SPCK / SSG: Brewers Skewered

Time for a provisional Te Deum, as the UK Charity Commission takes formal action about the mess surrounding the former SPCK Bookshops & the St Stephen the Great Trust. More details from Mark Bennett here. You may have followed the unfolding tale on the SPCK/SSG Blog feed here. It’s good that law is now taking its course.

As well as saluting the courage and refusal to give in to bullies of Dave Walker, Phil Groom, David Keen and Matt Wardman (among others), we will hope and pray, above all, that some good comes to employees whose lives seem to have been damaged in all sorts of ways by the way the Brewers have conducted their business. USDAW is involved but, as Hochstaplers down the ages have been inclined to say, “No court in the land can extract from me money I no longer have,” so all may not be plain sailing.

And should Texas T-Bone nouveau Orthodox ever again announce that Christianity is all washed up in England and offer to save it by buying up Christian boookshops and old churches, we will be able to say “thanks, but no thanks,” knowing this notion for the mendacious twaddle it is — what Texans might call a prime Crock o’ Faeces.

Scribble, Scribble, Mr Gibbon

The Blogosphere is an essentially flat place, what Monty Python used to call an autonomous collective, hardly friendly to the whole idea of elites and awards, except the sort you award yourself. I have had rather ambivalent personal feelings about gongs, ever since Father Ted came unstuck over his Golden Cleric award. Nevertheless, the superior graphics, catchy red border, and unsolicited nature of the Superior Scribbler Award has subverted my anarcho-syndicalist tendencies and won my heart to this improbable enterprise. This is a free cascading tag chain of affirmation cooked up by The Scholastic Scribe. Melissa B (profile picture Left) teaches high school journalism, (Mel B? Shome mishtake?).

Melissa’s blog emanates from the legendary ghetto of Haight-Ashbury, so getting this gong feels, in itself, like a thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat at Alice’s restaurant, even without a real VW Microbus, let alone Implements of Dee-struction. The catchy logo comes complete with a quotation from Herbert Gould, elder statesman of the Beat Generation:

Diverting the internal traffic
between the Writer as Angel of Light
and the Writer as Hustler
is the scribbling child in a grown-up body,
wondering if anyone is listening.

Yep. Sounds like me.

Furthermore, what really does it for me is the joy of being awarded this gong by Bosco Peters, whose Spirituality and Liturgy Blog from NZ is one of the most thought provoking and informative reads out there — from the origins of Martinmas to Thomas Merton’s grandparents. Bosco deftly applies real knowledge and creative imagination to core anchor points of Christian praxis, with a seemingly constant stream of helpful and sometimes unique perspectives.

So, I gladly accept this prestigious honour, estabished October 2008,with grateful thanks to Bosco, my family, my parents, my colleagues, and those vital people a gushy Hollywood recipient once named in her acceptance speech, “all the people of the world, just for being themselves.”

In spite of this tagging exercise’s hippy-dippy SF roots, there are rules:

Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

All that remains, then, is to nominate “five most deserving Bloggy Friends,” or the tag chain fails... So, I suggest, in no particular order, because that would involve envelopes, the following five off my feed list (their latest is always posted in the right hand column)...

• Steve Hayes
  At a time the word “Orthodox” is being increasingly used in ludicrous ways by Churchy politicos who don’t know Orthodoxy from a horse’s, er, bottom, Steve is a real Orthodox Deacon in South Africa. There’s a tremendous depth of experience and breadth of interest here, plus thoughtful reflection from an African perspective. All this spiced with interesting book reviews, and a well developed sense of fun about resources out there, including the notorious Typealyzer, that some people have been wasting hours with this past week.
  
• Tim Norwood
  produces one of the best day-to-day Vicar blogs out there, connecting with people around his ministry. His blog draws you naturally into what he’s doing as Vicar and area dean. I’ve often recommended it to colleagues wondering what use a blog might be in their ministry, and in these days of shared ministry, it’s a good means of sharing life and work, with its joys, frustrations and occasional flashes of inspiration.
  
• David Chillingworth
  was the first bishop blog I got to know — gently humerous, slightly quizzical, personal without ego, I’ve enjoyed getting to know what +David's work is all about, in its various dimensions. Coming from an Irish background, and ministering in Scotland, sometimes gives a particularly interesting twist to his view. +David also deserves a gong for his campaign of billets doux to the housekeeper, pressurizing University of Kent authorities to allow bishops’ spouses to share bedrooms with their fellas at the Lambeth Conference, just like the students do.
  
• Anne Droid
  is a Scottish prison chaplain. Get out of Jail Free rings various bells with me, having engaged in prison ministry myself in the past. She doesn’t duck the real issues, either. I’m struck how some significant dimensions of justice and grace that get hidden away in more genteel spheres of ministry stand out clearly in hers, and it’s a guaranteed good read. It also has an excellent blogroll for those times you just want to thumb round interesting and useful material.
  
• David Keen
  is a Vicar in the West Country, who reflects on a wide variety of issues and ideas around mission, ministry and the Kingdom. He brings together concerns about Kingdom and Ministry in all sorts of interesting ways — feet firmly on the ground, but with penetrating analysis, and a strong sense of justice which has given him a campaigning edge in articulating reactions to the dreadful saga of the SPCK bookshops and the Brewer brothers.
  

Evangelism: Spam versus Living it

A wonderful post, required reading for all Christians, by Joe the Peacock, on How to actually talk to Atheists. Major h/t to David Keen. From his side of the counter, Joe offers some pointers as to why most “Evangelism” is so futile. He is not taking the Mickey. He is sharing honest experience, and telling the truth:

Using the traditional, human-spam model of witnessing, you use interruption-marketing techniques to spread the word about your faith. Because you are Christian, and because you are employing techniques that are unwelcome and unwanted, you communicate the following through your actions:

• Christians would rather be correct than listen to differing opinion.
• Christians do not respect the personal space (mentally and physically) of non-believers.
• Christians feel they are superior to non-believers because they have salvation.
• Christians would rather rely on faith as evidence than rely on fact.

Alternatively?

Even if the conversation never ensues, it's a universal truth that action speaks louder than words. People DO take notice of those who act in accordance with a respect and love based lifestyle. They feel good when they see a person helping another person - and in fact, it makes them want to help out themselves. One need only look at the total figures of collected donations for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the World Trade Center attacks to see this in action. Deed follows deed. Tell a person what to do, and you may get them to do it... Make them want to do it, and it'll get done, no matter what.

Ultimately, salvation has very little to do with saying the words "I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God and died for my sins." There are many, many people - some of whom hold the highest offices in the American government - who say this, and then go on to live lives that, by any account, are not at all Christ-like. How many people in your church have spent a week engaging in debauchery and other 'sinful' behaviors, only to appear in church on Sunday, ready to ask forgiveness for what they've done? And how many go right back out and do it again? How are these people better than those who live good lives and help their neighbor and further advance brotherhood and unity... But don't believe in God?

Which of these two types of people would you rather point to and say, "I taught them that?"

This is beginning to sound exactly like Matthew 21:28-31. Because it is. The human spam model, as well as being counterproductive, induces guilt in Christians who feel they ought to do it but don’t quite have the brass neck. All Christians actually have to do is be themselves and walk with an honest heart. It’s easier to reduce discipleship to checkboxes and slogans and be pushy, than to live the life. The fruits of the first approach are frustration, resentment, dissension. The fruits of the second are curiousity, acceptance and joy.

There’s a good English tradition that translations are for wusses. If talking at a non-English speaker who doesn’t understand you, all you do is speak louder. Joe points out that this is not, in fact, the case. All I would want to add is a rider that as well as applying to attempts to convert people to Evangelical Christianity, this applies to communication among Christians. Given a band of enthusiasts, you need to discern their methods, attitudes to community and processes, not just their ideas. The acid test remains that set by Jesus himself: By their fruits ye shall know them...

Really interesting link to this post with a communication theory dimension by John Griffiths, here. Thanks, John.