The voices that often get drowned out in the debate about the morality of welfare - currently running in the lively exchanges between the Government and various church leaders - are the voices of the poor, those reduced to 'welfare' such as it is.
Well, this morning I heard that voice loud and clear in a scene that played out over breakfast in our night shelter. One guy, who lacks the deposit to get back to the west country where he has a shout at a property where he could live with his partner and children, looked at another, about to go to a drug and alcohol service to see if he can get a referral to residential rehab and said 'you can't go like that.'
He proceeded to produce from his bag a set of hair clippers and having secured my permission to do so, gave his new-found friend a number 2 and a shave, leaving him looking, from the neck up, like any other man in his miod-40s wondering the streets of Bromley this morning.
Having completed his task, our barber turned to the room and said 'that's better; we can't have our mate looking like a down and out.'
This almost silent action spoke more about the morality of the 'welfare' debate than the column inches and indignant responses that have filled the airwaves of late. Here was the articulation of simple humanity, the fact that everyone has a dignity from being made in God's image, and that dignity will force its way to the surface even when a system tries to rub it out.
The indignity of the current 'welfare' system is seen in grindingly slow actions by statutory authorities that leaves people trapped in a money-less and home-less limbo where the will to make a life for oneself is slowly sapped and sucked dry. Reforms driven by any recognisable morality would have at their heart the intention of restoring people's dignity by giving them choice, time and the means to help themselves out of the situation in which they find themselves.
I think it's for this reason that we used to call this system 'social security' because it was premised on a morality that suggested everyone in our society had a right to a minimum level of security and that we who are stronger, richer, more together will assist those who are weaker, poorer, struggling, because we know that there might be a season when we are in their place and need similar support.
It seems to me that this is a system based on a morality of mutualism and human dignity that I find at the heart of the Bible that I read.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Monday, February 03, 2014
Putting rage to good use
Someone unexpected pointed out to me this lunchtime that I hadn't blogged for a month! I made some lame excuse about being busy and having jotted down many blog ideas but not had time to work them up into a blog. I know that misses the point of blogs which are meant to be slightly under-formed musings on life, but hey-ho! Anyway, it spurred me to action, or at least thought...
My silence has been because life in our winter shelter has been more demanding this year than last. I have been serving breakfast most mornings and as a result of that picking up a range of issues to follow-up. And the busy-ness of the shelter has left me fuming about a system that consigns poor, often very vulnerable people to an existence that is precarious at best without a second thought.
And it's not that the people running various parts of that system aren't hard-working, caring, diligent people who want to provide the best service they can to the people in their care. It's because the system often won't let them.
Things came into focus last Friday when a group of our guests were sitting with a manager from the housing department talking through their options. They were getting very frustrated because their options were very few. Suddenly one of them said that he was going to get petition up on the Downing street website to force a debate on homelessness in the house (touching how people continue to hold faith with our legislative machinery!). And everyone in the room said they'd sign it - the baptist minister, the housing department manager, all the other guests - much to his surprise. I said that I'd get the church to sign and my colleague from housing said he'd encourage his colleagues in the department to sign as well.
Our guest was a bit deflated. I think at that moment he realised that he wasn't fighting our local housing department, that maybe they were doing the best job they can under the circumstances. His battle was with something unseen and amorphous, a set of rules that conspired to keep him in housing limbo. And he boiled with an impotent rage. I must say that as I walked home to reflect on scripture ahead of Sunday's sermon, I too boiled with anger.
I was incandescent at a system that allowed a chronic shortage of housing to keep people homeless. Now, this might be a market failure or a lack of concern and commitment on the part of government; it's probably both. But at root, this is a failure of society to ensure that everyone is properly looked after, our failure to press for, support and pay for a system that ensures everyone gets decent accommodation.
And the system generates rage of another kind too, an unpleasant anger at those who are seen to be ahead of our guests in the queue to be provided for. As one of guests - a young father, separated from his partner, who wants access to his kids but is only eligible for a single room in a shared house, which prevents him from having his children staying with him - exploded 'you have to have tits or be foreign to get a place' (after which he stormed out of the room and disappeared).
Such thinking (I use the word loosely), fed by ludicrous stories in the tabloids, pit one section of the poor against another, so that those with power and wealth do not have to do anything to change the system that keeps the poor in their place and the wealth flowing upwards to those who already have it.
When I got home I read 1 Corinthians 4:8-17 with a view to preparing an erudite thought or two on the contrast between the wisdom of the world and God's wisdom embodied in the crucified Jesus. What I read was Paul telling his wayward hearers that he's sending Timothy to remind them of his way of living. And I began to ponder where people will get a model of community other the dog-eat-dog one on offer from the system we have all participated in creating. Paul's answer, of course, that it will come from the followers of Jesus, the communities who live by the wisdom revealed in Christ crucified, who have learned service and sacrifice at the feet of their master and embody that in their relationships.
It reminded me of the anabaptist vision of the church as a counter-cultural presence on the margins of society embodying the life of Jesus in its discipleship and calling others to join them in a community of love and mutual service gathering around the crucified and risen Jesus. And I began to feel hope rising through my anger, the hope that there is a different, better way of being community. The challenge, of course, is living it in the faith community of which I am a part so that we can bring a little hope to those on the verge of giving up.
My silence has been because life in our winter shelter has been more demanding this year than last. I have been serving breakfast most mornings and as a result of that picking up a range of issues to follow-up. And the busy-ness of the shelter has left me fuming about a system that consigns poor, often very vulnerable people to an existence that is precarious at best without a second thought.
And it's not that the people running various parts of that system aren't hard-working, caring, diligent people who want to provide the best service they can to the people in their care. It's because the system often won't let them.
Things came into focus last Friday when a group of our guests were sitting with a manager from the housing department talking through their options. They were getting very frustrated because their options were very few. Suddenly one of them said that he was going to get petition up on the Downing street website to force a debate on homelessness in the house (touching how people continue to hold faith with our legislative machinery!). And everyone in the room said they'd sign it - the baptist minister, the housing department manager, all the other guests - much to his surprise. I said that I'd get the church to sign and my colleague from housing said he'd encourage his colleagues in the department to sign as well.
Our guest was a bit deflated. I think at that moment he realised that he wasn't fighting our local housing department, that maybe they were doing the best job they can under the circumstances. His battle was with something unseen and amorphous, a set of rules that conspired to keep him in housing limbo. And he boiled with an impotent rage. I must say that as I walked home to reflect on scripture ahead of Sunday's sermon, I too boiled with anger.
I was incandescent at a system that allowed a chronic shortage of housing to keep people homeless. Now, this might be a market failure or a lack of concern and commitment on the part of government; it's probably both. But at root, this is a failure of society to ensure that everyone is properly looked after, our failure to press for, support and pay for a system that ensures everyone gets decent accommodation.
And the system generates rage of another kind too, an unpleasant anger at those who are seen to be ahead of our guests in the queue to be provided for. As one of guests - a young father, separated from his partner, who wants access to his kids but is only eligible for a single room in a shared house, which prevents him from having his children staying with him - exploded 'you have to have tits or be foreign to get a place' (after which he stormed out of the room and disappeared).
Such thinking (I use the word loosely), fed by ludicrous stories in the tabloids, pit one section of the poor against another, so that those with power and wealth do not have to do anything to change the system that keeps the poor in their place and the wealth flowing upwards to those who already have it.
When I got home I read 1 Corinthians 4:8-17 with a view to preparing an erudite thought or two on the contrast between the wisdom of the world and God's wisdom embodied in the crucified Jesus. What I read was Paul telling his wayward hearers that he's sending Timothy to remind them of his way of living. And I began to ponder where people will get a model of community other the dog-eat-dog one on offer from the system we have all participated in creating. Paul's answer, of course, that it will come from the followers of Jesus, the communities who live by the wisdom revealed in Christ crucified, who have learned service and sacrifice at the feet of their master and embody that in their relationships.
It reminded me of the anabaptist vision of the church as a counter-cultural presence on the margins of society embodying the life of Jesus in its discipleship and calling others to join them in a community of love and mutual service gathering around the crucified and risen Jesus. And I began to feel hope rising through my anger, the hope that there is a different, better way of being community. The challenge, of course, is living it in the faith community of which I am a part so that we can bring a little hope to those on the verge of giving up.
Friday, January 03, 2014
New year, new debate...
It's probably true to say that there has not been a furore over PJ Harvey's guest editorship of the Today programme yesterday. 37 complaints to the BBC means it barely registers on the Richter scale of disquiet.
And the response of the usual right of centre suspects only confirms that the programme probably got it about right if it's aim was to offer an alternative view of the world to the one usually served up by the mainstream media - including the BBC. Colin Bloom of the Conservative Christian Fellowship spoke of it being 'incomprehensible liberal drivel'. I assume that applied as much to Rowan Williams as it did to Julian Assange. And Stephen Glover in the Mail suggested it was 'silly, frivolous and unpatriotic'.
What neither 'critic' (and I use the term loosely) offered was a reason. It seems that for some, debate means dismissing the views of those you disagree with as not worthy of attention. So Harvey is clearly 'unpatriotic' (the unforgivable sin in the warped world of the Daily Mail) and therefore not to be taken seriously; or worse to be silenced as dangerous (as they attempted to do in the misjudged abuse of Ed Milliband's father last year). The fact that Colin didn't understand what was being said should have had him reaching for a dictionary not the twittersphere.
We need to debate ideas. This means that we listen to one another - especially those we disagree with. This is something we learn in church (something Rowan was alluding to yesterday in his thought for the day). We hear voices from many places offering different perspectives, different takes on the common journey on which we find ourselves. It is in this process, according to Paul, that we discern the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2), that we gain a modicum of wisdom.
Given the depth of the hole our country is in with poverty growing, social division reaching epic proportions, and shared values fraying at the seams, we need a debate not the casual dismissal of views of we don't like.
This was the Corinthian problem. They thought the people with the loudest voices, the most arcane theologies and largest bank balances were the ones who deserved to be listened to. Furthermore, they thought everyone else - including Paul - should get with the programme, fall into line or at least have the good grace to shut up. Paul, of course, suggested that such thinking was both secular and childish, that it damaged the body - whether that was the body ecclesiastical or the body politic. What he suggested instead was that people listen to each other - and that maybe we give equal prominence to those voices that society tends to dismiss - the poor, less well-placed, immigrant, disabled (1 Corinthians 12).
Such an approach to debate might lead to something creative emerging out of the gathering sense of anomie, the deep frustration of those who feel they have gone unheard for too long. Apparently, 2014 is the year it's all going to kick off. I, for one, can't wait to get stuck in.
And the response of the usual right of centre suspects only confirms that the programme probably got it about right if it's aim was to offer an alternative view of the world to the one usually served up by the mainstream media - including the BBC. Colin Bloom of the Conservative Christian Fellowship spoke of it being 'incomprehensible liberal drivel'. I assume that applied as much to Rowan Williams as it did to Julian Assange. And Stephen Glover in the Mail suggested it was 'silly, frivolous and unpatriotic'.
What neither 'critic' (and I use the term loosely) offered was a reason. It seems that for some, debate means dismissing the views of those you disagree with as not worthy of attention. So Harvey is clearly 'unpatriotic' (the unforgivable sin in the warped world of the Daily Mail) and therefore not to be taken seriously; or worse to be silenced as dangerous (as they attempted to do in the misjudged abuse of Ed Milliband's father last year). The fact that Colin didn't understand what was being said should have had him reaching for a dictionary not the twittersphere.
We need to debate ideas. This means that we listen to one another - especially those we disagree with. This is something we learn in church (something Rowan was alluding to yesterday in his thought for the day). We hear voices from many places offering different perspectives, different takes on the common journey on which we find ourselves. It is in this process, according to Paul, that we discern the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2), that we gain a modicum of wisdom.
Given the depth of the hole our country is in with poverty growing, social division reaching epic proportions, and shared values fraying at the seams, we need a debate not the casual dismissal of views of we don't like.
This was the Corinthian problem. They thought the people with the loudest voices, the most arcane theologies and largest bank balances were the ones who deserved to be listened to. Furthermore, they thought everyone else - including Paul - should get with the programme, fall into line or at least have the good grace to shut up. Paul, of course, suggested that such thinking was both secular and childish, that it damaged the body - whether that was the body ecclesiastical or the body politic. What he suggested instead was that people listen to each other - and that maybe we give equal prominence to those voices that society tends to dismiss - the poor, less well-placed, immigrant, disabled (1 Corinthians 12).
Such an approach to debate might lead to something creative emerging out of the gathering sense of anomie, the deep frustration of those who feel they have gone unheard for too long. Apparently, 2014 is the year it's all going to kick off. I, for one, can't wait to get stuck in.
Thursday, January 02, 2014
Something to get up for
Well, today was a first for me. I listened to the Today programme on iPlayer, because I had to hear it again!
I woke this morning as usual at 6:15am, put the radio on and was treated to an erudite, somewhat left-field analysis of the place of the City of London in the life of the nation. This was followed by a wonderful critique of the politics of sport introduced by the flat voiced Rob Bonnet. I wondered if I was tuned to the right station. But I was.
And the contributions kept getting better - Rowan Williams reading his poetry, John Pilger at his polemic best taking the media to task for not reporting the facts, even Tom Waits singing about the weather in the run up to the 6:58 forecast!
And the reason for all this? PJ Harvey was guest editor and wanted to give the programme a fresh twist. She certainly did that - and some! I've no doubt there'll be a lot of whining about objectivity and propaganda but I'd be delighted if Polly Jean were to guest edit the show once a week. It would restore the balance that people are always banging on about by giving us the chance to hear a different set of witnesses from the world's coalface.
Fantastic stuff - thanks BBC (that three hours on its own was worth my licence fee for this year) and thanks PJ Harvey for your creativity, wit and chutzpah!
I woke this morning as usual at 6:15am, put the radio on and was treated to an erudite, somewhat left-field analysis of the place of the City of London in the life of the nation. This was followed by a wonderful critique of the politics of sport introduced by the flat voiced Rob Bonnet. I wondered if I was tuned to the right station. But I was.
And the contributions kept getting better - Rowan Williams reading his poetry, John Pilger at his polemic best taking the media to task for not reporting the facts, even Tom Waits singing about the weather in the run up to the 6:58 forecast!
And the reason for all this? PJ Harvey was guest editor and wanted to give the programme a fresh twist. She certainly did that - and some! I've no doubt there'll be a lot of whining about objectivity and propaganda but I'd be delighted if Polly Jean were to guest edit the show once a week. It would restore the balance that people are always banging on about by giving us the chance to hear a different set of witnesses from the world's coalface.
Fantastic stuff - thanks BBC (that three hours on its own was worth my licence fee for this year) and thanks PJ Harvey for your creativity, wit and chutzpah!
Monday, December 23, 2013
the politics of Christmas
We were celebrating the beginnings of the gospel last night, Christmas, the start of God's recreation of the world, the making of all things new.. It's a story about God sending a king who will lift up the poor and needy, turn the elite out of their palaces and bring justice for those at the bottom of the pile (Luke 1, Isaiah 9, 11, Jeremiah 23, etc, etc..)
So when Tory MP Mark Pritchard tweets (as he did last night): ‘If some parts of the Church of England preached a little more gospel and a little less politics – perhaps [the] Church would be in a better place,’ I wonder if he understands either the gospel or politics! When government ministers refuse to meet the Trussell Trust and claim that they are meddling in politics by linking rising demand for foodbanks with benefit changes, I wonder if they understand either the gospel or politics.
Jesus was born in the midst of political struggle as part of that struggle. The maccabean flavoured magificat, a song of liberation and social upheaval, which many churches sing on a regular basis, is at the heart of the gospel. Jesus came to proclaim a kingdom (a political idea if ever there was one) that questions the claims of every other kingdom.
Politicians who claim that the church should stick to the gospel and not talk about the poor or the injustice of systems that keep people poor, clearly have no idea what the gospel is about. As we celebrate the most political festival in the Christian calendar (apart from all the others!), it is the perfect moment for Christians to be talking about the things that matter to God - justice, equality, being practical good news to the poor, and challenging elites and the wealthy to use the resources under their command to work for God's agenda in the world.
So when Tory MP Mark Pritchard tweets (as he did last night): ‘If some parts of the Church of England preached a little more gospel and a little less politics – perhaps [the] Church would be in a better place,’ I wonder if he understands either the gospel or politics! When government ministers refuse to meet the Trussell Trust and claim that they are meddling in politics by linking rising demand for foodbanks with benefit changes, I wonder if they understand either the gospel or politics.
Jesus was born in the midst of political struggle as part of that struggle. The maccabean flavoured magificat, a song of liberation and social upheaval, which many churches sing on a regular basis, is at the heart of the gospel. Jesus came to proclaim a kingdom (a political idea if ever there was one) that questions the claims of every other kingdom.
Politicians who claim that the church should stick to the gospel and not talk about the poor or the injustice of systems that keep people poor, clearly have no idea what the gospel is about. As we celebrate the most political festival in the Christian calendar (apart from all the others!), it is the perfect moment for Christians to be talking about the things that matter to God - justice, equality, being practical good news to the poor, and challenging elites and the wealthy to use the resources under their command to work for God's agenda in the world.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Just when you thought everything was expensive...
Joseph Arthur is a somewhat underrated singer on this side of the pond. If you don't know his work, then those lovely people at noisetrade have put his whole 2012 album Redemption City on their site which you can grab for nothing or a tip of your choice.
It's a rambling, half-spoken, self-released electronica-washed, guitar driven 24 song cycle that's little short of magnificent. Well worth checking out. You'll find it here.
It's a rambling, half-spoken, self-released electronica-washed, guitar driven 24 song cycle that's little short of magnificent. Well worth checking out. You'll find it here.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
More great music for free
So, just when you think all the new music worth shouting about has been captured in my top ten, along come the wonderful people at noisetrade and offer for nothing at all, free, gratis and without shelling out any pennies at all, a stunning album from a band new to me called duologue.
Song & Dance was released back in February but didn't cross my radar until the email from noisetrade arrived this morning. That's why the site is essential.
Washes of guitar, violin and keyboards over broken electronic beats, vocals just the compelling side of whiney, they sound a bit like Radiohead a la In Rainbows, but they are definitely their own people, cooking up a warm and edgy concoction.
And it's free here at noisetrade. Of course, you might decide to leave them a tip for their efforts (which would be the Christmassy thing to do!)
Song & Dance was released back in February but didn't cross my radar until the email from noisetrade arrived this morning. That's why the site is essential.
Washes of guitar, violin and keyboards over broken electronic beats, vocals just the compelling side of whiney, they sound a bit like Radiohead a la In Rainbows, but they are definitely their own people, cooking up a warm and edgy concoction.
And it's free here at noisetrade. Of course, you might decide to leave them a tip for their efforts (which would be the Christmassy thing to do!)
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Giving our legislators something to fill their days
Had some interesting conversations at the Lords last night over a glass or two of houses of Parliament wine. Two Tories tried to persuade me that I had nothing to worry about from the gagging bill - we'll see! I suspect the government will come back with significant amendments to section two so that it's not a gag on civil society. Let's hope so...
Another MP opened by apologising that fewer members would be around this evening because the House rose early due to lack of business. Indeed, she suggested that there was a strange feeling about the house at the moment as if we were on the verge of an election. The government seems to have very little legislation in the pipeline. And yet the election is 18 months away under the new fixed term rules passed at the beginning of this parliament.
So, this begs two questions. Firstly, what are MPs going to be doing for their increased salaries (something that I'm not really opposed to)? And secondly, why not use the acres of free time to pass new house building legislation, freeing resources (borrowed if necessary) and compelling local authorities to build a range of homes - social, low cost, shared ownership as well as for outright purchase - between now and the next election. It would also be good to enact a clause within that legislation that compelled developers and others sitting on land to use it or lose it.
Imagine spending the £2bn that is currently being paid in benefits to unemployed construction workers in the South East of England on building homes that would get these guys back to work. Win win win....
Well, It's Christmas we're allowed to dream of a new world coming - that's what the angels said would happen.
Another MP opened by apologising that fewer members would be around this evening because the House rose early due to lack of business. Indeed, she suggested that there was a strange feeling about the house at the moment as if we were on the verge of an election. The government seems to have very little legislation in the pipeline. And yet the election is 18 months away under the new fixed term rules passed at the beginning of this parliament.
So, this begs two questions. Firstly, what are MPs going to be doing for their increased salaries (something that I'm not really opposed to)? And secondly, why not use the acres of free time to pass new house building legislation, freeing resources (borrowed if necessary) and compelling local authorities to build a range of homes - social, low cost, shared ownership as well as for outright purchase - between now and the next election. It would also be good to enact a clause within that legislation that compelled developers and others sitting on land to use it or lose it.
Imagine spending the £2bn that is currently being paid in benefits to unemployed construction workers in the South East of England on building homes that would get these guys back to work. Win win win....
Well, It's Christmas we're allowed to dream of a new world coming - that's what the angels said would happen.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
A good time of year to think about housing
Off to the House of Lords later to mark the end of the If campaign. I was going to lobby my MP this afternoon over the gagging bill but he is not available (apparently). Hopefully enough people will be getting message across to enough MPs so that this pernicious bill will be killed off (for reasons read the two excellent reports from the civil society commission which are here).
The other major issue needing solid and sensible engagement is the mounting housing crisis. Jules Birch charts the depth of the hole we find ourselves in (here). In particular, he highlights the Janus-like approach of our government which on the one hand is stoking the housing market through help to buy, while on the other trying to get local authorities to build more houses to choke off house price inflation. Guess which of those is winning.
House prices are predicted to rise by a third between now and 2020 and rents by almost 40%. Given that for millions of people housing is already unaffordable, these numbers are frightening.
Merely encouraging local authorities to build is hardly tackling the issue. Where I live, the local authority is doing OK but prices are still rising despite what they able to add to the stock. We need something in the spirit of the Attlee and Macmillan governments which at a time of huge deficits, borrowed to build millions of homes (including new towns and cities such as Milton Keynes).
Given that 1% of the British Isles has housing built on it (and a further 2-3% has buildings for other uses), there is space for a new town or two. So now would be the time to stop pandering to the 'we can't concrete over the whole land' argument.
The question is where are the politicians who are moving this issue to the top of an agenda for government? I don't hear them.
It's a good time of year to think about housing, of course. Many churches are opening night shelters to offer a warm meal and dry bed to those without accommodation; and those same churches are about the celebrate the arrival in the world of a baby who was quickly a homeless refugee. That baby grew to be a carpenter preacher who told his followers that he had nowhere to lay his head (of course, any UK local authority would have washed their hands of him, saying he was intentionally homeless!). His message was that in his Kingdom there would be a place for everyone - that should motivate his followers to ensure that everyone has a decent place to live.
The other major issue needing solid and sensible engagement is the mounting housing crisis. Jules Birch charts the depth of the hole we find ourselves in (here). In particular, he highlights the Janus-like approach of our government which on the one hand is stoking the housing market through help to buy, while on the other trying to get local authorities to build more houses to choke off house price inflation. Guess which of those is winning.
House prices are predicted to rise by a third between now and 2020 and rents by almost 40%. Given that for millions of people housing is already unaffordable, these numbers are frightening.
Merely encouraging local authorities to build is hardly tackling the issue. Where I live, the local authority is doing OK but prices are still rising despite what they able to add to the stock. We need something in the spirit of the Attlee and Macmillan governments which at a time of huge deficits, borrowed to build millions of homes (including new towns and cities such as Milton Keynes).
Given that 1% of the British Isles has housing built on it (and a further 2-3% has buildings for other uses), there is space for a new town or two. So now would be the time to stop pandering to the 'we can't concrete over the whole land' argument.
The question is where are the politicians who are moving this issue to the top of an agenda for government? I don't hear them.
It's a good time of year to think about housing, of course. Many churches are opening night shelters to offer a warm meal and dry bed to those without accommodation; and those same churches are about the celebrate the arrival in the world of a baby who was quickly a homeless refugee. That baby grew to be a carpenter preacher who told his followers that he had nowhere to lay his head (of course, any UK local authority would have washed their hands of him, saying he was intentionally homeless!). His message was that in his Kingdom there would be a place for everyone - that should motivate his followers to ensure that everyone has a decent place to live.
A year of listening pleasure
It's that time of year when everyone sharing their best listens of 2013. So here are mine in no particular order. At the end I'll suggest the album that I think is the best of the year - but they're all pretty marvellous.
Prefab Sprout - Crimson/Red: late in the year, back from the dead came Paddy McAloon with a near perfect collection of velvety lush melodies with barbed, witty lyrics reflecting on life as a writer and performer. In particular The Songs of Danny Gallway and the Old Magician stand out from a very strong field.
The National - Trouble will find me: building on the success of High Violet, Cincinatti's finest produce their best work to date; tricky rhythms, elipical lyrics delivered in a lush baritone and fabulous washes of guitars and keyboards make for a heady brew.
David Bowie - the Next Day: who'd have thought that thirty years after Scary Monsters, the dame would come roaring back with his best album since the Berlin golden phase? Droll cover art that recalls Heroes and 14 tracks that stand alongside the best of his canon. Should we want a follow up or hope that this is a legend bowing out on a high?
Daft Punk - Random Access Memory: witty, imaginative, informed, awash with the history of dance and funk, the French duo make an album of joy and fun. Dig below the surface and there's nothing there but that's not the point - it's music to play loud when you need a lift!
Depeche Mode - Delta Machine: the Essex boys continue to explore their spiritual lives to choppy rhythms and swirling electronica. Angel and Heaven stand out but there's just one good song after another here - just what an album should be!
Eels - Wonderful Glorious: Mark Everett seems incapable of writing a dull note. This is a collection of droll observations set to catchy hooks. In many ways it's more of the same, though there seems to be a maturity of tone (both musically and lyrically) to these songs, a sign that E's growing old gracefully but losing nothing of his edge.
Bill Mallonee - Dolorosa: Album 51 (number 50 was an album of the year last year!) and the man gets better and better. This is the best work he's produced (eclipsing even last year's wonderful Amber Waves), a collection of wry reflections on life and faith from a songwriter hitting the peak of his powers - long may he continue mature.
Arcade Fire - Reflektor: It was always going to be difficult to top the Suburbs and Arcade Fire seem to have been bowed by the weight of it. People talk about this as a come-back album for reasons that mystify me and while it's not as fresh and original as its predecessor, it's still a pretty cool collection. Helped to achieve a new sound by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy (a marriage that doesn't always work), the album is full of Haitian rhythms, dance beats and soul-searching lyrics that suggest Win Butler isn't deliriously comfortable with his super star band leader label
Gungor - I am Mountain: Michael Gungor started life as a worship leader and has morphed into a highly original song writer exploring the terrain of faith with some glorious music. Gungor's usual lush harmonies are all present and correct here but the lyrics drive the music to some difficult and demanding places - on God and Country over driving country-esque riffs, he seems to be likening US forces in the middle east to the beast rising from the sea in Revelation (that must have gone down a bomb in the mid-west!). On other tracks he reflects on the myth of Orpheus (a popular theme for musicians over recent years), the struggles of faith and looks forward to the resurrection on the exhilarating Finally. Heady stuff.
Nick Cave - Push the Sky away: The year belongs to Nick Cave.As winter gripped, the first single, We now who UR, heralded that Push the Sky Away was going to be a work to be reckoned with. And the year ended with Cave releasing a live set featuring a number of tracks form the album performed in front of a tiny audience at an LA radio station. Called Live from KCRW, it boasts a wonderful reworking of The Mercy Seat that makes it worth the price of admission in itself. Push the Sky Away is an epic of restraint. With Warren Ellis providing most of the other sounds apart from Cave's vocal and piano, the album teeters on the brink of erupting but saves its punch for the lyrics where Cave has given full rein to his reflective imagination. He muses on life, love, growing old (the blisteringly moving title track that closes the album), faith in a world of science and celebrity (Higgs Boson Blues) and life in Brighton. Not a note or word is out of place on this musical tour de force. It's definitely my record of the year.
Prefab Sprout - Crimson/Red: late in the year, back from the dead came Paddy McAloon with a near perfect collection of velvety lush melodies with barbed, witty lyrics reflecting on life as a writer and performer. In particular The Songs of Danny Gallway and the Old Magician stand out from a very strong field.
The National - Trouble will find me: building on the success of High Violet, Cincinatti's finest produce their best work to date; tricky rhythms, elipical lyrics delivered in a lush baritone and fabulous washes of guitars and keyboards make for a heady brew.
David Bowie - the Next Day: who'd have thought that thirty years after Scary Monsters, the dame would come roaring back with his best album since the Berlin golden phase? Droll cover art that recalls Heroes and 14 tracks that stand alongside the best of his canon. Should we want a follow up or hope that this is a legend bowing out on a high?
Daft Punk - Random Access Memory: witty, imaginative, informed, awash with the history of dance and funk, the French duo make an album of joy and fun. Dig below the surface and there's nothing there but that's not the point - it's music to play loud when you need a lift!
Depeche Mode - Delta Machine: the Essex boys continue to explore their spiritual lives to choppy rhythms and swirling electronica. Angel and Heaven stand out but there's just one good song after another here - just what an album should be!
Eels - Wonderful Glorious: Mark Everett seems incapable of writing a dull note. This is a collection of droll observations set to catchy hooks. In many ways it's more of the same, though there seems to be a maturity of tone (both musically and lyrically) to these songs, a sign that E's growing old gracefully but losing nothing of his edge.
Bill Mallonee - Dolorosa: Album 51 (number 50 was an album of the year last year!) and the man gets better and better. This is the best work he's produced (eclipsing even last year's wonderful Amber Waves), a collection of wry reflections on life and faith from a songwriter hitting the peak of his powers - long may he continue mature.
Arcade Fire - Reflektor: It was always going to be difficult to top the Suburbs and Arcade Fire seem to have been bowed by the weight of it. People talk about this as a come-back album for reasons that mystify me and while it's not as fresh and original as its predecessor, it's still a pretty cool collection. Helped to achieve a new sound by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy (a marriage that doesn't always work), the album is full of Haitian rhythms, dance beats and soul-searching lyrics that suggest Win Butler isn't deliriously comfortable with his super star band leader label
Gungor - I am Mountain: Michael Gungor started life as a worship leader and has morphed into a highly original song writer exploring the terrain of faith with some glorious music. Gungor's usual lush harmonies are all present and correct here but the lyrics drive the music to some difficult and demanding places - on God and Country over driving country-esque riffs, he seems to be likening US forces in the middle east to the beast rising from the sea in Revelation (that must have gone down a bomb in the mid-west!). On other tracks he reflects on the myth of Orpheus (a popular theme for musicians over recent years), the struggles of faith and looks forward to the resurrection on the exhilarating Finally. Heady stuff.
Nick Cave - Push the Sky away: The year belongs to Nick Cave.As winter gripped, the first single, We now who UR, heralded that Push the Sky Away was going to be a work to be reckoned with. And the year ended with Cave releasing a live set featuring a number of tracks form the album performed in front of a tiny audience at an LA radio station. Called Live from KCRW, it boasts a wonderful reworking of The Mercy Seat that makes it worth the price of admission in itself. Push the Sky Away is an epic of restraint. With Warren Ellis providing most of the other sounds apart from Cave's vocal and piano, the album teeters on the brink of erupting but saves its punch for the lyrics where Cave has given full rein to his reflective imagination. He muses on life, love, growing old (the blisteringly moving title track that closes the album), faith in a world of science and celebrity (Higgs Boson Blues) and life in Brighton. Not a note or word is out of place on this musical tour de force. It's definitely my record of the year.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Improving with age
Last year I chose Bill Mallonee's Amber Waves as one of my albums of the year, suggesting that it could well be the best thing he'd done. Well, now I am listening to Dolorosa and thinking that the man just gets better and better.
The twelve songs (with four bonus tracks of alternate takes) are hard-wired reflections on life and faith set to edgy guitar and occasional piano washes. Not a disappointing song in evidence here but 'Here comes the flood' is the pick of them, a world weary apocalypse that wonders why people of faith relish the end of the world so much.
Like a good scotch, Mallonee keeps improving with age. Long may he continue - and, if he's listening, please come and play a gig in my church!
You can only get the album from his bandcamp page, so go here immediately, pay your money and luxuriate in the music...
The twelve songs (with four bonus tracks of alternate takes) are hard-wired reflections on life and faith set to edgy guitar and occasional piano washes. Not a disappointing song in evidence here but 'Here comes the flood' is the pick of them, a world weary apocalypse that wonders why people of faith relish the end of the world so much.
Like a good scotch, Mallonee keeps improving with age. Long may he continue - and, if he's listening, please come and play a gig in my church!
You can only get the album from his bandcamp page, so go here immediately, pay your money and luxuriate in the music...
Thursday, November 07, 2013
Language matters
New figures show that 850,000 people on jobseekers allowance have been 'sanctioned' - that is, had benefit docked for 13 weeks or more in the year to June 2013 - because they were not trying hard enough to find work.
The minister responsible, former daytime TV presenter Esther McVey, says the clue to why this is happening is in the name of the allowance - 'jobseekers'. You are paid, she said, only if you are doing all you can to get a job.
This is an interesting effect of changing the name of a benefit. Many years ago, this payment was called 'unemployment benefit' and it was part of a social security safety net that ensured that people who had lost their job didn't go without food, utilities and housing. It was not a payment made as a reward for seeking work but a payment from a society that believed it had a responsibility to those unfortunate enough to be without work. The system offered support and encouragement to those without work to find new gainful employment while assisting with their essential bills.
Sadly the name change - made many years ago - indicates a change in our understanding of society's obligation to those struggling with the circumstances in which they find themselves. And it is one of the factors that accounts for the fact that 500,000 people in our land are dependent on food banks to feed themselves and their families.
The minister responsible, former daytime TV presenter Esther McVey, says the clue to why this is happening is in the name of the allowance - 'jobseekers'. You are paid, she said, only if you are doing all you can to get a job.
This is an interesting effect of changing the name of a benefit. Many years ago, this payment was called 'unemployment benefit' and it was part of a social security safety net that ensured that people who had lost their job didn't go without food, utilities and housing. It was not a payment made as a reward for seeking work but a payment from a society that believed it had a responsibility to those unfortunate enough to be without work. The system offered support and encouragement to those without work to find new gainful employment while assisting with their essential bills.
Sadly the name change - made many years ago - indicates a change in our understanding of society's obligation to those struggling with the circumstances in which they find themselves. And it is one of the factors that accounts for the fact that 500,000 people in our land are dependent on food banks to feed themselves and their families.
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
Spreading the word...
Thursday, October 31, 2013
The revolution will be along next year...(apparently)
Danny Dorling is on great form in this week's New Statesman, spelling out the extent of the transfer of wealth from the younger to the older generation in today's world. It makes for sobering reading. One sentence in particular leapt out at me: 'for the first time ever, a grand mother in her eighties can expect to enjoy higher living standards than someone in their twenties who is in work.'
This is not the finding of some far left think tank, but of the government's own social mobility and child poverty commission report published a few weeks ago.
The strange thing, of course, is that lots of older people feel left behind in the struggle to make ends meet and tend to think that the young are powering ahead. Sadly, the two groups (this is a broad generalisation, I know) don't mix, don't share their experiences and thus have little sense of solidarity.
Perhaps if they did, there would be a revolution of the kind Paul Mason talks abut in the same issue of the magazine. He quotes research by IT consultancy Gartner suggesting that 'a larger scale version of an occupy wall street-type movement will begin by the end of 2014, indicating that social unrest will start to foster political debate.'
Can't come soon enough, can it?
This is not the finding of some far left think tank, but of the government's own social mobility and child poverty commission report published a few weeks ago.
The strange thing, of course, is that lots of older people feel left behind in the struggle to make ends meet and tend to think that the young are powering ahead. Sadly, the two groups (this is a broad generalisation, I know) don't mix, don't share their experiences and thus have little sense of solidarity.
Perhaps if they did, there would be a revolution of the kind Paul Mason talks abut in the same issue of the magazine. He quotes research by IT consultancy Gartner suggesting that 'a larger scale version of an occupy wall street-type movement will begin by the end of 2014, indicating that social unrest will start to foster political debate.'
Can't come soon enough, can it?
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Is it possible to make society cool again?
In
Tracey Thorn's hugely enjoyable and enlightening autobiography, Bed Sit Disco Queen, she suggests
that people formed in the 1970s tend to be collectivist about things because
that was the spirit of the decade. I think she probably overstates the case but
is undoubtedly right.
For
me, becoming a Christian in that decade of a kind shaped by a labour councillor
curate and fervent evangelicals, moulded by northern working class evangelicals
at university in Manchester and still clinging to the ideals of the counter
culture embodied in Chicago's first five albums, CSNY and a host of others,
collectivism was a no-brainer.
Like
Thorn I stuck to my guns in the individualist eighties, supporting the miners, opposing privatisation in all
its forms, believing that we do some things better as a
community and that financial capitalism might just lead us all to hell in a
handcart (five years on from the collapse I see no reason to change my view on
that one). In short, I believe that there is such a thing as society!
I was reminded of this yesterday when I attended an excellent seminar on the future shape of housing policy organised by the Strategic Society Centre. Four speakers - Ruth Davison from the National Housing Federation, Josh Miller, the senior economist at RICS, Toby Lloyd of Shelter and Matt Griffith of Priced Out - each reflected on the current state of the housing market and suggested ways it might be made to work in the interests of everyone and not just the wealthy few. It was a hugely stimulating two hours.
In the course of conversation afterwards, Ruth drew my attention to the fact research suggests that the younger generations (Y and those rising behind them) tend to be more individualistic and so tend to be less sympathetic to those who need a social safety net. Since these are overwhelmingly the age group that the housing market, left entirely to 'market forces' is failing, this is somewhat ironic.
I guess part of the reason for this is that the press for thirty years has lauded individualism and trashed people who can't support themselves for whatever reason. The latest manifestation of this is the rhetoric of skivers and strivers that George Osborne used but seems to have dropped; and the more neutral sounding 'hard working families' that all political parties seem to want to speak for. This suggests that anyone in need of support of any kind is feckless.
I wonder how we go about rekindling a sense of collective responsibility among the young? Perhaps we could find ways of showing that being 'society' means that we really are all in this together and that those who need assistance - to pay their bills, find work, get training, find a home - are the shared responsibility of everyone, you and me. Further, perhaps we could rekindle the idea that we each prosper when everyone prospers.
I think that's the idea behind Jeremiah's instruction to the exiles to seek the welfare of the city where they have been sent because if the city prospers, so will they; but if it doesn't, then neither will they. It's the vision Jesus holds before us, the idea of a kingdom where everyone is welcome, everyone has a role, and everyone shares bounty.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Give us this day our daily bread … How, exactly?
We're part way through a series exploring God's Kingdom under the title a brighter day (taken from a Gungor track), We're using Donald Kraybill's classic book The Upside Kingdom as a our launch pad, so the first three sermons were based on the three temptations of Jesus. So here's my piece from this month's magazine reflecting on the Devil's suggestion that Jesus turn stones to bread.
Nothing reveals the upside-down nature of God’s Kingdom
quite as much as Jesus’ response to the devil’s temptations. Satan offered
Jesus a range of right-side-up options, straight out of the world’s political
and religious lexicon. And Jesus passed on them all. In doing so, he left us a
model to follow as we seek to be good citizens of his upside-down kingdom.
Jesus was offered political power, provided that he exercised
it in the way every other tin-pot dictator did. He was offered religious power,
the chance to run an elaborate temple empire that kept people in thrall to a
cycle of guilt and laws. And he was offered the opportunity to be a welfare
messiah. Turn stones to bread, said the devil; what could be better than
meeting the needs of the world’s poor by working a miracle of provision? Jesus
declined then all, opting for a rougher, harder, more costly way that involved
subverting the empires of the world from below.
Nowhere is this more needed in the economic realm. I have
been and continue to be a big supporter of our foodbank. I think it is a simple,
practical way for us to stand with people who are struggling to make ends meet.
I am also furious that we have to be involved in it. I do not think that hunger
should be a matter for charity.
And this is
the heart of this temptation to Jesus that he be a welfare messiah, doling out
charity bread to the poor but leaving the system that makes and keeps them poor
unchallenged. So, I’ve been reflecting a little on this with the help of a book
called The Stop: how the fight for good food transformed a community and
inspired a movement by Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis. It tells the story of a
Canadian project that started as a foodbank but grew like Topsy.
The
temptation to turn stones into bread is about the daily provision that we trust
God to provide. Jesus told us to pray, ‘give us today our daily bread’. His 40-day
fast echoed the 40 years that Israel spent in the wilderness during which time
God provided bread every day. Jesus lived in hungry times and the devil’s question
suggested he take the struggle out of the provision of bread, so being hailed
as messiah.
We too live
in hungry times. Some 500,000 people in the UK depend on foodbanks to provide
some meals each month; that’s more than the population of the borough of
Bromley. This is a political issue and not just an invitation to be charitable
to people in need. The society that Jesus lived in was hideously unequal with a
few fabulously wealthy people living in the lap of luxury while the
overwhelming majority of the population struggled to make ends meet. And the
devil wanted it to stay that way, hence suggesting that Jesus conjures bread
for the poor but does nothing to change the order of things – rulers remain in
place, the rich hang on to bank balances.
Jesus
refuses to play this game because he’s listening to God. That’s what his answer
means. What does quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 have to do with this temptation? Simply
that there are words aplenty in scripture that relate to how society should be
ordered so that there are no poor who need us to dump charity on them. Deuteronomy
15:7-11 is a good place to start; the laws on gleaning, the Sabbath laws and
the jubilee – all point to a society where people do not become helplessly
poor. That’s what Jesus meant by people living by the word of God. He took up
these ideas in his teaching on the Kingdom; in Luke 12:12-13, for example. And
the early church took what he said seriously as we see in Acts 2:42-48 and 2
Corinthians 8:1-15 (especially verses 13-15 which speak about equality).
This
temptation begins to look like something that has implications for us. All too
often our stock response to things going wrong in the world is ‘someone should
do something’. Jesus’ response suggests that I have it in my power to do
something that will make a difference. The citizens of his Kingdom are people
who live by different rules.
It’s interesting
that when Paul quotes Exodus 16:18 in 2 Corinthians 8, a text that was used to
show how God deals equitably with everyone, he applies it to us, saying that we
should use our resources (all that God has given us) to bring about equality.
It is a deeply worrying suggestion but one that we need to take seriously if we
are going to be a people who live by every word that comes from the mouth of
God (including this one).
So what
does being a citizen of this upside-down kingdom entail? In relation to the
inequitable distribution of bread, it means that first, we support our foodbank,
giving generously so that those in need can receive the help they desperately
need. But we do this, secondly, not as an act of charity but as a pointer to the
equality that we want to see in the world around us. So, thirdly, we kick up a stink
that so many people depend on handouts of food in our society in 2013. And
finally, we begin to dream, like the good folk at the Stop in Canada began to
dream: What else could we do? How could we use the resources we have to create
more imaginative and long-lasting solutions that enable people to provide for
themselves and others rather than depend on charity?
In that way
we will show ourselves to be caught up in the upside-kingdom, pointing to God’s
brighter day. The great thing about this series so far is that people are
having conversations along these lines. Long may it continue ...
Friday, October 11, 2013
Truth, freedom and mission
It was Simon Heffer who started it. In a recent lecture on
City ethics he asserted ‘It should once more become unthinkable to tell a lie in business’. Well,
duh, when did it become thinkable?
It was Psalm 62 that continued it, the poet bemoaning assault by liars, attack by those speaking untruthfully about him.
And it was a member of my congregation who sealed it: ‘as a result of your sermon, I went into the office and told people who’d been telling tales and being economical with the truth that it had to stop, we had to honestly sort out our differences and move on.’
At the heart of this is the fact that all truth is God’s truth (as Christian philosopher, Arthur Holmes once said) and we’re called to be witnesses to the truth, pure and simple. It means honest speech in our hearts and on our lips. But it also means calling untruth what it is, however unpopular. We cannot know the truth unless we recognise its opposites.
Mission is defending the truth that the stranger should be welcomed, the weak should be supported, the poor should be defended. These no-brainer, biblical statements are not self-evident to so many of our neighbours.
And witness to the truth must lead to actions. We set up foodbanks to meet an emergency lack of food faced by half a million of our immediate neighbours. But we also ask why a system allows it to happen and what a better one would look like. And then we put our resources to work making that system a little bit more of a reality than it is, creating opportunity for the poor to feed themselves, the workless to find employment, and the struggling to find strength in helping others face their problems.
If the mind is to be engaged in mission, it must start with our minds. We must be single-eyed in our search for the truth about life, the economy, politics, philosophy, violence, justice and equality. For that will lead us to the one who embodies the truth, namely Jesus.
And as we find it, we need to live it in our churches and draw others into
its orbit so that with open eyes they too find the truth sets them free
So like Simon Heffer, we need to be stating the biblically, blindingly obvious because our neighbours need to be set free.
‘Mission of the Mind’ is the theme of Catalyst Live, a day
of engaging speakers from the worlds of apologetics, theology, science and
culture, organised by BMS World Mission. To book tickets for Manchester (27
November) or Reading (28 November) go to http://www.bmscatalystlive.com/
My fellow bloggers, Simon Woodman, Richard Littledale, David Bunce and Catriona Gordon have also blogged on this theme this week. their contributions are on the Catalyst Live web site (here). Enjoy and join the discussion...
Wednesday, October 09, 2013
A lush autumn treat
I'm listening to the new Prefab Sprout album, Crimson/Red, which joins the short list of blindingly good records released this year. Lush orchestration, Paddy McAloon's voice sounding as rich and velvety as ever, tunes to die for and wry and witty lyrics add up to possibly the best album in the band's impressive cannon.
Apparently, however, there isn't a band involved; it's all McAloon. And there is huge irony when he sings "The old magician takes the stage/ His act has not improved with age/ Observe the shabby hat and gloves/ The tired act that no one loves."Because the old magician has lost none of his ability to thrill.
Waiting for Arcade Fire at the end of the month now; 2013 is shaping up to be a good year for music.
Apparently, however, there isn't a band involved; it's all McAloon. And there is huge irony when he sings "The old magician takes the stage/ His act has not improved with age/ Observe the shabby hat and gloves/ The tired act that no one loves."Because the old magician has lost none of his ability to thrill.
Waiting for Arcade Fire at the end of the month now; 2013 is shaping up to be a good year for music.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
