Movement 105

f* 

,.t. 

t \ 

+il 

*r 

v 

t 

.--*{Ftt 

t 

I 

t;5 

ISSUE 

105 

SPRING 

2000 

4 

.Jg' 

a 

* 

&i- 

:.& nr 

I 

I 

a 

'{ 

aa SECTION 28 

where have all the 

liberals gone? 

# 

t. !l Dogma: 

LAVINIA 

BYRNE 

'forced to keep 

journeying' 

PLUS: Aloysius Pieris - liberation theology in Asia

august2s - 28 

ffireenbelt 

,IJ, 

The UK's National Christian Arts Festival 

Gheltenham Racecourse 

working with .. 

GhristianlTAid 

Boolz 

Our ticket offers: 

save ttf on all tickets 

if you book 

before the end of April 

1 free adult place for every 10 

tickets booked 

i, h' :; 

,. rl 

for a 

-{ &1,- -. 

rl- 

r3t 

'" tttt l:z ., 

Young Friends General Meeting 

of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 

is seeking to recruit a young friends co-ordinator 

to provide administrative support to young Quakers in Britain 

The post will be based at Woodbrooke (Birmingham) for a period of one year. 

We are looking for someone to work 20 hours a week on a salary of f6,500 per annum (f"I2,307 pro rata) 

For an application form and job description, please send an ,{4 stamped self addressed envelope to: 

Youngs Friends co-ordinator applications 

c/o Management group, 

YFGM office, 

Woodbrooke College, 

L046 Bristol Road, 

BirminghamB29 6LJ. 

or check our website http ;//www. 

quaker.o r gl y fgml 

Closing date for applications is 12th May 2000. Interviews will be held in Birmingham 

on Saturday 3rd June with a view to starting in mid-July or shortly afterward'

'i::ffi 

Tim Woodcock pays tribute to Schutz, the creator of Peanufs who died in February. 

Fifty years of security btankets, kite-eating trees and The Great Pumpkin. 

And a tittte bit of philosophy too. 

Nuts and Schulz 

lrl 3J,i'#,= :: : l:i,::xil,'. " 

I r I'sundavs'unarres M. scnurz dred. 

E Four montns earter rn r\ovemDer 

he announced that, because of worsening 

colon cancer, Peanuts would be comingto 

an end and he said: "l have been fortunate 

to draw Charlie Brown and his friends for 

almost 50 years. lt has been a fulfilment of 

my childhood ambition. Charlie Brown, 

Snoopy, Linus, Lucy - how can I ever forget 

them?" 

Peanuts was originally called Li'l Folks 

and it is a universe where adults are 

invisible, and kids tend to learn the hard 

way. Charlie Brown's large bland face is 

said to represent Schulz's feeling of being 

indistinguishable from the crowd at school 

- Charlie Brown is an 'everyman'. 

And a no-one. Charlie Brown is famous 

for being a loser, although the comic strip 

he appears in has been syndicated to 

2600 newspapers, and translated inlo 2I 

languages and been the subject of an 

exhibition at the Louvre. There's something 

very charming about Schulz's visual style - 

the giant heads, Snoopy's dances, 

Woodstock's speech, the way people do 

involuntary somersaults when shouted at. 

But more than that it has a warmth. There 

are funnier, cleverer and 

more challenging 

\ 

lssUe 105 

Spring 2000 

Movement is the termly 

magazine of the Student 

Christian Movement, 

distributed free of charge 

to members and 

dedicated to an openminded 

exploration of 

Christianity. 

Peanuts, but none inspire the same degree 

of affection. 

When Schulz died I found myself 

trawling through cartoons that I'd 

treasured as a kld and re-reading a slim 

book called fhe Gospe/ Accordingto 

Peanuts (Fontana, 1966). You could argue 

that any cartoon strip with such a long lifespan 

could be dissected and some kind of 

philosophy extracted - but Robert L. Short 

claims that there is a distinctly Christian 

message behind Peanuts. ln the words of 

Short, fhe Gospe/... provides 'a reading out 

of' rather than 'a reading into' Peanuts. ln 

all the obituaries I read, none mentioned 

that Schulz was a lay-preacher and his first 

job was with a Catholic publisher filling in 

someone else's 

speech bubbles! 

Ihe Gospe/ 

According to 

Peanuts stills 

holds up very 

well: it is not 

contrived to say that 

Peanuts conveys the 

major themes of 

Christian faith. 

Short's book 

quotes 

Editorial address 

2/2 767 Hyndland Road, 

Hyndland, Glasgow. 

G12 gHT 

t: (0141) 339 7343 

e: movemag@aol.com 

SCM central office 

Westhill College, 

t4/I5 Weoley Park Road, 

Selly Oak, Birmingham. 

829 6LL 

t: (0121) 4772404 

f: (0121) 474 7251 

e: SCM@movement.org.uk 

movement 1 

Editor: Tim Woodcock 

Editorial board: Claire Horsnell, 

Diccon Lowe, Sara Mellen, Elinor 

Mensingh, Carolyn Styles 

SCM staff 

Coordinator - Carolyn Styles 

Project Worker: Groups - Elinor Mensingh 

Project Worker: Membership - Mark Depew 

Website: www.movement.org.uk 

Disdaimen The viarrls expressed in 

Mo\€ment are th6e of the particular 

author and should not be taken to be the 

policy of the Student Christian Movement 

Kierkegaard and Barth and Bonhoeffer and 

mockingly calls itself 'theological literary 

criticism (illustrated)'. On one level it 

merely makes facile observations about 

human nature: the stubbornness of Lucy, 

the insecurities of Linus, the constant 

failures of Charlie Brown illustrate we are 

less than perfect, or, if you like that kind of 

language, 'fallen'. lt is written in that lively 

colloquial way that only Americans can get 

away with. One chapter argues that "The 

Wages of Sin is 'Aaaughh!"' and another 

unpacks the phrase "Good grief!" 

By far the most interesting and daring 

claim is that Snoopy is a "hound of 

heaven" and Jesus is a 'Dog God'. Robert 

Short toys with, and rejects, the idea of 

Snoopy as a Christ figure - but he does 

assert that Snoopy is "a good symbol for 

faith". Not Snoopy being heroic (as Joe 

Cool or the Red Baron) orjudgmental (the 

ice hockey umpire), rather Snoopy the 

companionable dog, who gets the 

leftovers. His main purpose in life is to 

'exalt the humble and humble the exalted'. 

Now Short's works seem to me twee 

and preachy, but it is exciting and edgy 

theology, which engages with popular 

c u ltu re. 

Which got me thinking: what is the 

descendant of Peanuts? Calvin and 

Hobbes - exactly captures how children 

think. The Sirnpsons is the same kind of 

world - on the cusp of surreal and real, 

with a certain tenderness at core. But the 

best comparison, one that Schulz would be 

appalled at I'm sure, is South Park. lt too 

looks at the world from knee height: but it 

is a world where innocence is obliterated 

and replaced with experience. 

r+? 

Membership fees: 

t15 (\^aged) 

t10 (unu/aged/stLdents) 

Next copydate 

7thAugrd2000 

Ursolicited nratedal lvelcome. 

Ask for guidelines. 

Ad\€dbir€copldate 

14thAugrst2000 

lssN030@80x 

Charity No.241896 

@0OOSCf\4

SCM Summer Retreat 

16rH - 18rH Jurur 2000 

BntNEseuRv Housr, nrnn BnrH 

Only f 1-0 

TIME TO de-stress from 

exams and treat yourself to a 

relaxing weekend in the 

countryside. 

Join us for the SCM 

Summer Retreat in 

Bainesbury House, a selfcontained 

cotta$e with beds 

and showers (hurrah!) in the 

grounds of Downside AbbeY, 

near Bath. A relaxed 

programme will be on offer 

but the idea is to rest, natter 

and eat $ood nosh to$ether. 

Bookin$ forms are 

available are available from 

central office. 

? 

d 

I 

I 

notes 

from the 

\ 

{l - I 

i 

t. 1 

The volunteer student: 

a declining sPecies? 

CATACOMBS 

John Field writes; Anxieties about college 

funding have put pressure on most students 

to spend a larger part of their vacations 

working for pay. Voluntary organisations 

have suffered a loss of suPPort in 

consequence. 

For examPle, ARC, a EuroPe-wide 

organisation which provides 3-4 week 

residential courses linked with cathedrals, 

had almost no applicants in 1998' but 

began to recover slowly in 1999. lts 

communities, for those of student age (20- 

26) are ecumenical, and offer the 

opportunity for people from many nations to 

live together in Christian commitment, to 

learn the history of their host cathedral, and 

to take small groups of summer visitors on 

, 

-..,}} 

NEWS 

from 

scM 

in 

Britain 

and 

beyond 

guided tours in their native languages. Rev 

Lucy Winkett, Chaplain at St.Paul's 

Cathedral, who provides pastoral support for 

the community there, is a great enthusiast. 

"ARC is a tonic," she comments. "The 

presence of these young people is good for 

us all, for it leads us to re-examine our 

relations with one another." 

ARC communities are usually held at 

Florence, Siena, Cologne, Trier, Speyer' 

Reims, Tours, Troyes, Bordeaux, Antwerp, 

Utrecht, CanterburY, SalisburY and 

Westminster Abbey, as well as at St'Paul's. 

Accommodation, food and pocket money are 

provided, so the only cost to a participant is 

the return fare. 

{ tt you are interested contact the director 

of ARC England John Field at Callaly Mill' 

Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66 4SZ or 

CallalyField@hotmail.com. 

Mark Depew, who are You? 

hl l;T,';Sr',:",lo;liilT'HTi* 

El ffi:Y, i 3fi ;:: ;;f i'.?:i:* tTffJ"?l il?i' 0 

""", " 

0 

and lead fundraising strategies, to manage the distribution of 

Movement, and devise ingenious methods of convincing greater 

numbers of individuals to join the SCM family' 

The burning question is, however, who is Mark Depew? 

Since finishing my first degree in Politics/Economics at 

Assumption College in the United States back in 1987, I have had a 

whirlwind of exPeriences' 

I have been married for thirteen years and have two daughters' 

My wife and l, worked together in Northern lndia for just over a year 

in 1989-90, where I taught English and researched human rights 

abuses against the Sikhs. Upon our return, life took a strange 

changeoringingmeintoseniorRetailManagementforthenextfive 

rn po,t and at mv desk 

y""r"l Ftot 1S9S-SZ, I returned to full-time education at Birmingham 

movement 2 

University to read for a Masters Degree in lnternational Studies' 

Following my studies, I went to work for Christian Aid and the 

Jubilee 2000 Coalition, bringing to Birmingham the world's first 

Human Chain. Principally, over three years I have researched, 

spoken and advocated debt and development issues to a broad 

range of groups. As a fund+aiser, I have increased Christian Aid 

Week giving by 62% in my local church. 

t proOuceO 'Taking Stock', a report identifying progress made by 

Britain's leading supermarkets in producing and implementing 

ethical codes of conduct for suppliers in the developing world' 

ln my personal life I strongly link my commitmentto serving God 

withsocial,peaceandjusticeaction'Whichhasbeenmanifestedin 

my recent work as well as my voluntary work and commitment to 

social issues in my local community' 

Over the next two years I look forward to meeting, with and 

working on behalf of all of You. 

.l

,r :trf,H 

,,:r-,&ffi 

Justin Whelan is a gtobe-trotting Australian who found 

himsetf at this year's ecumenical conference 

Solace in Solihull 

a 

rrrf,":L:tr=#3:,?,;"ffi 5:'"?,r 

I f I aTrarrs ano conTerence gorngs-on 

f|| of the Australian scM, it shourd 

come as no surprise that one of the first 

connections I made after landing in London 

was with the SCM in Britain. And that, of 

course, led me to the upcoming Ecumenical 

conference, with a Taiz6 theme no less. 

Being something of a Taiz6 hack I had no 

excuse not to attend. This, coupled with a 

growing sense of spiritual unease prompted 

by an absence of religious activity, saw me 

on the 6:55 to Solihull. 

There must be a rule somewhere in SCM 

H.Q. that decrees thou shalt sit in a circle 

and say thy name to the group, followed by a 

quirky fact about thyself, for it happens the 

world over. lt sure does make a great 

welcome, and as a Catholic who claims 

some pride in the universality of the Catholic 

mass (if it's 9:15, we must be up to the first 

reading), a great comfort. The idea that one 

will remember more than one or two of the 

sixty names called out represents the high 

point in SCM idealism. I love it. 

The weekend itself, from this 

participants' perspective, was a great 

success. I generally believe the success of 

an ecumenical gathering can be measured 

by the ignorance of each others 

denomination (and in this case, student 

movement as well) as it means people don't 

find themselves forced into self-criticism (as 

a Catholic!) before they express their 

opinions. The quality of singing improved 

over the weekend as people learned their 

parts and sang more loudly and by the end 

a joyful sound was indeed being made unto 

the Lord. 

Personally I found the weekend an 

important time for stopping and letting go. I 

took a couple of opportunities for silent 

prayer, meditating on Brother Roger's Letter 

in which he writes that the desire for faith is 

already the beginning of faith - comforting 

words in a time of existential confusion. The 

disco was a great success. Brother Paulo's 

clumsy dancing was a treat. And I found out 

my partner knows all the words to 

Madonna's LiRe A Prayer. What more is 

there to safr 

Y tt you have always wanted to go to Taiz6 

but didn't want the hassle of arranging it 

all, then here's the hassle-free way to do it. 

A couple of curates in the Birmingham 

Diocese are arranging a trip, open to 

anyone wherever you live. The dates are 19- 

28th August and it will cost 912$9150, 

Contact Richard Wharton on OL2t 

4763990. 

movement 3 

Congratulations to Carrie Styles, SCM's coordinator, 

who is pregnant. And also 

congrats to her husband Rob. See page t4 

for Rob's thoughts on advantages on the 

internet when it comes to ultrasound scans 

and family ties. 

Here's how to get hold of DIALOGUE, the 

lnternational Journal for Buddhists and 

Christians, edited by Dr. Aloysius Pieris SJ 

(see p.8). Annual subscnptions cost US 

$70.OO (or equivalent) inclusive of airmail 

postage. Contact the Secreta ry, Ecu menical 

/nstltute for Study and Dialogiue, 490/5 

Havelock Road, Colombo, Sri Lanka. 

ecumenel@s ri. I a n ka. net 

Some intriguing looking events over the 

next few months... 

* A one day conference called Virtual 

Faith - The Spiritual Quest of Young Adults: 

Lessons from the US. For "anyone 

interested in the theological meaning of 

music video, film, body piercing and 

popular culture." lt is led by Tom Beaudoin 

who wrote a ground-breaking book on the 

'irreverent spirituality of Generation X'. lt is 

at Klng's College, London, on 27th May, 

11am-3pm and costs f15. Contact Pete 

Ward on O2O7 8483L2O. 

* Greenbelt - the biggest and best of 

Christian arts festivals - is on 25th-28th 

August. At one point it billed itself as the 

third festival in the Christian calender with 

Christmas and Easter and is settling in at 

its new home in Cheltenham Race Course, 

and August. (See advert inside front cover) 

* The Sea of Faith is offering 

concessionary places for f'30 to students 

at its annual conference in Leicester 

(25Ih-271h July). SoF is about "exploring 

and promoting religious faith as human 

creation." So if you want to get your brain 

cells tickled over those long summer 

months. Contact John Pearson, 3 Belle 

Grove Place, Spital Tongues, Newcastle- 

Upon-Tyne NE2 4LH. 

* The Lesbian and Gay Christian 

Movement are having a European 

Conference on 'Forging a Dialogue with 

the Churches' in Edinburgh 3-7 May 2000. 

Speakers include James Alison, John Bell 

and Prof Elizabeth Stuart. Also Pride takes 

place on 2 )uly and their LGCM's Annual 

Pride 'Mardi Gras' Service takes place in 

Hinde Street Methodist Church at 3pm.

'.ffiil 

Kevin Smith made his mark with tow budget films packed with fantasticatty juvenite 

dialogue. So how did he come to make Dogma, an action fil,m about Cathoticism 

with Atanis Morissette as God? Claire Horsnell on the vision of Saint Kevin. 

9n! tberc citurP t0 paSS in the later days, a maker of 

films in the state of New Jersey, and he did make a film 

about Catholicism containing many jokes about 

flatulence and genitalia. And there was much wailing 

and gnashing of teeth, and calling for boycotts. 

And the film companY did drop the 

movie therewith. 

+ 

It 

.*glt 

{ 

r v x / 

t 

g .-t/i 

&- 

.t 

? 

e 

a 

{ 

\I 

frA 

I 

p,rt fo, . 

a 

I 

I 

.,, 

" 

.J 

:tl' 

director rernaineb calm, and souq$out a 

second distribbtor, this time llh success. And his name 

was Kevin Siniilr, ano theilm was called Dogma. And 

,;,,,ili 

verily, it was good. 

G 

TI 

Dfvfne comedy 

tr[**tq*i'*L-j#i*,'' 

when they actually saw the film. 

The type of people who would protest 

about what they saw as an attack on the 

Catholic Church ai'e possibly as likely to be 

offended by the dick-and-fart mentality of 

much of the humour as much as the 

portrayal of the Church itself. Life of Brian iI 

isn't. The difference is that, whereas the 

Pythons crucified organised religion, Smith's 

portrayal of Catholicism shrugs off the 

ribbing and still gives us the thumbs up at 

the end of the movie. You're left with the 

feeling that Christ is probably laughing at 

the Golgotha Shit Demon as well. 

It's probably this element of the movie 

that made film critics all over the country 

take a deep breath and write, 'what?' While 

no-one much in the UK hated it, no-one 

much seemed to understand it, either. God 

may possess ubiquity in many cultures, but 

Hollywood isn't one of them; while the Devil 

made it into Halliwell's Film and Video 

Guide from its inception, the good Lord 

entered its hallowed pages for the first time 

only last year. Christianity was pretty much 

relegated to films about the spiritual battle 

between good and evil (Ihe Exorcist), 

biblical epics (Jesus of Nazareth) and Ihe 

Last Temptation of Christ, beloved by 

theology students everywhere. 

Suddenly, along came Kevin Smith and 

made a movie - not a film, as he would be 

swift to emphasise - with Christianity and 

the search for personal faith smack in the 

centre. No cheesy schmaltz, no brooding 

solemnity, nothing. Just a glittering carnival 

of Catholic tradition and belief packed with 

Smith's razor-sharp dialogue and emotional 

punches. And not a rainbow-strapped guitar 

in sight. 

So what exactly was Kevin Smith trying 

to do? The concept ofthe movie had been 

in the pipeline for ages; the credits of his 

first film, C/erks, ended with the promise 

'Jay and Silent Bob will return in Dogma'. 

They took a diversion through his two 

subsequent offerings though; Mal/rats was 

gloriously ribald, juvenile and critically 

panned, and while Chasing Amy reached 

new depths, chronicling the journey of two 

average blokes to emotional adulthood, it 

still wasn't what advocates of the parallel 

universe would call a 'Christian' movie. lt 

was 1998 before shooting eventually began 

on what Smith would later call 'a psalm of 

sorts... my love-letter to God and faith.' 

movement 4

However, not everyone saw it in quite the 

same way, and even before Do6fma's 

release, religious groups were lining up to 

castigate a director they saw as 

blasphemous, anti-Catholic, and profane. 

lronic, considering that Dogma was 

ultimately inspired by the RE classes of a 

Franciscan nun back in a New Jersey 

elementary school. Smith remembers, "She 

humanised Christ... Suddenly Christ was 

also a guy. And a guy with friends. And a guy 

with friends who wasn't above taking the 

piss out of them once in a while. Christ was 

a walking, talking, dude... Here was a Christ 

I could wrap my head around. Here was a 

Christ I could actually endeavour to be like. 

Here was a Christ that spoke to me, and 

that was something I wanted to share with 

other people. So years later, I wrote the 

screenplay of Dogma." 

It also humanises Christ, and not just in 

the statue with the cheesy grin, unveiled as 

part of the 'Catholicism - Wow!' campaign 

either. Alan Rickman's Voice of God 

recounting to Linda Fiorentino how he had 

to explain to the twelve year-old Jesus who 

he really was, for example, has a poignancy 

that has the potential to speak to everyone 

in human terms, regardless of their spiritual 

orientation. Dogma isn't a film about 

religion - it's a film about faith. 

Iifl:rlif;;ln?,r;lnffi,", 

character, Silent Bob, in the role of a 

prophet, showing the same quiet sense of 

irony that led him to turn up anonymously to 

one of the protests against his own film. 

The fact that God is played by Alanis 

Morissette is also more of a paean to her 

ethereal good looks than a calculated V-sign 

to the Pope. The 'gender of God' isn't the 

point. Neither is the 'dogma' itself - Smith's 

enthusiasm for comic books turns out a 

pageant of characters that hover halfway 

between a Marvel Comic and the Gospel of 

St Mark. Angels, demons, monsters, 

muses, and Smith's ubiquitous heroes Jay 

L Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith (aka Jay and Si/ent Bob) 

and Silent Bob pound their way through a 

brash road-fantasy with courage, a heart 

and a brain. Complaining that the theology 

is dodg! is like complaining that The Wizard 

of Oz is factually inaccurate. You've clearly 

missed the point. 

The film's strength seems to lie in a 

quiet self-confidence. Smith doesn't feel the 

need to justify his faith, and while the movie 

may resemble a flamboyant extravaganza of 

Catholic allegory, the heart of the movie is 

firmly fixed on the search for personal faith, 

which leaves it inclusive. "Remove the 

trappings of our day-to-day reality and the 

world," says Smith, "and you are left with 

your faith, whether it be in Jesus Christ, 

Buddha, Elijah, Mohammed, Ganesha, 

nature, the earth, the stars, whatever." He 

explains, "Faith is the glue that holds us 

"Suddenty Christ 

was a guy with 

friends who wasn't 

above taking the 

piss out of them 

once in a while. 

Here was a Christ 

I could wrap my 

head around. " 

movement 5 

together and binds us (kind of like the 

Force.) lt's something we all have in 

common - even if you're not a religious 

person." Dogma even closes with an 

aphorism that would keep any hardened 

pluralist happy as well - the idea that it 

doesn't matter what you have faith in, as 

long as you have faith. 

ls this a cop out? Possibly. But Smith is 

a movie maker, not an evangelist, and his 

sense of humour, irony, and appreciation of 

a damn good fart joke, combined with his 

ability to write dialogue that packs an 

emotional punch has produced another 

movie that leaves you smiling, feeling, and, 

most importantly, thinking. C/erks and 

Chasing Amy were brilliant because they put 

onto the big screen the stuff that no-one 

else had thought of saying, probably 

because it was too painful, or too juvenile, 

or both. Dogma works in a similar way, and 

it is probably with Sister Theresa in mind 

that Smith reflects, "Religion only comes 

alive when you don't take the standard look 

at it. Religion comes alive sometimes 

through a different view." 

And, let's face it, if we weren't good 

Christian people, then we'd just have to 

worship Kevin Smith. 

Claire Marie Horsnell is a member of 

Warwick SCM. 

For the most ludicrously large website see 

www.dogma-movie.com. lt includes the 

Catholicism Wow! logo, Kevin Smith's diary 

and examples of what happens with props 

when filming is done.

Atoysius Pieris is a Christian theotogian and a Buddhist scholar. Twenty five years 

ago he founded the Tutana Research Centre in Sri Lanka and has used it a base for 

forging an Asian [iberation theotogy. 

Shanthi Hettiarachchi profiles the man and his work 

Mfsslon 

o 

I 

ndfgenous 

LoYsrus Ptrnp 8J, nte 

priest-scholar hailing from the 

island of Sri Lanka combines 

erudition with community 

consciousness. There are a number of 

books now available both in the East and 

the West inspired by his methodology and 

thought. As he has sharpened his skills his 

work has become a unique resource, 

especially for the South Asian scholars, the 

churches and even other social institutions 

working for the cause of people. 

His style and charisma are exemplified in 

Dialogue, an internationaljournal he edits 

for Buddhists and Christians, which has 

gathered a new school of Buddhist and 

Christian dialoguers. This dimension of interfaith 

conversation has strong links with 

those politically, socially and economically 

excluded and marginalised in Sri Lanka. 

Aloy, as his fellow Jesuits, friends, coworkers 

and students fondly know him, has 

combined discipline at the desk with 

discipline in the field. A heterogenous mix of 

people converge under his influence: social 

theologians and scholars of all fields; 

radical youth and workers; Buddhists and 

Christians; Marxists and revisionists; monks 

and priests; artists and musicians and 

liturgists; activists and contemplatives. 

However, they have something 

homogeneous about them, they 

fundamentally are dialoguers - men and 

women open to revision. They leave his 

Research Centre in Tulana with a shift in 

thought and attitude which then ripples out 

t Fr Pieris Aloysius 

The 'mother churches' woutd rather 

be faithfuI to the western moorings of 

their histories instead of devetoping a 

truty indigenous community of faith 

in their areas of work. 

Many who know Aloy's insights into 

Christianity and Buddhism, the Bible and 

the Tripitaka, call him both a theologian and 

a Buddhist scholar. lnterestingly he has 

hardly described himself, but what he 

prescribes is a dialogue of life - diapraxis.ll 

is an invitation for serious communal 

reflection, rooted in the dynamism of 

pluralism. lt needs diverse expressions to 

comprehend the whole. 

ln his quarter century contribution, Aloy 

has initiated a new vision for mission for the 

churches in Sri Lanka. The mainstream 

thinking of the churches have made it of 

marginal importance and even consider his 

thinking antagonistic to their agenda. The 

so-called 'mother churches' would rather be 

more faithful to the western moorings of 

their histories instead of developing a truly 

indigenous community of faith. The legacy 

of five hundred years of Portuguese, Dutch 

and British Christianities are still active. 

They have disabled the South Asian religiocultural 

ethos in relatingto the Buddhist, 

Hindu and lslamic traditions of the lsland. 

r3 tosil nEcENT BOOK 

(God's Rertn for God's Poor, 

Tulana Research Centre, Sri 

Lanka, 1999) is the first in a 

series to mark the Silver Jubilee of Tulana 

(1974-1999) and is written from within the 

praxis paradigm of Buddhist-Christian 

dialogue in Sri Lanka. lt indicates a clear 

departure from the old religious tokenism 

and missionary practice when Buddhists 

and other religionists were considered 

potential objects of conversion. He initiates 

a new way of rooting Asian Christian 

theology in the language of Jesus. His 

proposal of a Covenant Christology is a 

hallmark of the present debate in seeking 

Christologica I feasibility in i nter-faith 

discourses ("Conversion is not necessarily a 

change of religion but a radical change of 

direction.") 

It is indeed interesting how he 

theologically challenges the missing 

cornerstone of the Council of Chalcedon 

when it indulged a scholastic metaphysical 

idiom, "God become human" rather than 

"God become poor", which is the Gospel 

cornerstone of reasonable Christology. 

"Jesus in God covenanted with the Poor... 

The Asian Poor have right to hear about this 

God who is already their God. This God t 

who lives and dies in Jesus, and who is tl p.8 

movement 6

! 

t 

a 

i 

o 

o_ 

x 

o 

o 

3 

O 

3 

N. 

€ 

3 

6 

9.. 

o 

P 

TULANA 

from tu/; to elevate, wergh, 

compare, movetnent 

towa rds weiglrtier tlri ngs. 

Location, location, location 

TULANA RESEARCH Centre, located in 

Kelaniya, is a serene environment. 

0verthe years Kelanlya's profile has 

changed. The clothing industry and 

other light industries have attracted 

labour abundantly into this area and 

is partof the life of the city. However 

there is a deep sense of the rural 

setting if one were to walk through the 

inner belt of Kelaniya. Tulana is one 

such place that has kept a critical 

distance from the so called 

development and retained its unique 

identity as a modest place for critical 

reflection and diverse religious views. 

Though an illustrious Buddhist shrine 

with a legendary history are the 

cultural pinnacles of this area, it is a 

die-hard centre ofextreme nationalist 

political views with its notorious 

underworld activities. This makes 

Kelaniya an ideal social location for 

the prophetic dynamics ofTulana. 

My reading of Tulana is that it still 

continues the discourse which the 

Buddha is believed to have initiated 

during his mythic visit to Kelaniya 

where he preached to 500 monks and 

lay Buddhists and listened to their 

views - a saga that is enunciated in 

the Mahavamsa (Great Chronicle) of 

Sri Lanka. 

A Home of Discourses 

lT lS IMPORTANT to mention where all 

these imaginative leaps are rooted. 

The word'Tulana" is derived from the 

Sanskrit root "tul" - to elevate, weith, 

compare, movement towards 

weightier things. The research centre 

with its varied concerns ls the best 

way to convey the Sanskrlt nuances. 

Tulana is a modest house built in 

an eco friendly desi1n with reflective 

murals and paintings. Sri Lanka's 

longest river called "Kelani" - which 

originates at Sri Pada (Adam's Peak), 

where the Buddha is believed to have 

sea/ed the "peak stone" with the 

impresslon of his foot - flows through 

this locality. The River Kelaniflows 

from the mountains, throuth the 

valleys on to the plains and into the 

1cean and becoming part of the 

whole. Likewise reflection at Tulana 

flows outto become part of the wider 

relitious discourse of Asia. It has 

generated an understanding of 

theology in the context and to express 

it in the language and the idiom of 

lhe masses. Alols pioneering insight 

is the afticulation of a Christianity in 

the idiom of the Buddhist culture and 

history of Sri Lanka. Tulana is unique 

and the longest suviving community 

research centre on the island. 

Ihe accusations such as 'Asia as 

the epicentre of Christological 

heresies" have been turned into 

i n sightful, ene rgisin g and creative 

theolo gies. Asia n theologia ns have 

been moved to address the 

shameful plight of the teemin! 

millions of poor and the poverty of 

Asia, and to involve 

lssues ofsocia/ and 

economic justice as part 

of their theology. 

/t has set a tone and 

initiated a space for 

m e a n i n gf u I re I ati o ns h i p s 

between Buddhists and 

Christians and challenged 

the fossr/rsed structures 

of powers. 

Tulana has made 

arrogant colonial 

Christi a n ity ch a n ge i ts 

emphasis from a 

prescriptive relition to an 

engaging faith. There has 

been the development of c/usters of 

true Asian Christian faith 

communities rather than lumping 

some local elements to an alien way 

of understandingtheology and the 

life of the church. 

The Tulana Research Centre can 

be described as an epicentre of 

Asian theology. Tulana like many 

other centres and movements in 

lndia, Korea and the Philippines is 

"doing theology" rather than 

do gmatisi ng it. Alols contributions 

have become major fields of study 

and reflection, assedlng an 

inditenous way to believe and 

belongto a faith rediscovered in 

their own soil 

( SHANTH I HETII ARACHCHI ) 

Art atTulana 

THE CROUCHING, twisted body of a 

woman bows to the ground. Around 

her, vindictive male faces and limbs 

press forward. Above her is a hand 

raised in the do-not-fear gesture of 

lndian religious iconography. Blood 

runs from the mark of a nail in the 

palm showing that it is the hand of 

Jesus, deflecting violence from the 

woman caught in adultery. 

A woman, her head bent in grief, 

holds across her knees the utterly 

lifeless body of her son. Behind them, 

a militarytank and a lamppost 

collide, making the sign of a cross. 

Mary and Jesus become Mother 

Lanka and the thousands of youth 

dead in overtwo decades ofviolence, 

symbol ofthe eternal drama of 

The River Ketani ftows from the mountains, 

through the valteys on to the ptains and 

into the Ocean, becoming part of the whote. 

innocence and idealism sacrificed to 

the powers of oppression. 

Both these are works of art at 

Tulana Research Centre in Sri Lanka. 

Both were created by Buddhists, the 

first by a monk, Ven Hatigammana 

Uttarananda, the third by a lay 

person, Kingsley Gunatilleke. 

It all began in the 1960s when the 

Centre's director, Aloysius Pieris, a 

Jesuit priest, was visited by a 

renowned Buddhist scholar, Charles 

de Silva. De Silva handed him a play 

called Supreme Sacrifrce, which he 

had written after deep disappointment 

that a passion play he had seen 

performed by the island's Catholics 

had not been, "worthy of Christ". 

Fr Pieris was deeply moved by the 

play. Buddhism recognises the 

importance of self-sacrificial action 

for the good of others. De Silva had 

used this appreciation to bring the 

story of Easter alive in a vibrant way. lt 

made Fr Pieris acutely aware that 

neither the gospel ofJesus Christ nor 

the Word of God is the Church's 

possession alone. Fr Pieris became 

convinced that Buddhists who were 

truly working for the good of society 

through identification with the poor, 

could be in touch with the Word of 

God and could help Christians 

understand more fully the gospel of 

Jesus. 

So began a pilgrimage in which Fr 

Pieris began to ask Buddhists who 

were involved with the struggle for 

justice in Sri Lanka, to interpretthe 

Christian gospel for him in art. Ven 

Uttarananda's mural of Christ 

washing the feet of the disciples, for 

instance, was the result of long hours 

of dialogue. The monk read the 

Gospels and Fr Pieris suggested that 

Likewise reftection at Tutana flows 

out to become part of the wider 

retigious discourse of Asia. 

he should paint what he saw as 

unique to Christianity. Eventually, Ven 

Uttarananda chose to highlight the 

challenge Jesus posed to accepted 

norms concerning power and service. 

The resulting work of art greets all who 

come to Tulana, bearing witness to 

the heart of Christianity. 

The vision ofTulana is of Buddhists 

and Christians teaching each other 

what it means, within Sri Lanka's 

violence and social exclusion, to 

respond to what Christians would call 

the Word of God. lt holds a challenge 

for us all - to our theology and our 

relationships. 

(ELIZABETH HARRIS) 

movement 7

Jesus, is no threat to them as the 

Colonial Christ had been. For 

Jesus is a Crucified God who dies 

protesting on their behalf' 

AloY critiques the PoPularlY 

used theological framework 

which divides contemPlation 

and action, and faith and 

justice. There is an invitation 

in this book to revisit Jesus' 

Eucharistic language on 

God's Reign and God's 

Poor. This unique material 

introduces a new way to 

understand the Person 

of Jesus in the context 

of Asia, which he 

names Covenant 

ChristologY. lt is an 

attempt to recover a 

theology most 

appropriate from within the 

Asian context, not onlY as a possible waY 

to understand God's action in the world, but 

also to critique the dominant model of the 

absolutised CaPital and the M arket doctrine 

(Mammon) which seem to rePlace Divine 

sovereignty in the struggle of PeoPle' 

It is to AloY's credit that we today have 

new concepts I ike the cosrnic and the meta 

cosm ic religiositY, where he 

makes a subtle 

distinction 

between the 

primal religions/ 

cosmic (religions of 

the soil) and what 

we call the major 

faiths of the world 

(meta cosmic). He 

also makes an erudite 

adaptation of the 

Buddhist distinction 

between lhe lokiYa 

(natural) and lokuttra 

(super natural) as a 

critique of the traditional 

western distinction between 

the secular and the religious' 

His Magnum OPus, Asian 

Theotogt/ of Liberation, which 

is now translated into nine 

European and Asian languages, is used as a 

source book where some of these concepts 

are further explored. lt recovers a 

theological axiom derived from Buddhist 

apicchata (havingfew wants) and daliddata 

(ienial of even basic needs), an interplay 

between the voluntary poverty and the 

forced poverty. Voluntary poverty is 

embraced as a spiritual path whereas 

forced poverty is enforced because a few 

can enjoy the resources meant for everyone 

(victims of Mammon). 

Aloy's socio-theological critique goes 

beyond a mere reading of the Latin 

American Liberation theologians from the 

perspective of the spiritually diverse Asian 

masses. His genius is to rediscover a soclolutiurat 

herrneneutic and Asian conceptual 

tools for doing theology, acceptable to 

people of faiths in Asia' 

' iis most significant contribution' if one 

were to sum up, is a challenging invitation 

both to the struggling masses and the 

'animators' to find their place in society' the 

scholars to get up from their theological 

slumber, and for churches to make an 

u.tiu" lngug"ment with the real wodd' l4- 

Shanthi Hettiarachchi is based in Luton and 

works for the humans rights organisation 

Grassroots. 

MysterY tour starts here 

trffiH!il***Ifr::, 

ihe children joined the adults' Amidst the 

whispered story-telling and the squabbling 

between toddlers, two elders stood and 

welcomed Maeve with love and tenderness' 

Their welcome was simple and from the 

heart. Before welcoming the slumbering 

Maeve, all children were welcomed and told 

that they were much loved by members of 

the Meeting. 

They weie thanked for bringing their 

unique qualities to the group, and their 

oresence, silent or noisY, was 

unconditionally affirmed' The cuddles Maeve 

ieceiveO at the end of Meeting, from adults 

and from childr'en, were as tender and warm 

as the earlier words. 

This simple ceremony raised questions 

for me about baPtism and rituals of 

welcome. Why is it important that my 

Jaugfrter belongs to a faith communitl4 lt is 

imp6rtant to me that Maeve knows she 

beiongs to a wider community than her 

immeliate family, and that this community 

has a common sense of identity as faith 

seekers. A ritual to mark this moment is also 

important. The Quaker welcome is a 

."i"tony which helps that community 

express its welcome to a new child while at 

the same time allowing the parents the free 

space to say'look, this is our child' we want 

ll soundings 

in spiritualitY 

t Hnnvev 

you to take an interest in her life and to helP 

her explore the mYsterY of faith.' 

More than thirtY Years ago I was 

welcomed into a worshipping Christian 

community, dressed in our family's beautiful 

faith which speaks of the relationship 

between God and me in ritual and symbol' 

It is this relationship, including the mystery 

of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus 

Christ which fascinates and invigorates me 

as an adult, regardless of the particular type 

of faith community to which I belong' 

No ritual of belonging can ever sum up 

this mystery of faith. All we can do, from 

whatever tradition we come, is ask 

ourselves: 'do we believe in the mystery?' 

and 'what rituals help us to express this 

mystery?' My wish for Maeve is that she will 

No ritual of betonging can ever 

sum uP this mystery of faith ' Att 

we can do is ask oursetves: 'do we 

betieve in the mystery?.' 

f'Littoo* christening dress, hat and shawl' in 

u ."r"tony with promises and words' with 

water and ritual familiar to many' Now' 

despite my frustrations with much of what 

ry bnur"f is and does, I still feel that I 

O"fong, but not to the Church of Scotland' I 

was biptised into the universal, catholic 

church, a world-wide network of believers' 

And I was baptised into the M/mystery of 

movement 8 

sense the mystery of faith in her life' that 

she will know that she is loved 

unconditionally by those around her' and 

inat sfre will feel free to ask questions which 

take her more deeply into that mystery' 

Through the simple ceremony of Quaker 

worship she was welcomed into the 

universal church. ln the mystery, in the 

silence she was welcomed by God into life'

Onwards and upwards 

ASSAGE. 

The last five years are racing to a 

sudden conclusion: I am almost 

finished with the Student 

Christian Movement. I began with a threeyear 

contract, and renewed it for another 

two years, and now that's coming to an end 

We are in the middle of a search for my 

replacement, and by the time most of you 

read this, that person will be hired, and will 

begin work in August. And 1... will be... 

hopefully... in anotherjob. I have never 

really looked for work. Every job I have had 

has been through someone looking for me 

to work for them. I fervently hope that the 

same will happen this time, because I am 

discovering that things are not winding 

down to a close; rather, they are building up 

to a big bang at the end of my reign as SCM 

Canada's Grand Poobah. 

Pause. I am oh-so tired. I altered my 

entire life to do this work, moving to Toronto 

and surrounding myself with a lively and 

consuming SCM community. lt has been a 

wonderful time, but now, I don't think I know 

how to extricate myself from all of this. lt is 

never easy to leave the SCM. I know, 

because I've done !t before, as a student, at 

my last national conference as a student. 

It was 1990, and I was walking away 

from the only community who had been my 

support network for years. I was bitter and 

angry, and not ready for the world. I was 

pissed off at everything in those days. I 

wrote a letter to the SCM national 

magazine, expressing my anger at feeling 

abandoned. lt ended things with a bad 

taste, something I don't want to do this 

time. But now, I feel similar feelings 

creeping in. How can I possibly find a 

community that matches what the SCM has 

been? What other group will introduce me 

Rrcr GnnnNo 

to the world in the same way? What other 

group will teach me as much as give me the 

opportunity to teach others? Where else will 

I find such compassion, commitment and 

critique? 

Ponder. "So," I tell myself, "you'll get over 

it. Stop being such a baby! Take a second to 

count your bloody blessingsl" And it's true. 

Now that I am being released into the world, 

I will need your help to keep me from 

moping about my great days with the SCM, 

about world travel, conferences, retreats, 

exposures, worship, consultations, lectures, 

seminars... These are things that were 

traumatic at the time, but with this rosy 

hindsight starting to fill my vision, I see 

nothing but grand opportunities and 

treasured memories. 

For instance, over the last three years, I 

have had a column in Movement magazine, 

the finest periodical cataloguing WSCF work 

in existence. I have met political and 

religious leaders, made incredible friends, 

been challenged in everything imaginable, 

and tested to the limits of my abilities. I am 

leaving feeling sane, a little harder, a litfle 

clearer and with a lifetime of experiences to 

draw on. l'm the luckiest guy alive. 

Promise. So, whom am I kidding? How 

can I be part of a global family like this and 

walk away? My only real option is to 

recommit, maybe not as an SCM general 

secretary, but as a damn fine senior friend, 

maybe more directly in a career in campus 

ministry, or some other kind of ministry that 

can draw on the unique gift of the SCM. It's 

just the unknown I fear, not that which I've 

How can I possibty find a community 

that matches what the SCM has been? 

How can I be part of a gtobat 

famity tike this and watk away? 

come to know intimately, this glorious 

puzzle, this bunch of Christian misfits who 

will not accept the stories they are being 

told by the powers that be. I will always 

belong to this gang of friends. 

But. For now I am done Tying and 

Binding. So when you see me on the street 

someday (hint: I might not be wearing the 

same hat), greet me as a friend, because 

we can not afford to lose touch. Not in this 

world. 

Rick Garland is the outgoing Grand Poobah 

(National Co-ordinator) of Canadian SCM. 

Now, he writes, 'My plans are to just let the 

universe know that I am ready for a new 

job and see what it sends me...' 

Doing anything interesting this summer? 

Have you considered teachins ()ryU 4 

ff^f C( 

LINGUA FRANCA is looking for students who are fluent in English or another European language, and are willing to help 

students in eastern/ central Europe improve their foreign language skills. ln exchange for your time and language 

teaching, you get a unique insight into the life, culture and religious traditions of your hosts. 

THE COURSES last for 2-3 weeks each during summer (between July and 

September) and can be profound learning experience, as well as great fun, 

for everyone concerned. 

A formal teaching qualification is not necessary. Enthusiasm is a big 

advantage. 

l;n3ua 

f^rr\ 

c/o WSCF-Europe, Prins Hendriklaan 37 

1075 BA Amsterdam, Netherlands. 

t: +31.20.20.675.4921 

e: li nguaf ranca@xs4all.nl 

movement 9

you,ve may have woken up to her voice a few times. She is a protific broadcaster 

and writer, and she catts her a cyber-nun. Eartier this year Lavinia Byrne chose to 

resign from retigious orders because of conftict with the Vatican over a book she 

wrote seven years ago. Here she tatks to John Hughes. 

Accldental 

hero 

n Lrvrrrr Bvnt: (As gHE 

now is known) comes across as a 

fairly quiet, very sharP and highlY 

self-possessed person - much 

more obviously the stereotype of a sister or 

an academic than a foaming radical. The 

loss of the 'sister' from her name was the 

result of her courageous decision to resign 

her religious orders rather than submit to 

the pressure applied to her by the Vatican's 

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 

(more infamous under its earlier, less 

sanitised name of the Holy Office for the 

lnquisition!) 

She was alreadY well known to many 

from her regular radio broadcasts (including 

R4's fhought for the Day) and popular 

spirituality books. Early this year she briefly 

moved onto the front pages and gained a 

certain notoriety as a heroine of free-spirits 

everywhere; a champion of religious 

freedom against the 'wicked forces of 

conservative repression'. 

Lavinia joined the English order of the 

IBVM (lnstitute of the Blessed Virgin Mary) 

when she was only seventeen in the 1960s. 

and will continue in her current position 

at Westcott, able now to continue 

writing and broadcasting without 

fearfully looking over her shoulder all 

the time. She recognises the 

connection between academic 

education and power, describing the 

opportunity to study theology as the 

greatest freedom she has ever 

known. 

She speaks of seeing her new 

situation as in continuity with her 

past and she will continue to visit 

the other members of her 

community in London on a regular 

basis. "They have been verY 

supportive," she tells me, 

"recognising that it is a legal 

solution to an unsatisfactorY 

Woman 

situation, rather than an 

at the Altar: 

emotional breaking awaY." 

When I asked her whether the 

change would be a big wrench for her, she 

replied that the greatest impact she had felt 

so far was the 600 letters (only three of 

which were anything less than supportive) 

"lf they had asked me to sign up to 

offering them a 

sense of 

intimacy. This 

has clearly 

touched and 

little bemused, 

"perhaps because I am 

not experienced as 

particu larly adversarial." 

This is certainly true and 

is perhaps what makes her case so 

interesting in terms of the politics of the 

Roman Catholic Church, and poignant at a 

personal level: she is not an angry fire-brand 

calling for the storming of the Vatican and 

the book that caused the stooshie 

ffiJ:i;T:H:fl::il:iJil:;?11i.",n",. 

the creeds, I'd happity have done so. [T::i];:#TJiff:T;:'J#lie,i'"".1'*" 

Todecidethatitisnorongerpossibre But to do what they wanted woutd have 

tocontinuethatrireis'then' nosmail 

step to take. DesPjte this ttiuiatised my Cathotic faith and heritage, 

immediate effects of her 

beressdrasticthan*"'ijn,"iffij 

Shfinking it tO tWO qUeStiOnS abOUt SeX. t' 

For a considerable wh 

has not been living in community with 

0"1 i.' 

she 

had received in the previous 10 days, clumsy, authoritarian attempts at control' 

the other sisters of n",. 

"ri"i 

Cambridge (in a house rv which, because of her public service The furore in fact arose concerning 

college!) while she hu, "*"";-ot 0"". *olri,ig u" a training with the BBC, she felt obliged to woman at the Altar 'a book that Dr Byrne 

lecturer in Westcott House - an Anglican answei individually! 

theological college. when I have passed her 

previously on the street she has never stood 

wrote in 1993' This sensitive and thoughtful 

such an overwhelming response may be treatment of matters of women's sexuality 

indicative of a widespread sympathy for and in particular the questions of 

out as a stereotypicar ,r;:";;;;i;; t";;;; those whose integritv brings them into contraception and the ordination of women 

ordinary (indeed rather stylish) clothes conflict with insensitive and legalistic upset a few of the male, celibate priesthood 

rather than habit and wimple. she has no authorities, but perhaps also of the power of in Rome ("They're afraid of fertility!" she 

prans to reave the norun'bJir.lori" Cr.'rri.r, broadcasting to reach out to the lonely, smiles at one point) who reacted by using 

movement 10

! 

5 

o 

I 

c, 

o 

o 

f 

ll 

-5 

=F 

5 

J 

o 

f 

o 

ō 

o 

o 5 

o 

6 

o 

c 

m J 

n 

f 

their influence to get US copies of the book 

stock-piled and even some burnt! 

ln a manner reminiscent of other 

prominent Catholic writers in the last twenty 

years, she was then put under 'considerable 

pressure' from the Congregation for the 

Doctrine of the Faith to assent to a 

declaration of her allegiance to two papal 

documents prohibiting the use of 

contraceptives and the ordination of women 

(two things which until recently had not 

been regarded as de fidei matters for 

disciplinary action). She refused to do so: "lf 

they had asked me to sign up to the creeds, 

I'd happily have done so, but to do what 

they wanted would have trivialised my 

Catholic faith and heritage, shrinking it all to 

two questions about sex." 

It would be unfair though to see this 

purely in terms of a uniformly hostile male 

clergl, as until recently she had had 

defenders at the highest level of the English 

hierarchy: While he was alive, Cardinal Basil 

"l rather admire 

Ann Widdecombe 

for being so 

comptetety hersetf! 

She offers a 

cou nter-cu [tu raI 

image. " 

Hume was tremendously supportive. "He 

said to me 'lf they start with people like you 

Lavinia, they'll soon move on to us!"'she 

remembers. Her final decision to leave was 

largely concerned with protecting her 

religious order from pressure and manipulation, 

as the Vatican refused to deal with her 

movement 11 

rvlaw 

dlrectly, communicating only through the 

General Superior of her order. "The situation 

had stopped being healthy: it made me too 

vulnerable to the abuse of power." 

W$x,ry;piffi, 

Mary Ward (c.1585-1645) who also spoke 

up for women's causes ('And it will be seen 

in times to come, that women will do 

much.") and was eventually imprisoned. 

When I pressed for a contemporary figure, 

she astonished me by coming out with Ann 

Widdecombe! "l don't agree with her 

politically" she explains, "But I find her a 

real challenge - I rather admire her for being 

so completely herself, her abandon. At a 

time when fashionable women are stickinsects, 

she offers a more counter-cultural 

image." 

She recalls experiencing a vocation to 

priesthood herself three or four times in her 

life, mostly during childhood, and notes that 

she only realised with sadness that she was 

debarred on account of her sex at about the 

age of ten. "l certainly don't have any plans 

to be ordained at the moment though - they 

needn't worry!" she adds with a wry laugh. 

"l do have a vocation to write though." And 

that is what she is doing, with a book 

planned for September, more personal and 

autobiographical than anything previously, 

called lhe Journey ls My Home. "ll explores 

how choices have forced me to keep on 

journeying. That's one of the joys of the true 

religious life: not being able to sit down and 

vegetate." 

ls she despairing about the future of the 

Church? "Not at all" she insists. "We always 

keep on talking, thank Godl I remain 

cheerful about the future, especially in the 

light of today's news." lt is the day that the 

'moderate' Cormac Murphy-O'Connor is 

announced as successor to Basil Hume as 

Archbishop of Westminster. 

Regarding the issues that were the cause 

of her controversy she is also optimistic 

about the possibility for change. She 

explains the traditional doctrine of 

'reception': for a new teaching to be 

regarded as finally authoritative it must be 

received by the sensus fidelium (consensus 

of the faithful) and that if this does not 

happen an earlier official stance can be 

revised. "lf it's God's will, it will happen, and 

there's no way it can be stopped." 

ls she happy herself? She looks a little 

weary, but quite calm and lively: "l have felt 

really peaceful for the first time in a while. 

I'm so much happier than when it was a 

constant struggle." Reflecting upon the 

various changing paths her life has taken, 

she chooses to end by quoting an old 

saying: "'God can write straight with crooked 

lines'." 

John Hughes is a theology student in 

Cambridge and a member of SCM's 

General Council.

Iternatlue 

ruorlds 

Gendered agenda 

TYPE lN the words 'women' and 'web' into a 

search engine, and you'll be confronted with 

a stark illustration of the two polar 

presences women have on the web: 

interspersed with sites promising FREE 

SEXY NAKED PICTURES OF SEXY NAKED 

WOMEN one finds a whole range of web 

sites dedicated to women's issues. The 

man's man's man's world of the web has a 

small corner which distinctly belongs to 

women, if you only look hard enough. 

I started with WorldWoman www.world 

woman.net, a Scottish site that promises 

'you make the news as well as read it!' This 

site is a spin-off from the wildly successful 

Scotswoman experiment. ln lnternational 

Women's Day in 1995, female staff on fhe 

Scotsman produced an edition of the 

newspaper that was commissioned, written, 

and edited by women; the paper sold out by 

8:30 a.m. The site offers a range of news 

and political updates of particular concern 

for women, including an exposri on the 

chemicals in tampons and a brief 

discussion of the persecution of women in 

Malawi. ln the 'not women' section 

(presumably their equivalent to the small 

'woman' section in most dailies) there's a 

solitary article by a man on a subject I can't 

recall. The paper has definite potential - 

provided they keep updating the news 

stories, and get a broader readership/ writer 

base. Worth a look. 

A more unusual site is the one run by the 

Network of East West Women, www.neww 

org. lt claims to link 'women across national 

and regional boundaries to share resources, 

knowledge, and skills' and also to 'empower 

women and girls throughout Eastern and 

Central Europe and Russia.' That's a tall 

order. lt includes job and fellowship listings 

and a calendar of'conferences and events. 

Most intriguing is a database of 

commentary by women in Kosovo and 

Serbia dating from the 1999 NATO bombing 

campaign. 

As is typical with web searches, I ran into a 

few duds - sites no longer maintained or simply 

not there. One of them was the Global Community 

of Women, which is alas 'no longer 

maintained' by one Katrina MoonDance. 

Fortunately, the final two sites I found 

were excel I ent. At www.igc.o r g/ igc/ gatew ay, 

I found a site dedicated to a wide range of 

activism. lt lists 'action alerts' - currently 

xj.rElolttrlr4 

t'/ 

EtI!--,a-- 

\\i rt'lt ht'rut tiu rt 

lhrrtr l? t.r F rdiltlrn h clwtl l*ntllth 

Itillarl 

rpahsrtuI 

urr lrish 

intrriurtit.r 

E^t 

b-&fdrtitlierrs 

/i!1 1 r/r611:|.a.1.r,r 

f tltrrl;,tilJ lt ,r,tl 

ff 

s. 

concerning timber sales in the US and the 

preparations for AIDS Watch 2000. More 

helpfully, it provides a link to 'womens.net' 

that includes interviews with women 

activists, and a clip about the 'Virtual March' 

on October 17th. Activists around the globe 

will show their support for women's rights (l 

take it by logging on but I'm not sure how)' 

Finally, www.iwhc.org, the site of the 

lnternational Women's Health Coalition, 

gives enlightening updates on its sexual 

health programs in Latin America, Asia, and 

Africa, and explains how these projects are 

established and maintained. 

I'm still an e-sceptic, and not wholly 

convinced by the wondrous world wide web, 

but I did find out more than I expected in a 

short trawl through the ether. Who knows, 

maybe I'll be one of those people who goes 

on line on October 17th, to virtually march 

for women's rights. See You there. 

(KATY GORDON) 

$ 

World wide ebb? 

STANFORD UNIVERSITY claim the internet 

makes us lonely. They recently released a 

study showing that the internet causes 

social isolation and increases workload; but 

does it? Has Stanford missed the point? 

Being a geek (and reasonably heavy internet 

user) myself I see flaws in their argument. 

Amongst their assumptions, they appear 

to class the telephone as a superior form of 

communication to the lnternet. I agree that 

the current text-based chats and e-mail are 

pitiful, but so is the telephone. I imagine 

when first introduced people claimed it 

would replace more traditional forms of 

communication such as the letter and 

visiting for tea. 

The lnternet can provide much richer, 

faster communication than anything 

previous. Would my mother, for example, 

prefer an e-mail every few days to a phone 

call once a month? I can spend five minutes 

here and there scribbling an e-mail when 

there is no hope of me picking up a phone. 

The lnternet is richer because I can quickly 

and easily make copies of my first baby's 

ultrasounds available to all my friends and 

family by popping it In my 5Mb of free 

webspace. Later we'll add baby's first 

footprints, drawings and so on. I could never 

have done this over the phone and would 

probably never have bothered by post - so 

the web has increased the level of family 

contact and i nvolvement signif icantly. 

They also miss the fact that when 13% of 

heavy internet users say they spend less 

time attending events outside of the house 

that means 87% don't spend any less time 

socialising. Also, because this figure is 

derived by survey, it is based on what 

people think is happening, this is known to 

be unreliable. lf we assume that this 13% 

do genuinely feel that they do 'get out less', 

we have to ask ourselves who this group is' 

Based on personal experience I would 

imagine this 13% is made up of the circle of 

friends around me on my Computer Science 

degree and while they are all great people, 

'getting out' was never their fort6. 

So, Stanford have missed the Point 

because the lnternet doesn't replace the 

forms of social contact we have now, it 

enables more and better ways of sharing 

information and experience with groups of 

people you could never otherwise have 

known. 

(ROB STYLES) 

Stanford's report can be found at 

www.sta nford.ed u,/grou P/siqss/ 

And coverage from the American press at 

www.wash i ngtonpost.com/wpsrv/busi ness 

/teed/ a56927-2000feb16.htm a n d 

www. usatoday.com/ lit e / cybey'techlcth381 

.htm 

I 

movement 12

, 

o 

You're pushing the boundaries of Celebrity 

Iheologian again, I see... 

Not necessarily. Henri Nouwen may be first and 

foremost regarded as a Christian writer or 

Christian thinker, but he was a proponent of a 

theolog that was as radical as it was simple. 

Do tell. 

Nouwen in 40 books over a 30 year span 

encouraged people to embrace their humanity in 

all its frailty, and to use that as the basis by which 

they engage in ministry with others. 

Ho-hum. Been there, done that, have the T-Shirt 

Certainly this approach to ministry is now 

regarded as old hat, but Nouwen was one ofthe 

first, and the finest, proponents of this approach. 

When he wrote in his book Ihe Wounded Healerin 

1972: "Compassion is born when we discover in 

the centre of our own existence not only that God 

is God and man is man, but also that our 

neighbour is our fellow man." lt was, to use a 

clich6, like bringing fresh air into a stale room. 

And just how did he get to this point? 

Nouwen grew up in the Netherlands and became 

ordained as a Catholic priest in the 1950s. He 

was interested in pastoral ministry and studied t0 

become a Psycholo$st - quite a radical path to 

take in an age when the discipline of psychology 

was frowned upon ln Church circles. He 

developed and taught courses in pastoral 

theology that reflected this background. He wrote 

two highly regarded texts on the subject in the late 

sixties. 

Sounds pretg academic. 

It was at first. But Nouwen was offered a teaching 

position at the Yale Divinity School and 

demanded as part of his acceptance that he 

would not be required to do any academic writing. 

Ihe tone of his work became much more 

accessible, more contemplative. Duringthe 10 

years at Yale, he wrote some of his finest work. 

Someone who wouldn't let a thought go 

unpublished then? 

Sometimes it seemed that way. Nouwen tended to 

write slendervolumes and so he tended to have 

books published with a frequency that seemed 

sometimes disconcerting. Some of his books are, 

admittedly, a bit light in content. But much of his 

work uses its pithiness as a strength, and is able 

to communicate simple but powerful ideas. 

Such as? 

Nouwen exhorted people to acknowledge their 

loneliness, their frailties and their brokenness. 

That only by acknowledging these things can we 

best engage with people and find a sense of God. 

He also wrote simply and passionately about the 

need to live contemplatively, dwelling in the lonely 

places thatJesus did, as itwere, to find strength 

and hope. 

Where did he go from there? 

He made an abortive attempt t0 live in Peru 

among the poor, but this did not seem to work for 

him (although he did write two books on the 

subject). ln the mid eighties, he became involved 

with Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche, an 

internati0nal movement of communities where 

people with developmental and physical 

disabilities and their friends live together. Nouwen 

moved into Daybreak, a L'Arche community in 

Canada, nearToronto. He lived and worked with 

the residents in this community for the next ten 

years. 

A million miles away from the lvory Tower, then. 

Nouwen was hardly cloistered, but L'Arche 

affected his work profoundly. His bookAdam, 

Gods Belovedlalks about his relationship with 

one of the community members, Adam Arnett, a 

severely disabled man, and how simply helping 

him with his morning routine changed the way he 

saw himself and so much of his work. When he 

wentto speaking engagements, he always 

brought a member of the Daybreak community 

with him. He wrote duringthis period, We are not 

healers, we are not reconcilers, we are not givers 

of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people 

who need as much care as anyone we care for. 

Died? 

Yes he did. He died in 1996 while he was visiting 

his native Netherlands. He was buried not far from 

the Daybreak community. 

ls there a list of recommended reading? 

You are keen. His bestworks areTheWounded 

Healer: Ministry in Contemporary SocieU 9972), 

Outof Solitude (L974),ln Memoriam (abook 

about his bereavement over his mother, 1980), 

Ihe Road to Daybreak ( 1986), ln The Name of 

Jesus (1987) 

Any last words? 

Nouwen said it best "The mystery of ministry is 

that we have been chosen to make our own 

limited and very conditional love the gateway for 

the unlimited and uncondiUonal love of God. 

lherefore ministry must be mutual. And, For a 

compassionate (person) nothing human is alien: 

no joy and no sorrow, no way of living and no way 

of dying." 

GRAEME BURK 

movement 13 

Mea 

Culpa 

A GUIDE TO THE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS 

OF A MOVEMENT EDITOR 

(1) The pout 

used when 

begging for 

food (or pay 

cheques or 

late copy) 

(2) The fear 

grin displayed 

when approaching 

an animal 

of higher rank 

(usually in 

Editorial Board 

meetings) 

(3) Dang it! Another typo 

The last issue of 

Movement carried 

more than its normal 

quota of mistakes. 

Some gremlin crept 

into the t6te-d-t6te 

piece so that the 

lettering was so huge 

on the end credit that 

half of it fell off. lt 

should have read: "Craig Russell is an artist 

involved in the Art and Spirituality Network 

and the newly formed United Religion 

lnitiative. Matt Bullimore is a theology 

student, formerly of Cambridge SCM and 

currently studying at Harvard." 

However two typos that cannot be 

blamed on a gremlin is misspelling of Claire 

Horsnell as Clare Horsneer and Ellie 

Mensingh, who became Mensigh - and that 

is exactly what this man does, very deeply, 

whenever he spots a typo. Sometimes he 

pulls the expression known as 'editor's 

grimace' - shown in picture 3. 

There was no excuse except an addled 

brain and too many late night editing 

sessions. These 

were probably the 

best mistakes since 

the mix up with the 

spot colour cover on 

M103 when lime 

green became 

mushy pea green. 

Tasty!

;:l&& 

":..91 

t6te-a-t6te 

Dear Nick, 

Perhaps the most famous testimony of 

the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) is 

their historic peace testimony. lt is 

characterised by a vision of the world 

transformed by the spirit of Christ. The 

teachings of Jesus have called us to love 

our enemies, turn the other cheek and hold 

love up as the greatest power of all. 

Quakers Interpret the preaching of Christ as 

a call to 'live in the virtue of that life that 

takes away the occasion of all wars'. 

Furthermore, Quakers extend this logic to 

maintain the advice that 'all preparations 

for war are inconsistent with the spirit of 

Christ' (Advices and Queries No. 31). 

Pacifism does not deny the potential 

existence of conflict and evil. However, it 

does not equate the two as the same. The 

principles that recognise evil is not a 

straightforward matter and the fact that all 

conflicts can be seen as the pursuit of 

human needs and objectives that we all 

share informs this position. Quakers believe 

that there is that of God in everyone, even 

those that we polarise and judge to be a 

'threat' or 'evil'. Thus, to take any life is a 

breach of and an insult to this divine 

creation. 

More quantifiable is the view that to 

resolve conflicts destructively with the use 

of violence is not pragmatic. Since Christ, 

this view has been informed by Kantian 

philosophy. Of Kant's most famous 

propositions related to pacifism are the 

categorical imperative: 'act so that the 

object of your will may be capable of 

Even when 

threatened by 

the spread of eviI 

we must resist it 

peacefritly. 

universalisation' and the moral law: 'treat all 

humanity as an end and never as a means'. 

This is of course a reiteration of Christ's' 

challenge to do unto others as you would 

have done to yourself. With this point in 

mind, any scale of violence is incapable of 

meaningful universalisation and thus 

implausible. 

War and violence are ihstruments of the 

pursuit of objectives. Morally, we are then 

obliged to evaluate the nature of these 

goals and their acquisition. We then need to 

pursue objectives non-destructively in ways 

that respect humans as creations of God, 

maintaining all life as ends and not means. 

Treating human life as a means creates an 

unstable world. The only potential exception 

to this stand is when the goal itself is 

destruction, where one group seeks to 

annihilate another, which is used to argue 

the case for a Just war'. 

,1.t 

il 

I d"t"L Je'(l''**rri,"-{/, 

t.- 

Dear Edd and Harry, 

The day after your e-mail arrived, I 

watched John Pilger's new documentary on 

the effect of U.S./U.K./U.N. sanctions and 

bombing in lraq. After that I scarcely had 

the heart to reply. I certainly don't want to 

wave a banner for the military-industrial 

complex. Nor do I want to question the 

value of pacifist witness against war. During 

the Vietnam War, my uncle refused the New 

Zealand ballot-draft on grounds of 

conscientious objection. ln his position I 

hope I would have done the same. During 

the second World War, my grandfather 

fought with the N.Z. Expeditionary Force in 

North Africa and ltaly. Having read his war 

diaries, I suspect I would have done the 

same. 

What I want to argue for here is not so 

movement 14 

much that war can be just, but that in some 

circumstances violent resistance presents 

itself as the least evil option. I have no 

doubt that Christ commands us to lead 

lives of non-violent love, forbearance and 

forgiveness. He also asks us to sell all we 

have, give it to the poor and follow him. He 

teaches that marriage is indissoluble. He 

bids us be perfect as our Heavenly Father is 

perfect. When God's reign is brought to 

completion, perfect is what we will be. I 

suspect that perfection will include 

communism and pacifism. But, in these inbetween 

times, we live in less than perfect 

circumstances. 

I think it was Churchill who described 

democracy as the 'least worse' system of 

government. I think that most social, 

economic, ecclesiastical and even military 

structures fall under the same indictment. 

They are more-or-less temporary 

arrangements for living with the fact that I 

and all other humans are far from perfect. 

This certainly doesn't mean that any of 

these arrangements should be accepted 

complacently. Nor does it mean that we 

should give up on the struggle for a more 

just and peaceful society. But this side of 

death, the struggle is the thing; not the 

arriving. When Christians believe that they 

have arrived at their goal this side of the 

hereafter, it is usually a totalitarian 

nightmare or something that only a select 

few can practice 

N ck t

Ernest Bevin claimed that: "There has never been a war yet which, if the facts had been 

put calmly before the ordinary folk, could not have been prevented." But that is not how 

things happen. What is the best way to resolve conflict? ls absolute pacifism a practical 

position? ls there such a thing as a just war? 

Dear Nick, 

Arguments for a just war generally 

revolve around the need to protect oneself 

or another group from the potential threat of 

total annihilation. From such a position, 

exponents of the just war propose that it 

would be less evil to go to war than allow 

evil to spread. However, such an occasion 

has not occurred historically. Due to the 

nature of the Holocaust, the Second World 

War has often been referred to as a just 

war. But before the escalation of events, the 

primary cause of the war was economic. ln 

their quest to remain economically 

competitive, Germany and Japan sought to 

acquire markets by force after the 

imposition of sanctions, a process which 

witnessed the scapegoating of minorities. ln 

both preventing war and responding to it, 

our positions need to be informed by the 

spirit of Christ, which call us to love one 

another even if threatened with annihilation 

or the spread of evil.. 

This does not mean doing nothing. 

Pacifism is sometimes rightly or wrongly, 

equated with being passive in the face of 

violence. The term 'non-violence' however 

can be used to imply an active alternative to 

violence. Jesus' life is an example of active 

non violence. He was presented with the 

possibility of ruling supreme over the 

kingdoms of the world using the weapons of 

this world, those of power and violence. He 

refused the temptations of the devil to fight 

power with power. He chose instead the 

path of love which is also the path of 

sacrifice and humble service. Jesus said to 

follow him you must deny yourself and take 

up your cross. (Mt 10:38 & 16:24). This is 

not the selfish road of individualism but a 

way of community and love of others, even 

enemies. Jesus' crucifixion shows us the 

reality of the cost of obedience to God. 

When we are given the choice of enacting 

God's will, we must deny the temptation to 

commit violence and choose God's way, love 

and peace, even jf this results in immense 

sacrifice. 

This has been best displayed in modern 

times by Gandhi's stand against the British 

Empire in lndia, where he tried to meet 

violence and the potential threat of 

destruction posed by an invading army not 

with passivity or aegression but with active 

non violence, non co-operation and at all 

times loving one another. Even when 

threatened by the spread of evil we must 

resist it peacefully for aggression and 

violence are evil themselves. When you fight 

fire with fire you end up with an even bigger 

fire, which then escalates into an inferno. 

Such is the nature of any war. Meeting evil 

with evil only results in there being more evil 

in the world. This is represented by 

escalating violence, hatred, mistrust and 

military expenditure that accompany war. 

God's call to love is perhaps the most 

important point of all, God is not of this 

world and we are called to obey this higher 

law above all others. This higher law calls us 

to love, which violence and war turns its 

back upon. Through God's grace, we are 

offered the opportunity for eternal life in 

heaven when we accept God's way. lf we 

genuinely believe this, when we refuse to 

accept responsibility for our actions, and 

permit the killing of fellow children of God, 

we also deny them their opportunity for 

redemption, a right given and taken away by 

God alone. 

allies had kept out of the second World War, 

He claimed that this would have been the 

case even if Hitler had been allowed to kill 

all of European Jewry. This of course is an 

argument of hindsight. 

So is any argument about the economic 

causes of the war. lt seems to me that the 

second World War was a little bit like a 

My grandfather fought in the second 

Wortd War. Having read his war diaries 

I suspect I would have done the same. 

C"t 

L ,Je,Un'"zt- 

Wint* 

Dear Edd and Harry, 

The historical criteria for a just war 

usually focus on whether war is likely to 

result in a less evil outcome than not going 

to war. For example, if you expected that 

more lives could be saved by violence than 

by non-violent resistance, then human life 

would be better served by violence. On this 

basis, by the way, nuclear war seems to me 

absolutely impossible to justify. Some other 

criteria for a Just war' are the exhaustion of 

all other avenues of resolving the conflict 

and the taking of all possible precautions to 

avoid death of non-combatants. According 

to just-war theory, any person or group 

contemplating the use of violence has to 

have a reasonable expectation that these 

criteria will be met. But no-one's reasonable 

guess about the future is infallible. Even if 

hindsight suggests that it would have been 

better not to have used violence, all this can 

tell us is to think more carefully in future. 

A.N. Wilson recently argued that fewer 

people would have died if Britain and its 

house on fire. Normally we wouldn't smash 

other people's windows or break down 

doors, but in a fire we have to resort to 

emergency action. More importantly, it 

seems to me that a world in which Jews and 

others had been allowed to die for the sake 

of a wider peace would have been one in 

which human life was treated with 

contempt. Warfare doesn't have to involve 

the stigmatisation of one's enemies as evil, 

though it does involve making judgements 

about their actions. At the same time, 

warfare this century suggests that we 

should be deeply suspicious of the jingoism, 

demagoguery, bigotry, propaganda, and 

popular-hysteria which pass for political 

deliberation in times of national and 

international conflict. We should also be 

very suspicious of claims that all other 

means of resolving a conflict have been 

exhausted. 

I suspect we'd probably both agree that, 

while we have the opportunity, we should 

work to ensure that violence is an option 

that no-one feels compelled to. This involves 

action at an international and national level, 

as well as in our own cities and home. Here 

Gandhi, the Quakers and Jesus have 

everything to teach us. 

Ni.t< 

Edd Sellman is a Peace Education 

Worker and is writing a thesis on 

promoting conflict resolution and school 

culture. Harry Kingham is a former 

member of Aberdeen SCM and a Youth 

Drama Worker. They are both Quakers. 

Nlck Thompson is a New Zealander doing 

a PhD in Church History at the Univeristy 

of Glasgow. 

movement 15

Section 28: absurd, reactionary and quite possibly here to stay. Tim Woodcock 

reflects on recent events and asks... 

Where have all 

the liberals gone? 

]IGE UPOI{ A NTE THI]{G8 WERE 

simple. Girls and boys played 

mummies and daddies, to 

prepare themselves for their roles 

in real life. They would pretend not to enjoy 

kiss-chase, but soon grew out of it. 

Adolescence meant spots and bulges in 

unexpected places; snogs and the odd grope 

too. But no-one, except the very wildest, had 

sex until they were married and that sort 

ended up in Paris or New York or some other 

hell-hole. 

This is all nonsense of course. But it is 

the kind of fantasy-world evoked by those 

who want to retain Section 28. lt only holds 

if you insist that 'natural' is the same as 

'normal' (a fallacy to which Christians are 

especially prone) and it is the same 

conformist instinct that justified kids being 

caned for being left-handed, or for saying 

'aye' instead of 'yes' in the classroom. 

Sex education is always an explosive 

subject, but the response to the proposed 

repeal of Section 28 has surprised many, 

because it seemed so straightforward. lt 

refers not only to 'the promotion of 

homosexuality' but also to 'the promotion of 

homosexuality as a pretended family 

Section 28 has 

become a 

potiticaI hot 

potato. ln fact, a 

throbbing hot 

perverse potato. 

relationship'. You hear a sneer in that word 

'pretended'. lt is an absurd piece of 

legislation, the commentators said, as 

irrelevant to modern Britain as the 37p dog 

licence that the same 1988 Act of 

Parliament abolished. 

But the issue of how homosexualitY 

should be dealt with in schools has revived 

old rifts and spawned headline after 

headline. Section 28 has become a political 

hot potato. ln fact, a throbbing 

legislation - Scotland is forever 

telling itself what a liberal, tolerant modern 

country it is. 

Their new parliament would rid the 

statutes of prejudice before Westminster, it 

would stride on with its distinct, progressive 

agenda. But then there was a backlash, a 

polarisation of views, that no-one was 

prepared for. 

ln January Brian Souter, the owner of 

Stagecoach buses, millionaire and member 

of an evangelical church in Perth, pledged 

t500 000 to 'Keep the Clause' [it is called 

Clause 28 north of borderl. Cardinal Winning 

also threw in his inflammatory opinions. And 

there was a mass mobilisation of grassroots 

support, with conservative churches being 

instrumental in this. But it should be noted 

that the Methodists and the Church of 

Scotalnd, not renowned for their radicalism, 

movement 16 

--t 

have 

supported repeal 

The Daily Record - probably the 

most influential and volatile paper in 

Scotland - began to campaign against'gay 

lessons'. Tabloids have never been too 

worried about explaining the subtleties, and 

are always happy to find a scapegoat, in this 

case Wendy Alexander, the Communities 

Minister. The Scottish Executive were of 

course happy to let her be identified with the 

campaign against Section 28, because it 

retains their credibility, at least partially, 

when it goes horribly wrong. 

With the exception of the Conservatives 

(who will use a three-line whip), all the main 

parties want to repeal Section 28. On this 

issue politicians seem to be more markedly 

liberal than the general populace (a parallel 

l.

I 

il 

, .:t !i 

'.1 

might be capital punishment). lt is a sign of 

healthy democracy that people are talking 

about this and making their opinions known 

- but there's something skewed and 

simplistic about the debate and the intense 

lobbying. 

Calum Smith is an assistant to Roseanna 

Cunningham, MSP for Perth. The 

constituency office has been deluged with 

letters, and a cheer goes up when a prorepeal 

letter comes in. He said: "There's no 

doubt that most letters that most MSPs are 

receiving about Section 28 are opposed to 

repeal. The majority of those letters are 

written from a Christian perspective. lt may 

be helpful in balancingthe debate if more 

Christians who support repeal were to put 

pen to paper and write their elected 

re prese ntatives. 

"A lot of MSPs are new to the game of 

being elected politicians and will never have 

experienced the sort of lobbying which they 

are now encountering. I have no doubt that 

many of them would welcome support." 

Liberals are now on the defensive, having 

complacently assumed that repeal would go 

through. 

Keep the Clause have run a series of 

posters across Scotland, which feature a 

photo of a parent and a short powerful 

quote, such as "This Government doesn't 

care what we parents think" or "My son 

could be asked to take part in homosexual 

role playing in school. That horrifies me." 

Their leaflet expands on what this 'horrifying' 

role play is: "Michael is 15 and his boyfriend 

wants him to have sex. He really wants to 

but he is nervous. Michael knows he should 

use a condom but doesn't know where to go 

for help. What should he do? How do you 

feel?" Which, to me, from my liberal ideasloving 

non-parenting position seems a very 

useful exercise. Even if said son is straight 

and never encounters such a situation, not 

even with a girl five years down the line, it is 

still a good exercise in empathy. 

Many pro-gay campaigners have said you 

simply can't promote a sexuality. Angela 

Mason of Stonewall, looking back to when 

the bill was first passed, writes: "Section 28 

tal ked about'promoting' homosexuality. 

Nobody ever tried to promote homosexuality. 

Nobody could. Nobody wants to." 

I would debate that point. I remember 

being at an event where Peter Tatchell (of 

Outrage!) was speaking and I was cornered 

by a zealous gay qctivist, who had just 

moved up to Glasgow from London. He told 

me: "Try it you might like it" and "l like 

women... as long as they bring their 

boyfriends." He was far less relenting with a 

woman in her early thirties, who'd been 

widowed about a year before, so should 

obviously use the opportunity to 'change 

sides'. That tota I ly u n represe ntative exa m ple 

shows that homosexuality can be promoted - 

and promoted unhelpfully. 

Britain is a more liberal society than it 

was fifty years ago and, it seems to me, this 

was achieved by promoting certain 

For some teachers to follow Section 28 would mean doingtheir job badly - dodging issues, re-enforcing 

prejudice, perhaps even disguising their personal life. We spoke to four teachers about their experiences - 

names have been changed to protect their identity. 

Dean MacGuire is an English teacher at a comprehensive school near Manchester and has had to dig 

deep to find texts that will interest his students. He said: "There's a dearth of good plays from the twentieth 

century - four or five are recommended, but mostly they are stale. At the moment I am doing a play called 

Beautiful Thing byJonathan Harvey with my year 11 class. lt is an 'urban fairy tale' and was written in 

response to Section 28." 

The play depicts two boys who fall in love. lt unclear how old they are, although it implies they are under 

16. Beautiful lhing never claims that the boys sleep together, but it cannot be discussed adequately 

without referring to homosexuality. "l had second thoughts about doing Beautiful Thing. But the kids loved 

it. lt is a very funny play, although I had to be careful about how I introduced it." Mr Dean also said that 

although there was some sniggering, it was "the basis for some very good debates". 

No teacher would ever take on such a controversial play without an awareness of its difficulties and Mr 

MacGuire made a point of clearing it with his Head of Department beforehand. But is teaching such a play 

illegal? Should it be so, even with a group of students who are about to leave school - and some of whom 

are deemed eligible to marry, join the army ortake a full-time job? 

'The subject is more sensitive and wonying than I ever thought. Section 28 assumes that somehow 

sexuality can be promoted - which is ridiculous in terms of what most people believe about where sexuality 

comes from." 

Caroline Aspel n0 longer teaches but has taught English and history and RE, in a variety of settings in 

Scotland, including a private girls' school and a progressive school. She describes herself as bisexual 

although she was manied for most of her teaching career. Private schools are outside local authority 

control, therefore Section 28 does not apply and in this situation, she recalls, discussing homosexuality 

was "absolutely not problem and it was really valuable for the kids." 

When the Scottish poet Edwin Morgan came out it was in the late 1980s; he was in his sixties and 

established as a popular poet in schools. Caroline Aspel remembers the fallout - with some schools taking 

his books offtheirshelves. Generally, however, Section 28 has not caused problems for her and was glad 

to be teaching subjects that encourage the discussion of identity and morality. 

Kate Ratchford teaches sociolo$/ and English literature at a grammar school in the South East, and coordinates 

personal and social education in the school. When teaching she always uses lessons as a way to 

open issues about'the real world' and she said of Section 28: 'lt's an inelevance really. I don't think there 

is a policeman sitting in on classes." 

She points to the absurdity of the idea of promoting homosexuality: "You are either gay or you are not 

gay. You can't make people gay. You try to explain the issues in a rational way - with a degree of 

compassi0n, t0lerance and common sense.' 

She sees the current debate as a 'media constructed moral panic" and says that: "Parents trust us 

more than the media suppose. lt makes me really angry - you are supposed to do and say everything.'She 

recalls being in a personal and social education class and contraception and condoms came up: 'And 

someone said 'You can only get AIDS if you are gay'. lt is my job to respond and challenge that." 

Chris Wallace is openly gay and is in Glasgow trainingto become a maths and science teacher. "As a 

teacher I cannot say to a child that being a homosexual is okay. Ihis would then be a breach of my contract 

and could therefore be subject to disciplinary proceedings. However I can refer that child to someone else 

even though I think I would more 'qualified'to $ve that pupil advice. 

'When I was at school I was taught only heterosexual sex and shown methods of contraception. lt didn't 

make me want to go home and try out I have just learned. Why should it be any different for gay sex? Gay 

or straight, if people are going to have sex n0thing is going to stop them, but we must educate them on the 

consequences if they do.' 

0f the delicate pastoral situation, of a pupil coming out to him, he said: "l am restricted as to what I can 

say without causing myself problems. As long as the child was not in any danger of'abuse', I would handle 

it in a confidential manner and reassure the child they are not a freak!" 

Rethinking Section 28 is not ab0ut letting gays and lesbians proselytise for their cause, but about laying 

the foundations for a tolerant and diverse society. At present gay issues can be discussed in most schools 

- whether head-on in sex education and personal and social education, more obtusely through academic 

subjects - but the limits are not clear. What seems to be balanced advice to one person can seem like 

propaganda to another. 

Section 28, and the recent revival of interest in it, has created a climate 0f fear in which classroom 

discussions of relationships and sexuality are nanowed and teachers are inhibited from planning 

challenging lessons. All the major teaching unions want to see it repealed. ln the meantime teachers go on 

with theirwork teaching, tryingto help children engage with the world around them and become decent 

compassionate citizens. 

TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT 

Does section 98 prevent teachers from being good teachers? 

We asked four secondary school teachers how S28 effects them 

I o.r, movement 17

Stuart Ullathorne reftects on Britain's participation in the arms trade and our 

inevitabte complicity in it. what can be done about it? 

When prayer 

gets p 

olltlcal 

EOR TE PRAYER I8 AII 

important part of everYdaY of mY 

life. As this year's co-ordinator of 

the Campaign Against Arms Trade 

(CAAT) Christian Network Day of Prayer I 

have taken the opportunity to reflect on 

what exactly my understanding of prayer is' 

As an Quaker attender I relate to the 

words of Louie Horne, a Quaker, who wrote , 

"Prayer is not an occasional nod given in 

passing to God. lt is more like marriage - a 

closeness of living , a constant receiving and 

giving." To me prayer is a source of strength 

which helps me to put into practice God's 

will. ln essence this is prayer into action. 

My recent work at the CAAT Christian 

Network has given me a great insight into 

British arms trade which directly and 

indirectly employs 130 0OO people and is 

worth around lSbn annually. The trade in 

death has always been a cause of outrage to 

me butthe more I have learned of Britain's 

involvement in it as the world's second 

biggest arms supplier the more I have felt 

the need to act. Companies in Britain are 

supplying the hardware of killing to 

oppressive regimes, are fuelling wars and 

are ensuring moneY best spent on 

development in Third World countries is 

spent instead on the militarY. 

The sheer size of the issue can be 

overwhelming when an individual faces it 

but I have found great inspiration from the 

ideas of Walter Wink and his book lhe 

Powers That Be which I find relates to prayer 

intg action. I have been further influenced by 

,, ad. 

peace activist Chris Cole who led a seminar 

late last year which related the ideas of 

Wink directly to the arms trade. 

(to be published in A Matter of Life and 

Death Pax Christi, June 2000) 

Wink states that as Christians we should 

engage with the concept of the powers that 

be or the New Testament Powers. To identify 

these powers we must understand that 

everything has a visible pole which is a 

physical form and inner pole which is a 

driving spirit. Both exist simultaneously. 

There are divine powers and fallen powers. 

Divine powers have a vocation for which God 

created and this is for the general welfare of 

the people and such powers can be 

physically represented in, say a Church, and 

have this divine presence working at their 

centre. However idolatrous powers and 

fallen powers only work for their own 

interests and not for the general good of the 

people and could be represented in a profit 

driven and exploitative arms company. 

Wink believes that the powers are good, 

the powers are fallen and the powers must 

be redeemed. He states that nothing is 

outside the redemptive care and 

transforming love of God. As such to 

transform the fallen powers they must be 

named, confronted and engaged with by 

Christians. Such engagement must follow 

Jesus's way and this is the way of nonviolence 

and love. This way ultimately led, of 

course, to Jesus dying to the powers on the 

cross and through his death being liberated 

from the enslavement of the powers. 

movement 18 

r..:'...|i* 

r Yes Robin, we're as confused bY the 

ethical foreign policy as You are. 

As such on the CMT Christian Network 

Day of Prayer, June 18th, I feel it is 

important that we begin to engage with the 

"fallen powers that be" that control the arms 

trade in this country. Engagement through 

prayer is vital and for me this is seen 

especially in Matthew 5: 38-48 which 

includes the passage "love your enemies 

and pray for your persecutors." For some 

this may be as much engagement that they 

wish to make but for me it is a beginning of 

the process of prayer into action. Such 

action can take many forms including the 

nonviolent direct action. 

On June 18th the focus will be on 

praying for those who are involved in the 

arms trade and that they consider the 

consequences of their business. Conversion 

of hearts and minds, and for serious efforts 

for conversion of industry towards productive 

purposes will also be prayed for. Finally, 

prayers for decision-makers in Britain will be 

said and for their policies so that they may 

be directed towards peace and human 

rights, rather than the continuation of war 

and repression. The ideas of Wink are not to 

imply that those involved are demons, but 

that the ethos of the arms trade which they 

have embraced is what needs to be 

redeemed. Prayers for the victims of the 

trade in death are also to be focused on. 

The named powers the CAAT DaY of

Prayer will focus on include Sir Richard 

Evans the Chair of BAe and the Foreign 

Secretary Robin Cook. Each has a key role 

in sustaining the arms trade in Britain 

whether in business or politics. 

Sir Richard Evans as Chair of BAe 

Systems has overseen the creation of this 

new company through the l6.7bn merger of 

British Aerospace and GEC's military 

electronic's arm. Having joined the 

company in 1969 he has held a number of 

senior positions and is now leading the 

company that is dominating the trade in 

death in Britain. BAe Systems policy of 

selling death includes selling Hawk aircraft 

to the lndonesian government when they 

were involved in carrying out genocide in 

East Timor. 

Robin Cook the Foreign Secretary 

committed the Labour Government to an 

ethical foreign policy but has seen these 

words come back to haunt him time and 

time again as he has allowed the sale of 

arms to oppressive regimes.His statement 

that since lndonesia is now a democratic 

state, that arms can be sold to it, sums up 

how much he has greatly compromised any 

ethical stance Labour ever had. lts 

instability and appaling human rights record 

do not seem to concern him. 

The Day of Prayer is to me a start of a 

process of engagement. A time when those 

of faith can join together in union to focus 

on the evil of the trade in death. But more 

than that it is an opportunity for a large 

body of people to realise the potential for 

action against a culture of death and to 

take strength and courage from the day and 

take action to embrace the culture of peace 

which is God's will. 

Stuart Ullathorne works for Pax Christi in 

London and is co-ordinator for Campaign 

Against Arms Trade Christian Network's 

Day of Prayer. 

S Further information on the Day of 

Prayer is available from CMT's office at 11 

Goodwin Street, London N4 3HQ 

V Walter Wink will be in Britain from the 

6th-14th of May on a speaking tour that 

includes Birmingham and London. 

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade is 

also involved in an ongoing Clean 

lnvestment Campaign. This campaign 

aims to lobby companies, organisations 

and institutions which hold shares in the 

arms trade to disinvest. The next big 

protest is to be at the AGM of an arms 

company, due to the fact the Church of 

England has shares in the company. lt is 

hoped the protest on the 26th of May at 

the Lancaster Gate Hotel in London will 

send the message for the Church of 

England to disinvest. 

ideas over other ones. lt is not that 

homosexuality - or heterosexuality (or a love 

of football or dog-walking, for that matter) - 

can't be promoted, rather it can't be 

enforced on people. No kid is goingto say 

"That sounds like a good idea. I'll be gay 

then." Sexual orientation is something at the 

core of identity and personhood, to be 

discovered and understood and not to be 

talked into. 

The compromise proposal of scrapping 

Section 28, but insisting that teachers 

"promote marriage as the key building block 

of soclety" means something that was 

merely prohibitive could become a 

compulsion on teachers. Whether marriage 

can legitimately be seen this way, and 

whether other kinds of stable relationships 

should be treated with parity, is another 

debate. 

The ever elusive 'public opinion' is far 

from clear: a NOP poll quoted by Stonewall 

says 66% of parents support repeal of 

Section 28; a newspaper poll quoted by 

Keep the Clause says 640/o of parents want 

it to remain. Perhaps we will get a true 

figure, because Brian Souter is now offering 

to pay for a referendum on the issue... 

The way this whole debate has been 

framed has been to say the only people's 

opinions who matter are parents. How about 

askingthe bullied kids, the average curious 

and confused school-child, as well as those 

who waited until middle age to come out? 

According to Stonewall, the Gay Rights 

Campaign, L9o/o of lesbian and gay 

Londoners aged 15-20 in a survey had tried 

to take their own life. 48o/o of gay young 

people had experienced violence because of 

their sexuality, and 90% had been verbally 

abused. 

One characteristic common to all these 

opinion polls is that homosexuality is 

deemed more acceptable the younger you 

are (and there is no blip of homophobia 

amongst those educated under Section 28). 

Attitudes are changing and a more tolerant 

society is being created. 

It reminds me of a part of Kahlil Gibran's 

The Prophet: 

"Your children are not children. 

They are the sons and the daughters of Life's 

longinE for itself . 

...You may give them your love but not your 

thoughts, 

For they have their own thoughts 

You house their bodies but nof their souls 

For their souls dwell in a place of tomorrow 

Which you cannot visit, not even in you dreams." 

lf I had as much money as Brian Souter I 

would print that up on billboards. 

Follow that rabbit! 

r\ 

bubble 

Snn q Mru-rN 

WARIIilG: THIS GROWII{G 

up lark is very much overrated. I 

speak to you from the 

trARIY 

other side, gentle reader. I 

am in a place where libraries are no 

longer a good place to snooze in but 

something you are obliged to pay 

council tax for. I write to my MP (or 

AM, if you're in Wales) about the 

state of the roads. I'm even looking 

at houses. I've had to grow up. And 

I'm not sure I like it. 

For most people, going away to college 

is your first move out of home. Coming out 

the other end is an entirely different matter 

You may have had lots of opportunities to 

grow, or you might be roughly the same 

person you were at eighteen, with one or 

two more letters after your name. 

I remember being sixteen, and having a 

good friend who was ten years older. I used 

to think he was there, that he'd made it, 

that he was really an adult. Now I'm that 

age myself, the lie is laid bare. Age doesn't 

necessarily create maturity. The secrets of 

movement 19 

adulthood were not revealed to me on my 

twenty fifth birthday in a puff of smoke that 

came after the candles were blown out. 

I'm still the same person inside - a little 

bit intimidated when people use long words, 

tending towards my extrovert side when the 

company is unknown, still not sure about 

God. 

I'm not altogether sure that that's a bad 

thing, though. lf we can pin what we believe 

down to a piece of paper, then it is no 

lf we can pin what we 

believe down to a 

piece of paper, then it 

is no longer living. 

longer living. I believe we were born to 

question, to argue, to not be sure. 

I prefer the idea of God I once heard Liz 

Stuart, the theologian, use. She saw God 

not as a constant comforting presence but 

as the White Rabbit from Alice in 

Wonderland - always around the next corner, 

running on ahead. You can always see 

enough to follow, but the call is to keep 

moving on, keep searching, keep asking 

questions. 

I don't know about anyone else, but the 

child in me really likes that idea.

Ellie Mensingh went to see the National Gatlery's new exhibition Seeing Salvation 

which exptores how Christ has been represented in visual art. 

Blood from 

a stone 

SrsNe SRrvRrron: 

THr luncr or CHntsr 

National Gallery, London 

26 March - 7 May 2000 

(free enty, nearesttube Charing Cross) 

trreflect on the christian 

3 WE Et{lEn fflE llil 

century, the art world is 

giving us an opportunity to 

beings. lt also considers how these 

paintings were perceived by 

audiences at the time and what 

purposes these paintings serve. We 

tradition and spiritual matters more are made aware thatthe use of visual 

generally. Heaven - An tuhibition that images can sometimes deepen our 

will BreakYour Heafi, at the Liverpool understanding of complex concepts, 

Tate (which I unfortunately was not 

such as the Trinity ( I )' in a way that 

able to see) invited people to consider words never could. They address 

the relationship between religious issues that are part of human life, 

experience, art and popular culture. such as suffering, love, sacrifice, loss 

The group of60 international artists and hope, makingthem relevantto all 

involved, explored the contemporary 

'worship' of glamorous celebrities not. 

people whetherthey have a faith or 

including Madonna and Diana, as well Artists are faced with a major 

as the ,biauty cult predominant in problem when pain1ng Christ, namely 

western society and the rituals in the Bible says virtually nothing about 

which many of us engage, in the hope Christs physical appearance. They 

of attaining the perfect body. have, therefore, tended to present him 

I did, however, get 

:'"f:l#:'f"'- Visual images can 

:illiffix,'[ii.:, sometimes deepen 

the National Gallery 

.;;1ile$p;i' our understanding of 

anything for the 

iHliTiil',',',[T.. comptex concepts in 

;ilfi'il,'J:g'','# a way that words 

'demystify' Western 

religiousirtforthose nevef COUtd. 

who enjoy visiting art 

movement 20 

galleries but have 

iittle knowledge of Christianity. lt is as a thirty year old man would look in 

also aimed at Christians who don't their own cultural context. Thus, we 

necessarily understand the symbolism are stuck with a white, European 

commonly found in this type of art' I image of Christ' 

am one such person ! 

The exhibition reminds us that the 

Although most of the pieces on existence of paintings of christ is itself 

display are part of the permanent amazing because there was a time 

National Gallery collection, the 

when many cultures feared producing 

exhibition has been imaginatively images of God. They were afraid of 

divided into various themes whicS breaking the second commandment - 

somehow makes the art mgre making false idols. For this reason, 

accessible and inspiring. artists used symbolsto represent 

The information provided enables christ, symbols often based on Bible 

even the most ignorant visitor to 

explore the way in which certain 

images 0f Christ have come to be 

established. lt discusses the 

passages describing Christ as a 

shepherd, lamb, vine or light of the 

world. A striking and somewhat 

disturbing example is Francisco de 

difficulties artists have gone through Zurbaran's The Bound Lamb'This 

in attempting to portray Christ and his image obviously refers to Christ's selfrelationshipio 

God and to human sacrifice, powerlessness and

vulnerability at the time of his death. lt 

is also an image associated with the 

regular sacrificial offerings to God of 

unblemished lambs in the Old 

Testament. 

The dual nature of God, both 

human and divine, is an important 

theme in the exhibition. Artists have 

sought in various ways to express this 

paradox. A lot of the paintings 0n this 

subject contain images which speak 

of both his birth and his death and 

resurrection in one piece ofwork. Ihe 

Virgin with the Dead Christ (The Pieta - 

Italian for pity or mercy) does exactly 

this by showing Mary holdingJesus' 

corpse in a posture typically 

associated with Christ's birth - the 

nativity scene. This sculpture has no 

scriptural basis but is an imaginary 

scene that could have taken place 

afterJesus had been taken down from 

the cross and before his body was 

placed in the tomb. 

The sculpture reminds us of Mary's 

significance in the Passion - her 

willingness to give up her son so that 

the world might be saved through him. 

It encourages us to share in the grief 

and personal suffering she went 

through at this time. 

During the Medieval period artists 

became more interested in expressing 

Christ's weakness and vulnerability in 

the Passion, ratherthan his power. 

Christ on the Cold Stone, another 

disturbing image, is a sculpture which 

compels us to respond with 

compassion and pity for Christ, seen 

here as sonowful, suffering, defeated 

and abandoned. This scene is not 

described in the Gospels, but again 

the artist has imagined that on his 

way to the cross, Jesus withdraws 

briefly from the crowds. He has been 

drained of all energy and hope, so he 

just sits in despair. His vulnerability is 

emphasised by the fact that he is 

naked apartfrom the crown ofthorns. 

Another section of the exhibition 

devotes itself to the resurrection. 

Jesus's body in these paintings either 

has obvious wounds from the 

crucifixion (quite graphic at times) or 

is a very pale shade of white to 

indicate thatthe body is in a 

Francisco de Zurbaran's The Bound Christ 

< Chrlst on the Cold Stone, unknown Dutch artist 

transformed state. The collection also 

contains some more modern images 

of Christ, such as the well-known Dali 

piece. 

I would seriously recommend that 

you go and see this exhibition if you 

have the chance. Whether the styles 

of art appeal to you or not, you are 

guaranteed to learn a lot about the 

i1.iffi 

development of the Christian religion 

in the West, as well as being provoked 

to reflect on your own ideas about 

Christ. 

Ellie Mensingh is SCM's Groups 

Worker. 

Martin Davies has a good time listening to Moby's latest offering 

Play's the thing 

Puv 

Moby (Mute) 

tr*tr*trfuri 

the music. Try and imagine Liam 

Gallagher getting his feather-cut 

round this little mouthful from one of 

Moby's micro-essays: 

"Trying to understand the world 

can be fun and, attimes, helpful. But 

ifwe base our beliefsystems on the 

humble assumption that the complexities 

of the world are ontologically 

beyond our understanding, then 

maybe our belief systems will make 

morg sense and end up causing less 

suffering." 

Musicians are rarely encumbered 

by fluency when speiking on spiritual 

matters and usually fall into two 

unappealing camps: Aquarian 

psycho-babble indulgence (see 

Morissette, Madonna, O'Connor) or 

toe-curling Christian literalism (see 

Van Morrison, Dylan, Cliff). Most 

musicians have the good sense, 

decency and all-round inarticulacy 

not to bother God at all. Moby is a 

rarity - as explorative and creative 

spiritually as he is musically. 

"Fundamentalism (of any kind) 

troubles me. The world is too big and 

"',''il,+*iffig;, S 

too intricate to conform to our ideas 

of what it should be like." 

At the heart of Moby's beliefs and 

songs is an intense openness to new 

ideas and forms. The music and the 

ideas interplay with a natural, often 

mischievous, ease. There is a feeling of 

childlike exploration, tinkering, 

messing. The title is a metaphor just 

waitingto happen. The artistas a 

playful child; the studio as playground; 

instruments as shiny new playthings; 

guest singers as jubilant playmates. 

And what part does the listener 

play in all this? Well, all we have to do 

is press the right button: play. 

The music itself is anarchic and 

intense: hypnotic ambient loops, 

folksy guitar twiddling, bluesy-trance, 

techno-thrash. lt's an invigorating 18- 

track ride and, atthe heart ofthe 

album, is a clear, sustained note of 

confidence and optimism - felt most 

acutely on tracks like'Everloving, 'The 

Sky is Broken', 'Natural Blues'and 

'Why Does My Heart Feel so Bad?' lf 

you're looking for comparisons, think 

of Matt Johnson without the acridity or 

Massive Attack gone vegan. 

It's no surprise that record shops 

find Moby hard to label but - as 

another difficult{o-define artist once 

put it - the play's the thing. 

Martin Davies was the editor of 

Movementlrom 1995-97. 

movement 91

*tT,.ffi 

Two recent btockbusters exptored the theme of wasted passion - one against the 

backdrop of war, the other against mind-numbing suburbia. David Anderson gets 

under the skin of American Beauty and The End of the Affair. 

L fe 

O 

I before 

eath 

Auenrcnru Bmurv 

directed by Sam Mendes 

tri'.ffiftf#. 

So Kevin Spacey's character, Lester 

Burnham, says in a voice-over at the 

start of America n Beauty. Spacey is 

playing an ordinary guy for a change, 

and he'sverygood at it. Thatsaid, he 

is playing an ordinary guy with a 

dysfunctional family, a boring 

repressivejob, and a crush on his 

teenage daughte/s bestfriend. And 

as he says, he's goingto die. The film 

is on one level a detective story: how 

is Lester Burnham going to die, and 

will one ofthe other characters kill 

him? 0n other levels, the film is a 

satire upon family values, a comedy 

whose outward cynicism disguises a 

genuine idealism, and a serious 

meditation upon love, life and death. 

Almost everyone in the film is 

pretending to be something that they 

are not. Lester hasn't made 

emotional contact with either his wife 

or his daughter for a long time. His 

wife, Carolyn, (played superbly by 

Annette Bening) is an estate agent 

who tries t0 appear the perfect career 

woman ('the wayto be successful is 

always to project an image of 

success') to cover her increasing 

insecurity. Their daughter, Jane, has 

lost contact with both her parents. 

Lester is embarrassing, with his crush 

on herfriend, and Carolyn only uses 

her daughter to express her own 

frustrations. 

The family who moves in next-door 

at the start of the film is even more 

dysfunctional, and equally afraid to 

admit it. The father, Colonel Fitz, is a 

violent authoritarian, who beats his 

son. His wife has hardly any selfassertion 

left. His son Ricky is atfirst 

sighta deranged voyeur. Colonel Fitz 

is also extremely wonied about his 

son's sexuality, which should tell 

anyone with a little knowledge of pop 

psychology something about Col0nel 

Fiu. 

The only characters that seem to 

have the ideal American relationship 

are the Burnham's other neighbours, 

a homosexual couple,.lim and Jim. 

They are friendly, happy and, as far as 

we can tell, squeaky-clean. They are 

also pretty much ciphers ratherthan 

characters. This may actually 

undercut the film's satire on 

conventional family values. Another 

problem here is that the women seem 

to exist chiefly in relation to the men. 

Carolyn Burnham, who has her own 

career and earns more than her 

husband, is selfish, narcissistic, and 

hiding a deep-seated lack of selfconfidence. 

She cares more about 

the covering on her sofa than about 

reviving her sexual relations with her 

husband, so one can tell she's a 

superficial person. American Beauty 

is a little like a well-meaning liberal 

whose underlying attitudes are 

actually conservative. 

Lester Burnham finds a secular 

,'fl:ffi?.X';:lfi?ilflfi Carotyn cares more about the 

ilildJ$,'f,fi{itr' covering on her sofa than reviving 

supporttheirimages. The 

^ 

sarvationthatherindsi, >€XUdI retations with her husband, 

il",?illi'#;::Jli,ry so one can tett she's superficiat 

banal and the destructive 

parts0fit,asbeautiful' . Thecharacterwhoexpressesthis beautythathesees. ofallthe 

This reminds me of the doctrineof uuii.itrr*tn.ir is beauiy even in the characters in the film, he is the one 

some theologians that eternal.life it 

roti runoine or oistu rbing facts of best able to distinguish between 

not infinitely prolonged life but.a form ritrlr nirrv iiu. Rttnougn nlcny is 

reality and the image: he acts the part 

of aesthetic satisfaction in seeing 

initiurr]/ fu'pirt.o as a voyeur wiro films of an all-American ichoolboy for his 

one's life as a whole. I don't believe ni, .r,ghOir" .n a hand_held video tyrannical father while running a 

that myself, but the film 

camera, it tu rns out that he does so business dealing drugs (to Lester, 

convincingly embody the idea that this n.J ri. .i t'ii oesire to record the among others). bn. of the .entral 

could indeed be one answer t0 death. 

movement 99

inrages of the film comes when Ricky 

shows Jane Burnham his filnr of a 

discarded plastic bag being blown in 

the wind: a film that he describes as 

being so beautiful that he felt like his 

heart would burst. This could easily 

have fallen flat. However, 

ntarvellously, the filnr does convince 

us that this plastic bag is truly 

beautiful. lt manages to do so chiefly 

because the director shows us that he 

really can find beauty in the ordinary. 

Many of the scenes are contPosed 

with the sort of simplicity that it seems 

anybody who tried ought to be able to 

achieve; the sort of simplicity that 

characterises the highest art. 

ln addition, the filnr does question 

its own message. ls the ability to find 

beauty even in death not nrorbid? 

Ricky's character never ceases to 

seem slightly deranged, and even 

Lester's rejection of conventional 

values is occasionally abusive. 

Despite nry reservations about the 

film's sexual politics, this is a truly 

great film: warm, funny, thoughtprovoking 

and often achieving 

sublimity. And you will never look at 

discarded plastic bags in the same 

way again. 

TxE Eruo oF THE AFFATR 

directed by Neil Jordan 

tr$*i.,','lm'* 

(which I haven't read) set in World War 

ll. A woman pronrises God that she 

will give up her lover if God saves his 

life in the Blitz. The three principal 

characters, Sarah, played by Julianne 

Moore, her husband, played by 

Stephen Rea, and her lover, the 

novelist Maurice Bendrix, played by 

Ralph Fiennes, are all very well acted. 

The film starts out well, as Bendrix 

hires a detective to discover whether 

Sarah is having an affair with 

somebody else, and discovers why 

Sarah ended the affair two years 

before. However, to my mind the filnr 

falls flat in the second half, as it alters 

the book in a rewrite which almost 

rivals the version of King Lear with the 

happy ending. 

ln the film, Bendnx learns the truth 

by reading Sarah's diary, and 

confronts her. They then resume their 

affair before they discover that Sarah 

is dying. Modern film seems to have 

no language to express the idea that 

two people love each other except 

through the vigour of their sex scenes. 

(American Beauty is an exception). ln 

addition, there seems to be a secular 

discomfort with the idea that 

sympathetic people could ever act 

because they believed in God. The 

effect of this on the film is to reduce 

God from an Old Testament figure, 

disturbing and possibly amoral, who is 

in serious competition with worldly 

love, to a figure who can be 

comfortably contained within purely 

religious categories. This removes 

some of the film's earlier ironies 

against secularisnr. For exanrple, the 

private detective interprets all of 

Sarah's relations as almost certainly 

leading to 'intimacies.' But it also 

makes the religious elements less 

morally ambiguous. For example, 

Bendrix' jealousy of God seem more 

petty ifSarah has not given hinr up for 

God. 

The first half of the film is based 

upon Greene's pre-Vatican ll 

Catholicism. Like American Beauty, 

the filnr nrakes it plain how ideas of 

salvation can be nrarginal in relation 

to our ideas of sanity, how they can 

break in and disturb our lives. But the 

filnr as a whole, after starting to raise 

questions, decides hastily to bury 

them again. 

David Anderson is doing a PhD in 

English Literature at the University of 

Sussex. 

History reveals itself 

CrLrgRRnlc THE CHRtsrRru CrmrRtrs 

by Andrew D. Mayes (SPCK) 

T0 BE HoNEST I wanted to read this 

book wearing my (mEtaphorical) 

historian's hat and criticise. From 

that point of view I was disappointed, 

but I ended up reading a really great 

book and finding an excellent prayer 

resource. So lwasn'ttoo miffed! 

Andrew Mayes is a Christian with 

vast experience of Christian traditions 

- and other religions, and this is very 

evident throughout the bo0k, alth0ugh 

he seems to marry the various styles 

very well. He focuses on one Christian 

figure from each century (most of 

them fairly well known). 

He sets the main events ofthe 

century in context exceptionally well 

(the historian speaks...), but concisely 

and with enough interestforany 

reader. He then goes on to give a 

short biography ofthe person, 

followed by an extract from their 

writings. Some of the pieces are very 

moving, others thought provoking, 

and all seem to make you want to 

read further from their works (whether 

or not you'll ever get round to it). 

He gives suggestions for further 

reading at the end of each chapter. I 

was particularly touched by the reworking 

ofthe Love hymn ofSt. Paul 

( lCor: 13) by Clement of Rome. 

" Love binds us fast to God. Love 

casts a veil over sins innumerable. 

There are no limits to love's 

endurance, no end to its patience" 

It was so refreshing to read what is 

a very beautiful theme for a passage 

from another pen. This book is full of 

good thingsl 

All of this is very interesting for the 

lone reader, but Mayes offers more. 

Each extract is followed by up to a 

dozen questions on the themes 

mentioned, aimed at a discussion 

group. After this are two or three 

imaginative suggestions for group or 

individual prayer. "Hold a hazelnut in 

your hand and reflect on its beauty 

and fragility. Think about your life; 

precious in God's hands, and give 

thanks" ' 14th Century, Julian of 

Norwich. 

Although I haven't yet used it in my 

prayer group, I intend to do so. 

The book gives you the chance to 

look at inspiring Christian literature 

complimentary to the Bible in a user 

friendly format. 

I tried very hard to find fault with 

this book, but in the end found it 

fascinating in its narrative and useful 

in all kinds of ways as a prayer 

resource. And in case anyone else is 

as taken with it as me, I'm not risking 

lending out my copy. 

Alison Gilhespie works for the 

Catholic Student Council and and is a 

history graduate from York University. 

movement 23

-l 

Tim Nicholls takes a look at Richard Hotloway's most recent book: an attempt to 

take God out of ethics. He discovers it's the right message for the wrong audience. 

Moral mtnonty 

o 

o 

Goouss Monnlrv - 

Krrptruc Rructolt our or Erutcs 

by Richard Holloway 

(Canongate) 

tcHARD HottomY's 

book makes an admirable 

attempt to remove religious 

absolutism from debates 

about ethics, and in particular the 

tedious and often immature 

assertions that a concept must be 

right "because God has said so "or "it 

is in the Bible". As a result he also 

shows the worrying prospect of 

continued isolation and alienation 

between the Church and secular 

society. 

The'controversial' aspects naturally 

lie in areas where Holloway is talking 

common sense - suggesting that 

homosexuality is not necessarily evil; 

that an absolutist approach to 

abortion is not especially constructive; 

that masturbation and sex in general 

need not be viewed as sinful and there 

to be monitored by the Church with 

fear and apprehension. 

The radicalism and controversy 

almost certainly lie in Holloway's 

standing within the Church as the 

Bishop of Edinburgh. Don Cupitt 

states in his review on the back cover: 

"Godless Morality is a brave and 

necessary book, and all the more 

remarkable as coming from a Bishop." 

To have a Bishop take such an 

enlightened view, little caring about 

the conservative back-lash especially 

in these post-Lambeth days, is indeed 

remarkable. lt is all the more 

incredible when one considers the 

cllmate within the Church and press, 

which appears to advocate a 

marginalisation of Liberal and radical 

theology, instead of advocating 0pen 

dialogue and debate. 

The issues that Richard Holloway 

addresses in the book, lie with the 

issues that our Millennial/ post- 

Millennial society is endeavouring to 

engage with, namely: homosexuality, 

abortion, euthanasia, drugs and 

issues surrounding genetics. Holloway 

advocates that we try to 

work out our ethics in 

relation to the situation 

we find ourselves in 

rather than returning 

solely to a literalistic 

reading of the Bible 

for our ethical 

guidance. We 

should prepare 

ourselves to 

enter into daily 

living with an 

open, tolerant, 

n0njudgmental 

mind. 0nly 

through 

doing so 

can we 

offer a 

mature, 

n r,- . 

M 

,-r a.- - 

G 

responsible 0utlook to the ethical 

conundrums we find ourselves in. 

Consequently Chrlstian teaching 0ught 

to become more willing to engage in a 

dialogue with secular society. 

The motives behind the book to an 

extent remain unclear. Like all 

theologians Holloway naturally seeks 

to provoke a response, especially from 

those within the Church whom he 

does not agree with. He appears 

through his provocative and 

entertaining style to be trying to 

challenge the Church into greater 

openness and tolerance. 

0n the surface, Holloway's book is 

worthy of a read. The style is clear and 

engaging, and there is little of his 

ideas within to shock the intelligent 

Christian reader. Yetthis is my primary 

concern with the book. lt does little 

more than say what liberal and radical 

Christians have been sayingfor 

a number of years 

Ra 

.i,(D 

lJ()! 

I (j tl..\. 

A love-centred 

approach woutd have 

offered a greater opportunity for 

reftection by att readers, Christian, 

agnostic or atheist. 

movement 24 

Irsc 

!rrv 

n0w 

namely 

that 

religious 

absolutism is 

not a healthy 

or constructive 

way of engaging 

in ethical 

dialogue. ln this 

respect he does 

not appear to be 

advancing the 

ethical debate at 

all. 

ln addition, the 

ethical debate atthe moment is far 

more centred upon concerns over 

globalisation, and international 

affairs, through the likes of 0liver 

O'Donovan and Hans KUng. Nothing of 

this is mentioned in Holloway's book 

which I found disappointing. 

The title of the book leads one to 

believe that there is to be a genuine 

attempt to develop an ethical formula 

without God. Holloway recognises the 

difficulty of trying to do so and 

consequently God is a critical aspect 

of his ethlcal formula. 

"lf we reject the role of God as a 

micro manager of human morality, 

dictating specific systems that 

constantly wear out and leave us with 

theological problems when we want to 

abandon them, we shall have to 

develop a more dynamic 

understanding of God as one who 

accompanies creation in its evolving 

story like a pianist in a silent movle." 

There is not actually a successful 

rejection of absolutes either. The 

ethical basis of the book appears to 

lie in the concept 0f 'First do no harm'. 

This appears to be a highly undynamic 

ethical stance to adopt. 

Homosexuality and most sexual 

experiences are thus justified by 

Holloway as a result of this position. 

What would have been interesting 

is if Holloway had based his ethic 

more on a love-centred approach. 

Homosexuality, and a more mature 

understanding of the drugs debate 

could still have been justified, but 

within a more fluid, active approach to 

Ethics than the "do no harm" 

principle. An ethical formula based 

upon a love that provokes and inspires 

justice could have offered a greater 

opportunity for reflection by all 

readers, Christian, agnostic 0r atheist. 

God/ess Morality appeats to be not 

much more than a book that would 

challenge all readers that Holloway is 

in opposition to, if only they would 

read it. Yet they are precisely the ones 

who will not read such books because 

of a lack of desire to have their beliefs 

challenged. The book is almost 

certainly set to become a standard 

textforall Liberal and Radical readers. 

However, I would suggest that it will 

do no more than confirm to such 

groups why they hold their particular 

opinions, it will not seriously challenge 

any Christian with a developed 

theology. Godless Morality exemplifies 

the diff iculty of writing any liberal, 

radical theology. Those who ought to 

read it will not, and those who do not 

need to, will. 

Tim Nicholls is a member of Leeds 

University Christian Focus and a final 

year student of TheologY and 

Religious Studies.

.,Ml --':aliifl[ltl 

* EASY DOES IT 

It was a real pleasure 

to find Ladybird's ,A 

First Book of Saints,. 

A slim hardback 

costing 15p, which 

deals briskly with 

St George, Andrew, 

David and 

Patrick, who 

were all good 

men. Except 

Patrick who 

was a nasty 

piece of work 

who drove me 

and my family 

0ut of lreland 

accusing us of 

being bogus 

asylum seekers. St 

Christopher was good 

man because he was tall 

and gave people 

piggybacks. About St 

Francis of Assissi, the 

Doctor of Doolittle of 

Christendom, it says: 

"one story about 

Francis tells how 

he met boy 

carrying a 

basket of 

wild 

I 

doves to 

sell in the 

market." And it 

goes on: "Francistold him about 

music festival where he would get a 

better price for the wild doves." Saint 

Margaret of Scotland, was a prissy 

princess, but became a saint on the 

virtue of the fact she didn't cut 

anyone's head off. And then the 

Ladybird treasury reaches a finale 

with Jeanne D'Arc, that saint-witchmystic-militarist, 

a complex tale 

squeezed into three pages of large 

print text. We learn that "one day 

when Joan was alone in herfathe/s 

field, she heard a heavenly voice 

telling that she had been chosen to do 

brave deeds." She denies it had 

anything to do with the pills St Francis 

gave her. But she pursued her vision 

and headed up the French army and 

won many battles. This being a British 

publication, and the reader already 

being a bit confused about how you 

become a saint, itfailsto mention 

exactly whose arses she whipped. 

"Much later on, Joan was captured 

and put to death by those who refused 

t0 believe that the voice had come to 

J 

* WEB OF 

DECEPTION 

herfrom God. Butall 

over the world she is 

now known as Saint 

Joan of Arc." 

The staid Gleneagles golf club, 

having decided to get itself a 

swish web-site with live footage 

ofthe 18th hole, came up 

against a big problem. All 

) 

it would show was a 

hazy blur, as ifthe 

camera was flat on its 

in back in the 19th. The 

techies scratched their 

heads and checked the software. Then 

someone went out to investigating and 

found that a spider had made its web 

across the lens. 

* WEB OF PERCEPTION 

Space exploration isjust not as 

glamorous as it once was, is it? What 

do NASA do having set to fire to billions 

to humiliate the Ruskies in the space 

race and gained their Fool's Gold 

medal? Well they investigate spiders. 

And how they use space. And how they 

respond to certain stimulants. Please 

refer to the diagram below. 

(1) A normal spider spins a 

conventional web. (2) A spider given a 

bit of marijuana chills out and tries to 

get a new sense perspective on 

things. (3) Shows a pitiable web, "a 

haphazard affair" according to NASA, 

as likely to provide an appetising meal 

as those packets of powdered stuff 

that astronauts live off. And what had 

our eight-legged friend been given? 

Caffeine. 

* UNNATURAL CAUSES 

Forthose people who are 

wedded to the concept of 2.4- 

kids-a-Ford-Mondeo-and-bankholidays-spent-doing-DlY 

on 

the basis that any other lifestyle 

is'unnatural', mightwe kindly 

offer a list of more worthwhile 

'unnatural' things to campaign 

against. Things are just plain wrong: 

scratch and sniff websites, football 

matches that kick off at 1lam, 

William Hague, Spice Girls pursuing 

solo careers. And then there's 

butterscotch polos (as Voltaire 

said, they are like the Holy Roman 

Empire: neither butter, nor scotch, 

nor polos) and Britney Spears 

(surely, the musical equivalentto 

raising veal: young, expensive, totally 

in the dark). 

* NO HAWKERS PLEASE 

Tony Hawks - who are you? Does 

anyone else remember 

Monis Minor and Majors' 

novelty hit Stutter 

Rap? Quite good so 

far as novelty 

songs go, but the 

single joke is 

In the 

title. 

Then he 

had as 

stint as 

troubadour, 

traversing all the light 

entertainment quizes 

from Radio Fourto BBC2, 

filled in with the odd turn as a 

stand-up comic. And now he has 

metamorphosed once more: into a 

novelty travel writer. 

The premis is this: a 'spontaneous'bet 

goes wrong and ourTone goes Round 

lreland With A Fridge.ll's amusing 

stuff as he charms his way across 

lreland encountering rent-a-quote 

local'characters', while chuckling to 

himself, '0h, this really is the last time 

I hitchhike round the Emerald lsle with 

white goods!'. 

As Michael 'the nice Python' Palin 

could tell you travel-journalism-with-atwist 

has a limited life: you start off 

gloriously, whizing Round the World in 

80 Days and trudging Pole to Pole, but 

soon you're visiting places where 

Hemingway quite liked with that pesky 

BBC crew who won't leave me alone. 

It's the kind of career trajectory that 

would find Kerouac writing the Rough 

Guide tojaz Caf6s. 

But back to the Mr Hawks and his 

utterly contrived restrictions. Having 

dismissed the obvious follow ups 

Route 66 by Rollerskate, and the 

rather more leisurely Round Cuba with 

a loaster, Tony Hawks settled on 

Beatintthe Moldovans at lennis. Due 

to a 'spontaneous' bet he decides to 

prove he could beat the whole 

Moldovan football team at tennis - 

tsk.. Men once they get bragging - but 

first he has to track them down and 

persuade them to co-operate. 0r 

otherwise he has to stand naked on 

the Balham High Road singingthe 

Moldovan national anthem. 

So be warned if are supping your pint 

and are approached by a strange man 

saying, "l bet you don't think I could 

joust my way through Chile in a C5 do 

you?", he might only want to put t10 

on it, but you can be sure there's a 

commission in there somewhere. 

* OPPORTUNITY KNOCKED 

Compared to all the palaver when the 

Star Wars prequel came out at the 

cinema, the video release on April 3rd 

was very understated. lfthey'd 

postponed it for a month and a day and 

they would've had the best marketing 

line: May the Fourth be with you I 

* YOGIC YOBS 

Loaded is the publication that brought 

the bottom shelf and top shelf closer 

together in the mid-90s and reinvented 

the men's magazine market, almost 

single-handed. ln fact knowing Loaded 

readers it probably was single-handed. 

Well, bizanely enough, a recent issue 

carried a 16-page feature on 'The 

Meaning of Life'with a yogic slren 

with bejewelled nipples on the 

front. And actually it was rather 

good. A reporter and 

photographer were 

packed offto Nepal 

o 

observations: 

o 

and Tibet and 

Jerusalem to literally 

'get reli gion'. Amon gst 

the flippancy and flatulence 

there are some astute 

"l've 

o 

a 

always wanted to go 

Jerusalem because 

its so beautifully 

fucked up. lf any one 

city stands as an 

example of the 

achievements of 

religion, it's this one. 

Never in the history has one piece of 

land been so fought over, shot up, 

burned down and rebuilt." And: "You 

can't bust a monk for skiving because 

he can always use the 'l'm 

contemplating' excuse. 

movement 25

SCM RESOURCES 

'Just that little bit dtfferent" 

SCM Publications tackle the vital issues of the day, in accessible lively 

formats. ldeal for preparing workshops, discussions and conferences. 

And a darn fine read in themselves. Recent titles include: 

Just Love The Theology of Sexuality 

God Made Simple An lntroduction to ldeas about God 

The F-Word A Guide to Christian Fundamentalism 

No More Mr Nice Guy A New Look at Jesus 

Significant Others Talking About Relationships 

Common People Rethinking Christianity and Community 

The Dying Game A Young Person's Guide to Death 

L2.OO 

L2.OO 

t3.00 

t3.50 

L4.50 

L4.50 

t5.00 

COMING SOON: [ffi]1iil"f 

Out Faith* What Does it Mean to Have a Body? 

Name 

Address 

Pu bl ications req uested 

I enclose a cheque [made payable to 'SCM'] for L 

RETURN TO: SCM, Westhill College, L4/LG Weoley Park Road, Selly Oak, Birmin$ham 829 6LL.

Movement 105

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?