benedson

Give sin the slip with the iphone lent app!

Lent is almost with us again (if you've not got a book to read you can pick up the one that I've contributed to here) and I see that the Bishops of Liverpool and London have encourage people to give up their iphone for lent...

It's actually part of a bigger campaign that encourages people to cut down on their environmental footprint over lent.  My thinking is that certain technologies reduce my carbon footprint, i.e. I don't have to send letters anymore which use paper, transport etc.  Anyway if you can't last 40 days without your beloved iphone then you can always get this app.  The developers say:

'The app offers several choices on ideas for what to give for Lent, like bad language, complaining, caffeine, fast food, lying and even Facebook. You also have the choice to enter in something to give up that may not be on the list, like your tendency to drunk dial old boyfriends. Feeling extra pumped about giving up something for Lent? Then you’ll be happy to know that 40 Days allows you to choose or add several items to your Give Up list for Lent. If you happen to back slide and break your commitment, 40 Days makes sure you atone for your mishap by allowing you to assign dollar amounts to each pledge.'

How very bizarre, It sounds a bit like a return to indulgences to me!

The City as a Brand: Madchester

If you're in Manchester you may have noticed the launch of FAC251,  a new club that Peter Hook has started up in the Paradise Factory. There have been a few comments saying that this is a nostalgic, backwards move which is preventing the city from moving on from the halcyon days of Madchester.  

On one level I agree, but on another level I'm not a Mancinuan, I wasn't in Manchester in the early 90's but the legacy of Madchester drew me to the city. The music and culture of Madchester heavy influenced me as an 18 year old, and when a job opportunity came up in the city I was drawn to it.  The legacy of Madchester is that is still serves to draw people to the city and this I think is why the city doesn't ever shut up about it!

It'd be like Nottingham shutting up about Robin Hood, or Liverpool shutting up about the Beatles.  Madchester has helped to shape the contemporary cultural identity of the city.  Does it hold us back though?  No, I think that it pushes us forward - it reminds us of what we once were, it shows us what we can still be, it means that people like me are drawn to the city, and start to talk about the city as my home.  Maybe when Hooky starts his latest venture it's painful for us, it's a reminder that only 20 years ago Manchester was the centre of a musical and cultural revolution - which we're not in the same way now.

Don't get me wrong I love Manchester, but it's not the centre of a movement in the way it was 20 years ago.  It still pioneers, it still leads in innovation but it does not have razzamatazz of Madchester...

Banning Roadside Shrines

A few days ago the local news reported that Bolton City Council are putting a 30 day time limit on road side shrines.  They want to stop permanent memorials, as they say that they are a distraction for other road users - which they probably are.  People are kicking off about it and protesting, the council are going to create a place where families can take their memorials instead.  This isn't going down very well - people want their memorial in the place of death.

The shrines reaffirm the importance of place to me, in a society where we're increasingly finding identity in network rather than place, place still has an important value.  I also think that there is something quite human about being rooted in a place, being born, living and dying in a physical place connected to the planet.  I'm doing a funeral tomorrow morning, the person will be buried 5 miles away from where they died.  There is a real and physical detachment from the place where they lived and the family.  As place/land becomes more and more scarce i fear that the detachment may increase.

Roadside shrines also fascinate me as they blur the boundary between public and private space.  On one level they are a deeply personal expression of grief yet they are located on a public highway where all can see the grief expressed.  They are in many ways 'not very British' as they bring raw emotions into the public realm. 

I'm also intrigued at the respect that people give to the memorials.  There is one at the end of my road on a junction where three people were killed a few years ago but a hit-and-run driver and on each anniversary there is an explosion of candles, flowers and banners on the shrine.  However, throughout the entire year the shrine is respected, people stop at it and pause, there is an area around the shrine that they do not walk onto.  It has become sacred ground.

I keep hearing rumour that someone is doing a PhD in them...can anyone point me in the right direction?

Teapot worshipper Jailed

See here.

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, strange

Dirt Barriers

My sister moved to New Zealand about 10 years ago and a number of my friends are often talking about moving to Aus, or NZ. I've always been quite critical of the points policy that these countries have, so that certain people can get in and others cannot. Yet today, in the UK we introduced our own points system.

My problem with this is that we will simply be creaming the best off other countries, and therefore perpetuating the problem of a unbalanced global environment. Those with education and wealth can move here; those who have struggled in formal education and are poorer will not be allowed in. The poorer will then be living in countries where there is a lack of skilled workers because they are all here.

Surely there needs to be a balance, where for every person who passes the points system we also except a person who would dramatically fail it. It's about valuing humanity as humanity, about recognising the potential in all people rather than seeing humanity as a commodity in our market place.

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, dirt

Dirt and footy fans

I got the train back from London today and, although I had a stand class ticket, I was ushered into first class - result! The train started off and then we got the message over the tanoy that at Watford Junction a group of football fans were getting on the train and that for our benefit they thought that it'd be wise to segregate us from the football fans. The 'dirt' was being separated from the 'clean' and i was with the clean people.

I started to think about the dirt; this is explored in great depth in 'Dirt, Greed and Sex' and then of course by Kester, and an experience came to mind when i was visiting Forest Bank Prison in Salford. Whilst there I noticed that all the prison staff, both guards and chaplains, had a small plastic bottle with a pump action disposer on their belt. Every so often they would press the top of the pump down and a liquid would be dispatched onto their hands, they’d then rub their hands together. When I asked what the liquid was they replied it was an antibacterial hand wash that the staff used after they had contact with the prisoners.

I was quite surprised and whilst, I recognise that occasionally from a hygiene point of view it may at times be necessary, I felt that it had become an institutional way of dehumanizing the prisons. It defined all the prisoners as dirt. The staff were clean and therefore needed to cleanse themselves after touching the dirt. The prisoner is perceived and treated as dirt, the staff are clean and to keep our cleanliness we need to establish distance between ourselves and the person who is dirty. This happens on a societal level through our prisons and the disinfecting of hands enhances and focuses this sense of those who are clean and those who are dirty. The prison guards and chaplains are clean, the prisoner is dirty.

There is something deeply disturbing about this status quo...

There is also something deeply disturbing about Status Quo but that's another post!

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, dirt

Virginity the last taboo | flirty fishing

On Sunday I got a copy of The Observer. There was an article in called 'Is Virginity the last taboo?' Fascinating piece about Christianity, virginity and 'beautiful people'. The article contained a number of images of attractive Christian women who had chosen not to sleep with their partner, or potential partner until marriage. I read the article, recognised a few names and then a church was mentioned - St. Mary's, in London.

St Mary's is a very media-savvy church and I started to think about how the article came about, did a reporter see all these beautiful people and want to write a piece about them? Did a freelancer submit the article? Did the church think that this would be a good way to promote itself? I wonder...

One of my favourite Louis Theroux episodes involved a time when he went Flirty Fishing with a Christian cult in the US. Flirty fishing involves taking your most beautiful women onto the streets and using them as 'bait' for the gospel. Is the article a a media-savvy version of flirty fishing? I wonder...anyway watch the clip below, it's rather amusing!

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, flirty fishing, virginity

interfaith minister

I spotted this sign at Findhorn and had to take a photo of it - for me it's a stage too far...yes even me!

You,
Your life
Your community
Your beliefs...

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The emancipated woman?

I've just finished reading 'Welcome to Everytown' by Julian Baggini. It's a fascinating book, the author goes to live for six months in S66 - the postcode that is the most English in it's demographic. Through that experience he writes about the English mind - what makes us tick, who are we, what are our values...very interesting from a missiological perspective. I'll probably blog more about it later...unless facebook takes over my entire life.

One chapter is called 'Ladies and Gentlemen' and it explores gender roles within the UK and since watching the first episode of Big Brother i have to agree with some of his conclusions. BB presented some truly awful female role models...but they know that they'll get the viewing figures as this is what people want to see. (i did turn BB off after about 15 mins).

Baggini thinks that the women's liberation movement has stalled over the past 10-15 years and is now possibly going backwards. Zoo and FHM portray an image of the woman that is defined by sex, the dieting industry profits on negative self image - only 2% of women are happy with their body - Asda's advert where the mum pockets the change 'every little counts' suggests that the woman is still receiving her weekly allowance from her husband. If a woman is empowered and emancipated certain aspects of the press present them as Lesbians. It's all horrifying and I could go on...

I thank God for the women who are strong enough not to fall into this media driven image, but also wonder who is leading the drive for female equality now.

Technorati Tags: Gender, Gender, Big Brother, puppy

Dialectical Logic

I've just come across this concept that i find profoundly helpful when helping to deal with my unanswered faith questions, and also when pastorally working with those people with existential questions. I think that is also helpful for those who have left church because church has not been a place where they have been able to articulate their questions without fear of being burnt as a heretic.

It seems that certain sectors within the Church place to much value on formal logic, i.e. analysing a range of factors in order to get a right answer - apologetics. Whereas dialectical logic - a concept of Klaus Riegal - ends up with a question rather than an answer. It demands the ability to be able to tolerate contradictions and by pondering the contradictions to discover more profound questions.
Life is therefore seen and experienced as too complicated and rich to be held within our thinking and in this way energises the thinking process.

Fascinating stuff, that also ties in with Fowlers stage 5 in the faith process...

Technorati Tags: churchless faith, Dialectic Logic