|1| Boris and the Burka.
|2| Sarah Champion.
|3| Germaine Greer.
|4| Australian Drought.
|5| Chinese Church.
|6| Bill Hybels.
|7| Lawrence Krauss.
|8| Augustine.
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LINKS:
Boris and the Burka
BBC Radio 4 | PM – Tue 7 Aug 2018
Order-Order.com | Ken Clarke: Burka is a “Peculiar Costume”, “A kind of bag.”
Order-Order.com | Emily Thornberry – I wouldn’t let a woman in a burka look after my child
ArchbishopCranmer.com | No, Ruth Davidson: the burqa is a world away from a crucifix
Sarah Champion
The Spectator | Brendan O’Neil: Why won’t the left speak up for Sarah Champion?
Germaine Greer
BBC Radio 4 | Any Questions – Fri 3 Aug 2018
Australian Drought
BBC Radio 4 | PM – Wed 8 Aug 2018
Chinese Church
Associated Press | For God or Party? – Christian heartland opens window into fight for China’s soul
Bill Hybels
The New York Times | He’s a Superstar Pastor. She Worked for Him and Says He Groped Her Repeatedly.
The New York Times | Willow Creek Church’s Top Leadership Resigns Over Allegations Against Bill Hybels
Lawrence Krauss
Arizona Republic | Renowned ASU professor Lawrence Krauss ousted from post after sex misconduct claims
Sciencemag.org | University finds prominent astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss grabbed a woman’s breast
Quote of the Week…
“What to I love when I love my God? Not physical beauty, fading charm, splendour of earthly light (so precious to our eyes), fair melodies of harmony and song, odours of flowers, incense, spices, manna or honey, a body we can embrace with physical delight. It is these things I love when I love my God. Yet, when I love him, I love a certain sort of light, and a voice, incense, food, embrace; but they are of the sort I love deep in my inner being, where my soul is steeped in a light no place can contain – listen to a voice that never fades away with time – breathes an incense no gust of wind can carry away – tastes a food that never runs out through being eaten – clutches an embrace that doesn’t dissolve through desires fulfillment. That is what I love when I love my God.
But what is my God? I asked this question to the earth. It answered “I am not God”. Everything on earth said the same. I asked the sea, the abysses of the deep, and the life-forms that creep in them, but they replied, “we are not your God. See what is above us”. I spoke to the blowing wind; but the entire atmosphere and all that lives in it replied, “I am not God”. Then I asked sky, sun, moon, stars; but they told me, “we are not the God you seek”. I spoke to everything around me, all that my senses revealed to me, and I said, “seeing that you are not my God, tell me about him. Tell me something of my God!” In a loud clear voice they replied “God is the one who made us”. I put these questions simply by looking on these things, and their beauty was the only answer they gave.
Augustine – Confessions – Ch. 10
Thank you again for your podcast. It is always helpful, informative and a breath of sanity in a mad world. One suggestion/plea – please no more background music. It almost spoiled your reading of Augustine for me: it certainly made it very difficult to listen to. Nevertheless, thank you for the quotation.
Effie Alexander
Are pastors innocent until proved guilty? Or are they subject to final judgement by the Media and thus by the church? What is gossip and what is in the public interest?
Should there be greater segregation of the sexes in church/ office for are we wiser than our forebears? No one should trust their own drives and impulses. Are the women victims only? Seems the implicit assumption.
I was just going to say the same as Effie. I had to give up on the Augustine passage before it finished, it was so hard to listen to through the banging of the music – more foreground than background unfortunately. It was a great podcast otherwise 🙂
David,
I fully support your concern over the lack of interest by our politicians in the persecution of Christians in China. In fact, have they shown concern over the persecution of Christians anywhere?
I fully support your concern over the way that negotiations between the Vatican and the Chinese authorities seemed to be going. Incredibly, one Cardinal came back from a visit to China and declared that no other country in the world implemented the social teachings of the Catholic Church as much as does China. Incredible.
But I do wonder about this statement you made in your podcast:
“unbelievably depressing and sad that the Pope is about to sign or has signed a deal with the Communist Party which, in effect, allows the Communist Party to choose the Catholic bishops..”
I am not aware of any evidence that the Pope (or any other highly-placed Church official) has signed any agreement with the Chinese authorities. So I strongly question your suggestion that this might have actually happened.
I am also not aware of any evidence that the Pope is even about to sign an agreement with the Chinese authorities so, again, I strongly question your suggestion that this is about to happen.
The most recent article on this matter I could find in the Catholic Herald was this one from May this year.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/05/10/vatican-china-talks-beijing-is-holding-up-the-process-for-unknown-reasons/
It says that “Towards the end of March there were rumours that an agreement was imminent. Yet, six weeks on, no such deal has emerged.”
So I don’t know where you get the idea that the Pope may have signed an agreement or that he is about to sign an agreement. We are now five months on from March and there is no sign of an agreement being signed. Indeed the lack of further news suggests that the whole thing may have gone cold. I certainly hope so. If an agreement is ever reached along the lines you have suggested it would be a very worrying development. Hopefully the Pope is now listening to wiser counsel than what he originally appears to have been listening to.
It was reported on the BBC as having happened this week. Their report also featured an interview with a Catholic bishop (archbishop) who strongly opposed it. The Communist party are being given the right to choose Catholic bishops – the Pope only retains a right of veto.
Should an actual cocker spaniel put itself forward for election I think I might vote for it, it might well be the best candidate.