Having joined 'the Bible' on Facebook, I spotted a comment by someone speculating that the end of the world was due in 2012, when an asteroid would hit the earth. I asked the chap to check his sources and after doing so he revised it to 2036.
But he's not alone: 2012 conspiracy theories are doing the rounds of the New Age community, and there's a disaster movie of the same name ready to retread Day After Tomorrow territory, by the same chap who directed Day After Tomorrow. This slightly tongue-in-cheek article surveys the possible suspects.
Thoughts:
1. By the sound of it, some Christians are jumping on the 2012 bandwagon without really thinking about where the idea comes from. Following Jesus clearly isn't exciting enough for them. Stop and think people: if lots of gullible evangelicals (because it will be evangelicals) start wittering on about 2012, and it doesn't happen (which it won't, most likely), then they'll look gullible. That won't add much credibility to the faith they stand for.
2. We seem to need these things: 1999/2000, now 2012, wonder when the next one will be? There seems to be an inbuilt desire for the apocalyptic to be, at least, possible.
3. A Facebook friend noted the inherent contradiction of a green-tinged New Ager getting into 2012 conspiracy theories. What's the point of saving the planet if it's only got 3 years left?
4. Christians do believe that God, at some stage, will step decisively into history, that Jesus will return. We're also cautioned not to speculate about when it will happen, and history is littered with idiotic predictions about the end of the world. It's more important to live holy lives today than get caught up in conspiracy theories about tomorrow. Whether or not the world has 3, or 3 million years left, makes not one jot of difference to how Christians should be living. We should still be trying to commend our faith to others, and we should still be trying to live as loving stewards of this planet rather than rapacious landlords.
5. The best use of this kind of nonsense is to get people thinking about the future. There are some things that are going to kick in (and are kicking in already) during the next generation: fuel shortages, water shortages, climate change etc. We need to live in the present in a way that is loving and generous towards future generations. The enemy is ourselves, and our approach to life, and the way the capitalist system has encouraged spiralling consumption and greed. Unless we change, this is the way the world as we know it ends: not with a whim but with a banker*.
*not my original line, sadly.
Showing posts with label new age. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new age. Show all posts
Monday, September 07, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Christians in a Spiritual Age - event in October.
SOMERSET CHURCHES TOGETHER AUTUMN FORUM 2009
Christians Together in a Spiritual Age
Saturday, 17 October 2009
10.00 am – 3.45 pm (Registration from 9.30 am)
Locking Castle Church, Weston Super Mare
Keynote Speakers:-
Revd. David Grosch-Miller,
Moderator, South Western Synod, United Reformed Church
Steve Hollinghurst, Church Army Evangelist
Presentations, Workshops, Displays and Resources.
For more information and booking form contact:
Robin Dixon, sctog at blueyonder.co.uk
some blurb:
This year our theme is Christians Together in a Spiritual Age and we are delighted to welcome as key speakers Revd David Grosch-Miller (Moderator, South Western Synod, United Reformed Church) and Steve Hollinghurst (Researcher in Evangelism for the Church Army). Steve is a leading national speaker and author on how, as Christians, we can engage with contemporary culture and new age spirituality.
The day offers lots of opportunities for networking and encouragement. We will set the scene of what is happening ecumenically across Somerset. We will hear stories from groups of local churches seeking to bring the gospel to people in their communities. In smaller workshops we will explore practical ideas for mission in our context. Coffee and lunch (both provided) will create welcome space to chat and meet old friends and new.
If you're in the SW and can get along, Steve Hollinghurst is well worth hearing, should be a good event.
Christians Together in a Spiritual Age
Saturday, 17 October 2009
10.00 am – 3.45 pm (Registration from 9.30 am)
Locking Castle Church, Weston Super Mare
Keynote Speakers:-
Revd. David Grosch-Miller,
Moderator, South Western Synod, United Reformed Church
Steve Hollinghurst, Church Army Evangelist
Presentations, Workshops, Displays and Resources.
For more information and booking form contact:
Robin Dixon, sctog at blueyonder.co.uk
some blurb:
This year our theme is Christians Together in a Spiritual Age and we are delighted to welcome as key speakers Revd David Grosch-Miller (Moderator, South Western Synod, United Reformed Church) and Steve Hollinghurst (Researcher in Evangelism for the Church Army). Steve is a leading national speaker and author on how, as Christians, we can engage with contemporary culture and new age spirituality.
The day offers lots of opportunities for networking and encouragement. We will set the scene of what is happening ecumenically across Somerset. We will hear stories from groups of local churches seeking to bring the gospel to people in their communities. In smaller workshops we will explore practical ideas for mission in our context. Coffee and lunch (both provided) will create welcome space to chat and meet old friends and new.
If you're in the SW and can get along, Steve Hollinghurst is well worth hearing, should be a good event.
Friday, August 07, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
It Raineth Upon....
Somerset is a snapshot of English religion at the moment. And it's been raining on all of them:
- The 'atheist summer camp' at Bruton, with 24 children attending. I hadn't picked up that it was an American 'ministry' extending its reach to the UK. Less press coverage is being given to the thousands of children and young people on CPAS Ventures and Falcon camps - if you count Soul Survivor there's roughly 30,000. If 24 is a 'big following' (the Times) then I wait to see what adjectives are used of the Christian camps. To its credit, the Times has a couple of pieces on Christian summer camps too. (note to commentors: no rubbish about 'brainwashing' please, that's what happens in places like North Korea, please don't cheapen the term by applying to these camps, whichever sort it is you don't like).
- a few miles to the West it's New Wine at the moment, and tweeters have noticed the rain and mud, along with lots of other, better things. Thousands are there for worship, teaching and fun, and along with Soul Survivor NW pretty much takes over the Bath and West Showground for the whole of the summer holidays. For a flavour, the evening talks will be live on Hope FM next week (2-8th Aug)
- further along the Mendips, a witch has just been selected for Wookey Hole (local cave/tourist attraction) out of 50,000 applicants. The original 'witch' is a rock formation in the cave, but the Hole trades quite heavily on 'the witch of Wookey Hole' as a marketing snare. Some of the applicants were clearly practicing witches, rather than just folk wanting to dress up in black and cackle. Bizarrely, the job is supposed to give people an idea of what the caves were like in the Dark Ages. Erm, exactly the same, but without spotlights and handrails?
- just up the hill from Wookey Hole, the Big Green Gathering (an outdoor Green Festival, bit like a smaller Glastonbury with less music and more eco stuff) has been cancelled following some shenanigans with the police. It would have had a healing field, sweat lodge and assorted New Age stuff, along with a few of the Christians who've developed forms of prayer and outreach for New Age contexts.
- Back down from the Mendips is Wells Cathedral, which next week will be hosting a memorial service for Harry Patch, the last surviving WW1 veteran who died recently. Over 1000 are expected to attend.
So, what's the rain? Is it God's judgement on the atheists and the witches, or a trial to prove the faith of the Christians? Is it a succesful deluge to wash away some New Age claptrap, or a suitable sign of mourning to mark the passing of a generation?
Or is it just rain?
- The 'atheist summer camp' at Bruton, with 24 children attending. I hadn't picked up that it was an American 'ministry' extending its reach to the UK. Less press coverage is being given to the thousands of children and young people on CPAS Ventures and Falcon camps - if you count Soul Survivor there's roughly 30,000. If 24 is a 'big following' (the Times) then I wait to see what adjectives are used of the Christian camps. To its credit, the Times has a couple of pieces on Christian summer camps too. (note to commentors: no rubbish about 'brainwashing' please, that's what happens in places like North Korea, please don't cheapen the term by applying to these camps, whichever sort it is you don't like).
- a few miles to the West it's New Wine at the moment, and tweeters have noticed the rain and mud, along with lots of other, better things. Thousands are there for worship, teaching and fun, and along with Soul Survivor NW pretty much takes over the Bath and West Showground for the whole of the summer holidays. For a flavour, the evening talks will be live on Hope FM next week (2-8th Aug)
- further along the Mendips, a witch has just been selected for Wookey Hole (local cave/tourist attraction) out of 50,000 applicants. The original 'witch' is a rock formation in the cave, but the Hole trades quite heavily on 'the witch of Wookey Hole' as a marketing snare. Some of the applicants were clearly practicing witches, rather than just folk wanting to dress up in black and cackle. Bizarrely, the job is supposed to give people an idea of what the caves were like in the Dark Ages. Erm, exactly the same, but without spotlights and handrails?
- just up the hill from Wookey Hole, the Big Green Gathering (an outdoor Green Festival, bit like a smaller Glastonbury with less music and more eco stuff) has been cancelled following some shenanigans with the police. It would have had a healing field, sweat lodge and assorted New Age stuff, along with a few of the Christians who've developed forms of prayer and outreach for New Age contexts.
- Back down from the Mendips is Wells Cathedral, which next week will be hosting a memorial service for Harry Patch, the last surviving WW1 veteran who died recently. Over 1000 are expected to attend.
So, what's the rain? Is it God's judgement on the atheists and the witches, or a trial to prove the faith of the Christians? Is it a succesful deluge to wash away some New Age claptrap, or a suitable sign of mourning to mark the passing of a generation?
Or is it just rain?
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Death and All His Friends
The BBC website currently has a vid of the 'UK's first Festival of the Dying'. The Transitus Festival, held yesterday in Sturminster Newton, Dorset (just down the road), comes with a strong New Age agenda. One of the sponsoring bodies is very keen on 'sacred sites' around Glastonbury, and many of the festival workshops feature guardian angels, psychic artists and the like. The Christian chaplain from Dorchester was also down to do a workshop, so good for her for getting involved.
The main themes of the Festival included palliative care, green burials, and helping with the dying process. Our culture has lost a lot of its rituals and beliefs around death, so it is open season for pretty much anyone who can help to steer people through it. One challenge for the church is how do we engage with New Age beliefs around death, and how do we engage more meaningfully with people than simply delivering the funeral service.
Intriguing that the BBC reported on the festival without any sense that it was coming from the 'wacky fringe'. The core of the report is that the NHS is percieved to be failing people at the point of death in the care it gives to patients and their loved ones. It also mentioned spiritual values around death.
It's significant that the reporter talks of 'new rituals' springing up around death and dying, and that people want a 'more personal approach'. At a recent research day at Church House there was talk of a 'Funerals Project', which might engage with how people percieve church-led funerals. The outcomes of a similar project on marriage spoke of how much people valued the personal touch, rather than a conveyor-belt approach. The challenge is how we create time and space for that to happen alongside so many other things which seem like priorities.
For info, here's part of the Transitus philosophy:
The Network comprises a growing group of people working in a way that honours all aspects of life - mind, body, spirit and emotions - that are involved with the sacred process of dying. Our aims are: to release fears and taboos; support those dying and bereaved; raise awareness of 'green' and family-based approaches to death; and to encourage the acceptance of the concept of continuity of consciousness. The Network also supports its members so that none of us feels alone. Members include those working with: midwifing the soul; music thanatology; alternative funerals and celebrations; natural burials; grief counselling; life after death; related workshops; and more.
At one level this is a typical New Age paragraph about death. But apart from a couple of strange bits of jargon, why isn't this seen as part of what Christian faith offers? Death as a sacred process, the treatment of the whole person, life after death, enabling people to die well, grief counselling, etc. Maybe the problem is that our engagement with death has become so professionalised - through the clergy and the clergy alone - that creative and personal approaches which could come from the wider body of Christ have been crowded out.
What do you think?
The main themes of the Festival included palliative care, green burials, and helping with the dying process. Our culture has lost a lot of its rituals and beliefs around death, so it is open season for pretty much anyone who can help to steer people through it. One challenge for the church is how do we engage with New Age beliefs around death, and how do we engage more meaningfully with people than simply delivering the funeral service.
Intriguing that the BBC reported on the festival without any sense that it was coming from the 'wacky fringe'. The core of the report is that the NHS is percieved to be failing people at the point of death in the care it gives to patients and their loved ones. It also mentioned spiritual values around death.
It's significant that the reporter talks of 'new rituals' springing up around death and dying, and that people want a 'more personal approach'. At a recent research day at Church House there was talk of a 'Funerals Project', which might engage with how people percieve church-led funerals. The outcomes of a similar project on marriage spoke of how much people valued the personal touch, rather than a conveyor-belt approach. The challenge is how we create time and space for that to happen alongside so many other things which seem like priorities.
For info, here's part of the Transitus philosophy:
The Network comprises a growing group of people working in a way that honours all aspects of life - mind, body, spirit and emotions - that are involved with the sacred process of dying. Our aims are: to release fears and taboos; support those dying and bereaved; raise awareness of 'green' and family-based approaches to death; and to encourage the acceptance of the concept of continuity of consciousness. The Network also supports its members so that none of us feels alone. Members include those working with: midwifing the soul; music thanatology; alternative funerals and celebrations; natural burials; grief counselling; life after death; related workshops; and more.
At one level this is a typical New Age paragraph about death. But apart from a couple of strange bits of jargon, why isn't this seen as part of what Christian faith offers? Death as a sacred process, the treatment of the whole person, life after death, enabling people to die well, grief counselling, etc. Maybe the problem is that our engagement with death has become so professionalised - through the clergy and the clergy alone - that creative and personal approaches which could come from the wider body of Christ have been crowded out.
What do you think?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
More Spiritual or More Stupid?
Much is made of the fact that we are 'more spiritual but less religious' - it was one of the things raised at Spring Harvest last week, and research seems to show a greater tendency to believe in a spiritual world, such as this, published last week by Theos:
The poll of over 2,000 people, conducted by ComRes on behalf of Theos, shows that 70% of people believe in the human soul, 55% believe in heaven and 53% believe in life after death.
Almost four in 10 (39%) of people believe in ghosts, 22% believe in astrology or horoscopes, 27% believe in reincarnation and 15% believe in fortune telling or Tarot, the research reveals.
The comparison with the 1950s is especially striking. In 1950, only 10% of the public told Gallup that they believed in ghosts, and just 2% thought they had seen one. In 1951, only 7% of the public said they believed in predicting the future by cards and 6% by stars.
A regional breakdown of the latest research finds that:
• London has the highest proportion of people in the UK who believe in ghosts (50%) astrology/horoscopes (26%) and heaven (69%).
• Scotland has the highest proportion of people in the UK who believe in fortune telling/tarot (18%).
• Wales has the highest proportion of people who believe in reincarnation (32%).
On one level, this is good news - many people don't need persuading that their lives have a spiritual element. But my question at the moment is, does this mean that people are more spiritual, or just more foolish? Are we into Chesterton 'if people stop believing in God then it's not that they believe in nothing, but will believe in anything' territory here? Comedian Stewart Lee made the point a few weeks ago that someone who read our most popular celebrity books would end up being more stupid than someone who'd never read them in the first place. Are we dealing with the same kind of inability to think properly about religion and spirituality which Richard Dawkins despairs of in creationists?
After all, these aren't groups of Athenian philosophers who debate the spiritual world on a regular basis, who would relate to a sermon on the Unknown God (Acts 17), but people who watch Derek Acorah on TV and read horoscopes in the Sun. Is this 'spirituality' a manifestation of curiosity, or of credulity?
The poll of over 2,000 people, conducted by ComRes on behalf of Theos, shows that 70% of people believe in the human soul, 55% believe in heaven and 53% believe in life after death.
Almost four in 10 (39%) of people believe in ghosts, 22% believe in astrology or horoscopes, 27% believe in reincarnation and 15% believe in fortune telling or Tarot, the research reveals.
The comparison with the 1950s is especially striking. In 1950, only 10% of the public told Gallup that they believed in ghosts, and just 2% thought they had seen one. In 1951, only 7% of the public said they believed in predicting the future by cards and 6% by stars.
A regional breakdown of the latest research finds that:
• London has the highest proportion of people in the UK who believe in ghosts (50%) astrology/horoscopes (26%) and heaven (69%).
• Scotland has the highest proportion of people in the UK who believe in fortune telling/tarot (18%).
• Wales has the highest proportion of people who believe in reincarnation (32%).
On one level, this is good news - many people don't need persuading that their lives have a spiritual element. But my question at the moment is, does this mean that people are more spiritual, or just more foolish? Are we into Chesterton 'if people stop believing in God then it's not that they believe in nothing, but will believe in anything' territory here? Comedian Stewart Lee made the point a few weeks ago that someone who read our most popular celebrity books would end up being more stupid than someone who'd never read them in the first place. Are we dealing with the same kind of inability to think properly about religion and spirituality which Richard Dawkins despairs of in creationists?
After all, these aren't groups of Athenian philosophers who debate the spiritual world on a regular basis, who would relate to a sermon on the Unknown God (Acts 17), but people who watch Derek Acorah on TV and read horoscopes in the Sun. Is this 'spirituality' a manifestation of curiosity, or of credulity?
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