CotN Community

What price for freedom?

blogman — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:20:00 GMT

I must confess that I am worried about how much the government is borrowing. I don’t know if I am being ‘played’ by the tory spin on Brown’s handling of the international crisis, and I freely confess that I am glad I do not need to decide how to handle this whole situation, but I do get concerned when we solve today’s problem by handing the problem onto a future generation.

Of course, we see this repeated every day on a smaller scale; the level of personal debt in the UK is staggering. In Sepembert 2008 the personal debt of UK citizens was £1,457bn. The average household debt was £9,740, rising to £22,190 per household if you include unsecured debts. In October 2008 personal debt in the UK rose by £1m every 8.5 minutes and every 5 minutes someone went bankrupt. We are paying for today’s commodities with tomorrow’s earnings. Where those commodities are essential I guess that we have little choice, but so many purchases are luxuries. Is it worth the debt to have 300 TV channels to watch on a television bigger than the average double bed, surrounded by every game console known to man (and, indeed boy – they know more of them!)

These are complex decisions which we sometimes avoid by simply taking out another loan, but for all of us there are costs that we have to think carefully about. Will I sacrifice something to pay for something else? I guess it depends on how much we value what we want. I sometimes wonder how long it took God to decide that He would become incarnate in Christ at Christmas? For here is a real miracle; something essential for today and all our tomorrows which was paid for by someone else sacrificing all they had.

Faithbook?

blogman — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:33:00 GMT

I love Advent. In fact I think it is one of the most important times of the year, and it's a travesty that it is reduced to shopping, baking, card-writing, and little windows that open on disappointingly small bits of chocolate.

I also quite like facebook. I have come to it late in life, but a friend of mine moved to Australia with her horse to get married - to an Aussie not to the horse - and I was intrigued to know how you get a horse to the other side of the world. She told me (you get it a passport and stick it on a plane - how else?) and sent me to facebook to see the photos. Now I am hooked. I am catching up with all sorts of old friends.

Why am I telling you this. Well two of my friends saw a photo of me on a bike on facebook and started sharing stories of how I scared them stupid on the back of my bike almost 20 years ago. I don't remember it at all, but they seem to and now the whole world thinks I sit at 95 on the M69 scaring mates in the rain.

Advent reminds us that in the end it is not our memories of our life that count - it is someone else's, Jesus' in fact. When he comes back we are held to account for all that we have done. It's as if we have a facebook wall with all that we have done and everyone will be able to see it - warts and all. For none of us make the grade when it comes to God's perfect standards.

But here's the amazing thing - the great transaction that God offers in Christ is that we can have Jesus' page and he'll take ours - more faithbook than facebook, perhaps?

Advent is a time of hope, a time of reflection, a time to think about the eternal things of life - don't miss it this year.

Mugabe's latest snub

blogman — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:08:00 GMT

It's hard to believe, that Robert Mugabe is still at it, isn't it? We had almost begun to hope that the situation in Zimbabwe was resolved, or at least on it's way to resolution. The road was never going to be easy, but there was a plan and a way forward. However the news is not that simple. Not only has power not been shared, but now we hear that Mugabe has snubbed Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter and Graca Maca Machel (Nelson Mandela's wife, if you are interested) I do find it amazing that one man can exercise so much power. It is the thing that I have never quite grasped about the second World War, that Adolf Hitler exercised such enormous personal influence and lead a nation so far from where it wanted to be. This is, however a situation which is repeated over and over again for both ill and good. Even in our personal lives we find ourselves lead, sometimes being lead astray and sometimes positively influenced. I guess this leads me to two reflections. The first is the vital importance of choosing those we associate with wisely. We are deeply formed by our relationships and our heroes. Most of us learned as teenagers that who we befriend matters; let's not forget it as adults. Secondly I never cease to be shocked by the pervasiveness of what the Bible calls sin. It spreads and gets everywhere, far beyond where rational people would choose. Of course it is easy to condemn the Mugabes of this world, but on a basic level we need to be watchful and alert for we too are all too easily lead. And it's a basic truth, but non-the-less a vital one that the one relationship which is vital if we want to be lead rightly is the one into which God invites us in Christ.

If the credit crunch had happened 2500 years ago...

blogman — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:50:00 GMT

I have been wondering how the prophets of old would have written about the credit crunch? Obviously they would only have said what God inspired them to say, but I do wonder. I can 'hear' them saying for example: 'In those days men and women gave themselves over to the love of money. Their children were placed aside, their worship relegated to a mere irrelevance, their possessions and prospects elevated and the LORD was grieved. So God gave them over to inequality, to insecurity, to family breakdown, and to an endless dissatisfaction. And behold, man's pre-occupation with wealth was so great that few stopped to notice. And so God, in His great mercy, cast the financial systems into ruin that men and women might stop and notice the futility of their search for meaning and return once again.' Or indeed the prophets might well have written of the Lord's anger burning at the oppression of the poor, be it in body, mind or spirit. I am not saying that this crunch is a divine judgement, but I do believe that it is an invitation to search afresh for grace. We live in a crazy world, but the good news is partly about the security that we can know in God. Let's not be afraid to invite people into it.

What's the value of a life

blogman — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:42:00 GMT

Is it only me or is anyone else wondering how come we can find billions of pounds to save a bank but not find a few to save a life? The global economic crisis raises many questions, but I think this is one of the most important.

Say one thing...

blogman — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:53:00 GMT

It is easy for us to be all judgemental, but I do find it difficult to understand how the German Chancellor can say one thing in conference with European leaders one day and then return home the next and do the opposite... ... except that it is just human behaviour writ large. It's so easy to condemn our leaders (and I am not saying that she's right to do what she has done; I have no crystal ball!), but sometimes what shocks us in others should help us to what is closer to home. I ask myself two questions today. Am I a man of my word? As the weekly bit says we need to be transparently trustworthy if we are following a God of truth. And secondly, how do I deal with it if I make a mistake and need to change course. Politicians rarely seem to admit error, but it seekers of grace need to. It is at the heart of the Christian life.

Current affairs?

blogman — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:53:00 GMT

I went caving on Saturday. It was an extraordinary thing; I didn't expect to like it, but I had a chance to go but I had the chance and I do like to try things... The thought of spending a couple of hours in the dark, slithering through narrow gaps half filled with water odesn't sound too appealing. But I was very wrong - it is lots of fun. Perhaps not enough fun to get me doing it every week, but enough fun to make me want to do it again some time. Why do I tell you this, when I am meant to be reflecting on current affairs? Well, because when I was deep underground and completely absorbed in what I was doing it occurred to me that almost nobody in the world knew what I was doing and that I was completely oblivious to what was going on outside. Furthermore it seems to me that this is a good picture of how most of us are most of the time. So not a reflection on a current affair in the media sense today, just a marvelling that God's interest in current affairs is able to encompass yours, and mine, and all of us in our own caves. Certainly he also calls us out to engage with him and others, but he is juts as involved in my cave as he is on Wall Street or Number 10. He's that current...

HBoS and Crunchies

blogman — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:45:00 GMT

I'm struggling here - I feel I ought to write a blog about the credit crunch, but I don't understand it. In fact I am sitting here with one of my children on my knee with my brain aching. I do understand, though, that a lot of people are hurting, and worried, and confused. It seems to me that we find ourselves in places like this for all sorts of reasons, and sometimes it doesn't matter why we got there, it is what we do when we get there that matters. CS Lewis said "Pain is God's megaphone to a dying world". He wanted to point out that when things go wrong it can be a strong prompt to drive us back to the only palce we can find eternal security. Odd isn't it, that so many could find enduring peace in the one who gave up the riches of heaven and had no place to lie his head, while so many find turmoil in the richest money markets the world has ever known.

Are you ripe for a takeover?

blogman — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:49:00 GMT

We wake this morning to news that Lehman Brothers is filing for bankruptcy and that Merril Lynch has agreed to be taken over by the Bank of America. I am not sure that this will have a massive effect on me, if I am honest, and part of me wishes the media would wake up to the fact that America is not the centre of the universe. However, that is not what what I am really pondering this morning. I am wondering if a takeover is always such a bad thing. I know that it is not nice to have something that you have invested in overrun by a corporate giant. I also realise that all too often things of great value are swallowed up in the name of profit. Supermarkets, for example, are not always better than the grocers they replaced, although we must admit that there is a high degree of romanticism involved when we make this judgement. However, sometimes organisations, and even people, cannot survive on their own. Is a takeover so bad? I guess it depends on who is doing it, and how they are doing it. I observe that some people fear that God wants to take over their lives. I don't believe he does, in the common sense of the phrase, but he certainly wants to provide resources that we cannot find on our own... I am not sure I like takeovers in business, but when it comes to God... ?

Brit wins Wimbledon!

blogman — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:19:00 GMT

OK, so that's not really the news, today, but I bet I am not the only one to have had that thought when I woke up and heard that Andy Murray has won his semi final in the American Open. It is funny how fond we are of Wimbledon despite the fact that it only seems to show how rubbish we are as a sporting, or at least a tennis, nation each year... ... but we live in hope, don't we? It's just that this kind of hope is very different from the Christian sort. The bible talks a lot about hope, but I worry that we get confused. To hope that a brit will win Wimbledon is a wish, a desperate longing. To hope that Christ will return, that he will bring in his kingdom of peace and joy, that all will be right as God intended; that is a 'hope that is steadfast and certain', it is a certain hope, it is a knowledge of that which is as yet unseen. It is hope that brings life and peace, and even more joy than if Andy Murray goes on to win the final.

End of the world in 3 days?

Boffin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:08:00 GMT

Things are hotting up (well cooling down really, but you get my drift) at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. The world's largest particle reactor is due to be go online on Sept 10, just 3 days from now.

Actually the switch-on started months ago as the eight sectors in the 27km ring have been progressively brought down to the -271 degC required for the superconducting magnets to work. But the big event this week, all being well, will be the first circulation of accelarated particles.

The first beam will be accelerated to an energy of 450 GeV (0.45 TeV), the preliminary step on the path to attaining particle energies of the record-breaking 5 TeV.

At full throttle, the LHC will accelerate particles to relativistic velocities, accessing energies previously unimaginable. Once the LHC reaches its optimum design specification (expected by 2010), it will generate beams seven-times more energetic and 30-times more intense than any other particle accelerator on the planet.

This is when things start to get interesting, and fears of the accidental creation of black holes big enough to absorb Switzerland have been voiced although the exhaustive safety studies that have been done have dismissed this possibility. And of course Swiss law explicitly forbids black holes from entering Switzerland. (OK, I made that bit up.)

As in an earlier blog in this series, I mentioned that one of the big results expected from this gigantic tool is to re-create the conditions that are thought to have existed just after the 'Big Bang' - or as Christians believe, the moment when God created the universe - to establish whether the so-called 'Higgs bosun' (which is thought to give mass to all particles) really exists.

If it cannot be found then the so-called Standard Model of fundamental particles will have to re-thought, although it will likely be 2010 before this will be known.

Scientists hope the LHC will also help in the understanding of the operation of gravity, the possible existence of extra dimensions and the nature of the 95 per cent of the universe that is invisible to our telescopes.

As those of us who love fundamental paricles learn more about the wonderful universe in which we find ourselves, we find ourselves drawn even more to worship the One who devised it all - our Creator God.

New Green Orleans?

blogman — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:27:00 GMT

Firstly an apology for the blog silence - a couple of weeks speaking away, a couple of weeks holiday, and a smashed screen have not allowed much internet access - it's amazing how you can survive without the net when you have to! Anyway, I am sure that you are as relieved as I am that New Orleans has not been massacred by hurricane Gustav. (Although, I do also pray that places which don't have so much media-power are not suffering without us knowing). The next few weeks and months will see masses of clearing up, rebuilding, construction of new defences and warning systems and so on... What will be fascinating, though, will be to see if anyone takes an environmental line on the situation... and if they do, whether anyone responds. No one seems to doubt that Gustav has been exacerbated by climate change, but I bet the next time something like this happens we will see more pictures of 'SUV's queuing to get out of the city. Humanity does sometimes seem to have an aversion to treating the cause of problems when it is easier to address the symptoms. And as so often happens, what is true physically is true spiritually; we are blind to the spiritual catastrophe being wreaked among us, and unwilling to pay the price to address it, even when the price has been paid for us and all we are called to do is follow.

Coca-Cola Co offended by Jesus

nicola — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:22:00 GMT

How much will some companies pay for product placement in a movie?

Well, one Italian movie company couldn't give it away. They weren't even able to show the ultimate user - Jesus - using one of the world's leading global brands, Coke.

In the film 7 Km da Gerusalemme (7km From Jerusalem), according to Cinematical, "a Milanese ad exec... having a midlife crisis... makes a pilgrimmage to the Holy Land and ends up running into Jesus. He gives him a ride in his Jeep, and then offers the son of God a Coke. While Jesus is drinking he puns: "My God, what a testimonial!"

Went down like a lead balloon with the Coca-Cola Company, who believed this gave their product a 'negative image'. They promptly launched a lawsuit against the movie's producers.

Cinematical continues:

"A Coca Cola Italia spokesperson says: "We are not interested in this kind of product placement." Maybe if he offered Jesus a Coke on the cross, that could be seen in bad taste, but just a simple act of quenching thirst? The legal action has resulted in the film losing its distribution with Mediafilm, who was going to capitalise on Easter by releasing it this Friday (Good Friday). Now, they're trying to get the soda giant's lawyers to change their minds. Heck, even the church isn't perturbed by this, as reports say that the film was well-received by the Vatican."

Seems to me Coca Cola has a few more things to think about than Jesus having a quick swig. You'd think they'd prefer to have God on their side.

Watch movie trailer.

Stunning nuns. And nunning also stuns.

nicola — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:23:00 GMT

An Italian priest has been thwarted after publicising his plans (whch zipped round the world, whether he liked it or not) to hold an online beauty pageant for nuns.

And no, I haven't been nipping at the communion wine: it's true. Apparently Father Antonio Rungi hoped that the pageant would reverse stereotypes of nuns as ugly (his ideal nun is, apparently, Sofia Loren, who played a nun in the 1971 movie White Sister) and draw more people into his church near Naples. He had even hoped that, one day, the contest would be big enough to leave his blog and become part of the Miss Italia pageant.

According to the Daily Mail, one of many newspapers which gleefully reported the story, "It will be up to them whether they choose to pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered. Reverend Rungi assured that contestants would not wear swimsuits or revealing outfits because it was inner beauty that counted...' yet, on the other hand, 'External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn't hide it.' "

Father Rungi had asked nuns to email their photos to him (ahem) and he was to run the contest on his blog, starting this month.

However, he began receiving emails: "I have had some e-mails from Christians who perhaps have not grasped the evangelising spirit of the initiative," he said. And finally, his bishop stepped in. According to Reuters, ""My superiors were not happy. The local bishop was not happy, but they did not understand me either."

I think Father Rungi may be a bit bored and a bit lonely. All that time sitting around writing his blog - he should be taking a nightclass, getting a pet, taking up a hobby. Perhaps his diocese could have a whip-round for a few jigsaws and some cane chairs in need of restoration?

As for you, if your mind's still resolutely fixed on nuns, you'll have to make do with a spot of nun-chucking.

Cockatoo & Christian dance

nicola — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:09:00 GMT

Hot on the waving paws of the worshipping cat (prior post) comes the dancing cockatoo: Frosty, the platinum blonde, 20-year-old Bare-Eyed Cockatoo, struts her stuff (see YouTube clip) to the beat of a Christian gospel song on the radio.

If only all Christian dance was as watchable.

What would Jesus brew?

nicola — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:53:00 GMT

Gosh, there's rather more out there about what Jesus would do than I reckoned. And I thought all I needed to know about the Son of Man was right here in my Bible.

I've now encountered the blog, What Would Jesus Brew?: "In a bold move toward being more Christ-like I am going to delve into the wondrous world of drink-making… that is, brewing... as a follower of Christ I am excited by the renowned group of spiritual giants that my beer-making and beer-consumption will put me in company with. My church just started a group called Theology @ the Taproom where we discuss theology and drink great beer."

I have to join this group!

And lest you think this looks too little like the Narrow Way, the author points out:

Saint Gall was a missionary to the Celts and a renowned brewer
After Charlemagne’s reign, the church became Europe’s exclusive brewer
When a young woman was preparing for marriage, her church brewed a special bridal ale, from which we derive the word bridal
Pastor John Calvin’s annual salary included upwards of 250 gallons of wine to be enjoyed by him and his guests
Martin Luther once wrote of the Reformation, “While I sat still and drank beer with Philip and Amsdorf, God dealt the papacy a mighty blow.”
Luther’s wife Catherine was a skilled brewer, and his love letters to her when they were apart lamented his inability to drink her beer
When the Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock, the first permanent structure they erected was a brewery.

Well, Ripon's own cathedral holds an annual beer festival and flogs its own home-brew...

What would Jesus download?

nicola — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:25:00 GMT

Somehow I had Jesus pegged as a Windows kind of a guy - in a down-with-the-masses sort of a way. But 29-year-old developer Jereme Hancock reckons Jesus would be all for Linux - and has developed the Ubuntu Christian Edition, according to an article at Linux.com

"Along with the standard Ubuntu applications, Ubuntu Christian Edition includes the best available Christian software. The latest release contains GnomeSword," (GnomeSword?) "BibleMemorizer, BibleTime, and much more - including a Virtual Rosary integrated using WINE. [I hope that's communion wine.]

"Ubuntu Christian Edition also includes fully integrated web content parental controls powered by Dansguardian. A graphical tool to adjust the parental control settings has also been developed specifically for Ubuntu Christian Edition. These features are truly what sets Ubuntu Christian Edition apart."

Sadly, due to some problems involving a laptop, the project was suspended just a few months ago - but will be back soon.

I didn't know I ought to have Christian software. So many choices! So many consumer products!

How can I avoid the trap of owning ba'athist bathmats or Mormon mugs? Buddist bud-vases or Rastafarian rugs? Christian Scientist cushions or JW jugs?

Jerome's got me worried. If your operating system can be of a particular persuasion, how do I know my copy of Windows is Christian enough? If I go to Help > About, will I find a statement of faith? What if my copy's just too darn liberal for my tastes - can I upgrade it to Open Evangelical? Maybe Microsoft should start inserting the Nicene Creed into the source code somewhere. I'd hate to think St Peter has a list of serial numbers up there at the Pearly Gates.

What would Jesus pasteurise?

nicola — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:23:00 GMT

Words fail me. I've wondered many things about our Lord, but never what Jesus would pasteurise.

What would Jesus see?

nicola — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:54:00 GMT

A few weeks ago this blog featured sightings of Jesus in a tree (or quite a lot of trees, actually).

Is it me? I find this kind of thing hilarious. Jesus is everywhere and so desperate to be real to us, yet half the world's population only seems to be able to interpret Him in a sap stain or a mangled pretzel (and get bids of over $7,000 for said pretzel on eBay!!)

So imagine my delight when I came across a blog entitled What Would Jesus See? It's a repository of these mysterious and tantalisingly fleeting sightings of Jesus... in a rock, a spoon, a beer label, a rotten potato (oh, yes), an X-ray, under a can of driveway sealant (although from the expression, I think that may actually be Judas. Hey, all dark-haired, bearded men look alike...), wallpaper, a pet flap, and a microwaved cellphone. You know, all the usual places Jesus hangs out. And then there's a whole host (geddit) of Virgin Mary sightings.

Why are people so keen to see Jesus everywhere? Because there's money in them-thar hills. That sneaky-looking Jesus under the driveway sealant? The levered-out slab of concrete fetched $1,525.69 on eBay. And "I won't take less than $38,000 for it," said the young lady in New Zealand who found Jesus in a beach pebble. Well, after all, the bridegroom will not always be with us.

I'm off to rifle through a box of mis-shapen biscuits. I may post next from Aruba.

What would Jesus eat?

nicola — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:46:00 GMT

The BBC has a story about Don Colbert, a Florida doctor who believes that asking yourself "What would Jesus eat?" is the best way to stay fit, slim and trim. He's written a book of that title, and even managed to spin off a cook-book.

Personally, I'm a bit confused. We don't know too much about Jesus' diet; but we can probably safely assume that a fair bit of bread, fish and wine was involved. Yet there have been whole global movements dedicated to the dietary eradication of carbohydrates, and the government's currently asking us to think more seriously about our units. Hmmm... whom should we trust, God or government? My money's on Jesus - he made us, he's bound to know what works.

Plus, Jesus knew how to party. "Some of the stricter religious people have accused Jesus of being a wine bibber and a glutton because Jesus did like parties..." said Revd Dr Gordon Gatward, director of the Arthur Rank Centre, part of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. Well, he's my kind of God.

Jesus will have eaten a lot of bread and fish whether he liked it or not. There was a lot of it about - think of the left-overs after feeding the 5,000 (and the 4,000... and all their wives and children)! It does make you think... does the cookbook feature recipes such as '100 tasty ways with 6,457 guppies and 9,218 stale baps'? And I guess there was more in the way of beach braziers and hillside barbeques than filet de saumon en papillote or Gravad lax with a lingonberry coulis. We do know that fish is awfully good for you, unless it's full of mercury or hormones, but we can hope there was less pollution 1,978 years ago.

Dr Colbert points out that his fellow-physician Luke, in his own book (entitled Luke), chapter 24 verse 42, mentions a typical meal: "And they gave him [Jesus] a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them." I hope he shared.

Despite scant biblical records as to Jesus' eating habits, it's somewhat surprising that Dr Colbert has managed to pull together an entire book on his subject. Perhaps that's why he wanders into the Old Testament as well, looking at its dietary laws. But Dr Colbert does admit that food was probably scarce: "Many of them probably went hungry much of the time, or achieved only bare subsistence... I can't imagine many modern Americans taking enthusiastically to all the features of a biblical diet." (Talking himself out of a few sales, there, then.)

I wonder what's next - The John the Baptist Dinner Party Companion? "Locusts like you've never tasted them before."

What would Jesus drive?

nicola — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:33:00 GMT

I've really got distracted from my mini-series related to that best-selling tome, Selling Crap to Christians, with the idea of WJWRD (What Jesus Would Really Do). We've had What Would Jesus Sell? and What Would Jesus Buy? (Assuming, of course, that He wasn't too busy buying up all those rubber wrist-bands).

Now, our cars are very dear to our hardened human hearts. So it's gratifying that someone has come up with the definitive answer to the Really Big One: What would Jesus drive?

No doubt each of us hopes our Lord would have the taste and foresight to purchase the same model that graces our own driveway or kerbside. Of course, only a few of us can be fortunate enough to sit at the wheel of the same vehicle favoured by Jesus (just think of the endorsement potential!), and I must admit to cherishing a hope that He might have gone for a black Renault Clio. After all, my diesel model is so creation-friendly, it only costs £35 to tax and I get 52 miles to the gallon.

But no, it was not to be. What Jesus really would drive might surprise you. Find out with this YouTube clip.

What would Jesus buy?

nicola — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:51:00 GMT

Whoa, this one passed me by entirely last year! There really is a movie called What Would Jesus Buy? - from docu-film maker Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me) and director Rob Van Alkemade - and you can see the trailer or order the VD at the official WWJB website.

It's a docu-comedy about the American obssession with the consumerisation of Christmas: according to the movie, Americans spend around $455 billion during the Christmas season - with consumer debt running at $2.4 trillion. And 26 million Americans are addicted to shopping.

The fime is the true story of Bill Talen (aka Reverend Billy), a lost idealist who hitchhiked to New York City only to find that Times Square was becoming a mall. Spurred on by the loss of his neighborhood and inspired by the sidewalk preachers around him, Bill bought a collar to match his white caterer's jacket, bleached his hair and became the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. Since 1999, Reverend Billy has gone from being a lone preacher with a portable pulpit preaching on subways, to the leader of a congregation and a movement whose numbers are well into the thousands.

"According to the film’s subject, Reverend Billy," says a review in the New York Times, "the charismatic bleached-blond performance artist and mock evangelist whose real name is Bill Talen... his activism is the real deal, and his mission is to fight what he calls the “shopocalypse,” the buying frenzy Americans indulge in every holiday season. The film takes us on a 2005 cross-country tour with Reverend Billy; Savitri D, his wife and organizer of his Church of Stop Shopping; and the church’s gospel choir. Along the way they deliver their message — that peace and love, not spending, are the true backbone of holiday spirit — through witty speeches and songs to unsuspecting patrons at assorted problem spots like Wal-Mart, the Mall of America and Disneyland."

'Gotta have the Christmas spirit - with some brand new rims [alloys]', says one vox pop in the movie trailer. And a shop assistant said: 'I had a woman about 60 years old cuss me out and spit on me 'cos I didn't have a PS3 for her six-year-old grandson.'

Watch the trailer.

International Christian Retail show

nicola — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:45:00 GMT

WE JUST MISSED IT!

Tarnation. We just missed out on attending the International Christian Retail Show, as mentioned in my last blog post. It took place on July 13-17 2008 at Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida. From the website:

"You need to be at the International Christian Retail Show. It's the largest show in Christian retail. With over eight football fields of exhibit space filled with new product; almost two dozen training opportunities targeted at specific retail practices and challenges; and more retailers, suppliers, distributors, and industry professionals in Christian retail gathered than any other place in the world, this is your chance to get it done."

("It"?)

The exhibitor list was lengthy and I couldn't be bothered to go to all their websites to see what they sell (sorry) although I do know a lot of it will be very nice stuff, like Bibles and clever t-shirts. But I just wanted to see the funny stuff.

I was tempted by Christian Outdoorsman, however, whose logo seems to feature a fish-hook and a rifle sight and whose website says they "provide apparel for the Christian Outdoorsman, to help him witness his love for the outdoors and the Lord to others." Where else would you get your 'I'm hooked on Jesus' t-shirt?

What would Jesus sell?

nicola — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:34:00 GMT

Further to my last post, about the (sadly) fictional book Selling Crap to Christians for Fun and Profit, I came across this article in the Los Angeles Times entitled, What would Jesus sell? And now I know it's true - they ARE organised.

Journalist Stephanie Simon visited the International Christian Retail Show (we have to know more) and met Milton Hobbs, who's marketing the first Christian perfume for women.

'Virtuous Woman perfume comes packaged with a passage from Proverbs. But what makes the floral fragrance distinctly Christian, Hobbs said, is that it’s supposed to be a tool for evangelism. "'It should be enticing enough to provoke questions: ‘What’s that you’re wearing?’ " Hobbs said. “Then you take that opportunity to speak of your faith. They’ve opened the door, and now they’re going to get it." '

(Moral of that story: never ask a Christian even the most innocent-sounding question.)

After years of steady growth, the Christian retail market notched $4.3 billion in sales in 2004: "[In the USA] There are Christian health clubs, Christian insurance agencies and Christian tree trimmers (who advertise in Christian business directories). There are Christian alternatives for the most unlikely mainstream products: gangsta rap, shoot-‘em-up video games, sweatbands, playing cards, scrapbook supplies, children’s pajamas."

This blog will try to bring you more on the Christian version of the American Girl dolls (a retail phenomenon). The article says: 'A Life of Faith, like American Girl, publishes historical novels featuring spunky girl characters, then turns the heroines into $100 dolls with lavish wardrobes. In the Christian version, the dolls come clutching Bibles; their stories, sprinkled with Scripture, describe how the girls find sustenance in their faith.'

'Selling crap to Christians'

nicola — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:21:00 GMT

I've just got back from holiday (in Iceland, where it hit an astonishing 84 degrees fahrenheit one day. I don't know what that is in new money). Sadly, I found nothing at all there of a ridiculous religious nature - only beautiful wooden churches and a wonderfully warm and welcoming Salvation Army church in Reykjavik.

But, since this blog loves to feature the most surreal trinkets and novelties aimed at Christians, I have found you a little titbit from closer to home. I came across a book mentioned on a blog and I thought, "They are! They're organised" - all those people who make this stuff. After all, someone designs it, someone approves it (and says "Yup, Christians'll exchange good money for that"), someone agrees to produce it, someone agrees to market it, someone agrees to sell it... surely there must be some kind of trade association?

The book - Selling Crap to Christians for Fun and Profit - may, sadly, not exist. The author's name may be an indication, and I couldn't find further reference to it on the interweb. Bit if there's money to be made, I want a piece of the action, so if you know better...