On my journey to work I read some Schopenhauer to assuage my feelings of revenge. Arthur, who himself was conned out of a considerable income, writes:
When he suffers an injustice the natural man burns with a thirst for revenge, and it has often been said that revenge is sweet.
Ah, yes, I can certainly relate to that, having been conned out of my pension pot by an unscrupulous property company...
Continued at UKSpirituality
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Take me back to Chester
To many secular, non-Christians the current controversy over Pope Benedict’s “poaching” of conservative Anglicans may have succeeded in putting the mysticism back in to Christianity… in so much as it’s all pretty mystifying.
The sight of poor Rowan Williams torn spiritually asunder at the hurried press conference in response to the move was sad to see. He must have wondered if all the ecumenism of recent decades was just a bluff and the Catholic Church had simply been biding it’s time – 500 years to be precise – before putting the boot in...
Continued at UKSpirituality
The sight of poor Rowan Williams torn spiritually asunder at the hurried press conference in response to the move was sad to see. He must have wondered if all the ecumenism of recent decades was just a bluff and the Catholic Church had simply been biding it’s time – 500 years to be precise – before putting the boot in...
Continued at UKSpirituality
Monday, October 19, 2009
Power, shillings and pence
The Conservative Party's Age of Austerity seems to particularly chime as the nights draw in. We're running out of light and warmth - we're running out of money. Whether their message maintains its resonance come next Spring when the sky, far from having fallen upon our heads, is breaking in to blue and with it the promise of a brighter future, remains to be seen.
But for now it feels as if time is running out, and as my friend Michael and I walk down Islington's Upper Street, our talk is about money...
Continued at UKSpirituality
But for now it feels as if time is running out, and as my friend Michael and I walk down Islington's Upper Street, our talk is about money...
Continued at UKSpirituality
Friday, October 16, 2009
This Sunday...
Cross-posted from UKSpirituality
TRUTHS & TRIALS
While most readers of this blog will have been drawn here by an interest in or expression of spirituality, most of us will not have suffered persecution because of what we believe in.
Persecution can define religions – the Christian church was shaped on the anvil of martyrdom, Judaism and Islam developed their unique characteristics simply to survive. Unitarianism even embodies its spirit of dissent in its name – an original rejection of the Holy Trinity.
Persecution can define countries and causes – intrinsic to Britain’s understanding of itself is the Summer of 1940 when it beat back the Nazis. Socialists still speak of the Tolpuddle Marchers, Irish Republicans Bloody Sunday.
Even today, in England, some individuals almost consciously seem to seek out persecution – the registrars who refuse to marry Gays, the niqab-clad school teachers.
Persecution can put our faith to the test. It can even, dare I say it, make us feel special. I remember as an awkward, oddball teenager being told by a girlfriend: the reason they don’t like you is because you’re different, and different is good – it means you are better than them.
It certainly lifted my spirits.
So persecution can cut both ways. It can seek us out, or we can seek it out.
What spirituality means to me is truth and I don’t mean – this piece of dogma over that, or the “true” story of creation. What I mean is what speaks to my soul, be it a work of art, a beautiful (or bleak) day, a moment of intimacy, or an insight that strips away all pretence.
So I seek to live in truth as best I can. To me, truth is an expression of holiness, a holiness some might call God.
It is also a useful way of cutting through the crap. What is a true persecution? Are we being faithful to a greater cause, or just striking a pose?
Christians still face genuine persecution in countries like India and Pakistan. Attacks on British Jews are at an all-time high, while in the Middle East, Bahais, who in many ways resemble a kind of Islam-influenced Unitarians, are regularly victimised. I was actually inspired to post by news that a date has now been set for October 18 for the “trial” of seven Bahais in Iran for the capital offences of “corrupting the earth” and “espionage for Israel”.
What can we do? What can you do? Not a great deal, it is true – there sometimes seems to be so much suffering in the world.
But as small as each of us is, in smallness we can do what we can – as individuals remember, pray even for these seven on the 18th.
As communities – reach out to local Bahais and join our small voice to theirs.
In their uninvited persecution is our fellowship – in their truth is our truth.
And truth is holy.
TRUTHS & TRIALS
While most readers of this blog will have been drawn here by an interest in or expression of spirituality, most of us will not have suffered persecution because of what we believe in.
Persecution can define religions – the Christian church was shaped on the anvil of martyrdom, Judaism and Islam developed their unique characteristics simply to survive. Unitarianism even embodies its spirit of dissent in its name – an original rejection of the Holy Trinity.
Persecution can define countries and causes – intrinsic to Britain’s understanding of itself is the Summer of 1940 when it beat back the Nazis. Socialists still speak of the Tolpuddle Marchers, Irish Republicans Bloody Sunday.
Even today, in England, some individuals almost consciously seem to seek out persecution – the registrars who refuse to marry Gays, the niqab-clad school teachers.
Persecution can put our faith to the test. It can even, dare I say it, make us feel special. I remember as an awkward, oddball teenager being told by a girlfriend: the reason they don’t like you is because you’re different, and different is good – it means you are better than them.
It certainly lifted my spirits.
So persecution can cut both ways. It can seek us out, or we can seek it out.
What spirituality means to me is truth and I don’t mean – this piece of dogma over that, or the “true” story of creation. What I mean is what speaks to my soul, be it a work of art, a beautiful (or bleak) day, a moment of intimacy, or an insight that strips away all pretence.
So I seek to live in truth as best I can. To me, truth is an expression of holiness, a holiness some might call God.
It is also a useful way of cutting through the crap. What is a true persecution? Are we being faithful to a greater cause, or just striking a pose?
Christians still face genuine persecution in countries like India and Pakistan. Attacks on British Jews are at an all-time high, while in the Middle East, Bahais, who in many ways resemble a kind of Islam-influenced Unitarians, are regularly victimised. I was actually inspired to post by news that a date has now been set for October 18 for the “trial” of seven Bahais in Iran for the capital offences of “corrupting the earth” and “espionage for Israel”.
What can we do? What can you do? Not a great deal, it is true – there sometimes seems to be so much suffering in the world.
But as small as each of us is, in smallness we can do what we can – as individuals remember, pray even for these seven on the 18th.
As communities – reach out to local Bahais and join our small voice to theirs.
In their uninvited persecution is our fellowship – in their truth is our truth.
And truth is holy.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Tiananmen Two? What should Unitarians do?
In Iran Awakening, Nobel Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi described the draining-away of democracy after the revolution.
As the population became better educated thanks, to be fair, to Islamist doctrine, it increasingly voted for reform: to such an extent that the Mullahs created the Guardian Council to vet potential candidates and "safeguard the revolution". Only four of the hundreds of applicants for President at the recent elections got through the process, and even then the regime apparently had to stuff the boxes to ensure "their" man won. In at least 50 cities more votes were reported than were actually voters registered to vote.
Now protests are being violently repressed, the regime seemingly discardjng its final fig leaf of democracy and following the Chinese example - "safeguarding" their revolution in blood. Because there is a precedent - how many of us remember that China still suppresses dissent? Yet we buy everything from its toys to computers to cars, participate in its Olympics, and borrow its money: it is in fact America's banker, the world's economic engine. Our hope now looks east - keep building China, keep us rich.
Would anyone be surprised if Moscow went the same way? What am I saying... to be a journalist in Russia is suicide.
Our Politicians do nothing. Why should they - they are a reflection of our self-interest. Their voters did not want the repression of Cold War communism, so they held firm, but none of the above appear yet to threaten our freedom. Indeed our Faustian bargain buys it at the expense of others.
So what can we UUs, as a relatively tiny, if also relatively well-heeled, religious sect do?
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki considers the possibility of ballot irregularities in the presidential elections as almost nonexistant.
"The possibility of organized and comprehensive disruption and irregularities in this election is almost close to zero given the composition of the people who are holding the election," he told foreign diplomats on Sunday.
Mottaki blamed Britain for interfering in the elections, saying it had been planning against the vote for more than a year.
"We witnessed an influx of people from the U.K. ahead of the election," he said, without offering specifics.
Mottaki accused Britain of supporting followers of the Baha'i faith, a religion that originated in 19th-century Persia but which Iran does not recognize.
Britain can of course look after itself, but the Baha'i is another matter. There are around 300,000 of them in Iran - about the same number of UUs in the US - and they are frequently persecuted by a regime always hungry for scapegoats. In February the Washington Post reported:
TEHRAN, Feb. 17 -- Seven leaders of the Bahai faith who have been detained for more than eight months in Iran have been officially accused of espionage, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said Tuesday.
The prosecutor general, Ayatollah Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, wrote in a letter made public Sunday that there are "strong and long-term relations between the Bahais and the Zionists," as Iranian officials often refer to Israelis. The Bahai headquarters is in Haifa, Israel, but the denomination says it has adherents in virtually every country.
"All evidence points to the fact that the Bahai organization is in direct contact with the foreign enemies of Iran," Dorri-Najafabadi wrote in the letter, which was addressed to Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei. The letter appeared in the Kayhan newspaper, which has strong ties to the government.
"The ghastly Bahai organization is illegal on all levels, their dependence on Israel has been documented, their antagonism with Islam and the Islamic System is obvious, their danger for national security is proven and any replacement organization must also be dealt with according to the law," Dorri-Najafabadi wrote.
Abdolfattah Soltani, one of the lawyers for the Bahai leaders, said he had not been permitted to meet with his clients. "How can I make my case ready? I'm only their lawyer in name," he said in an interview. The Bahais are also being represented by Soltani's colleague Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and Nobel peace laureate.
There Shirin pops up again - what a brave woman. Anyway, if there is one thing UUs can do, we can announce our solidarity with the Bahai, a faith that bears many similarities to our own, and do all we can to aid them.
As UUs, solidarity with the Bahai is surely an act of our faith - power politics may shape our times, but the unity of the human spirit is universal.
As the population became better educated thanks, to be fair, to Islamist doctrine, it increasingly voted for reform: to such an extent that the Mullahs created the Guardian Council to vet potential candidates and "safeguard the revolution". Only four of the hundreds of applicants for President at the recent elections got through the process, and even then the regime apparently had to stuff the boxes to ensure "their" man won. In at least 50 cities more votes were reported than were actually voters registered to vote.
Now protests are being violently repressed, the regime seemingly discardjng its final fig leaf of democracy and following the Chinese example - "safeguarding" their revolution in blood. Because there is a precedent - how many of us remember that China still suppresses dissent? Yet we buy everything from its toys to computers to cars, participate in its Olympics, and borrow its money: it is in fact America's banker, the world's economic engine. Our hope now looks east - keep building China, keep us rich.
Would anyone be surprised if Moscow went the same way? What am I saying... to be a journalist in Russia is suicide.
Our Politicians do nothing. Why should they - they are a reflection of our self-interest. Their voters did not want the repression of Cold War communism, so they held firm, but none of the above appear yet to threaten our freedom. Indeed our Faustian bargain buys it at the expense of others.
So what can we UUs, as a relatively tiny, if also relatively well-heeled, religious sect do?
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki considers the possibility of ballot irregularities in the presidential elections as almost nonexistant.
"The possibility of organized and comprehensive disruption and irregularities in this election is almost close to zero given the composition of the people who are holding the election," he told foreign diplomats on Sunday.
Mottaki blamed Britain for interfering in the elections, saying it had been planning against the vote for more than a year.
"We witnessed an influx of people from the U.K. ahead of the election," he said, without offering specifics.
Mottaki accused Britain of supporting followers of the Baha'i faith, a religion that originated in 19th-century Persia but which Iran does not recognize.
Britain can of course look after itself, but the Baha'i is another matter. There are around 300,000 of them in Iran - about the same number of UUs in the US - and they are frequently persecuted by a regime always hungry for scapegoats. In February the Washington Post reported:
TEHRAN, Feb. 17 -- Seven leaders of the Bahai faith who have been detained for more than eight months in Iran have been officially accused of espionage, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said Tuesday.
The prosecutor general, Ayatollah Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, wrote in a letter made public Sunday that there are "strong and long-term relations between the Bahais and the Zionists," as Iranian officials often refer to Israelis. The Bahai headquarters is in Haifa, Israel, but the denomination says it has adherents in virtually every country.
"All evidence points to the fact that the Bahai organization is in direct contact with the foreign enemies of Iran," Dorri-Najafabadi wrote in the letter, which was addressed to Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei. The letter appeared in the Kayhan newspaper, which has strong ties to the government.
"The ghastly Bahai organization is illegal on all levels, their dependence on Israel has been documented, their antagonism with Islam and the Islamic System is obvious, their danger for national security is proven and any replacement organization must also be dealt with according to the law," Dorri-Najafabadi wrote.
Abdolfattah Soltani, one of the lawyers for the Bahai leaders, said he had not been permitted to meet with his clients. "How can I make my case ready? I'm only their lawyer in name," he said in an interview. The Bahais are also being represented by Soltani's colleague Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and Nobel peace laureate.
There Shirin pops up again - what a brave woman. Anyway, if there is one thing UUs can do, we can announce our solidarity with the Bahai, a faith that bears many similarities to our own, and do all we can to aid them.
As UUs, solidarity with the Bahai is surely an act of our faith - power politics may shape our times, but the unity of the human spirit is universal.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)