What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • The kind of political party I’d like to see

    I’m not a member of a political party at the moment, though obviously I have been in the past.

    Here’s the policies that would be to the fore in the kind of political party that I would like to see and which would get me back into making a more active engagement in politics:

    1. A burning desire to reduce absolute poverty across the United Kingdom
    2. An ambition to reduce relative inequality across the country.
    3. A narrative that focuses more on justice than nationhood.
    4. A reforming zeal for the institutions of government – House of Lords, PR and the EU Parliament to begin with but not limited to these.
    5. A localism that seeks to put power in the hands of local communities.
    6. An internationalism that seeks to redeem colonialism by unashamedly promoting progressive values (equality of men and women, LGBT rights, anti-corruption, anti-bribery) as it seeks to trade with the world.
    7. An ability to articulate what freedom for the individual means in a digital age.
    8. An acceptance that social security is here for the good of us all.
    9. A celebration of the relative peace and prosperity that the European Union has brought to a once warring continent
    10. A stable, mixed-mode economy.
    11. A secure National Health Service.
    12. Disestablishment of national churches

4 responses to “Here is the sermon…”

  1. Beth Avatar
    Beth

    I remember that workshop being done as part of an LGBT group meeting. I was slightly skeptical about it in the beginning, but ended up getting a lot out of it and thinking about God in ways that I hadn’t consciously before.

    Reply
  2. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    FWIW, in order to dot some `t’s and cross some `i’s, my sensibly heretical book The Five Gospels colours all the speech black apart from the saying about women grinding corn (which merits a grey, at best). Ie, none of the text goes back to any historical Jesus, with the apocalyptic context added by the gospel authors; the `thief in the night’ is an Christian saying of the early churches (witness other epistles, written before Matthew, where the image appears) and therefore probably planted, in that order, in Matthew.

    I guess taking what you most charitably will out of the passage is entirely reasonable, then. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    (I had to read that, and a bit from Romans at church up here, too… was “interesting” turning a blind eye to it. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Tracey Avatar
    Tracey

    Thanks for that Kelvin. When I read that Gospel at the 8:30 service, i remembered the severe fundamentalist church I was brought up in as a child, and it made me uncomfortable. Reading your comments, I remember my first few visits to an Episcopal worship service and remembering how joyful and non-scary it was, and being amazed by the fact that I didn’t have to be afraid of God. Thanks for the reminder.

    Reply

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