Time to stop doubting and learn to love immigration

RANT ALERT (This is v abnormal for me, but I’m quite exercised about it!)

I’m getting tired of people complaining about immigration, and just wish politicians would have the courage to speak up for it. The UK has ALWAYS been a country of immigrants – you just have to look at the history of London’s East End over the last 5 centuries to see this.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 71 (August 2014)

Sorry this late – It’s been an absolutely CRAZY month (including finishing a job, moving house and going on a couple of week long meetings.) Soon, normal Q service will resume, I promise!

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, I SUPPOSE.

Sacred Treasure

• This is important: Paul Vallely’s much linked (rightly) article: Christians: the world’s most persecuted people
• Nice interview with my Langham US colleague, Ben Homan, on preaching globally
• Damian Thompson as provocative as ever – about that other agent provocateur, Richard Dawkins, and his new offensiveness to the Left.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 70 (July 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• We refuse to be enemies. This is an astonishing story from a family of Palestinian Christians living in Bethlehem.
• Dominic Lawson (son of former Chancellor Nigel, brother of celeb chef Nigella) writes wonderfully about his 19 year old daughter with Down’s Syndrome.
• Abp Justin Welby’s address at the National Prayer Breakfast, on 17th June – some great stuff
• Chris Green asks whether or not we should preach like TED talks

Friday Fun 48: Monopods vs Monobracchs Cricket

Well, the book’s first draft is done and sent off – the initial editors’ comments are awaited with trepidation. But the good news (I hear you ALL cry) is that I can get back to some serious blogging. And what better way to mark this momentous event than by offering some Friday Fun.

One of my recent excitements is the quirky Cox’s Fragmenta. This is edited by Simon Murphy from a really bizarre tome in the British Library – essentially a scrap-book of news clippings kept by one Francis Cox (1752-1834) on every subject under the sun. In fact, it takes up 20 feet of shelving. So I thought it might be fun to pick out a few choice morsels.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 69 (June 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• God raises the dead – even for preachers like Chris!
• Why Emily Letts filmed her own abortion…
• The Twitter Disconnect: Why Christians are more loving in real life… some good stuff here
• A Nick Cave service??! Looks a lot of fun (H/T Maggi)

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 68 (May 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• This is good: John Piper gives 10 lessons from a hospital bed 
• I’m not busy… so says Ian Paul apparently
• Larry Hurtado deftly sorts out the whole Jesus Wife document farrago here and then a follow-up here

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 67 (April 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• Giles Fraser nails it on euthanasia
• Kevin de Young on celebrity pastors etc
• Andrew Brown writes an inspiring obituary of Margaret Spufford (mother of one of my literary heroes, Francis)

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 66 (March 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• Why Benedict Rogers, a Christian, opposes the very idea of a Christian political party
• So a mural artist in Montenegro considers Tito, Marx and Engels deserves to be depicted in hell… what do you think?
• Some good news from Cranmer: highlighting all the UCCF outreach efforts this term

A Cambridge wander

Have been spending this week in Cambridge for the CICCU main events. It’s been a really encouraging time. But I had a lovely time on Tuesday afternoon wandering around with my camera, revisiting old haunts and generally taking it easy. Marvellous. Even more marvellous was the fact that the sun actually came out. Hard to believe when the south-west seems afflicted by hurricanes and tsunamis.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 65 (February 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• Mikhail Kalashnikov was apparently in ‘spiritual pain’ over his (in)famous invention
• Dave Criddle has some wisdom about engaging with the likes of Ricky Gervais on Twitter
• Andrew Brown is pretty good here, at least in what he affirms (if not in what he denies).

Q Conversations 5: Politician Elizabeth, Baroness Berridge

Elizabeth Berridge, until very recently, was the youngest woman in the House of Lords, the UK’s upper house in Parliament. Raised to the peerage in the 2011, she was before that a barrister and then in 2006 became Executive Director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship which exists to bring together Conservative Party voting Christians of all denominations. She describes herself as a classic Tory ‘wet’, as opposed to the ‘Dry’ Thatcherite end of the party’s spectrum. If that terminology is rather meaningless to you (or even sounds mildly offensive!) then listen in!

A model of devout resignation

I was in Cambridge for a few days speaking for some events that took place far too late at night for me (carol services at 10pm!!). So naturally, my mind wandered from time to time while the shepherds were watching. And my gaze settled on this memorial which was just above my head. It looks like any other, and is quite wordy. But those words definitely bear close reading. For this particular plaque testified to something far greater than the usual pieties of such things.

Double-entendres: the problem with symbolic shortcuts

This is not a particularly profound post (which, incidentally, is not to claim that regular posts on Q are either), but having just finished Sarah Lyall’s rather delightful (if affectionately acerbic) The Anglo-Files: A Field Guide to the British, I came across this amusing story from the Blair landslide of 1997 at which a record number of women (very patronisingly described at the time as Blair’s babes) were elected to Parliament.

The perils of drink – but it’s not quite what you think

It’s Friday, and so that would normally call for some Friday fun. Well, this post more or less qualifies as a bit of fun, but it’s also a bit of seriousness too. So I’ll let it stand on its own merits. Here is a very helpful and salutary public health warning from the great nineteenth century social reformer and polemicist William Cobbett. It has much to teach us. As I’m sure you’ll agree…

Douglas Adams eats biscuits on Cambridge station

This is one of my favourite short, and true, stories. It comes from the pen of the wondrous Douglas Adams, he of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame. It needs little explanation or introduction. But it is the perfect illustration of all kinds of self-delusions and self-righteousness. 

Friday Fun 47: Skomer Puffins

Trying to write in the wonderfully balmy sun of Pembrokeshire this week has been a struggle! But I’m not complaining. it’s been a joy to be down here, heatwave and all. But I’m particularly thankful to have got out for half a day yesterday to visit Skomer Island at last (been coming to Dale for years, but this was a first). So here is some jollity from the delightful puffins of Skomer. What fun they are…

Friday Fun 46: Memories of running away from school

It seems that my prep school, where I boarded from aged 8-13 (yes I know, I’m still trying to catalogue the subsequent privileged hangups), is 150 years old next year. They appealed for memories from old boys to be included in the anniversary book. So feeling in a slightly frivolous and provocative mood that day, I wrote this. Thought some at least might enjoy it.

Why I love L’Abri

Many are unaware of L’Abri. And that is both a shame and an inevitability. It is a work that thrives behind the scenes and out of the spotlight. It never advertises or fundraises. It just keeps its doors open to all who come and need it. I’ve only ever spent time at the English L’Abri, but it is part of a family of communities around the world which all sprang from the original work set up by Francis Schaeffer in Switzerland (all the details are on their website).

Friday Fun 45: Exposing an enemy’s deception with some wartime humour

Operation Fortitude was a crucial, bold, almost insane, factor in the success of D-Day in 1944. It was a hugely elaborate hoax, to make the enemy believe that the Allies’ continental invasion would happen across the straits of Calais (Fortitude South) and from Scotland into Norway (Fortitude North).

Let the meaning choose the word: Orwell on political language

It has its gainsayers (eg Steven Poole is pretty disparaging, though unfairly in my view) but George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language (the whole essay is online), is prophetic. Of course some of his linguistic concerns are matters of taste and fashion (as Steven Poole rightly notes). But written at the close of the Second World War, this article exposes the sham sincerity and dissembling motivation behind so much political speech and writing. That is the essay’s great virtue. And it has not gone out of date at all.