Light Engaging Darkness
Welcome to the first LED of 2018. I have decided to publish Light Engaging Darkness every Friday. If you are reading this for the first time, LED is just a fairly random collection of the week’s news and issues – with comment from a Christian perspective. Enjoy.
Jordan Peterson –
The Canadian clinical psychologist is in the UK and making a tremendous impact. His lectures are sold out – the media are paying attention and his book has just been published. The absolute highlight and must watch video of the week is his interview with Kathy Newman.
There is so much in this that one could comment on. Perhaps one of the things that struck me was the way that Kathy Newman, educated at one of the most exclusive private schools in the UK and at Oxford University tried to project herself as someone who is disadvantaged and has to struggle! But most of all it’s a wonder to behold the calmness, intelligence and rational arguments of Jordan Peterson against a supposedly top interviewer who seems unable to do much more than shriek the standard clichés of the liberal elite.
Note this brilliant analysis from The Spectator….
Transmania
Yet more examples of the madness of the trans ideology being imposed on the whole of society. Firstly this from the Labour party – posts reserved not for ‘a woman’ but for a ‘self-defined’ woman. “Where eligibility is restricted to self-defining woman this means that anyone who self-defines as a woman is eligible to stand for these positions. Young members who do not self-define as a woman will not be eligible. You must indicate whether you self-define as a woman when you complete the online nomination form via the Youth Elections portal.” This means that if you are a man and you want a post, all you have to do is ‘self-define’ as a woman and there is nothing that can be done. Feminism eat your heart out….trans ideology has destroyed your gains!
And in this classic example of politically correct ideology harming rationality and health, it turns out in the UK that some women who ‘self identify’ as men are not being offered screening for breast cancer, whilst men who self-identify as women are being invited for a cervical smear!
Friends
Netflix has begun to offer the 25-year-old series – and my children are watching endless re-reruns. I almost want to ban the thing! And it seems I’m not the only one! Apparently today’s viewers are sensitive to the sexism and homophobia in the show. It just goes to show that the zeitgeist moves on – I wonder what is acceptable today that will be unacceptable in ten years time. Without the certainty of the Word of God we will drift from one madness to another.
Abortion, Eminem and the Pope
Eminem’s latest hit ‘’River’ has an unusual story line – basically it is the regrets of a man who compels his partner to have an abortion – “I made you terminate my baby” he raps. Its great to have such a cultural icon go against the zeitgeist and recognize that the baby in the womb is not just a ‘fetus’ but also a child, another human being.
At the other end of the cultural scale the Pope, who officially denounces abortion, has contradicted his stance by bestoweing the title of Commander in the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great upon pro-abortion activist Lilianne Ploumen. It beggars belief that the Pope would honour such a pro-abortion advocate who specifically goes not only against Catholic teaching but basic humanity. Why? Cranmer as usual hits the target….
A Knight
It was interesting to see my friend, Professor Iain Torrance, former moderator of the 
Church of Scotland being awarded a knighthood in this years honours list. He is as deserving as any of the recipients but what intrigued me were the reasons given for his reward “ his service to the Church, theological education, interfaith dialogue, the British Army and work to combat homophobia.” Iain was the convenor of the Church of Scotland committee set to look up into Same Sex Marriage. We all knew it was a complete stitch up, with about as much credibility as a government ‘consultation’, but it is good to have this confirmed by this award.
Diversity and Inclusion Minister
Maybe in order to get my knighthood I need a change of career? I could become the minister of diversity and inclusion for the Methodist Church in the UK. I could double my salary and get lots of kudos from the cultural elites….but I suspect that the Methodist church is not ‘inclusive’ enough to include someone who actually believes the bible!
Brexit – One of the most interesting things about Brexit is the way that even those who complain about the lack of facts, selectively use facts. Andrew Neil is one of the UK’s best journalists – he is balanced, intelligent and has a way of getting information out of people. Last week he made this observation:
“I forecast UK economy for 2018, remember: assuming 1.7% growth for 2017, nearly EVERY major public + private forecaster underestimated UK growth and job creation for this year: IMF (1.1%), Barclays (0.7%), Goldman (1.4%), NIESR (1.4%), OBR (1.4%), OECD (1.2%), RBS (1%). A year ago Goldman Sachs forecast sterling would fall from $1.25 to $1.14 in 2017. In fact, it rose to $1.35. Goldman also forecast 10-year gilt yields (cost of government borrowing) would rise from 1.28% to 1.65%. They fell to 1.19% by end-Dec.”
The fact is that even respectable institutions such as The Bank Of England and the Economist (who have both recently been taken to task for this) are inclined to self-select facts according to their prejudices and political views. Both are very pro-EU and therefore seem to delight in making the worst possible predictions about the effect of Brexit. So far every one of their predictions has been wrong. Sadly in adopting this stance, they are losing credibility. When The Financial Times accuses you of bias over a position they agree with- you are in trouble!
You would be as well speaking to taxi drivers to get a barometer of what is happening. Last week I was with one such in Hampshire – he was happy to share his views (unsolicited!) “That Brexit – what a mess! Boris Johnson what a plonker! That EU – we need out of it – look at the way they are behaving.”
When I arrived back in Dundee my taxi driver was an Iranian who had lived in Scotland for over ten years. He was a pleasant reminder why, whatever happens, we need to keep our borders open for people, not just from the privileged EU, but from all over the world.
Quote of the Week:
“I think those are very wrong who say that schoolboys should be encouraged to read the newspapers. Nearly all that a boy reads there in his teens will be known before he is twenty to have been false in emphasis and interpretation, if not in fact as well, and most of it will have lost all importance. Most of what he remembers he will therefore have to unlearn; and he will probably have acquired an incurable taste for vulgarity and sensationalism and the fatal habit of fluttering from paragraph to paragraph to learn how an actress has been divorced in California, a train derailed in France, and quadruplets born in New Zealand.” (from “The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics” by C. S. Lewis)
See you next week!
David,
Like you I was shocked at the awarding of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great upon pro-abortion activist Lilianne Ploumen. However, things are not always as they seem as this report in the National Catholic Register makes clear..
“The Vatican has said a papal honor given to a militant pro-abortion Dutch politician was standard “diplomatic practice” when someone is part of an official delegation with their head of state, and in no way was meant as a sign of support for her politics of abortion or birth control.
In comments given Monday evening, Paloma García Ovejero, deputy spokesperson of the Holy See Press Office, said the honor awarded to Lilianne Ploumen — as Commander in the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great — was part of an exchange of honors between delegations after she took part in an official state visit to the Vatican last year of Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima.
In response to a question on whether the Vatican could confirm the honor and, if so, why Ploumen received it, Garcia said:
“The honor of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great received by Mrs. Lilianne Ploumen, former Minister of Development, in June 2017 during the visit of the Dutch Royals to the Holy Father, responds to the diplomatic practice of the exchange of honors between delegations on the occasion of official visits by Heads of State or Government in the Vatican.
Therefore, it is not in the slightest a placet [an expression of assent] to the politics in favor of abortion and of birth control that Mrs Ploumen promotes.””
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/vatican-papal-honor-for-pro-abortion-politician-not-a-sign-of-support
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
So, Cranmer on this occasion was miles away from the target.
I am currently devouring Dr Petersons 12 Rules for Life. I have some thoughts on it which I shall reticent. However, that aside – the man is a living hero – in the true sense of what a hero is. He was willing to make a stand, and did in fact make it. Even though there was such a potential for him to lose – which would have meant he had to sacrifice his career and reputation. Yet he stuck by his guns, against the entire establishment – what a guy. He is a hero. And we could be really doing with a few more of those these days. However, I think some of his ideas are just batfink cookie – but then some of his actions are so noble in comparison. He is definitely of personal interest to myself at the present.
He utterly annihilated Kathy Newman – but to her credit, she did acknowledge that he had her when he highlighted her own hypocrisy at not caring about offending him. Classic
Thank you for this. The Eminem song is v moving… I have noticed a few things recently that show most people don’t really think the developing baby is ‘just a foetus’ while simultaneously seeing access to abortion as a human right. One of the most striking was this week’s episode of Silent Witness. A murdered woman is found to have been pregnant. The pregnancy was not so far advanced as to be obvious but the pathologist suspects pregnancy because of the way the dead woman had her hands protectively over her belly. It then emerges that the woman was in the process of terminating the pregnancy by means of an abortificant drug. Later someone whose actions let to the murder is confronted with the fact of her death and also the fact that she had been pregnant – the implication being that another life has been lost. Another one – real life this time – is that I noticed that Amber Rudd’s speech on harrassment in public life included this “an MP ……. should not be met with vitriolic and disgusting messages suggesting they should be “hung in public”, “get what’s coming” to them or, perhaps most unacceptably of all, that their unborn child should “die”.” There is such doublethink! A threat on the life of woman’s unborn child is possibly more unacceptable that a threat on her own life unless it is the woman herself threatening the life of the unborn child…..
Regarding the interview between Cathy Newman and Jordan Peterson, it is a good watch! I don’t think you are fair on Cathy however. You say, “Kathy Newman, educated at one of the most exclusive private schools in the UK and at Oxford University tried to project herself as someone who is disadvantaged and has to struggle!” I’ve listened to the interview twice now and she says that she has had to fight and struggle to get to where she is now (the implication, from the context, is that she has had to fight to get to the top in position and salary terms) but Jordan Peterson had just been saying that everyone who gets to the top has to fight to get there and she doesn’t contradict that or try to suggest that she has had to fight harder than other people because of her disadvantage. She then goes on to ask whether he thinks her fighting makes her masculine and it seems to me that that is the main direction she goes when using herself as an example rather than emphasizing her ‘disadvantage’.
The biggest non-disclosure of the week is the self disclosure that WF is a fellow Northumbrian, eligible to play cricket for England, unless born out of time, in another time in history.
An identity crisis looms large.