Christian nation(-state): oxymoron

Pete Enns’ material is full of up-to-date simply explained scholarship and he also interviews various writers. This episode was Lee C. Camp, and although it is slanted toward America (their context) the frightening ramifications of falsely putting together of the adjective ‘Christian’ with the noun ‘nation’ is explored. It is applicable way beyond the geographical context of their context.

One quotable quote (among many):

Nationalism, as I see it, is a move to attach a sort of messianic role to a nation-state. And it leads to a sort of exceptionalism for that nation, that it thereby isn’t subject to the normal rules we expect everybody else to be subject to, because it has a sort of presumed messianic role in saving the world. And when you think about nationalism in those terms, then we quickly see that the evangelicals did not invent this

Una pausa?

Been a while since I posted… well some 7,000kms on the road – Valencia –> France –> Italy –> Switzerland –> Germany –> Switzerland –> Galicia –> home. Great to be away and awesome to come home even if 37°C is just a little too hot. On the road, computer said ‘My time is over’ so I was not about to write a bunch of posts on my phone. But a good pause – always time to pray, talk with my companion (oh yes the one called, Gayle!), refocus etc., and at the same time holding our breath as the election in Spain took place while we were gone – outcome could have been a lot worse!!

Our main involvement while away was for Gayle to hold, with others, a ‘sanctuary’ in Italy. A safe place for anyone connected to ‘Authentic’ to explore being together, share life and stories. I am amazed at the outcome with genuine transformation. I am also deeply interested to journey with this as those of different faith / no faith get involved – one of the passions I have currently is to discover how can we be inclusive and enable people to encounter (or journey toward) the Jesus who uniquely is the image of the one true God.

In a post-Christendom Europe (so much more like the culture of the NT – maybe the answer to prayers that have been asking for a NT-type expression of faith??? I think so!) the question of how people encounter Jesus without the trappings is ever so central. If we want something that is not boxed, and something that touches those outside the box there is only one alternative – go outside the box. Cornelius did not meet Peter (and through Peter, Jesus) in Joppa… but Peter met Cornelius who met Jesus in Cornelius’ home. In the old days we might have talked about the ‘anointing on the house’, but it is now time to find the anointing that is on Cornelius’ house – and it seems to be an anointing for revelation as Peter said ‘Now I perceive…’

Big days… endless possibilities!!

Latest ‘extended article’

Come on you just love to read what I write, so I have uploaded a new ‘extended article’ just for you!!!

They can all be found at this page:

https://3generations.eu/journals

This one is ‘Volume 3’. They are very much in line with the ‘Explorations’ series of books. This one is on Scripture where I advocate that we need a two-fold but intrinsically related approach of a historical and narratival perspective and understanding. I am not suggesting that this is at any level original to myself – others have pioneered such and similar approaches.

I do not go down a line of ‘inerrancy’ but am more than happy with the term ‘truth’ or ‘trustworthiness’. Exile – very much within Scripture and the Jewish Wars of 66-70 (beyond Scripture but signalled as forthcoming) are two major events.

Either go the page I outline above or click on the link below to open (and then you can download) the pdf version (there is also an epub version at the above page).

https://3generations.eu/PeediePress/media/documents/Scripture%20-%20historico-narrative.pdf

Notes from recent open Zoom

We have been trying to explore what ‘Kingdom economics’ might look like. A big aim but it gives way to stimulating exchange of conversation. Last Tuesday Rosie Benjamin kicked us off with some input and has sent us her notes that she shared which I am posting below. [The next such evening I expect will be Tuesday April 4th. I will post here when the date and content is firmed up.] Rosie’s notes follow.


I am not an Economist. Until very very recently, I could say I have no interest in Economics. In truth, I have always found economics boring. Start talking about economics, I hear the words and they are excreted almost immediately without having been processed or engaged with. Try these terms, what comes to mind:

  • Non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) – That’s us doing good things and not getting paid for it
  • Non-seasonally adjustedget some sun or take a Vitamin D supplement
  • Quantitative Easing – try a laxative

I’m being flippant. These terms mean something. And whether we understand them or not, are bored or amused by them, they impact our lives – sometimes dramatically. So why the disinterest and disdain of Economics? I realised this – we are sold the science of Economics. The statistics, systems, structures and institutions. The hard, cold, dry facts that are barely digestible at the best of times but, in times of crisis and chaos, just won’t go down.

I’m into story. Big stories, little stories; fantastical, freakish and fun stories; stories that tell the truth, upend our myths and remind us we are not alone. Stories. I realised what was missing for me in Economics was stories. For me to engage, I needed to hear and root out the stories. Where are the stories in economics? The big story of economics (macro) is important; but so are the little stories (micro). What’s my story, your story, a community’s story. After all, Economics is too important, too vital, to leave to that invisible and ruthless hand of the market that doesn’t give a fig about how we live and move and have our being.

A Small Story…

It’s 3 days after formal Lockdown has been declared in the early days of Spring 2020. I knew we were in trouble when I saw an SUV speeding down the road, packed to the roof with toilet rolls. Oh dear, I thought, we are going to have to change our toileting habits. Our derrières are not going to be happy. So what happened:

There was a spiralling into fear causing selfish reactions – hoarding. Supplies ran out in hours.

There was restriction and compliance. You can only have one packet of toilet rolls. Doesn’t matter how big or small your household is. Doesn’t matter that you might have diarrhoea, dysentery or your Dulux pup and wee kid have decided to run with the rolls and you’re running out. Everybody had something, but not everybody got what they needed.

There was trust and consideration. Our local Co-operative supermarket – East of England – decided to dispense with the restrictions. They put a note up to say we trust you to take what you need – some need more, some need less. The store never again ran out of toilet rolls. We always had enough.

Big deal! What difference does that make to anything? The difference is EGGS! 2022 saw a serious outbreak of Avian flu. We had wild birds literally dropping out of the sky and others acting very strangely indeed. It seems that the birds of Europe are indifferent to the ramifications of Brexit, are no respecters of borders and sovereignty, and have freely shared their contagion with us. East Anglia has borne the brunt of the poultry cull that has devastated farms and caused serious shortages. Yet our local Co-op always had good quality eggs at an unwavering price. Why? Two things:

The Co-operative principle of always paying a fair price regardless of economic seasons or storms meant that producers always prioritised supply to the local Co-op and, we had been trained by the pandemic principle don’t give into fear, trust that there will be enough and take only what you need.

As I write on Thursday 23rd February, the big supermarkets are rationing the sale of certain vegetables. I went into my local Co-op, we have enough.

Small scale, human-sized economies work. Economies that you can taste and touch and see, work. They are considerate, compassionate, neighbourly. They have a story. There is enough for what you need not always for what you want. True freedom, healthy sustainable choice, will always have its restraints. What’s your story of economies? How do you engage with them? These little stories may help us to see and critique the convoluted impersonal big story of economics. If nothing else they may help us to tease out some ethics and values.

But we do need to get a handle on the meta-narrative of Economics, the overarching story that encompasses, or binds, us all. Maybe this is where the prophetic can help us. Maybe it can give us a little bit of vision, a little bit of sight that can lead to understanding and action.

We will have seen on the news the huge earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria. We can scarcely compute the destruction and desolation those quakes have brought. Two tectonic plates crashing up against each other releasing vast amounts of energy, causing chaos and untold devastation. Life for many will never be the same again.

What if time does that too? What if an epoch passing and an epoch beginning are temporal plates instead of geological? Two vast expanses of time smacking up against each other, releasing energy for change but also causing disintegration and collapse. All earthquakes have an epicentre, a focal point that can be seen and measured in time and space. What if time, this age, had a quake? Where would its epicentre be and what would truly shake the foundations of this age?

A dream or two about the big story…

June 2001. We’re in Mexico on a mission. I’m partnered with a friend and off we go gaily into areas unknown. Night falls, we’re confronted by some armed guards and locked up in a cell for the night. Turns out it was for our own safety, but we didn’t find that out til the following morning. What do when you’re dazed, confused and locked up? Pray. Sing. And sleep soundly. And, because you’re a captive audience, get a vision. A vision of The City of London as a pitch black forest with gnarly ancient trees. The trees had no leaves and bore no fruit. They could not photosynthesise, to sustain themselves they used their roots to suck the life out of life. It was no longer a place of life. The City is a geographical entity existing in time and space; but it is emblematic of so much more. It is sign and symbol, target and tangent. Global in reach; a centre in time.

Sometime in 2010 (a vision). The City is now a place of light. The trees have been uprooted and are now seasoned logs on the ground waiting to be used. The City is rubble but there is energy to rebuild. A removal van enters the scene ready to begin the work.

November 2022. Liverpool Street station, the eastern entrance into the City, sitting waiting for a train. A huge electronic bill board next to me repeatedly flashes up:

The City is for the taking.
The soul of the City is at stake.
Who will win the battle for London’s soul?

I’m not dreaming, the words are real, the challenge is clear.

I’ve sucked on those visions for a long time. I understood that the City and the System it enables was ending soon. But 22 years later it’s still here. We’re human, we live in time and space. When we hear the word ‘soon’ we look at our phones and calendars and ask how long? 10 minutes, 10 days, 10 hours, 10 months, a few years. We forget so readily that the Ancient of Days, the Potentate of Time may just have a different reckoning of time. Soon may be a decade, a generation, a lifetime, a few hundred years, in the coming.

That said, though we may have waited a very long time, there is always an hour, a day, a moment when the thing finally does happen. Have we not felt tremors over the last 22 years? Cost of living, war, pandemic, Trump, Brexit, Tsunamis, Arab Spring, Financial meltdown, more war, 9/11. Rumbles and more rumbles. All quakes have an epicentre. If this coming cosmic shake is financial in character and centred in the City: How do we prepare? How do we respond? How do we live?

Putting an end to religious indoctrination

On Sunday 20th November I am co-hosting an international panel on the subject of ‘ending religious indoctrination’. It will be from 7:00pm – 9:00pm UK time. The panel, nor the wider event will be explicitly Christian and is part of the ‘Golden Doors Dialogue’. The event is recorded and can be watched by a limited number live, but then is available in a number of media forums later (all initiated by a remarkably gifted and well-connected person Tahira Amir Sultan Khan).

I can make available as a host a limited number of tickets that would give you access to the panel that I co-host and to any of the other panels. There is a form at the bottom of this page, just go and fill it in if you want a complimentary ticket:

https://www.goldendoorawards.com/GoldenDoorDialogues-SpeakerGuests

Here are the 10 panels over those days:

  • Creating a World-class Society
  • Freedom of Writing
  • Women Empowerment for a New Future
  • Achieving Equality through Time-Equity
  • Tyranny of Taboos
  • Putting an End to Religious Indoctrination
  • Post-Covid Future for Children
  • Decentralisation of Money & Finance & Eco-Societies
  • Creating Effective Global Tribal Councils
  • Power of Science & Spirituality, the Estranged Siblings

One more ask!!!

This is more or less a repeat of the post I put out enticing anyone who wishes to to part with some dosh to help get some Brazilians across to the UK in January to be exposed further to the work of Authentic Business / Lives. This is a next step for them so that AL & AB can be expanded in Brazil… (If you wish more details please drop me an email.)

Gayle is going to be part of the next Ignite training conference in January in Ashburnham Place. We (Gayle and I) want to help some Brazilians that she has been working with for a while to get across to the conference, and also to have some extra time to dialogue. They are people that we know / have known for years. They are not ‘monied’, Brazil’s economy is not similar to the UK, so money is a challenge. We would love for them (how many depends on how much dosh can be available – up to 4 people if possible) to be able to attend. Update: I think at present we will be able to get 2 people across… big thank you to those who have contributed… all monies will be used for this, and all contributions are welcomed.

We will be making a contribution so invite anyone else who would like to to join us. (You can also email me – martin@3generations.eu to get any other information you want about this.)

How to give?

We have arranged with David Erasmus and his charity ‘BroadPlace’ so that gifts (UK-wise) can be given into the charity with the additional bonus of Gift Aid being added to the contribution.

If you need to contact David directly: info@broadplace.org.uk or david.erasmus@broadplace.org.uk

So either email me directly or David to get details of the bank account and procedure. David will need your email to send you a GiftAid form and also a procedural Data record permission form.

The Ignite conference – hey think about coming. You will love it, and probably not over your head at all.

To register: https://bit.ly/ignitejan2023

Kenarchy Volume 4

Yes the Kenarchy Journal Volume 4 is out. Here are the titles in this volume:

  • Kenosis in Catastrophe
  • Creation and Kenosis
  • Discharged from the Law: Paulos, Anarchy and Spirit. Exploring Romans 6-8 With Gershom Scholem and Walter Benjamin
  • The Eucharist as Iconic Experience of Divine Love: Ancient – Future Orienteering with Julian of Norwich
  • False Doctrine, False God, False Economy: Scarcity and Abundance in the Song of Solomon
  • A Gospel of Exclusion? Implications of Employing Nehemiah as Exemplar in American Political Rhetoric
  • With three book reviews at the close.

The Kenarchy Journal, with Roger and Sue Mitchell at the core of it, has now come into partnership with the Institute of Religion, Peace and Justice, and it is also now their academic journal. If you think the academic side is too tough, skim an article, find a paragraph that resonates… As we shift from Empire to chaos, we need to keep imagination, faith and hope alive. Go get yourself over there and check it out.

https://kenarchy.org

Authentic Lives… a possibility

Gayle is deeply involved with Authentic Lives which is a journey of discovery and re-discovery. It’s a set of tools and exercises to give personal insights into who you really are, what your strengths are, and what makes you tick. But more than that, it’s an experience that many people have found to be transformational and life-changing.

The next Authentic Lives Online workshop begins on 8th September, 7PM UK time. Every Thursday for 6 weeks. Everyone welcome!

https://authenticlives.org/membership/authentic_lives_online_phoenix_sept_2022-uk1-001/

Even I have done the course… so take it from me it was brilliant. Sign up asap as there is some pre-work to be done.

Finally… you will love it.

Perspectives