Blog Posts You Should Read

For a while now I've been reading Bishop Alan's Blog. He is the Area Bishop of Buckinghamshire in England. I especially liked his post titled Reading the Bible 101. According to Bishop Alan, those who interpret the Bible in a literalist manner are latecomers in the history of Christianity.

The idea that the “factual/ original” meaning of a text is its only real one dates back to Benjamin Jowett in 1859, the year the Origin of Soecies was published. People who lived before then were not fools. Wooden fundamentalism about the Bible was not the only option before Darwin.

Read the comments to the post, because the discussion there is enlightening, too, especially Bishop Alan's long reply to one of the comments.

For the two or three of you who visit here and do not read Of Course I Could Be Wrong, I urge you to read MadPriest's sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Lent. The Lenten theme at his parish church this year is "The Marginalized".

MadPriest speaks of his own madness in connection with Jesus' words from the Gospel in which he says:

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

Read the sermon. Read MadPriest's story. You won't be sorry. He says:

So, that is my burden. But I had other crosses to bare before it and it is almost certain I will have others in the future. And all of you will be carrying crosses, as well. Illness, abuse, sorrow, family duties, fear. The list seems endless. And I suppose we now have to ask the million dollar question. Does God impose these, sometimes unbearable, burdens upon us?

My answer to that question is a definite “no.” For God to do so he would have to contradict everything that Jesus told us about God and his relationship with us and his feelings, towards us. Our burdens are just part of life.

And last, but most certainly, not least, read Themethatisme's moving memories of the closing of the coal mines by Margaret Thatcher. This week is the 25th anniversary of those events. I remember the shock I felt over here, across the sea, when the announcement was made.

It may be just my perspective from the inside but when people asked me what is wrong with society today I am always tempted to talk about the strike. This was the first time on a national scale that the public saw a community destroyed. The uncertainty and lack of future that was intimated in such a destruction told forth that Mrs.Thatchers claim that there was no such thing as community, was a reality. Self-seeking individuality was the name of the game and anyone who acted collectively would be effectively frozen out or beaten into submission.

And isn't that the truth?

Go on now. Move along.