believe me good will come

Starting points (things you can do, organisations you can support, etc…):

Buy books from GoodBooksNZ.
“Every time you buy a book from Goodbooks - any book - we contribute all
profits to Oxfam to help fight its global battle against poverty and
social injustice. There is no extra cost to you. We do not mark up our
books to cover this contribution; our prices remain among the lowest you
will find; delivery worldwide is completely free, and with over two million
titles in stock our range is one of the largest you will find.” [how great is that?]

Buy your friends and family gifts from Oxfam or World Vision.

Put an item in the Food Bank bin at the supermarket each week.

Buy clothes from Op Shops, or try to find stockists of Fair Trade clothing.

Find out where you can buy Fair Trade products (in New Zealand).

Shop at Trade Aid.

Check out some NGOs such as Oxfam, World Vision, Tear Fund and Amnesty International. Read about their work and support them with your time and money (you can give as little as $5 or $10 a month – even a poor university student can manage that…).   

Give blood.

Volunteer with the New Zealand Blood Service.

Volunteering New Zealand

Volunteer Wellington

ESOL Home Tutor Services – one hour a week to help a refugee or new migrant improve their English

Refugee Migrant Service – help refugees adapt to life in NZ

Volunteer Work in Prisons

Prison Fellowship of New Zealand – volunteer, donate, give toys to prisoner’s children at Christmas

Consider working in a developing country for VSA.

Volunteer with IHC.

Volunteer with the Salvation Army.

Don’t take plastic bags from Supermarkets, shop with a reusable bag.

Reduce Your Rubbish – tips for shopping, home and at work.

Buy free-range eggs.

Seek out and support local farmers’ markets.
Wellington market

Eat less meat – eat meat-free meals (at least) one day a week.

Drive less – walk, bike, carpool or take public transport to work (at least) once a week - here, here & here.  

Replace your regular incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Fluorescent bulbs use 60% less energy than regular bulbs.

Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket.

Turn off electronic devices you’re not using them – appliances like TVs left on standby still use power.

I’m breathing the dirt, but I have clean hands

Saw Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) last night. Best movie I’ve seen this year (surprisingly, Transformers would probably be second) and it has what is possibly my favourite closing scene from any movie.

Against all odds, though, the best is yet to come: an ending of overwhelming simplicity and force, in which the hopes of the film—as opposed to its fears, which have shivered throughout—come gently to rest. What happens is that a character says, “Es ist für mich“—”It’s for me.” When you see the film, as you must, you will understand why the phrase is like a blessing. – Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

Bits of the movie reminded me of this passage:

The reason for his imprisonment was quite grotesque. At the beginning of the war he had been denounced for ‘anti-Soviet propaganda’ by his neighbours who wanted – and were subsequently given – his flat. When the investigation showed that he had not been guilty of any such thing, it was then alleged that since he listened to German broadcasts he would have been capable of carrying on ‘anti-Soviet propaganda’. He didn’t, it was true, actually listen to German broadcasts, but since he was in possession of a radio set despite the ban, he could have done so. Finally, although he didn’t in fact have a radio set, it was alleged that he could have had one, since he was a radio engineer by training, and hadn’t a box containing two valves been found during the search of his flat?
– Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle, Chapter Seventy-Five

‘Kill the Buddha’

Shut the Bible up. But then open it again. Do not use it the way you did before. Do not use it as a bludgeon. Do not say I must believe it because it is the Word of God. It is not the word of God (the Quakers said this long ago) any more than a chair or table, or Shakespeare or Hamlet, is the word of God (The Quakers did not say that: I did.) The word of God is in the Bible, said George Fox; but the word of God is in you and me as well. The word in the Bible and the word in me must spark and kindle like a flash of lightning.

The Bible is a precious book. But you can make an idol if it. You can make an idol out of anything, however good. You can make an idol out of God, or Jesus. You can make an idol out of Shakespeare or Karl Marx. And, as Zen Buddhists are well aware, you can make an idol of the Buddha. ‘Walk in the Way. If the image of the Buddha rises up to block it, kill the Buddha’.

Ikons, idols, images are necessary; but you have to use them in the proper way. They are fingers pointing (Zen again). The Bible is a forestful of fingers pointing. Worship what they point to, not the fingers.

What is the proper way to use the Bible? I regard it as a big koan, not as a record of historical events. Even though it is a book of historical events, even though the events recorded may be true. How can we know if they are true or not? All we can ever say is that they are probable. What we are saved by, healed by, is the timeless truth of parable. Truth that is historical may contain a parable. I do not doubt myself that there was an actual Jesus; that the things he is reported to have said and did are based on fact. Whether they were rightly reported or interpreted I do not know.
– Sydney Carter, The Rock of Doubt

For the past two-and-a-half years, I’ve joined Pete on his chapter-a-day mission through the Bible. I wonder how many Christians actually systematically read and analyse what is in the Bible. It seems most Christians have a pick-and-mix approach to the Bible. We read the New Testament and the nice/easy Old Testament books (Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah) but neglect the others. People use individual verses or passages as a kind of talisman - words to be memorised and then recited in any context:

• Verses 1-18 of Psalm 139 feature in countless sermons, songs, books, posters, fridge magnets, etc. But verses 19-20 are ignored. 
• Ezekiel 36:26 is another favourite (“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”). Read on a bit and God states he will do this so that the people of Israel will remember their “evil ways and wicked deeds” and thus loathe themselves…
• Someone once felt that God had given them Habakuk 1:5 to share with me (“Look at the nations and watch — and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told”). What is the amazing thing God will do? He will use the Babylonians to attack Israel and execute his judgement upon it (Hab 1:6-11).

But even Jesus bent Scripture to fit his argument (Mt 21:13). I think a bigger problem is reading the whole Bible literally, and regarding it as inerrant. A literal reading of the Bible endorses slavery:

Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. Lev 25:44-45

If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property. Ex 21:20-21

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men Col 3:22-23

All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. 1 Tim 6:1-2

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Eph 6:5

I don’t think slavery is a good idea, so I regard those sections of the Bible as culturally-determined/obsolete/incorrect/whatever-you-want-to-call-it…  I do the same with some of Paul’s writings on women (1 Tim 2:11-15, 1 Cor 14:33-34, 1 Cor 11:3-8). I have a similar response when people merely quote isolated verses to me in order to condemn homosexuality (Lev 20:13, Rom 1:26-27, 1 Cor 6:9-10). Bible literalists don’t allow women to hold positions of authority and they oppose practicing homosexuals playing any part in the church. In past centuries, literalists sided with the opposition to the abolition of the slave trade.

A literal reading of the Bible sees some Christians believing that the earth is less than 10,000 years old; that Genesis 1-2 can be read as a scientific text; and that Genesis 6-8 describes a historical, global flood. A literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation holds that it describes actual historical events that will take place (throughout history most who believe this also believe that the events will occur/are occurring in their lifetime).

I don’t believe that the Bible is completely inerrant or a perfect revelation from God. Some sections are just plain silly unless you contextualise them. Biblical criticism is essential. The end. [please proceed to pick apart the holes in my argument(s)]

[T]he impossibility of arriving at a definitive interpretation of scripture is precisely what makes it scripture. The best we can do is to come to sacred writings from within our own human limitations, our own vernacular and conceptual biases. When we quote them we give them a meaning that is our own – not God’s. To know what God means is to know God. And in the words of a fifteenth-century rabbi, Joseph Albo, “If I knew Him I would be Him.” Albo was attacking the presumption that anyone has the final word on the meaning of scripture.
– James P. Carse, The Silence of God: Meditations on Prayer

further links:

Slavery:
Does God condone slavery in the Bible?
Slavery in the Bible
Why does the Bible seem to tolerate the institution of slavery?
Some Observations on Biblical Interpretation and Slavery

Homosexuality:
The Bible and Homosexuality (Liberal view)
Does the Bible approve Homosexuality? (Conservative view) [not a great site. If you can find a better one, let me know]

Creation Science:
Institute for Creation Research
Answers in Genesis
Problems with a Global Flood?

Science Science:
Talk Origins: Exploring the Creation/Evolution Controversy
Answers to Creationist Nonsense
Problems with a Global Flood

Genesis/Evolution/Creationism:
Wikipedia - Framework Interpretation (Genesis)
Genesis 1 - WCG
Wikipedia - Theistic Evolution
Wikipedia - Progressive Creationism
Wikipedia - Young Earth Creationism

Crazy End Times sites:
Endtime Ministries
End Times Report
Prophecy Update
Contender Ministries

Paris Hilton released from jail!

Apple iPhone release 29 June 2007!

New Harry Potter release July 2007!

I was reading this post on Sam Harvey’s blog where he linked to a post on another blog which had this comment:

In fact study after study shows that there is no discernible difference between the life of those who follow Jesus and those who do not. That is a scandal. We live at a time when there is a failure of courage in the lives of Jesus-followers. They prefer to blend rather than stand apart. We have lost sight of what being counter-cultural looks like.

From my perspective this is the bigger, more challenging issue raised in your post. However, the ways of ’standing apart’ or ‘being counter-cultural’ that come to mind for me are more about our broader consumption and life choices.

You talk about alcohol facilitating the “worst evils in our society” whereas I would argue that greed and selfishness take pride of place there; a sphere which often fails to register with portions of the church. The lifestyles that we have are, to a significant degree, built on the poverty of the 2/3 world. I would say our broader consumption choices are a more important area, in terms of being counter-cultural. Do I care about where my clothes, coffee, cosmetics come from? In what ways are my consumption choices affecting the environment I live in? What about my country’s foreign policy decisions? Should I care?

Another facet that strikes me is major life direction decisions. Most of the church seems to be on autopilot to follow our societal norms of:

Go to school, maybe uni or the like –> Get a “good” job –> Buy a house –> Get married & have a family — and be involved in church alongside these things.

I don’t think that these bad aspirations, but I do think that we should challenge them. Maybe we would think about putting less money into our homes, less time into paid work and more into family, friends, or voluntary projects. Maybe some people would put more time into their paid work?! Maybe there would be more people single by choice? I don’t know. The point is, to engage with God in the process of finding out rather than just assuming that “this” (the above) is the way the world works and just blindly follow along.

To me, this is counter-cultural thinking and I have been trying to process these thoughts somewhat in my own life and church community. It is easy for the church to get ‘all het up’ about things like drinking or smoking but steer clear of these other, more complicated issues. Not that alcohol or smoking etc shouldn’t be discussed, but as examples of counter-cultural living I think they pale in significance.

Cheers,
Jacob.

It’s always interesting to find other people who seem to see things similarly to how I do. I can’t shake the feeling that the vast majority of modern Christianity is completely missing the point. But so are the vast majority of people in general (myself included). It’s easier to tread the path of societal norms: born–school–university–job–spouse–house–family–retire–die…

I know that my Lord is different from the God that is preached in the churches. – Shusaku Endo, Silence

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. – Mahatma Gandhi

I often ask myself why a Christian instinct frequently draws me more to the religionless than to the religious, by which I mean not with the intention of evangelising them, but rather, I might almost say, in “brotherhood.” While I often shrink with religious people from speaking of God by name – because that Name somehow seems to me here not to ring true, and I strike myself as rather dishonest (it is especially bad when others start talking in religious jargon: then I dry up almost completely and feel somehow oppressed and ill at ease) – with people who have no religion I am able on occasion to speak of God quite openly and as it were naturally. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 30 April 1944.

If you tell me Christian commitment is a kind of thing that has happened to you once and for all like some kind of spiritual plastic surgery, I say go to, go to, you’re either pulling the wool over your own eyes or trying to pull it over mine. Every morning you should wake up in your beds and ask yourself: ‘Can I believe it all again today?’ No, better still, don’t ask it till after you’ve read The New York Times, till after you’ve studied that daily record of the world’s brokenness and corruption, which should always stand side by side with your Bible. Then ask yourself if you can believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ again for that particular day. If your answer’s always Yes, then you probably don’t know what believing means. At least five times out of ten the answer should be No because the No is as important as the Yes, maybe more so. The No is what proves you’re human in case you should ever doubt it. And then if some morning the answer happens to be really Yes, it should be a Yes that’s choked with confession and tears and…great laughter.
–Frederick Buechner, The Return of Ansel Gibbs

• Jesus Sports Statues from Catholic Shopper - page 1, page 2, page 3

• Allah action figure from the Jesus Christ Superstore:

• The Official God FAQ

 And here’s something you can try with a KJV Bible:

Some people believe that Shakespeare helped in the writing of the King James Bible.
The KJV was published in 1611, when Shakespeare was 46.
Counting in from the beginning of Psalm 46, the 46th word is ’shake’.
Counting in from the end of Psalm 46 (disregarding ‘Selah’, which isn’t technically part of the Psalm), the 46th word is ’spear’.

Now play further with the number 46.
4 + 6 = 10.
Go to verse 10. Count in 6 words. You get ‘I’, followed by ‘am’. Count in 4 more words from ‘I’, and you get ‘will’.
6 & 4 = I am will
Rearrange that
4 & 6 (or 46) = will I am = William

Fairfax Media: [New Zealand] Prime Minister Helen Clark has ignored diplomatic pressure from China over meeting the Dalai Lama but does not believe it will have any repercussions.

Miss Clark met with the exiled Tibetan leader in a lounge at Brisbane Airport this morning before a flight to Sydney, which they both were on.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters earlier said the meeting was purely by chance, but Miss Clark told reporters in Sydney that she had known for “some days” the two would be travelling together - though no pre-arranged meeting had been set up.

“One doesn’t know whether people are going to be in the lounge, what time other people boarded…”

This way Helen Clark can frame the meeting as pure coincidence [which will please the paranoid Chinese government, whom New Zealand is bending over backwards for in an effort to secure a free trade agreement] or as a deliberate decision [which will please those who think the Chinese government shouldn’t tell everyone else what to do].

The most interesting sentence from the article:

Miss Clark was travelling business class while the Dalai Lama was in economy.

If you have enough time to come and check out my blog then you have time to do the following: 

Control Arms - Add your name (and face) to an online petition demanding a global Arms Trade Treaty.

Control Arms - With one click you can send a message to the Foreign Ministers in South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, the Philippines, Turkey and Jordan, urging them to support a strong Arms Trade Treaty.
 
Fair Trade Coffee - Send an email to Starbucks asking them to treat Ethiopian coffee farmers fairly.
 
Workers’ Rights - Send a protest message to 12 big sportswear brands, urging them to support workers’ rights.

Darfur - Online petition calling for UN Peacekeepers to be sent to Darfur [the situation in Sudan/Darfur is very complicated. There are good arguments for and against UN intervention. You might want to do some research before you decide whether or not to join this petition]. 

Big Noise - Add your name to the global Big Noise petition, calling for decision makers to Make Trade Fair. 
 
Fair Trade - [For New Zealand readers] Find out where you can buy Fair Trade products.

Poverty.com - Some information and action you can take.

[this post was updated 10 June 2007 in case anyone has followed up on my sister's talk tonight...]

If you can’t be friends with famous people, you can always hang out with people who look like famous people: