Richard Dawkins loses the plot in The Times

Even Richard Dawkins' most ardent critics have treated him with respect.  It cannot be argued that he has put the case for atheism in a more compelling way than it has been for a generation.  He is prepared to go toe-to-toe with his opponents, and puts his case intelligently and articulately.  Until now.

Yesterday, Dawkins penned a piece in the Times which is pretty shocking to read.  Dawkins pulls no punches in a pretty viscious all out attack on Christianity.  His line is that Pat Robertson, the American evangelist who argued that Haiti's troubles are the result of a pact with the devil, is the only one being true to his religion.  The rest of us are hypocrites.

Educated apologist, how dare you weep Christian tears, when your entire theology is one long celebration of suffering: suffering as payback for “sin” — or suffering as “atonement” for it? You may weep for Haiti where Pat Robertson does not, but at least, in his hick, sub-Palinesque ignorance, he holds up an honest mirror to the ugliness of Christian theology. You are nothing but a whited sepulchre.

His theology is poor, but that's not really the point is it.  We've already seen him attempt to score points by setting up an atheist branded way of giving to the Haiti appeal.  This effort was so rushed, it initially forgot to even allow for Gift Aid to be reclaimed by the government, reducing the amount received by the end charities by 28% for UK tax payers.

Now Dawkins is attempting to make capital from one infamous American televangelist's outrageous comments, and claiming he is the true voice of Christianity.  What rubbish.

George Pitcher responds in his Telegraph blog with the observation that Dawkins' approach seems to now be putting off more people than it is attracting.  He points to the number of comments on the thread below Dawkins' article from atheists who think Dawkins is giving them a bad name.

What seems to infuriate Dawkins most is that he believes he has disproved religion already, so if you are still a believer you must either be a total idiot, or are deliberately trying to fool the general populace for malicious reasons.  The thought that other people might listen to his arguments and still disagree simply doesn't seem to compute.  In fact, it seems to be making him angrier and angrier.

It seems that Dawkins has now moved from 'middle of the road atheist' making the mainstream case against mainstream religion, to 'extreemist atheist' making the case against American televangelists and other assorted religious loonies.  What's more the religious response to Dawkins has moved on from a sense of anxiety that a serious threat has emerged which needs to be dealt with, to one of simply watching and gently mocking.

Blair's evidence to Chilcot as a Wordle

Mouse has made use of the excellent Wordle facility before.  It is a web tool which captures the most common words in a piece of text and produces them in a graphical form.  It often betrays something about what you talk about.

So Mouse wondered whether Blair's evidence to the Chilcot inquiry would make an interesting Wordle.  As it turns out it really doesn't.  Its simply full of Blair's verbal commas.  The only words which register are 'I think', 'of course', 'you know', 'actually', 'as I say' and so on.  On reflection, however, perhaps this does say something about Blair's evidence.  These subconscious verbal commas are really ways of stalling whilst the mind thinks about what you really want to say.  It shows just how careful Blair was being with his words.  Nick Robinson revealed on his blog just how nervous Blair was before this appearance.  And rightly so.

Mouse had predicted that Blair would give absolutely nothing away - how could he?  As far as Mouse can tell we learned not a single thing from the whole media circus surrounding yesterday's appearance by the former PM.  In that respect, the Wordle is a pretty fair reflection of what he said.

British Social Attitudes Survey: Still no idea how many Christians there are

The British Social Attitudes survey is a great piece of work (and so it should be for £50).  It is thoroughly and robustly put together.  However, that doesn't stop people mis-representing it.

The initial headlines which greeted the teaser campaign ahead of the launch were around the 'collapse' of religious belief in Britain.  The National Secular Society greeted the survey with delight, announcing that 'Britain is rapidly secularising'.

Indeed there is reason to read the survey that way.  In 1983 31% said that they had 'no religion' compared with 43% in 2008.  Similarly 66% considered themselves Christian in 1983 compared with just 50% in 2008.

However, this is not quite the right reading of this survey.

The report considers three dynamics to work out whether a person could be considered religious - belief in God, identification with a religion and attendance at religious services.  The statistics above are all related to identification with a religion.  Surveys of this nature have consistently shown that people identify less with a particular religious denomination than in the past.  This is exacerbated when options are provided in the survey question which specify a denomination (i.e. 'Church of England' / 'Catholic' as opposed to simply 'Christian / Muslim'), which is exactly the kind of question asked in this instance.

In other words, the statistics which show increasing secularisation are in fact showing decreasing religious identity.

In terms of the statistics on religious attendance, the survey is interesting, but are far less detailed than the statistics provided by the church itself, which has recorded slow decline in religious attendance for many years.

The data provided on belief in God is far more interesting, as it is much harder to measure.  Here are some interesting start points:

I don't believe in God - 18%
I don't know whether there is a God and I don't believe there is any way to find out - 19%
I don't believe in a personal God, but I do believe in a higher power of some kind - 14%
I find myself believing in God some of the time, but not at others - 13%
While I have doubts, I feel that I do believe in God - 18%
I know God really exists and that I have no doubts about it - 17%

There are only two statements out of these options which leave no room for doubt, and they almost exactly cancel each other out.  Mouse hardly needs to point out the subjectivity involved in the other statements.

After pulling together the three aspects of religiosity, the report defines three types.  The 'Religious' (26%), the 'Fuzzy Faithful' (36%) and the 'Unreligious' (31%).  One doesn't need to be terribly religious to fit in the first category.  The unreligious category is reserved for those who do not believe in a God, do not consider they belong to a religion and never attend religious services.

It is striking that the largest category is the 'faithful fuzzy' - those who either identify with a religion, believe in God or attend services, but don't do all three.

This is a rather dull headline for those who want certainty - like the idea that Britain is rapidly secularising.  Unfortunately, that's simply not what the world is like.  It is confusing and complex.  Are there fewer Christians than there used to be?  Perhaps. But that really depends on what you mean by a Christian.  If the only definition is those who consider themselves members of a Church, then the trend is clear.  If you want to compare what people believe now with in the past, unfortunately this report won't necessarily give you the clarity you're looking for.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere.  Ten of the best from the blogs this week:

1. Cranmer on the league table of sinful nations

2. Bishop Alan Wilson on clergy misconduct

3. Ruth Gledhill on making church more blokey

4. Bishop Nick Baines on the Pope's advice to priests to start blogging (with a lively discussion in the comments)

5. The Jubilee Centre blog on the growth of inequality

6. Heresy Corner on banning the burka

7. David Keen on fresh expressions of bookshop

8. Clayboy on adverts for adultery

9. Phil Ritchie on holocaust memorial day

10. The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley on achieving measurable spiritual outcomes

Faith on the agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos

Every year the rich and powerful elite of the global capitalist system gather in Davos for the World Economic Forum.  CEOs of global corporations rub shoulders with world leaders and discuss ... well lots of things actually.    This year's jamboree kicked off this week, and faith is on the agenda.  In fact, its been on the agenda for quite some time.

Since 2001, it has been working with faith communities in inter-faith dialogue, especially between the West and the Muslim world, and more recently a Global Agenda Council on Faith has been established to look at “the challenges that lie in the interactions between religion and society, religion and peacebuilding and religion and business”.

This year, a survey of 130,000 people has been conducted across 10 G20 countries, interestingly using Facebook, which found that 67.8 % said the global economic crisis was “also a crisis of ethics and values”.  That result is far higher for the over 30s age group.

The reason Mouse draws this to your attention, is simply to reinforce the extent to which faith does play a part in the major global issues of our day.  There are many who would like to push religion into the private sphere, as if it were a hobby akin to stamp collecting - rather odd, but find if you want to do it in the privacy of your own home.  But that's simply not how the world is.  They know that at the WEF, which is why they spend their valuable time and money looking at the issues involved.

Wesley Owen - new hope

Those following the demise of Christian bookshops will be glad to hear that there is a new hope.  Whilst some of the former Wesley Owen bookstores had already been sold, the majority were left to shut down.  However, the Nationwide Christian Trust has come up with an imaginative new plan.

They plan to take over many of the remaining Wesley Owen stores and turn them into Living Oasis shops.  These seem to be a coffee shop / book shop / community space all with a Christian ethos.  The image below comes from the brochure.  Dave Walker notes on the Church Times blog that there don't seem to be many books on display, however.

Some may be sceptical of this plan, but Mouse is glad to see an imaginative solution.  Simply resurrecting a failed business model doesn't seem a particularly sensible way forward.  Booshops of any kind are under huge pressure, as the demise of Borders has shown, so some fresh thinking is welcome.

As always Dave Walker and Phil Groom are following closely.

Marital Affairs website axes adverts

Crikey that was quick!

David Keen advises:


That was quick. Following a campaign launched a few days ago against the public advertising of 'marital affair', an agency which set people up for adulterous liasons, this message has just been posted on the Facebook campaign site:


STATEMENT FROM MARITALAFFAIR.CO.UK: “We have reviewed our advertising strategy and have instructed our agency to remove billboard ads from our current campaign in light of recent developments. We maintain that people have the right to chose their own lifestyle and that this site provides a safe and secure outlet for those who are considering this.”


This is awaiting confirmation, and we also need to make sure the ads actually come down. However I'm glad the company have had the decency to do what the Advertising Standards Agency wouldn't do. Their statement cries out for critique though: "People do have the right to choose their own lifestyle" but within what limits? Or none at all? What if my lifestyle included, say, vandalising advertising hoardings?


Well done to the campaigners, this is good news.

Does it matter that atheist David Miliband has chosen a faith school for his son?

Comment on David Miliband's decision to send his eldest son to a Church of England school has caused some interest.  There is a secular primary nearer his home, and he has declared himself an atheist, so the charge of hypocrisy is in the air.  However, Mouse is pretty reticent to make the charge on this one.

It is no surprise to many that the Milibands should choose a Church school for their son.  They are generally very good schools.  Those who attend churches with good schools attached will be familiar with the appearance of families around 18 months before their eldest child becomes of school age, and their gradual disappearance after entry has been attained.

However, it is always dangerous to judge.  In this case, it seems that Mrs Miliband has been a member of the church for two years and it would be dangerous to assume that this is purely a cynical move to achieve a school place.  For this reason the Conservative Party and the British Humanist Association have taken the line that it is a private matter.  They are wary of using a family's decision for their own political purposes.

Terry Sanderson of the National Sanderson Secular Society is not so shy, however. "Mr Miliband joins the thousands of parents forced into hypocrisy by the education policies of his own government.
It is a vicious circle because, as faith schools get a reputation for better results, the most assertive – and, I suppose middle-class – parents choose them and that pushes the results up even further."

Mouse hopes that Miliband's choice of school, and his wife's involvement in the local church, will all have an impact on him.  He will undoubtedly benefit from both, so lets pray for him and his family rather than condemn him for making a sensible choice for the benefit of his son.

Is adultery no longer considered morally unacceptable?

On Monday a story made a brief appearance on a number of blogs about an organisation which specialises in arranging extra marital affairs.

The Church Times blog, Clayboy, David Keen, Phil Groom, Sam Norton and Maggi Dawn all commented on the issue.

For those who missed it (where have you been?), the organisation has made the news because of a Facebook protest at the organisation's billboard advertising campaign.  The website maritalaffair.co.uk, "where the grass is always greener" works like any other online dating website, but is focused on married people looking for just one thing.

The Facebook protest has taken aim at the Advertising Standards Agency, asking them to ban the adverts.  An initial response from them essentially said that they won't do anything about it.  However, David Keen points out one key aspect of their rules.  The ASA say they "We can only act if the ad, in our judgement, offends against widely accepted moral, social or cultural standards."  As if adultery does not offend against widely accepted moral standards.

The sad truth is that today it does not.

The Facebook group now has over 3,000 members, although a large number of them will need to get in touch with the ASA for them to really take notice.

From Mouse's perspective it is simply a sad indictment on our society that this terrible company exists.  As long as there is money to be made from organising adultery, someone will do it.  Christians should be saddened by this, more than shocked our outraged.  The only way to shut these companies down is for their customers to decide to stay faithful.  Until that happens, they will exist.

In the mean time, why not sign up to the Facebook campaign, and complain to the ASA.

The  Church Times blog has all the relevant links.

+++ Government defeated on Equalities Bill in Lords +++

Mouse said that the argument was being won.  Now the Government has been defeated on amendments to the Equalities Bill which ensure that religious organisations retain the right to select who works for them on the basis of their faith.

The Church Times blog has some links to the analysis.

Unfortunately most of the early coverage seems to be about sexuality, rather than the broader agenda that Mouse suggested.

Christianity on TV - two to watch

In two weeks time the General Synod of the Church of England will debate a private members motion on the coverage of religion by the BBC.

Whilst Mouse has some concerns about this motion, which he'll come back to another time, he offers up a couple of programs that Synod members can watch while they are reading the papers and considering their views.

The first is Peter Owen "Indiana" Jones, who will enter a life of poverty for a series due to air in the spring called How to Live a Simple Life.  Here's the blurb from the BBC website:

Anglican priest, Peter Owen Jones, goes back to basics to try and live a simple and more meaningful life, inspired by the teachings of St Francis of Assisi, for a major new BBC Two series – How To Live A Simple Life.

The series was filmed over an eight-month period in Pete's small Sussex country village of Firle. Like millions of others Pete felt caught up in a pointless frenzy of spending.

St Francis was inspired by Jesus' sermon in the Gospel to live a life of "voluntary poverty" as the key to deeper relations with both nature and your fellow being.

Pete must grow his own crops, raise chickens, barter his skills for cuts of meat and even live without money.

Before then we can flick over to Channel 4 for the History of the Bible.  The first of these aired over the weekend.  The series will feature seven prominent figures discussing different aspects of the Bible's history.  Mouse missed it, but Clayboy has a write up.  Clayboy is a little disappointed (although not as disappointed as he expected to be), but lets see how the series develops.

Stephanie Beacham cries at the thought of not having the Bible on Celebrity Big Brother

Well Mouse did recommend the final series of CBB to see evangelism in action.  Some thought this was an endorsement of Stephen Baldwin's Bible bashing tactics.  In fact, it was simply a tip that they should watch and see what happens.

The initial public reaction to Baldwin was to think him a nutter.  He produced some rather ridiculous arguments to back up his beliefs, such as the argument that if evolution was true and men evolved from apes, 'how come the apes are still there?'.  Not exactly clever.

However, this week he has clearly had an impact on Stephanie Beacham.  Baldwin was up for eviction, and Beacham was in the diary room discussing this prospect with 'Big Brother', when she started to cry at the thought of losing the Bible.

I am not acting. But the idea of not having the bible would be truly depressing.

If Stephen were to go – I would really like the privilege of the bible please.

It’s the bible – wow. It hit me again – it was the bible

I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach!

During the discussion with Big Brother, she attempted to gather her resolve and said, "That was weird.  I'm only in it for the poetry... for the stories... but that was a really hard hit."

She later spoke to Baldwin about the experience, and added that something had changed in her and she had been singing all day as a result.

So what do we make of this?  I guess we'll have to wait until Stephanie's post eviction interviews to find out more.

Later Stephen Baldwin was evicted, just in case your interested.

Pope tells priests to start a blog

Yesterday was the Catholic Church's World Day of Communications, and Pope Benedict offered his views on how technology could help proclaim the gospel.  His message was that priests should use the 'rich menu of options' available to them through modern technology.

Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audio-visual resources – images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites – which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelisation and catechesis.

Mouse has blogged in the past about how the Catholic Church seems to be getting the web and new media in a way that the Anglican Church hasn't yet, and in his speech yesterday, the Pope was spot on.  You can engage with the Pope on Facebook, on your iPhone and the Vatican has a pretty natty website.

And all this comes from an 82 year old man who is known not to like (or use) computers.  It is said that he writes his speeches by hand, for example.  However, he is absolutely right that it is essential for the church to engage online.  Mouse has blogged in November about a survey of 16-24 year olds in which 75% said they 'could not live without the internet'.  In a week when the good old CofE finds that the average age of its membership is 61, efforts to connect with younger people must be re-doubled.  And if you want to know how to find them, just sit back and log on.

Equalities Bill - changing the debate and winning the argument

Pressure from Christians over the perceived dangers in the Equalities Bill has ratchet up several notches this week.  The argument is that the current drafting of the bill limits further the exemptions that religious organisations currently have from equalities legislation so that they can ensure ministers and some lay positions are restricted to those who live a life consistent with the faith.

The increased pressure has been demonstrated by the joint statement from the Bishops of Winchester, Exeter and Chester.  It is a well written argument setting out that the Government has said that it does not wish to further limit exclusions for religious organisations, yet has done so without making a case for doing so.

Christian Concern For Our Nation (CCFON) have opposed the Bill from day one, and have done well this week by getting their YouTube video noticed.  It not only went viral on the blogosphere, but was picked up in more visible places, such as in Ruth Gledhill's Times blog.

What has interested Mouse, however, is the way the debate is starting to change.  The original messages from the likes of CCFON was pretty simply about the employment of gays within the church to one which is much wider.  Fears are being spread that the Catholic Church would have to open the priesthood to women, or that churches would not be able to require youth workers to be Christians.  The Bishop of Winchester this week linked the Equalities Bill to the recent advances of aggressive segularism where it is perceived as harassment to offer to pray with someone, or say 'God bless you'.  His argument is that this legislation attempts to privatise religion.

Whether these fears are justified, however, is another matter.  The Government has not yet accepted that the Equalities Bill will change the current law, or the religious exemptions.  Equalities Minister, Michael Foster, said this week, "The Equality Bill will still allow churches to hire only male clergy and will let faith-based charities continue to recruit people of the same faith where this is a requirement of the job, such as care staff who may also be asked to pray with the people they look after.  We have been absolutely clear on this throughout the Bill's passage, but as there has been some misunderstanding around our intentions we will amend the Bill to make this clear beyond doubt.”

If that really is the government's belief, they've done a pretty terrible job in convincing the churches.

Mouse's view is that on the government's side, they need to try much harder to clarify exactly what effect this new law will have, or they will risk losing the votes of many Christians and other people of faith.  As for the churches, their campaign is starting to work.  A narrow campaign that looks like fear of gays will have no chance.  But a creative campaign that simply says, "let us be Christians" is on surer footing and may just work.  If Mouse was a betting rodent, he'd wager that this Bill won't be passed in its curretn form.

"Latest" church attendance statistics

The good old CofE has maintained its policy of publishing attendance statistics two years late, and has today published its 2008 numbers.  Whilst the headlines will innevitably be 'further fall in church attendance' the truth is that they are actually flat.  The numbers show a fall of 1% in average weekly attendance from 2007, averaging a smidge over 1.1m.  Whilst the release does not state and estimated margin for error, Mouse knows how these stats are pulled together, and challenges any individual church to record its attendance to within 1%, let alone the national church.  Within this overall movement, however, there was a big mix of some diocese growing and others shrinking.

The most pleasing detail in the numbers is undoubtedly the rise in attendance of children and young people, reversing the dip in 2007.  The most worrying aspect is the continued fall in church weddings by 3% from 2007.  An interesting footnote is that 'Fresh Expressions' are excluded from these stats - almost impossible to quantify by definition in many cases.  However, as this becomes a more significant part of the church, the CofE will have to come up with some way of measuring attendance, if only to help assess whether the investment is paying off.

In spite of all of this, Mouse is keen to point out that trends should be looked at over the long term, and that these numbers are already two years out of date.  So the message we should all take away is that attendance is broadly flat, but if you want to do something about it you need to do something local to address whatever is going on in your area.

For more detailed analysis, Ekklesia were startlingly quick out of the blocks.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere.  Ten of the best from the blogs this week.


1. Heresy Corner asks whether Google is an atheist (and has some evidence)

2. Graham Tomlin (in his new blog) on God and the earthquake in Haiti

3. David Keen wants to know what the Conservative Party mean by 'supporting the family'

4. Peter Phillips from Durham University gives the story behind the headlines on the View from the Pew study (the one that said we all look forward to the sermon bit of church)

5. Tall Skinny Kiwi on which Bible verses to inscribe on your guns

6. Church Times blog on the change of frequency

7. Ruth Gledhill on the X-Box Bible

8. Andrew Brown on common sense and the crucifix

9. Cranmer's Curate thinks than parish plant's are vulnerable (naturally)

10. Jonny Baker on how easy it is to start a blog

The church and new media - Interview with Sam Cavender, Bristol Diocese New Media Officer

Before Christmas, Mouse highlighted the great way that the Bishops of Bristol and Swindon were communicating with their flock and wondered whether the presence of a Diocesan New Media Officer had anything to do with it.  In the comments thread, it was suggested that an interview would be of interest.  Well, you squeak and the Mouse listens.

Mouse posed ten questions to Sam Cavender of Bristol Diocese.

1. What is your role at Bristol Diocese?
I was hired a couple of years ago as the New Media Officer for Bristol Diocese (they hadn’t had one before). My role is fairly diverse but generally revolves around the internet and design, the broad basis is to be the technology part of the Diocese, which means I have to wear rimless glasses and try to look clever in meetings.

Specifically, the job involves graphics, branding, web coding and development, podcasting, making videos, producing memory sticks, and on occasion even talking to people about their needs! I spend time putting together an e-newsletter, acting as graphics designer and maintaining and building our websites. Unlike my previous jobs, the role is diverse enough to keep my brain going, which is good as I have a habit of getting bored and flitting off to the next

2. What is 'new media'?
I think it’s something to do with a system of tubes. I don’t really think ‘new media’ conveys anything specific, which can mean you have carte blanche to use the latest stuff to solve old problems. One of the joys of my role is that I don’t really fit into the hierarchy anywhere, so I’m free to work with anyone on anything without spending too much time at committee meetings.

My version of new media is to use any technologies to improve the way people communicate, the way they work and the way they feel about where they work. Whether that’s best done using PHP or Pritt Stick, I don’t particularly care.

I think part of it is discerning between things that are just fads and things that have some long-term value. My job isn’t to jump at the latest technology gadget to keep us looking cool, but to step back from a behemoth organisation of people and see where new things might help.

3. Why has the Diocese invested in a New Media Officer?
I think it got to the stage where it felt a little fragmented and old fashioned and fancied some sprucing. The Diocese took a long look at itself and saw administrative competence but low self-esteem and poor communication.  The Diocese felt like it wasn’t modern, despite working with modern agencies and communities all the time; it felt like it had a rather large blind-spot where anyone under retirement age might be, and I think they decided that probably needed addressing.

4. What do you hope to achieve in your role?
I hope to see a resourced online community working as a bunch of people can, and I’m sure we’ll see it in a few years; we’ve come pretty far even in the two or three years I’ve been around to witness it. I hope to achieve that through bare-faced encouragement; presenting a relentless evangelism of online community as a possible solution to the historical problem of isolated communities served by isolated clergy.  I’ll keep using different tools to see if we can find some way of getting that to work; wikis, microblogging, forums, shared calendars, subscription and feedback services; it all adds up and it’s slowly getting through I think. Apart from our wiki (www.churchipedia.org.uk), which absolutely died on its arse!

5. What have been your biggest achievements so far?
The system of diocesan websites are a big achievement; I inherited a ten-page website and it’s turned into ten domains and almost a thousand pages; a bit more of an interactive network of stuff which seems to be growing all the time.

I think rebranding the Diocese went pretty well. We used to have seven different logos and a different letterhead for each department and as many fonts as there are pens on my desk (there are loads of pens on my desk). I was asked to ‘maybe update the logo’, and ended up cutting into the diocese’s fragmented identity like a scything arc of Comic-Sans-hunting consistency.

We’ve started sending out little booklets every now and then to explain the complex boring finance stuff we have to do; starting with http://bit.ly/7xSiDK - I think these are a good start to communicating in a different way and they’ve certainly been well received.

I can’t mention achievements without mentioning failures; I’ve already said our Wiki failed like only tumbleweed knows how; there’s also our newspaper (or recent lack of). I think one of the blind-spots of ‘new media’ can be communicating with people who prefer hardcopy, and it’s something we’re currently failing at. I setup a network of the Parish Newsletter Editors, but it’s not a thriving system of communication yet and I think it’s really something we need to work on.

6. What projects are you working on for the coming year?
We’ve had some good feedback on the few videos we’ve produced, so I’ve just bought some kit to produce our own, hoping to up the YouTube/Vimeo exposure and this year we’ll do a series of interviews of the various unsung projects going on all over the Diocese. We’ve got a couple of Bishops who have something to say and are pretty down to earth, so we’re going to get more of them online too.

I’m also working on the Microblog – it was an experiment in hacking up a Wordpress template to make it as simple as possible so the Bishops would actually use it, and it seems to have worked, but it still needs a lot of improvement.

We’re trying to improve our e-newsletter at the moment as well; not just in terms of accessibility and use, but coverage and subscribers. It seems to be working as a way to getting people to read our news articles, but again it’s a little ‘pedestrian’.

7. Do you have to be a geek to use new media?
Absolutely. And you must wear a T-shirt with a binary joke on it, and you must only eat KFC. Having said that... no, you don’t have to be a geek. My dad uses it all the time and has more gadgets than I’d consider reasonable, but he’s about as much a geek as I am good at cricket (ie. not at all). I think all you need to use new media is an open mind, and to come to terms with the fact that you really know nothing. Saying you need to be a geek to use new media is like saying you need to be a mathematician to run a bank. It might help, but it’s not essential. Apparently.

8. How many hours per day do you spend in front of a computer?
EVERY. HOUR. O_O. Actually, no, I’ve got some nocturnal friends who probably do, but I keep it to a statutory eight hours I reckon. Maybe a bit of Facebooking of an evening.

9. What are the keys to engaging with people outside the church through new media?
I don’t think we’ve particularly done this right yet, but one of the keys is seeing where non-churchy people actually are, and seeing how your work can appear in those places in a natural and relevant way.

Like engage in existing forums rather than demand that people come to yours.... submit press releases to the local magazines you see sitting on pub tables rather than just CofE publications... make targeted responses to popular YouTube videos (if you think you have something to say)... resource relevant local organisations who are struggling with their brand of new media... team up with people who share your vision and swap technologies... and don’t get too precious when your online gadget isn’t used for what it was intended!

Couple this with encouraging and encouraging and encouraging people who are technology-shy that it’s just a case of getting going, and providing them with the user-friendly tools they need to do it. It works and it’s easy, but we’ve got a long way to go.

10. What advice do you have for churches in approaching new media?
Don’t underestimate collaboration. Get as many people in the room as possible before you start to ask what you need, and give as many of them little easily-sustainable jobs as possible. Then keep encouraging them until it gathers momentum. Then do it again.

Don’t jump at a web technology just to tick a box; jump at it when you reckon it could yield measurable results. Look at websites and things which you see as successful and copy them! Conversely, be confident enough to start something new; don’t be afraid you might be reinventing the wheel as that’s often the way to accidentally invent something truly groundbreaking.

Use technologies for things other than that which they were intended; you could use Twitter (via SMS services) as a cheap way to keep a group of people in touch by text, or you could use a blog as a simple way to get events information online, or secure a wiki engine and use it as a website-building tool for people who can’t get their heads around logging into a normal CMS. The box that people are always trying to think out of; sometimes new media is about having lunch outside that box, and pretending it isn’t there for a bit.

And don’t use Comic Sans. Anywhere. Ever.

Bible references on US & UK military weapons: bad idea

What on earth were the manufacturers thinking.  But more than that, what on earth were the military procurement teams doing failing to notice that the sights on their brand new guns had Biblical references inscribed on them.

The BBC are reporting that gunsights which are already widely used by the US and British military in Iraq and Afghanistan are engraved with Bible references.  The manufacturer is US firm Trijicon, and was founded by a Christian.  The manufacturer's website sets out the basis on which the company is founded, stating, "We believe that America is great when its people are good. This goodness has been based on biblical standards throughout our history and we will strive to follow those morals."  It also states that "Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom".

Mouse is scared.  This type of language is often followed by the phrase 'out of my cold dead hand'.

The BBC report that the inscriptions include "2COR4:6" and "JN8:12", which are both references to God and Christ bringing light into the world.  The implication is clearly that the killing brought about by these guns is somehow bringing light into the world.  Most Christians will surely find this a rather repellant idea.

That an arms manufacturer should think this a good idea is mind boggling. Michael Weinstein is President and Founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an organisation who's aim is to make sure US servicemen and women enjoy religious freedom.  Mr Weinstein has said "It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they're being shot by Jesus rifles".  Weinstein is spot on.

Next in line for a thorough dressing down should be the US and UK military procurement officials who purchased these items without spotting it.  The required action is clear.  Trijicon must immediately replace all military equipment inscribed in this way (at their own cost).  Since the US Defence Department is reported to have a $660m multi-year contract with Trijicon, you would imagine they have some influence.

Dawkins Aid - its worse than Mouse thought!

Mouse highlighted yesterday how Richard Dawkins effort to label Haiti donations from Atheists was wasteful to the tune of $10,000, and today Matt Wardman reports that the site is not properly set up for gift aid making the waste even greater.

For UK taxpayers, any gift to charity is boosted by 28% courtesy of the government through the gift aid scheme.  As Matt points out, whilst it is true that "100% of your donation will go to these charities" through the Dawkins endorsed route, if you donate through the Disasters Emergency Committee, or any other registered charity, the people of Haiti will benefit from 128% of your donation.

Matt reports that the Dawkins Aid people are working to update their site, but until they do that, Mouse suggests that UK taxpayers do not donate through it, but go direct.

Update: The Richard Dawkins Non-Believers Giving Aid website has been updated advising UK taxpayers to pay be cheque rather than PayPal until they can change the website.


Update (22/1) PayPal have agreed to waive the fees for a month, which will save Richard Dawkins some money.  So you can now use the site as efficiently as giving direct, provided you send a cheque, rather than use the online giving facility.

State funding for Cathedrals? Its all about the money.

Mouse has blogged on this topic before, arguing that the burden of maintaining a vast estate of heritage buildings is unfairly carried by the Church.  English Cathedrals are a tremendously important part of our national heritage, yet in the past the Government has made no direct contributions to maintaining them, and other sources of public funding have been small.  This can be contrasted with the system in France, where the secular government maintains all Cathedrals.

So it is a surprise to hear that the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has recommended direct government support to Cathedrals.  The good old CofE seemed rather pleased, but the timing is certainly odd, coming only weeks after a report from English Heritage which says English Cathedrals are in a better state of repair than ever.  Whilst they will need £100m over the next 10 years, this is trifling in the grand scheme of things.

What was really interesting, however, was the comments from Public Accounts Committee Chairman, Frank Field.

At last Parliament sees the importance of cathedrals in earning money for this country, in expanding local employment and above all as part of the face we wish to show to the world.

So that's what its about is it?  Actually, Mouse is being a little unfair.  The report is mainly concerned with falling numbers of people visiting heritage buildings, and fears that Cathedrals charging for entry may be a barrier to people visiting.  However, when boiling it all back down, the reason for increased visitor numbers is really all about boosting tourism.

So there we have it.  Cathedrals may get some cash from government, but they probably shouldn't be celebrating it too much.  It won't mean that their coffers are overflowing with riches.  It will probably just mean that they won't be allowed to charge for entry any more, and the government will see their contribution as an investment requiring a financial return, albeit indirectly through the tourism boost.

Looking forward to the sermon - but are Anglicans having a laugh?

Quick hat tip to David Keen, then over to The Times to read that researchers at Durham University reckon 96.6% of Christians look forward to the sermon on a Sunday.  The researchers were surprised by this, but Mouse is not.  As David Keen observes, the actual research doesn't seem to be online yet, so we can't see the detail, but the Times claims:

Roman Catholics were most keen on sermons that educated rather than challenged them. Baptists wanted sermons to convert them, Anglicans wanted to be entertained and members of the new, independent evangelical churches wanted to be challenged and encouraged.

Baptists and Catholics were also more enthusiastic about the Bible being mentioned in sermons than were Anglicans and Methodists.

The ideal length of a sermon also seems to divide the denominations. While many Anglicans wanted less than ten minutes — although up to 20 minutes was fine if there was no “waffle” — some Baptists wanted to sit through at least an hour and a quarter. Catholics, by contrast, wanted their homilies to be completed within ten minutes.

So to summarise the position for Anglicans they are most keen on a short funny sermon, rather than a challenging or educational one, and a sermon that doesn't mention the Bible too much.

Lets hope the actual research does become available so we can clear this one up.  The Times article says the research involved just 300 people, so it doesn't sound like it meets the Mouse's rigorous statistical quality standards.

Dawkins brands atheist giving to Haiti at a cost of $10,000

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, together with 13 other similar groups, has decided to respond to the Haiti earthquake by mobilising its supporters into a giving effort.  This is to be commended.  However, their approach has been to set up a new front for the giving called Non-Believers Giving Aid.  The idea is that giving through this middle-man (seems to just be a PayPal account which immediately passes on the money) registers the fact that non-believers care and are responding. All money raised will go to the International Red Cross and Medicins Sans Frontieres.

The obvious question, however, is why not give directly to these two organisations, and won't the middle man organisation take some of the money in fees and costs?

The answer to the first seems to be that you don't then register specifically that you are a non-believer.  Mouse can see a logic to that, however, it is the second question that is more problematic.  The way the RDFSR has got round it is by a personal pledge from Richard Dawkins to cover the fees involved (up to $10,000).  Very good of him, but surely it would be better to give the money direct to the aid agencies and Richard Dawkins could do the same with his $10,000, meaning the charities are $10,000 better off.

What really irritated Mouse about this initiative, however, is the way the website rants about religious philanthropy as if it is all some kind of elaborate game of one-upmanship.

The myth that it is only the religious who truly care is sustained largely by the fact that they tend to donate not as individuals, but through their churches. Non-believers, by contrast, give as individuals: we have no church through which to give collectively, no church to rack up statistics of competitive generosity. Non-Believers Giving Aid is not a church (that’s putting it mildly) but it does provide an easy conduit for the non-religious to help those in desperate need, whilst simultaneously giving the lie to the canard that you need God to be good.

The argument is that Christians appear more generous on the surface, but only because they give on an organised basis and keep "statistics of competitive generosity".  It is ironic that their response to this is to set up an organisation itself to keep statistics of competitive generosity.

This is not only grossly unfair on Christians who give (directly) to organisations like Tearfund, Christian Aid or the numerous other Christian charities, but also puts up a series of claims that religious people never make.  Religious people never claim that only they 'truly care' or that you 'need God to be good'.  It is pretty easy to knock down feeble arguments that nobody makes, but harder to face up to the harsher reality.  In this case the harsh reality for Dawkins is that there are huge numbers of people and organisations who are inspired by their religious faith to commit their lives to working for others, but virtually no atheist organisations with the same commitment.

Setting up a PayPal account to try to brand people's donations to the Red Cross is a pretty sad effort to show how much atheists care.  But it is also wasteful to the tune of $10,000, which seems pretty criminal when the objective is to send as much aid as possible to a desperately poor country which is suffering terribly.

The Church Mouse: dropping pellets of wisdom in the Church for a year

That's right folks, The Church Mouse blog is one year old today.  Its been great fun, and has become a big part of the Mouse's life.

When Mouse started blogging he never imagined it would have grown so quickly.  It was great to have been recognised by both the surefish.co.uk awards and the Christian Web & New Media awards, and Mouse is really surprised by the reader numbers.  For those who are interested, here are a few of the Mouse's vital statistics as of yesterday:

• 74,000 page visits on the blog website
• 50,000 visits to the blog website
• 1,563 followers on Twitter
• 280 subscribers to the blog feed
• 241 fans of the facebook page
• 49 followers on the blogger network

There are many people to thank for their support over the past year.  First on the list is Mrs Mouse who has endured many hours of watching Mouse typing on a computer.  Special thanks also to Crimperman for the fantastic design job he did on the blog website.  Mouse loves having guest bloggers, so thanks to Justin Brett, Andy Jackson, Sarah Malik, Anna Moyle, Matt Wardman, Maria Toth and Peter Phillips who have all make fantastic contributions to The Church Mouse blog.  Final thanks of course are for everyone who has read, commented on, retweeted or otherwise supported the Church Mouse.

So, what's in store for 2010? Mouse has a few ideas up his sleeve, but won't be revealing them just yet.

Exclusive: Bishop responds to criticism of Revision Committee on women bishops

The Revision Committee, charged with drawing up draft legislation for General Synod to consider on the issue of admitting women to the episcopate, has come in for a lot of criticism after it was announced that they had failed to produce anything for the February Synod.

Bishop Pete Broadbent, a member of the Committee, responded to some of this criticism on this blog.  Bishop Pete commented on Twitter, "Have just added to @thechurchmouse blog on Women Bishops, to put record straight on Revision Committee."  Mouse thought it was an important response, so has reproduced it here.


There's a lot of completely ill-informed comment about all this. What people refuse to hear is that the Revision Committee was not given a remit with which it had to comply; that's not how it works. At Revision Stage, every single option (we received 300 submissions) has to be considered, including those options that Synod did not vote for. People may not like this way of working, but that's how it operates. The Committee has therefore worked through all the options systematically, considering each in turn, and gradually ruling out each option that didn't command a majority.


The other factor is that each person who has submitted a proposal for revision is entitled to attend the committee in person and argue their case. Listening to each representation takes time, and we then have to inquisite the proposals being made. A majority of those representations came from those in favour of the ordination of women as bishops.


We're drafting law here, so we have to get it right. Those who are familiar with Parliamentary process will know that Government often imposes a guillotine on consideration of a Bill. Arguably this makes for bad law, as later clauses in legislation don't get properly argued over and revised. The guillotine option isn't open to Synod; and impatience with proper scrutiny simply won't serve us well in the long run.


So, please, have some understanding of those hard-pressed officers of Synod who work for the Church and have been writing, drafting and re-drafting to try to get something coherent to get to Synod. And respect a democratic process that seeks to give a voice to everyone who's entitled to be heard. There's a lot of intolerance about listening to opponents of the legislation, and it doesn't do those of us who support women bishops any favours to seek to bulldoze those opposed.

Pope can only end the debate on Pius XII with actions, not words

The Pope has defended the Vatican's conduct during the holocaust in a visit to Rome's main synagogue.  Pope Benedict made his third visit to the synagogue, and argued that "The Apostolic See itself provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way".  He did not mention Pius XII by name, but argued that the Vatican helped Jews during the holocaust.

The visit was particularly controversial, and was boycotted by some, including one senior Rabbi.  It comes amid further controversy as Pope Benedict pushes ahead with the beatification of Pius XII.

From Mouse's perspective the issue is extremely simple.  The Vatican should end the secrecy.  Jewish leaders and historians have been calling for the Vatican to open its archives for the period of Pius's papacy so that they can settle the issue.  Now it is unlikely that the argument would be settled with this one act, but Mouse cannot see any arguments against it.  Failing to open the archives simply makes it look like there is something to hide.  Mouse can't believe that is the case, however.  Pope Benedict is a good man, and Mouse cannot believe he would be involved in a cover up, then compound it making the sinner a saint.  From this perspective, pushing ahead with the beatification of Pius XII without opening the archives makes no sense.

NO VAT secularist demonstration - one shouldn't mock, but ...

Every now and then Mouse takes a look at the British Humanist Association website.  They often have interesting and challenging things to say, and Mouse is sure they're all very nice people.

One item caught his eye - "NO VAT demonstration".  Well Mouse was pretty annoyed about the reduction in VAT announced by the Chancellor, costing the taxpayer billions but with no discernible affect on the economy.  It went back up in January, and neither major party has ruled out further rises to reduce the deficit after the election.  So perhaps the demonstration is about that?

Actually no.  NO VAT means 'No Vatican'.  The march is in support of a secular European Union.  Fair enough.  That's what they're after, so its only fair that they state their case.

Then Mouse noted the date - February 14th.  Gathering at 1.00pm rules out a romantic valentines lunch for marchers, and a finish time of 5.00pm means you'll have to zip home pretty quick if you want to fit a dinner too.  There is a march under the same banner in Rome, but taking place the day before - surely a better date?

Some pictures of last year's event are posted, to encourage potential marchers.  There are some lovely NO VAT banners.  But judging by the photos Mouse estimates the turn out last year in the region of 50-100 people.  The Central London Humanists have a meetup site for the demo with just 5 people signed up to attend.

Mouse keeps hearing that the church is in decline and the forces of secularism are taking over Britain.  Lets just see how this march goes before we jump to that conclusion.

Haiti Appeal - bloggers unite!

Mouse has added a widget to his blog from Compassion, supporting their Haiti appeal.  The box in the sidebar provides updates on the situation from Compassion and allows you to give online.  Bloggers you can click on the 'share' button and grab the code for your blog.  You can also put it on your Facebook page or other web pages.

Still no women bishops in Scotland

The Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway has announced that it has elected the Very Rev Dr Gregor Duncan as bishop.  In itself this is not something that the Mouse would normally comment on.  The fact that one of the shortlisted candidates was a women meant that the story was 'on the radar'.  However, it is the way that the story has been reported that is of most interest now.

The BBC report is headlined 'Priest fails in female bishop bid'.  The report starts, "A Scottish Anglican priest has failed in her bid to become the first female bishop of a major UK church."

Clayboy is quick to point out that this really is an outsider's misunderstanding of the situation.  It is reported like the election of a bishop is akin to a politician's bid for office.  Clayboy also questions the significance of the Scottish Episcopal Church, which is reasonable since it has just 39,000 members.  In many respects he is quite right.

Nevertheless, Mouse cannot help thinking that the mere existence of a female Anglican bishop in the UK would have been of major symbolic importance.  For those eager to see women admitted to the episcopate in the Church of England this has not been a good week.  Yesterday it was announced that legislation would not be brought to February's General Synod to pave the way.

Pat Robertson, the devil and Haiti

American evangelist Pat Robertson has managed to cause almost universal outrage with his comments on Haiti.  It has been widely reported, with supporting YouTube evidence, that he blamed the people of Haiti for the earthquake that has devastated their country as the result of a pact they made with the devil.  Robertson was referring to an old story that Haitian slaves did a deal with the devil to overthrow their French rulers.

This is not just offensive in itself, but coming just hours after the tragedy it could not have been more insensitive.

However, a couple of blogs have come up with a couple of observations which demand wider circulation.

The first is the point that there actually was no pact with the devil.  Whilst the story is widespread in Haiti, and even features on an 'official' history of the country, the Tall Skinny Kiwi uncovers one academic study which finds no historical evidence for the tall tale.  This shouldn't come as a surprise.  If anything it makes Pat Robertson look even more foolish for taking legend as fact.



The second point, is rather more important, however.  Heresy Corner, who regularly challenges received wisdom, points out that Pat Robertson never actually said that the pact with the devil was the cause of the earthquake.  The defensive statement from Robertson's organisation may not convince some, but the YouTube evidence they cite as evidence for the prosecution does not actually include the comments.  What he did say was that this country had been cursed, particularly through its poverty.  This is strange compared with the eastern half of the island.  The other half of the island is the Dominican Republic, which is relatively prosperous (compared with Haiti).  He goes on to say that the country should turn to God.  Some will argue that Robertson implied that the earthquake was the result of a curse, but Mouse did not notice any headlines saying "Robertson implied earthquake was result of a pact with the devil".

Now the analysis of whether Pat Robertson was making any sense whatsoever with all this is for another time, and there is absolutely no doubt that his comments were insensitive and poorly thought through.  Mouse is in no way defending his comments.  However, the charge that he blamed the people of Haiti for the earthquake doesn't seem to stick.  If we're going to condemn him for what he said, lets start with what he actually said.

Mouse considers the most offensive part of Mr Robertson's comments the crass remark that the earthquake could be a 'blessing in disguise', however, this has hardly been mentioned in the press.

Support Christian Aid's emergency appeal for Haiti

More delays on women bishops - when did we get into farce?

Legislation on the admission of women to the episcopate was due to come before General Synod in February, but today we read in the Church Times that the Revision Committee has failed to meet the deadline.  This means that the legislation will not come to Synod until July, the last session of General Synod before a new Synod is elected for the next five year.

Mouse will not go over the whys and wherefores.  There are plenty of them, and the CT article picks up on some of the people who are most irritated by this.  From Mouse's perspective anyone looking in on this process will consider it a farce.  I know that there are complex issues involved, and that it is important to get this right, but it seems incredible that the Revision Committee have simply failed to meet the deadline.  This issue really should be settled.  Dragging feet and stringing out the arguments simply doesn't help anyone.

Some had argued that this would be rushed through in the aftermath of the Pope's offer to take in disaffected Anglicans.  Doesn't seem to be working out that way.

FT hatchet job on management of CofE pensions

The FT went after the CofE's pensions in November with an article entitled "Vicars' pensions under threat as church is seduced by cult of equities".  The piece was a commentary on the CEFPS pension scheme, set up in 1998.  The scheme had no historic liabilities, and covers clergy in respect of service after 1 January 1998, so with a long time before any significant payouts are required it invested exclusively in equities (shares), on the basis that they were given advice that this gave the best long term return.  As it turned out, they were caught firstly by the dot com bubble bursting in 2001, then again by the recession that we are still in.  The result has been a terrible fund performance, and a large pension defecit.

Whilst this outline narrative is accurate, the Church of England objected to the article, and issued a rapid rebuttal that it had acted sensibly, despite the scary headline.  Dr Jonathan Spencer, chairman of the Church of England Pensions Board said that the article was "misconceived and fails to take adequate account of the scheme's relative age compared to other schemes".

So when Mouse was alerted to another very similar article in the FT (thanks to @davidmkeen), he was interested to see whether the FT had changed their minds.  And the answer was a big fat NO.

'Led into temptation' is a well researched, detailed and balanced slam dunk on the good old CofE's pension management.

Questions are now being asked as to how the Church was able to lose so much and why its actuary ignored a decade of advancements in portfolio theory to advise on a course of action it knew to have inherently large risks. While UK pension schemes are all suffering the after-effects of the credit crunch, the Church's stands out; unusually, it invested all its assets in stock markets. "They just decided to go double or quits at the casino," says John Ralfe, a pensions consultant who has been critical of investment strategies that focus on the returns, but not the risks, of equity investment.

Mouse asked the good old CofE whether it would be responding to this piece.  The response was that they would not because "while the tone of the resulting piece was certainly prejudicial, the vast majority of the financial facts relating to the CEFPS were broadly correct."  In fact, the CofE provided background briefings and interviews for this article, so it is pretty surprising that a more positive outcome was not achieved.

So lets re-cap on a few of these facts, as set out by the Financial Times:

• The annual cost each diocese must contribute to the central pension pot has risen from £4,672 per pensioned member in 2003 to £7,571 in 2008 (the FT don't point out that it became £8,838 on 1 January 2010 and is set to rise further)
• Between 1998 and 2006 (before the latest financial crash) the annualised return of the equities only CEFPS pension scheme was just 3.1% (less than you could have got over that period in a high street bank)
• In 2006 the CEFPS deficit was £125m and by the end of 2008 the deficit was £352m (although the recent stock market rally will have reduced that a little)

The CofE commented to Mouse that the article doesn't point out that the vast majority of the Church's pension liabilities are not with the CEFPS scheme, but are the responsibility of the Church Commissioners.  Whilst this is true, it is hardly relevant to the critique of the way the CEFPS scheme was managed.  The central charge on this front is that the Pension Scheme Board acted solely on the advice of actuaries Lane, Clark and Peacock (LCP).  LCP and the Church still insist that the approach was correct, yet in 2008 a new specialist pensions advisor was hired (Mercer) who recommended diversifying the portfolio.

Mouse's view is that the central charge of the FT is fair.  The massive deficit of the first pension scheme was bad enough, but for a second scheme to get into such trouble as well is catastrophic.  The effect of all this is that diocese have to pick up the tab.  That in turn means that parish contributions to diocese must increase.

The reason this is particularly important now is the fact that in the afternoon of Tuesday 9 February, the General Synod of the Church of England will be discussing an item under the agenda point 'Clergy Pensions: Proposed scheme changes'.  Whilst papers for Synod have not yet been sent out, the consultation on these changes has been around since June 2009.  They contain the predictable ideas, such as increasing contributions and raising retirement ages.

Mouse's contribution to this debate is to ask for a much more radical review of the governance of these pensions.  One of the really frightening things about all this is the fact that the actuaries and Pensions Board still claim to have done the right thing - despite the disastrous results.

The conclusion to the FT article is rather more sympathetic to the good old CofE.  It concludes that they were following conventional advice that had been received wisdom for a decade.  This was the kind of advice that allowed pension schemes to make the cost and liabilities of pensions seem lower by making rosy assumptions about the performance of the stock market.  These techniques clearly failed.  Recent changes to the industry, including the introduction of a pensions regulator in 2005 and new accounting rules, are forcing change on the industry.

However, this is all too little too late for those who now face working longer and paying more for their pensions because of the over-optimistic assumptions by whizz kids with spreadsheets and Pensions Board Trustees.  These issues are complex to be dealt with by an institution like General Synod, but Mouse urges all members to take care with this item.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere.  Ten of the best from the blogs this week.

1. Weep for Haiti when you read Ruth Gledhill's report

2. A better hope loves a logical faith

3. David Keen's General Synod headline predictor

4. Clayboy reminds us that everything we do in church is weird

5. 2churchmice on spirituality and tattoos (specifically those of David Beckham)

6. Matt Wardman looks at the possible influence of the National Secular Society after the election

7. Catherine Beyer on religious apps

8. The blog of kevin on porn and Christianity

9. David Keen is not impressed with the UK Borders Agency's approach to detaining children (quite right too)

10. Heresy Corner has a fabulous piece of research on the government's 13 new faith advisors

Alastair Campbell & the Bible for spin doctors

Truly incredible stuff from Alastair Campbell's blog.

I am amazed too how many people, though they know I don't do God, sent me passages from the Bible. As I walked through the media scrum on the way in [to the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war], and on the way out, and listened to some of the overblown and agenda driven commentary, I was glad to have read in the morning an email with Psalm 56 attached ... 'What can mortal man do to me?' it asks 'All day long they twist my words, they are always plotting to harm me. They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, eager to take my life...' I never detected a death plot among the British media, but the rest of it sums up the Westminster lobby to a tee.

And no, I'm still not doing God, but as Neil Kinnock once said to me, I sometimes think it's a shame we're atheists, because some of the best lines are in the good book.

What Mouse finds incredible is the way that the Bible can provide comfort even to those who don't believe it.

Given Mr Campbell's track record, however, Mouse thought he would provide a few other Bible verses specially for spin doctors:

"Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." Matthew 5:37

"If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked." Proverbs 29:12

"See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin." Matthew 6:28

"He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts,who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken." Psalm 15 2-5

Passion play to be held in Trafalgar Square at Easter

Riazat Butt reports in the Guardian that a cast of 150 actors, plus a few donkeys and horses, will be performing a passion play in Trafalgar Square this Easter.  Organisers, including Peter Hutley the writer and Director, expect around 25,000 spectators.  Mr Hutley also wrote and directed a six hour epic Life of Christ which is performed annually.

This is an ambitious project, in a very public venue.  It is interesting that under Mayor Livingstone, Trafalgar Square hosted Muslim, Hindu and Jewish festivals, but this is the first Christian event to be held there.

According to Butt, when Mr Hutley was asked if the play was a form of proselytising, Hutley replied, "We are evangelising as hard as we can.  We are trying to give the story to people who have not had the opportunity to hear it.  it is not taught any longer, it is not considered as essential knowledge."  Well said.

It is inevitable that some will knock this, however, passion play events elsewhere in the country have been big successes.  The Manchester Passion was televised by the BBC in 2006, taking place through the streets of Manchester and was generally well received, coming in the wake of Mel Gibson's surprise blockbuster 'The Passion of the Christ' in 2004.

It is certainly true that the Trafalgar Square performance will need to be well put together to work well in the daunting setting.  However, it is also a great opportunity to put the Christian message back into the increasingly secular Easter holiday season.  Mouse is looking forward to it.

Is blessing phones and laptops really imaginative or modern?

The story of Rev Parrott's updated plough services has made it into lots of blogs and some national media.  According to The Sun it is a 'bizarre bid to attract city workers to his church'.  There's nothing bizarre in that.

The concept is that yesterday marked the traditional day for a plough service, when people would bring their ploughs to the church to be blessed.  Rev Parrott's logic was that the modern equivalent of the plough is the laptop, mobile phone and blackberry, so he held a service to bless those.

Rev Parrott is the vicar of St Lawrence Jewry, the official church of the Corporation of London, which 'runs' the city, so there really is quite a bit of common sense involved here.  Apparently the blessing went along the lines of, "May our tongues be gentle, our e-mails be simple and our websites be accessible.  By your blessing, may these phones and computers, symbols of all the technology and communication in our daily lives, be a reminder to us that you are a God who communicates with us and who speaks by your Word. Amen."  All good stuff, and Mouse squeaks his own amen to that prayer.

What has surprised Mouse is that this is considered newsworthy enough to be covered by national media from the Times to The Sun.  Not that Mouse is complaining - its great, just surprising.

When Mouse first saw the story, he wasn't sure whether it was significant enough to make it onto this blog - which is a pretty low bar as far as Church of England news is concerned.  Yet it is covered by The Times.  The church often struggles to get column inches, even when major events are taking place in the church, so why is this one considered worthy of coverage?

Perhaps part of the answer is that there seems to be an inherent juxtaposition involved.  The Church is considered old fashioned, so blessing a laptop is somehow ancient meeting modern.  Mouse finds this a little patronising, and highlights a couple of things.

Firstly, the church is newsworthy, provided it does interesting things.  Secondly, the image of the church is still rather dated, and the work of those who are using new media to bring the message to life is essential.  Finally, you really can't predict what will make it into The Times or The Sun.

The virtual book club

Mouse is interested to see in Andrew Brown's Guardian blog that he is starting a virtual book club in the Guardian's 'Comment is Free: Belief' website.  Mouse is a CiF contributor and whilst the site tends to have a bias towards Atheism, thinks that overall it is a positive force for putting faith in the debate about public policy.

The first book is A.N. Wilson's 'biography' of Jesus.

Mouse will monitor closely (although he's not sure he'll be able to keep up with the required reading to be an active member.

NY Metropolitan Museum of Art removes images of Mohammed from Islamic galleries

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has, without announcement, removed images of the Prophet Mohammed from its Islamic collection, according to the New York Post.

It is, by now, well known that conservative Muslims object to images of the Prophet, particularly since the global uproar caused by cartoons featuring the Prophet in Denmark in 2006.  This case seems rather different, however, since the images are historical artifacts.

The Met is going through a $50m renovation which is due to be complete in 2011, and it is suspected that the images will not return.  It is also feared that the name of the exhibition will be changed to something more politically correct, such as "Art from Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia", which was used in a press release from the Museum.  Not quite as catchy is it.

If you think its cold, imagine if you had no home

Occasionally a news item jumps out at you, becomes personal and demands your attention.  This week as the country dealt with the snow and freezing temperatures, Ekklesia highlight concern for the homeless.

Homelessness is usually a complex picture, often tied up with other issues such as substance dependency and mental illness.  However, when it is so bitterly cold, the sight of people sleeping rough in the porch of Mouse's church made the news uncomfortably real.

Ekklesia link to the homeless charity Emmaus, which has a neat tool on its website.  You can put in your post code to find out how cold it will be in your area tonight.  On the front page that is right next to the 'donate' button, which may just be irresistible.

Faith advisors - the 13 with the government's ear

John Denham, Communities Secretary, has appointed 13 new faith advisors, in a move he announced some time ago.  The idea seems to be that Mr Denham will benefit from bouncing a few ideas off the group of 13, and their advice will help fine tune government policy.

Naturally this has rather got up the nose of the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association.

But few have actually stopped to find out who the lucky 13 actually are.  Well here's the list:

1. Canon Dr Alan Billings - Formerly Director of the Centre for Ethics and Religion at the University of Lancaster.
2. Dr Harriet Crabtree - Director of the Inter Faith Network for the UK.
3. Marcia Dixon - Editor of Keep the Faith, a publication distributed to black majority churches.
4. Dr Doreen Finneron - Founder and director of the Faith Based Regeneration Network.
5. Jenny Kartupelis - Director of the East of England Faiths Council and Fellow of the Faiths and Civil Society Unit at Goldsmiths College.
6. Wakkas Khan - Director of the Exploring Islam Foundation and a founding member of the Radical Middle Way.
7. Alveena Malik A Principle Associate at the Institute of Community Cohesion and a Trustee of the Muslim Institute.
8. Mehri Niknam - Founder and director of the Joseph Interfaith Foundation.
9. Rosalind Preston - President of the Jewish Volunteer Network and Chair of Nightingale House.
10. Dr Jasdev Singh Rai - General Secretary of the British Sikh Consultative Forum and Director of the Sikh Human Rights Group.
11. Bishop Tim Stevens - Anglican Bishop of Leicester and Founder and Chair of the Faith Leaders Forum of Leicester.
12. Arjan Vekaria - President of Shree Kutch Leva Patel Community (UK) and the Hindu Forum of Britain.
13. Prof Paul Weller - Head of Research and Commercial Development, Faculty of Education, Health and Sciences and Professor of Inter-Religious Relations, University of Derby.

So the list ticks all the relevant boxes - Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh.  But there is more than a little bias towards the inter-faith / community cohesion agenda.  In fact its pretty clear that this is exactly what Mr Denham was looking for.

To those secularists who argue that they should have been included Mouse will point out that John Denham is responsible for the government's formal communications with faith communities.  As such, this is pretty much his job.  The Faith Communities Consultative Council already does that job, but in an election year it is hardly surprising that the government would bolster the numbers a little.

Whether this forum will actually do anything seems pretty unlikely.  Not only is this government very likely to lose an election in the very near future, but in the mean time Mouse suspects the government has a few other things on their plate.

After writing this a post appeared at Heresy Corner with brief biogs for each of the 13 - well worth a read.

Malaysia 'Allah' name row - Churches firebombed

By way of follow up on Mouse's story earlier in the week about the row in Malaysia over the use of the name 'Allah' by Christians, terrible news is being reported in The Times.

For those who cannot be bothered to click the link, Mouse reported earlier in the week that tensions were rising in Malaysia after a Catholic paper used the word 'Allah' for God.  They did this because it is the normal word for God amongst the indigenous Christian peoples of Borneo for whom the paper was written.    However, there was a strong reaction from the government, who sought (and failed) to ban non Muslims from using the word, stirring up reaction from the majority Muslim population.

And the anger is rising.  The Times now reports that four churches have been attacked and firebombed.  What terrifies Mouse is the fact that Muslims make up just 60% of the population in Malaysia, yet this kind of intolerance can still flourish.

It seems to be an inconvenient truth for some that the religious communities which are most oppressed across the world are Christian communities.  An organisation called Open Doors, which campaigns for persecuted Christians, has compiled a list of most oppressive nations, and it will be no surprise that the list is dominated by Muslim nations who most often oppress local Christian populations.

Chrisitans in the west must step up to the campaign for tolerance and freedom across the world.

More Bishops Parliamentary expenses - Williams shares first prize with Sentamu

The Parliamentary expenses of the Lords Spiritual hit the news this week, after the release of the next batch of information on Lords' expenses for the period April 2008 - March 2009.  This is something that has been discussed before, so Mouse won't dwell too long.  Last time he commented that generally speaking the Bishops in the Lords were pretty good value.

Ruth Gledhill of the Times gave first prize to Archbishop Sentamu for claiming nothing.  This time Rowan Williams claims a slice of the glory, and claimed nothing for his seven appearances in Parliament.  John Sentamu also claimed nothing for his four appearances.

Mouse is still puzzled by Bishop Tom "its what I do" Butler.  He retained his title as Bishop who spends most time in Parliament with a whopping 88 days (almost two days per working week), up from 83 days last year, yet only spoke in 10 debates.  He also retained his policy of claiming the full daily 'subsistence' allowance every day he was there (totaling £7,484 last year).

So why did the Telegraph chose to go with the story now?  As far as Mouse can tell there is nothing new here.  The Bishops only claimed what they were entitled to, in fact they almost certainly all claimed far less they they were entitled to.  The pattern of claims is almost exactly the same as last year.

The only slightly new angle was the observation that Bishops residences are paid for by the good old CofE.  However, since this is taken into account in their stipend (salary) this is hardly relevant.

Celebrity Big Brother - the place to watch evangelism in action

Mouse does not make this statement lightly or without consideration.  He has not come to this conclusion without it weighing on him for some time.  Yet he must say that it might be worth watching an episode of Celebrity Big Brother this year.

I never imagined I would see Stephen Baldwin (starred in The Usual Suspects) reading the Bible to football hard man come Hollywood A-lister Vinnie Jones.  I have never before seen a group Bible reading on national TV, and to find it happening on Celebrity Big Brother's final series really is a bit of a shock.

The reason for this is the fact that Stephen Baldwin is a Christian.  He has taken his Bible in with him and is reading it for an hour a day.  And he is telling everyone on there about his faith.

This is not the first time a Christian has been on Big Brother.  You may (or may not) remember Cameron Stout, a fish trader from Orkney and winner of Big Brother in 2003.  He was (and still is) a Christian, which no doubt pulled in the Christian bloc as part of the 1.9m votes which propelled him to victory.

But this time its different.  Whilst Cameron talked about his faith on occasion in the house, Baldwin is sticking it right out there.  He had what can only be described as a group Bible study with all but two of the housemates the other night.  One hit wonder Sisqo can be seen sniggering during the Bible reading, but nevertheless he sat there listening.

So we must watch and wait.  Will the housemates and public react well to this?  Or will they tell Baldwin to shut up and keep his faith a little more to himself?  Whatever the outcome, we should pay attention.  It will tell us more about the public reaction to evangelism than any number of evangelism conferences.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere.  Ten of the best from the blogs this week.

1. Cranmer on Peter Mandleson's music tax

2. Ruth Gledhill on Lord Carey's comments on immigration

3. Carl Trueman on the Christian blogosphere (Christian bloggers - only read if you have a thick skin)

4. Jonny Baker on the emerging church

5. Heresy Corner on Anjem Choudary

6. Bishop Alan on bullying

7. The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley do not like Stephen Baldwin

8. David Keen on Faith, Football and Sweaty Shirts

9. A reflection for Epiphany from Paul Sibley

10. Phil Groom with more thoughts on Wesley Owen and CLC's future