Why Humanists shouldn't join the Catholic bashing, and other perspective on the Catholic child abuse scandal

Mouse has not yet commented on the child abuse scandal that is rocking the Catholic Church round the world, and is even dragging the Pope into the sights of leader writers worldwide.

So much has been written already that Mouse feels he has little to add.  However, recently the language being used in the debates has become so far detatched from reality that Mouse feels compelled to bring his perspective.

The first piece which every critic of the Catholic Church should read is the piece by Brendan O'Neill in Spiked, 'Why Humanists shouldn't join the Catholic bashing'.

Mouse does not agree with everything that O'Neill says, but it is a good piece from a humanist arguing that there has been a trend amongst new atheists to use the scandal to demonise the Catholic Church is not based on a reasoned analysis of the facts.  There are a number of interesting lines of argument in the article, but perhaps more importantly there are some facts.  These have been lacking in many of the commentaries.  For example, it is the first time Mouse has seen that over a third of the allegations made in Ireland do not actually relate to priests, but to lay staff, care workers and fellow pupils.  Surely this is significant to those commentaries which lay the blame for abuse of celibacy rules, although it obviously does not diminish the impact of these cases for those involved.  Or take for example the fact that only 46 of the 381 claims of abuse came after 1970.  Again, surely relevant in understanding the nature of the scandal.  We must try to understand why there was such a peak of abuse in the 1960s, with half of all claims of abuse over the 85 year period coming from that decade.

This article can be contrasted with Richard Dawkins intervention.  He called the Pope a 'leering old villain in a frock' and the Catholic Church a 'profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution'.  No point wasting time with reasoned argument, just go straight for the insult bag and pull out as much as you can.

The second piece is an old article from Bartholomew's Notes, which he has recently re-posted.  Much has been made of the edicts issued from the Vatican to Bishops worldwide on how to deal with cases of alleged abuse.  Critics argue that they were an order to deal with allegations internally and swear the victims to secrecy.  The Vatican argues that it was no such thing, and merely an instruction to deal with cases by the book, including the need to keep confidentiality while cases were unproven allegations, and did not include instructions to conceal cases from civil authorities.

Bartholomew points out that the letter is very difficult to read if you are not well versed in 'canon legalise', which probably means that much of the comment on it is not based on a thorough reading of the letter, but on popularised media reports of it.  His conclusion seems to be that there is nothing in the letter which instructs Bishops to hide cases from civil authorities, but there is equally not a clear instruction to make them known to civil authorities.

From all of this, Mouse is left wondering what to do.  The first thing, of course, is to pray for the victims of abuse and seek to support them in any way we can.  As for the Church, there must be a process of seeking justice, which means bringing the truth into the open.  Cardinals who have failed to take the church down that road must now resign.

Persecuted Christians? No, but nobody is claiming that.

A number of senior bishops and former bishops, including former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, have written a letter to the Sunday Telegraph asking the government to address the issues around an increasingly intolerant approach to Christianity in the UK.

It is an issue that Mouse has addressed in the past, and he generally has sympathy with.  Teachers and nurses can no longer offer to pray with the people they work with, and BHA written guidance to employers tells them that talking about your faith to a work colleague is 'highly likely' to be considered harassment.

The Telegraph letter highlights the case of Shirley Chaplin, the nurse who has worn a cross to work every day for over 30 years, but has been told to remove the cross or face the sack.

Some have questioned the relevance of this example, as the reason the NHS Trust have given for the necklace ban is health and safety, rather than anything religious based.  Further, these critics, led by Ekklesia from the Christian perspective, argue that Christians claiming persecution whilst enjoying the privileges of the established church makes the bishops 'look stupid'.  This is a line or argument that Ekklesia have used before.

However, Mouse feels obliged to point out that no-one is claiming Christians are persecuted.

What the bishops are pointing to is the steady drift of legislation in the name of equality which removes many previously accepted religious freedoms.

The case of Shirley Chaplin is relevant because of the change of position.  For 30 years she has worn a cross to work, but now she is told to stop.  Not only that, but she is threatened with the sack if she refuses.  The health and safety line comes from the fear that patients will grab necklaces and harm nurses.  You would have thought that Ms Chaplin would be able to sign up to the risk and continue as she has for the last 30 years.

Lord Carey's view on Christian persecution in Britain could not be clearer, as he has set it out in a speech just a few weeks ago.  He said,

We should be careful however not to draw too many parallels between the experience of Christians in the UK and the plight of Christians abroad. As far as the UK is concerned Christians are rarely ‘persecuted’, and direct comparisons should be avoided. What is happening in Western Europe is not persecution but a marginalising of faith which seeks to portray it as a matter of personal conscience only. Some examples of this originate from a mistaken but well-meant political correctness that is anxious not to upset minority faiths by seeming to ‘privilege’ Christianity. Hence the regular ‘pantomime’ every Christmas where some local Council or another absurdly gives Christmas another name.

The letter may be clumsily worded, however.  Specifically the claim that 'numerous cases' of Christians being dismissed is open to the accusation that the number involved is pretty low.  However, the overall point they make is that there is a danger of religious freedoms being undermined.

This is a point which is supported by Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty, who commented specifically on the Chaplin case, saying "Rights and freedoms have to be seen to protect everyone with an even hand.  Safety concerns about the wearing of crosses can easily be met with breakable chains, but freedom of thought, conscience and religion should bind people of all faiths and none together. There are many who seek to create divisions in society and irrational bureaucracy plays into their hands."

The bishops are right to raise the issue and ask politicians to consider it in the context of the forthcoming election.  The argument only looks 'stupid' when a distorted straw man version of it is put up for the purpose of knocking down.

Peter Tatchell at Greenbelt

Greenbelt have announced the first installment of their line-up for this year's festival.  Greenbelt has been continuing to grow over the years, and is establishing itself as the place to be not just for arty Christians, but for anyone seeking to reach a mass Christian audience.

Last year's festival drew criticism, with the accusation that it was taking part in the 'gay-ification of the Church'.  Mouse thought that this criticism didn't merit much serious attention, and was undoubtedly primarily based on the fact that Gene Robinson was speaking.  Well, Mouse is prepared to make a prediction about this year's line-up.  Peter Tatchell will be a rather more controversial speaker.

Here's what the Greenbelt website says about the event:

Peter Tatchell
at Greenbelt 2010: The art of looking sideways

Born in Australia in 1952, Peter is best known as a controversial campaigner on issues of sexual freedom and human rights.

Interviewed by Martin Wroe, Peter talks candidly about his life, his Christian upbringing, the Bermondsey bi-election, the pulpit incident in Canterbury Cathedral, his as-yet failed attempts to make a citizen's arrest on Robert Mugabe and his relentless commitment to fight for justice on all fronts. Engaging, inspiring and intriguing, this interview provides much food for thought, especially if you have Peter down as just a militant queer rights campaigner. He is that, and impressivley so. But he's so much more, too.

The problem with Peter Tatchell is that he is not a Christian.  Well actually the problem is that he's a pretty assertive atheist, who attacks the church pretty regularly.  He is currently leading a campaign against this year's Papal visit to the UK.  Here's how he described himself in the New Humanist:

Religion is the world’s single greatest fount of obscurantism, prejudice, superstition and oppression. It has caused misery to billions of people worldwide for millennia, and continues to do so in many parts of the world. As a human rights campaigner motivated by love and compassion for other people, I would be betraying my humanitarian values to embrace religious beliefs.
...
By the time I turned 20, rationality finally triumphed over superstition and dogma. I didn’t need God any more. I was intelligent, confident and mature enough to live without the security blanket of religion and its theological account of the universe. Accordingly, I renounced religion and embraced reason, science and an ethics based on love and compassion. I don’t need God to tell me what is right and wrong. We humans are quite capable of figuring it out for ourselves.

Quite why someone who "would be betraying my humanitarian values to embrace religious beliefs" would want to come to a Christian arts festival is a bit of a mystery to Mouse.  That he does want to come doesn't really bother Mouse, and no doubt he will have something interesting to say.  However, some will be pretty upset.

Mouse's advice to anyone who is thinking of attempting to kick up a fuss about this - don't.  Mouse's advice to Greenbelt - stick to what you're brilliant at, and organise a Christian arts festival.

Church Mouse website to start charging for access

Following on from The Times's decision to charge for access to their website (and blogs) from June onwards, Mouse has decided to implement a charging structure for his blog too.

From July, it will cost you £100,000 to view my blog.  This will give you a lifetime subscription.  I figure that not many people will pay this, but that I only need a handful of complete suckers loyal readers to make it a profitable venture.

Interestingly, these developments have the strange side effect of putting the Church Times back the the cutting edge of web enabled business models, as they still hide their materials behind a subscription only paywall, at least for a while after first publication.

Mouse suspects that some of these newer business models will be short lived.  Just as those who defied logic in the height of the dot com boom and argued that you don't need to make profit to be a successful e-business, so I can't see how you can make money by charging for something that customers can get for free elsewhere.  The real driver for the Times is the rapid decline in newspaper sales.  This is a trend which is unlikely to change.  However, the reason for this is because people can get their news for free on the internet.  Responding to this by charging people for access to your website does not seem like a winning strategy in the long run, unless you can genuinely distinguish your news from everyone else's, as the FT just about manages by creating sufficient brand in a niche.

Mouse does hope the Times manages to pull this off somehow.  The Times's religious correspondent, Ruth Gledhill, is arguably the very best in the business, and since Mouse is very unlikely to pay to read a news website, it would be tragic to lose Ruth's commentary.  As things currently stand, even Ruth's blog will be locked up behind the Times paywall.

Invade the airwaves - update on the Easter No.1 campaign

So the crucial week kicks off today.  The campaign to put a Christian song at the top of the charts for Easter has all its eggs in this week's basket.  Those behind the campaign are asking people to download History Maker by Delirious to put a Christian song in the No. 1 spot, reminding music lovers of the reason why we eat chocolate eggs at this time of year.

Looking at the Facebook page now, there are around 45,000 fans.  The target set by the organisers was over 60,000 downloads, based on the numbers from last Easter, so it looks like they're a little short.  But 45,000 might do it if there isn't much competition this week, and there is still time for numbers to pick up, although there is no guarantee that everyone who is a fan on the Facebook page will actually download the single.

Its fair to say that not all Christians are backing the campaign.  Some feel that it is not a great advert for Christianity.  Mouse's view is that History Maker is a better advert than Cliff's Millennium Prayer, and that understanding of Easter is rapidly draining from the public consciousness.

Every year at Christmas the debate comes round that some local council or other has stopped calling the holiday the 'Christmas holiday' for fear of offending people of other faiths.  We never have the same debate about Easter Monday or Good Friday, so low is the public understanding of what these holidays represent.

So Mouse is supporting the Invade the Airwaves campaign, and will be downloading the tune shortly.  Just make sure you download the right version.

Jesus was British - BNP stupidity

Classic BNP comedy is exposed over on the Significant Truths blog.

It seems that the BNPs Nick Griffin has been excelling himself with some characteristically ignorant views on history.  He described Christianity as 'indigenous' to Britain, whilst other faiths, such as Islam, are not.

Now it doesn't take a great Biblical scholar to point out that Jesus was in fact not British, and that Christianity made its way to these Islands from the Middle East.  Is Mr Griffin on another planet?

The other amusing point is that Griffin was asked what his 'Christian experience' was.  His response was "I am an Anglican".  I'm sure Rowan Williams' heart will be brimming over to hear that Anglicanism can be considered a religious experience, but it seems that Mr Griffin didn't quite understand the question.

Today, however, the BNP's Christian credentials take a bit of a dent, as we hear that the BNP's London campaign chief, Bob Bailey, is being threatened with suspension from the Barking Council on which he serves.  This comes because of a racist outburst at a council meeting, where Bailey objected to a planning application from ... a church.  The reason Bailey objected to this application was because it was the wrong kind of Christians - these ones were black.

In this instance the Redeemed Christian Church of God, primarily Nigerian, was seeking permission to convert offices into a Church when Bailey came out with a number of offensive statements such as, "We don't want the amount of black children".  Permission was granted, despite Bailey voting against.

It strikes Mouse that this clown should not be allowed to claim any religious backing to his campaign of hatred, based on this class A ignorance.  So lets all make clear that there's nothing British about the BNP, and there's nothing Christian about it either.

Government advisory body on religion disintegrates as religious groups walk out

The story of the Religion and Belief Consultative Group has been featured in the Times, and has caused further comment elsewhere.

The story goes that this government consultative body has descended into acrimonious gridlock in its discussions, to the point that the Church's representatives have withdrawn.  Muslim representatives had already withdrawn, and now that the Church of England, Methodist, Salvation Army and Catholic representatives have walked out the body is left with secularists, Hindus and Baha'is scratching their heads and wondering what to do next.

Important background to this is the fact that the group was set up so that stakeholders in the Religion and Belief strand of the Equalities legislation could discuss the issues among themselves. It included the major faith communities and the non-religious belief organisations. However, in time the EHRC decided to recognise the RBCG as a semi-formal consultative body for stakeholders in the religion and belief strand.  However in practice, consultation never effectively took place, as the meetings became dominated by arguments between the non-religious groups and the representatives of the religions.

The National Secular Society was quick to lay blame for this chaos at the Christian's door. According to the Times,

Peter Vlachos, the National Secular Society delegate, said he was appalled and accused the church groups of “abusing” the forum. He said: “Rather than supporting and championing equality and human rights, the Churches have tried to use the consultative process to try to gain further exemptions from equalities legislation. They wanted the freedom to discriminate and they didn’t get it so now they’ve walked away.”

It will not surprise readers of this blog to hear that Mouse is pretty skeptical of claims like this from the NSS, who are pretty quick to condemn anything from the Church, particularly in the realm of equalities.  Mouse, however, can reveal the other side of the story.  The Church of England's representative on the Group was Revd Dr Malcolm Brown, and according to him, the NSS claims are "simply innacurate".

First, we supported the objectives of the Equality Bill and many of its provisions. Secondly, we did win changes to some parts of the Bill that would have caused us practical problems. Third, we still have a big interest in consulting with the EHRC and others - but we want to so so through a body which functions properly.

Furthermore, Brown argues that the religious representatives hope to keep consulting with the EHRC, but that it would be pointless in the old forum, as the BHA and NSS never accepted a public role for religion.

None of this means that the churches have withdrawn from dialogue with other faiths or with the non-religious belief groups. But the RBCG was intended to be a consultative body which enabled us all to engage with the EHRC. Because the NSS and BHA won't acknowledge the public legitimacy of religion, it failed to do its job. We hope to continue working with the EHRC and others to find better ways for all the stakeholders to be consulted.

All of this is a pretty sad state of affairs. The latest accusation Mouse has heard is that the NSS leaked the Church's letter of resignation to the Times to try to make some capital from events.  Mouse has no evidence to support this, but it shows that this attempt at dialogue has achieved the exact opposite of its intention.

Friday round up

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

1. Bishop Alan Wilson on the new Bishop of Chelmsford

2. Dave Walker seems to have rather enjoyed being called "the worlds worst cartoonist" by the Telegraph's Damian Thompson

3. Ruth Gledhill on child abuse in the Catholic Church

4. Damian Thompson on Ruth Gledhill (time to move on Damian)

5. Cranmer's Curate likes UKIP

6. Symon Hill thinks UKIP and the BNP are 'two sides of the same coin'

7. Bishop Mike Hill wants to get on with the election

8. Tall Skinny Kiwi on non-stop prayer for Europe

9. Heresy Corner does some fact-checking on the 'stuck up a tree' story

10. Phil Ritchie on Rambo Priests

Official CofE prayers for the general election

Because, frankly, we need them.

Prayers for voters ahead of the General Election

Loving God

Thank you for caring about how our country is run, and that we have the right to vote for our politicians and government.

But in the run-up to this general election there are so many policies to understand, and so many different points of view to consider -

sometimes I wonder whether there's any point in voting, whether anyone cares what I think.

As I choose who I am going to vote for, help me not to be cynical about politics and politicians, help me to remember that my vote can make a difference, and help me vote for those people who will protect the poor and vulnerable, and do all they can to make our nation a place of fairness and peace.

Because you call us to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with you, our God.

Amen.

Heavenly Father

source of all truth and wisdom, who knows and loves the whole creation,

watch over our nation at election time:

that truth may prevail over distortion,

wisdom triumph over recklessness

and the concerns of every person be heard.

Lord Jesus,

who chose the way of the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane,

help us to turn our backs on self interest

and to support policies that sustain the poor, the vulnerable and the frightened people of this world.

Holy Spirit,

who brought understanding among myriad peoples and languages at Pentecost,

give to all your people a passion for peace

and inspire us to work for unity and co-operation throughout the world and in our political life together.

Amen.

Lord, we give thanks for the privileges and responsibilities of living in a democratic society.

Give us wisdom to play our part at election time, that, through the exercise of each vote, your Kingdom may come closer.

Protect us from the sins of despair and cynicism, guard us against the idols of false utopias and strengthen us to make politics a noble calling that serves the common good of all.

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

Last supper gets bigger

This really has been commented on too much already, but Mouse simply couldn't resist.  If you have somehow missed this story, 'scientists' have been studying the size of portions in paintings of the last supper, and have found that they have increased over time.  The mainstream media has latched on to this as a sign of our super-size society, and the growing problem of obesity.

Archdruid Eileen has already pointed out the insanity of linking paintings created between the years 1500 and 1900 to a change in the size of crisp packets over the past 20 years.  Quite right.  She has also questioned the scientific merit of the technique used to measure portion size - which includes comparing plate size to the size of people's heads in the picture.  Mouse can offer no more, except to wonder whether this technique actually shows that adult male head size has been shrinking over time.

However, Mouse does feel that this study reinforces just how deeply we project our own cultural norms onto our views of Jesus.  Whether this is a good thing or not is open for debate, but we should not question the way in which our perception of the historical Jesus is shaped by our own personalities, culture, opinions and no doubt many other things.

Rich man's pact with God - saint or fool?

Mouse spotted this news story on the BBC yesterday.  Initially it looked like a great news story, following in a line of recent stories about rich people giving away large portions of their wealth.  This one had a spiritual flavour, so caught Mouse's eye.

Albert Gubay, 82, is placing his business empire in trust, to be split between the Catholic Church and other charities when he dies.  The twist to the story is that this has been done to fulfil a pact he made with God when he was a struggling young man after being discharged from the army after the war.

At this point in the story, Mouse had a warm glow.  Until he heard the nature of this pact.  "Make me a millionaire and you can have half of my money" are the words the BBC reporter used to describe the pact.

What a fool.

Mr Gubay has a target to give £1bn to charity, which is a stunning goal.  In many ways he is a wonderful human being for setting this goal.  Yet for some reason, Mouse found this "pact with God" to be quite disturbing.  It is no wonder that Jesus spent so much of his time teaching about money.

Case for Tony Blair Faith Foundation put in New Humanist

Ruth Turner, Blair loyalist and now Chief Executive of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, has set out the case for the Foundation in the New Humanist magazine.

Now this is normally pretty hostile territory for anything with the word 'faith' in it, so Mouse offers a nod of respect to Ms Turner for putting herself out there.  The few comments that have been posted on the web version of the article are pretty standard unthinking secularist material, and are the kind of thing that puts most Christians off engaging with atheists.  This either indicates that the web readership of New Humanist is pretty low, or that few of the many readers could be bothered to respond.

Rather more thoughtful comment comes from Heresy Corner, itself coming from a humanist perspective.  The Heresiarch makes the fair point that the TBFF claim that since the majority of the world's population claim affiliation to a religion, faith must be central to the lives of the majority of people.  This is clearly not necessarily true.  However, it is clearly a factor in their lives of varying importance.

The second, more substantive point, is that the TBFF seems to be rather too centred on TB.  This is a point Mouse has made, and is rather problematic for the Foundation.

Mouse is no fan of Tony Blair, and is suspicious of the motives behind his Foundation.  However, he does admire this attempt to create a broad coalition behind good works, and the attempt to push back against the secularist line that faith should be kept in the private domain.

Being ignored online 'as bad as bullying' - hear that?

A report today claims that being ignored online has the same effect on young people as cyber-bullying.

It seems that this was a bit of 'lab work' with a small number of young people from the University of Kent, which has appeared in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology.  The test involved getting people to play a group game online and deliberately ignoring some of them, then finding out how they felt.

It is hardly surprising that people don't like being ignored, but Mouse is slightly suspicious that this has the wider implications that the newspaper version claims.

Nevertheless, it does bring the point home that the experience of young people growing up today is very different from that of young people a generation ago.  Some will argue that change has always been with us, yet few can fail to notice that the pace of change is increasing all the time.  The lesson for the church is to listen to young people more, and engage on their terms.

As for Mouse, please consider this report and don't ignore him.  After all, its as bad as bullying, and who could bully a Mouse?

Official Vatican Twitter feed, and other religious tweeting

Just a quickie for those interested in the new official Vatican Twitter feed.  This operates in multiple languages, although Mouse has linked to the English version.  Its early days for this one, in its first full day of operation, but Mouse's steer is to make sure it is a two way communication tool.

Whilst Mouse has said before that the Catholics do Web2.0 better than Anglicans, this is one where the good old CofE got there first.  Mouse gets the impression with the CofE twitter feed, however, that it is a bit of a sideshow and not fully integrated into the way the CofE does media.  Mouse's guess is that there is a smart cookie somewhere (probably @navm) who is running the CofE Twitter feed outside the main media operation.

Of course, the real religious hot property on Twitter at the moment is the Dalai Lama.  He has amassed over 183,000 followers after having been on Twitter just a few weeks, and tweeting fewer than 60 times.  Unfortunately, this seems to be an official stream which does not involve His Holiness himself actually logging on.

Update: It has been pointed out to the Mouse that the Methodists got there first!  You can follow @MethodistMedia for updates from the Methodist Church.  There are other Methodist feeds too.  Thanks @annamdrew and @pmphillips.

Reacting to the letter from the Pope to the Church in Ireland

It is not surprising that reactions to the letter from the Pope to the Church in Ireland began just minutes after the text was released.  That is the culture now, one of 24 hour news where a delay of minutes means you are behind the curve and are not interesting anymore.

Mouse takes his small share of responsibility for this, as bloggers are one of the reasons why news organisations are changing their behaviour.  Mouse finds that he can often get breaking news from the blogosphere before any meaningful analysis appears in mainstream media outlets.  However, Mouse does feel that at times reaction comes before reflection.  And this is one of those times.

And so you will find thousands of column inches already written about Pope Benedict's unprecedented letter.  The usual suspects slammed the Pope for not expressing his own personal responsibility for the cover-up of child abuse.  Faithful Catholics saw it as an incredibly open and honest expression of grief and sorrow at the events, and a resolution to get to the bottom of it and come clean.  Mouse suspects few opinions have been changed.  Particularly those of people who have not read the letter, but have relied on hastily written news articles.

The letter was addressed to the people of Ireland and the rest of us would do well to remember that.  For Mouse's part he feels that the real magnitude of this letter will take some time to sink in.  Mouse thought it brave of the Pope to address not just the Church directly, but also the victims, families of victims and the perpetrators of this terrible abuse.  In each case he said exactly what he should.

The issue Pope Benedict did not address was what role the Vatican played in the cover-up.  This is not really surprising, as the letter was intended to be specific to the situation in Ireland, however, it is something that must be addressed soon.

Mouse will not comment further, as he would like some time to reflect on all this before commenting further.  And that is another advantage of blogging over traditional news media.  Mouse is under no pressure to deliver to the arbitrary deadlines of news cycles.

Top 20 twittering bishops and clergy in the CofE

Time for this month's rankings from the Twurch of England bishops and clergy twitter stream.  As usual, rankings have been determined using Grader, which calculates your twitter authority.

For the first time ever, the top 20 actually has 20 people in it, with no ties causing odd numbers.  This month the top of the list remains pretty stable, whilst Peter Ould is pushing to be a real contender for the top spots.  Jeremy Parsons makes his debut in the top 20.

Other news of interest to the Twurch with the appearance of Nicky Gumbel on Twitter, causing excitement in some quarters.  However, despite picking up over 400 followers, the account has yet to be used, and Mouse is suspicious that it is not the real Nicky Gumbel.

Name	Twitter account	Grade
Mst Rev John Sentamu	johnsentamu	99.5
Rt Rev Alan Wilson	alantlwilson	99.1
Rev Maggi Dawn	maggidawn	97.5
Rev Alastair McCollum	revdal	96.1
Rt Rev Nick Baines	nickbaines	95.6
Rt Rev Pete Broadbent	pete173	95.6
Rev Paul Walker	paulwalker71	95.1
Rev Frances Wookey	countryvicar	95.1
Rev Peter Ould	pould	95
Rev David Alexander	stopsleyvicar	94
Rev David Keen	davidmkeen	94
Rev James Ogley	riggwelter	94
Rev Arun Arora	revarun	93
Rev Evan Cockshaw	pastorev	93
Rev Kathryn Fleming	goodinparts	93
Rev Phillip Ritchie	philritchie	93
Rev Simon Rundell	frsimon	93
Rev Michele Barzey	Afrobehn	92
Rev Jeremy Parsons	jdap	92
Rev Robb Sutherland	changingworship	92

New report on religious freedom - a fundamental right

The wonderful Theos has published a new report entitled Free to believe?.  The report was written by Roger Trigg, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick and Academic Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Kellogg College, Oxford.  I don't know Professor Trigg, but with a title like that he must be pretty smart.

The report is a very timely intervention in the debate about religion in public life that is currently raging.  Secularists feel that religion is holding up the march of progressive liberalisation of society, with religions winning opt outs from equalities legislation.  Religious institutions feel under attack from aggressive secularists, who are seeking to impose their agenda on institutions and values which have been held for millennia.

This week we heard that a Catholic adoption agency (Mouse thinks it is now the only one left) has won the right to be exempt from legislation forcing adoption agencies to place children with gay couples.  The secularists are up in arms, arguing that it is not right for those providing public services to discriminate.  The Catholic Church argues that there are plenty of other places that gay couples can go to adopt, and that they should not be forced to either quit the job or compromise their religious beliefs.

The question being asked in the Theos report is exactly what is religious freedom, and how can that be achieved in a liberal plural society. Professor Trigg argues, "Not only is there a right to exercise one’s religion freely; to confine religion to the domain of the private, the personal, the optional, the idiosyncratic, is for defenders of rights to cut off the branch on which they sit."  The headline grabbing comment is the line that religious freedom is a fundamental right, equal to that of freedom of speech.

In other words, if one is arguing for a liberal plural society, you must accept freedom to believe, and to live out one's religion, so long as that does not hurt anyone else.

No doubt many will dismiss this report, as it comes from Theos, the Bible Society's Think Tank, however, Mouse thinks it is a welcome addition to the debate as it re-frames the debate.  If the argument is framed as the religious arguing for the right to discriminate versus the secular liberal values of wider society, then the argument is lost.  If the argument is about how we grant religious people their rights to believe and live their faith, then the debate is being held on equal terms.

Friday round up

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

1. The Church Times blog on the BBC story about Live Aid

2. The Benedictine Nuns on words

3. Pete Phillips on the Anglican-Methodist Covenant (and a big fat circular link back to this blog)

4. The President and Vice President of the Methodist Conference go to Lambeth Palace (I hope they got on)

5. Paws for Thought has the Devil's Beatitudes

6. Clayboy and Bishop Nick Baines are not impressed with Power 2010, whilst Jonathan Bartley is

7. Ruth Gledhill on Cameron on faith schools

8. Preludium cheers about the election of Mary Glasspool as bishop, whilst Anglican Mainstream (and Peter Jensen) are not so pleased

9. Bishop Alan Wilson on the Big Brew

10. Greenbelt blog on the Street Child World Cup

Church investments, boardroom pay and a bizarre interview from Justin Webb

Methodist Bill Seddon was on the BBC Today Programme yesterday morning talking about the new report from the Church Investors Group.  The report is essentially theological and argues that executive pay is a moral issue of justice, and that churches should not invest in companies where the Chief Executive is paid more than 75 times that of the average worker.

It seemed like a rather arbitrary number to Mouse, but the principle of equity in the workplace is pretty sound.  Its not just a moral issue, but a basic business one too - the company has to make ever more profits to pay the spiraling wages of the Board of Directors.  

The Jubilee Centre blog has an interesting contribution, whilst George Pitcher points out that "useless and stupid bankers" who "screw up monumentally" are more of a problem than the pay of successful CEOs.

However, Mouse was more struck by the way Bill Seddon's Today Programme interview went.  Justin Webb interview was conducted as if Christianity was a strange new idea that he had vaguely heard of, but didn't really know much about.  At the start of the interview Justin Webb sounded shocked at the idea that the report could have been written by theologians and said, "oh, really?  What do they do - read the Bible and see if there's any advice?".

When trying to stir up a quote about how the Church is set against the rich, Webb's incisive questioning came out as "there's something [in the Bible] about eyes of needles and camels and all the rest of it, isn't there?".  Yes Mr Webb, there is.  

The last Webb-er came at the end of the interview when Justin Webb showed that he had no idea who had written this report.  "You've got £12bn ..." he said.  Bill Seddon explained that the Methodist Church has just £1bn, which left Justin Webb very confused.  "Where does the £12bn come from, then?", as if it was news that there might be other churches in the UK.

Normally interviewers try to read up on the subject in advance and sound knowledgeable.  In this instance, Justin Webb seems to have taken the strategy of sounding as ignorant as he could, not just on the report which was the subject of the interview, but on the very basics of Christianity.

Political bishops?

Ekklesia reported yesterday that Bishops found out yesterday, perhaps for the first time, that they are elligible to vote.  Mouse has to admit that he always thought this was the case, but it seems the Bishop of Rippon and Leeds felt the need to ask the question in Parliament.  It seems he was concerned with Lords spiritual who are not peers.

It was perhaps the final part of his question which was more interesting, however.  He added that 'they should therefore be encouraged like all good citizens to use their vote'.  Mouse has no problem with Bishops using their vote, but wonders whether the current climate is pushing Bishops to become more political.  There have been a number of Parliamentary scraps between the churches and the Government, and more recently Bishops were targeted in a campaign over Lords reform (ill advisedly in Mouse's view).

Now this would be more worrying.  Frankly, they have more important things to do.


The Lord Bishop of Ripon and Leeds: Would the Minister confirm that it is in order for Lords spiritual, who are not Peers, to vote in general elections, and that they should therefore be encouraged like all good citizens to use their vote?


Lord Bach: There is no bar to the Lords spiritual voting in parliamentary elections. However, I understand that it has long been the tradition that they do not do so. While they are not Peers, they none the less sit in this House and can therefore participate in person in the proceedings of Parliament instead of being represented in the House of Commons. There is no legal bar to the Lords spiritual voting in a general election; it is very much a matter for them.

Guest blog post: Bishop Christopher Cocksworth, Co-chair of the Joint Implementation Commission of the Anglican-Methodist Covenant

Mouse was very excited to hear the words of Revd David Gamble, President of the Methodist Conference, at the Church of England's General Synod in February.  Gamble re-affirmed the commitment of the Methodist Church to the covenant, and challenged the good old CofE to examine its own commitment.

Mouse posted that he was disappointed by the good old CofE's response, which was rather too quiet for Mouse's liking.  So Mouse got in touch with Bishop Christopher Cocksworth, the Bishop of Coventry, as he is the Co-chair of the Joint Implementation Commission of the Anglican-Methodist Covenant.

Bishop Christopher was asked to set out his view on how things are going with the covenant.  Mouse gives his thanks to Bishop Christopher for kindly agreeing to do so.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Plenty on the blogs today about St Patrick's day.  Mouse has thought for some time that the takeover of this saint's day Guinness and Irish novelty product manufacturers was a great shame, and the general theme of the blogs is about getting to know the real St Patrick.  A few which Mouse recommends:

Huffington Post - Rev. James Martin, S.J.: Put St. Patrick Back In St. Patrick's Day!

Bishop David Thomson - Patrick, Saint of Ireland

Colophon - Glorious St Patrick

Jonny Baker - Hymns to swear by - saint padraig

Peter Ould - Everything you ever wanted to know about Saint Patrick (but were too afraid to ask last year)

BeliefNet - The real St. Patrick didn't wear green

Bus company bans religious and humanist adverts?

Mrs Mouse spotted this in Monday's Evening Standard:

Bad news for theologians:  First Group has decided it no longer does God.  Having suffered untold aggro from religious groups and humanists over those ad campaigns on the side of London buses last year about whether or not the Big Man Upstairs exists or not, First boss Nicols Shaw has decided she won't allow either side to advertise again: "It was just more hassle than it was worth."

Mouse has not managed to find this anywhere on the internet, so City Spy may have his sources wrong, but assuming its right, it is interesting.  It sounds like Mum has said "If you can't play nicely, neither of you can have the ball."

Mouse does note, however, that First Group don't run that many busses in London, so this is not necessarily the end of the saga.  Overall, Mouse would be relieved if there were no more tit-for-tat bus adverts, but it is a bit sad that its come to this.

The Church of Facebook

A great post from Mark Meynell over at his Quaerentia blog has prompted Mouse to post something that he has been thinking about for a while.

Mark comments on a new book from Jesse Rice called the Church of Facebook, which comments on the stunning growth of social media in general and Facebook in particular.  There are some startling statistics for those who don't believe Facebook is important.  For example, it is claimed that if Facebook was a country it would be the third largest country in the world, with a population of over 400m, only beaten in size by China and India.  The average Facebook user has 130 friends (not wanting anyone to feel inadequate if you have less than that!)

Mouse's take on all this is to bring it back to the good old CofE.  Mouse was talking to a vicar the other day and asked him the question 'how many members of your congregation are on Facebook'.  Without an accurate number the answer was that it was probably a healthy majority.  Which begs the obvious question - if these members of the congregation connect with each other through Facebook, why wouldn't (a) the Vicar who's job is to pastor this flock; and (b) the Church itself use the same medium?

There has been quite a bit of talk about this in the past, with the argument tending to focus on whether social media is healthy and whether online connections are 'real' engagement or a flawed replacement for genuine face-to-face relationships.

The answer for Mouse is that it almost doesn't matter.  If that's where people are talking, its where the Church needs to be, even if it is simply as a voice pointing people to the more significant and deeper relationships that can be had in real world communities.

It is clearly not the case that every church will be full of people who spend their time on social media, however, where this is the case Mouse is convinced that the Church must engage with this.  Many churches already have a 'fan page' or 'group' on Facebook to interact with their members and others.  These are most effective when they are regularly used and have a personal voice behind them, rather than acting as an electronic version of the weekly notice sheet.  Mouse's view is that this is an increasingly important aspect of the way churches foster discipleship and community.

Ireland to hold referendum on blasphemy law

Last year Ireland surprised everyone, including themselves, by introducing a blasphemy law.  This new law carries a punishment of up to a €25,000 fine.  However, pressure from opponents, including atheist groups, has led the justice minister to announce on Sunday that there will be a referendum on whether to keep the laws.

The reason why the law was introduced was because it was technically a requirement in the Irish constitution, so the referendum will put the option of removing this requirement.

The failings of the law have been made plain by Atheist Ireland, who have published 25 blasphemous statements on the internet to test out the law.

Mouse's take on all this is that the government is quite sensibly backtracking on a law that nobody wanted. Blasphemy laws provide an incentive for people to be outraged, and institutionalise the idea that offending someone is a criminal offense.  Mouse does not support these things, so hopes the people of Ireland vote this one out.

Papal visit website launched

The official website for the Papal visit to the UK has been launched.

Interestingly they are asking for donations, indicating that the Church intends to pay for at least some of the visit itself.  Mouse has wondered why the Catholic Church has not responded to any of the campaigns to make the Pope pay for his own visit, even though they seem to be quoting wildly inaccurate figures.  Mouse suspects this is simply a case of the Church not bothering to respond to the usual critics, but this is a further indication that the critics are off the mark.

Mouse generally thinks the website is sharp with plenty of good multi-media content, including the facility to send in your own story, confirming his view that the Catholic Church does web 2.0 better than the good old CofE.

Catholic Church under increasing pressure over sexual abuse revelations across Europe

Ruth Gledhill has a round up of some of the coverage of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.  This is terrible news for everyone involved.  The latest allegations of sexual abuse come from the Pope's former diocese of Munich, and involve a choir of which his brother was choirmaster.

Mouse notes that Ruth Gledhill has been accused of being both an apologist for the Pope, and being biased against him.  I guess that's the trouble with reporting on such an emotive issue.

As for the Mouse, he will join with those who are praying for the victims of this abuse.  He will also point out that these revelations are disastrous for all Christian denominations, and not just the Catholic Church.  Whilst the Catholic Church will undoubtedly be most seriously damaged by this, non-Christians will have their view of all Christians tainted by this news.

Bishops inboxes go into meltdown - 26 Lords Spiritual get flooded with emails about Lords reform

Mouse blogged before about Power 2010, branding it a 'big fat disappointment'.  Well they've come up with a new scheme to promote reform of the House of Lords.  They are trying to get the Bishops on board, and doing so with the rather unusual strategy of absolutely flooding their inboxes with emails.

At the time of writing over 52,000 emails have been sent to the 26 Lords Spiritual asking them to back a fully elected Lords.  Mouse has a few observations on this.

Firstly, it seems a good strategy to try to get the Bishops on board with Lords reform.  Mouse has argued before that their presence in the upper chamber cannot be justified, and more importantly that they have better things to do in pulling the good old CofE out of its current state of decline.  Furthermore research from Theos a while back showed that the Bishops' votes in the Lords have only directly affected one vote in the past then years (actually another one a couple of weeks ago takes the tally to two) by the measure that a vote would have gone the other way if the Bishops hadn't been voting in it.

Now all that to one side, lets just consider whether this campaign is a good idea.  First up Mouse cannot think of a way of irritating the Bishops more than sending them 52,000 emails.  If this is designed to get the Bishops on side, surely this will backfire.

It is certainly an impressive feat to organise it, but I'm sure the Bishops would rather have received a petition than have their inboxes destroyed, particularly those who will be pretty sympathetic to the cause in the first place.  I'm sure some will respond with "thanks for killing my email, but if you'd bothered to ask I would have agreed with you anyway".  Bishops are not politicians, and if you want them to do something you're better off trying to convince them of the rightness of your cause than of its popularity.  Merely mass mailing them does not seem like a strategy for success.  They are not accountable to an electorate, so they act on their conscience.

Bishop Nick Baines (not a member of the House of Lords) read this campaign as an attempt to embarrass the Lords Spiritual, and points out that trying to bludgeon them into supporting the Power 2010 version of reform does not allow them to engage positively in their own view of the best way to reform the Lords.

Secondly, it seems to be a pretty big side issue to Power 2010's cause.  Ultimately they are after a fully  elected upper chamber.  The Lords Spiritual are just 26 unelected members amongst 700.  True they are in a slightly different position as the system of Bishops in the Lords is rather unique, however, they are not the only ones in odd positions.  For example, there are 75 former hereditary peers who have been elected by their parties to stay in the Lords after the rest of the hereditaries were abolished.  Even from the Power 2010 perspective, whilst it would be great to see the Bishops back reform, this is hardly central to the issue.  The Bishops will undoubtedly wonder why Power 2010 has picked on them for this email torture.  It is the government who will put forward the legislation for Lords reform, not the Bishops, so why not email them?

Power 2010 have far bigger fish to fry if they are to convince the political parties that their version of Lords reform is the right one.  They are quite right that there is widespread support for reform of the Lords, yet to win support for their version of reform they will need to explain the status of an elected second chamber with regard to the House of Commons, and explain how we will avoid the second chamber becoming the same kind of party dominated playground for career politicians that we have in the Commons.

Last time Mouse posted on Power 2010 he was accused of being "not very constructive" and "cold water pouring" by those involved.  So here's Mouse's constructive advice on what the Power 2010 folk should do.

1. Apologise to the Bishops, but say that this does demonstrate the breadth of opinion which supports Lords reform;
2. Consult with the Bishops to find out whether they already support Lords reform, and tell us the outcome of this consultation;
3. Spend some time explaining how the reforms being proposed will work in practice, recognising there are real challenges which need to be overcome.  Questions and objections are not just 'pouring cold water' but represent a wide range of opinions who need to be convinced, and complexities which need to be worked out; and
4. Keep the campaign focused on the core issues.  There is a lot of good in the campaign, but allowing it to be side-tracked will be fatal.

Mouse does hope that was helpful, even if not entirely positive.

Archbishop of Canterbury on the Robin Hood Tax

The Archbishop of Canterbury has co-written an article today for the Sunday Times with Richard Curtis.  The article argues for the so called 'Robin Hood Tax', a tax on financial transactions which would limit the activities of banks and raise money for the exchequer at the same time.

Calls for the Robin Hood Tax have grown significantly in the past few months, and a dedicated campaign is growing in prominence and momentum, supported by a wide range of organisations from Christian Aid to a number of Trade Unions.  The catchy name and approach are capturing the public imagination, although Mouse feels there are real practical problems with the concept.

The campaign argues that the proposed tax could raise up to £250bn per year, but it is inconceivable that extracting this sort of money from the banking system would not have knock on impacts.  For example, it would immediately reduce retail and corporate lending, meaning British businesses would find it hard to get vital funding.

Having said all that, Mouse is pleased that this campaign is gaining prominence.  There is no doubt that further reform is needed in the banking sector, and it has been pretty galling to watch an industry on life support make big profits (and pay big bonuses) off the back of taxpayer funding.  So there is a really strong case for a wind-fall tax.  It is also pretty shameful that the government has failed to implement any meaningful reform of the regulatory regime which failed so spectacularly to either see the crisis looming or deal adequately with the crisis as it unfolded.

The Robin Hood Tax may have some problems with it, but the campaign is undoubtedly highlighting the failures of the government in reforming the banking sector, and are pushing forward the debate on how to bring a sense of justice to future reforms.

Horror in Nigeria

Mouse has been shocked this week by the news coming out of Nigeria.  Up to 500 men, women and children were massacred near the central town of Jos this week in tragic sectarian violence.  Mouse is not particularly familiar with the situation in Nigeria, so will not attempt to analyse the causes, but it appears that this massacre was in response to others in the past, and is the latest in quite a long line.  The Reuters FaithWorld blog has a brief overview of the background.

The Church Times carry news from the Archbishop of Jos, Ruth Gledhill reports on the situation and Bishop Alan Wilson asks how long we can allow this cycle of violence to continue.  He is quite right.  Mouse has been amazed that this has not been more prominent in the news, but has to admit that his awareness of the situation was only raised when it was Christians who were massacred and it appeared in the Christian blogosphere.  Mouse is left wondering if he would have heard anything at all if it had been any other ethnic or religious group which had been the victim this time round.

Time to pray and reflect.

Friday round up

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

1. Heresy Corner on devilry at the Vatican

2. Ruth Gledhill on being face-to-face with Satan in Nigeria

3. Bishop Nick Baines on toilet tissue politics

4. Faith World on Catholic sex abuse

5. The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley offer some light relief celebrating the Reverence of the Stapler today

6. Cranmer on Church Commissioner Mandleson

7. The Benedictine Nuns on genetics and the story (the one about the lost tribe of Israel)

8. Phil Ritchie on killer victims

9. Paul Walker on the loneliness of church leadership

10. Faith Central on getting your pets rapture ready

Archbishop prays for football team and breaks its loosing streak

Mouse has been rather busy this week, so has not had time for much blogging.  However, this story from the Church Times blog caught Mouse's eye, so offers it up to his readers.


According to the Grimsby Telegraph:

Divine intervention may have played a part in the change in fortune for Grimsby Town FC – after the club received the blessing of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Grimsby Town, who are firmly in the football league relegation zone, hadn't won a game since September 19 last year until their 3-0 win over Shrewsbury on Saturday, which coincided with the Archbishop's blessing. I haven't yet been able to discover exactly what form this blessing took, and the Grimsby Telegraph journalist aside I've found only one forum poster who thinks it was significant, but apart from that the evidence is overwhelming.

You can read more about the Archbishop of Canterbury's visit on the Grimsby Telegraph site (Hundreds flock to see Archbishop of Canterbury, and the more interesting Archbishop's visit - video) but much of the report is only available in the newspaper. The Diocese of Lincoln is promising pictures at some point today, whist the Archbishop of Canterbury site is promising podcasts from Tuesday, but in the meantime there is a news item from last week: Archbishop's pastoral visit to Diocese of Lincoln.

London's 'dispossessed'

Readers of this blog in London may have seen the campaign in the Evening Standard to take action on poverty in the capital.  London is a city of great wealth along side deep poverty, and it is to the credit of the paper that they have picked up this campaign in the run-up to the general election, to make sure both parties are aware that this is an issue on everyone's agenda.

The Church Urban Fund was set up by the Church of England to support social action in areas of poverty in England, and has responded to the campaign.  Mouse has been looking for an opportunity to highlight their great work for some time, so has copied their release in full below.

This election will be dominated by talk about the economy and it is essential that poverty is on the policy agenda for all parties.


Standing with ‘the dispossessed’


Last week the Evening Standard launched a campaign to tackle the severe poverty across London, spearheaded by Prince William’s ‘call to arms’ for people to respond to the need.


“The shocking statistics divide London into a city of two halves,” says Tim Bissett, CEO of Church Urban Fund (CUF). “It’s a city where 41% of children - that’s 650,000 - live below the poverty line, which rises to 44% in the inner city. The most deprived boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Islington all have their fair share of wealthy residents rubbing shoulders with their poorer counterparts in streets that are worlds apart.” He continues, “Nobody is saying that solving the problem of London’s ‘dispossessed’ is going to be easy. Despite billions being spent by the Government the situation in London has not changed in over a decade, but this is where grassroots community projects can make a real difference.


Writing in the Standard, investor and homelessness campaigner John Studzinski said: “Saving the world starts in London by saving the people on our doorstep.” Church Urban Fund has been meeting the needs of this city, on this doorstep and at a grassroots level, for the last 22 years. The work of the charity takes place in the most deprived communities across the country; many of the projects supported by CUF are in London because of high concentration of poverty and marginalisation in the city.


Numerous individuals and churches, motivated by their passionate love for people and their desire to see things change, have been supported financially and practically by CUF to meet the needs of the people around them. The work they have established reaches out to the homeless, unemployed, asylum seekers and prostitutes; people in need who are on their doorstep.


Sue Peake, Community Development worker at the Springfield Community Flat project in Lambeth, is one of the people who have taken the call to arms seriously. The Community Flat supports young people and families in one of the poorest areas of the city. “We see it in people’s faces that they’re giving up hope,” Sue says. “We’re here to provide them with a different future and the opportunity to become part of a community.”


Overcoming prejudice is an important part of breaking out of poverty, especially for young people from poor families who feel written-off at an early stage.


“Our young people didn’t want to be stereotyped as NEETs [not in education, employment or training], as people who were deliberately not in training, whilst in fact they had never been exposed to any opportunities to learn,” says Fredric Mandy, Manager of the International Christian Care Foundation in Dagenham. “We gave them help when no-one else wanted to, providing them with training and work placements to help them make a better tomorrow for themselves.”


For many children, this tomorrow looks very bleak. Superkidz has been working on some of the toughest estates across London, including the notorious Ferrier Estate in Kidbrooke which is hit with violent crime. Helen Russell, Superkidz’ Project Manager is helping young people from the estate to value and believe in themselves: “We are helping children to reach their aspirations, meeting the need for children and their carers in a society that has left them behind.”


London has the UK’s highest proportion of refugees and asylum seekers, but many face poverty, poor mental health or homelessness. “For refugees and asylum seekers, going through British asylum system can be a traumatic process,” says Colette Joyce, co-ordinator of the St Mary Magdalene Centre in Holloway. “The main thing we do is teach English to people who have no knowledge of the language and who aren’t able to speak or write. We try to build a supportive community here where people can come and feel safe. We also provide people with support contacting benefits agencies, doctors or solicitors when they need them.”


Building community is at the heart of all of the projects that CUF stands alongside. They do not throw money at an issue and then walk away but take a long-term approach. As Sue Peake describes it: “At Springfield Community Flat, we try to respond to the expressed needs of the people in the area. We are dealing with the real needs of unemployment: poor education and poor healthcare, the things that put people in severe poverty.”


For many projects, support from CUF has made a real and tangible difference. The New Hanbury Project in Spitalfields provides hands on, practical training to people recovering from homelessness, addiction and long-term unemployment. Sheona Alexander, who manages the project, explains why funding from CUF was crucial for its viability: “We rely on people like CUF who allow us to have real freedom; it’s not constraining like government funding and it helps us to keep our identity. Without CUF funding we wouldn’t be here. It makes a huge difference; without this kind of donation we wouldn’t be able to operate as we do. It’s vital, and has made an amazing difference.”

Free worship resources

The genius behind the redesign of this blog has launched a new project, which Mouse thinks is a jolly good idea. Ryan Cartwright (aka Crimperman) has had the idea for Christians who are producing worship resources to set them free from the constraints of traditional copyright restrictions so that they can genuinely be freely used by others.

Brief version: Frustrated by restrictive licencing stifling what should be free worship and resources, I am looking for like-minded Christians to discuss a proposal to produce an on-line directory of Christian resources which have freedom built in. See http://m108.crimperman.org for further details and to join the discussion.

Ryan comments,

It seems frankly daft that those who are using God given gifts to create wonderful ways to give him glory would seriously want to sue a fellow Christian for making an additional photocopy. Churches and church leaders are finding themselves navigating through a minefield of legal requirements which prohibit the free movement and growth of the Church itself.

Quite.

Check out Crimperman's blog for more information and details of how to get involved.

An atheist manifesto for the election - is the BHA endorsing Labour?

The British Humanist Association have published their 'manifesto' for the coming local and general elections.  They have put together a series of issues which are of particular interest to humanists, along with a list of questions to ask candidates, should they come knocking on your door.

As with all these things, it is difficult to put a distinctly humanist spin on issues for the election, as humanists will undoubtedly have broadly the same concerns as everyone else on a whole range of issues.  This is probably why the focus of the BHA publications are on some specifics, such as faith schools and the role of religion in areas such as public services and education.

Mouse finds it a little odd that the general election sheets do not mention the economy, as this will probably be at the front of everyone's minds when they are considering who to vote for.  However, this is probably an area where it is difficult to carve out a distinctively humanist perspective (or a Christian one for that matter).

When taken in the round, Mouse can't help feeling that the positions advocated are more in line with Labour convictions than Conservative.  There is absolutely nothing party political in the documents, so it is not overt.  However, a number of issues, such as Human Rights legislation and the equality drive, may just edge the reader towards the Labour position, which has recently been advocating a tougher line on religious exemptions from equality legislation.  Most of the issues concerned are not party political at all, which does make it somewhat less useful as a decision-making tool.  If the idea is to make candidates aware of the issues which people care about, however, then it may serve a useful purpose from a humanist perspective.

From where Mouse sits, it seems pretty fair to highlight issues that you think would be of particular concern to people of a particular viewpoint.  This is really the democratic process in action.  To that end, during the election campaign Mouse hopes to be featuring perspectives from Christians from Britain's three main parties putting their case for your votes.

Fresh Expressions and lessons from the business world

Mouse is a big fan of business guru Jim Collins.  He shot to prominence with the best seller 'Built to Last', a book detailing the shared characteristics and qualities of great companies, identified after thorough research.  This was followed by the excellent 'Good to Great' detailing the shared characteristics and qualities of companies which had made the transition from being companies which performed in line with the market for a period, then made the change to consistently outperforming the market and their peers for a sustained period.

Why is Mouse talking about business books?  For two reasons.  Firstly because Jim Collins wrote an addition to Good to Great entitled 'Good to Great in the Social Sector' explaining how the concepts applied to social organisations, including churches.  The principles are those for great organisations, not just great companies.

The latest book by Collins, 'How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In', takes a similar approach to the previous ones, identifying the characteristics and qualities of companies who have turned their fortunes round and pulled out of decline.

The Fresh Expressions blog has picked up on it, and translated some of the key lessons into language which churches may relate to better.  It may be a sobering read for some.

Mouse commends all this to you all.  It is not just Fresh Expressions which would benefit from some better strategic thinking.

Access to the internet 'a fundamental human right'

A global survey of 27,000 people across 26 countries conducted for the BBC has revealed that four out of five people questioned considered access to the internet a human right.  More than 70% of non-internet users felt that they should have access to the internet and only 20% feared the threats to privacy that may arise.

These statistics are phenomenal, and if you didn't jump up and take note, Mouse suggests you click on the link above and read the reports yourself.

If you are a church leader, Mouse also suggests that you pause for a moment now and think about your online engagement strategy.  "My what?" I hear you say.  Oh dear.  Having an effective web-presence that not only draws people in, but also engages effectively with members of your congregation has never been easier (or cheaper).  The Church is gradually learning to engage more effectively with communities outside Sunday services, as indicated by the growing numbers of people attending weekday services and activities at Churches.  Using the internet to support this can help churches with evangelism and discipleship, if used effectively.  If we miss this huge trend in society we risk becoming completely disconnected from people's daily lives.

At last - Bishop James Jones speaks common sense on issues of sexuality

Bishop James Jones shows the good old CofE the way forward.  Finally.

Bishop James decided to use his Presidential Address at the Liverpool Diocesan Synod to discuss issues of sexuality.  Now Mouse would not normally cover the Liverpool Diocesan Synod, but since Bishop James's comments have generated quite a bit of a fuss, Mouse is happy to chip in.

This speech is a breath of fresh air.  It goes beyond bland platitudes calling for unity, which do not address the real theological differences on the issues, and makes the point that views on sexuality are not the defining issues of orthodoxy.  He points out that it is perfectly possible for the Church to have more than one view on issues of sexuality within the Church, provided we are all open minded enough to accept that both points of view are legitimate.

Furthermore, Bishop James points out that achieving this kind of unity allows us to go forward in mission in a way which is impossible when we are divided.

It is also worth noting that Bishop James position here is being seen in some quarters as symbolic of a move in evangelical circles to a more accommodating view, where previously they had been rather more hard line on Biblical orthodoxy.  Mouse would be very happy if this were the case.  We must stop wasting our time and energy on this subject.

Wikio top religion blogs - March 2010 (=February 2010!)

The latest Wikio blog rankings are up.  David Keen usually covers the religious blogs which feature in the top 200 or so in his excellent St Aiden to Abbey Manor blog.  But since he's on a blog holiday for Lent he has suggested that Mouse do the honours.  In Mouse's view Wikio is the only blog ranking worth following at the moment.

So here they are, the blogs which cover religion either wholly or in part:

25. Cranmer
85. Heresy Corner
119. St Aiden to Abbey Manor
145. Bartholomew's Notes on Religion
148. The Hermeneutic of Continuity
153. Islam In Europe
158. The Church Mouse (that's me)
162. Thinking Anglicans
169. What Does Prayer Really Say
171. Clayboy
179. The Ugley Vicar
196. John Smeaton, SPUC Director
214. Of Course, I Could Be Wrong (from the Mad Priest)

If you're a blogger and are not listed, Mouse does recommend you register yourself, as it will help people find your blog.

For those who follow David's round up closely, you'll notice that the rather unsettling 'Gates of Vienna' blog has disappeared.  It seems that Wikio have removed it from their listing.  Not entirely surprising, as it is a blog about European politics written by Americans, so not really a UK blog.

Notice to commenters

Just a quickie to say that if you leave a comment on this blog in Chinese I will assume it is spam and delete it.  Apologies if it is actually a witty and insightful comment on something the Mouse has written, but it just seems unlikely to Mouse.

What's under your washing machine?

Mouse is keen to keep pushing the envelope of religious news, so is happy to relay this interesting story from this week's Telegraph.  In a strange way, Mouse found this rather heart-warming.

Rare Buddhist flower found under nun's washing machine

A rarely seen Buddhist flower, which blossoms every 3,000 years, has been discovered under a nun's washing machine

The Udumbara flower was found in the home of a Chinese nun in Lushan Mountain, Jiangxi province, China.  The rare Youtan Poluo or Udumbara flower, which, according to Buddhist legend, only blooms every 3,000 years, measures just 1mm in diametre.  Miao Wei, 50, was cleaning when she discovered the cluster of white flowers under the washing machine.

At first she thought the barely-there stems were worm eggs, however, the next day she discovered that the stems had grown 18 white tiny flowers on top and smelled "fragrant".  Local temples believe the mini blooms are specimens of the miraculous Youtan Poluo flower - called "Udumbara" or "Udambara" in Sanskrit, meaning "an auspicious flower from heaven."

Being the thorough investigative journalist that Mouse is, he took the trouble of putting Udumbara into Wikipedia to see what it was all about, and it seems that it is a kind of fig.  Like all figs their flowers are on the inside, so the legend of the 3,000 year bloom developed to explain the absence of its flowers.  Furthermore, the Udumbara tree is the tree the Buddha sat under when he received enlightenment.

So there you go.  Mouse will be moving all his white goods this afternoon armed with a magnifying glass, and will report back if he finds anything unusual.

The Bible for striking church workers

So the strike is on.  Mouse is a little surprised that the 104 members of the PCS Union who are employed at Church House, Lambeth Palace and Bishopthorpe have voted to strike.  Dave Walker in the Church Times blog reports that they voted by a slender 61% majority in favour of industrial action.

The strike will take place on Friday 12th.  So, Mouse will come out in solidarity, and will picket the vestry.  By way of encouragement, Mouse has found a few relevant Bible passages:


1. God supports industrial action: "The voice of the LORD strikes with flashes of lightning." Psalm 29:6-8


2. The disciples consider tactics for their picket line: "When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" Luke 22:48-50


3. Trade unionism is invented in the Bible: "So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favour and the other Union, and I pastured the flock."  Zechariah 11:6-8

'Militant atheist' guilty of leaving offensive images in prayer room

Harry Taylor, 59, is a self confessed 'militant atheist'.  His hero is John Lennon.  When Mr Taylor travelled through Liverpool's John Lennon airport, he took offense at the sight of a prayer room, on the basis that Lennon would not have approved.  So he left obscene material in it, featuring figures .

Doesn't make much sense does it?  Yet that is the defense that Mr Taylor put up.  It took the jury 15 minutes to conclude he was guilty.

"The airport is named after one of my heroes and his view on religion was pretty much the same as mine.  I thought it was an insult to his memory to have a prayer room in his airport."

According to the local press report, Mr Taylor also said that people would only be offended if their faith was weak.  He also has previous convictions for using abusive, insulting words or behaviour.

So Mouse's summary is that Harry Taylor is not very nice and rather immature.  However, Mouse has stated a number of times that causing offence should not be an offence.  In a society that values freedom of speech, it cannot be a crime to cause offence.

The National Secular Society are claiming that this verdict shows that blasphemy laws have returned by the back door. Terry Sanderson, President of the NSS said, "This is a disgraceful verdict, but an inevitable one under this pernicious law. It seems incredible in the 21st century that you might be sent to prison because someone is ‘offended’ by your views on their religion. The blasphemy law was abolished three years ago, but it lives on under the guise of religiously aggravated offences and is several times more dangerous.”

Mr Sanderson is wrong that he was sent to prison because someone was offended by Mr Taylor's views. He was sent to prison because they were offended by his actions, which is a very different thing.  However, Mr Sanderson does have a point.

Mouse would also point out that in general it is Christians who have suffered from this trend most. They have been attacked for causing offense for crimes such as offering to pray with someone.  Further, the NSS is currently campaigning against the Pope's visit to the UK precisely because they do not agree with his beliefs.  The idea that tolerance is best promoted by banning anyone from saying anything that could be considered intolerant is pure madness.  The idea that people can be made to love one another by prosecuting anyone who offends someone else simply makes no sense.

H/T Cranmer

Friday round up

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

1. Ruth Gledhill on abortion ads on TV

2. Bishop Alan Wilson on pioneer ministry

3. The Jubilee Centre blog on biofuels

4. Tall Skinny Kiwi on 7 global currents that are shaping the future church (interesting stuff)

5. Toby Young gives the Dalai Lama Twitter tips

6. Heresy Corner has a reading from the book of Dawk

7. Clayboy on faith based atheism

8. The Benedictine Nuns on caring for the excommunicated

9. Phil Ritchie on footballers taking the Lord's name in vain

10. The Church Times blog reveals what the Bishops were doing during the Parliamentary vote on civil partnerships in places of worship