Articles involvings Islam that I’ve found

What an ambiguous title to this post. And currently it is only two articles of interest but maybe updated (watch this space…)

First Article: Bishop attacks ‘Muslim hypocrisy’ (BBC News)

The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, told the Sunday Times some had a “dual psychology” in which they sought “victimhood and domination”.

Second Article: British Muslims meet to learn about jihad (Telegraph newspaper blog)

Wanted by God, but wanted by killers too

The above title is the title of an article  on the times website (see below).  In it Canon Andrew White talks about life, work and death threats in the world’s most dangerous parish of Baghdad.

Canon White is a bit of a legend in my book where he works for ‘The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East‘. His job is described as a diplomat by week and vicar by the weekend. He also has MS to add to his burdens but never seems to be downbeat.

Heard him preach once and it was amazing – very interesting. He does amazing work, with his second book out (on order for me as we speak) and a modern day saint.

Check him out and check out his ministry.

Times Article: Wanted by God, but wanted by killers too

Andrew White’s Wiki Page

A very different Bible version

Slightly old new (came out 1st December last year) but still one I think is worth blogging about.

Through this website: Princess Diana Bible (warning: could be offensive to certain people) they released the news of a new verion of the bible in which God says it is better to be gay than straight – a gay Bible.

A preview shows a different version of Genesis where instead of creating Adam and Eve, God creates Aida and Eve.

“And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Aida, and she slept: and he took one of her ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from woman, made he another woman, and brought her unto the first. And Aida said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of me. Therefore shall a woman leave her mother, and shall cleave unto her wife: and they shall be one flesh.’ And they were both naked, the woman and her wife, and were not ashamed.”

It was also released that this new Bible version would also be adapted into a two-part mini-series, The Gay Old Testament and The Gay New Testament.

The writer, in his defense stated that; “There are 116 versions of the Bible, why is any of them better than ours?”

The two main problems with this new version from commentators either centre around the memory of Princess Diana herself or the content of the Bible in a homosexual manner. I shall concentrate on the new Biblical interpretation but I do wonder what Prince Harry & William think of their mother’s memory being used like this?

No doubt many people will be upset that the content of the text has been altered so significantly, but the question remains for all of us: how much do we, in our reading and interpretation of the Bible, try and twist it to make it say what we want it to say, or what we think it should say? Maybe we are not even aware that we are doing so. We may think this re-write is a step too far, but are we actually guilty of doing the same thing whenever we interpret what we read to suit ourselves? The issue here for all of us is to ensure that in our Biblical interpretation we are submitting ourselves before the text and God, letting it speak to us and shape us, and not trying to manipulate it to hear what we want to hear.

It’s particularly important to have this attitude when we’re dealing with passages that we struggle to either understand or accept. Often such passages can be a stumbling block in people coming to faith. For example, opponents of Christianity may point to events in the book of Judges that seem atrocious by today’s standards. In the first place, it’s worth pointing out that just because the Old Testament describes an event, it doesn’t mean God is necessarily endorsing it. Yet, having said that, some difficult passages remain. At that point, faith means submitting to God, and trusting that even if we can’t understand everything, we can understand enough of God’s revelation of himself in Scripture to know that he is good, loving, gracious and indeed trustworthy. This involves humility and accepting that there are limits to our understanding. As Isaiah 55:8 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”

Currently Reading

The next book up is: ‘Is Religion Dangerous?‘ by Keith War.

Aiming to finish reading it by this Friday (January 16th 2009) so watch this space…

‘The Gods of War’ by Meic Pearse

207 pages, 11 chapters on the subject of ‘is religion the primary cause of violent conflict?’

Meic Pearse answer after a decent enough argument is that religion is  not always the cause. His conclusion that in the modern world (definded as since the French Revolution), more conflicts have been cause by global secularism and the enforced spread of Western ideals such as Atheism and Capitalism. This is because, according to Pearse, they clash with the societies and cultures they come into contact with and therefore violent clashes.

A very convincing argument by Pearse which does mainly consider both sides of the coin but does seem to concentrate on the position you would expect him to take of religion doesn’t cause conflict as much as people paint it as doing so. Yet he argues this case well with evidence.

Pearse is a Christian and you can see this coming through with the stronger defence of Christianity as mis-understood and at its core, non-violent (a premiss I agree with) yet sometimes this does lead him to overstate one side.

Generally a very good read and highly recommend it anyone who is interested in religion and war. 7/10

Amazon Link

First Post

First post and first everything really for me. Partly setting this up as I need to for part of a course I am doing and partly because I want to.

You will have to excuse the poor grammar and the uneducated views on many subjects yet please feel free to comment.

More to come soon (I hope)…

Note: the course is a CertHE in Theology and Vocation run by St Johns College, Notthingham.