Posts by Russell Brown
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And were it not a breach of a court order and someone's privacy, I would tell you exactly why I think Bob McCoskrie is a bad man.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
And I think we’ve seen the political uses and abuses of treating an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims – an incredibly diverse population spread across the face of the planet – as some homogeneous mass of malignant lunatics.
I keep meaning to respond to this micro-thread. I think you're right in the sense that the Christian voices who get most of the airtime are not very representative of general people of faith -- McCroskie, Maxim, Tamaki -- and lot does lot to shape perceptions.
But I don't think that's necessarily down to an undifferentiated picture of Christianity. When Whakahuihui Vercoe had his "world without gays" moment, that was presented as an issue for the Anglican church, not others. What it's more down to is the bad habit of going to rentaquotes like McCroskie, op-ed factories like Maxim and freaks like Tamaki. (In that context, I can kind of understand why St Matthew's in the City adopted its shock-tactic style.)
Of our panelists on tonight's show (9.05pm, TVNZ 7), Richard Randerson is still a voice of the Anglican church and of the establishment, but Lavinia describes Challenge Weekly as a Christian newspaper, while readily granting that juggling the views and interests of various denominations and churches is perennially difficult. And the Christian Broadcasting Association has it in the name.
As I said here last night (and on Pat Brittenden's Rhema show this morning), it was a useful and pleasant experience to talk with decent, articulate people when so much of my focus on Christianity tends to be going WTF? at lunatic American evangelists and their local analogues.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Emma Hart,
The price for that is that you will conform to the community’s expectations. You’ll go to Promise Keepers, and learn how to behave as the head of a family. You’ll go on Christian Women’s Retreats, and learn how to STFU and do what you’re told. You’ll be straight. You’ll stay married no matter what. Your daughters will virginity-pledge. And in return, you’ll have a sense of community, you’ll be cared for. It’s the up-side that allows for the down-side.
A friend of mine in the US is a non-theist Quaker. He seems to have all the upside of community without the downside of odious moral edicts. I rather admire him.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Ross Mason,
It could be said of any nonsense the community (people) allege works: Homoeopathy, new age medicine, colour therapy etc etc. If these people pray, yes, it doesn’t hurt me. But I can’t help think that we have a moral obligation to assist in the education of these people to try and appeal to their sense of (il)logic and and persuade them they are wasting their time and resources.
You and I might have a proper duty to try and change the minds of people pursuing faith cures because they could be harming themselves or their dependents.
But people praying for an organisation they support isn't like that at all. You're effectively telling them what they're allowed to think.
It starts to look like the kind of missionary zeal you and I find so irksome in believers.
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to nzlemming,
The clip shown as an example of rock music’s power to wreak evil appears to be the Sweet in concert:
Slade, I think. That looks like Noddy Holder in the big hat. Doesn’t sound right either
Yeah, that’s totes Slade from about 5.05.
And “echoes of a Nuremberg rally”. Heh. Reminds me of seeing Public Enemy at the Brixton Academy – Flavor Flav snuck out on stage before the show, clowned around and solicited a cheer from the crowd. The Guardian’s clearly terrified reviewer later wrote it up as “Nazi-style rabble-rousing”. Seriously.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Will de Cleene,
On the other hand, it didn't hurt you or me that other people did this thing.
Call me contrary, but I beg to differ. Oliver Stone's W. demonstrated the falseness of that security, when more time is spent on appealing to faith than evidence.
Category error. A group of believers sending positive vibes to a Christian media operation is just not the same thing as the mass sanctification (and thus justification) of the actions of a deeply compromised executive.
I honestly can't see how a group of people praying for a media organisation of which they generally approve harms me, if only because it has nothing whatsoever to do with me.
OTOH, I agree very strongly with Emma about the actual and potential harm of assembling a group of men and feeding them Promise Keepers mumbo-jumbo.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Will de Cleene,
Hear hear. Everything has an opportunity cost. Hence the problem with the 1950’s Kiwi Nirvana. It was OK if you’re a straight white male who enjoys mowing the lawns on the weekend, but for anyone outside this Rugby Racing Beer mentality, it was (and is) stifling.
There was a whole lot more wrong with the national psyche than that in the 1950s, though. We were punishingly conformist in any number of ways.
If only the pokie trusts and lottery boards spent more of their great gobs of cash on health and welfare and less on sports and interior decorating.
I have deep misgivings about the way community organisations have become addicted to crumbs from the gambling table, but that money specifically isn't for "health and welfare". In theory, that's what we have taxes for.
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Still can't hate this. The Sweet, 'Fox on the Run':
And the much more rockin' album version:
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to 3410,
Disgusting dreck
or... Bubblegum gold.
More the latter, methinks.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Ross Mason,
Extra extra:
“When we had our media prayer day a couple of months ago we wrote to over 1400 churches and we know that at least 700 churches prayed,” says Mr Guyan.
What a bugger it doesn't seem to work.
The evidence is certainly not encouraging. On the other hand, it didn't hurt you or me that other people did this thing.