Bob Thiel exports sect to Kenya

Pity the poor folk in Kenya who think Bob Thiel, the accidentally ordained prophet, is an expert in clarifying "true from false leaders in East Africa" and competent to "teach the teachers" so that they can better teach others.

Yup Bob - with his mysteriously obtained ThD - has been promoting his hobby sect, the Continuing Church of God, in Africa. That's according to a front page story in The Journal. As if East Africa doesn't already have more than its fair share of problems.

Maybe it was a slow month for news as Don Billingsley also features on page 1 of the just released March 31 issue.

Now I like The Journal, as has been oft stated here in the past. But, with all due respect to editor Dixon Cartwright, this issue is a bit of a head-banger, and I recommend you avoid brick walls for at least twenty minutes after reading it.

You can download your copy here.

A Hotbed of Atheism on the Bailiwick

I was listening in, as one does, to a morning programme on one of the BBC's regional stations via Tune In bluetoothed (which, if it isn't a verb, should be) from my iPad to a decent speaker. I believe it was BBC Radio Guernsey. This is not something one might often do, unless one was living on Guernsey. Guernsey is the answer to one of those improbable questions educational researchers ask unfortunate eleven year-olds in order to prove how little the kids know these days. Nonetheless it's a station with a good deal of warmth and character, and I take some pleasure in knowing I'm probably the only person within a 500 kilometre radius who has as much as bothered to sample the Guernsey broadcast breakfast fare. More-so given that breakfast in Guernsey corresponds to mid-evening in New Zealand.

The funny thing about British (and Irish) public radio is that they still run programmes of a type that have long since disappeared from their counterparts in the Antipodes. I grew up with the theme from The Archers dutifully rebroadcast daily here in Her Majesty's farthest Dominion, morning and evening church services live on Sundays, and the awful, horrible "God Spot", wherein some craven, witless Anglican prelate; earnest Methodist preacher, or ratty Presbyterian cleric, would intone sagely on some navel gazing topic of the day. Thank heaven they've all disappeared from the local airwaves... with the exception of The Archers which, though long lost to Kiwi listeners, is available as a podcast, and which I confess to following still, causing a good deal of unjustified mirth in some quarters.

But back to the deadly God Spot. BBC Guernsey still has this bit of fluff scheduled for the edification of the good folk of the Bailiwick. I expect it's more usually an outlet for reverend gentlemen and gentlewomen of the cloth, ruminating on the spiritual significance of garden weeds over Easter. But on this particular morning - and I gather the old boy had been at it all week - they'd given the slot over to a local atheist. Who would have thought they'd even had atheists on Guernsey? This guy was no subtle, nuanced atheist, gracious and erudite - at least not to my ears - but your typical village atheist, with a wit about as sharp as a mallet.

Nonetheless, you've got to concede that, as the sixties folk song goes, the times they are a changin'.

Even on Guernsey.

di-VISION

With tohu and bohu breaking out in David Hulme's micro-sect, there arose the possibility that flagship journal Vision might have seen its final issue. But, fear not little flock, the Spring 2014 issue has emerged nonetheless, albeit with a smaller body of writer-talent to draw upon. If you didn't know better - and many readers of this blog do - you'd think it was business as usual; at least until you noticed the purge evident in the staff box.

How much longer can the Dear Leader continue to fund his glossy quarterly publication in the wake of such a substantial gut-ripping exodus? That's the $64 tithe-cheque question. Meantime Dave, maybe the title could be extended a smidgen... by prefixing the letters "di" to reflect the new reality.

Amen to that!

Happy 1935!

I was pottering around Browsers - a fine second-hand bookshop on Hamilton's Victoria Street this morning, and was led astray by a copy of the December 28, 1934 N.Z. Radio Record and Home Journal in, as the saying goes, "good nick." I parted with the princely sum of $12.

It's a time capsule of life in a distant decade. Inside the publication boasts a full page "Happy New Year to All!" message featuring Shirley Temple. A correspondent reveals that the late Sir Edward Elgar, with whom he was acquainted, "utterly condemned jazz and all its unholy works!" In "A Newsletter from London" dated November 14 we learn that the BBC's "Empire announcers" are anonymous by company policy, but then the anonymous "special correspondent" proceeds to 'out' the "senior Empire announcer [as] one Captain W. Shewen, an ex-army officer." And, no jingoism here, where we are informed that "The King, the world's most famous broadcaster, will speak as head of an Empire-wide family party on Christmas Day.

Well, it makes a refreshing change from the celebrity slop we have to deal with in an age when Justin Bieber is considered newsworthy.

Movies are covered, with the news that the 1934 British film Jew Suss (not to be confused with the 1940 Nazi propaganda film of the same name) is due for early release in New Zealand. This is, you may be as surprised as me to learn, "the film version of one of the greatest books of the twentieth century."

Allow me one little further indulgence before I get to the point of this post. This is the lead item on page 18.

"The Duke of Gloucester carries with him his own radio set, which is installed for his pleasure wherever he stays for any length of time. It is understood that the set is a modern one, specially made for him. Prior to his arrival in Auckland this week the set was sent ahead and installed by a radio inspector at Government House where his Royal Highness listened to his Majesty's speech broadcast to the world from the Empire station at 3 a.m. on Boxing Day. Not a little trouble was experienced in adjusting the set - an a.c. one - to work in a d.c. area, a converter having to be installed."

Yup, life was tough at the top.

In 1935 New Zealand's ties to "the old country" were obviously rock solid. A different world.

But the stiff upper lip conservatism apparently didn't extend to religion. At the bottom of page 10, probably as an afterthought to pad out the column, this short quote appears:

Our Gospels really have some characteristics in common with works of fiction. - Professor J. F. Bethune Baker.

I have no idea who Bethune Baker was, but he was obviously a clued up dude.

Food Wars - Is GM Food okay?

Do you have an opinion about GM (genetically modified) foods? Would you describe your views as strong? Should GM foods be available at your local supermarket and, if so, should they be clearly labelled?

And would you buy them?

My views on this subject have been challenged by a special "Food Wars" issue of the Australian science magazine Cosmos (Feb/Mar this year). The magazine dares to strike a pro-GM position, and is even prepared to deal with the huge (and I'd argue justified) opprobrium surrounding the giant multi-national Monsanto.

On the ecological spectrum my colour choice tends to be "light green", so my gut reaction is to take an anti-GM stand. I confess however that I've had to rethink the matter now I know a little more. It's easy, as any ex-fundamentalist can readily testify, to take a position based on a knee-jerk reaction, and be splendidly uniformed. Until this week I'd not heard of the benefits of "golden rice" or the threat to orange crops from citrus greening. To slap me about even further, there's an article on 'denial psychology' that explains - with uncanny accuracy - why I'd prefer to see GM foods off the agenda (and the plate).

Ouch!

If you're an Aussie or a Kiwi, the 'Food Wars' issue of Cosmos is on the news-stands now. If you've read it, I'd be interested in your response.

Tally ho!

As a kid I was more into DC superheroes than British war comics, but you couldn't ignore their existence, sitting on prominent display at the newsagent. Square-jawed heroes of the RAF versus cruel guys in Nazi uniforms who said "Achtung" an awful lot. Goodies against baddies, with a world view as black and white as the pulp pages inside the covers.

It wasn't that Superman or Batman didn't deal with a simple breakdown of good and evil either, but they were clearly fictional characters, not the seemingly realistic types that bled as they lobbed grenades into Panzer tanks. World War II was still as close as my dad's memories of the North African campaign and German POW camps.

The so-called historical books of the Hebrew Bible share some of the same characteristics as those 1960s issues of Commando. There is no room in either for independent judgement or ethical concerns. It's them and us, and we're the righteous ones. No room for doubt, just shut up, salute, and get on with the derring-do.

But the world has changed, thank God. We encourage a new generation to ask questions, challenge unjust authority and engage in critical thinking. In a multi-cultural world we can no longer rest content with cardboard cut-out stereotypes. It's no longer acceptable to do a bad Peter Sellers Indian accent when your kids go to school with Indian kids who, it turns out, aren't all that different after all (and speak perfect English).

So what do we do with the horrific narratives that adorn the Old Testament. The ones that portray Canaanites and Philistines as barely human and subject to God-sanctioned genocide? These tales are not on the fringe of Heilsgeschichte, but close to the central core.

And, to ask an uncomfortable question, how influential are these biblical "boy's own" stories in warping our understanding of current conflicts in the Middle East vis-a-vis the Israelis and Palestinians?

There are times I wonder if Marcion had it right.