not expecting this we don’t recognise what is happening.  We simply find questions rising in our mind, or start feeling discontented with our life.  So  many Christians will testify that this is what started happening. They didn’t realise it at the time but this was Jesus coming near at the time when he saw we were ready, and he invaded our private space and then got in our face.  We weren’t aware of what was happening but interest rose in us, questions rose in us, disquiet rose in us, self-awareness arose in us, and that self awareness realised we had a problem.  What was happening?  To use a modern phrase, Jesus was messing with our mind.  Sometimes we refer to it as being convicted by the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and it’s him at work, drawing us towards God.

So could it be that you had Jesus invading your space recently and didn’t realise it. You’re not a Christian but you’ve found yourself recently questioning the meaning of your life.  It’s all right, it’s just Jesus invading your space, seeking to bring you to a place of understanding and commitment. Fight it if you like, but you’ll be fighting the best thing that can ever happen to you.

Maybe you’re a Christian already and you thought this only happened at the beginning of the Christian life. Think again. He comes again and again to invade our space when he wants to get our attention afresh. Maybe it’s to start us off on a new phase of life, maybe it’s just to bring you fresh revelation, but he does it all the time. Every step forward we make in faith is because he first came and ‘invaded our space’, so take note of it, and go with it. You could be about to step out on the next big step of this adventure called faith. Have fun.

I have recently encountered a new friend, a guy who doesn’t come from my particular part of the body of Christ. In fact he believes that his particular part is the only genuine part (and that is the only clue I’m going to give about his background).  We talked for a couple of hours and I am utterly convinced that theologically his beliefs are of man-made origin, but because he is on of the most thoughtfully pious people I think I’ve ever come across, he is a delight to be with, even if he can’t do theology without relying upon human support, and not just the Bible itself (oh dear, another clue!)

My conclusion following our relatively short time together, is that he is a pure delight to be with and someone I would really like to know much better. He is also somewhat disarming because he has been gifted with an amazing gift of faith. If you haven’t ever encountered such a person, they convey faith to you and you go away with a mind full of new possibilities.

So here is the conundrum: how can such a guy holding such unfounded beliefs, be so blessed in character and gifting by God. For an answer to that, I am reminded of a short conversation I once had with the Lord. I was reading a book describing bad American evangelists and found myself thinking, “Lord, how can you use such people?” I didn’t even realise I was praying until I heard within my spirit the Lord reply, “The same reason I use you, son.” That didn’t sound good, but before I could think anything more, He added, “I use you not because you are right but because you are available.” That needed some thinking about.

There is this wonderful truth: God loves us, blesses us and even uses us while we are still imperfect. He doesn’t wait until I get it all right because He knows He would have to wait until I died. So there I am, in the world, loved by God just like I am, not having to perform any rituals to make myself more open to Him, because He is already open to me. That is the incredible truth at the heat of Christianity. It’s all about Jesus, just him, the glorious, wonderful Son of God who died for me, rose again for me, ascended into heaven and now awaits my arrival. Even more he’s put his own Holy Spirit within me, so I can’t get any closer. That is the wonder of this amazing Christian life!

Michael Persinger, cognitive neuroscience researcher and university professor explains how our brain’s are seen to work and suggests an insight into “Religious Experiences” fundamentally challenging their validity.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Part Four:

Part Five:

Stephen

It’s a bright sunny morning and it’s easy to feel positive, but then I don’t have any great fears, doubts or worries hanging over my life. Do I have an easy life, and is there a reason for that?  Rather than think about that, I’d prefer to be concerned for those many people, it seems, for whom the sun doesn’t seem to shine and who are burdened by fears, doubts and anxieties. Several times recently my wife and I have commented about people we’ve seen either in the street or driving cars, people who seem stressed and people who seem angry. There seems a lot of stress and anger about.  Why, I think to myself, can’t these people experience the love of God that is there for them?

It’s all about perception and awareness.  Are you aware that wherever you are, God is there wanting to reach out to you to help you?  The lie that many have received is that God is only around to condemn, but that is exactly the opposite of the New Testament revelation in the Bible.  God has come to release us from guilt and condemnation.  But I am guilty, your conscience screams from deep down, despite all you do to suppress it.  That’s right, we are guilty, that is the truth, but that is exactly why Jesus Christ came to the earth, to take the punishment that deep down we believe we deserve.  Conscience is merely a tool to point out to us our true state, a motivating force, if you like, to help you along the path to bring change.  But I can’t bring it, I’ve tried, you cry from deep down.  Of course, which is why God holds His hand out to us to help us and empower us and guide us. We don’t only need forgiving, we also need guidance, direction and power to live by, and all of that is the promise of the New Testament.  All it needs is our acknowledgment of our true state, and our desire for God to come in and help – not just bandage up the latest wound, but to totally transform. Forgiveness and transformation! Not a bad offer!!!

That is the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, that our lives can be transformed.  That’s what makes it a ’sunny day’ even when it is raining!  I remember the testimony of a girl from the bad streets of New York, who had heard a street preacher and received this good news. Several weeks later the street preacher came across her again and expressed his concern for her living in that area. Her reply was that it was all right because her life had been transformed.  The streets were the same but she was different.

That’s what happens. All the outward world stays the same, but inwardly we are different, and that’s what makes for a ’sunny day’. Where is God’s love? people sometimes challenge harshly. The answer is right here, standing right next to you with His hand held out to you, wanting to bring that life transformation to you. No, it’s not too good to believe, it is just true.

For the last few weeks, on my sister blog, I’ve been working through the book of Job. It’s a book that I consider is possibly one of the hardest in the Bible to read yet, as I have worked slowly through it, it is has been one of the most rewarding sets of studies I think I have ever done. It is about a man upon whom dropped total catastrophe – for no reason other than God wanted him to stand out as a supreme example in the world.  It wasn’t because he did wrong – it just was!  This man thought he knew God and in his anguish he refused to accept guilt and blame, and he refused to accuse God of wrong. He knew his suffering was of God, he didn’t know why, and therefore he refused to condemn God.  An incredible example, and one that is so far from so many people today. (And yes, he ended up in a far better place than before!)

How easy it is to get upset when life doesn’t go as we want it to go.  How easy to blame God when it wasn’t His fault.  If God has a fault it is that He gives us free will and lets us get on and make a mess of our lives. The good thing about it, though, is that He’s always there, just waiting to reach out and take our hand that is stretched out to Him.  He never refuses to love us.  When we take that hand, we find life being transformed.  Sometimes the circumstances do literally change; other times it is our perception that changes.  As long as we say, “I’m all right, I’m OK, I can manage’” we can never take that hand, but it is still there and remains there, waiting until we come to our senses – and then the sun shines.

CONTINUATION from the previous blogs

(Start reading from end of Blog No.2)

In my mind’s eye, I saw us both feeling rather shy, aware that previously we really hadn’t known each other. How do we really ‘know’ anyone this side of heaven, because our knowing is all about receiving messages from outside the person? I hear your words, and I read your body language, but beyond that I don’t know what you are really thinking or feeling. Yet in heaven I have this feeling that there will be this openness and, if we can look back, we’ll realise that we knew so little of each other. And there’s more: what about the fact that I’ve lived so many more years on earth since he died?

This makes me feel that those who worry about ‘their loved ones’ going or not going to heaven, are actually way off track. They envisage missing them in heaven because they envisage having the same feelings for them, and yet the reality may be that with different bodies and the ability to utterly know another being, that will mean that it will be such a different experience that it cannot be compared. If we get scared at that thought, it simply means we can’t visualize how wonderful that experience will be. Is this why Jesus decried the Sadducees’ talk about marriage in heaven? (Lk 20:35) Is it because the experience of relationship will be so much deeper and more meaningful than anything we had here, that looking back will mean that all relationships will seem as shadows and therefore there will little meaning in the new existence?

There is another thought about heaven which often crops up and which I believe is valid, and it is that heaven will be so much more ‘real’ than our experience here. I use the analogy of colour and no colour. If heaven is so much more wonderful then I imagine, then a reasonable comparison is like saying that everything that we know now is, by comparison, shades of grey and the new existence of heaven will be bright colours. But therein is the problem: how can someone with full colour sight explain what they see to a person who is utterly colour blind and only sees greys?

This concept of heaven being ‘more real’ comes up in the writings of C.S.Lewis. In his children’s book, The Last Battle, the children die in a train crash and go to heaven. They enter another land from the land of Narnia where most of their adventures had occurred and, to simplify the story, they respond to the cry, “Farther up and farther in”, and move into the land only to find it is a replica of Narnia except more real. I used to have a copy of his The Great Divorce (until someone borrowed it and forgot to bring it back!) but if my memory serves me right, he sought to convey the same thing there, that in heaven everything is more ‘solid’ or real and the ‘further in’ you go, the more solid or more real it is. Of course, as a Christian, he expresses the Biblical picture – of an ongoing life with full self-awareness and sense of personality and personhood, a place free from wrongs and free from pain. In other words, it is a place of pleasure and ultimate fulfilment, a place of life and light and colour and wonder.

This picture of a very real and wonderful afterlife stands in stark contrast to atheist, Philip Pullman’s picture in the last of his ‘Dark Materials’ trilogy where, in the afterlife, ghosts were trapped in a dark nothingness world but then the heroes release them and they dissolve into the rest of the physical world – Pantheism! It is playing with words; it is in reality a non-existence as we know existence, which is the fullness of life – energy with personality and self-awareness. If you don’t believe in a spirit world, then of course evaporating into nothingness is the best you can hope for. I’m glad the Bible paints a very different picture. It’s a wonderful hope and without it, existence in this world is just that, a temporary meaningless existence that will soon be gone.

So there I was, pondering the thought of seeing my dad again. Perhaps it will be, perhaps not. I’ve often thought that God would let us look back, if only for a brief moment, so we can see the reality of what has been in this world and see how much more wonderful the next is. One thing I’ve always been sure about, is that if He does allow us to look back with no limitation of understanding, I am utterly confident that we will never be able to blame or criticise Him for anything He said or did, or didn’t do. Understanding, I am sure, will remove all questions. The reason I hope it will only be momentary, this looking back, is that if our understanding is allowed to be total, we will see our lives as they really were and weep for our wrong understanding of life and also for the wrong thoughts, words and actions we had while here. I have a feeling that it will only be momentary because I wonder if suddenly we’ll see all the wrong sucked away to the Cross in its unique place in history. Suddenly we will understand. But if that is so, then it makes me feel I ought to make some more effort this side of heaven to understand what it’s all about, while I have the time. There’s a new day coming and I’d like to do what I can to be ready of it.

I’ll close with a more recent memory than that of my own dad. It involved my wife’s dad, who I also loved and respected. When he died, I visited the body in the Undertaker’s parlour (is that what you call it?). For a few minutes I stood there gazing on the body, quietly giving thanks to God for the life I had known and been blessed by. Without thinking, as I turned away to go, I simply looked up and said, “Be seeing you, dad,” and left. I will.

CONTINUATION from previous blog.

(Carry on reading from bottom of previous blog)

For instance, I am quite happy to accept that the Bible seems to suggest that heaven is the place where God exists, and that it is eternal and that it is wonderful and that there are no more tears, no sin and no suffering there. Those are the easy bits. But I have a problem with those people who just see heaven as a place where all we do is sing songs and fall down before the throne of God worshipping him, because that is the picture revealed in the book of Revelation.

So why do I have a problem with that? Because that picture is not ‘big enough’ and doesn’t honour the God who has made the world that we know. Now I believe that God is worthy of our eternal worship; of that there is no question, but the thought that that is all He has for us in heaven seems to demean Him. For instance, the picture in the vision in chapter 22 of the book of Revelation shows us an existence where we ‘serve’ God, which implies activity, and we “reign for ever” which also implies activity – and that is far more than merely standing singing songs or bowing down. It implies purposeful activity.

To ponder another aspect of this picture of heaven, think first about what we know of this earth. Modern TV programmes have done us the service of revealing something of the staggering wonder of this incredible world that God has made. What I find most staggering is that God has designed me as a human being with the capability of ‘enjoying’ the world. Yes, we also have the capability of abusing this world and destroying it and one another, but that, as I’ve said previously, is ‘another story’. This world is incredible and God has made me with sight, hearing, taste and touch so that I can thoroughly enjoy it. The variety of what is on this planet is staggering. Now if, as most of us Christians concede, heaven is wonderful, we are implying that it is MORE wonderful than this present world. If it is more wonderful than this world, is God going to consign me to just gazing at a few square feet of floor in His throne room? I don’t think so! The thing about God’s love and, I suppose, any real love, is that it gives out and wants to bless its recipients. God’s love for me, means that He constantly wants to bless me and give. (Yes, there is the other side of the coin about me being a giver as well, but let’s leave these many other ‘stories’ and focus on this one for the moment!) I’m sorry, I think if you have this limited view of heaven, you are seriously underselling the shear wonder of God’s love and His creativity.

Can I illustrate this by a conversation my wife and I once had at an air show. There were some American F111’s flying over and she exalted, “Wow” When I get to heaven I’m going to fly one of those.” My reply was, “Wow” When I get to heaven I’m going to fly like one of those!” Who knows how wonderful it will be in heaven? Whatever we grasp at, I’m sure we’ll underplay it because we seem to constantly be looking through Paul’s dark or smoked glass, or poorly reflecting mirror (1 Cor 13:12). We just can’t think big enough.

So why do I think we’ll be able to see people that we recognise? Well the apostle Paul, who seemed to get some of the biggest insights on these sorts of things, spoke of us having a new ‘body’, a ‘heavenly body’ (1 Cor 14:40), an imperishable, glorious, spiritual body (v.42-44). ‘Body’ whether it is physical or spiritual seems to indicate an entity that other similar entities can recognise and communicate with at the very least. I don’t know if you ever saw the sci-fi series, ‘Deep Space Nine’ in which there was a “shape shifter”? If you did, you may remember he eventually came across the home of all shape shifters that appeared like an oily sea called ‘The Link’, and when he stepped into it, seemed to dissolve into it and become one with the rest, and yet be able to reshape and step out as an individual when he wanted. Now maybe that’s a bit of a pantheistic mentality that produced that idea, I don’t know, but there is within Scripture this sense of unity and diversity, this being one with others “in the Spirit” and yet still a unique individual.

The fact that Moses and Elijah reappeared in their human form with Jesus on the Mount of transfiguration in the Gospels, suggests unique human personalities that remain unique human personalities even though they change their ‘shell’. So suppose I encounter my father in heaven, the father I knew many years ago. That raises some questions! What age will we both be, or will spiritual bodies be ageless? I suggest the latter, but one thing I assumed in my picture of my Dad is that we would both completely know each other. I know it’s taking it out of context, but I suspect it’s because of Paul’s comment that “now that you know God–or rather are known by God” which suggests an intimacy of understanding, and if that’s so, will we have same understanding when we encounter ‘people’ in heaven?

TO BE CONTINUED (Start the next blog from here)

Religious Experiences are considered by many theists to be some form of evidence for the existence of God, A notion I reject.

They’re not all that uncommon and societies all over the world have seen people with such experiences. Many are fictitious, but in some – we can concede – that person is actually convinced they have interacted with the “supernatural”. I consider these religious experiences to have a solid neurological basis with no empirical validity.

We all take in information from the universe around us through our sense organs, we have sight, taste, touch, sound and temperature. These peripheral sensors are what we use to perceive and detect our environment. The “Supernatural” therefore, would intrinsically unobservable if it were to exist from the get-go.

The eccentric diversity of religious experiences are another problem I have. Buddhists have religious experiences very different to the religious experiences of a Christian etc. They cant all be right, and this inconsistency weakens the position where one can apcept religious experiences as evidence for the existence of God rather than considering them as neurological artefacts. I feel religious experiences stem from an innate desire for a “God” to exist, if you’re looking for something, even if it’s not there – you’re sure to find it anyway. The religious experiences a person has often conforms to their beliefs held prior, a correlation which can not be ignored.

I’m not sure how this fits in, but it was brought up in a discussion I had today on religious experiences:

(Referring to the Unicorn Argument, where “we cant say a unicorn doesn’t exist because we have a concept of a unicorn, and we also have a concept of god. And there is no evidence disproving unicorns”. The same argument being applied to “god” ) “Even if I lived in another country all my life and had no concept of a £50 note, that wouldn’t mean it a doesn’t exist”.

The above statement was given to me in defence of Religious experience.

Really, its quite untrue that having a concept of something proves or disproves it’s existence / proves or disproves it’s validity. The Ancients never knew of Gravity, but were still subject to it’s effect. The point I am making is that, the realities of the universe are indifferent to our knowledge on the matter. We can believe and perceive whatever we want to, but that would never change reality outside of our minds. And you’re right, even if you lived on another planet completely isolated, and had no concept of a £50 note that wouldn’t mean they don’t exist – but at the same time, would you have any reason to believe they do other than a splash of blind faith?

Stephen

I was driving along in my car having visited a friend who, humanly speaking, doesn’t look like she has long in this world, and my thoughts flowed to my own father who died a number of years ago from cancer, but a short while before dying made, I am certain, a profession of faith. I anticipate seeing him when I reach heaven.

Now I’m aware that this little paragraph above presupposes a whole load of things, and I really don’t want to be bothered here to ‘prove’ them, but just recognise them. First, is that I am certain that there is an existence, after life on this earth, called heaven. I believe that because the Bible says it and I’ve come to trust what the Bible says. “Why?” is another story, and this is not the place to tell it. But I believe and, in fact, I am certain about its existence.

Second, I go along with the Bible’s assertion that not everyone goes there. I’m quite comfortable with that because I see that throughout our lives God gives us the ability to make choices about our lives and presumably, as the Bible says, about our destiny after this earth. I’m not going in to the alternative to heaven; that also is another story and here is not the place to tell it. Part of this confidence, that not everyone goes there, is linked to the means that the Bible seems to spell out quite clearly, which is that Jesus Christ is the doorway to heaven. Whether anyone or any other way exists, seems highly doubtful although the apostle, Paul, does seem to make some suggestions in the early pages of his letter to the Romans.

Third, I have this expectation of seeing my father again because he did, I am certain, make a profession of faith that will have carried him to heaven, even though his time after on earth was very short. I would also add that I am also certain that I will see my mother there as well, because she also made a profession of faith and lived by it a number of years before her time came to depart this planet – but this is more about thoughts of my father, so I’ll stick with him if I may. Having pondered this as I drove along, I realise that I have made a great jump of faith in saying, “I anticipate seeing him” because the Bible doesn’t actually say that, but it says a number of things that imply that possibility.

That takes us on to ponder about just how much we ‘know’ and how much we have to ‘assume’ or even guess at. There are those who like to be utterly dogmatic about every aspect of their faith, but I would suggest that their dogmatism is actually a sign of their insecurity. I believe I am more sure of my faith now, after forty years of being a Christian, and yet I am also more sure that there are many things over which we cannot be utterly dogmatic, and if we are, we just show ourselves to be silly to thinking people. I like the way Francis Schaeffer used to put it – the Bible doesn’t tell us everything but it tells us sufficient upon which to build faith. The bits I am not certain about I’m happy with, because of the assurances that I have with the bits that one can be sure about, and heaven is a bit like this.

TO BE CONTINUED

(This is going to be a long blog, so I’ll stop there for the moment and continue with some more in a day or so. This is enough to ponder on for the time being. I’ll explain more shortly)

I used to write a weekly comment on the affairs of the week but gave up because it became too depressing! I am aware that for the last week or so I’ve been feeling the same again, as I have been watching the world. Truth it seems has gone on holiday.

For the last three weeks the world has been watching the antics of an aging dictator in Zimbabwe who has been throwing democracy to the wind and doing everything he can to discredit the elections (that obviously threw him out) and stay in control by violence. Truth means little to this little dictator.

Over roughly the same period the so-called Olympic torch has been providing the media with something to do as demonstrators around the world challenged the host nation, China, over its human rights violations in Tibet and elsewhere. Sadly few people have been saying much about the human rights violations in China itself, but then America has the shame of Guantanamo Bay and Britain has some highly questionable detention laws that the judiciary are pulling down, so perhaps we shouldn’t expect too much. But truth is far from the scene.

In America two Democrat contenders continue to slug it out and once again truth appears far away at times. Meanwhile back in Britain the contest for the new London mayor brings accusations of things sometimes not being exactly straight and above board in the Livingstone administration. The media has suggested several times over recent months that truth is far off here as well.

In the British House of Commons, truth has been under dispute in the row over MP’s expenses, and in the European Parliament, accusations of corruption continue to flow. As local government elections loom in Britain out comes a report from the Rowntree Trust saying the electoral system is close to collapse and the local and mayoral elections are vulnerable to large-scale fraud. Stories of such electoral fraud in the recent past seem to abound. At some point Britain has been compared to a ‘banana republic’ so bad has it been. Where have truth, honesty and integrity gone?

This catalogue of woes could go on and on in modern society and it is for this reason that I have been feeling very negative about writing anything at all on this blog in the last two weeks. I happened to read in Amos a couple of days ago, “the prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil.” (Amos 5:13). This referred to a period in Israel’s life when it was so bad that good men shut up. I know what they felt!

I happened to run across this quote recently: “C.S.Lewis revealed the absurdity of expecting virtue from people who are taught that no virtue exists: “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” The Bible has a frightening simplicity: “A man reaps what he sows.” For decades now we have been sowing, “There is no God” and now we wonder why men and women struggle to find some absolute to replace Him on which to build their morals. As we are finding to our cost, all we are left with is relativism and that is like shifting sands. The lack of truth and absurdity is reaching levels I would never have dreamed possible twenty years ago.

I came across a good example of this in the Sunday Times a week back. There was a short article about a survey by the Rowntree Trust (yes, them again) with a heading, “Religion is ‘the new social evil’” and which went on to say, “A poll by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation uncovered a widespread belief that faith – not just in its extreme form – was intolerant, irrational and used to justify persecution.” I found that intriguing and so went to the Rowntree website and looked at their report.

You need to hear the context! The survey was, in fact, purely some 3000 plus people who had responded and who had expressed what they considered were a number of modern social evils. There were six main ones listed – 1. Individualism, consumerism and a decline of community, 2. Drugs and alcohol, 3. A decline of values, 4. Families and young people, 5. Inequality and poverty, 6. Institutions, apathy and a democratic deficit. There were also six other ‘concerns’, the third of which was ‘religion’. Religion, in other words, was ninth on the list of concerns!

When I turned to the religious section, which was somewhat brief, this ‘report’ started that section as follows: “There was disagreement among participants around the issue of religion. Some identified the decline of religion in society as a social evil. For some people what they see as the godlessness of contemporary society is inherently bad. Other participants saw the decline of religion as instrumentally bad, blaming it for the decline of values discussed earlier in this paper.” That seemed fairly positive to me!

Later on came, “A more dominant opinion, however, stood in stark contrast to this: some people identified religion itself as a social evil.” but the only evidence for this came in the form of one person said this and another person said something else. In a closing section supposed to be about negative view of religion, the last quoted comment from a respondent started out, “Religion itself is not a social evil. Quite the opposite.” Very confusing!

The confusion or lack of credibility of this report was seen in the early part of the Summary form of the Report which identified the following list as key concerns for the public: • A decline of community: • Individualism: • Consumerism and greed: • A decline of values: • The decline of the family: • Young people as victims or perpetrators: • Drugs and alcohol: • Poverty and inequality: • Immigration and responses to immigration: • Crime and violence. Now I know some of those are a repeat of the earlier list but after this list came the following comment: “Government, media, big business and religion were believed to be responsible for these social evils.”

Just a minute! How is religion supposed to be a ‘social evil’ that is responsible for crime and violence – or any others in this list for that matter! Somebody there had a hidden agenda and wasn’t being too careful with the truth, and as for the Sunday Times columnist…..! I would suggest that each of the listed ‘social evils’ could be measured in their growth in direct proportion to the rejection of Christianity in this nation. Somebody, please, have a go at measuring it!

George Orwell’s, 1984 warned about the distortion of truth. We are living with it. I feel particularly incensed about this because most of the charities and other organizations that helped (and still do help) society a hundred years ago were fuelled by Christians. And this report dares lump such people in with terrorists! Gross negligence! Or something worse! There are seriously good reasons to believe in the historic foundations of the Christian faith, and seriously good reasons for rejecting the many philosophical ‘isms’ that are being put in its place, but are people willing to think these things through? Mostly, no! It’s easier to roll out unthinking mantras or join cowardly Pontius Pilate and ask, “What is truth?” That’s why I have been feeling depressed about this world recently. Sorry about that.

We have just been through Easter, a strange experience. I live in the UK so our experiences are no doubt different from other parts of the world.  An on-line dictionary describes Easter as “a Christian feast commemorating the resurrection of Jesus.” It adds that it is observed on the first Sunday following the full moon that occurs on or following the vernal equinox – March 21st. These facts are important to observe when we look at just what has happened this year to ‘Easter’.

First of all, Easter was very early this year because full moon was actually on the 21st March, Good Friday, and the powers that be decided that that was from when Easter (Sunday) should be calculated. The interesting thing is the Easter – the events of the New Testament – was at the time of Passover and my diary tells me that Passover this year is the 20th April (it also happens to be the next full moon). Did the powers that be decide that that was too late for society? Whatever the answer, Easter was early and early means in the UK the weather is still not good so, yes, we had a smattering of snow yesterday and it has been cold. Also, because Easter is so early, for the first time, it did not coincide with the school “Easter holidays”, the two week break that most schools have at this time of the year. They will be starting in a week’s time. Add to this the signs that we seem to be moving towards a recession and the word is that fewer people have escaped abroad for an Easter break, something that increasing numbers of Britons have been doing in recent years. Bad weather and many people staying in the country produced forecasts of terrible conditions on the roads. Put all these things together and you may possibly have an explanation why it seemed that by Good Friday supermarket shelves were often empty.

It seems that every time we have a holiday weekend – slightly longer than normal weekends – the population moves into ’siege mentality’ and buys and stocks up on food as if there was going to be no tomorrow. It seems that people have been “celebrating Easter” but the signs are that it hasn’t been the Easter of my definition above. No doubt there were a few bodies more in churches, especially the Roman Catholic church who are strong on ritual at this time, but mostly that is not so and around the world life just carries on. Looking for signs of Easter in shops would confuse a visiting alien from another planet. Easter eggs and Easter Bunnies abound but try and buy an Easter greeting card with anything connected with our definition, and you would have a hard job. In fact despite the fact that shops were full of Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies a few weeks before the event, when it came to the weekend, many shops were sold out. One website that I recently visited declared, “Today, Easter bunny occupies the most dominant position amonst all symbols of Easter“. Funny, I thought it was the Cross, but look in the shops and this outrageous quote is spot on!

When the day arrived the weather was terrible, the streets often empty, and most people – presumably – stayed indoors consuming the vast amounts of food they have cleared off the supermarket shelves! It was by and large a non-Christian Easter. In other words it wasn’t Easter but a replacement feast. So why do non-Christians ‘celebrate’ and feast at this time? Is it a case of grabbing at any opportunity to brighten up otherwise dull lives. We are a very weather conscious people and the weather has been pretty grim recently! But why do parents feel pressurised to go buying lots of expensive chocolate Easter eggs for their children at five times the cost of usual chocolate bars?

It seems that as we become more and more irreligious, we become more and more prey to the pressures of retailers and the whims of business playing on the guilt ridden minds of fractured families. It all goes together. It is also all so depressing. Yesterday, instead of rejoicing over the wonder of Christs resurrection (there was a little of that), I found myself wanting to weep for this nation that has cast aside its Christian heritage and is now adrift in the seas of uncertainty and insecurity.

In my own Bible studies or meditations, which you can find on my corresponding Bible Meditations Shop blog, I am as convinced as every of the historical event we refer to as Easter and the wonder of the person called Jesus Christ, revealed by the resurrection as the unique Son of God, come to reveal God to us and provide a means for our salvation. The real Easter is still as wonderful as ever, which perhaps helps show up even more the terrible, shallow replacement that many are left with. Pilate presenting Jesus to the crown on Good Friday declared, “Behold the man!” We declare, “Behold the egg!” Pilate cynically asked, “What is truth?” with no desire for an answer, and similarly today many copy his apathy.

For a world sunk in weak religion and oppression by foreigners, the truth of Easter Sunday emerged slowly like the sun rising over the horizon, but once it was fully realised, it brought the same transformation to life as the fully risen sun does to the earth. Jesus Christ risen declared that he was indeed the Son of God, a God of incredible love who had walked the earth for three years bringing transformation to life after life. Now it was down to his followers, empowered by his Spirit, who would continue the same work. It also declared that with God nothing is impossible. Where there seems no future, suddenly there is the possibility of a wonderful future. How wonderful! But no Easter means no hope. No Easter means hollow chocolate eggs that are soon gone! How terrible!
  

I am constantly surprised whenever I come across those optimistic atheists who get upset by the Bible’s concept of Sin. Oh no, they say, we the human race are evolving and getting better and better all the time. We have no need of God, we have no need of a Saviour like your Jesus, we’re all right. I really wonder sometimes which world these people are living in.
    
As we watched a recent episode of ‘ER’ recently my wife commented, “They can’t help but focus on the fact that sin has bad consequences, can they!” That programme like so many ’soaps’ shows again and again that “a man reaps what he sows” and his ’sowing’ is frequently stupid. The writer of the Proverbs in the Bible wrote “a man who commits adultery lacks judgment, whoever does so destroys himself,” yet adultery (portrayed so often in these soaps) is so common in modern Western societies and the fruits are so easy to see – yet no one says, “This behavious is stupid!” 
   
 The British government recently indicated that it might be thinking about getting British children to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen and the British people. Any same person would know that such a thing was likely to create a hostile reaction – and it did. Again and again we find a government coming up with suggestions that any sane person knows is not going to happen. Stupidity is an outworkign of sin.

This self-centred, godlessness is so clearly seen reaping disasterous fruit in our society today and yet still vain optimism reigns. The truth of the Gospel is that good news has to be proceeded by bad news. We need to recognise our own foolishness before we can see our need and the wonder of God’s provision to meet that need. Read the papers, watch your TV. They are full of it. It’s time to live in reality.