Choose your enemies carefully… ‘cos they will define you

Came across (via Inspiration Room) this stunning series of 4 anti-Iraq war ads, made by Big Ant International for the Global Coalition for Peace.

They have won a number of prizes, it seems, and it is easy to see why. They graphically convey the terrifying consequences of meddling with other countries’ politics and conflicts. For ‘what goes around really does come around’. A case in point recently is of course the CIA’s involvement in training and arming the Mujahideen in Afghanistan during their conflict against the Soviet Union – only to find that this group transmogrifying into the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

I’m afraid I couldn’t help but be reminded of some U2 lyrics:

First this lyric from the latest album (No Line On The Horizon), on a song called (appropriately enough) Cedars of Lebanon

Choose your enemies carefully ‘cos they will define you
Make them interesting ‘cos in some ways they will mind you
They’re not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friends.

Then there’s this from All that you can’t leave behind (2000), from the song Peace on Earth:

Where I grew up there weren’t many trees
Where there was we’d tear them down
And use them on our enemies
They say that what you mock
Will surely overtake you
And you become a monster
So the monster will not break you

And it’s already gone too far
You say that if you go in hard
You won’t get hurt

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth

Pacifism is regarded by many as an easy copout. And there are of course impossible dilemmas and complexities. But it is hard to fault the logic evoked by these adverts and lyrics. And this second excerpt evokes the minefields inherent – e.g. how do you beat terrorists? By water-boarding? You become a ‘monster’ in order to defend yourself against the ‘monster’. It’s an impossible battle. Which is why the appeal of the chorus is so crucial: only He can break the cycle of cause and effect by His infusion and invasion of grace.

Working without Wilting: Jago produces a cracker

I promised a few weeks back to add a few thoughts about my old friend Jago’s new book: Working without Wilting. After reading and enjoying this book, it has confirmed my previously held conviction that Jago is the Maestro of Metaphor, the Boffin of Bullet Points and an Aficionado of Alliteration. And so I suppose in some ways, that means he writes like a Management Consultant. Which is no surprise, because that’s exactly what he was for a relatively short period. But that time was clearly enough to hone his communication skills. He writes in an informal, light style, making his points with crystal clarity, peppering his text with humour, anecdotes and pithy comments. While the alliteration and metaphors did provoke a wry smile occasionally, they do serve his purpose.

And that purpose is to help people think carefully, honestly and positively about their work – and in this, the book succeeds admirably. The 5 primary metaphors Jago uses as coat-hooks for this – Treadmill, Trampoline, Trout, Trumpet and Tardis (see what I mean?! Though I should say I was bitterly disappointed that Tardis didn’t start ‘tri…’) are suggestive and memorable.

Where the book really comes into its own, however, are the personal touches – he is very game in his inclusion of self-deprecating incidents from his own working life, and these genuinely help to land the points he’s making. Incidentally, it’s obvious Susannah’s observation that he’d never once caught a trout in the 9 years of their relationship still rankles (see p94). It’s a hard life, Jago (but then, I can’t talk on the trout front either).

Each brief chapter concludes with the testimony of an individual who has had to battle with, or put into practice, some of the challenges just outlined. A number of them are particularly powerful and helpful. This is accompanied up by a useful summary diagram (complete with Yucca plant – read the book to see why) and some summary questions for personal application. And for good measure, these alliterate as well: Recap, Relate & Response!!

If I had any crits, it would be simply the need for a bit more of an explicit biblical framework, so that biblical references don’t seem like proof-texts. I know that this is not what they are and I do trust that Jago has done his work on it – but it would make a good book even better if this was more on the surface. To be fair, he does articulate some of the bigger framework (e.g. work as worship) at the end – but I was left wondering why this was left to the final pages. It is so important and essential. In the early chapters I found myself frequently nodding in agreement but wishing he’d justified his comments more from scripture. Having said that, Jago is very good on the more explicitly practical passages of the bible – his sustained engagement with the Sermon on the Mount really stands out.

On a more general point (because this is a question related to many Christian books on work on the market and so not a question particularly related to Jago’s), I wonder how much we need to temper our understandings of work, job fulfilment and career by the fact that these are really minority, western luxuries when considered in global terms (e.g. the world of Slumdog Millionaire…). When we lived in Uganda, it was clear that for most, a job was a matter of food and shelter, and even life or death (there was no social security safety net whatsoever). And while a few had the opportunities to choose a ‘career’, the vast majority couldn’t. They needed work full stop – regardless of what it was. The question of finding fulfilment never came into it. The necessity of helping friends in that situation to see even the most menial jobs as part of their worship was therefore even more acute. Jago touches on Col 3 (on p171-172) and perhaps that could be a stepping off point for thinking this through.

Nevertheless, these are very minor gripes. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It will be a real challenge to the seasoned worker. But it will be especially helpful and constructive for the new graduate starting work for the first time. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it is an IMPORTANT book for them to read! Therefore UCCF staff-workers and other student workers should insist that EVERY ONE of their graduates is armed with this book. It will set them in good stead for the future – so that they genuinely “start well to finish strong”.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 10 (July 09)

Sacred Treasure

• An incredibly moving letter written by Ray Ortland, to be found by his family after his death (HT Josh Harris).
• In case you missed it: The historical person UK people MOST wanted to meet in a recent poll is JESUS!
• Chris Wright’s recent lectures on Theology & Ethics (at Covenant Seminary in St Louis) now online (HT Antony Billington)
• Ros Clarke has some characteristically helpful thoughts on women and porn: here and here
• John Piper explains why he is tweeting on twitter… follow him on twitter if you wish here
• It’s not just the religious who get it wrong: Terry Eagleton and the horrors of liberal humanism (HT Alex Webb-Peploe)

Topical Treasure

• Remembering Tiananmen 20 years on – check out this remarkable set of photos, from then and now.

Quirky Treasure

• If you ever need evidence that there has been some progress in advertising standards, then check this Listverse top 10 vintage cigarette adverts, e.g. a few examples:

• Facebook/Twitter/Myspace addicts should check out this mental health advisory! (HT Visual Culture)

ARCADIA: Stoppard’s supreme achievement

Having been with Rachel to see the recent London revival of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia a couple of weeks ago, I’ve hardly been able to stop thinking about it. When it first came out in 1992/3, first at the National and then transferred to the West End, I couldn’t get enough of it then and saw it twice. And our recent opportunity only deepened my reverence for its wit, artistry and profundity. A particular thrill was to see Stoppard’s son, Ed, play the part of the modern day Coverly, Valentine. While the play manages to encompass an almost cosmic range of ideas and concepts (and for the sake of the plot has to indulge in moments of didactic exposition), it never loses sight of the fact that it’s meant to be theatre – and theatre is, first and foremost, a spectacle meant to be enjoyed.

Stoppard has himself said that things came together with this play. He’s had the reputation of being primarily a writer of ideas, and that sometimes his characters have suffered the indignity of being merely vehicles for these ideas. (Although with a play like Rosencrantz & Gildenstern Are Dead, the whole point is that the two protagonists are indistinguishable bit-part characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.) But not so with Arcadia.

I think [Arcadia's] the first time I’ve got both right, the ideas and the plot. I think Arcadia is probably where all that was leading. It’s lost the comic songs and the parodies [of his previous play Travesties], but it’s a similar combination of larking about and trying to deliver some kind of thesis. (Fleming, Modern Theatre Guide p2)

The play is set in one room in a typical English Stately Home (Sidley Park) in two parallel universes:

• in the 18th Century during the rise of the Romantics’ reaction (as personified by sometime Sidley Park visitor, Lord Byron) against the austere and pure classicism of the previous generation
• in the present day, as two different scholars (Hannah & Bernard) try in their different ways to figure out what happened at Sidley Park all those years before.

The same aristocratic family (the Coverlys) occupies the house in both eras, and it seems that the younger members of the family are geniuses (like Thomasina in 18thC & Valentine in the present). Thomasina unwittingly pre-empts various 20th Century scientific discoveries and commonplaces, and she may even have solved Fermat’s last theorem!

Arcadia has everything.

• Genuine, laugh-out-loud hilarity (from the very first lines)
• Poignancy and humanity, especially between Thomasina and her tutor Septimus.
• Brilliant articulation of sometimes impenetrable concepts (like Fractals & iterated algorithms, Chaos Theory, 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, Classicism & Romanticism). These are not necessarily the things one expects from a play!
• It is about worldviews – and therefore deals with things that really matter. Which is presumably why one gets the feeling that the playing around with the concepts just mentioned is no merely idle intellectual exercise (although it is done in a very witty and light-handed way – who could forget Thomasina’s anachronistic grappling with the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics by reference to the behaviour of the jam in her rice pudding!?)
• One major concern of the play is epistemology, which is a key issue of postmodernity – how do we know what we know. This is illustrated brilliantly by Hannah & Bernard and their interactions with Valentine. Another issue is the relationship between determinism and free will. There is an inevitability to what happens in the play – especially because the modern day characters know what will happen to their 18thC counterparts, and therefore as the play unfolds, so do we. This dramatic irony brings a real sense of tragedy as we witness the development of Thomasina and Septimus.
• There is a wonderful structural symmetry but also ingenious theatrical devices, like the confusion of time and space in Scene 7, where all the main characters occupy the same stage, performing a merry waltz (metaphorically and literally) around one another. To confuse things further, the modern day characters are dressed to the nines for a fancy dress ball – in 18thC costume.

Some Favourite Arcadia lines

Here are a few of my favourite moments (the photo is taken from the recent London revival – Hannah (Samantha Bond), Valentine (Ed Stoppard), Chloe (Lucy Griffiths) & Bernard (Neil Person) credit: photostage.co.uk :

THOMASINA: Septimus, do you think God is a Newtonian?
SEPTIMUS: An Etonian? Almost certainly I’m afraid. We must  ask your brother [Augustus, about to start at Eton] to make it his first enquiry. (p5)

LADY CROOM (the Coverly Chatelaine) to her brother: Do not dabble in paradox, Edward, it puts you in danger of fortuitous wit. (p11)

LADY CROOM (complaining about her husband’s determination to replace the classical style landscape of Sidley Park with a more rustic, Romantic vista): But Sidley Park is already a picture, and a most amiable picture. The slopes are green and gentle. The trees are companionably grouped at intervals that show them to advantage. The rill is a serpentine ribbon unwound from the lake peaceably contained by meadows on which the right amount of sheep are tastefully arranged – in short, it is nature as God intended, and I can say with the painter, ‘Et in Arcadia ego!’ Here I am in Arcadia,’ Thomasina
THOMASINA (reacting to her mother’s mistranslation of the Latin): Yes mama, if you would have it so. (p12)

VALENTINE:… There was someone, forget his name, 1820s, who pointed out that from Newton’s laws you could predict efverything to come – i mean you’d need a computer as big as the universe but the formula would exist.
CHLOE: But it doesn’t work, does it?
VALENTINE: No. It turns out the maths is different.
CHLOE: No, it’s all because of sex.
VALENTINE: Really?
CHLOE: That’s what I think. The universe is deterministic all right, just like Newton said, I mean it’s trying to be, but the only thing going wrong is people fancying people who aren’t supposed to be in that part of the plan.
VALENTINE: Ah. The attraction that Newton left out. All the way back to the apple in the garden. (p73-74)

SEPTIMUS: Peace! Peace until a quarter to twelve. It is intolerable for a tutor to have his thoughts interrupted by his pupils.
AUGUSTUS COVERLY: But you are not my tutor, sir. I am visiting your lesson by my free will.
SEPTIMUS: If you are so determined, my lord. (p80)

LADY CROOM to Thomasina: We must have you married before you are educated beyond eligibility. (p84)

Some useful Arcadia follow up

Of course the best thing is to see it! It works best where it is intended: on stage. But failing that, as well as checking out the sparkling script here and John Fleming’s reasonably helpful theatre guide (see right: I enjoyed it but as it’s more of a school text book, its insights were helpful but all too brief), here are some useful resources for follow up (nicked from the back of the Fleming book).

• Excellent study guide: Arcadia Study Guide (L Opitz)
• On the maths of the play: Chaos, Fractals & Arcadia (R. Devaney)
• A School guide: Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (S Moss)
• Photos from original productions as well as this 2009 revival: Arcadia on Stage

I also remember enjoying, ages ago, Mel Gussow’s Conversations with Stoppard, which took place over a number of years. Particularly good in that book are the discussions on God and why Stoppard has no truck with atheism. I might post about that one day…

Prophetic motorway signs – Habakkuk 2 in summary

Hard to read, isn’t it? If it was a real motorway sign, just think of the accidents it would cause as people tried to work out what it said.

But if you could get up close and personal, you’d see that this is in fact the entire response that God gives to Habakkuk’s second complaint against him.

The reason I photoshopped this, however, was to make a point in yesterday’s sermon on the next installment of our Habakkuk. Because at the start of his response, God says (in Hab 2:2):

Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.

But evocatively, the NRSV puts like this:

Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.

Which is what gave me the idea. And if Habakkuk had to put a summary of this chapter on a motorway sign, I have a hunch that it might have looked a bit like this:

Turkish Despatches – June 09 5: Having enemies, loving enemies

After lunch yesterday, and before our next meeting, one of my Turkish friends and I wandered through the mayhem of Beşiktaş’ backstreets. In the middle of the market place is an old Greek Orthodox church (they have a web presence of sorts here). You’d miss it if you didn’t know it was there – the only indication is a chi-rho symbol above the lintel of an old door set deep in a white-washed wall. Apparently, there is a cool, tree-covered courtyard on the other side (see right), which is no doubt a real refuge from the fierceness of the midday sun.

But I say ‘apparently’ because we never made it through the door. The Muslim shopkeeper next door advised us that the church never receives visitors but we tried our luck anyway. And there was just a voice on the intercom who said “we’re closed – we only take visitors from 9-11 on Sunday mornings”.

Now if you know anything about the fate of Orthodox Christians since the fall of the ottoman Empire, then you’ll know that this siege mentality is entirely understandable. 1000s upon 1000s of ethnic Greeks were forcibly removed from the new Turkey (see despatch 3) – and having been a large, thriving community, the Istanbul Greek community is now minuscule.

But one thing that has changed is that Turkey is experiencing the relatively new phenomenon of Turkish Christians (if an Ottoman Muslim converted, he/she was simply executed as was the one who evangelised). And they face incomprehension, opposition, and sometimes vicious hostility. I’ve touched on this in a number of previous blog posts, of course.

But as various people have related their experiences of all of this to me, i’ve been greatly impressed by people’s willingness to face suffering. That it will happen goes without saying here. But how you respond to it… well that’s a different matter. In Antakya, one believer described the nightmare the family have because of their neighbour: Constant abuse and insults shouted from the upstairs rooftop living area. To which the believer said, we have to love him. The reason is obvious: even though we might be treated as enemies, Jesus commands us to love our enemies.

And then it struck me like a thunderbolt. It’s completely obvious – and I’m sure you’ve thought of it often. But i’m slow of brain and it had never occurred to me. In order to love your enemies, you’ve got to have enemies! Of course, I DO NOT mean we go out looking for enemies! Jesus is simply getting at the point that people in the world treat us as their enemies. And you will only have that if you are out there. You see:

• Loving your enemies is a discipleship imperative that you can only obey WHEN YOU HAVE ENEMIES.
• And you’ll only have enemies if you are out there trying to do your best to live for Christ, flaws and all.
• And you can only show your love for those who treat you like this if you try to be in relationship with your enemies..

I understand the siege mentality completely. And I can so easily see myself succumbing to it. But a locked door and an intercom will never provide opportunities to love, however hostile the people we encounter are.

My Turkish brothers and sisters have showed me that – and i have found that a profound challenge.

Turkish Despatches June 09 – 4: Photographic Panoramania

I have a bit of a thing about panoramas. So here are a few i’ve compiled this time around.

The Mountains near Samandağ (pronounced “Samandar”)

In the middle of the photo above, you can see the remains of a stone wall. This is in fact the remains of the original wall of the ancient harbour of Seleucia (which was the main port for Antioch (now known as Antakya). The nearby village is called It was from this very wall that Paul and Barnabas would have set out for the first great missionary journey (cf. Acts 13:1-4).

This was taken in the hills above old Seleucia – and at the top of the mountain in the image, Simon Stylites the Younger lived on a pillar for a number of years. And there he died.

Then in Istanbul, this is the wonderful Dolmabahçe Palace up close:

Here are some of my older Turkish panoramas:

• The Bosphorus in Istanbul, from the Asian side looking towards Europe (the Dolmabahçe Palace is roughly central):

• Then from the European side looking towards Üsküdar (formerly known as Scutari)

Turkish Despatches June 09 – 3: de Bernières’ Birds without Wings

Appropriately enough, I’ve just finished Louis de Bernières’ Birds Without Wings while here in Turkey. And I have to say that it is quite simply one of the most breathtaking and moving novels I’ve ever read.

It’s crafted on an epic scale (600+ pages), and has a fascinating dual focus:

• at the MICRO level, we get to know and love the many and varied inhabitants of Eskibahçe, a small fictitious town near the Aegean coast (placed not far from Telmessos, now called Fethiye)
• at the MACRO level, we follow the determined but bumpy path of Mustafa Kemal, as he forges the modern Turkey out of the embers of the defunct Ottoman Empire, becoming the father of the new nation, Atatürk.

The reasons for this parallel tale quickly become clear. The geopolitical machinations of the many nation states in the run up, course of and then aftermath of the 1st World War had a profound and tragic impact on the ordinary citizens of towns all over Turkey. Without this big picture, an understanding and sympathy for these individuals would be impossible. And the realities were brutal. For throughout first quarter of the 20th Century, this region faced appalling atrocities, ethnic hatreds and population dislocation. And the consequences are still being felt across the region.

De Bernières has sought to personalise all this – to depict the tragedies with human faces, something that fiction and/or social history can do far better than dull and lifeless statistics. Eskibahçe is a beguiling creation in which Greeks, Armenians and Turks live side by side as fellow Ottomans, almost despite their religious differences. The Christians and Muslims in the town would almost jokingly refer to one another as infidels – and there was mutual interdependence – even though of course the Ottoman Empire was explicitly a Muslim entity and non-Muslims were 2nd class citizens. But when Atatürk agreed with Greece on a massive population exchange in 1923, the impact was devastating. 1000s of Turkish speaking ethnic Greeks ended up being marched out, while 1000s of Greek speaking Turks were pushed back to Turkey. This was the final stage after years of terrible atrocities.

No one came out smelling of roses. Christians and Muslims equally behaved appallingly, thus fuelling the hatred and lust for revenge. But having chatted with Turkish friends who’ve read the book, they seem to agree that de Bernières is scrupulously fair. There are sympathetic characters on all sides, as well as the inevitable venal and hateful individuals. De Bernières has a great gift of describing military realities – he did it powerfully in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (a book linked to this one by a handful of overlapping characters). And in my view, he does it even more poignantly in this book. The descriptions of the horrors of Gallipoli are unforgettable without being gratuitous.

So as one or two reviews have stated, this really is a masterpiece. For not only has he managed to condense and articulate a huge swathe of historical research and details (I learned loads), but he has done so in the course of a brilliantly told narrative. It was a book that I never wanted to end – which to my mind is the best praise you can give to any book.

Turkish Despatches June 09 – 2: the courage to be known…

This photograph depicts an act of real courage. But of course, it probably doesn’t seem like it at first sight. But this is Turkey. And Christians simply do not share the rights that ordinary Turks enjoy in this society. Worse, though, is the fact that they are not necessarily safe here either. For it was only a matter of months ago that 3 Christians were brutally murdered in Malatya. The photo is of the car of one of the delegates at our gathering – bravely sporting a Christian ichthus symbol.

I talked about Malatya a year ago when I first came here (CT has some updated news on the investigations into the murders); but as I talk with believers here, it is a frequent topic of conversation. One can’t avoid it. And as we were working on Paul’s letter to the Philippians during our time together this week, the letter couldn’t have been more relevant. One of the more challenging verses in that letter has Paul explaining the impact that his Roman imprisonment had on the church there.

Phil 1:14 – Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.

It seems so counter-intuitive. Any sensible person would surely keep their heads down as the result of such persecution? But that’s not what necessarily happened in Paul’s day. And that’s not what has happened for many believers in Turkey. Many have been all the more prepared to be known as Christian. So here, having a fish badge on your car is more than simply the equivalent of those truck bumper stickers that ask ‘How is my driving?’ (as it is for many in the west). It is a very public, and therefore risky, declaration of one’s priorities.

But the illustration that really brought this courage home to me was given by one of the pastors I met. A few weeks after the Malatya tragedy, 2 members of his fellowship went to the authorities to get their Turkish identity cards updated. Every Turkish citizen must carry one; and one of the few details that it contains apart from the obvious is religious affiliation. These 2 brand new believers went deliberately to get their cards altered from Muslim to Christian, thus radically impairing their job prospects and their own safety.

I was profoundly challenged and encouraged myself by their willingness to stand and be counted. For just as with Paul in Rome, so with these brothers – if they are prepared to do this, the gospel is obviously something important enough to risk everything for…

Turkish Despatches – June 09 – 1

Have arrived safely and soundly in Antakya (aka Antioch – or if you follow the NT closely Syrian Antioch as opposed to Pisidian in Antioch, which was in … er… Pisidia, roughly between Antalya and Konya on this map).

Only been here for a few hours, but have already experienced:

• Wonderful Turkish hospitality despite an infuriatingly feeble lack of Turkish vocab on my part. 3 inter-related families gathering together for the conference elsewhere tomorrow and hosting me tonight
• having my finger being bitten by a Turkish dog – fortunately, no damage done.
• wandering around the older parts of the town with new friends. Though there is not much left that is genuinely ancient or even older than a couple of hundred years – which seems a shame. The town seems like so many others around the world – a web of concrete, construction and half-finished buildings.
• A throwback to Ugandan life – seeing a bloke riding on the back of a moped (otherwise known as boda-bodas in Kampala) carrying a huge, white plastic-framed shop door. The thing that tickled me was that it still had its shop sign dangling in the top half window – which helpfully declared to the world ‘Closed’ … in English bizarrely enough.
• The goal of our night-time wanderings was to go to a künefe restaurant. This stuff is basically a heart-attack on wheels – a delicious but lethal concoction of shredded wheat, honey, cheese and ice cream. hmmm

More news as we go and as access allows…