It as been a while since I last blogged, partly because I have been so bogged down with work, and partly because every time I sat down to write a blog I just couldn't string my thoughts and words together in any sensible way... and I know I probably don't make much sense most of the time, but I do like to try and make sense when I do Regen things! ;-)

Anyway the thing that has been on my mind over the last few weeks can be summed up in the following, us being light, love, and hope and not just saying it!

I dont know if you watched the Channel 4 Dispatches television programme on 'Britain's  Witch Children', it was a very disturbing documentary on some of London's 'churches' and 'pastors', and the perverted and disgraceful activities of a few people and groups that are done in the name of Jesus, things that have nothing to do with what Jesus taught or commanded us as followers, and nothing to do with the Church or God's Kingdom.  What I saw was not light but darkness, not love but manipulation, not hope but despair , to put it bluntly it was evil!

I have also been doing a lot of thinking and reading on Christians response to the LGBT community, and Christian-Muslim relationships recently over the last few weeks.  A group of Christians recently decided to go to a Gay Pride demonstration in Chicago, and instead holding up hateful placards, or watching it in a judgmental and condescending way, they wore t-shirts saying 'We are sorry' and they choose to engage people in a positive way by acknowledging that the Christian community has not always been loving or helpful in the ways they have engaged the LGBT community.  In fact our engage as Christian has at times been hateful and judgmental.

The debate happening in NYC, on whether a Mosque should be built a few block from Ground Zero, is also interesting to me - it never ceases to amaze me that we want one thing for us as Christian's but are not willing to offer the same liberties to others that think or believe differently.  Thanks God for Evangelical Theologian John Stackhouse and his blog (Ground Zero Mosque - Its a Simple Question).

Tonight I watched the Rachel Weisz film 'Agora', which is a historical drama set in the 4th century in Alexandria, Egypt, it tells the story of the female philosophy professor and atheist Hypatia of Alexandria, and her life and death.  The sad thing is that the film is centred around the influence of the Christian Church, and instead of being light they became darkness, instead of love that demonstrate hatred and intolerance, and instead of hope they show despair.  In fact the Christian Church was the embodiment of evil!  Now, I know the film has probably been fictionalised and embellished a bit, but we know from the historical account of the crusades, this film is a lot nearer the truth than we may want to admit.

Let us be light, love, and hope and not just say it!  Let us watch out for extremism and fundamentalism, let us explore the teaches of Jesus again and shake off some of the dogmatic teachings that Christianity has adopted, and lets us get back to the core of what Jesus taught!  Let us be a conspiracy of little Jesus'.... that bring good news to the poor, broken and captive.... that go to those living in the margins and on the edges of society and show them love and hope.  Being judgmental and hateful has nothing to do with Jesus or his kingdom... exploiting and manipulating has nothing to Jesus or his kingdom....

Being light, love, and hope has everything to do with Jesus, so lets be it and not just say it!

One Love!