Quantum 60
The Israeli elections are deadlocked..
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says he will continue to speak about social issues, whilst drawing his $26 million salary….
Richard Dawkins is back with his new book for teenagers….
I thought it was a foetus?!
Government appoints new envoy for freedom of religion – but there is a problem…
We also mention the EU Empire – Did We Dodge a Bullet? The Scottish Referendum 5 Years On.
This article is well worth reading…Confessions of a Social Constructionist – it shows how so much of gender studies is just made up….https://quillette.com/2019/09/17/i-basically-just-made-it-up-confessions-of-a-social-constructionist/
The BBC LGBT propaganda continues unabated…this time at the Proms
Music continues to show its power….this time in Hong Kong
Then we have a fascinating clip from the drug induced vision of Extinction Rebellion…
But the liberal church has its own version – Have you confessed your sin to plants?
We finish by going back to the Proms – this time in Belfast where New Irish Arts had a wonderful version of And Can It Be…
Quote of the week:
Now among the other things proper to recreate man and give him pleasure, music is either the first or one of the principal;and we must think that it is a gift of God deputed for that purpose’.
Calvin – Introduction, Geneva Psalter 1539.
https://patron.podbean.com/theweeflea
Give us this week our weekly feed, and lead us not into draughts but deliver us from weevils… I do occasionally apologise to a drooping houseplant but come on people. They toileth not, neither doth they care about your offerings!
Persecution: Open Doors are making a handmade petition to support Christian women and girls who face a double danger because of their faith and their sex. It will be presented to the UK government to lobby for recognition of this double danger in governmental policy on sexual violence in conflict. Petition squares need to be in by October 14. More at http://www.opendoorsuk.org/seechange
If you wear a ‘Rainbow badge’ David, make sure it has the full seven colours.
The ‘stripey coloured’ flag that many people today rally around and celebrate
has only six. One colour short of the real thing that true nature created.
Nationalism, Israel.
Here is a thought provoking article by Andrew Wilson:
“The Meaning of Auschwitz
By Andrew Wilson | Wednesday 18 September 2019
Yoram Hazony’s new book, The Virtue of Nationalism, is fascinating in all kinds of ways. His argument is that nationalism is virtuous rather than vicious, broad and inclusive rather than narrow and tribalist, and that the alternatives—anarchy on the one hand, or imperialism on the other—are far worse. His portrayal of today’s bien pensant as fundamentally imperial in nature, with a universalist vision and the desire to impose a specific set of values on the rest of the world (whether through international bodies like the UN, IMF, WTO and EU, or through wars, nation building and “interventions” abroad), will obviously go down like a lead balloon in many quarters. His biblical argument for nation states, based on the unification of families into clans into tribes and then into nations, is also intriguing. But perhaps his most provocative point comes when he considers the meaning of Auschwitz.
For most Jews, Hazony argues, “the meaning of Auschwitz is that the Jews failed in their efforts to find a way to defend their children … Today, most Jews continue to believe that the only thing that has really changed since those millions of our people perished—the only thing that stands as a bulwark against the repetition of this chapter in the world’s history—is Israel.” Auschwitz, for Jewish people, is an argument for the nation state. Without an independent and secure nation, Jews were vulnerable to being massacred. With one, they are far safer.
For most European liberals, however, the meaning of Auschwitz is the exact opposite. The Holocaust is one of the strongest arguments against the nation state, for they see it “as the ultimate expression of that barbarism, that brutal debasement of humanity, which is national particularism.” National self-determination is how you get National Socialism. “From this point of view, the death camps provide the ultimate proof of the evil of permitting nations to decide for themselves how to dispose of the military power in their possession.” (Hazony is not overstating this; this critique of nationalism in Commonweal two days ago, for all that it makes a number of incontestable and important points, took just two paragraphs to mention Germany in the 1930s.)
The comparison is even more on the nose when it comes to the nation state of Israel today:
Paradigm A: Israel represents Jewish women and men standing rifle in hand, watching over their own children and all other Jewish children and protecting them. Israel is the opposite of Auschwitz.
Paradigm B: Israel represents the unspeakable horror of Jewish soldiers using force against others, backed by nothing but their own government’s views as to their national rights and interests. Israel is Auschwitz.
Hazony is not, of course, arguing that objecting to nationalism is antisemitic. He is arguing that if we believe that national self-determination is a return to barbarism, and that taking up arms to defend one’s nation is illegitimate, then the (tragically common) comparison made between the nation state of Israel and the Nazis is no coincidence.
There are plenty of things in The Virtue of Nationalism to disagree with, have questions about, or shake your head at. But Hazony’s case for nationalism, elucidation of the alternatives, analysis of some of the implications of either championing it or pillorying it, and sheer clarity of argument, make the book well worth reading nonetheless.”
Fully copied and pasted from here: https://thinktheology.co.uk/blog/article/the_meaning_of_auschwitz
Off-topic…
Sigh. Pity you aren’t in Brisbane to preach this week:
https://mobile.twitter.com/blessedimp/status/1174932185389780993
https://qnews.com.au/father-rod-bower-coming-to-brisbane-for-pride/
https://www.stjohnscathedral.com.au
I’d like to ask your thoughts on something else, Pastor. You don’t seem to have comments enabled on your “Did we dodge a bullet?” post from the other day, so I will be off-topic again and ask here.
Living on the other side of the world with Brexit/the EU having no direct impact on my life, I should know better than to wade into another country’s politics that are none of my business but I am curious so here goes…
On the “Did we dodge a bullet?” post, you provided the video of Guy Verhofstadt nakedly proclaiming his vision of an imperial EU and note that,
“… the idea of independence in the EU is an oxymoron. Guy Verhofstadt kind of let the cat out of the bag when he indicated the purpose and aim of the EU – to be an Empire.”
I agree it is shocking to see it proclaimed so bluntly but probably nit surprising given moves to establish an EU supra-national army, etc.
However, if I understand Verhofstadt correctly, he is claiming to see a future of four empires competing for power: the EU, US, China and India.
We know Trump is already eager to establish a deal with post-Brexit Britain. Therefore, won’t Brexit merely mean Britain is merely trading membership of the EU empire for membership of the (currently declining) US empire?
Even though the British economy is one of the world’s largest, do you really think it is likely (or even possible) that Britain can remain independent in the future Verhofstadt foresees or will it just become another subservient client state of the USA, (like Australia already is)? Would you not be better off staying with the devil you know?
Another possibility I have heard by some of the more-extreme pro-Brexit camp is the possibility of re-establishing the British Empire by becoming a dominant partner in the Commonwealth, thereby bringing a fifth empire into play in Verhofstadt’s scenario. From an Australian perspective, this seems like a jingoist British pipe-dream at this stage but given the state of political flux around the world over the last five years, nothing would surprise me anymore.
Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts on these matters if you have a spare moment.
Christ be with you.
Thanks….the comments section is open. I do not want to belong to any empire….nor do I think it is necessary. I think nation states no matter how small are the way to go…Empires mean wars…
“Empires mean wars…”
Totally agree on that. Hopefully post-Brexit UK can maintain its sovereignty. I can see the US definitely trying to exert influence, though. I just hope it all works out for the best, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable.
The best thing Trump can do is to avoid war by assuring the Chinese Govt that the USA will not shed one drop of American blood by going to war over the sovereignty of Hong Kong or Taiwan .
Friendship may result.