Yesterday…
…Unjust-God Discussion: At Men’s Shed we were discussing religion… Getting the penguins into Noah’s ark… Jesus’ virgin birth… Negative childhood experiences of Sunday School… The universe’s size and science…
Someone quoted Stephen Fry: ‘The world is very splendid but it also has in it insects whose whole lifecycle is to burrow into the eyes of children and make them blind… Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?
Some had enquiring minds; most had fixed views; all enjoyed a robust, irreverent discussion.
…Anti-Hatred Legislation: Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, was defending the new Scottish Hate Crime Act, describing new offence: ‘Threatening or abusive behaviour which is intended to stir up hatred’ …regarding age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity…
Critics said it limits freedom of speech, excludes hatred of women… MSP Murdo Fraser’s been logged for a complaint for stating: ‘Choosing to identify as ‘non-binary’ is as valid as choosing to identify as a cat.’
Author JK Rowling invited the police to arrest her for her views about trans women; activists are out to ‘silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces’.
…Active-Forgiveness Demonstration: Tim Keller tells of Graham and Gladys Staines, Christian medical missionaries, working with lepers in one of the poorest parts of India. In January 1999 Graham and their two sons, ten-year-old Philip and six-year-old Timothy, were burnt alive by an anti-Christian mob.
Gladys, receiving confirmation of their deaths, ‘…shook with grief… finally, with a quavering voice she shared, ‘Whoever did this, we will forgive them.’
‘The rest of her life demonstrated that she did this. Rather than leave India, Gladys and her daughter stayed and continued to minister in the same place to the same people. She built the leper home into a full hospital…’
Musing… Finding Gladys’ active-forgiveness demonstration more powerful, challenging and inspirational than discussions about an unjust God or legislation against hatred…
malcolmsmusings.org 