"Your desire will be for your man and he will rule over you" (Gen 3:16)
These words summarise the brokenness in sexuality and male-female relations that follows the arrival of sin in the world. They aren't something to be celebrated, or repackaged as arousing and fun, or sold at the cinema or the bookstall for profit, they are to be mourned.
Love is fully love when it lays down its life for the other person. That's why marriage is not a contract, signing up to do x in return for y, but a covenant, a solemn, mutual, unconditional lifelong promise. Call me old fashioned, but it's the only context where lovemaking makes sense. To give your body without giving your heart, mind, soul and strength is to fracture our sexuality from the rest of us.
Showing posts with label Around the World in 80 Faiths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Around the World in 80 Faiths. Show all posts
Monday, February 09, 2015
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Around the TV in 81 Faiths
Channel 4's 'Christianity, A History' and BBC2's 'Around the World in 80 Faiths' both wrapped up last week. I've caught more of the latter than the former, but both series left me frowning.
Christianity: A Good Kicking was an 'interesting' take on the history of the Christian faith, starting with a polemic against anti-Semitism, and ending with the 'science v faith' debate presented by Colin Blakemore, an Oxford neuroscientist who is convinced that science wins hands down. The final programme gave a semblance of even-handedness, but 2 of the 3 Christians interviewed were a young earth creationist and an atheist priest, so it was a bit like watching Manchester United play Lark Rise.
The life of Jesus was dismissed without any reference to the evidence or historical sources, and the debate between science and faith would have been much better serviced by an interview with a prominent Christian scientist like David Wilkinson or Sir John Houghton.
There were also various tweaks on the facts presented: the founding of the USA was presented as a triumph of science over religion, airbrushing out the fact that the Pilgrim Fathers, and most of the founders, were Christians and theists who just wanted to be free from a controlling church. The separation of church and state is based on a view of a different role for religion in civil life, not its complete absence. At the same time the shameful history of the church in persecuting those who didn't toe the dogmatic line is a historic fact, but opposition between science and faith was presented as pretty much the whole story of the last 500 years, and it isn't.
The programme concluded with the faith statement that science would ultimately explain everything, and religion would die out. I remember Marx saying something similar over 100 years ago.
Around the world in 80 faiths concluded in Europe, juxtaposing Christian persecution of Lapland pagans with Communist persecution of Latvian Catholics. It ended by contrasting the decline of Benedictine monasticism in the Italian Catholic heartland with the rise of a New Age community which treats all religions as equals. Peter Owen Jones thesis seemed to be that any inclusive religion/faith is a good thing, and an exclusive faith community is a bad thing.
The series' greatest strength was also its greatest weakness. Watching Jones throw himself into every religious ritual he came across probably gave us more insight into them than someone who stood on the outside and simply watched and analysed. But at the same time there seemed to be little discernment or critique beyond how it felt, or how inclusive it was. Jones spoke about 'the divine' a lot, but after 8 programmes we knew nothing more about 'the divine' than when we started. Whether there were 80 ways to God or just one, you wouldn't have been any the wiser.
Both programmes are, at time of writing, still available on Catchup/Iplayer respectively.
Christianity: A Good Kicking was an 'interesting' take on the history of the Christian faith, starting with a polemic against anti-Semitism, and ending with the 'science v faith' debate presented by Colin Blakemore, an Oxford neuroscientist who is convinced that science wins hands down. The final programme gave a semblance of even-handedness, but 2 of the 3 Christians interviewed were a young earth creationist and an atheist priest, so it was a bit like watching Manchester United play Lark Rise.
The life of Jesus was dismissed without any reference to the evidence or historical sources, and the debate between science and faith would have been much better serviced by an interview with a prominent Christian scientist like David Wilkinson or Sir John Houghton.
There were also various tweaks on the facts presented: the founding of the USA was presented as a triumph of science over religion, airbrushing out the fact that the Pilgrim Fathers, and most of the founders, were Christians and theists who just wanted to be free from a controlling church. The separation of church and state is based on a view of a different role for religion in civil life, not its complete absence. At the same time the shameful history of the church in persecuting those who didn't toe the dogmatic line is a historic fact, but opposition between science and faith was presented as pretty much the whole story of the last 500 years, and it isn't.
The programme concluded with the faith statement that science would ultimately explain everything, and religion would die out. I remember Marx saying something similar over 100 years ago.
Around the world in 80 faiths concluded in Europe, juxtaposing Christian persecution of Lapland pagans with Communist persecution of Latvian Catholics. It ended by contrasting the decline of Benedictine monasticism in the Italian Catholic heartland with the rise of a New Age community which treats all religions as equals. Peter Owen Jones thesis seemed to be that any inclusive religion/faith is a good thing, and an exclusive faith community is a bad thing.
The series' greatest strength was also its greatest weakness. Watching Jones throw himself into every religious ritual he came across probably gave us more insight into them than someone who stood on the outside and simply watched and analysed. But at the same time there seemed to be little discernment or critique beyond how it felt, or how inclusive it was. Jones spoke about 'the divine' a lot, but after 8 programmes we knew nothing more about 'the divine' than when we started. Whether there were 80 ways to God or just one, you wouldn't have been any the wiser.
Both programmes are, at time of writing, still available on Catchup/Iplayer respectively.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
TV - Christianity, A History; Around the World in 80 Faiths pt 3
Channel 4 doesn't do straight religious documentaries, so it's probably not fair to expect 'Christianity, A History' to be objective. It clearly isn't meant to be: Howard Jacobsen's polemic on the Jewishness of Jesus and how Christians have obscured it, and Michael Portillo's meditation on Constantine the politician, each presenter so far brings such a strong lens of their own to the subject. It's hard to know whether you're being presented with history, or a sermon.
In fact, though historically rooted, both programmes have been highly selective in the historical events they highlight, and the significance given to them. For instance, Jacobsen paints Paul as a lone voice for the Jesus movement embracing Gentiles, when several of the other apostles (Peter, Philip, John) are involved in evangelism of Gentiles too. Portillo claims that the final version of the New Testament was put together by Eusebius, Constantine's spin-doctor, which is a claim you're unlikely to find in any history book. Even more peculiar was one scholar arguing that there couldn't have been a Roman census at the time of Jesus birth because Judea wasn't in the Roman empire. Hello?
Notable by their absence in either programme was anyone who took issue with the presenters point of view. So what we got was a selective and partial presentation of the facts (or 'facts') as though they were the whole truth. Meanwhile, for events from the life of Jesus, the Jacobsen programme gave us some kitsch images from old black and white movies on the life of Jesus - deliberately chosen for how silly they looked? Surely not.
There was plenty to learn from watching both programmes, but there was also such a clear agenda from the presenters that it became a major job sorting out fact from interpretation, which spoils the programmes.
Other views: Ekklesia in conversation with Jeremy Dear, producer of the series
Ruth Gledhill has some sizeable quotes from the Jacobsen programme. The comments are well worth a read, with several people surprised that Jacobsen was presenting Jesus Jewishness as some kind of new revelation to Christians.
Kings Evangelical Divinity School blog The overall effect of the programme was to leave the general viewer with the impression that the blame for the treatment of the Jewish people over the past 2000 years should be laid squarely on the shoulders of Christians.
the Independent has 2 reviews, this one thought it was 'great TV', and Tom Sutcliffe recognises that the series isn't quite what the title suggests. This isn't a part-work history, through-composed by someone with a seat in divinity. It's a collection of pointedly personal essays, loosely arranged around the evolving chronology of the Church.
Meanwhile over on BBC2, Peter Owen Jones made it to Africa (he looks increasingly knackered with each programme) on part 3 of Around the World in 80 Faiths. Avoiding the frontlines of religious life in places like Nigeria and Sudan, he took in 3 variants of voodoo, an ancient tribal hunting dance in Botswana, witch doctors in Africa, and finally Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. You learn a bit more about the faiths because POJ is willing to throw himself into the project, walking out only when the voodoo gathering started to dismember animals. (Worth remembering, though, that this is basic to Old Testament religion too).
He was clearly most moved by the Ethiopians, though whilst they had their 18 hour prayer vigil up the mountain, Jones retired to his camp to get a full nights sleep!
It's still all very much about people's personal connections to 'the divine' or 'the spirits' - no faith yet has been shown in practical action (apart from his comments about the hospitality of the Ethiopians in the midst of dire poverty), and there's been nothing much about faiths active in mission: they are all pretty self-contained, set within their culture. The Middle East is the next one, which will be fascinating.
In fact, though historically rooted, both programmes have been highly selective in the historical events they highlight, and the significance given to them. For instance, Jacobsen paints Paul as a lone voice for the Jesus movement embracing Gentiles, when several of the other apostles (Peter, Philip, John) are involved in evangelism of Gentiles too. Portillo claims that the final version of the New Testament was put together by Eusebius, Constantine's spin-doctor, which is a claim you're unlikely to find in any history book. Even more peculiar was one scholar arguing that there couldn't have been a Roman census at the time of Jesus birth because Judea wasn't in the Roman empire. Hello?
Notable by their absence in either programme was anyone who took issue with the presenters point of view. So what we got was a selective and partial presentation of the facts (or 'facts') as though they were the whole truth. Meanwhile, for events from the life of Jesus, the Jacobsen programme gave us some kitsch images from old black and white movies on the life of Jesus - deliberately chosen for how silly they looked? Surely not.
There was plenty to learn from watching both programmes, but there was also such a clear agenda from the presenters that it became a major job sorting out fact from interpretation, which spoils the programmes.
Other views: Ekklesia in conversation with Jeremy Dear, producer of the series
Ruth Gledhill has some sizeable quotes from the Jacobsen programme. The comments are well worth a read, with several people surprised that Jacobsen was presenting Jesus Jewishness as some kind of new revelation to Christians.
Kings Evangelical Divinity School blog The overall effect of the programme was to leave the general viewer with the impression that the blame for the treatment of the Jewish people over the past 2000 years should be laid squarely on the shoulders of Christians.
the Independent has 2 reviews, this one thought it was 'great TV', and Tom Sutcliffe recognises that the series isn't quite what the title suggests. This isn't a part-work history, through-composed by someone with a seat in divinity. It's a collection of pointedly personal essays, loosely arranged around the evolving chronology of the Church.
Meanwhile over on BBC2, Peter Owen Jones made it to Africa (he looks increasingly knackered with each programme) on part 3 of Around the World in 80 Faiths. Avoiding the frontlines of religious life in places like Nigeria and Sudan, he took in 3 variants of voodoo, an ancient tribal hunting dance in Botswana, witch doctors in Africa, and finally Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. You learn a bit more about the faiths because POJ is willing to throw himself into the project, walking out only when the voodoo gathering started to dismember animals. (Worth remembering, though, that this is basic to Old Testament religion too).
He was clearly most moved by the Ethiopians, though whilst they had their 18 hour prayer vigil up the mountain, Jones retired to his camp to get a full nights sleep!
It's still all very much about people's personal connections to 'the divine' or 'the spirits' - no faith yet has been shown in practical action (apart from his comments about the hospitality of the Ethiopians in the midst of dire poverty), and there's been nothing much about faiths active in mission: they are all pretty self-contained, set within their culture. The Middle East is the next one, which will be fascinating.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Around the World in 80 Faiths, Part 2
Already falling behind with this religious travelogue - episode 3 (Africa) is tomorrow and I've only just watched no.2 on Iplayer (where you can still watch it for another 43 days from today). Rev. 'Indiana' Peter Owen Jones tours the Far East in search of exotic religion, taking in Taoism, Confucianism, Korean Pentecostalism, and a very strange 'all in one' Vietnamese religion which seems to centre around a giant bauble with a single eye in the middle of it.
It's still a fascinating programme, Jones contrasting the orderliness of some Far Eastern societies with the chaos of some of the rituals - one which involves lots of men dressing up in white, getting hopelessly drunk, lighting hand-held firebrands, and then racing one another down a flight of stone steps in the dark. Health and Safety it was not.
It hardly seems to have set the BBC message board buzzing: perhaps that's because there isn't very long spent with each faith, and there isn't the time to really see a practitioner in action. There was a lot of interest in Father Lazarus, the monk featured in the final episode of Extreme Pilgrim last year, but we got to see and hear him at length. With 6 minutes per religion, it's hard to get that kind of acquaintance here. It's also quite hard to see the distinctives, though POJ does his best to sketch out the core beliefs of Taoism, Confucianism etc.
The other frustration I have is that most of the appraisal is aesthetic: apart from applauding the inclusivity of the Vietnamese eye religion (CaoDao I think it was called, they have statues of the prophets of every major religion in their main temple), most of Owens comments were about how beautiful, peaceful etc. something was. At prayer mountain, standing in front of hundreds of prayer cells built by Paul Yonggi Cho's church in Seoul, he remarked on how beautiful it was to hear people praying, and about how you could get yourself sorted out with God in one of the prayer cells. My understanding of Prayer Mountain was that the focus was more on intercession, asking God to move in Korea, North and South.
That avenue doesn't seem to be one which the programme explores: instead it's the direct mystical experience of God, and the meaningfulness or otherwise of rituals. It's quite privatised, and in a sense quite touristy - to evaluate things on how much they appeal to us, whether we enjoy them, and whether they give us that sense of the exotic that a far-flung foreign trip is supposed to impart.
It's still a fascinating programme, Jones contrasting the orderliness of some Far Eastern societies with the chaos of some of the rituals - one which involves lots of men dressing up in white, getting hopelessly drunk, lighting hand-held firebrands, and then racing one another down a flight of stone steps in the dark. Health and Safety it was not.
It hardly seems to have set the BBC message board buzzing: perhaps that's because there isn't very long spent with each faith, and there isn't the time to really see a practitioner in action. There was a lot of interest in Father Lazarus, the monk featured in the final episode of Extreme Pilgrim last year, but we got to see and hear him at length. With 6 minutes per religion, it's hard to get that kind of acquaintance here. It's also quite hard to see the distinctives, though POJ does his best to sketch out the core beliefs of Taoism, Confucianism etc.
The other frustration I have is that most of the appraisal is aesthetic: apart from applauding the inclusivity of the Vietnamese eye religion (CaoDao I think it was called, they have statues of the prophets of every major religion in their main temple), most of Owens comments were about how beautiful, peaceful etc. something was. At prayer mountain, standing in front of hundreds of prayer cells built by Paul Yonggi Cho's church in Seoul, he remarked on how beautiful it was to hear people praying, and about how you could get yourself sorted out with God in one of the prayer cells. My understanding of Prayer Mountain was that the focus was more on intercession, asking God to move in Korea, North and South.
That avenue doesn't seem to be one which the programme explores: instead it's the direct mystical experience of God, and the meaningfulness or otherwise of rituals. It's quite privatised, and in a sense quite touristy - to evaluate things on how much they appeal to us, whether we enjoy them, and whether they give us that sense of the exotic that a far-flung foreign trip is supposed to impart.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Around the World in 80 Faiths
After winning an award for 2007s 'Extreme Pilgrim', Rev. Peter 'Indiana' Owen-Jones gets 8 one-hour programmes to explore 80 religions around the world. Around the World in 80 Faiths is part travelogue, part comparative religion, the first episode was eminently watchable, provocative, and fascinating.
The blurb says: Peter's mission is to witness and take part in rites rarely filmed before, to learn about how humankind practices religion. As an Anglican priest, Peter witnesses cultures and behaviours that challenge his values and prejudices. At times he's surprised, even offended, but at others he finds the experience enlightening. And amidst the baffling and the bizarre, he finds moments of great human warmth and serenity.
Episode 1 took in SW Asia, from Indonesia to Australia and on into the S Pacific. On the way the 10 faiths encountered included a traditional burial ceremony (the body is kept embalmed for years at the family home), an Iraqi sect who follow John the Baptist but live in Australia, Wiccans from Sydney, Aboriginal 'baby smoking', traditional tribal religion on a Pacific Islands and 2 groups which have emerged from it - one a charistmatic Christian healing sect, the other a peculiar cult based on the US flag.
Jones deals with both the various faiths themselves, as well as the legacy of Christian missions. In some places local customs and rituals have been destroyed, in others creatively integrated into Christian practice, whilst one group in Indonesia (I think) had just stuck a couple of hymns onto it's basically pagan burial ceremony to keep the church happy, but otherwise carried on regardless. Lots of interesting lessons about how well, or otherwise, mission has really engaged with local culture. Where the missionaries simply trampled all over it, and said 'our faith is better', Christianity doesn't seem to have taken root. One Aboriginal said they'd got 'too much' Christianity, and went on to list the various denominations which her people had. Point taken!
It was quite challenging to watch a fellow vicar join with a coven of 'urban witches' in Sydney: it exploded the myth that pagan wiccans worship the devil, but at the same time there's a difference between observing something and taking part in it. I'd have been deeply uncomfortable taking part - verbally or physically - in anything which invoked spirits and powers other than that of Jesus. Jones struggled with whether to take part, but decided he needed to see and experience what went on, to find out as much as he could.
Jones is clear that he believes in God rather than nature, so at least there is some discernment going on, but there's was also a bit of an English Heritage flavour: if something is ancient, it is therefore good, and needs to be preserved at all costs. Jones attended an aboriginal 'baby smoking' (not quite as bad as it sounds, but not much fun for the babies), and was disappointed to find that there was no deep meaning to it - he suggested this was because the Aborigines had forgotten their ancient faith (having become Christians) and so had kept the ritual but lost the meaning. If I were the babies, I'd have them lose the ritual too: having to sit naked on smouldering shrubs isn't anyone's idea of fun.
Other reviews:
Barbaras Republic (not impressed)
Chris at the CARM discussion forum (very positive)
and a couple more:
TvScoop (liked it)
Lapis Lazuli (jury's out, runs the risk of being superficial)
oh yes, and there's a book of the series too, I'm guessing the publication will be straight after the end of episode 8.
The blurb says: Peter's mission is to witness and take part in rites rarely filmed before, to learn about how humankind practices religion. As an Anglican priest, Peter witnesses cultures and behaviours that challenge his values and prejudices. At times he's surprised, even offended, but at others he finds the experience enlightening. And amidst the baffling and the bizarre, he finds moments of great human warmth and serenity.
Episode 1 took in SW Asia, from Indonesia to Australia and on into the S Pacific. On the way the 10 faiths encountered included a traditional burial ceremony (the body is kept embalmed for years at the family home), an Iraqi sect who follow John the Baptist but live in Australia, Wiccans from Sydney, Aboriginal 'baby smoking', traditional tribal religion on a Pacific Islands and 2 groups which have emerged from it - one a charistmatic Christian healing sect, the other a peculiar cult based on the US flag.
Jones deals with both the various faiths themselves, as well as the legacy of Christian missions. In some places local customs and rituals have been destroyed, in others creatively integrated into Christian practice, whilst one group in Indonesia (I think) had just stuck a couple of hymns onto it's basically pagan burial ceremony to keep the church happy, but otherwise carried on regardless. Lots of interesting lessons about how well, or otherwise, mission has really engaged with local culture. Where the missionaries simply trampled all over it, and said 'our faith is better', Christianity doesn't seem to have taken root. One Aboriginal said they'd got 'too much' Christianity, and went on to list the various denominations which her people had. Point taken!
It was quite challenging to watch a fellow vicar join with a coven of 'urban witches' in Sydney: it exploded the myth that pagan wiccans worship the devil, but at the same time there's a difference between observing something and taking part in it. I'd have been deeply uncomfortable taking part - verbally or physically - in anything which invoked spirits and powers other than that of Jesus. Jones struggled with whether to take part, but decided he needed to see and experience what went on, to find out as much as he could.
Jones is clear that he believes in God rather than nature, so at least there is some discernment going on, but there's was also a bit of an English Heritage flavour: if something is ancient, it is therefore good, and needs to be preserved at all costs. Jones attended an aboriginal 'baby smoking' (not quite as bad as it sounds, but not much fun for the babies), and was disappointed to find that there was no deep meaning to it - he suggested this was because the Aborigines had forgotten their ancient faith (having become Christians) and so had kept the ritual but lost the meaning. If I were the babies, I'd have them lose the ritual too: having to sit naked on smouldering shrubs isn't anyone's idea of fun.
Other reviews:
Barbaras Republic (not impressed)
Chris at the CARM discussion forum (very positive)
and a couple more:
TvScoop (liked it)
Lapis Lazuli (jury's out, runs the risk of being superficial)
oh yes, and there's a book of the series too, I'm guessing the publication will be straight after the end of episode 8.
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