afterthoughts.reads.crowth.net

I think this was one of the finest examples of totally contradicting yourself brought to us by a Thought for the Day reader of late.

“It seems pretty obvious that Christians have no special expertise when it comes to matters of finance.” YOU DON’T SAY? After a more than year of banging on about it at regular intervals YOU’VE JUST REALISED THAT. And despite recognising that fact YOU’RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT ANYWAY. Excellent, Tom, that’s just excellent.

Rosemary suggests, in light of the blood recently shed in Afghanistan, that we should suspect everyone (but not too much) and trust everyone (but not too much). Nothing like cryptically contrary advice to make nothing seem simpler.

Are you using your freedom properly? Because, as Fraser reminds us, we are only really free to do as we ought to. For instance, the Bible tells us that we ought to treat some people like property. That’s right, with freedom comes responsibility. Are you being mean enough to your slave?

Well. What can you say? After a recent run of some fairly reasonable readings, Tom decided that it was time to drop the G-bomb with aplomb. How will we end wars fought against religious fanatics? By believing more fervently in God! Of course.

I don’t feel like I was in the target audience for this reading. Of course, all the readings are supposed to be from a religious perspective and often focus on religion in topic. But this one was for believers, people who have hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits. I just have a mind and a body. [...]

Oh, Interfaith Week. Of course. Will it just be Singh and Billings, or will more of our intrepid droners give us their take on it? Perhaps we should welcome it. If they talked to each other more often, maybe they’d do less talking at us.

Floods have devastated parts of Cumbria. Someone on the news described it as a ‘flood of biblical proportions’ and John Bell thought, ‘Ace! That gives me the perfect current event to speak about for 3 minutes from a Christian perspective’. But he could at least have brushed up on his Bible beforehand.

In this reading Billings reinforced the notion of religion-as-comfort-blanket, which I hardly disagree with. Personally, I prefer a real comfort blanket, the sort you can literally wrap around you and warm up in. They just seem a bit more substantial.

In a really convoluted and holier than thou fashion the Lord Sir Chief Sack Baron Rabbi Jonathan informed us in this reading that society should be fair. For instance, is it really fair to speak on a publicly funded platform denied to those who don’t hold one of a set of six religious beliefs? No, [...]

A pleasant little holiday yarn from Bell today. He really does like a good singsong, so I don’t think his Vietnamese vacation could have gone any better for him unless Jesus finally turned up and got his Rapture on.