Ambiguity

In church this morning, there were very helpful reflections upon – among other things – how a Christian attitude is about seeking reconciliation rather than justice or revenge.

Reference was made to briefing documents, revealed in GQ, that Donald Rumsfeld provided the White House during the war in Iraq.

Featuring triumphalist, Crusader-like images from American military theatres with Bible verses superimposed, they paint a picture of the Bush administration as a terrifying, sinister theocracy, and they would sound like a hilarious caricature were they not absolutely true.

It is so sad that the people mostly associated with the label “Christian”, particularly by the Muslim world, are neo-cons like Rumsfeld and Bush. No wonder so many folk hate Christianity, the West and the USA.

Not quite what you think...Meanwhile, it’s sad also that other “Christian” fundamentalists continue to make headlines (in blatant contradiction to the Church of Scotland’s admittedly bizarre nationwide gagging order), making yet more waves with their alarmingly shoddy interpretation of and over-reaction to, yes, that old chestnut, homosexuality.

The church in Scotland’s treatment of this subject highly amuses me.

I’ve sat through more than a couple of sermons (in a number of churches) covering this issue in recent months. Preaching on the topic has ranged from sledgehammer-like paranoid obsession, through to treating it gingerly as an unmentionable hot potato. A pink elephant in the room, if you like.

Meanwhile, I photographed this headline above earlier today about one local church’s action on the debate – are they making a move on the issue, or getting a minister themselves? It amuses me that there are two radically different interpretations of this one brief, innocuous headline.

How wonderfully apposite…

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