#Kony2012

Is it a good thing I feel I have to have an opinion on #Kony2012 and I use the hashtag advisedly because this is a media event.  I have always had an opinion on Joseph Kony since 2004 and working in Sudan an area into which Kony made several visits - welcome and unwelcome. #Kony2012 is a different phenomena.

I don't like having to fall a hate Kony2012 or a hate Kony2012 cynicism camp - there is a bigger diversity of opinion available.

I don't think the filmmakers of #Kony2012 are vain or narcissitic - a criticism which is levelled at them often.  I don't think they over dramatised what has been going on.  I don't think the world knowing about Joseph Kony is a bad thing. So what do I think.

I do think that leveraging a media fearful global colonial power to come and correct the errors of the last global colonial power is perhaps unwise.  My own country created the north south divide of Uganda; is the US the best authority to clear it up?

I do think that the film will aid Joseph Kony to perpetuate his own myth in much the same way Mugabe did with hate media.

I do think it is good people are looking at world issues and I would like to think they will go beyond #Kony2012 and see that Uganda has needs that kill as many children as Joseph Kony.

I do think it is interesting to look at Joseph Kony's spiritual views: a man who believes he blessed by a water witch, is immortal, can breathe under water and never leaves his "safe territory".

I do think more needs to be understood about his support base that allows him to continue.

I do think Joseph Kony is an exceptional military leader and will not be beaten militarily, and that the Uganda government need to look at alternatives to military action.

I do think this is a civil war and not an international one.

Yesterday I blogged about human responsibilities so what is my human responsibility. Thank you #Kony2012 for making me question this.

Rights vs Responsibilities (a bit of a rant)

I want to show you 2 screen shots of Google searches:

The first is a Google of Human Rights

The second is a Google of Human Responsibilities

Do you note any distinct differences? If you take just a cursory view there are no adverts about human responsibilities, it would appear that they don’t sell. There are no sponsored links either. Look a little closer and you will see that human rights attract the attention of governments and the UN but human responsibilities don’t.

From working in aid work I know that a ‘rights based approach’ is a common way of assessing humanitarian interventions. I know from my sister that all schoolchildren are clear on their rights. What we all seem to be less clear on are our responsibilities. Where is the UN charter on Human Responsibilities? Surely we need a document exhorting us to the highest possible standards of living? I realise there is an industry around protecting, policing and promoting human rights that I think would collapse if we could put just half the effort into promoting human responsibilities. For every right that is claimed surely there must be a corresponding human responsibility. People generally like to have responsibility; people like to feel they have a grip on marshalling their own future. Surely we can aspire to attaining greater levels of responsibility; everyone who has worked knows that you want more responsibility because with it come greater rewards.

A great philosopher, Danny Lee Silk, when asked by one of his children if they “had” to do something told them “no, you get to do it”. What if we switched how we looked at the world and started to think that we get to look after those less fortunate than us. They became a privilege in our realms of responsibility. What if we aspired to greater levels of human responsibility how would the world look? The interesting thing it is almost impossible to have your human responsibilities stolen from you, yet we give them away. We give away our responsibility to look out for each other, to protect the environment, to engender peace where there is discord. I am not even talking of global politics what if in your work place you decided to quench gossip, to help the guy who doesn’t get how the new print management system works, to support your boss in making better decisions rather than criticising their bad ones. What if we stopped looking at our right to employment and looked to our responsibility to work; would our economy look very different.

I think we GET to be humanly responsible rather than HAVE to be and it feels good.

Taking Down The High Places

A friend recently asked me to engage in their problem. They felt that they were hitting a glass ceiling in their journey with God . This is someone that is way further down the line than me so I took time to hang out with God and ask him what he thought about the problem. 2 Kings 12 & 14 I felt I heard clearly. The thing is I have never been a big reader of Kings, so I dived into 12 leapt over 13 and on into 14. It is the story of Joash and Amaziah, father and son kings of Judah. Their stories are reasonably unremarkable, the get involved in wars and squabbles, do some politicking and then get assassinated after either giving away or losing the Temple gold and silver. OK so maybe not such quiet lives but within 2 chapters both have come and gone.
Their ancestor David dominates a huge section of the bible and even in their story he is referred to, and I think it is in these references that we see why.
2 Kings 12:2-3
Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
2 Kings 14:1-4
In the second year of Jehoash[a] son of Jehoahaz king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not as his father David had done. In everything he followed the example of his father Joash. 4 The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
Niether of these Kings removed the high places, the high places being the traditional worship sites of the Canaanites to Asherah. It is thought that sometimes Israelites would go and worship God there too but the inference is that them being left up was bad. David however pulled down all the high places and destroyed the altars and had his chief priest teach the people the law. He did also have a man killed, commit adultery and eat the sacred bread from the Temple….so not flawless but few of the Bible’s heroes are.
So what does tearing down the high places look like in a modern setting. Some might say we worship the cult of celebrity or sport and whilst in part I guess that is true I am not sure that is what God was saying to me. It played out in my head more like this……
I was a reasaonable rugby player, I got county caps, played at a premiership club, coached a national students side but generally underachieved. My rugby career was a picture of talent squandered on mediocrity. There were things to me that were more important or rather things that had their hooks in me to drag me away…..girlfriends….fear of missing out on what was going on with my buddies…… the search for adventure…..the occasional beer fuelled evening. These were my high places these were the things that kept me from fulfilling my potential.

In a faith journey I don’t think it is so different, there is plenty to drag you back from a relationship with God and you can live a good life and do good things and be pleasing in God’s sight but never tear down those high places and live in mediocrity for the rest of your time. Yet it is the tearing down of those high places that made David a name recognised down the ages and Joash and Amazaiah a couple of chapters in Kings. Our high places are different, perhaps judgement, perhaps immorality perhaps overworking but until we get to grips with them and throw them down we are perhaps likely to remain just below that glass ceiling.

NB some details in this story have been changed to protect the innocent, I do not claim to be right I am just thinking about potentially being right and I may even be wrong about that but if it makes you think, then I am alright with that……right?

Camping Cynicism

I know I am not a regular blogger but sometimes things move me to print, I guess you will never really know the man behind the moustache from these pages. Now and again however something rouses me from a blog slumber to pat a few keys into some semblance of a thought. My title is a little elusive, camping cynicism could have referred to the general expectation that it will rain anytime you erect a tent in the UK.

My Camping, is Harold Camping voice of Family Radio predictor of the Rapture that didn't occur. I am no professor of eschatology but the timing surprised me a little and I am glad we have a little more time to harvest. What surprised me more than the timing was the level of cynicism amongst Christians, including many in leadership. I didn't expect Christian Leaders to have a conference to discuss but many dismissed Mr Camping in a derisory or off hand manner. The truth is no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. (yup plagiarised from Matthew 24:36). If only the father knows then it is maybe a little arrogant to dismiss a brother in Christ or even poke fun at him.

As I have said I didn't feel any divine quickening over Mr Camping's prognostications but I was open to being wrong. I am left wondering if we missed an opportunity to say "I don't know if tomorrow is the rapture but if it is coming - I know I am going"; did we miss an opportunity to honour Harold Camping and say "You know what, I don't hear or see what he sees but he is passionate about God and about reaching the lost and I can admire that, he has been serving God in the best way he knows how with radio since 1958 and that is longer than I have lived and I want to honour that, and if he turns out to be right or wrong I will stand by him as a brother because that is what we do; whether we look foolish or smart." Could we have looked different to everyone else in how we treated this man?

The others....

I am not talking about the Nicole Kidman film but rather the concept of the others. This is related to my last post about Rob Bell and Love Wins. When discussing anything of a contentious nature within the Christian faith "The others" crop up; rarely are they referred to as the others and none of us are quite sure who they are we quite often give them vague titles as "the unchurched" "the under 18's" "the new to the faith". Our worry for "the others" would at first seem commendable but actually I think it might be disingenuous.

How big is our God? Pretty Big? Very Big? Awesomely Big? Unfathomably Big? Yet it is our concern for the others that is going to save them, if we can only discredit The Shack or Rob Bell or that Bill Johnson character then the others will be safe? Sounds kind of silly when you say it that way doesn't it? Or maybe a little arrogant, that we are so Godly that we have the absolute inside track on what is right and wrong and "the other" idiots may get fooled. I am pretty sure somewhere it says that only the Holy Spirit can keep us from deception. Perhaps if we are so worried for the others we should be teaching the beauty of a communicative relationship with the Holy Spirit.

I believe that "the others" is a tool we use to allow us to disagree with a theological stand point yet remain in relationship with someone - now that is a worthwhile aim. It says I think you are OK and I think you are probably a spirit inspired man but I am fearful of this gap you have opened between us but to keep us close I will transfer this gap to "the others". The problem with this strategy is that it doesn't build up the person the gap has occurred with; it breaks them down, it discredits them. It is time to find a positive way of staying in relationship with people we disagree with, not sidelining them or excluding them or feeling that their text, existence or whatever negates us as people. Let's concentrate on our walk with God in community and relationship and leave "the others" to retire and live in peace and be guided guarded and protected by God.

Monday's with Lloyd and the guys

Rob Bell. Love Wins. This is a book that has caused some hub bub because he may point to universalism; the idea that there are many ways to salvation rather than the one way through Christ which is a central teaching of Jesus (no man comes to the father but by me). I haven’t read the book but I probably will but I have read Sex God his other book and it’s pretty good. I am not sure I agree with everything that is written but on the whole I learned stuff. What interests me is why we focus on that which divides us? Surely there is something in Rob Bell’s writing that is good, why don’t we focus on that tell the world about that rather than our differences? I don’t have the answer, but I have the sneaky suspicion we need to stop doing it. We need to focus on our unity and community and in these places live out our beliefs guided by the spirit.

The Couples Retreat

The Couples Retreat – quasi review

This is not a film I would have gone to see but for the fact I am in Ghana and the other options were the Princess and the Frog, Alvin and The Chipmunks (the Squeakquel – Lord preserve us), Holmes (which I have seen) and Law abiding Citizen which just didn’t grab me.

Now it has come to my attention that things are edited for quite a conservative Ghanaian market. For instance we did not see Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) swanning around in her Victoriana underwear in Holmes and I think maybe they edited out other stuff that slowed the pace of the story making last weeks film review kind of null and void if you live outside Ghana but I will press on just in case anyone reads these things and wants to know how the Ghana version rates.

The couples retreat:

Genre: US Style Romantic Comedy/ Romcom (ie not written by Richard Curtis)

Stars: Vince Vaughan; Jean Reno, Kristin Davis (the brunette from Sex in the City you know the one), Peter Serafinowicz (not technically a star but go on do the voice…you know the voice…go on do it the one from Spaced….Just do the voice Pete!!!)

Plot: Couples A C D are conned into going on a couples counselling week by couple B who have “issues”. They are on Island West run by Marcel (Reno); with overly polite bureaucratic anglophile Sctanley (Serafinowicz) as the kill joy programme manager. There is a singles inland East where nubile young things dance the night a way. Is there hope of reconciliation or is it going to be an Island hopping bed hopping romp (no pun intended).

Well I have to say I liked it, I can’t say I loved because I think it sits in the shade of films like Old Skool, which was funnier, more poignant, slightly more crass (in a good way) and was my first brush with Ellen Pompeo and Will Ferrell. I don’t mean I brushed Will Ferrell, or Ellen Pompeo for that matter but to that point I hadn’t seen either of them and now I rate them quite highly. This is not a film of American Pie style innuendo (at least not in Ghana) and it has laughs but more cerebral ones. It gently scrapes at the humour and pain of real marriages and not Hollywood ones. Would this appeal to anyone not married – I am not sure. Certainly marriage has been treated with a healthy respect by Messrs Vaughan et al. This could be a case of Vaughan growing with his audience, the wedding crashers of yesterday (you know who you are Cross!!!) are now the married family men of today.

Would I go to see it again? Yes outside of Ghana just to see if it is an entirely different film.