Movement 102

_ "s/

Career options 

for Afts students 

1r' 

,. ..i 

: .', 

ftIOUEIIIENT Publisations take 

on the subiects that others 

would rather brush undcr the 

Cafpel... 

MOVEMENT Publieations rePresent 

a pioneering approaeh ts ehristian 

understanding. They use their 

independ ence to explore issues on 

the eutting edge of faith with the next 

generation of Christian thinl

Morag Foster explains her retuctance reveal that she was a Christian in recent 

University elections. Does the [abe[ 'Christian' do more harm than good? 

How much do others reatty need to know about you? 

Stand u 

an 

e categorfsed 

trffi"v*r*,ffii#' 

becoming a bit of a political prostitute. 

People I hadn't seen for weeks became 

suddenly fascinating; I went to every 

obscure society that I'd joined six months 

ago and faked faithful attendance. I even 

went drinking in the Union for a couple of 

nights.That wasn't the major struggle of the 

last fortnight, though. What bothered me 

the most was how much the voters needed 

to know about me. Was it wise to come out, 

and did they need to know that I'm a 

Christian? 

It's an interesting debate. Someone 

once told me that coming out as a Christian 

in the gay community carries almost as 

I don't buy the lie that students 

are open-minded, compared to 

the rest of the poputation. 

Most of them are just younger. 

much stigma as coming out as gay in the 

church. My experience to date has tended 

to find the gay community a little more 

hospitable than the church, but I know 

that's not true for everyone. However, this 

University is neither the church or the gay 

cornmunity. And I don't buy the lie that 

ffi 

lssue 109 

Summer 1999 

Moyement is the 

termly magazine of 

the Student Christian 

Movement, distributed 

free of charge to 

members and 

dedicated to an openminded 

exploration of 

Christianity. 

students are open-minded, compared to the 

rest of the population. Most of them are just 

younger. I study in a fairly rural area, in an 

institution that is known for its sports based 

courses, a place that's not particularly gay 

or Christian friendly. I had the feeling that 

mentioning 

either 

attribute 

wasn't 

going to go 

down too 

well. 

I came out 

at hustings 

in the end, 

by accident. I was asked for the one person 

who I would take to a desert island. I 

answered honestly. Some people applauded 

but the atmosphere in the room changed. I 

wasn't sorry I'd done it, but I don't doubt it 

affected the final result. ln the end, I never 

mentioned my faith. I could argue that it 

Edltorlal address 

22 Dowanside Road, 

Hillhead, Glasgow. 

G12 gDA 

r (0141) 334 7169 

e: movemag@aol.com 

SCM central office 

Westhill College, 

14/ L5 tffeoley Park Road, 

Selly Oak, Birmingham. 

829 6LL 

r (0121) 47!2404 

t: (OL2L} 474 125L 

e: SCM@charis.co.uk 

movement 1 

Editor: Tim Woodcock 

Editorlal board: Diccon Lowe, 

Stephen Matthews, Sara Mellen, lrfan 

Merchant, Carolyn Styles 

SCM staff 

Coordinator - Carolyn Styles 

Project Worker: Groups - Craig Cooling 

P roject Worker : lvbntesltip 

Dercbprnent - $ephen Maflhelw 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in 

Movement are those of the particular 

author and should not be taken to be 

the policy of the Student Christian 

Movement. 

didn't come up among the candidate's 

questions, but it made me feel a little 

ashamed of myself. We've been taught, 

particularly those of us who are survivors of 

evangelicalism, that God is to be trumpeted 

in every area of our lives; everyone we know 

should know what we believe. I'm still 

shedding that sense of what I 'should' and 

'shouldn't' do, but my parent's faith still 

casts a long shadow. 

I lost the election. lt wasn't as upsetting 

as I thought it would be, although it would 

have been nice to see how good I would 

have been at thejob. I'm still left, though, 

with some nagging questions. lf I was 

standing again, would I use the word 

'Christian' of myself? And why is it easier to 

admit to having a girlfriend than to mention 

that I'm quite fond of God? They both carry 

roughly the same amount of baggage, as 

labels go. But it was easier to admit to 

being a sexual deviant than it was to 

confess to having a set of beliefs that many 

regard as archaic, or simply irrelevant. I'm 

frequently on my soapbox about gay rights 

- but the days when I would get up in public 

and shout about my faith are long gone. 

That's not necessarily a bad thing, 

considering the reaction that shouty 

Christians generally get. But I do still wonder 

how God feels about my reluctance to stand 

up and be counted. I can't help feeling that 

He would have voted for me, though. 

,1t 

Morag Foster was standing for an Executive 

position at Glamorgan University, 

Membership fees: 

tls(waged) 

f 10 (unv,tagedlstdens) 

Next copydate 

2nd Augnst L999 

UrEdicibd mabdal lrchome. 

Askforguidelines. 

Ad\ertki€cogrdab 

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rssN 0306980x 

Ctnrity Nlo. 241896 

@19SgSC[4

--- a 

Craig Cooling 

returns unscathed 

from this year's 

joint conference: 

"Apocalypse Now!" 

Newmnru Httt, BlRlltrueHRru 

Srx-7rH MAncH 1999 

E*iillu1;u*#***, 

all things millennial: heaven and hell' 

angels, cults, apocryphal imagery and the 

book of Revelation through the usual mix of 

speakers and base groups but coupled with 

some of the most creative workshops ever 

to come out of Birmlngham. 

NEWS 

from 

scM 

in 

Britain 

and 

beyond 

A11 in the Apocalypse together 

The main speaker, Maggie Roux, is a 

senior lecturer in Film Studies at Trinity and 

All Saints College in Leeds. Maggie focused 

on the use of apocryphal images in film. 

Scenes from the Terminator, Deep lmpact, 

Omega Man, Planet of the Apes and many 

more describe the end of the world and 

what it is like to be there. There is a spate of 

apocalyptic themes in film being produced 

presently and consequently there is a great 

wealth of imagery available. Maggie was 

very well received and everyone agreed that 

it was an excellent, challenging and 

insightful introduction. ln the afternoon we 

ran workshops facilitated by staff workers 

and by David Bryant, lecturer in theology at 

Queens College in Birmingham. 

Saturday night produced a rapturous 

juxtaposition of a traditional ceilidh and 

funky disco (the ultimate cheese), which 

against all the odds, was loved by all' On 

Sunday we celebrated a shared ecumenical 

worship - for which the joint conferences 

are remembered. 

ffi 

The conference was an overwhelming 

success both as a time for reflection on the 

forthcoming millennium and thinking over 

apocalyptic imagery, and also as a weekend 

that was fun and provocative. We had as 

much fun as Dorothy did in discovering the 

Yellow Brick Road. The conference was once 

again very well attended thus suggesting 

that SCM is still relevant; its questioning is 

vltal to what will define Christianity in the 

new millennium. 

cAt,r t-ortrl Y trn! s 

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movement 2 

t Camp Looney Apes (it's a/most an anagram) 

< tmage des@ned for the conference 

-oner 

Aates to rememos 

. 18-20 June 

Retreat - Bainesbuty Manor, near Bath 

. 30 Au9ust - 9 SePtember 

WSCF General Assembly: "Behold I make all 

things new". Beirut, Lebanon' 

. LL-L7 September 

WSCF European Regional Assembly - A$ape' near 

Turin, ltaly. 

. lr}-t2September 

Training Event 1999 - St Clarat Youth Retreat 

Centre, near Huntingdon, Cambs.

Go away! 

l: SClvt's annual retreat will from 18-20 

June at same place as last year: 

Bainesbury House, 'somewhere near Bath'. 

It promises to be a mellow weekend 

amongst scenic surroundin$s: full of 

communal cooking, walks and frisbee and 

impromptu worship. lt costs €,1O plus 

shared food bill. 

ll: wscr-Europe organises conferences for 

students across Europe. lts motto is: "The 

bible in one hand and a newspaper in the 

other"; it is also committed to pioneering 

ecumenical work at a time when the 

churches seem almost ready to give it up. 

There are two main ways to be involved: 

one is by attending a conference as a 

delegate. Another is to get involved by 

planning an event (being on a Prepoom). 

You will be asked to represent British SCM, 

which means having some background 

knowledge, being prepared to answer 

questions and - mostly importantly - taking 

a drink from your native country for the 

cultural evening. 

Recent events have been in Belarus, 

Romania and France. Travel is reimbursed; 

the conference fee is negotiable. However 

often the information rarely comes in time 

to approach people with much warning. lf 

you would be interested in attending such 

an event pass your name to the SCM's 

national office. 

lll: far less likely but still not impossible: 

the students of Togolese SCM invite you to 

Publications 

Body building 

Movement publicatlons ls startingwork on the next resource. lt 

will be on "the body" and will contain reflections, workshops, 

discusslon sta,ters. lt will look at ideas of disability, healing, 

beauty, health, sexuality. Will the church ever strike a healthy 

balance among body, mind and spirit? Su*gestions on how 

to approach these topics are welcome: drop a line to 

movemag@aol.com. 

Previous resources have included The Crying Game (on 

West Africa. They are organising a two-week 

international camp (starting on August 6th) 

with an informal two week exposure tour 

after this. lt costs $300. NB - Togo is 

French-speaking but most students speak 

English. 

Contact Ruben Lawson-Lartego, who is 

currently studying in Britain, at 

eap987@reading.ac.uk 

Sowing the seeds... 

lf are involved in running a local SCM or are 

thinking of setting one up this is for you. 

The 1999 Training Event in September, just 

before the new academic year, will explore 

your hope and fears of group work: 

planning worship, building group identity 

and running and facilitating meetings. And 

the venue (St Clarat Youth Retreat Centre, 

Huntingdon) has both bed and showers. 

Surely an SCM first. 

Thank you Graham 

February 6th saw the demise of Scottish 

SCM as a separate body. lt was a sad but 

necessary day: Glasgow and Edinburgh are 

currently the only groups meeting regularly. 

A special thank you must be said to Graham 

Monteith; the 'Dr Rev' worked patiently and 

against-the-odds as the Honourary 

Secretary for 3 years. He is now devoting his 

time to the disability movement. And also a 

mention should made of the many Senior 

Friends for their behind-thescenes 

work. 

oV 

Poorts 

Death), No More Mr Nice Guy and Just Love. They are known for their 

accessibility and word-of-mouth popularity. Expect publication of next one late in 2000. 

Movement gets funky... 

Since the editorial offtce moved to Glasgow, Movement seems t0 have acquired a club-night in its honour. 

Keeps reading and you too could have a haircut like that... and it doubles as a portable filing system too. 

Eurotrash 

Aneweditionof Mozaik, thesomewhatsporadicmagazinefromWSCF(Europe),is 

out. WSCFIs anelwork 

ofSCMs or equivalent froups across the world; the pan-European magazine was founded in 1994 by 

former Movement editor and self-confessed matazine freak Michael Feakes. 

ln the current issue there are articles on images of student 

activism from the 60s (Pratue, Paris) and the nineties. lt 

MOZAIK 

Magazine of the World Student 

Christian Federation (Europe Region) 

contains a survey of Easter celebrations from across Europe. 

lncludintthis tem from the Czech Republic: "0n Monday, all 

the men make themselves a sorl of whip from willow 

branches. 0n the top they add ribbons for decoration. They 

chase the females and, as they run, the males give them 'stroke! on their backsidesl' Ihis ls perhaps the 

best way to persuade Tory MPs that European integration is no bad thing. 

Mozaik 99 is available from the Bimingham office, with a 38p SAE. 

One of those strange offers that passes 

through the office and is of relevance to 

those with an interest in church music or 

organ playing: a good while ago Stephen 

Rhys and King Palmer wrote a book called 

The ABC of Church Music. (H&S 1967). Mrs 

Rhys has an excessive number of these 

books in her house and is kindly offering 

them free of charge to any one who is 

interested. The ABC of Church Music is 

described as "[a] practical book for anyone 

having anything to do with worship, singing 

and organ music. lt discusses the place of 

music in worship, the nature, performance 

and accompaniment of hymns, chants and 

plain song." lt is now out of print but 

available for the price of postage (f.1.00 

worth of stamps). lf you would like a copy, 

contact Carrie in the office who will put you 

in touch. 

Stephen M atth ews, SCM's membership 

worker, has just been given an Millennium 

Award by CAFOD. Well done sir! He will 

travel to South Africa for three weeks in the 

Autumn to look at various social projects. lt 

is "a fact-finding and publicity mission" and 

he's hoping migiht be able to arrange 

afternoon tea with Ne/son Mandela. 

Hopefully this experience will feed back into 

his work with SCM on his return. 

Congratulations also go to Norwegian SCM, 

one of the largest 

Y,I 

in Europe, who 

have just 

celebrated their 

rel 

100th birthday. 

Regional Secretary 

Andreas Havinger 

writes: "Under the 

title Across A// 

Borders, the celebration began on Tuesday 

16 February and ended with a festive 

worship service in Oslo Cathedral the 

following Sunday. ln between there were 

parties, concerts, cabaret, the SCM's 

regular Friday liturgy and a reception for 

several hundred students, past and 

present. Highlights were an updated version 

of the SCM's techno-mass, celebrated in an 

Oslo club and turning one of SCM's offices 

into a caf6 for the duration of the 

celebrations." 

movement 3

A recent articte in the cathotic student council newsletter Grapevine caused a 

furore. ln it a heatth worker advocated that students shoutd practice safe sex; 

as resutt the cathotic press disowned its student body. Here stephen Matthews, 

a Roman Cathotic, writes in sotidarity with CSC's position' 

Condemnations and condoms 

EWARE OF wOtlEN - TIIEY 

will make you lustful. They will fill 

you with desire and tempt You 

into sin. 

The language of the medieval church is 

extraordinary, but it is more surprising that 

such a polemical attitude still influences us' 

The church has for centuries advised us on 

how to have sex' And until this day the 

institutionalised church tries to 

maintain control over our 

expression of 

ChristianitY. 

When the 

Catholic Student 

Council wrote about 

relationshiPs in their 

magazine GraPevine, The 

Catholic Herald resPonded 

from on Hi$h. ln the article 

a health worker - in their 

professional caPacity and in 

the context of a debate - 

recommended the use of 

condoms. The GraPevine article 

is said to give a whollY unreal 

impression of restraint and 

responsibility and lhe Catholic 

Herald insists we should rather ask 

questions of marriage. 

A brief glimpse into history will reveal 

occasions when the church becomes 

passionate when it attempts to deal with 

sex. Augustine - probably the most famous 

Father of the Church who couldn't handle 

sex - scurried from a life of temptation into 

the welcoming bosom of the church' As a 

voice of the church he spouted polemics 

against the lustfulness of women. lndeed 

the commandment from God that we have 

most positively fulfilled, that we 'go forth 

and multiply', the church has constantly 

questioned and tried to control. Sex can be 

dangerous; maybe, if we didn't talk about it 

so much we m'ght do more about it? 

The church has alwaYs confused me 

about sex yet our problem is really in not 

questioning the churches' confusion' Sex 

may be widely spoken about but is also a 

taboo subject, particularly within religious 

circles. Swear words are formed from the 

language of sex, and a prudish attitude to 

such language continues to enforce the 

notion that sex is taboo' Why should we feel 

guilty and disown our sexual desires? 

The church's inflexible stance on 

contraception serves as a reminder of it lost 

relevance to our lives. The Church ready 

condemnation of those who even mention 

the use of condoms - regardless of the 

context - is uncaring.' outdated pomposity' 

That the church can be seen to so readily 

condemn those who merely mention the 

use of a condom, even without direct 

prescription to use it in an article 

concerning sexual health' 

is uncaring. 

Students are aware of 

safe sex camPaigns 

promoter bY their 

student union 

welfare office. For 

the churches then 

to reject the use 

of condoms 

suggests its 

message is 

more 

concerned 

with 

denying 

sexuality 

and the responsibilitY 

for one's own 

body. lf we are to give control of 

our bodies over to the church it means 

we are not to have sex, and when we do we 

are to be married bY the church and 

pregnancy is not for our control' 

It is convenient to declare that life-giving 

is God's, but this denies the difference 

between men and women. Women can 

conceive and give birth - simply because 

men cannot does not mean that therefore 

conception should be consigned to what is 

"other" - namely God. We need to end this 

denial and recognise that conception and 

child-birth is of a woman' There needs to be 

a developing understanding ofthe condom 

not simply as contraception for men, but 

also for women: allowing woman to regain 

control of their bodies, of their life-giving 

force, of their womanhood.Women need to 

be able to say "no" to pregnancy and equally 

to be able to express their pregnancy when 

they wish. 

Suggesting that abstinence from sex as 

the only alternative to what The Catholic 

Herald describes as the "unpleasant 

consequences" of sex is naive and 

misleading. Women reclaiming their virginity 

reinforces the idea of male conquest, and 

they condone the lack of sexuality in 

women. Although women may no longer be 

viewed as temptresses of lust, they remain 

an unnamed aspect of sexual expression, 

still denied responsibility for their bodies 

and the expression oftheir womanhood' 

movement 4 

Sex in and of itself is not evil and it is 

not a sin. lt may be viewed as a sacrament 

of lifegiving and our continual response to 

God's first commandment - to 'go forth and 

multiply'. lt is the misuse of sex that should 

be considered sinful. Rape is more than 

intercourse and shouldn't be restricted to 

mere penetration. Rape is the use of sexual 

lust to oppress, and to control another's 

body for one's own end. The church must 

not be guihy of rape - of seeking to control 

and oppress our bodies - and therefore 

must permit the use of contraception: to do 

this the church must listen to the cries of 

"no" and "you're hurting me". With this 

responsibility of using contraception comes 

our right to say yes or no - and mean it - 

without needing escape clauses. This 

responsibility needs to be accepted, just as 

a woman who says no to pregnancy needs 

to be accepted. No means no: it doesn't 

mean we have to rob her of her sexuality' 

simply because she says no to pregnancy' 

It was alright for the Virgin Mary' she 

became pregnant but skipped the sex' Yet 

the Virgin birth is no more than an illtudged 

metaphor that aimed simply to highlight the 

importance of the new-born but it has 

wrought extreme consequences' lt is time 

we stopped conforming to the view that we 

have no control over sexuality: there is a 

hidden agenda. Promoting our supposed 

lack of control actually gives control to those 

who promote the message, it is time we 

claimed this control back for ourselves' Ihe 

Cathotic Herad suggests that the world 

must be brought into conformity with their 

view of Catholicism. Yet even the prevalent 

idea that if we can't control ourselves then 

we must address the problem - and maybe 

only then contemplate using a condom - 

does not reach deeP enough. We must 

challenge the notion that this scenario is 

one of lack of control, rather it is one of 

reclaiming control. 

Give people a chance to say no and let's 

begin with the option to insist on using a 

condom. When I say "yes" to sex, but "no" to 

pregnancy, I can do something about it' I 

will take responsibility and not rely on 

others. Despite the condemnations of the 

Catholic Press I will enjoy sex and "have a 

condom handY". 

Stephen Matthews is SCM's Membership 

Development Worker. 

SEE ALS0 PAGE 1 6: Rick Garland on 'barebacking" - 

Erowing subculturc in which one pursues casual sex 

the use of condons. WhY?

7 

I 

$l l;,ml:n; 

RurH Hnnvrv 

WERE TWO ilOTETIIS ITI 

the morning worship at the World 

Council of Churches Assembly in 

trHERE 

Harare in December last year 

which moved me profoundly. The first was 

when we were reflecting on the image of the 

grain of wheat which dies in order to bear 

fruit. We were invited to move to a number 

of cloths located around the tent (we were 

upwards of 3 000 people each morning 

gathered in a huge blue 'Big Top'). There we 

had to write the name of someone, or a 

group of people who had given their lives to 

follow Jesus, in the certain hope of 

resurrection. We moved slowly, taking our 

time, not rushing those in front, waiting for 

our turn to pen the name of the 

'disappeared', the martyred, the brave. 

These 'banners' were then taken to the front 

where they were displayed for all to see. 

Some of the names were read aloud to the 

gathered worshippers. Some of the names 

were unfamiliar, in languages difficult to 

The liturgical tourist 

understand, but we were united in prayer at 

a level which transcended boundaries of 

language, tradition and liturgical 

'correctness.' 

The second moving moment was when 

we were led in singing 'He's got the whole 

world in his hands'. This is a song I have 

sung since I was 4 years old; a song 

hackneyed beyond belief, complete with the 

'actions' and the blank, bored stare as the 

words are repeated again and again. Yet 

our leader was a young man from the USA 

who sang it with such feeling, such passion, 

such energy of a true spiritual that it 

became a new song for me: it became a 

song of unlty that moved me to tears. And 

we didn't have to do the actions (thank 

God). We were united in prayer, 

transcending the boundaries of language 

and of tradition. Ecumenical worship is alive 

and well. 

There are many ways of worshipping 

together. One is simply to share the 'best' 

liturgical offerings from each denomination. 

There is merit in this approach: for those 

who are not used to Anglican evensong, 

Roman Catholic mass, Orthodox vespers, 

Reformed meditation, this style gives us the 

chance to be liturgical tourists. And this 

inter-denominational approach to worship 

allows us never to forget the pain of the 

division which we encounter at the table, 

a pain which we did not tackle head on in 

Harare. Experiencing stark contrasts and 

painful separation while remaining true to 

traditions is an important part of our shared 

prayer and worship life. 

What this inter-denom inational approach 

lacks, however, is the opportunity to 

experience that greater sense of belonging 

together in faith which transcends traditions 

and taps in to the Tradition of prayer, 

sharing and praise which is ours, 

collectively. The fear of an 'ecumenical mishmash' 

is what, quite rightly, puts many off: 

we might simply end up with a weak, watery 

version of a number of traditions, meshed 

together into a liturgical equivalent of lentil 

goo. But this need not be the case. 

What happened in Harare confirmed yet 

again, for me, that in worship as in no other 

part of our ecumenical journey it is possible 

to find a common sense of belonging in 

faith. Through shared action, through 

singing new songs together, through the 

repetition of key liturgical acts like the entry 

of the word, confession, intercession we 

move beyond the spectator/ performer axis 

into a new way of worshipping together 

which may be the key to renewed 

ecumenical dialogue in these countries and 

around the world. 

God of surprises 

Over the next five pages you will find three essays that 

explore something surprising in our understanding of God: 

an unexpected change in direction. Things don't stay in the 

boxes we put them and theology rarely goes to plan... 

David Muir explores issues for the Black church in Britain. The need to 

replace apathy with anger and courage were brought sharply into focus 

by the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent inquiry. 

Matt Bullimore discusses the limits of liberalism - the path of most 

academic theolos/ - and examines tradition and how it can be 

appropriated by radical theolos/. 

John Bentham, until recently a vicar in inner city Nottingham, finds old 

barriers are breaking down. He suggests that evangelicals serve as a 

model for social action in local communities. 

One thing I underctand now is that one's intellect alone won't pull one 

through, and that the greatest seryice it can perform is to open a 

window for that thing we call the dMne spidt. lf one Eusts to it alone 

it's like trusting to an artificial system of vendlation - conect in theory 

but musty in practice. How I wish it were as easy to throw everything 

open to the spirit of God as it is to ftesh air. 

HrrDA CLARK (1908) 

FROM QUAKER FAITH AND PRACTICE 

movement 5

lt 

R. David Muir of the Black Churches Civic Forum argues that the Stephen 

Lawrence enquiry was a defining moment in British history. We know that we live in 

an ,,institutionat[y racist" society; the virtues of mutti-cutturatism are under threat. 

What shoutd be the response of Christians and, in particula6 Btack-Majority Churches? 

Mlxed up 

unrilc flE Frlnurnv mlr' 

term school holidaY I took mY five 

year old daughter, Shani, to 

Castle Aquatics on Well Hall Road 

to buy a light for her fish tank. The shop is 

very near Stephen Lawrence's Memorial 

Plaque. I finally decided, goaded by her 

persistent questions after Neville Lawrence 

came to visit us and then seeing him on 

television constantly, that I needed to show 

her the Plaque and explain to her what had 

happened to StePhen. 

The experience was Painful, but 

necessary. How do you explain to a five year 

old that a young man was killed simply 

because he was Black? How do you begin to 

explain what racism is and how it debilitates 

and disadvantages Black and ethnic 

minority people in Britain? . lt was not easy' 

but I had to struggle to articulate the truth I 

knew in ways my five year old daughter 

could understand. She responded with 

sadness and the poignant innocence of her 

age: "Dad, if you know anything about it you 

How do you exPtain to a 

five year otd that a Young 

man was kitted simPtY 

because he was Btack? 

should tell the police. Those boys who killed 

Stephen should be in prison"' Out of the 

mouth of babesl 

ln the wake of the publication of the 

Macpherson Report into the murder of 

Stephen Lawrence the question is: Where 

do wil go from here? 

Three things immediately spring to mind. 

Firstly, we must not despair. We must 

not lose hope in the vision and virtue of a 

multi-racial society in spite of the experience 

of the Black community in its encounter 

with the Criminal Justice system. When you 

see Black people continue to be five times 

more likely than whites to be stopped and 

searched by the police; more likely to be 

charged; more likely to be denied bail; more 

likely to suffer injury and deaths in police 

custody; more likely to be jailed if convicted 

and less likely to be granted parole' it is 

easy to lose hope under the sheer weight of 

rampant discrimi natory practices. 

GOD o 

But we must not succumb to this 

particular temptation known as despair. 

Even against the odds we have to prophetically 

raise our voice, register our protest 

and reassert our Christian commitment to 

the vision and virtue of such a society. 

Christians have an important role to play 

in the construction and maintenance of this 

vision; and the history and institutional 

cohesion of the Black-Majority churches in 

the community place them in a unique 

position to challenge racial and social 

injustice. 

It was the recognition of the important 

role of the Black-Majority churches, 

especially their moral, institutional and 

potential political resource in 

salting and lighting the 

architecture and 

maintenance of a virtuous 

multi-racial society, that the 

Black Christian Civic Forum 

UK was founded. The Forum 

was launched in the House 

of Commons on MondaY 

18th January, Martin Luther 

King Day. lts main aims are to 'promote 

citizenship and pursue justice' by engaging 

the Black-Majority churches, and the wider 

Black Christian constituency, more effectively 

in the social and political process. 

By providing a platform for social action, 

civic participation and political education 

the Forum hopes to engender a new culture 

of Black Christian social and political 

participation and radical commitment to a 

just and socially inclusive vision of modern 

Britain. 

Secondly, the churches must creatively 

and prophetically get more involved in the 

social and political structures of our society' 

This is the old Gospel injunction to be 'Salt 

and Light' and the 'leaven' of transformation. 

As the dominant and most cohesive 

institution in the Black community, the 

Black-Majority churches must take stock of 

its position and priorities. lt must use its 

resources and institutional strength to affect 

change in the wider community. This' of 

movement 6 

It all goes back to a spring evening in 

1993. Late on 22 April an 18-year-old A- 

level student called Stephen Lawrence and 

his fiiend Duwayne Brooks were making 

their way home after spending the day 

together. The boys were ]ushing to catch a 

bus in south-east London - Stephen was 

already late - when they were confronted 

a gang of white youths. the gang set upon 

Stephen, A stunned and helpless Duwayne 

brieflywatched in paralysed silence, before 

he was chased off by one of the white 

youths. Stephen managed to scramble 

as Duwayne urged him to "just run ". But 

he had been beaten badlY and was 

bleeding profusely. He collapsed after 200 

yards in a pool of blood and died. 

Despite receiving numerous tip-offs 

within hours of the murder as to those who 

might have been responsible for the attack' 

officers adopted a lacklustre approach to 

the investigauon. Nobody has since been 

convicted of the murder. 

ln July 1997 the new Home Secretary 

JackStraw had announced therewere 

would be a public inquiry and appointed Sir 

William Macpherson to chair the hearing. 

Evidence from the inquiry kePtthe 

Lawrcnce case in the headlines for much of 

1998. Ihis February the Macpherson repoft 

into the racist m urder of Stephen Lawrence 

has published: it labelled London's police 

force'institutionally racis( and condemned 

offi cers for'fu nd a me ntal e rrorg. 

Tony Blair said: ' lt will ceftainly lead to 

new laws but more than that itwiil bring a 

new eta of race relations," Jack Straw 

welcomed the lon(-awaited findin$s and 

promised sweeping iudicial retorms, most 

crucially extendingthe Race Relations Act 

to cover the police. Most controversially, 

however Metropolitan Police chief Sir Paul 

Condon has denied the claims and refused 

to res,gn. 

Stephen's mother Doreen Lawrence said 

the reportonly 'scratched the sutace. 

Black people are still dying on the streets 

and in the back of police vans. " 

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course, will mean radically rethinking its 

social and political agenda. Speaking at the 

conference organised by BCCF on 20th 

March on 'The Black Christian Response to 

the Macpherson Report' Paul Boateng 

(Minister of State at the Home Office) 

encouraged Christians to seize the moment 

offered by Macpherson to help shape the 

social and political agenda on racialjustice 

and community regeneration. 

Black Christians can no longer politically 

operate in splendid isolation. On the major 

issues of our day the church must rise up 

and be counted. Bishop Desmond Tutu 

reminded us many years ago that silence in 

the face of 'unjust conditions' is 'fatal to the 

Church's witness to the world'. Many second 

and third generation African-Caribbean 

Christians have interpreted this silence as 

biblically unsound and socio-politically 

untenable. Silence on the part of Christians 

is in danger of being interpreted as 

indifference; and indifference will be the 

precursor to viewing the church as 

irrelevant. 

lf the death of Stephen Lawrence, and 

the lnquiry and report arising out of it, truly 

constitute a defining moment in British 

history and racial discourse, I find it 

inconceivable that our churches can 

continue 'business as usual'. Every church 

needs to have a copy of the conclusions and 

recommendations of this important Report; 

every church needs to consider the 

implications for the church and society. 

Thirdly, we need new perspectives, new 

tools, and new narratives of ascent to take 

us into the next millennium. At the 

beginning of this century the renowned 

African-American scholar WEB DuBois 

stated that the problem of the Twentieth 

Century was 'the problem of the colour line'. 

Nearly a hundred after DuBois' observation 

Macpherson reminds us that racism is still a 

problem. And the problem goes far beyond 

the Metropolitan Police as the Report 

acknowledged: "We all agree that 

i nstitutional racism affects the Metropolitan 

Police Service, and the Police Services 

elsewhere. Furthermore our conclusions as 

to Police Seryices should not lead to 

complacency in 

other institutions 

and organisations. 

Collective failure 

is apparent in 

many of them, includin! the Criminal 

Justice systern" (Sect 46.27) 

ln defining'institutional racism' 

Macpherson says it is: "... the collective 

failure of an organisation to provide an 

appropriate and professional service to 

people because of their colour, culture or 

ethnic origin... which amount to 

discrimination through unwittingl prejudice, 

ignorance, thought/essness, and racist 

stereotyping which disadvantage minority 

ethnic people" (Sect.6.34) 

Ail rssrffitlL pART oF fitE roola 

that we need in constructing these new 

perspectives and new narratives will be the 

courage and boldness to define, and 

redefine, ourselves by the best that is in us 

and not by the worst that has happened to 

us. The life and struggles of Equiano (an 

eighteenth century African who was 

kidnapped from West Africa at the tender 

age of ten, sold into slavery and later 

became an author and a leading Abolitionist 

in England) is instructive in this respect. 

Education and greater civic participation will 

help us define and design ways in which we 

want to engender change in ourselves, our 

churches and in our communities. For some 

of us this may mean joining political parties, 

the Metropolitan Police force, the 

magistracy and other sections of the 

Criminal Justice system, standing for local 

elections, becoming school governors, using 

We urgentty need responsibte 

and prophetic citizenship. 

our church halls and premises for 

recreational and educational activities, and 

making more effective use of the pulpit to 

preach and teach about social and racial 

justice. Whatever route we take we do so in 

the knowledge that informed Christian 

intervention and civic participation is both 

urgent and redemptive. ln short, we need an 

insurrection of Christian militancy against 

apathy, indifference and injustice in our 

communities. 

ln Matthew 25 Jesus intimates that one 

does not have to be a Christian to do good 

and care for the stranger, the destitute and 

those on the margins of society. However, 

one's place in the Kingdom is seriously 

called into question if one neglects the 

welfare of one's neighbour. This is the 

challenge for all of us; it is that sacred and 

serious juncture where faith and justice 

meet; where prayer and politics become 

instruments in the removal of barriers to 

equal opportunities for participation in, and 

contributions to, the wider society by Black 

and ethnic minority communities. 

St. Augustine said: "Hope has two 

beautiful daughters. Their names are anger 

and courage; anger at the way things are, 

and courage to see that they do not remain 

the way they are." 

The death of Stephen Lawrence is both 

a mirror and a metaphor of our society and 

some of its institutions. Christians must be 

angry (call it 'righteous indignation' if you 

will) when they see injustice; they must also 

display courage when called upon to 

challenge it. This form of responsible and 

prophetic citizenship is urgently needed, 

allowing us to align ourselves anew with 

Hope's two daughters and advance the 

values of the Kingdom of God as we move 

into the next century. 

R. David Muir is Director of the Black 

Churches Civic Forum. lt is a coalition of 

churches that was set up in February and 

hopes to provide a platform for social 

action, civic participation and political 

education. 

SEEA|SO PAGE 27: lnteview with Simon Hughes, MP: 

The worst moment of his career, which really made him 

sick, was a 'race marcll in his constituency, which nearly 

developed into a local civil war!' 

movement 7

After three years studying theotogy Matt Bullimore has found that liberalism is a 

dead end: a constant discarding of doctrines. He suggests we draw inspiration from 

the history books because being rooted in Tradition doesn't mean going backwards. 

Tradlcallsm 

trli*l*Tfr'*i'*'ffi* 

"What is wanted is a deeply religious liberal 

party... . The great evil is that the liberals 

are deficient in religion, and the religious 

are deficient in liberality". Splendid, I 

thought, that would fit just lovely with what I 

want to write in Movement. l've been a bit 

worried about liberality recently. lt makes a 

change; I used to be worried about nothing 

apart from those who are, indeed, deficient 

in liberality. 

Let me begin with a little story about an 

SCM planning meeting that we had in 

Cambridge. An old SCMer had come along 

and was a little perturbed about the 

argument that broke out about the Trinity, 

its doctrinal history and the consequences 

of getting it 'wrong'. NoW I admit that 

Cambridge SCM is, for better or worse, and 

usually for worse, mostlY made uP of 

theologians, and such arguments are 

common. Yet, the aforementioned gent was 

surprised that as a group we actually 

concurred that God is three in one' "When I 

was at SCM", he cried, "we used to argue 

over whether or not God even existed!"' 

So what? My Point is that SCM is an 

evolving organisation, a Movement (eh, 

Tim?) and that is good. Many of you may 

know the history of SCM, its natal 

involvement in the ecumenical movement' 

I find that Liberatism has 

nothing to dig its heets into. 

I want something with a bit 

more batts than toterance, 

human rigtrts and an 

Entightenment scePticism. 

and its gradual radicalisation in the 1960's 

and, I'm afraid to say, it's gradual decline in 

numbers over the last few years (certainly in 

Cambridge anyway). Our group is now made 

up of about twenty regulars, and a good 

majority of them would claim to be a 

member of a mainstream denomination, I 

would say, and most of them are quite 

devout, serious Christians (l'm going to be 

murdered for this). We see ourselves as a 

liberal group who want to get involved in the 

social and political arenas of life and want 

to Get Something Done. Yet, not many of us 

would want to be outside of our particular 

churches and may even see them as 

particularly helpful starting points' There 

seems to be a turn towards traditional 

religious expression and an adherence to a 

historic tradition. Perhaps a conservative 

turn? Well, I'm in deeP now, so let me 

continue. Traditionalism, Conservatism, 

Dogmatism - they're scary words and I too 

would want to be rid of them. As the quaint 

proverb goes, "Traditionalism is the dead 

faith of the living, so bin it, but Tradition is 

the living faith of the dead, so honour it"' 

So, what am I trYing to saY? I find that 

Liberalism, with what I think of as its kind of 

pick and choose mentality, has nothing to 

dig its heels into. I was pretty darn Liberal a 

couple of years ago, and I jettisoned most of 

the doctrines I'd ever heard of - there was 

nothing safe from my quest for truth - no 

resurrections, miracles, or virgins (?!)' I 

knew best what was 

what more so than 

did 2000 years of 

tradition, thank you 

very much. Lately, 

however, l've wanted 

something with a bit 

more balls than 

tolerance, human 

rights ethics and an 

Enlightenment 

scepticism. I wanted 

something that did 

not refuse the 

religious, or that 

which pertained to God, and was properly 

speaking theologic-al. That is, something 

that actually used words about God, and 

from God. I wanted something a bit bigger' 

and I found revelation. What if I took these 

stories in the Bible seriously? What if I tried 

a bit of faith, and added a dash of humility? 

What if I turn around and say to the secular 

"l refuse you!" and say that pandering to 

society and culture may be bad because 

most of what we live and think is quite often 

defined against the religious aspects of 

historic society. 

I nlxr I nev se llr TnouBLE wtll 

certain words again. l'm not suggesting that 

we read the Bible literally, and I think that 

kind of approach is as Modern as is the way 

that many Biblical scholars ransack the 

texts for history and a little bit of certainty 

about what'really' happened. When I say 

Modern I mean that they have the same 

philosophical womb, being birthed around 

about the sixteenth century. Both 

approaches seem to manifest a scientific 

way of looking at texts - be it through 

historical and critical tools, or through the 

'a + b + c = salvation' mentality. What 

about using (not going backto) the way 

medieval and earlier writers used to read 

the texts allegorically, morally, and hopefully, 

whilst paying attention to the movement 

and integrity of the received story as it is 

found in the text. What context could this 

be done in? I think that we need an 

interpretative community fuelled and guided 

by the Spirit - the Church - to help us get 

beyond individualism in its many guises. I 

don't want to submit to an unhelpful 

ecclesiastical authority, as much as the next 

movement 8

SCMer certainly doesn't want to. And I think 

many of our churches are up the proverbial 

creek without so much as a pulpit to stand 

on (if you may so permit me to mix my 

metaphors). I think that any Church that is 

willing to be part of the history of Christian 

communities, with its failures and 

scruffiness and its glorious moments, would 

be a legitimate reading community. And 

that is not to say that more recently 

established churches can't do that! I think 

that there are resources that we can rescue 

(such as strategies of learning, aspects of 

spirituality, and lessons already learnt as 

history repeats itself again) and there are 

ways of being a community that manifest a 

true difference (in radical antipathy to the 

secular), and ways of simply being Christian 

that we can learn from the past, and apply 

now. 

Take the 'gay issue'. I've been reading 

some Queer theory and trying to find a way 

forward. I think that our churches are 

heterosexist, patriarchal, and generally 

unwilling to listen - playing Tony Blair, 

pimping Family Values, and generally 

compromising themselves for the middle 

class vote. As any other time is as guilty of 

abuses as we are, how does the tradition 

help here? The way is perhaps to ignore 

and forget the authority that society thinks it 

has. Time to leave equal rights (the cry of 

Enlightenment Man) for a minute, and time 

to deny the crippling authority of 

authoritarian churches, and time, I think, to 

be theological and work out where the idea 

that'heterosexuals are best' came from, 

time to ask why we have such an 

essentialised way of thinking about gender, 

and time to read the texts of the Bible and 

our common inheritance for their tales of 

liberation, of hope, of suffering and 

resurrection, and to see that we all dwell in 

Christ, howsoever he constitutes us. For 

example, St Augustine may not be shit hot 

on sex, but read the way he remembers 

himself being constituted, as he is actually 

being re-constituted, in the very act of 

writing his prayer in Ihe Confessions. He 

shows us that we are all ongoing stories 

made and nurtured through the tragedy and 

comedy that makes up our lives, even at 

this moment - only truly made when we 

participate in the life of God. 

Enough already, and maybe so. I hope 

some of you will see where l've been coming 

from, and that some of you will find it 

odious. That's the way we get talking, I 

suppose. I think that a truer religiosity with 

a thinking Iiberalism (small 'l') will perhaps 

join together in rather strange, unexpected 

and traditional ways to forge something 

wholly more radical, something wholly more 

Real. 

Matt Bullimore is a final year student and 

co-leader of Cambridge SCM. 

{ Do you agree? ls liberalism bankrupt? 

How can we "forge something wholly more 

radical, something wholly more Real"? 

Movement would like to hear your opinion. 

The received wisdom is that evangeticals are onty interested in souls, whitst tiberats 

are into social action. But John Bentham argues that 'evangelicats are now 

swinging down from their chandetiers and rolling up their sleeves.' 

Evo-lutfon 

Eilm*tf$**ffi; 

there are still some who find it hard to 

betieve. The jibe that we evangelicals are so 

interested in'souls' that'bodies' don't 

concern us, is an accusation that has had 

truth in it at some times in our history. 

There has been, however, at least 23years 

of gradual change, to the point that even 

charismatic evangelicals are now swinging 

down from their chandeliers and rolling up 

their sleeves. 

A further complication is that the word 

'evangelical' is notoriously difficult to define 

these days. The evangelical movement has 

strengthened ahd broadened, and some of 

us even shy away from the label 

'evangelical' if it holds connotations of belief 

in personal conversion alone. Better 

definitions emphasise rootedness in the 

authority of the scriptures, and if you start 

there like a good evangelical you soon find 

Old Testament prophets who inveighed 

against injustice, and a Jesus who seemed 

to see his ministry in the Nazareth 

Manifesto in terms of the suffering servant 

who proclaimed the equalities of the year of 

Jubilee. 

Early evangelicals such as Shaftesbury 

GOD of 

L( 

and Wilberforce saw no problem in applying 

their faith to the world of political and social 

action. Perhaps their successors in the 

movement retreated into pietism in the face 

of liberal ascendancy in the early part of 

this century, leaving the liberals to be the 

prophetic ones on the issues ofjustice and 

peace? By the 1970's the evangelical 

movement was beginning to recover its 

nerve, and looked outward again. lt has now 

returned to its roots with an increasing 

confidence. 

W: mtoelrcAls AnE iloroRtously 

factional, but the Evangelical Alliance is the 

closest to any sort of umbrella organisation. 

A perusal of IDEA, the EA's newsletter, now 

reveals an organisation which campaigns on 

political issues, and increasingly offers 

support and networking opportunities for 

evangelicals with social consciences. 

Alongside this is the well established TEAR 

Fund, its initials now famous, but gently 

movement 9 

obscuring its identity as The Evangelical 

Alliance Relief Fund. Notable is the 

organisations gradual acceptance of 

developrhent issues as part of its ministry of 

relief - evangelicals have made the 

progression that many have to make - from 

realisation of need, to giving money, to 

asking what long term injustices have 

precipitated that need. There was a time 

when evangelicals suspected the political 

campaigning work of organisations such as 

Christian Aid, but now there is huge and 

widespread support for that work, especially 

the current Jubilee 2000 campaign. 

Yet on the ground have things really 

changed? Would evangelicals still rather 

hand out Happy Meals with a free tract 

hidden inside? I honestly see real change 

accelerating. At the local church level, there 

are many small community-based projects 

with dedicated people beavering away from 

an evangelical conviction. The motivation is 

demonstrating Christ's love for humanity : 

incarnational theology if you like. lf, as a 

result of loving service, people move on in 

their spiritual pilgrimage or end up 

committing themselves to Christ, there is 

much rejoicing, but this is no longer the only 

measure of 'success'. Many of these 

projects are in Urban Priority Areas. My own 

Anglican experience of ministry in such

areas has shown me many a youth project' 

luncheon club, advice centre or homeless 

project founded, funded or run bY 

evangelicals. 

During late 1997 I took sabbatical leave 

from my post as vicar in a Nottingham UPA 

church to look at what I perceived to be the 

growing social conscience of charismatic 

evangelicals. Two particular churches 

caught my attention. The first was lchthus 

Christian Fellowship, stretched across South 

London - led by Roger Forster, and home 

for musician Graham Kendrick. The second 

was Revelation Christian Fellowship on the 

South Coast, led by Roger Ellis, and loosely 

connected to the Pioneer network of Gerald 

Coates. ln both these churches you can see 

a well developed and holistic Christian 

Gospel being both proclaimed and lived. ln 

preaching, worship, newsletters etc there is 

regular appearance of evangelism alongside 

various forms of social action' 

The attempts of both fellowships to be 

'salt and light' in their local communities 

has led to a variety of projects (and failures 

too!) lchthus are involved in, for example, 

nurseries for low-income families, projects 

for the young homeless, and Grandma's, a 

service for children affected by HIV/Aids. 

Notable is their involvement in PECAN' an 

ecumenical project for the long term 

unemployed. Even the local Southwark 

Council recognises its success in reaching 

Theologica 

and training vulnerable and isolated people 

- PECAN have a recruitingforce who visit 

some 20 000 homes in Peckham each year. 

The Guardian ran a double page spread on 

the project, recognising'the scepticism that 

the mixture of evangelical Christianity and 

social action can bring' but also the care not 

to prose,ytise, and the 'biblical sense of selfesteem' 

that was being given to people. 

ln Revelation Christian Fellowship one 

Woutd evangeticats stitt rather 

hand out HaPPY Meals with a 

free tract hidden inside? 

aim is to prevent 

these issues 

being seen as the 

prerogative of 

'The Social 

Activists" Each of 

the fellowship's 

cell groups is encouraged to be involved, 

and has a social action representative. At 

the time that I visited, they were particularly 

working to encourage every member's 

involvement in the local communities where 

they live, in their professional careers, or as 

members of voluntary groups such as 

neighbourhood watch, parents and school 

groups. The making of connections between 

your daily work, your neighbourhood and 

your faith is a long overdue emphasis that 

could not be taken of by many churches. 

Clare Elkington, the co-ordinator of the 

church's communitY develoPment 

programme, holds regular Saturday morning 

gatherings for those involved in various 

The turnin$ point in evan$elical theological circles came during the mid seventies. 

A major internitional conference of evangelicals in 1974 agireed that'evangelism and 

sociepolitical involvement are part of our christian duty'(part of the Lausanne 

Covenant). Some theological wran$lin$ went on for several years, but a new consensus 

emerged. Thls was an aeceptance that serving the world had to be an equal partner in 

missiin with preachlng indivldual conversion. MaJor evangelical figures such as Join 

Stott threw their welght behind this. Evan$elical youth work in the UK also played its 

part in the redlscoveiy of a social conscience, as people wrestled with why lt seemed 

much harder to 'convert' kids from Gouncil estates and the inner cltles' Dear old 

Scripture Union spawned an urban guerrilla wing with a stlong heart for the issues of 

lustice (Frontier Vouth Trust), and the late Jim Punton and Bisttop Davld Sheppard 

influenced a whole generation of evangelicals. Thls fed stron$y lnto the early hlstory of 

the Greenbelt Festival, whose seminar programme soon became the place where 

thlnklng radical evangelicals found a home. 

TwJmajor theological contributions in the past fifteen years have come from 

Graham Criy,tormer Greenbelt chairman and now Principal of Ridley Hall, CambridEle' 

an.d Rogier iorster leader of the lar$e and radical lchthus Christian Fellowship whlch 

stretches across South London. Both provided key inputfrom the UK at internatlonal 

conferences on.charlsmatic renewal and social actlon' Ro$er Forster talks of Words' 

Works and Woniers (delightful triple alliteration!) This emphasises three overlapping 

facets of mission: words is proclaiming the gospel, works is practlcal service - 

incarnational and loving; wonders is recovering a New Testament emphasis on healing' 

signs and wonders. 'lt is unfortunate that at tines in church history these three have 

se-parated and set against one another'. Graham Cray draws togethq two sometlmes 

opposing evangelical uses of the word 'Kin$dom' flom the New Testament, suggesting 

that the Klngdom is a holistic term covering both individual and social transformation' 

There is hardly room to do justice to the internatlonal writlngs by evan$elicals on 

social Justice, but Ronatd Sider ('Rich Chlistians in an AEe of Hunger') and Jim Wallls 

(,The iadical Evangelical' and 'The Soul of Polltics') have made huge contributlons. The 

journal Transformition is well worth a read if you have access to a theolo$cal library; 

and Thirel way is an excellent monthly magazine for any thinking christlan, providing a 

broad-based, open and intellectually stimulating evangelical lesponse to society and 

culture. 

I 

Heroes 

movement 10 

forms of community service, whether parttime, 

paid, or voluntary. So youth workers, 

community volunteers, social workers etc 

who once felt themselves on the fringes of 

the fellowship (often because of working 

patterns) are now affirmed and supported. 

Revelation have a well-develoPed 

'Community Referral Programme', known by 

local agencies as a reference point for all 

sorts of assistance - shopping for the 

housebound, decorating, desperate needs 

for furniture etc. Working with a wider remit 

is CRED, a campaigning group committed to 

education and challenge on the global 

issues of poverty and injustice. 

Txenr AnE FURTHER Slolls llllt 

charismatic evangelicals are beginning to 

take the initiative as social activists. ln 

Nottingham there is a growing social action 

network called Nottingham Community 

Action Network. lts home? The large 

Pentecostal church in town, and their 

community worker. Nationally, Oasis trust 

and its director Steve Chalke are the model 

which many young evangelicals look to for 

imaginative blends of evangelism and social 

action. 

Where evan$elicals are not involved in 

social action - or are involved but still 

hoping that conversions will be the main 

fruit - | think the problem is more to do 

with the middle class captivity of much of 

the church in this country, evangelical or 

not. We're often too comfortable to want to 

get involved in the pain of the world. You 

have to open yourself up to experience the 

suffering of the world before you get fired up 

for this sort of service, and evangelicals 

have not been the only couch potatoes. My 

personal belief is that an openness to learn 

from other parts of the world, especially the 

poorest, and from other spiritual traditions' 

can produce a new conversion in Christians 

from all traditions that could mirror what is 

happening in evangelicalism. 

This is not a success story: perhaps that 

why it is not yet proclaimed loudly by 

evangelical leaders who are usually swift to 

trumpet'success'. lt is a Personal 

observation of change. The next step will be 

to develop a spirituality that resources those 

in the front line of social action, and 

although I see the seeds of that' I think no 

one tradition of spirituality has all the 

answers. ,{O- 

John Bentham is Anglican Chaplain at the 

University of Nottingham, and formally a 

Vicar in Nottingham's inner city' He was 

involved in Greenbelt's seminar programme 

for some years, and now runs the seminar 

programme for the Soul Survivor youth 

festival. 

i

Itw 

HuoH WHrreroRo 

sAPREtOXmOili 

f! rsnouro nave reao rne srgns. 

I I Arriving to survey the debris of a 

friend's broken Big Romance, I 

tripped over the last remnants of a beautiful 

friendship - lying on the bedroom floor was 

- 

a Banana Republic carrier bag containing a 

The present EU arrangement 

gives consumers a choic€, 

in this case between big, 

tasteless, potiticatty-incorrect 

bananas or smatt, sweet, 

right-on bananas. 

Take your pick. 

gorgeous and ever-setrendy cash mere 

sweater. Uncle Sigmund tells me (and for 

once I believe him) that dear departed loverboy 

had probably abandoned it accidentallyon-purpose 

as a deposit, or maybe a relic, in 

his rush for the relational equivalent of the 

emergency exit. 

But I won't delve deeper into the 

complex nuances of sexual etiquette among 

gay men in Manhattan and their 

impenetrable vanities. ln any case, 

cashmere and Banana republics have 

taken{n wider connotations in recent 

weeks. Perhaps I didn't see this particular 

break-up coming, but I certainly 

couldn't have predicted the 

demise of the Special 

Relationship between the 

UK and the USA over 

these same 

unassuming 

commodities - 

bananas and 

cashmere. 

A few years back a 

number of our most 

respected fair trade and international 

development organisations sta rted 

informing us that most of the bananas on 

our supermarket shelves were produced 

under the most appaling conditions, by a 

grossly underpaid and exploited workforce 

suffering dreadful medical side-effects from 

Banana drama 

dangerous pesticides sprayed on the fruit. 

Now, I'm quite partial to mashed banana 

sandwiches, banana muffins,banana milk 

shakes and, best of all, bananas carmelised 

in butter and sugar and served hot with icecream. 

Mmm. So, understandably, I was 

perturbed at the news and very relieved to 

discover that the smaller, sweeter, curvier 

bananas from the Winward lsles were 

produced under slightly less adverse 

conditions which saw a fairer portion of the 

profits returned to the producers 

themselves. Ever since then I have satisfied 

my banana cravings with a cleanish 

conscience. 

But what has all this to do with the 

present secalled 

'banana war'? 

Basically, the 

European Union 

has had its 

fingers rapped 

by the World 

Trade Organisation 

for operating a 

preferential import 

regime for 

bananas from 

certain former 

European colonies 

(presumably in a 

belated attempt 

to atone for 

centuries of colonialism). This means, 

for example, that small independent 

producers in the Winward lsles, 

can compete against the might 

ofthe USowned banana 

corporations of Central 

America who pay their 

workers a pittance 

and cream the 

profits. The 

present 

EU 

arrangement 

gives certain 

producers in'developing' 

countries preferential access to 

European markets, and also gives European 

consumers a choice, in this case between 

big, tasteless, politica I ly-i ncorrect ba nanas 

or small, sweet, right-on bananas. Take your 

pick. 

But according to the WTO, this 

arrangement is illegal; it contravenes the 

sacred mantra of free trade. Europe has 

movement 11 

tried to get round the problem - that, 

incidentally, is what the 'Europe's bent 

bananas'fuss a few years ago was all about 

- but the EU is under increasing pressure 

to comply with international free-trade 

agreements. Following the devastation in 

Central America caused by Hurricane Mitch, 

the US banana companies have seen their 

profits go through the floor and have turned 

up the heat on the WTO and the US 

Government to force a European climbdown. 

Unfortunately, the cashmere producers 

in the Scottish Borders have become 

unlikely and innocent pawns in this 

international wrangle. The US has imposed 

ridiculous tariffs on various European 

products in retaliation for the EU banana 

policy and cashmere is one of 

those prod ucts ta rgeted 

The already fragile 

Borders' textile industry 

will simply not survive 

a long-term 

embargo. .Jobs 

will be lost and 

long-established 

indigenous 

companies 

face ruin. 

What lfail to 

understand 

and refuse to 

accept is why 

the dogma of 

free-trade is 

allowed to 

over-rule all 

other ethical 

and historical 

considerations in 

our contemporary 

economic and 

political climate? 

Surely there is an urgent 

need for an new ethic of 

investment in international 

trade so that cashmere 

producers in the Borders and 

banana producers in St. Lucia alike 

can produce and exchange goods fairly 

without compromising basic health, 

environmental and living standards. ls 

that really too much to demand? 

But back to the Banana Republic bag on 

the bedroom floor. lfailed to warn my pal 

that his romance was heading for the rocks, 

but now I can predict with confidence that 

cashmere - and those wearing it - will be 

out of fashion in New York next year. 

Accordingly, I have advised my friend to 

forge new alliances with those of greater 

political, as well as sartorial, sophistication. 

I am consoling him with the humble but 

astute reflection that in one swift genetic 

modification, bananas could all too easily 

become sour grapes.

tAte-a-t6te 

Dear Martin, 

I hope that You won't 

be offended if, even though I am 

sending this electronicallY to 

you, I adhere to the conventions 

of spelling and grammar. I maY 

1 

seem a bit of a bore because I 

can only see a colon as a 

punctuation mark and not as a 

building block for a (rotated) 

smilingface. Thus, to convey 

meanings and subtleties I will 

resort to that ancient art of 

using words. 

Now, of course the English 

language is dynamic and diverse 

which is good and Proper and it is 

for this reason that this foolish quest 

to be inclusive (i.e. dumbing down) 

must be halted. How is diversity and 

change achieved? lt must be achieved 

by mental and PhYsical struggle, 

experimentation, deep researches and 

the promulgation of ideas. lf that is true 

then surely one must become 

depressed at the state of the nation's 

media. 

YesterdaY a well-known man was 

photographed with a well-known 

woman. This singular event attracted 

the attention of nearly two hundred 

photographers and was the lead 

picture on almost every broadsheet 

and tabloid newspaper' Oh and 

some people met somewhere to 

discuss a place called Kosovo. 

That is far from being the worst 

example. Most things will Pass for 

knowledge. The facts are not so 

important in themselves. Rather the 

importance is attached to the range 

of people who will find the facts 

useful, interesting or amusin€. The 

Reduci ng a probtem down i,""1tffi1,1ilpointineto 

to a coupte of paragraphs i;:i:H?'i:l$";1,"'., 

or a three minute stot does;"J::*:::JJI[:?',1'" 

more harm than good. :i'ffif*ii.ii[;ff;* 

tractable' They deserve and require a small 

potentialreaders/customersTviewers.Myelitetodealwiththematadeepand 

observations Suggest thalthe content will fundamental level. Now, of course the 

gradually become more and more trivial as results may be of concern to a huge number 

special interests are stripfed away. of people and so perhaps you would say 

Correspondingly, expectations-are that this idea of inclusiveness does not 

lowered. The charge ot outnninJOown may forbid the concept of a small number of 

more people in the range, the more 

rJlL .-rttlllll'\,, specialists but 

rather demands 

an opportunity for 

all to enter the 

debate. This is a 

bland enough 

statement with 

which anyone can 

agree. 

What I object to is 

the lack of respect 

paid to the "entrY 

requirements" for 

this participation. 

Reducing the 

problem further 

and further and 

stripping awaY the 

rigour must 

eventually stop. 

I'm sorry but if a 

problem such as 

genetically 

modified food 

requires a basic 

scientific, 

economic and 

political education 

then so be it. lt 

does not helP to 

reduce it to a 

couple of 

paragraphs or a 

three minute slot. 

It does more harm 

than good. lt 

corrupts peoPle's 

intelligence and 

education and 

hinders further 

development. lt is 

the fertile ground 

on which the 

seeds of bigotrY and 

movement 12 

prejudice maY be easilY sown. 

Hard problems require a lot of hard 

thinking and not everyone may be capable 

of it or interested in doing it at a given time 

in a programme schedule. lt may not be 

possible to find a nice simple solution which 

is explained in five words and takes on 

board everybody's bi$ idea. ln a similar 

vein, allow me to announce that the Pope is 

Catholic, bears defecate in the woods and 

that which is dumb will always be dumb. 

[, I,,{,LA

\rt 

.,: ...) 

' l:,f ,l 

. '1. l 

The modern day media is obsessed by celebrities and sound-bites. 

Appearing educated is taboo; 'high-brow' is a minority taste. lf public 

debate is broader than it once was, it is also shallower. So then... 

Does bein{, inclusive mean dumbin$, down? 

Dear Colin, 

Your e-mail is offensive on so 

many different levels that I can only assume 

you shared a dorm with Glenn Hoddle at 

prep school. Discerning the heart of your 

argument was, in itself, no easy task - | 

gather that you are unhappy about the way 

in which you feel our media has lowered the 

quality of pubic debate and thought in our 

nation. However, I am not sure whether your 

argument is with populism or inclusive 

language or just everyone who isn't 

fiendishly clever? 

'lncluding' people in what you do is not 

a new idea. lt is simply good politics and 

good manners. For example, I would no 

sooner use words like 'he' or'man'to refer 

to females in a newspaper article than I 

would use them to a female's face. Using 

language sensitively, with respect for the 

identity and feelings of others, is surely part 

of the kindergarten curriculum. lhave 

always imagined 'exclusive' language is only 

used by people who enjoy ignoring and 

offending people in their daily lives as a 

matter of course. ln other words, 

provocateurs, blinkered trad itionalists a nd 

the sort of rude people who make you feel 

invisible at parties. lf you are happy to 

exclude people living in our society in the 

writing, talking, thinking you do then you 

are, by definition, being not only 

unpleasantly elitist but also 

fundamentally ill-mannered. 

I agree that some parts of the media 

are crass and some media-products are 

low in quality. Personally, I never object 

to a TV programme because it is "trying 

to include too many people". ln fact, the 

opposite is nearly always the case. Highbrow 

TV, jargonised-expert program mes, 

top-down, mono-cultural panel debates - 

now they are annoying. Why? Because 

they exclude too many people and talk 

down to too many people. lt is exclusivity 

in our media that is killing the quality of 

debate and it will be greater inclusivity 

that will save it. 

lf I were you, I'd be more worried 

about being blind than bland. 

Yours, 

Mo4 L 

Dear Martin, 

Your e-mail looks like it may 

indeed be useful in the kindergarten 

curriculum but not much else. I don't quite 

know how the issue of personal pronouns 

appeared. I was more focussed on the use 

of an inferior debate to include more 

people. lf the bees in your bonnet hadn't 

been buzzing so loudly perhaps 

you would have noticed this? 

There is little pleasure to be 

gained in being rude to people 

but equally little to be gained 

by discussing a problem 

inadequately. I reiterate that if 

people are unprepared to make 

the necessary struggle to come 

to grips with a problem (which 

may involve learning technical 

terms and listening to people 

from one culture), then it is 

acceptable to exclude them from a debate 

(or party). 

Strenuous efforts may be made to 

simplify; I am saying that this simplification 

eventually terminates. There is a lowest 

level beyond which the exercise is worthless. 

Here for example. 

Iol ^ 

Dear Colin, 

I'm concerned about who decides 

what is "inferior debate" and who decides 

whether it is "acceptable to exclude [people] 

from a debate". Presumably these are 

decisions made by people lucky enough to 

take part in superior debate. What you term 

"inferior debate" may well be another 

Your e-maiI is so 

offensive that I can on[y 

assume you shared a 

dorm with Gtenn Hoddte 

at prep schoot. 

person's life-changing conversation. Many 

of the most crucial encounters in my life 

have been conducted in clumsy, 

undeveloped language with little or no 

knowledge of "technical terms". Show a bit 

of respect. Just because we operate, think, 

talk in different ways there is no need to 

attach the self-congratulatory label of 

'superior' to your own personal preference. 

Simplicity is beautiful but I can see how 

it might be scary to those whose power-base 

is complexity and intellectualism. I think 

true intelligence is simple. As Keats said, 

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all." 

Pronouns are simply the tip of the iceberg - 

an active, daily symbol of whether someone 

can be bothered to include. I hope this 

message does not fall below your threshold 

of worthiness. 

l"{od' 

Martin Davies is an English teacher based 

in Manchester. He was the editor of 

Movement from issues 8$97: during this 

time it became the accessible magazine it 

is today. 

Colin Mason is doing a Ph.D. in Maths at 

Kings', London. He is frighteningly 

intelligent and endearingly snobby. 

movement 13

,,,\$rtrFp1 

,'|"{..##d 

Ethicat shopping is easier said than done. We have no control over the long line of 

production: can we trust supermarkets ctaims? Miriam Renner visited Thaitand in 

order to investigate how the foods are sourced. 

What's behln 

the label? 

tr*l=tkiliilff$:. 

English and travelling. This time I would be 

collecting data for my Masters' thesis' 

However, the question runningthrough my 

mind was what research subject would keep 

me motivated for two years, but also be 

useful? I had always been interested in 

development, and suddenly I remembered 

my days at Newcastle, visiting the Traidcraft 

shop and Out of This World to buy their fair 

trade goods. What effects does fair trade 

have on the artisans and farmers involved? 

This was a challenging question I had been 

asked by a member of the Third World First 

Group I had helped run, and maybe I could 

try to focus my research on this question. 

Obviously, fair trade groups already assess 

the effects they have on producers, but I 

hoped my research could Provide an 

academic assessment, which is currently 

not readily available. 

Months later, after coursework, 

proposals and my sister's wedding I was on 

a plane, with lots of messy notes, an old 

and heavy laPtoP and a mind full of 

questions. On arrival, Thailand seemed so 

ON THE HOME FRONT... 

The latest from Chtistian Aid's till receipts 

campaign. lt wants supermarkets to adopt codes 

of conduct to guarantee better conditions for 

overseas suppliers: 

"Many supermarkets have ioined the Ethical 

Tradin!, Initiative (Efl), a llK government-backed 

group of businesses, trade unions and 

campaigning organisations set up to find a 

common solution to the problem' At the ETI's 

meeting in December 7998, three supermarkets 

- Sainsbury's, Co'oP 

and Somerfield - 

joined. At a second 

meetinEin FebruarY 

7999, Asda and Tesco 

have signed up." The 

next step is to ensure 

fhat it is independently monitored. 

familiar. All those foods I had missed, some 

of the smells I hadn't, were coming back to 

me, and it was like returning to a second 

home. However, this feeling didn't last long' 

culture shock and loneliness started to 

make me question whether I was doing the 

right thing. But after a phone conversation 

with my Mum - and a sensible perspective 

- as only mothers know how, I was 

persuaded that I had gone too far to turn 

back now. 

So after a week of meeting old friends 

and making new ones in chaotic, congested 

Bangkok, it was time to fly north, to the city 

of Chiang Mai, and then on to Maejo 

University ("the home of cowboys"?!) which 

was to be my base for the next four months. 

My arrival was such a change from 

Bangkok: the flat I would be sharing was 

clean, comfortable and most of all it was 

quiet on campus. 

I was blessed with a wonderful Thai 

supervisor, Varaporn, who had studied for 

her Ph.D. in Canada, and therefore had 

perfect English, and an understanding of 

the Canadian graduate system from which I 

had come. We quickly set about visiting 

possible research sites, and eventually 

decided to compare conventional farmers, 

alternative farmers and mixed farmers (that 

is, those with both conventional and 

alternative plots on their farms). The 

conventional farmers use intensive, modern 

agriculture techniques and sell their 

products through conventional channels, 

while the alternative agriculturalists are 

more organic in their approach and sell their 

products through fair trade means. I hoped 

that by comparing these different 

approaches I would be able to assess the 

effects that fair trade and alternative 

agriculture have on farmers. As I am a 

farmer's daughter, who has gone on to 

study Agricultural Economics, the prospect 

of researching Thai farming (which I had 

never really been possible on my last visit)' 

really appealed to me. 

Fair trade and alternative agriculture 

both aim to help producers to develop 

economically, socially and environmentally. 

movement 14 

So I needed a multi-disciplinary survey to 

see if this was happening. My survey design 

combined development measures, (Gross 

National Product, the Human Development 

lndicator, and quality of life variables - the 

most multi-disciplinary and encompassing 

development measure) with the social 

auditing approach of organisations including 

the New Economics Foundation. Along with 

some open-ended questions to broaden my 

understanding. 

Finally, after numerous survey drafts, 

and a pre-test, data collection in the field 

(literally!) began. The photo (bottom right) 

shows a Thai student, Pok, interviewing a 

farmer with his conventional flower crop 

behind them. These data collecting trips 

were fascinating. And after reading lots 

about fair trade and alternative agriculture it 

was great to finally be talking to people who 

were actually practicing these approaches' 

and others who had chosen the 

conventional path. I always learnt and 

experienced many other things on these 

trips, including the fact that chewing pickled 

tobacco and salt is not advisablel 

After over eighty interviews with farmers, 

and nearly twenty more oPen-ended 

interviews with extension workers, fair trade 

workers, government officials and 

academics, it was time to leave. But not 

without a certain sadness, at the thought of 

leaving behind many friends, the freedom of 

data collection and my favourite Thai 

desserts. 

On thejourney back to Canada, I had a 

stopover in Sofia. The difference between 

this 'second World' country, where the 

question of "How long will we be delayed?" 

was answered sharply with, "l cannot 

release that confidential information". Was 

in such sharp contrast to the technologically 

advanced and customer friendly 'Third 

World' capital of Bangkok, which I had just 

left behind. Then on to England for 

Christmas with my family, where the overindulgence, 

and unfounded moans seemed 

to grate. Finally back in Canada, it was time 

to start analysing my data and writing up my 

thesis.

trade 

Eo wHAT oro I nlo BEHtltD mE 

label? That there is never a black 

and white answer. Partly because 

Thai farms are incredibly complicated; 

what with bartering, subsistence 

consumption of food, employment outside 

of the farm, and the gathering of resources 

from forests around the village (even if they 

are part of a National Park). When I 

incorporated all these sources of income, 

Rural farmers and artisans 

undervatue their labour 

costs. This attitude is a 

resutt of the traditional 

Thai tife that focuses on 

famity, giving and kindness. 

the alternative agriculture and fair trade 

farmers were, on average, economically the 

best off on a farm basis (although they 

relied heavily on off-farm income), but not 

on an area basis, due to their larger farms. 

This finding made me wonder if the growing 

population and increasing land hunger in 

Thailand will result in farms too small to 

allow alternative agriculture to be 

economically viable. 

Although the economic comparisons 

were not completely conclusive, the social 

comparisons were much more so. With 

educational, health and safety benefits for 

farmers practicing alternative methods, and 

receiving support from fair trade groups. 

Conversely, the conventional farmers said 

that the artificial agricultural chemicals they 

used led to anger, bad moods and worry. My 

own observations led me to conclude that 

many farmers didn't know how to use these 

chemicals safely, as some containers didn't 

have any instructions to folloq and even if 

they did, they weren't always followed. 

Environmental benef its also stemmed 

from alternative agriculture and fair trade. 

These included more integrated farming, 

more wildlife, and the use of less chemicals, 

and more alternatives (which included 

sticky, yellow plastic bags, traditional and 

modern herbal concoctions and other 

ingenious approaches - although I did 

wonder about the likely success of some of 

them). I had to assume that these 

alternatives were more 

environmentally friendly 

than artificial chemicals, 

although I could find no 

literature to back this 

assumption. The photo 

behind the headline 

shows an example of 

less integrated conventional 

farming-amonocrop 

of strawberries. The 

comparison between this 

and the diversity of crops 

on alternative plots was 

obvious. 

Although benefits stem from fair trade 

and alternative agriculture, I found a 

number of worrying problems that need to 

be addressed. These included dependency 

resulting from outside financial support. 

One example of outside support is shown in 

the photo below where an alternative 

agriculture and fair trade stall is located in a 

Buddhist temple grounds. Although the 

products sold were supposed to be fairly 

traded, the woman pictured insisted on 

giving me some wild mushrooms. ln her 

opinion, they had been picked from the 

forest, and had therefore not really cost 

anything. (The Thais I were with insisted that 

to be polite I should accept the mushrooms 

free of charge). This was an attitude that I 

found to be common amongst poor, rural 

farmers and artisans, as they not only 

undervalue their labour costs, but also the 

costs they incur in the process of taking 

their produce to market. ln some ways this 

attitude is a result of the rural, traditional 

v A Thai mushroom se//er she felt the wild mushrooms had cost her nothing. 

Thai life that focuses on family, giving, 

kindness and many other attributes that I 

found so appealing. Unfortunately the 

current international trading and business 

system does everything to destroy this way 

of life and the people involved in it, and 

nothing to support such communities and 

attitudes - not only is this true in Thailand, 

sadly it is an international trend. ln the 

research sites this trend is also combined 

with the changes associated with rapid 

modernisation. As farmers are increasingly 

bombarded with advertising for consumer 

products, their patterns of demand and 

consumption change. ln orderto be able to 

fulfil their increasing demands, and the 

increasing costs associated with the 

collapse of the Thai economy in 1997, 

farmers require higher levels of cash 

income. The temptations, and often 

necessity, of high short-term incomes from 

conventional farming remain, even though 

risks are high, and rewards very uncertain. 

Nevertheless, my time in Thailand leads 

me to conclude that alternative agriculture 

and fair trade provides the farmers studied 

with an opportunity to improve their lives. 

And although I now understand the 

complexities surroundi ng these approaches, 

I continue to buy fair trade and alternative 

agriculture products, in the hope and belief, 

that they will be helping small-scale 

producers in some way. And that my 

purchase will be a very small part of the 

growing movement, and demand for 

changes, to overcome the current 

inequalities in the international trading 

conditions. /k 

Miriam Renner is a graduate of Newcastle 

University. She is currently involved in 

researching and writing a report on climatic 

change and the associated socio-economic 

impacts affecting Canadian forests. 

{ For an academic version of this research 

see lipsey.re.ualberta.ca and sp-9&06.pdf. 

Conducting an interview y 

o* '* fb 

lt 

/.r '\ 

? l 

I ,1 

;, t 

;.r'"*iFr* 

movement'15

Irl[,HT:,:f#;iiin^ 

lll H [in'ff ::,: fi : u[" t' :.ff ' 

undresses, wrapping a towel around his 

waist as he passes bY the basket of 

condoms. After several minutes, he makes 

eye contact with a person he would like to 

get to know better. ln private, the new friend 

produces a condom and opens it. "Don't 

bother", says Adam, and the friend, nine 

times out of ten, doesn't bother. 

Adam is a "barebacker", a growing 

subculture among gay men, who have 

chosen to forsake the education and 

popular wisdom of the last fifteen years and 

pursue casual sex without the use of 

condoms. Sound insane? There is more: this 

is not a small number of people, nor is it a 

group who "accidentally" forget to use 

protection on a one-time only basis. This is a 

group who accept the possibility of 

contracting HlV. Some even eroticize the 

idea of contracting HIV the virus that 

causes AIDS. 

I can hear your collective gasp. lt is 

unthinkable that after all we have learned in 

the western world, that the people who are 

most often at risk could consciously choose 

high risk behaviour. There is, however, more 

to this phenomenon than simPle 

abandonment of common sense' or a 

collective death-wish. lf you add up some 

basic facts, it even makes sense: 

. Sexual identity for gay men has always 

been based around what was taboo, and 

forbidden by mainstream culture. The dawn 

of AIDS, ironically, re-focused a spirit of 

compassion and welcome to the queer 

community. Families realised their own 

fragility as children, husbands, wives and 

cousins were forced out of the closet because 

of their diagnosis. The growth of this tragedy 

led to increased spending on research and 

education, and people began to realise that 

anyone could be gay... or have AIDS' 

Risking it all 

r GnnnNo 

. People with AIDS began to organise, both 

from the grass-roots, and from positions of 

power, as celebrities and politicians were 

diagnosed "positive" and the image of AIDS 

began to change. The task was to destigmatize 

the illness, make it 

understandable to the public, and not a 

"curse sent by God" as some ofthe 

fundamentalist churches began to preach. 

And so, the image of normal, healthY 

people, diagnosed HIV+ and living 

productive lives, became the norm. More 

significant, these people experienced "rebirth" 

post-diagnosis, realising their 

mortality and choosing to make every 

second count. The queer community 

experienced a spiritual awakening as their 

number became more and more 

threatened. People with AIDS were no longer 

victims, but heroes. 

. The downside of this? Gay men still grew 

up eroticizing what was taboo, yet come to 

adulthood in a society that accepts only 

"safe" sexual behaviours, and abhors the 

concept of unsafe sex. 

. Add to this the medical developments of 

protease inhibitors and miracle drug 

"cocktails", and AIDS no longer seems to be 

the death sentence it once was. lf anything' 

it seems to be a perfectly manageable 

illness. (The popular media takes no 

responsibility for reporting that, although 

the number of deaths per year is down, the 

number of new diagnoses is on the rise, not 

to mention the huge decimation of people 

in Africa, where AIDS is a major epidemic. 

Doing anything interest 

Have you considered teaching LtryU4 

THE TEACHERS are well supported: Lingua Franca organises a training weekend to meet 

teachers and to offer a crash course in the communicative approach to language learning, 

As well, the success rates of the protease 

inhibitors is largely over-estimated) 

One of the costs involved in the gain of 

acceptance for any minority group, is the 

loss of perspective of being on the outside. 

The internal conflict in these communities 

is: how do we maintain the important 

knowledge gained from being oppressed' 

yet end the pattern of oppression? The 

argument continues today among feminists, 

people of religious and ethnic minorities' 

and certainly, among the queer community. 

There is no debate for me as to whether 

barebacking is acceptable behaviour or not. 

Clearly, for me, it isn't. But it makes me 

aware that the far-reaching results of our 

education efforts, despite the noblest 

intentions, are impossible to determine. lt 

also makes me aware that our efforts to 

educate about sexual health cannot simply 

revolve around an illness, it needs to revolve 

around love of the next generation of 

sexually active men and women. 

His name is Adam. He likes being gay' 

because he is part of the largest cultural 

music scene since disco. He is a circuit 

party boy, and he is prepared for his bi$ 

night, along with thousands of others, who 

will be with him in the giant warehouse: 

he has his Ecstasy, the expensive designer 

drug that will give him several hours of 

euphoria, making him want to dance all 

night, and have really intense sex. His 

inhibitions will completely melt away, as he 

happily strips off his shirt, and lovingly 

touches anyone and everyone around him. 

He has his bottle of water, to prevent 

dehydration from the drug and the dancing. 

He has his glow-stick, his accessory of 

choice. He does not have condoms. Those 

were for kids of the eighties, and this is 

1999. As far as he knows, his night is going 

to go on forever. 

ing this summer? 

frah 

along w1h ideas for managing groups. Lingua Franca provides official invitations for visas and 

usefil teaching books for teachers to devise their own teaching programme; it can also 

provide travel subsidies for those who need financial support' 

c(ansuase 

cou rses? 

Eastern The volunteer teachers choose the dates they are able to travel; 

THE COURSES extend from two to four weeks and are usually tn Europe 

and hel tn the 

of both parties. The teachers are students, 

with a group with a need (learning 

English) ps preparation 

Lingua Franca Puts them in touch 

graduates or others with relevant skills who are interested tn the regr0n, motivated, dynamic 

and good at a managing groups. 

L'tn3ua 

f^nr< 

PO Box 22900,London, 

N1O 1WN, UK 

Tel/fax: +44 (0)181 8833739 

e-mail: linguafranca@ eclipse.co.uk 

t, 

movement 16

Iternatlue 

ut o rl d's 

The weakness of reason 

THE MALEFICENCE of the genetic 

modification of food, plants and crops 

seems well established. That it is driven by 

corporate interest in profit not scientific 

altruism is clear. That the technology has 

not been properly tested and researched for 

its environmental impact is clear. That it will 

not'feed the world' but place even more of 

the world under the control of the 

multinational corporation is clear. 

There has been a call for a moratorium 

on commercial planting of genetically 

modified crops to allow the completion of 

testing to determine whether the technology 

is safe. This is to allow us to make 'rational 

decisions, without hysteria'. But what 

happens when the research disagrees, and 

one group of scientists say it is safe while 

others report dangers? Who are we to 

believe? Some sociologists describe a 'risk 

society' - the growth of human knowledge 

and control over nature means that 

in modern societies we are faced 

with 'manufactured 

uncertainty' rather than 

threats from natural 

disaster 

Bewildered 

by the 

quantity of conflicting i nformation available, 

we are left with the sense that living today is 

full of risk. 

The general issue arising is how are we 

actually to know whether to trust and accept 

genetically modified food? How are we to 

assess the impact of biotechnologf 

Many scientists complain that they are 

misunderstood, that the public lack the 

knowledge to judge their work. I think it is 

not science itself we need to understand, 

but the philosophy and politics of science. 

WILLIAM BLAKE set out the rebellion 

against the "mind forg'd manacles" of 

mechanistic science. His picture of NeMon 

measuring the ratio is a subtle satire. 

Newton is hunched, muscular, intent on the 

pair of dividers measuring the bottom of the 

sea of time and space. lt shows Newton 

confined to this one principle, immersed in 

the dark waters - a symbol of the material 

world - unable to see the glory of the world 

of lmagination. Blake's prophetic visionary 

picture was printed in 1795, in that period 

called the Enlightenment - the birth of the 

scientific paradigm. lt is not, though, simply 

a Romantic reaction to Reason, but a Vision 

from the mystical tradition - of Hermes, the 

Platonists, the Kabbalah and the Druids. 

Scientific method relies on the 

experiment, which takes place in a closed, 

controlled environment - the laboratory. The 

problem is that the world is not actually like 

that, we live in an open field. 

The whole can 

not be 

perceived 

by 

scientific 

methods. 

Those with a 

naive faith in 

Science to know 

and control the 

world 

cannot understand mystics like Blake, for 

whom the world is Vision seen with the 

inner eye of the lmagination. Reality is only 

perceived by the irrationality of intuition. 

A simple principle: we can only see what 

we can look for, only notice what we are 

prepared to notice, only receive what we are 

open to. lrrationality is the awareness of the 

limitations of scientific, rational knowledge. 

Science is not the 'value-free' search for 

knowledge claimed, but the shared 

subjectivity of the scientific community, with 

an agenda dictated by the hunt for a 

research grant. And the result is science 

with specific technological applications 

increasing corporation profits. 

Scientists need to learn the value of 

other ways of looking at the world, and stop 

messing around with what does not belong 

to them. Much of the new physics brought in 

quantum leaps has coincided with the 

perceptions of sages and mystics. By 

learning about nature through mystical 

perception, the intention is not to control 

the forces but to live well within them, in 

balance, and to care for the ecology. More 

irrationality is what we need. To live fully in 

the irrationality of the human condition. To 

realise that Nature always balances - if we 

deplete the resources we depend on, our 

societies will collapse and disappear. 

The debate is about rationality and 

irrationality. About different ways of knowing 

the world. Rather than needing more 

knowledge of the science of genetics and 

the technologies of modification, we need 

more wisdom and spiritual insight. ls 

science really worth the cost - the 

technologies of war, the nuclear disasters, 

the resource stripping, the ecological 

devastation? 

Do we want a world in which the 

resources are controlled by a handful of 

corporations, in which everything is planned, 

controlled and organised rationally, in which 

humans are automatons, Man has 

conquered and subjugated Nature, 

exploiting her resources for his material 

gain? Or do we want a world with an ecology 

of freedom, to tend our gardens and 

manure the earth, to value life and live in 

harmony? 

(IRFAN MERCHANT) 

movement 17

Fa 

Freedom on (the) line 

EAST TIMOR, although not yet a nation, has 

a presence online. Bi$ deal you might say' 

but the fact it has its own domain name (.tp) 

was enough to spark an uglY war in 

cyberspace recently. Having its own domain 

meant East Timor was recognised -by the 

online world at least - as a country in its 

own right, not a part of lndonesia. lt has 

been occupied and brutally repressed by 

neighbouring giant lndonesia, since 1975: 

2OO 000 Timorese, a third of the population' 

have been killed in this time' 

Yet there is hoPe. When lndonesian 

President Suharto fell and the economy 

collapsed, East Timor became an extra 

burden for lndonesia. East Timor faces 

elections in June: indePendence - 

unthinkable five years ago - looks a 

possibility. 

Timorese students and other 

campaigners in lreland have used the 

internet as a base for awareness raising. 

The web site is a useful source of 

information but is nothing much to look at. 

(Although the graffitti-ing kid screensaver is 

quite amusing). The protests and barefaced 

declaration of independence did not go 

unnoticed. Hackers intent on destroying the 

Timorese web-presence caused so much 

trouble that the internet provider closed 

their whole system down - which is a major 

breach of protocol - while they bolstered it. 

The attack was international and coordinated: 

"The perpetrators of this attack 

have not yet been identified, but the 

lndonesian government is known to be be 

extremely antagonistic towards this display 

of vi rtua I soverei gnty," says Con nect-l rela nd. 

Some commentators see this as a sign of 

things to come: another outlet for 

resourceful terrorists. 

ln the early 1990s an international 

solidarity movement for East Timor was 

inspired by John Pilger's television 

documentary'Death of A Nation', and drawn 

together by the internet. Campaigners 

developed fragile links with East Timor - 

notably with Renetil, the student-led resistance 

movement, which has been legal for 

less than a year - and used their influence 

to embarrass the repressive Indonesian 

government and Western government 

(include Britain's, who are complicit by 

supplying arms). For humans rights activists' 

getting information out of East Timor quickly 

is the essence: there could be an arrest one 

night and an international response the next 

morning. lncreased use of faxes and the 

telephone, as well as e-mail, have 

transformed this process. Solidatory can be 

more active and meaningful (and 

immediate) than a feeling of good-will. 

ln physical reality, the officials have 

strict control over who enters and leaves a 

country, and can find out your 'details' and 

motives. ln virtual reality your bags cannot 

be searched and your photographs and 

notes cannot be confiscated. Perhaps soon 

this will be true for the real East Timor. 

The lrish-based top domain for East Timor is 

at www.freedom.tP. 

Have a look at www.pactok.net.au/docs/et 

for a thorough overview of Timorese history. 

It has massive number of links to solidarity 

groups around the world. 

The Association for Progressive Communications 

- www,apc.org - offers a more 

theoretical discussion on the possibilities 

using mass media and the internet for 

NGOs and campaigns. 

The long route 

SIX O'CLOCK on a Saturday evening, I was 

online - and I didn't know the football score 

I wanted. At half-time I had passed a shop 

window: lt was 1-1 between Leicester (my 

team) and Man U (everyone else's). I'd 

missed the wonderful ritual of 'Classified 

Results' on the radio and TV. I was online - 

instant information at my fingertips - and 

finding out what had happened in the 

remaining 45 minutes would be a doddle' 

My homePage offers two instant 

scoreboards: but neither of the links work. 

So I typed 'football results' into an search 

engine; this being AOL it pointed me to 

what the Americans call football, and we 

call a glorifed game of catch. Searching 

British sites only, I reached The Telegraph's 

site which tells me in great detail about the 

previous week's game; they have a page 

dedicated to each club too. ln that cryptic 

high-brow way it says that Leicester have 

"an asthmatic home record" - either we are 

generally fragile or it is a reference to the 

exc'eptionally high number of draws. The 

abundance of fanzines will not be updated 

until the obsessives who maintain these 

things have travelled back from the match. 

lf you felt so inclined you could follow 

cricket ball-by-ball; play fantasy football; 

trawl through sporting archives; join a 

discussion group for traumatised referees 

and umpires. I wanted a fresh football 

result - that's not much to ask. I could have 

phoned a friend. I yearned for Ceefax; it 

suddenly felt very cutting-edge. Or I even 

could have waited a while and bought an 

evening edition of the paper. I found the 

result twenty minutes later' Perhaps the 

reason I'm so bitter is that we got drubbed 

6-2 . 0lM wooDcocK) 

.fi17,a 

movement 18 

^.'K 

'- --+: u-i-+ 

''-r 

':t< 

= 5 

f, 

s 

o 

Soao 

s 

5 

o 

o 

lEo 

(n

I 

,, ', 

"Friends, every day 

do something that 

won't compute." 

Here is poem by contemporary American 

poet Wendell Berry recently used as 

reflection in Glasgow SCM. 

Love the quick profit, the annual raise, 

vacation with pay. Want more 

of everythin€, ready-made. Be afraid 

to know your neighbors and to die. 

And you will have a window in your head. 

Not even your future will be a mystery 

any more.Your mind will be punched in a card 

and shut away in a little drawer. 

Love the world. Work for nothin!,. When 

they want you to buy somethinS, 

they will call you. When they want you 

to die for profit they will let you know. 

So, friends, every day do somethingj 

that won't compute. Love the Lord. 

Take all that you have and be poor. 

Love sorneone who does not deserve it. 

Denounce the government and embrace 

the flag,. Hope to live in that free 

republic for which it stands. 

Give your approval to all you cannot 

understand, Praise ignorance, for what man 

has not encountered he has not destroyed. 

Ask the guestions that have no answers. 

lnvest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. 

Say that your main crop is the forest 

that you did not plant, 

that you will not iive to harvest. 

Say that the leaves are harvested 

when they have rotted into the mold. 

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. 

Put your faith in the two inches of humus 

that will build under fhe trees 

every thousand years. 

Listen to carrion-put your ear 

close, and hear the faint chatterin{, 

of the songs that are to come. 

Expect the end of the world. Lau(,h. 

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful 

though you have considered all the facts. 

So long as women do not $o cheap 

for power, please women more than men, 

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy 

a woman satisfied to bear a child? 

Will this disturb the sleep 

of a.woman near to givin{ birth? 

Go with your love to the fields. 

Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head 

in her lap. Sweai allegiance 

to what is nighest in your thou$hts. 

As soon asthe generals and the politicos 

can predict the motions of your mind, 

lose it. Leave it as a sign 

to mark the false trail, the way 

you didn't Eo. Be like the fox 

who makes more tracks than necessary, 

some in the wrong direction. 

Practice resurrection' 

"Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation 

Front" (from "The CountrY of 

Marriage" (1973)). 

At last the church has found a way to market itself 

effectivety. Atpha is a unprecedented phenomenon - 

but is it a valid way to package the Gospel? 

Tim Woodcock asked five peopte for their opinion. 

The Alpha empire 

Christ shared for you. Would 

you like fries with that?' This is 

trof 

the McDonaldization of religion: a 

powerful market-orientated way to spread 

the gospe/. A recent paper by Pete Ward, a 

lecturer at King's College London and Dr 

Carey's Youth Adviser, suggests thatthe 

ubiquitous Alpha courses show a 

remarkable similarity to McDonald's. 

The comparison is not far-fetched - in 

terms of brand identity and growth rate 

Alpha is a product most corporations would 

be proud of. lt is billed as 'an opportunity to 

explore the meaning of life'. The principle is 

essentia//y one of franchisin{: the 70 week 

course started in 7990 by Holy Trinity 

Brompton has been honed and copyrigihted; 

it has its own range of videos and books 

and advertisements; churches of all 

denominations have a share in it - to use 

the name Alpha they must reproduce the 

course entirely, notjust take the most 

useful elements. ,t is thoroughly businesslike. 

Ward states that "Alpha exhibits a 

predilection for numbers. Alpha measures 

its success and presents itself for approval 

primarily on the basis of numerical 

success." There were four courses in 7997, 

5O0O in 7996 and 70 5O0 in 7998. ln 

Septernber 'the Alpha 

initiative' received 

co n si d e r a b I e atte nti o n : 

there were 7700 

billboard posters and 4.5 

mi Il ion invitations. Ihat's 

anyone's standards. 

Atternpts in the media - notably by 

The lndependent and some elements of the 

church press - to paint Alpha as a cult have 

failed. The evidence is absent, the position 

is untenable: Alpha is not an alternative 

church but a mar4eting tool for existing 

churches. /t has an 

movement 19 

exponential growth rate and an imperialist 

attitude to mission - a phrase that echoes 

through Alpha literature is "effective 

evangelism". 

We spoke to five people who at one 

level or another have been involved with 

Alpha: whatis there under the packating!? 

What does Alpha have to offer? 

Stewart Dennis, a minister in a Baptist 

church in Milton Keynes which will run the 

courses from Autumn, "has reservations" 

but is "happy to work with it." lt speaks to a 

confused post-modern culture in which 

people are searching for meaning: rather 

than a pick-and-mix belief system, Alpha 

offers a structured introduction to 

Christianity. Of course, if it stops there you 

are left with an infantile faith. The answers 

it offers are "too neat: Alpha would be 

better if it was frayed around the edges". 

For Stewart the value of Alpha is "people 

coming to faith and experiencing God's 

grace and love. The space to discuss issues 

is much more important than the teaching". 

Clearly Alpha have done their research: 

it scratches where people are itching, it fills 

'the God-shaped hole', it meets people 

where they are at... (choose your favourite 

cliche). The issues most frequently brought 

"The space to discuss issues 

is much more important 

biebY than the teaching" 

ews 

up in small groups are illuminating (see 

sidebar). Although people are free to bring 

any question to the group, the agenda 

seems somewhat forced: are "sex before 

marriage" and "The New 

Age" really the most 

pressing issues for 

r Jo(anne) Public. These 

' are phrases 

I remarkable for their 

Churchiness. The 

answers are 

prescribed and 

: predetermined. 

Perhaps Alpha is 

merely a gimmick to 

i get people into 

he 

ssaP\ 

'Jightcd 

oha 

htr 

take 

Church and talk at 

them. 

The most 

I 

i 

, evangelicalistic 

, 

Christians tend

nonsense 

to have few friends outside church circles. 

And this undermines the networks needed 

for evangelism. Anthony was involved with a 

on-campus group: "My first impression was' 

that for a movement that was supposed to 

be so strong nationally, nearly everyone 

there was a member of the C.U. I could see 

very few unfamiliar faces which meant that 

they obviously weren't attracting any 'new 

Christians'." This is echoed by Rowan who 

attended, and then coled, an Alpha group 

in London. The church saw it primarily as a 

way of drawing people in from the fringes' 

To help these people getto know each other 

and to spark these discussions on faith is 

inherently good. But it makes Alpha's 

statistics and the claims of church growth 

somewhat dubious. 

"Alpha maY be a good idea," saYs 

Anthony, "but here it became a talking shop 

for people already affirmed in their beliefs' 

in which they were all told that they were 

right." Many others have commented on the 

importance of group dynamics: the selfselecting 

nature of Alpha courses and 

therefore the lack of diversity of opinions. 

lan Stubbs, Adviser in Adult Education with 

the Church of England, claims that Alpha 

"attempts to produce a particular kind of 

believer. I also believe that there are 

situations where the community feeling and 

group pressure engendered by the meals or 

the weekend away can be used 

inappropriately to engender commitment." 

Or, as Anthony recalls the group dynamic 

can be suffocating: "We had a discussion 

over inerrancy, sin and the Holy Spirit' 

Everyone was pushing the same point of 

view. They managed to cap it all off by 

prostletysing for the Jesus Army. I'd have 

probably been more concerned about that if 

they'd actually had some 'new Christians' to 

be influenced by the ProPaganda." 

As a Catholic he felt dismissed as not a 

real Christian. "l left the course with an 

increased belief in a large amount of 

Catholic teachings, a belief that the Bible is 

highly over-rated and that teachers should 

teach not indoctrinate." 

lll1"ff:iiHlffLll'1f;,,"0 

til lffi': rili,.i,'ifi" "l"",ffi ", 

background but has been okaYed bY 

Anglican Bishops, and the Catholic and 

Orthodox Church are happy to use it (if it is 

supplemented by other teaching on the role 

of tradition and the church). lt espouses the 

core doctrines of mainstream Christianity 

but avoids the more problematic ones. 

Stewart Dennis argues, "the emphasis is on 

revelation by God. lt papers over the cracks, 

and doesn't recognise the pluralism within 

the church." lt does a good job of 

introducing people to faith but fails to it 

convey the depth and breadth of 

Christianity. The latter is especially 

irresponsible. 

There are some questions that Alpha 

Key points from Pete Ward's 

McDonaldization thesis 

. Simplification of religion: "Christian 

theotogy is, to say the least, complex and 

varied. Alpha tends to flatten this reality" 

. lt stifles creativi$: bland, conformist 

understanding of the Bible and faith. 

. Religious imperialism: a degree of 

domination and uniform spirituality. Concern 

with efficiency. 

. The illusion of reli$ion: it offers a version of 

Church life that is very different to a regular 

Sunday service . Like Baudrillard's 

simulacrum: "a copy of a copy forwhich 

there is no oriSinal! 

. Convenience food: "McDonaldization is 

designed for individuals on the move who are 

concerned to minimise commitments!' 

Evan(elism is reduced to runningAlpha' 

The seven issues most often 

raised on an AlPha 

course 

. SufferinE 

.The Trini$ 

.other religions 

. Sex before marriage 

. NewA€le 

. Homosexuality 

. Science 

Pete Watd's original afticle was 

published in Anvil, vol.15, no 4. 

It bofiows heavily fron Geoqe Riaels 

The McDonaldization of Society 

(1996). 

deals with better than others, lan Stubbs 

argues, "There are technical questions that 

people have such as 'when were the 

Gospels written?'which can be answered' 

There are other questions which require 

different approaches: for example, in what 

way was Jesus 'raised to life', or'how do we 

speak of God in the present tense?' There 

are other questions however, such as'what 

does salvation mean for me as a factory 

worker'which can only be explored. These 

kinds of questions don't have neat answers 

but involve a reflective dialogue between 

faith and life experience." lan objects that 

within Alpha this is a one-sided dialogue - 

perhaps we should ask more often 'what 

does life have to teach us about faith?' 

To package and present spirituality is 

inherently difficult. lan Stubbs feels that 

Alpha over-simplifies in the attempt to 

communicate the gospel. "There is an 

underlying assumption in Alpha's materials 

that faith is static and constant, and that 

'we' have all the answers to complex 

theological questions. But this will not do' 

Faith, individual as well as corporate, is a 

dynamic and evolving process." To Rowan' 

as a leader the most difficult question he 

came up against was 'How do You feel 

God?' lt was from someone who'd been 

involved in the church for a long time. 

"That's the real issue. Well, how do you 

convey that?" 

Alpha's trump card has to be the mix of 

socialising and the presentations, so 

through friendship and community people 

feel God. Alison Webster, who has been 

involved in many of SCM's recent 

publications, notes: "There is an educational 

methodology which assumes that people 

will want to participate only if they have a 

fun time in the process, so each session is 

buih round the social activity of eating and 

drinking. And the formula, not surprisingly' 

works. The question is, how could the 

mainstream churches have failed to realise 

for so long that people like to have fun?" 

"Alpha have cornered the market in 

producing accessible, easily digestible 

and modern material to teach people the 

socalled 'basics' of Christianity. Liberal 

church people who take issue with Alpha 

moan incessantly about it - but I'm afraid 

this often just comes over as sour grapes. 

Alpha have discovered a winning formula, 

and spread that formula via slick and welF 

resourced marketing, and the liberals can't 

compete." 

Alison goes on to suggest that Alpha can 

flourish in a post-modern context "precisely 

because the content of their courses is 

inseparable from the presentation of it." 

Therefore it is futile to produce 'alternative 

Alphas' which purvey a different content but 

do so without understanding Alpha's 

methodologies (that is say, the fusion of 

socialising and teaching). 

She concludes: "Some of us think that 

the religious quest is about asking 

It does a good job of introducing 

peopte to faith but faits to it convey 

the depth and breadth of Christianity. 

That is irresponsibte. 

questions and constantly changing one's 

mind, rather than having one's questions 

answered. We think that faith is precluded 

by answered questions. The big question is, 

could an Alpha course ever be built on such 

an understanding of religion, and would we 

want it?" And that surely is the question... 

With thanks to Alison Webster, lan Stubbs, 

Rowan James, Stewart Dennis, Anthony 

Worrall. 

movement 20

Malcolm Brown speaks to Simon Hughes, the Lib-Dem MP and a potential 

leadership candidate. How does he combine power with integrity? What politicised 

him and what keeps him going? 

Sfmon says 

ooo 

WOULD HE BE AS HARD TO PII' 

down as he was to track down? 

Would he be another slippery 

politician? 

He immediately set the record straigiht 

on that one. "You prove integrity by 

answering questions directly, by admitting 

your mistakes, by admitting the value of the 

views of others, and by trying not to be 

antipathetic to other people personally." A 

good start: but there's more. "The example 

I always give is our friend Mrs Thatcher. I 

had nothing in common with her really, but I 

always tried to remind myself that she was 

my Christian sister." Funny how that one 

always slipped my mind. 

But what is a Christian doing in politics 

anyway? What kind of faith did he have? 

Were his politics shaped by his faith? What 

about Christians in other parties? People of 

other faiths and no faith? ln other words: 

What motivates you, Simon? 

CHASING SIMON... 

We heard on the grapevine that Slnron Hughes was a bit of an SCM 

fan. When there was enoLtgh money to prodLtce wall planners and the 

/ike Simon Hughes had one up in his office: it rentinded him of why he 

was doing his job. Not bad. The Lib Dent MP for North Southwark and 

Berntondsey. spokesrnan on healtlt, London, rumoured candidate for 

ntayor, spokesnran on Church of En{land affairs (yes, that job does exlst). 

and Millwall supporter. 

Well. nobody's peiecL but lint W. the editor wrote a letter asking for an 

interview anyway. And got a swift and posltive response. "Ace ! " shouted 

Tint. 'lfls on! ' 

To make thlngs snoother sti// Slmon was contlng up to Edinburgh for 

the Lib Dem Party conference. so sonreone in Scotland could do the 

inteNtew. There were three posslb/e interviewers all sufficiently 

tnterested and inspired - but all nightntatishly busy people. Could we get 

one in the riEht place at the rieht tinte? Arranging lt outside London was a 

recipe for chaos. Slmons office couldn't decicle on a day, Saturday tn 

Edinburghwas sr/ggestedand pencilled in. Then out of the blue. 3 days 

before it was to be Friday in a pub in the cen|e of Glasgow. 

So it was a// set up. A differentwriterwas briefed. We could have 30 

rnlnutes but Simon HAD to tet a 2pnt train to Edinburth. He was coming 

front a hospital appointment in G/asg0w No. not to get his tonsl/s 

checked. /t was a hosplta I visit of the kind that Health Spokesnren have 

to do. So. our friend lint Mcl\enzie goes off to do lt. Slrnons 

appoitltment over-runs. He doesnt show; he doesnt dng. The worlcl falls 

apaft and it looks like Movement will have a blank double page-spread 

and a bruised re7utation. 

We later find outthat he arrived at 2.30. So he HAD to get a 2pnt train. 

did he? He humps irtto Janes Naughtle [the Today programnte 

presenterJ tn the pub and stayed and they had a prnt. 

I was practising ny 'Private Eye' interview style, when Tint W. contacted 

nre to stay we had a phone interuiew arranged for the following Friday. 

And it all went sfftoothly. Slnton was gmclori s and generous wi th his tine. 

He seemec/ surprslng/y sirlcerc for a politician. Shure/y shome nrlshtake. 

"International issues 

politicised me," he said. He 

had a rural background, and a 

concern for South Africa and 

Palestine that motivated his 

student politics. He was 

disillusioned with the Labour 

Government of the time, 

under Harold Wilson, so he 

became a Liberal. He moved 

to London, became a barrister 

with an interest in human 

rights and youth crime, and 

his political agenda grew to 

involve urban issues, poor 

housing, and community 

involvement. Domestic 

justice was an extension of 

international justice. 

"l was brought up in a conventional 

Christian family, and came to a decision to 

confirm my faith. lt was dimmed and 

strengthened, but never 

fundamentally shaken. 

Even things like 

bereavement, in my 

family, strengthened 

our faith. I get angry 

and frustrated about 

denominationalism and 

the lack of ecumenism, 

and I get angry that I 

am the MP for lots of 

Roman Catholics and I 

can't take communion 

with them. lt 

undermines the case 

for the Christian faith." 

"l seek spiritual 

guidance for important 

decisions. A recent 

example was my 

decision not to stand 

for Mayor of London 

which was arrived at as 

much through prayer as 

through discussion." I 

was going to ask about 

that, but he answered 

before I had the chance. 

He told me later that Ken 

Livingstone should be 

allowed to stand, though 

obviously he would 

support his own party's 

candidate. He agreed 

that parachuting Mo 

movement 91 

Mowlam in to stop Ken, as 

Tony Blair seems hell-bent 

on doing, was probably not a 

good idea. Bringing peace to 

Northern lreland and sorting 

out the tube are very 

different prospects. The 

Mayor of London will be a 

new and promnient role in 

British politics: it sounds a 

nightmarish ly broad job. 

When he talks about his 

faith, it sometimes comes 

across as a very simple, 

traditional piety, with any of 

the positive or negative 

connotations that may carry. 

But not always. His faith and 

his job sometimes comes 

together, in ways that the rest of us will 

never experience. As Lib Dem spokesman 

on Church of England matters, he 

campaigns for disestablishment. "We have 

a nonsense that we have an established 

church, fully in England, half-established in 

I get angry that I 

am the MP for lots 

of Roman Cathotics 

and I can't take 

communion with them. 

It undermines the 

case for the 

Christian faith. 

MP for North Southwark and 

Bermondsey; Lib-Dem spokesman 

on London and health. 

Scotland, and no established church in 

Wales or lreland. Unfortunately, someone 

has to deal with Church of England 

business, and that person has to be an 

Anglican." Hard luck Simon. "But it has 

allowed me to do some useful things, like 

speak out strongly in favour of the 

ordination of women in the Church of 

England." There's only one Simon Hughes, 

one Si-mon Hu-ghes. 

He was glad that there were Christians 

in all the British political parties. 

I 

ln 

continental Europe, there has been a

tendency for Christians to belong to rightwing'Christian 

Democratic' parties, and for 

others to belong to socialist or left-wing 

parties. "This is a great failure of 

continental politics," he argues. lt is similar 

to America where it is difficult to distance 

yourself from one party without aligning 

yourself with the other. Still, people in 

Britain often have a political background 

like they have a denominational 

background. They grow into a political 

tradition, so why would they want to 

change? 

Simon tells me that he has disagreements 

with Tories and Labour PartY 

members, but they can still be friends and 

find a lot in common. His responsibility for 

a Christian outreach in Parliament is seen 

as a quiet support system. "lt gives the 

electorate encouragement to know that 

there are some people who have certain 

principles and who seek to abide by them. I 

judge my gospel to be a gospel forjustice 

and social reform, but others think 

Christianity is about personalfaith and 

personal salvation." 

But what about people of others faiths, 

or of no faith at all? "My relationship with 

people of other faiths is normallY 

strengthened by the fact that I have a faith." 

A common belief in a creator God makes it 

easier to discuss with people of other faiths, 

share with them, learn from them, support 

them, work with them, and challenge them. 

This is important in his part of London. 

He lives four miles from where Stephen 

Lawrence was killed, and racism is a big 

issue in his constituency, which has an 

important community of Bangladeshi origin. 

There is a history of poor policing and 

racism in the area. "Where crime and 

racism combine you get really bad 

situation." The worst moment of his career, 

which really made him sick, was a 'race 

march' in his constituency, which nearly 

developed into a local civil war. He believed 

that things were improving, and the Stephen 

Lawrence report was putting pressure on 

those who could do something. 

What could he tell us, from his 

experience as an MP for an area where 

racism is such a prominent issue. What 

advice could he give to people elsewhere? 

Some of his answers were the 'topdown' 

ideas which are important to a 

politician: a housing policy which 

strengthens comnlunity rather than 

undermining it; more resources for the 

police; an attempt to recruit graduates, 

especially Black and Asian graduates, to the 

police and other public services. And 

policies which minimise the abuse of 

alcohol, drugs and weapons, "because they 

allow people to turn fairly quiet minimalist 

racism into something extremely vicious and 

violent"; and we need to deal with racism 

at football grounds. That's not a million 

miles away from my experience in Glasgow. 

He had more 'bottom-up' ideas as well, 

which are relevant to those of us who want 

to do something about racism from a grassroots 

level. "We are all potentially racist, 

and we all have to guard against it, and we 

all have to have check mechanisms, namely 

other people's perceptions of us, as a help 

and as a correction. You have to accept the 

view of the person who says that there is 

racism, even if that is not a view which you 

accept yourself. You have to put yourself in 

the place of the person who tells you that 

they feel they're the victim of racism, and 

start from the assumption that they're 

right." 

Sruox Huones ls A PollrtctAlr so 

I suppose he is in the game of chasing after 

power. He may stand for Lib Dem leader, or 

he may stand for Mayor of London in four 

years time. But he hopes for a chance to do 

something abroad, working for the Third 

World and for international justice. He is a 

politician with a motivation to get things 

done, and make the world a better place. 

Sometimes he sounds idealistic, but an 

ideal, for him, is something to achieve, and 

he'll work out how to achieve it. 

Some sociologists, such as Castells and 

Bauman, have suggested that power has 

been removed politics. Can a politician 

movement 22 

achieve anything in the age of global 

communication? "You can educate the 

community at home. You can adopt certain 

projects, and my position as an MP can 

help. I have tried to do something in Sri 

Lanka, where a lot of people have been 

killed. I was in Cyprus, trying to bring the 

warring factions together. I try to solve the 

problem of Gibraltar." 

And what about the rest of us? Can we 

do anything? 

"l think there is a lot of encouragement 

in the world. lncreasing democracy in 

Africa, increasing democracy in South 

America, increasing democracy even in 

South Asia, and the sheer support and 

solidarity with people from elsewhere is very 

rewarding and extremely worthwhile. You 

can win battles, and change hearts and 

change minds and - in a world of global 

communication - fdo that] more effectively 

than ever." 

Shurely no mishtake, Shlmon 

t1'1- 

Malcolm Brown has just completed his PhD 

in Sociolo4y at Glas$ow University. lt 

examines Muslim communities in Britain 

and France.

I ,l 

A comedy about the Hotocaust? That's right. Marie Kerrigan on one of the most 

audacious and beautifut fitms ever made. 

Wry vfta 

La Vita e Bella (PG) 

(Life is Beautiful - subtitled) 

written and dirested by Robefto Benigni 

A FILM based on a concentration 

camp doesdt seem likely materialfor 

a comedy. But in the hands of its star, 

writer and director Roberto Benigni 

whatyou tet is a whimsicalfable which 

provides the audience with food for 

the soul withoutthe Hollywood hype. 

Set in luscany th is 1scar-winninE 

f/m focuses on the escapades of 

Jewish waiter Guido jrifice. After 

successfu//y woo ing local schoolteacher, 

Dora, with his Chaplinesque 

antics, he narries her and they have a 

son, Joshua, This is where the main 

narrative betins. Their happy family 

life is marred by the onset of hsclsm 

and eventually disrupted when Guido 

and hls son are taken to a 

concentration camp. Dora voluntarily 

joins them and is taken to the 

womerls sectlon of the camp.There 

Guido attempts to protect hls son 

from the atrocities of the camp by 

makinE a game out of their 

experiences. [Points are awarded for 

obeyint the soldiers; and hidin!, away 

allday.l 

The sympathetic poftrayals of the 

three leads make them thoroughly 

engaging in this mythical tale. 

Nicoletta Braschi, as Dora, brin$s a 

human elementto her role as the 

middle class princess who isr/t as 

much rescued by the prince as by the 

court jester. Roberto Benigni's 

portrayal of Guido is more than an 

imitation of Charlie Chaplin, to 

consider it merely as such is to deny 

the sincerity and dchness he brints to 

his character. This can be seen in hls 

relationship wrth his son, the urchinlike 

Joshua. Giorgi Cantarni's 

endearing pertornance makes the 

preservation of his charactels 

innocence of paramount importance. 

/t has been described by one 

crltlc as "Carry 0n meets Schlnd/e/s 

List". lwould disagree, arguingthat it 

lacks the crudity of Carry 0n films, 

apaft from the fact it would be 

insensitiye treatment of what was a 

horrific ordealfor millions of people. 

The film never forgets - or allows the 

audience to forget - the atrocities that 

occurred but rather offers a fresh 

vision on familiar scenes of emaciated 

figures. A poiEnant example is when 

Guido, having snuck hls son Joshua 

into a German officels dinner pafty, 

whilst returning to his cabin with 

loshua asleep on his back /oses hls 

sense of dlrectlon in the fot and 

comes face to face with a mountain of 

human bodies. lt is the frightening 

prospect of Joshua's innocence bein! 

corrupted that reminds us of the 

emotional destruction caused by the 

holocaust. 

Life ls Beautiful dernonstrates an 

understanding and an appreciation of 

the value of hope. /t ls seen as the 

lifeblood of love and appears to be 

more than that: the f/m suggests it ls 

nof only necessa ry for survival but 

also acts to preseve the future. This 

can be seen in the faces of the family 

who retain a healthy appearance 

ag,ainst a backdrop of greyingfaces. 

There is a current trend of 

'revisioning' war, in particular the 

Second World War, with f/ms such as 

Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red 

Line. Life ls Beautiful can be seen as 

part of that trend and while it offers no 

Hollywood style hero or big action 

sequences it suggests that out of the 

direst of circumstances past or 

present hope springs eternal. 

Marie Kerrigan studies film at 

Glamorgan Universig, 

X men 

American History X (18) 

written by David McKenna 

directed by Tony Kaye 

AMERICAN History X isilt the most 

beautifully crafted ftlm lle ever seen, 

but its certainly amongst the mosf 

powerful. ln outline, it concerns two 

brothers, Derekand Danny. Derek, 

the elder, ls a white suprernaclst 

imprisoned for the murder of Nvo 

black gant members. With Derek in 

prison, the impressionable Danny is 

seduced by the supremacistvision of 

Derek's skinhead ganE. To the neo' 

fasclst skinheads, the imPrisoned 

Derek is a hero, To the black gangs, 

hds an objectfor hatred, and his 

impendint release from Prison 

presents an opportuniy for revenge. 

But DereKs prison career as a 

member of the white minority has had 

a I ife-shatte ring impact on hi m, an d 

he emerges from prison determined to 

rescue hls brother from hatred, and 

his family from the cycle of violence. 

Part of this film's extraordinarily 

Provocative power comes from the 

fact that the enormous lssues 

involved are faced by decidedly 

ordinary people. Derek is an 

impresslve fiture and his 

redemption is inspiring, but he 

is not superhuman. Ihis ls 

illustrated well in one brief 

momentwhen he curses himse/f 

for stooping to the violence of 

his former shinhead associates. 

Ihepastis a messy country not 

easily escaped. ln facing up to 

it, Derek must deal with the 

utllness lnside as well as out, 

without running away. In this, 

American HlstoryXstrlkes me as 

more profound than, say, The 

S h aw sha n k Red e m pti on. Attractive 

as thatfilm ls, lts redempfion comes 

finally through escapism and revenge. 

The central character in American 

History Xtakes on the much harder 

task of returning to the battleground 

as an agent of peace. ln this, not only 

Derek, but an array of other characters 

- Dannfs school Principal, DereKs 

laundry associate in prison, DereKs 

slster - are ordinary heroes who stand 

in the breach and take the terrifying 

consequences. Atone point, the 

Principal requests Derek to act as 

mediator in a seemin9ly intractable 

sltuatlon. Derek, incredulous, asks; 

"Do you know what yotre asking me 

todo?" The answerrs simple:"Everything 

tharc within your power to do!' 

Ihis is not an easy film. There are 

moments of uncompromisint 

violence. Some plot developrnents 

are a little forced; the reasons for 

Derek's transformation inside prison 

do not quite convince. But it remains 

vital viewint because of its portrayal 

of the trim sacrifices which line the 

path to peace. 

(TlM MCKENZTE) 

movement 93

Rosie Miles assesses Germaine Greer's eagerty-anticipated book on feminism and 

womanhood in the last thirty years. The backdrop now inctudes butimia, 

transsexuatity and, of course, the Spice Girls... 

The changing face of feminism 

Tue WHou WoNnru 

by Germaine Greer (Doubleday) 

the publication ofThe 

Female Eunuch, one of 

the seminal texts of 

second-wave feminism, Germaine 

Greer is back with "the book I said I 

would never write". The Whole 

Woman is Greels sequeltoThe 

Female Eunuch, assessing the 

position of women now from her 

vantage point of being one of the 

foremost feminist w riters and thinkers 

of nearly a third of this century. Greer 

opens the book by sayin! "ln the last 

thirty yearswomen have come a long, 

lonEway; our lives are nobler and 

richer than they were, buttheY are 

also fiendishly difficult". Right from 

the sta,t she is a/so quick to highlight 

some of the problems thattodals 

women seen to have which did not 

affect their mothert generation: 

'When The Female Eunuch was written 

our dauthters were not starYing or 

cuttingthemselves. 0n every side 

speechless women endure endless 

hardship, grief and Pain, in a world 

system that creates bllllons oflosers 

for every handful of winners". Greer 

concludes her opening' Recantatiol 

by declarint that "lb time t0 get angry 

aEain". 

The Whole Woman is indeed an 

angry, passionate, committed book, 

Eiving ample evidence that although 

women may have achieved a sPurious 

equality with men in some areas, they 

havedt really achieved something 

which could be called liberation. 

Many readingthis review are probably 

youngenough to be Greels 

dauEhters, if not her trand'dauthters. 

l'm slithtly older, but nonethe/ess pad 

of a teneration of women who can 

take for granted much that our 

mothers couldrlt. Greer nonetheless 

has much to say that is relevant to us. 

The book is divided into 32 chapters, 

organized under broader headings of 

' bodf,' mind',' lovd a nd' Powel, and 

after readingthis boo4 no one can 

think that we now live in some playful, 

postmod ern moment as far as the 

need for feminism is concerned. 

lJndoubtedly we now live with a 

greater awareness of the cornplexities 

of womefs lives and idenilties, and 

we are far more conscious of 

differences beween women which 

need to be noted, but Greels 

assessment of the situation of women 

today makes clear that women of 

whatever race, c/ass or sexuality are 

still frequently discri minated against 

first and foremost becaus e of their 

fender. Perhaps discriminailon has 

become more subtle and sophisticated 

ln dlsgulslnf, itse/f but nevedheless it 

is still very much with us. 

The Whole Woman is not a 

particularly comfortable read. The 

early chapters focus on how womeds 

bodies are still being perceived and 

manipulated, and Greer has searchin! 

questions to ask about the prevailinE 

models of beauty and femininity that 

are sti/l so dominant in our white 

western culture, and the imPlicit 

disgust that these attitudes present 

towards the real bodies ofwomen. 

She wrltes of young womeis 

problematic relationship to their 

bodies as witnessed through the 

phenomena of anorexia, bulimia and 

self-mutilation as "fhe protest of the 

powerless". ln a culture that is all too 

keen to reduce youngwomen to their 

(sexualized) bodies alone "it is 

inevitable that their impotent rage be 

turned againstthose bodies, which 

they are wilfully destroying, even as 

they are most admired". 

Mon: corrnoYERstALLYt 

Greer questions the right of nale-tofemale 

transsexuals to appropriate 

the label 'womai as their own (in a 

ch a pte r m ocki n gly e ntitled 

'Pantomime Damet), and PerhaPs 

most problematically wonders 

whetherwe have the rithtto 

denounce the practice of Female 

Genital Mutilation in African countries 

because of the cultural value it has in 

them. The Whole Woman resonates 

with the cumulative weitht of 

example after example of the waYs in 

which cosmetic,scientil?c, medical 

and surgical procedures invade, alter 

and aftempt to control the female 

body. ln the final chapter, 'Liberatiorl, 

Greer writes, The persona/ ls stll/ 

political. The millennial feminist has 

to be aware that oppresslon exerts 

itself in and through her most intimate 

rel atio nshi ps, betinnint w ith the most 

intimate, her relationship with her 

body". 

Other topics considered bY Greer 

i n cl u d e' ho usewo rK,'shoP P in g', 

'sorroul,'si ngld,' masculinitl and 

(perhaps inevitably)' girlpowel, to 

name only a few. Greels concerns 

about girlpower of the SPice Girls 

variety is how it is part of a mediamade 

"propatanda machine, aimed 

at our daughters [which] is more 

powertd than any form of 

indoctrination that has ever existed 

before". Looking at my 9-year'old 

niece, who adores the SPice Gils (or 

did, until All Saints came along), I do 

wonder what Scary, Sporty, Posh, 

Ginger and Baby have done for her 

sense ofherse/f as a Eirl, as a growinE 

young woman. MaYbe theYlre done 

more than we know - it remains to be 

seen. 

What does this boo| have to offer 

thinkinf Christians? Lots. Feminism 

has always hadlustice as central to 

its agenda, andThe Whole Woman 

has as much commitmentto the need 

for thints to be befterforwomen, 

whoever and wherever they are. Greer 

ends the book by suggestingthat 

female power is perhaps most goinE 

to be found in the Placeswhite 

western feminists expect it to be. As 

many Christian troups have taken up 

the cancellation ofThird World debt 

as a millennial issue, l'll l?nish thts 

review with Greels concluding words: 

"Female power will rush uPon us ' 

anwhere the famished labourer sees 

luxury foods for the western market 

Erown on the land which used to 

provide for her and her children. And 

the women of the rich world had 

better hope thatwhen female energy 

i*nites they do notfind themselves on 

the wrongside". 

Rosie Miles teaches courses on 

women's writing and feminist theory 

in Wolverhampton. 

movement 24

'.{ijiffiE 

Wates is the new Manchester, apparently. Catatonia... Stereophonics... The Manics. Have 

the Manic Street Preachers managed to go mainstream and keep their integrity in tact? 

Do their redemption songs stitt ring true? Craig Cooling think so. 

"THts ls My Tnurx Te[ Me YouRs" 

Manic Street Preachers 

This 

te11 

a 

rs my 

Wales, ) 

meyours... 

k!#"T#;TffA:"* 

l5I 

I 

EverythingMustco 

catapuited i.ne Manics 

into the annals of rock history. ltwas 

a blend of brilliance that 

encompassed the c/ass critique of 

Design For Life to the unabashed 

heady Everything Must Go. Livint as 

they do now in a post Richie Edwards 

- world the respectthey command is 

unneruing and their most recent Brit- 

Awarded album This Is My Truth Tell 

Me Yours does not disappoint. But 

what is the nature of their appeal? 

They deal in the beautiful, the bold 

and the bitter, their home being 

somewhere in between. Songs that 

engage with the disafected, songs 

that remove us from ourselves and 

s0ngs thafgive us hope. Redemption 

from blandness and apathy, from 

i{nominy and from politics that don't 

connectwith the people it is 

You get the feeting that 

the Manics and their 

sumptuous redemption 

songs are going to be 

around for a white yet. 

supposed to be about. Their Welsh 

heritage is the manna that has fed 

th e i r p ro Iifr c creativity. 

. ln their latest release we see no 

movementfrom some of the themes 

of their previous qJbums; desperation, 

a need to escape from ourse/ves, 

social justice and daring to be bold. 

However while Generation lerorists 

and The Holy Bible were confined to 

the paths of a cultistfollowing, 

EverythingMust Go (as its tit/e 

suggests) becarne a sacrifice to both 

theirhnt hero Richie and their indie 

following - they became estab/ished 

in the British rock hierarchy' This Is My 

TruthTell Me Yours despife lt's post 

modern title Preaches 

their new 

gospel. With two Brit awards and 

bein! established as the 'Q Best Band 

in the World Todal their rnessage 

(and foilowing) has become 

co nfo rm i st a nd m a i n strea m. 

ln many ways the music of the 

Manics - lames Dean Bradfield 

(vocals, guita\ Nicky Wire (bass) and 

Sean Moore (drums) insprres, 

preaches and laments. 

A Design For Life, a beautiful 

commentary on class and what it 

means to be worung-class (with 

words almost exclusively by Nicky 

Wire since Richie disappeared), dealt 

with one of the main threads of the 

Manicg writing: socialjustice and the 

need for /essons to be learnt. This 

theme is continued in fhis ls My Truth 

Tell Me Yours. ln 'lf You Tolerate This 

Your Children Will Be Next they 

comment on apathy and the evils that 

it brings. Together with veiled 

references to the Spanlsh CivilWar "if 

I can shoot rabbits tnen / can shoot 

lbsclsts " and ,'l've walked La 

Ramblas/ but notwith real intent" , 

lamenting the need for the present 

world to /earn its lessons from history. 

AIso in fou're Tender and You're Tired' 

Wire comments on how those in 

society are preyed upon because of 

theirvulnerability. ln a New Labour 

soclety that saw it frt to introduce 

tuition fees, and with a social outlook 

that doesn't include yount people in 

a minimum wage and excludes slngle 

mothers, itisn'thard to reallse the 

relevance of the songs to their 

audience. 

Arso l iltEnE nilr HAs 

been prevalent in the history of the 

Manics has been desperation and the 

need for people to escape from 

themse/yes. 1ne only has to think of 

the escaplst Australid or'Kevin Cartel 

in Everything Must Go. Agaln this 

shines throu(,h in antelically beautiful 

yet (inevitably) tratic visions in lhls /s 

My Truth Tell Me Yours. In The 

Everlastint'we have the "world is full 

of refutees they're just like you and 

me. " And in the gorgeous song'Born 

A Git' in which the narrator yearns to 

be notwhathe is. He wlshes he'd 

" been born a girl instead of what I am 

... not this mess of a man" and yet in 

desperation cornes so/ace as we 

treasure and feed the hopes thatwe 

fear " l've loved the freedom of being 

inside." Wire's lyrics bruise and 

inspire, leaving us drunk on emotion 

and empathy yet not quite certain that 

we enjoyed it. )ne only has to look at 

the Richie-dedicated' Nobody Loved 

Yod: its chorus ironically hithli(hts 

the evil hand that feeds us " nobody 

loved you - nobody made you so 

alone" when precise/y the opposlte 

was the truth. 

And yet they dare to be bold. The 

song'Everything Must Gd left us 

feeling dazed and confused, the 

boldness of 'Be Natural' in their /atest 

release cal/s us to treasure happiness 

and live in the present. Simplicity 

itself it would seem - and yet the song 

musically has an uncomfortable feel 

again: unnerving us, not /etting us feel 

secure. /n You Sto/e lhe Sun From My 

Heart the victim of the song doesn't 

care about how badly he is treated by 

the thief, "there's no - no real truce/ 

with my fury you don't have to believe 

me/ I love you allthe same/ Butyou 

stole the sun from my heaft" . They 

deal with desperation and Doldness 

as double-edted swords. Desperation 

is treasured by the desperate and 

bo/dness is an admirable yet 

u n co mfo rta b I e fe eli n t. 

As I write this a Labour Chancellor 

has just cut income tax by a penny, 

when teachers are underpaid and 

schools u nd er-resou rced, hospita/s 

are overwor4ed and nurses are told 

that pay is irrelevant because of the 

satisfaction they receive from their 

lobs. Ihis coupled with Sony being 

poised to pull out of Wales leadint to 

a threat of 4 500 jobs goingfrom the 

valleys, you Eet the feeling that the 

Manics and their sumptuous 

redemption songs are goin{to be 

around for a while yet. 

Craig Cooling is SCM'S Groups 

Worker. 

movement 25

,l 

-1, 

Tur Rono to rte StRns: 

A EunopEnn PtleRtuncr 

byTom Davies (SPCK) 

T)M DAVIES' book balances between 

places, peoPle (and accomPanYing 

animals) met on the road, with a clear 

insight into the spiritual. lt is clear 

from the outset that Pilgrimage is as 

much about the iourneY as the 

arrival. The 

journey 

taken is not 

only physical, 

but one of 

healinE; a 

journey to the 

heaft of God, a 

journey to 

oneself, and the 

humbling 

realisation that we 

are only a small 

ftsh in a diverse 

ocean. Colourful 

descriptions point 

out gently but 

unarEuably that God 

can be found in the 

most unusua/ p/aces 

from the splendid to the supposedly 

mundane, if onlY we stoq and look' 

(FD) 

Journeying faith 

A Sronv To Ltvs Bv 

by Kathy Galloway (SPCK) 

MTHY GALL)WAY sPeaks as 

someone who is often "not at ease 

with the Church, at least in its 

institutio nal expression". She speaks 

as "the woman who bore her children, 

who learned to love solitude", 

and most intriguint of all, 

"who is preoccuPied with 

laundry". lt is her hoPe in 

writingthis book 

"might 

encouraEe people to think about their 

own stories". To helP us ln this task 

she enlists poets galore. ln the first 

chapter alone, for examPle, we find 

Walt W hitman, Geor$e M acLeod, Al ice 

Walker, Kenneth White and Tom 

Leonard. She is a/so not averse to 

using poetry of her own, either. 

'We take care of what we value" ' 

Ihis theme is reiterated: the word 

tare is occasio nally defined, and 

once in a Christolofical sense; 'Jesus 

was an enthusiast... in our different 

ways, as followers of Jesus, we are 

enthusiasts. We have been possessed 

by God, filled with care!' And this gift 

of enthusiasm is reciProcal: "From 

you I receive, to You I Eive; 

together we learn, and so we 

livel' 

Chapterfive,'Whal.s lt 

Worth? A 0uestion of Values", 

should be compulsorv readingfor 

all theology students. Galloway is 

eminently quotable. "At what point 

does a personal moralitY become a 

political one?", for examPle, "1ne 

battered woman maY be Personal, 

domestlc. What about two, ten, a 

hundred, a thousand? Wharc the cut 

off point between a personal tragedy 

and a social disease?" . Or "we maY 

do all the right kind of PraYinE. We 

may never sleep with the wron+ 

people. But we cannot guarantee that 

'the beating of our hearts kills no ond" 

(the /ast part is from Alice Walkels 

stunning poem "Love /s Not 

Concerned"). 

I found it hard keePingtrack of 

where I was with someone who flits 

wildly but it is worth persevering, for 

there is plenty of material thatwill 

provoke you. Women in Cambodia 

"trained in the useful domestic sklll of 

defusi nt l and mi nes" a re for Gallow ay 

"pointers to the gos1el 'hovf for 

communities of hope ... these women 

are a community of the resurrection". 

I remember her poem "Cross 

Border Peace Talks" from her 

antholoEy Pushin$The Boat jut. lt is 

a poem which, to mY mind, would be a 

good hymn in praise of SCM. The 

poem begins'There is a place beyond 

the borders where love grows", and 

contlnues To get to that Place, You 

have to 9o... beyond the borders'.. 

1nly after you have wandered for a 

tongtime in the dark, do You begin to 

bump into others". l found PlentY of 

strength for the iourney here, and will 

be referrin{ to A Story To Live By in the 

future. I will also be tivint my mother 

a copy to read, as someone who ls 

also "preoccupied with laundry", that 

it may be for her too "the symbol of a 

larger given". 

Basil Slush 

Bnst Huue: Bv Hts Fntrruos 

ed. Carolyn Butler (Fount/ Harper Collins) 

THIS B00K offers a necessarily unitateral view of cardinal Hume. written by his 

friends, it paints a picture of a man whose deftning characterlstics are humility, 

honesty, and holiness. His attitude to church politics is to let the spirit have His 

say; fhrs is reflected too in the life of prayer attested by his own writings' 

contributions range from those ofepiscop al collea{ues, which are suitably 

reverential, to thoie of other faith leaders (customarily polite) to, most revealingly, 

those by his pupils - whether at Ampleforth or in the more general sense. Ihe frst 

piece,well chosentoopen,isonesuch. Neit Balfourtellsof themanwhoonlyever 

wanted to be a teacher and a monk, and to retie to a parish with decent trout 

fishin!, yet ended up, much to his own surprise, as President of the Blshops 

Coniiince of En[tand and Wales. Balfour analyses hrs friend's weakness - his 

dlstaste for confrontaton - and shows that it is in fact his greatest strength. 

The collection a! a whole demonstrates both Humds humanity and his 

essentla//y reseryed Ensllshness. Not for hin princedom of the church and all the 

trappingi of power: instead, a cassock-s/eeves, hands-on approach' Atouching 

coipliient to his pastora/ ski/t is paid by Frances Lawrence, widow of the 

muidered headmatster Philip. The MP Ann Widdecombe descrlbes how his simple 

holiness and abitity to teach removed her doubts about catholicism in fifteen 

minutes. Thiskindof contributiongetsustothe cruxof theissue.cardinal Hume 

lenuinely is uncomfoftable with being anything more than a man of simple faith, 

Zt unyoi, who has been privile$ed (as have l) to meet him, however briefly, will 

testify. The cotlection achieyes something more than panegyric. Much as that other 

famius Benedictine, Gregory the Great, left us hls Pastora/ Rule as a handbook for 

bishops and c/ergy, so thrs book, written not by but for cardinal Hume, will be used 

in future to instruct those whose unsousht for positions of responsibility threaten 

to impede their personal relationship with God' 

(TM) 

movement 26

Txr Nw RurcroH or Ltrr tru EvERvunY 

SrucH (SCM Press) is the latestfrom 

Don Cupift. lt is unex7ectedly and 

unashamedly down'to' ea fth : Cu Pitt 

takes the word Life (and all 

associated idioms) to demonstrate a 

fundamental shift in thinking. 

Essentially Cupitt argues that 

recently God has disappeared from 

everyday speech... but at the same 

time "God has been brought down 

into, and dispersed into life". 

Everyday life has become sacred, we 

revel in miracles and revelations. 

Living life by preparingfor the afterlife 

seems risib/e; eternal life is about 

valu i ng the here-a nd - now. H avi ng 

deposed of a realist conception of 

Go4 Cupitt has s pent years banEin{ 

on aboutthe need to embrace Being 

only to find the sarne message in 

everyday speech, using the word 'lifd 

instead: Live life to the full. 

The idea of an eminentscholar 

gettin* excited by and theolotizing on 

a phrase like "Get A Life!" is comical. 

It is such a crude technique and I 

wanted to hate it yet his wntr'nS ls so 

eloquent and arguments so 

compellint... "0rdinary language is 

the best radical theoloEiani he 

claims: perhaps, but only if you have 

someone of the calibre of Cupittto 

interpret it for you. 

Ithad to happen sometime. 

Barthes has declared The Death of 

the Author, Fukiyama the End of 

History. And now we have TUE Ero or 

Txeorocy. Or to give it its ful/ title - Aro 

nrTasx orTHruunc neow Goo (SCM 

Press). Theolof,y rvas once 

considered Queen ofthe Sciences 

and now, for a whole host ofreasons, 

is marginalised, apologetic and 

unceftain of its future. But George 

Pattison is reluctant to see it 

rebranded as'religious studieg. 

He says rather obviously: "No one 

has a view from above any more! 

Paftison is against traditionalism and 

utopianism, yet seems too immersed 

in the estaDlishmentto follow the free 

play advocated by Cupift (to whon, 

curiously, this book is dedicated). The 

solution is dialogue with other 

drsciplrnes. Quite wlat kind of 

'dialogud is desirab/e is never 

explained - a phrase used in the 

c/osing pages "lovinglY seeking 

wisdom togethe( would have been 

welcome a hundred pages earlier. But 

Paftison /ikes lrls theology warm, 

fuzzy and meaningless. (TW) 

fiL) 

BOOK REVIEWERS: FTANCCS 

Davison, Tom Lusty, TonY 

Mc0onell, Tim Woodcock. 

James Wood ctaims to read literature religiously. Catherine 

Raine wonders if that has to mean being a dogmatic aesthete. 

ou t or 

cynlclsm 

o o 

7 o 

Essnvs oN LTTERATURE AND BELTEF 

av Jnues Wooo (Jouuarnnu Caer) 

lT TAKES a dutiful pilgrim to read 

JamesWood's book of essaysfrom 

cover to cover. His rif,orous prose 

often drove me to wild bouts of Crystal 

Quest on an old Apple Mac, not to 

mention study breaks with the 

Waltons and hopetul Blind Date 

candidates. Yetthis escaplsm 

testi,?es to the religiously critical 

intensity of The Broken Estate which 

is its stated mission: "For [Virtinia 

Woolfl the novel acts relitiously but 

peiorms sceptically. I hope that 

these essays may do something 

si mi la n Wood s devote s twenty- one 

chapters of searching analysis to an 

equal number of fiction writers, 

including Sir Thomas More, Jane 

Austen, Herman Melville, lris 

Murdoch, John Updike, and Toni 

Morrison. 

While The Broken Estate is about 

reading relitiously its maln purpose is 

to reveal a vision of what makes 

fiction truly great and therefore 

leligiout. Io show hrs hand, I have 

teased outthree basic Woodian rules 

for writing sublime fiction. First of all, 

a masterpiece must strugg/e with the 

meaninglessness of existence. 

Whetherthe doubtin+ author be 

Christian believer or atheist, allWood 

asks is that the ln ner torment be 

honest, commifted, passionate, never 

trivialized with undue irony. Secondly, 

authors must stir their readers, 

almost mystically, through what they 

suggest, not by whatthey say. Finally, 

witers must never address readers 

directly (gentle reader begone) and 

characters shoudPossess a fu,/y 

a uto no mous consciousness. Woodb 

literary God is a stern deity who 

refuses to ease our longingfor 

presence. An absent God, like an 

absent authon is more real than a 

narrative Voice that Persists in 

showeingwisdorn on its devotees. 

Thus what Wood means by fiction 

acting religiously is that it shoud 

move the reader deeply but not 

provide fundamentallst answers to the 

meaningof life. 

The Broken Estate's fervent 

profundity and clarity are lts most 

appealing features. Wood's prophetic 

roar can pluck your neves but it never 

leaves you indifferent. He grips the 

reader! shoulders and forces them to 

focus on senten ces that demand 

respectful attention. For example: 

"Fiction moves'in the shadow of 

doubt, knows itself to be a true lie, 

knows that at any moment it mightfail 

to make its case". And'a literature 

that discovers, that 

dares to know /ess, 

is always on the 

verge of what is not 

sayable, rather 

than at the end of 

what has just been 

said'. My favourite 

Wood persona is 

the man who 

abandons himself 

to rollicking, poetic 

praise of the 

authors he loves, 

especi ally Melvi lle, Austen, Woolf , 

Lawrence, Roth, and Sebald. 

Yet the heaping helpings of 

conte mpt th at Th e B ro ken Estatd 

ladles out can sour the psalms it 

srngs. ,fs not Wood's job to be sweet, 

but I felt sick after reading a passage 

like the following, which dispara{es a 

scene in Morrisorfs'Paradisd:'Had 

she described this incident. . . had 

she linked itto other incidents - had 

she rn shod conducted a'narrativd 

- we might believe in this moment". 

Sneerint stress on the word narrative 

only deepens the patronizingtone of 

an earlier asses sment: " Morrisorts 

talent and she ceftainly has great 

novelistictalent - has been to 

combine magic, myth, and history, 

and to nake of this a dignified 

su perstition". Wood criticises Sir 

Thomas More for being "spiftingly 

conclusive' butthis phrase l?ts the 

Wood whose zeal can shade into 

dogmatism. 

WasThe Broken Estatds profussed 

hope for spirituality and scepticism 

fulfilled? Within the limited arena of 

literary criticism, indeed within the 

limitsWood set, lbelieve itwas. 

There were many moments of awe and 

meaning apprehended in quotations 

such as this one from Woolf: "[Reality 

isl a luminous halo, a semitransparent 

envelope surround i n g us 

from the betinning of consciousness 

to the end". Yet beyond academia 

and the media ldorftthinkThe Broken 

Estate /ives up to the profound 

existential challenge it raises: "Lifeunder-God 

seems a poinflessness 

An absent God, like an 

absent author, is more 

real than a narrative 

voice that persists in 

showering wisdom on 

its devotees. 

posing as a purpose . . . life-without- 

God seems to me also a 

pointlessness posing as a purpose 

(jobs, hmily, sex and so on - all the 

u sual d istracti ons)". M ay be w ritin g 

The Broken Estate wasr/t rneant to 

fulf/ this sense of purpose for Wood, 

but it reads as if it is trying. For me, a 

bookwhich is dedicated to analysing 

why most writers fail to meet Wood's 

standards of religious witing is not 

truly religious. Least of all is it truly 

moral. The Bro4en Estate reminds me 

why I abandoned formal literary study 

for adult literacy. Literary criticism 

came to represent so much 

parasitical half-aliveness, bloatin g the 

criticwith a wordy snobbery that 

serves no socia/ good. Away and dish 

out soup or craft some poerns, -/ames 

Wood. Befter that than litenry cachet 

purchased af second-hand. 

Gatherine Raine has a PhD in 

Literature and Theologr. More 

recently she has been involved in 

adult literacy programs. 

movement 27

V 

I 

I 

i 

* GREEN SOULS 

Environmental 

campaigners have 

pointed outthat 

Christian theology 

is irresponsible by 

encoura*ing a 

throw-away (after) 

lifestyle.The overconsumption 

of 

souls rn 

Christendom 

may be 

unsustainable 

and 

could leave 

future 

generations 

short ofsou/s. 

(Why soul one 

per person? Why 

not share yours on 

the way to the afterlife?) 

The crucial question is 

whether souls are a finite 

resource - 

the scientit?c 

evidence suggest they 

are: no new sources 

have been found for 

many years and 

attempts to 

produce a 

soul in a 

laboratory 

have failed. 

lf thls is the 

case 

Christians rnust 

adopta greener 

attitude to the afterlife. 

I 

Catholics in particular come under 

attack for Purgatory which is simply 

the most inefficient and wasteful bit of 

p rocessi n t im a tin a bl e. 

However, the envi ronmentalists praise 

Eastem relifions that teach rcincamation 

- 

the constant recycling of spiitual 

maftermeansthere is notthe needfor 

celestial land-fill sites inthe sl

CC 

ne of the best ways f knout to 

engage d hard-thinking faith with 

tt 

the realities of hft 

s 

lhD.qr [rfl L'idr H.dr ar6 

HIRD 

ff81 **\\u4l* n t 

s H vtil 23J 

UUAY 

MrcHnBr Tevron 

president of Junrrnn 2000 

director of CuntsneLv Aro 

1985-97 

I 

CC 

Music rvhich ls truly sacred drssects u 

lohn Tavener lalks to 

Jeremy Begbie 

or Christians 

utho belieue that faith 

tt 

meu,ns change 

THrno Wnv enjoys a unique reputation among 

Christian magazines for its rigorous engagement 

with the world and its ideas in the light of the Bible. 

Founded in 1977, it offers authoritative comment 

on current affairs, not just pious opinion. lts aim is 

to inspire and inform debate, not close it down. 

Its centrepiece is an in-depth interview of a key 

mover or shaker. lts articles range from 2,500- 

worders on eating disorders or globalisation to tight 

deconstructions of an 'lcon of the Month'. 

We believe that 3W is its own best advertisement. 

Take us up on our trial offer and get two issues 

without anv obligation - and if you don't go 

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JouN BetL, the lona Community 

r 

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To: SCM 0ffer, Third Way, St Peter's, Sumner Road, Harow HA1 4BX 

Please send me a year's supply ot Third Way (ie 10 issues). I 

understand that you will not cash my cheque or charge my account until 

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Heard too much nonsense 

trumpery 

h 

b 

b 

ooo 

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b 

rrlrl I taIl.r^ f:J-ll^ f^-IJl-. 

a 

ooo 

oo 

oa 

oo 

la 

I 

t/I 

;{E 

kr*3 

l* 

RrnsoNS To LEAVE cHURCH: no.1 (in a series) 

,t\ 

.:1 

-th t+i ' i: 

Fini iji'r 

i 

i'-:., I ti 

',: 

You're not the only one! There are like-minded people... 

SCM is a place for talkingand listening; for having 

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and reflecting in silence. 

Want to know more? 

CONTACT: the Student Christian Movement, Westhill College, 1'4/16 Weoley Park Road, 

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Movement 102

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