- General Election in UK – Labour landslide. PM – Sir Keir Starmer. (No great change in policies from the Tory government that Labour will replace).
- US politics will continue to be dominated by Donald Trump
- In the US Presidential election in November there will be victory for the Republican Party.
- AI/Deepfakes have a significant effect in electoral politics.
- Conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine unresolved by end of 2024.
- No progress for those wanting marriage equality in the Church of England.
- Twitter goes bust or is sold or both.
- The world will be warmer in 2024 than ever before.
- Another country will join Nato.
- A new agreement is reached between the UK and Greece on the Elgin/Parthenon Marbles that opens the door for at least some of them to be displayed in Athens.
4 responses to “D.I.V.O.R.C.E.”
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I am a little worried about this concept of “African Marriage”. It seems to assume that Africa as a continent is culturally homogenous. This is not something that we would ever say about Europe or Asia, and it is simply not true. Morocco has very little cultural similarity to Mozambique. In South Africa, Xhosa-speaking men are circumcised at about 16 years old. Zulu-speaking men are not circumcised. They live in neighbouring provinces and inter-mingle in the cities. I think we have to be very careful when we describe practices that are common in Nigeria or Tanzania or Namibia as African, as they may not apply across the whole continent. It would be like calling bullfighting or reindeer racing European cultural norms, when we know that they are specific to particular countries.
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I think what Christians and others need to bear in mind is that it is possible to be accepting of divorce as a fact of life while still valuing commitment and regarding marriage as ideally being a lifelong covenant. In truth, if a couple is considering divorce then there is already brokenness (or sin—although in this context the word has some uncomfortable connotations) in their relationship, and trying to maintain it purely because the Church (or, heaven forfend, God) Says No doesn’t seem to me to be in any way a holy or virtuous thing to do.
‘D.I.V.O.R.C.E.’ is a lot less effective an obfuscation in writing than when Dolly sang it.
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Jacob Zuma has five wives, Desmond Tutu has one wife, Nelson Mandela had three wives and divorced two of them. What does this tell us about the concept of “African Marriage”?
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I was quoting an African priest. And I agree with you.
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