However, I am conscious of the fact that I’m approaching this book with an attitude similar to the ‘fundamentalists’ that Dawkins criticises in the book. If I set out in the mindset that this book will only serve to help me argue with atheists, and refute the possibility of an alternative viewpoint before I’ve begun, then I’m doing the very thing that he finds so objectionable. Am I right to take this stance? Or should I actually be prepared to be converted to atheism, unlikely though this is? I guess it all comes back to the fact that we cannot have true faith without doubt……

I’ll be interested to see what he has to say about the value of ‘religious experience’ ie: how people of faith have interacted personally with God. My guess is that he has no experience of God’s presence, and his encounters with Christians are limited to those focused on the ‘religious’ aspects and on militantly defending their viewpoint on some issue or other (Dawkins seems particularly keen to argue against Creationism – I suppose that’s natural for a scientist….). I find myself agreeing with him to some extent – rigorously defending something like creationism seems to me to be a waste of energy on the part of the Christian. Why aren’t we focusing on the commands of Jesus? The Bible says that we can’t fathom God, so why are we worrying about producing tons of evidence to fly in the face of evolutionary theory? And more importantly, why are people so angrily defending their stance on ‘issues’? There’s no wonder people are put off religion (for want of a better phrase).

I think it’s vital that anyone who really wants to live as a disciple of Jesus seeks to understand where we’ve gone wrong over the years in portraying out faith, because that is a large part of the reason why people like Richard Dawkins feel like they do (that, and a load of scientific evidence…..). Shutting out other viewpoints makes us narrow-minded and less able to relate to others effectively. One-to-one relationships are, in my view, the way forward in making Jesus known. I love the church (by which I mean the people), but I agree with Dawkins – organised religion is responsible for a lot of crap. I propose to comment more on The God Delusion as I read it, as I think we can gain valuable insight from such books. Obviously I’ll be offsetting all this heathen-ery by reading plenty of the Bible (I’m looking at John at the moment, trying to make more sense of Jesus…..).

In other news, I’m excited about letting everyone hear the newResponding with Tea songs. If you’re on Facebook then there’s a RwT page on which I intend to post the songs for download (some other tracks are there at the moment). There are also plans afoot for some CD artwork to accompany the music. On the writing front, I’m going to put the next part of The Weight of a Voice in a separate post to this one. I had another agent rejection the other day. This summer was supposed to be the time when I made a big push to get an agent, but that hasn’t happened. My efforts have gone into music. And camping…..

The more I think about it, the more it becomes evident that this song was a subconscious acknowledgement on my part of the fact that God’s plan was/is vastly superior to mine, and that it reflects a desire to simply be before Him, saying, ‘God, you are all these things to me. And this is what I offer you in return – a sinful, jealous heart. Please forgive me.’ Not much of a deal from His perspective, at least on paper…. Yet the truth is that His power is made complete in our weakness. All that is required is for us to relinquish our crowns, to lay our agendas down, and to whisper, sing, or cry, ‘Your name is holy.’

Here I am before You
Bound by sinfulness, and broken
Only You restore my soul
And in Your mercy I will find my rest

My comfort and healer
My hope, my defender
My salvation, my father
Let Your glory fall

Your name is holy

Now here’s where I’m going to make a smooth link to my point, and it’s going to be grade-A cheese: Reading the bible is like our own ‘performance management’. We need regular ‘review meetings’ (aka church/cell group). We need people ‘higher up’ to advise us and check we’re on track. Maybe we even need some targets….

I’ve been reading a book (another one…..) called ‘Velvet Elvis’ by Rob Bell. I was initially sceptical given its silly, abstract title, but actually it’s amazing. It’s subtitled ‘Repainting the Christian Faith’, which is exactly what I think we need to do at all levels – individually, in our small groups/churches, communities, etc. He talks about this concept of ‘binding and loosing scripture’ which, at the risk of over-simplifying it, means that we should wrestle with the bits we don’t understand, discussing it in our communities (there’s that theme again….) until we have arrived at what we think is the interpretation most appplicable to us, now. Biblical Rabbis did this all the time.

This doesn’t mean that we can make the bible fit whatever we want to do (history is full of idiots who did that). It means that we allow God to speak to us through his word again and again – even the same passage can hold something new for us every time we read it afresh. The other day I re-read a couple of verses, from 1 and 2 Timothy. Both kind of reiterate the same message; if you’ve received a gift through a prophetic message and/or the laying on of hands then don’t neglect it – fan it into flame. At University a friend gave this prophecy about me – that I would speak and people would listen. In a poor interpretation of binding and loosing, I tried to make the prophecy fit what I though at the time was my ‘calling’, which was to be a Christian rock legend…. I did this for six, maybe seven years, with no success. Finally I gave up – but the prophecy kept returning to me. It is only in the light of re-reading those verses that I have attach meaning and context to it.

So that’s what I’m doing now. Talking – and you’re listening. To what, or why, I’m not sure…. I hope I say some things that are helpful. Maybe not the Postman Pat bit…..