Always Hope

Stay with me, and you'll see... This photo from today's local news reminds me irresistibly of Thomas the Tank Engine. Or rather, of his associate Bulgy the Bus, an unsavoury character who suffered the same fate as the one in the picture. But to cover the news angle first: this incident took place in Falmouth on Friday. From the relative dimensions of the objects in the picture, we can infer that this is not the usual bus route into Falmouth. From the fact that, fortunately, there were no passengers on board, we can guess that perhaps the driver nipped into town for a bit of shopping and forgot that he wasn't driving his Ford Focus from home. I don't think this is an April Fool, although I drove under this bridge today (without harm, you will be pleased to hear) and it looks quite unscathed. But if it is a fool, it doesn't make any difference to what I'm about to say, and it isn't very funny anyway. Returning to Bulgy, you may remember that this vulgar ...

A couple of things that happened recently made me a bit sad about the apparent inability of some Christians to show acceptance and care to the people who most need it. For a bit of inspiration, I returned to Philip Yancey's great little book What's So Amazing About Grace? My favourite quote: "Fortune magazine annually lists the five hundred richest people; no one knows the names of the poorest". I also love the idea of forgiveness as an "unnatural act". So provocative. I like Yancey's book because his vision of grace resonates with my own understanding of it. Like him, I am drawn to the Gospels, which offer us a portrait of a Jesus who goes far beyond what is reasonable in his acceptance and inclusion of people that nobody would touch, literally and metaphorically. The grace of God is not only lavish, unlimited and all-embracing, but it is downright disturbing in its utter refusal to demand anything in payment or to declare anybody off-limits. This is th...

Thanks to the incredibly well-informed eChurch Christian Blog for putting the spotlight on the Qur'an-burning church in Florida. Today's post on that blog highlights the way in which their actions are endangering the lives of Christians in Islamic parts of the world. As another example of when biblical Christianity goes bad (see my previous post of that title), I invite you to explore the website of the book-burning church, the inappropriately named Dove World Outreach Centre. While there might be some comic elements about it (Q: "why would we put up a sign like this?" A: is it because you don't own a ruler or have any grasp of the proper use of capital letters?) this is actually in a different league to the curious madness of the Latter Rain Ministries. Dove is nasty. Quite apart from frothing at the mouth at their own local authorities for refusing them a "burn permit" (what?), this church seems to be intent on defining itself by what it opposes, ra...