Natasha Walter is duly outraged at our ‘culture’ where women aspire to be naked on the cover of a magazine. It’s rather depressing that stripping, lap-dancing, and being photographed in a ‘sexy’ pose is considered success. As mentioned in previous posts (Sexy,Sex, the media & personal freedom, and Down your throat) I struggle to understand why people who make millions, such as Britney Spears, feel the need to look like tarts. I appreciate they ‘needed’ to do it to begin with because the music and film industry has been overly sexualised, but now?
The problem I have with the ‘pornification’ of our ‘culture’ is that it takes the eroticism away. I don’t find the objectification of a man or a woman sexy. I feel more affinity with Fellini’s eroticism. He was all but a feminist, but knew a thing or two about sexual desire. The Cambridge student who poses half-naked for the student magazine allegedly to marry ‘beauty’ and ‘brains’, has none of either. It’s vulgar and empty. Our ‘culture’ is saturated with ugly images of a humanity that does not seek elevation or substance. It’s the triumph of the ephemeral devoid of any art and beauty.
27 January 2010
26 January 2010
Why I Love Church Bulletins
I can't resist sharing this. I've been assured these are from real church bulletins or announced in church. It's what happens when you haven't got a pedant checking your spelling and proof-reading your text :)
The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
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The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'
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Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
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Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you.
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Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
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Miss Charlene Mason sang 'I will not pass this way again,' giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
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For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
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Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
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Tom Smith and Jane Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
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A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
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At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.
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Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
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Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
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Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
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The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
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Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.
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The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
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This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
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Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. Is done.
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The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
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Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
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The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
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Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
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The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new campaign slogan last Sunday: 'I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours.
The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
--------------------------
The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'
--------------------------
Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
--------------------------
Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you.
--------------------------
Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
--------------------------
Miss Charlene Mason sang 'I will not pass this way again,' giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
--------------------------
For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
--------------------------
Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
--------------------------
Tom Smith and Jane Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
--------------------------
A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
--------------------------
At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.
--------------------------
Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
--------------------------
Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
--------------------------
Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
--------------------------
The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
--------------------------
Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.
--------------------------
The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
--------------------------
This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
--------------------------
Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. Is done.
--------------------------
The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
--------------------------
Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
--------------------------
The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
--------------------------
Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
--------------------------
The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new campaign slogan last Sunday: 'I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours.
25 January 2010
Nine lessons and Carols for Godless People
Robin Ince hosts the alternative Christmas’ show, Nine lessons and Carols for Godless People, for people who do not believe in God but science, ‘believe’ being the key word there!
Ince and friends act as the ‘persecuted minority’ of rationalists in a culture populated by superstitious religious people. It's rather ironic then that our culture is actually a scientific and technological one, where the scientific perspective is the dominant way of knowing and understanding the world.
The game of oppressed minority is thus rather distateful. It reaches grotesque proportions when Ince reads what the audience is supposed to find fascinating facts of scientific discovery whilst saying 'ironically' how boring they are. He keeps on repeating that they are boring to prove his point that they are not. Why bother with being subtle? Robin, dear, science is not boring, but you are!
Brian Cox laments the cutting in funding for physics. Mhm, what could it be? Arguably, funding for university research is not enough, but the largest share has always gone to the natural sciences. It is humanities and social sciences that have been consistently neglected, not physics. There’s also the ‘small’ matter of having to rescue our financial system.
The main problem of the show, however, is the judgemental, intolerant and ignorant attitude towards religion. They all protest (far too much) that they are not anti-religious, but if that were true, why were the acts mostly referring to religion rather than science?
It seems to me that these ‘pseudo-rationalists’ think that religion and science are in competition. They believe in the myth that religion is a pre-modern irrational superstition which explains the world through supernatural causes; that the advent of modern science has opened our eyes to the ‘truth’; and, thus, we don’t need religion any longer. This is what is often referred to as the ‘Walt Disney Theory’. It’s sweet but sucks.
Aside from the fact that being religious doesn’t necessarily mean believing in God or anything supernatural. Belief in God is not irrational because the existence of God cannot be proven. By definition God is beyond physics, beyond scientific discovery. If science troubles itself with God then it’s not being scientific. The object of scientific discovery is the physical world, not metaphysics. Trying to prove the existence of God (or rejecting God on the basis of lack of evidence) implies that one doesn’t understand science.
That is the problem. These pseudo-rationalists believe in science and their prophet is Richard Dawkins. They pick on abstruse elements of religion, such as ‘creation science’, crystals and ‘the bible code’, to say that only science is rational and the only way of knowing. Religion is a way of knowing, and so are literature, art and music. You can shrink religion to fit your prejudice, but that’s all you’re left with: ugly prejudice.
Ince and friends act as the ‘persecuted minority’ of rationalists in a culture populated by superstitious religious people. It's rather ironic then that our culture is actually a scientific and technological one, where the scientific perspective is the dominant way of knowing and understanding the world.
The game of oppressed minority is thus rather distateful. It reaches grotesque proportions when Ince reads what the audience is supposed to find fascinating facts of scientific discovery whilst saying 'ironically' how boring they are. He keeps on repeating that they are boring to prove his point that they are not. Why bother with being subtle? Robin, dear, science is not boring, but you are!
Brian Cox laments the cutting in funding for physics. Mhm, what could it be? Arguably, funding for university research is not enough, but the largest share has always gone to the natural sciences. It is humanities and social sciences that have been consistently neglected, not physics. There’s also the ‘small’ matter of having to rescue our financial system.
The main problem of the show, however, is the judgemental, intolerant and ignorant attitude towards religion. They all protest (far too much) that they are not anti-religious, but if that were true, why were the acts mostly referring to religion rather than science?
It seems to me that these ‘pseudo-rationalists’ think that religion and science are in competition. They believe in the myth that religion is a pre-modern irrational superstition which explains the world through supernatural causes; that the advent of modern science has opened our eyes to the ‘truth’; and, thus, we don’t need religion any longer. This is what is often referred to as the ‘Walt Disney Theory’. It’s sweet but sucks.
Aside from the fact that being religious doesn’t necessarily mean believing in God or anything supernatural. Belief in God is not irrational because the existence of God cannot be proven. By definition God is beyond physics, beyond scientific discovery. If science troubles itself with God then it’s not being scientific. The object of scientific discovery is the physical world, not metaphysics. Trying to prove the existence of God (or rejecting God on the basis of lack of evidence) implies that one doesn’t understand science.
That is the problem. These pseudo-rationalists believe in science and their prophet is Richard Dawkins. They pick on abstruse elements of religion, such as ‘creation science’, crystals and ‘the bible code’, to say that only science is rational and the only way of knowing. Religion is a way of knowing, and so are literature, art and music. You can shrink religion to fit your prejudice, but that’s all you’re left with: ugly prejudice.
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