ray lamontagne, irish car bombs, and business travellers

Ray LaMontagne’s recent album "Till the Sun Turns Black" ends with one of the most beautiful songs about peacemaking I’ve ever heard—in which he simply repeats the refrain "War is not the answer, the answer is within you" over the most delicately lilting instrumentation. It’s the kind of sentiment that could be accused of being too vague to have any practical meaning, but warm and positive enough to be popular. But there’s something about it that feels deeper than that.

It comes to mind as I sit in a cramped and crowded airport in Missouri, between cities on a trip that will take me from the Deep South to the Pacific Northwest, meeting and talking with people seeking to explore faith at the margins of institutional Christianity. I’ll be part of a conference the week after next on the topic "Dangerous Living"(www.solitonnetwork.org)—a title ambiguous enough to invite further interrogation. The organizers aim to build a temporary community of fellow travelers asking questions and sharing experiences of what it means to follow the radical Jesus in a culture that often seems to privilege consumerism above all else and seeks to avoid anything resembling physical work at all costs. We’ll talk about faith and social justice—just what does it mean in our day to hear Jesus tell the rich young ruler how hard it is to get into the kingdom of heaven? We’ll investigate faith and authority: What kind of leadership is required when so many of our public role models leave so much to be desired? We’ll immerse ourselves in faith and creativity, hoping to become more attentive to the voice of God in art, film, music, and nature. Most of all, we will wonder together what it means to be stewards of the Christian tradition that we inherit without falling into the trap of religious imperialism. In other words, how can we take responsibility for sharing our faith without imposing it on others in a way that prevents anyone taking us seriously?

These questions were not far from my thoughts this afternoon, as we sat down for a meal at one of the in-house airport restaurants. Just after my Diet Coke arrived, the gentleman next to our table took a phone call, the first few lines of which went as follows:

‘Hi there—didn’t realize you were on that side of the pond. You looking for more bombers, or just drinking Irish car bombs?’

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fame is a mask that eats the face

Posh Spice might hope to feel at home in her new life in Los Angeles, but hubris is winding its way into her week as the ratings of her "Welcome to America" pseudo-documentary come in. In the U.K., where I live, this program was billed as a light-hearted, even "spoof" piece about her reputation for excess. But it seems the U.S. audience, or at least its television critics, weren’t quite ready for this. At any rate, whether or not she was joking, Victoria Beckham and her husband have become today’s totems of consumerist overdrive.

At the same time, according to media reports, the well-known environmentalist and anti-war activist, Barbra Streisand, has apparently issued the staff of a London hotel with demands about how they are to treat her while she stays there—including instructing them not to look her in the eye. You have to wonder just why someone who is about to sing to 15,000 people who are paying up to a thousand dollars each might be scared of a little personal interaction with just one of them, but I guess Barbra feels she’s earned the right.

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soliton ventura - the year's best gathering

soliton network's annual ventura, california gathering takes place in just three weeks' time. this has become a regular fixture for many of those who attend to explore life and spirituality, to eat together, make fantastic friends, and feel just a little more alive than usual. i'll be there to help facilitate some discussion, along with pete rollins, kester brewin, barry taylor, and others, especially maestro greg russinger who puts the whole thing together with the folk formerly of the bridge.

in the midst of many competing opportunities for creative people to explore theology together, i have genuinely found soliton to be the most stimulating, enjoyable, and nurturing to my own soul over the past few years. hospitality is a hallmark of what these guys do, and so if you've never been before, and you can be in the area, then i'd encourage you with no hesitation to register - you'd be made more welcome than you could imagine.

all the details are here.

‘IF GOD WERE HERE, HE, SHE OR IT WOULD BE SUING A LOT OF PEOPLE FOR LIBEL’ – SINEAD O’CONNOR’S ‘THEOLOGY’

Sinead O’Connor’s not angry anymore; or at least not angry in the same way. Her tearing up of a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live 15 years ago has combined with what we think we know about her ordination into an unofficial offshoot of the Catholic church to give a convenient excuse for people to ignore her. This is a pity, because it makes us forget that she produced one of the only memorably and honest songs about love in the 1990s with her cover version of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’; and one of the most beautiful hymns of spiritual comfort in 1997’s ‘This is to Mother You’ on her ‘Gospel Oak’ EP.

She has made her spirituality more explicit than ever on ‘Theology’ a new double album; and the anger of early Sinead has given way to songs of hope, confidence, and worship. In 23 tracks she sings of God being present in the earthiness of a life lived between the search for truth and the struggle to get by – when she relates how God met ‘my need on a chronic Christmas Eve’ it is easy to imagine the pain that many people feel at the times when the culture is forcing them to pretend to be happy.

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live free, or watch die hard

Great helicopters and explosions abound, the witticisms are barbed, and the cinematography is silver-grey in Die Hard 4.0 (or Live Free or Die Hard, depending on which empire you see it in). I was tired to start with, but the film couldn't wake me up. I vacillated between being bored and horrified, as Bruce Willis yet again stands in for the lone American male whose first resort is always violence (in the first film he was the archetype of a Vietnam War vet, assailed by terrorists on the one hand, and a frustrating civil service bureaucracy on the other; this time he clearly represents the guy who'd go to Iraq just because it's the right thing to do, even though he knows the government sending him is corrupt)...

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apocalypto and mel's mother-figures

i finally got around to seeing 'apocalypto' last night - it's a mixed bag - an undeniably exhilirating film, but extremely violent; and either a tragic reflection on how those who live by the sword die by it, or a 16th century lethal weapon, or both. the controversy that surrounded its director mel gibson just before it was released clouded serious discussion about what this film means, so let me just add one thought.

in each of the epic -canvas films that gibson has directed - 'braveheart', 'the passion of the christ', and 'apocalypto' - there is a scene where the central male character undergoes some kind of torment while a strong female character in his life looks on from a crowd. in 'braveheart', william wallace sees the ghost of his wife while he is being tortured to death; in 'the passion', mary gazes helplessly at jesus carrying the cross, and even sees him transformed in her mind's eye into a the little boy she raised; now, in 'apocalypto', jaguar paw, being led to the top of a pyramid to be sacrificed to the sun god, has a moment of almost unbearable tenderness with his mother in law.

whatever else may be said about mel gibson's ideological beliefs (which are difficult, at best, to determine; given the circumstances under which he has expressed them), ability as a director, or personal problems, it's pretty clear to me that one aspect of his career that has been undervalued is something other than the misogyny that action stars are often accused of. is it just possible that mel gibson loves women? that he loves mothers? that he wants to give them the respect they deserve?

gordon brown's challenges

They say a week is a long time in politics – given what has happened in the UK in the past seven days, that statement proves that some clichés can indeed be true. A week ago, Tony Blair left office and power was seamlessly transferred to his rival Gordon Brown. Brown immediately set to work, replacing all but three members of his Cabinet and launching a major public debate on the British constitution. The man with the reputation of being a ‘dour Scot’ showed himself unable to fulfil one of the modern politicians’ job requirements by struggling to wave (and look like he was enjoying it) while standing outside Number 10, Downing Street. No matter, for by the time he had gone through the door of the house where British Prime Ministers live, he was in charge of the country – he even got a Jim Wallis blog post to welcome him to office!

Jim’s words were an encouragement to see him as a politician with a conscience – a man genuinely committed to addressing questions of injustice. I hope that Brown is able to follow through, but there are a few challenges...


the god's politics blog posted the rest of this article from me during the week...

urgent - please help our friends at the simple way

hi everyone - urgent news:

our friends at the simple way including dear shane claiborne woke up yesterday to find their house and community center being destroyed by fire yesterday - thankfully no one seems to have been injured - but there's more info on http://www.thesimpleway.org/

apologies if you know this already but we're trying to get the word out so people can help.

there is a link on the simple way's site that you can use to donate if you are able to support.

thank you.

another movie haiku

Apes squealing loudly
Monolith appears in space
Evolution Now!

this week's movie haiku

george clooney brad pitt.

stylish casino thieving.

smug like the first two.

the best film i've seen this year

sorry i've been away for a while - much has been going on.

i saw zodiac - a bleak and uncompromising mammoth film about murder and its investigation. david fincher almost seems to be making the anti-Se7en, a fine film which probably spent too much time exploring the seedy underbelly of gruesome violence. zodiac, on the other hand faces up to what murder really is - wiping the slate clean of another human being's personhood, and then breaking the slate. the fact that the film recreates the mood of the 70s in meticulous detail while paying gentle homage to 'all the president's men' and 'the conversation' makes it both a deeply pleasurable for cinephiles as well as a disturbing but profoundly moral film.

religious films

the church times has just published a list of what it calls the top fifty religious films. i was on the panel that decided the films - it takes a fairly narrow definition of what constitutes a 'religious' film - the paper wanted to include only films which make their mysticism explicit (perhaps a contradiction in terms).

it was, however, a fun exercise, and while i didn't endorse the inclusion of each film on the list, and would have added one or two more, i think it's a pretty interesting selection. check it out here and feel free to comment below about what you think should and should not be there.

lives of others and war on terror

saw 'the lives of others' the other night - new german film about the oppressive state regime and the actions of the state security apparatus - the stasi - in east germany before the wall was pulled down in 1989. a man listens to another man talking about his opinions. fairly innocuous, of course; until you realise that the man doing the listening is sitting a few floors above the other man's apartment, and that the sound of his subject's voice is carried through wires hidden behind light switches. and the man who is doing the talking is only being listened to because he has failed to do anything that might actually arouse suspicion in the first place. that, perversely, is what makes the stasi pay attention.

'the lives of others' is a tremendous drama about two human beings and their competing interpretations of what it means to be free. for one, the apparatus of state control is what liberates - if you don't have to think about your life, if you don't have to actually make any decisions, then, the argument goes, the potential exists for some kind of secular nirvana, where all desire is absent. for the other, the existence of 'me' is crushed by such authoritarianism and must eventually be resisted, even if it means the death of reputation, career, or even body.

this film ends with the line 'it's for me', and that statement, of course, can only actually be made by a free person, in a free society.

if the film exists in a clear space and time (and in spite of its over-statement of the very possibility of a stasi operative subverting his masters - on which see anna funder's article in the may issue of 'sight and sound'), it does make subtle comment on the world in which we now live. it is impossible to see surveillance of private lives, and the suggestion that patriotism depends on not criticising any particular government, without thinking (with a good deal of morose regret) of the utter lack of moral imagination applied by the authoritative bodies in the post-9/11 era.

another character makes the link clear, after the momentous events of 1989, for he now has the courage to confront one of his previous political masters with the words 'i can't believe people like you once ruled a country'.

p.s.: 'the lives of others' is a film for our times, and let's hope that hillary benn sees it before he gives his speech challenging 'war on terror' language later today.

the end of the beginning

it's now over two weeks since the press conference in which ian paisley and gerry adams announced their intentions to share power in northern ireland from the 8th may. i haven't written about it here until now for a number of reasons, chief among which was that the front page news crowded out space for substantial reflection. i wanted to wait a while before reacting.

so, for what it's worth, here are my thoughts.

there is no doubt that this is a political miracle and it has the potential to truly end the violent conflict in and about northern ireland.

it was a very long time coming, but it's a remarkable achievement.

at the same time, and at the risk of falling into the cycle of rhetorical negativity that too often characterises conversation about northern ireland, there's something i'd like to say. the people who are now taking credit for 'peace in our time' do not deserve it anywhere near as much as those both behind and in front of the scenes who either always spoke non-violently against injustice, or came round to the idea of power-sharing almost ten years ago when the good friday agreement was signed. neither the irish republican movement nor conservative loyalists can claim to have been purely benign or to have acted always in good faith over the past four decades.

on the one hand, for instance, the ira would have us believe that its struggle was so noble that, among other things, it never intended to target 'non-combatants' in spite of the fact that it regularly planted bombs in urban centres where members of the public were bound to be killed.

on the other, ian paisley appears not to have thought that he had a responsibility to de-escalate the conflict in his public rhetoric until after the agreement to share power had been done behind the scenes.

i am glad that no substantive body of opinion in northern ireland now supports the use of force to continue the centuries-old conflict over a tiny piece of land. but this has been in spite of contrary actions by the movements now taking the spoils of war over most of the period they have been in existence. those who are about to take high office (and with it, responsibility for this society) owe at least some gratitude, if not an apology, to those who have struggled for many years for peace and reconciliation.

at the same time, i thank god that one of the world's longest-running ethnic conflicts has become an object lesson in the value of political dialogue (and a little bit of commerce).

there is a lot more to say about this; including of course an acknowledgement that the pain of this conflict left no community untouched, including those represented by the political movements i'm criticising in this post. i trust however that soon we will see honour being accorded to the long-term peacemakers, and more respect to those who died and suffered than has been evident in the past fortnight.

let the sunshine in

saw 'sunshine' tonight - danny boyle/alex garland's new film that manages to be both a sci-fi adventure and a mystical piece about the search for god. it's a companion piece to 'the fountain', (which given the benefit of a few months' distance is certainly my favourite film of the past year), - visually it's a thing of beauty, and
there's much more to this story about the human race to re-activate the dying sun than the bits that sound like 'armageddon' or 'deep impact'. it's pretty clear that the sun in this film is more than just a great ball of fire.

would god abandon us? as we approach easter it's appropriate to remember that at least one Person thought so. or at least he felt that god had abandoned him.

but that story wasn't finished yet.

it still isn't.

belfast film festival: the kick off

two days into the fest - and the qft bar was filled to the rafters after the screening of 'night of the sunflowers' - a quite special, very stylish, bleak thriller set in the spanish countryside and so evocatively filmed that you almost feel like you're getting a tan.

highlights today of this lovely festival that fills our city with good cinema for 11 days:

railroad all-stars
ten canoes
john malkovich as klimt
and
ghosts of cite soleil

healing through remembering

i'll be in london on monday and tuesday speaking with others at three events on behalf of healing through remembering - a very thoughtful initiative that is seeking to propose ways to address the past regarding the conflict in and about northern ireland. if you're interested in thinking about these questions, which have a much more universal application than just in my home community, consider yourself invited to any of the events. the events are details here.

climate change and journalistic ethics

martin durkin's 'the great global warming swindle' made waves when screened last week. a feature length film presenting scientists who dispute the received wisdom about climate change, 'swindle' is a technically brilliant piece of dramatic documentary, made by someone who also has the courage to stand in the face of mainstream opinion. (whatever it else it is, courage is definitely part of it.)

and yet.

and yet, the response to the film has raised uncomfortable questions about journalistic ethics - the director has been previously found to have misled interviewees, and distorted or ignored facts. at least one of the contributors to 'swindle' has already stated that he feels let down by the programme-makers.

what is saddest about this is that the question of the potential validity of any of the arguments made by the contributors is likely to be subsumed under media sniping about the possibility that we have been misled about some of them. i'm left not sure what to do about this - who do i believe? can anyone help me?

am i left with only the option of splitting the difference between watching 'swindle' followed by 'an inconvenient truth' and a visit to george monbiot's blog?

old joy

it's been a fortnight of meditative cinema - the monks of 'into great silence', jack nicholson's ambivalent journalist at the heart of 'the passenger', and now the unexpected glories of 'old joy' - a film apparently based on a book of still photographs. two guys who used to be roommates go on a short road trip, lie down in a hot spring, talk a little, feel regret, and go home.

the sense of a once-meaningful friendship disappearing into the past is palpably evoked by the pitch-perfect central performances by daniel london and will oldham, the gentle photography that really takes its time, and the fact that pretty much all of us will be able to identify with the story from the inside.

it's also one of the most subtly devastating critiques of the bush administration, and, more importantly, the lack of a substantive alternative offered from the left (and my generation specifically).

perhaps the only criticism i would make is that there is not enough of this film, but that, i guess is another way of saying that what is there is really rather wonderful.

the passenger

watching michelangelo antonioni's 'the passenger' is a stilling experience, not least of all because jack nicholson's laconic way is better suited to this film than pretty much any other i've seen. the story of a man who disappears into the life of another for reasons best known to himself doesn't rely on movie style or tricks, but conveys something of the inner life of a certain kind of person - he or she who does things for an inexplicable purpose. 'i used to be somebody else but i traded him in' says jack's character, travelling from north africa to london to munich and barcelona by way of the map of the human soul. a character tells another that the questions we ask reveal more about us than the answers given. nothing much happens in this picture, except the transfixed gaze of the audience. and it made me feel like i was alive.

p.s. watch it with jack's commentary on the dvd for a treasurable couple of hours in the presence of one of pop culture's true originals.