The Manhattan Project

Conservative Anglican blogger Cranmer has highlighted a new initiative – the Manhattan Declaration, of which he remarks, possibly somewhat tongue-in-cheek…

Perhaps, just perhaps, this declaration might one day be ranked with the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, or at least raise Manhattan to the equivalent historic significance to that of Boston.

And what does this historic document declare?

We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.

To which it is tempting to reply: if only!

Continued at UKSpirituality

Amanda Knox and the Power of Projection

By far the best article I have read on the Meredith Kercher murder.

Like most of you, I'm sure, I've been stunned by the verdict against Amanda Knox in Perugia, Italy, and trying to gauge its accuracy. I've also been coming up with many questions about the trial and the Knox family's repeated statements of their daughter's innocence. As several commentators have pointed out, we seem to have watched not only two Amanda Knoxes on trial, but two different portraits of an American college student. Her closest friends insisted last night, on CNN, that Amanda is the least violent person they've ever met. The Italian media and prosecution insist, by contrast, that she's nothing short of a "she-devil," nymphomaniac, and a participant in satanic rites.

Continued at Psychology Today.

Public and private

I’ve been following a recent thread on the excellent Pickled Politics which discusses Sharia Finance. “Persephone”, the poster, quite rightly flags up the theoretical advantages of a system that seeks to minimise usury; that could, in principal, become a kind of financial “Fairtrade”.

I don’t want to get in to the pros and cons of Sharia Finance, which are discussed at length in the original post. What interests me is how faith can cross the boundary between private and public...

Continued at UKSpirituality