QUantum 85 – I have a new mic – so please excuse the occasional ‘popping’ as I get used to it!)….
The Prince Harry story is extraordinary…as is the MSBNC and NYT story….
Here are some of the links…
1) Bishop Curry and Bishop Love – Right Royal Preaching
The Wedding, the Sermon and the Reaction – Article on Christian Today
2) Prince Harry – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8101153/Prince-Harrys-Russian-pranksters-fooled-discussing-fictional-island-smoking-cannabis.html
3) Coronavirus –
4) Trevor Phillips – BBC –
5) Piers Morgan and Lisa Nandy –
7) MSNBC and NYT Maths –
https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1235934990560645122?s=12
8) Tom Holland and A C Grayling –
9) Born in Chains..
I was born in chains but I was taken out of Egypt
I was bound to a burden, but the burden it was raised
Lord I can no longer keep this secret
Blessed is the name, the name be praisedI fled to the edge of a mighty sea of sorrow
Pursued by the riders of a cruel and dark regime
But the waters parted and my soul crossed over
Out of Egypt, out of Pharaoh’s dreamWord of words and the measure of all measures
Blessed is the name, the name be blessed
Written on my heart in burning letters
That’s all I know, I cannot read the rest
S
Prince Harry,
While his views may have been exposed by a hoax, the thoughts and intentions of our hearts are known to God, exposed to us, not to ridicule, but to pull us up sharp and pull us into Christ, not to push us away. We will be softened or hardened. Our sin, uncovered but covered in Christ.
Lisa Nandy,
Thought she came across well, up till now. Seems like party comes before people. But as with nearly all politicians, when painting themselves into a corner, they double down, as conceding is seen as weakness not strength. “I got it wrong” is not heard.
But that probably applies to a lot of us, Christians included.
Leonard Cohen: thanks for putting that up. Slows me down, invites me to ponder.
Landy came across as a bloody fool.
Piers was on the money. Good for him.
Ah yes. Grayling asking Holland for “just one” example of what Christianity has done that is unique to Christianity. So Holland rattles of five (with one being in common with Judaism). In the full show, Grayling then disputes one and nitpicks another, and waves them all away as “you’ve given me so little”!
Elsewhere in the show, Holland points out that atheists have a motive to reject Christian claims, and Grayling counters by suggesting that Holland has a motive to accept them. But Holland is not a Christian, so what motive does he have?
I’ve been devastated seeing the Trigonometry advert on TV too. I feel I should see it before making presumptions, but also that I shouldn’t add to its viewing figures (and that it wouldn’t be good use of time, nor healthy viewing). I think we can be confident enough from the ads that the 3 characters enter a relationship – and I saw ads for a similar series on Netflix (to be found by teenagers, obviously). In my news feed, trashy outlets (esp. The Sun – I follow as many news outlets as I can, though I despise most of them, so that I can see varied perspectives and garner an understanding of what other people are seeing, I don’t read the articles, just the headlines and captions) quite frequently now run stories about real life relationships like this, and most of the reactions (on Facebook) are laughter. Vice runs plenty of articles on this topic – and various, arguably more perverted activities (such as cuckolding), as if they’re normal and possibly virtuous (“sex positivity”, rejection of “slut shaming” and “kink shaming” are, obviously, vital moral standards to some people today….) – and has run and re-run at least one article on incest.
Apologies if I sound patronising, but the relationship suggested by Trigonometry is polyamory, not polygamy – and this feels to me to be far more disturbing. Polyamory is a situation in which one bloke has several wives – which sucks but is common in human history, including various Biblical figures, obviously. Polyamory, as implied by the Trigonometry advert, is a situation in which the 3 (+) individuals each have sexual relationships with each other (ie, the 2 women with each other as well as each with the bloke, in this instance) – likely including sexual interactions all together. I feel sick just typing it. But it’s been working its way into our culture for a while now. Did you see Louis Theroux’s documentary on it last year? (given that it was Louis Theroux, we can be sure that most of my generation did, he’s deified by my peers). There’s also, for example, a very widely watched documentary on Netflix by Vox arguing that monogamy is unnatural – and one oft-re-run article by Vice pleas that monogamy “needs” to be abolished.
I very, very rarely cry (other than about my self loathing), but remember doing so heavily several years ago after seeing Will.I.Am perform Boys & Girls on TV, on the same weekend that Caitlyn Jenner was announced as being on the front of Vogue. Not because these things are wrong – but because they evidence how much our society has rejected God.
There is also no penguins at the North Pole!