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Year: 2014

Why I Just Stopped Using “Christian” Bookshops or “How The Church Is Committing Suicide”

Warning, I’m about to complain.

If you follow me on twitter you may have noticed that I’ve had some issues getting books that I’ve ordered at a Christian Bookshop. That isn’t the reason I’ve decided to start using Waterstones.

You may have heard me complain about how I placed an order for a book I need to reference and they lost the order and I can’t remember which book it was either. That isn’t why I’ve decided to start using Waterstones.

I just went to pick up my order and when I politely enquired if it was available a week later, I was looked at as though I was bonkers. ‘You want a book, in a bookshop? This is a Christian Bookshop for Christian people, there’s nothin for you here’.

As she went through the packages, she put one aside and said “It can’t be that one, it is for Reverend someone”.

“That could be me”.

She put down the paper packet she was looking at, looked me up and down from head to toe, shook her head. Then she picked her package back up and carrying on with the task.

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This is why I’m giving up on using Christian Businesses. I’m tired of being judged at every transaction. I’m a human being and I have a right to exist on the face of the planet. Waterstones would never dream of treating someone like that.

Can we all think about how we treat people on a “Sunday morning” without me writing a second post to point out the parallels?

Wealth and Poverty

Last week I blogged about the growing gap between the rich and the poor. I also mentioned that wealth is only wealth if it is compared to poverty. If we are all millionaires, a million quid isn’t worth anything. This article brings home a terrifying statistic.

A new report from Oxfam on Monday. It warned that those richest 85 people across the globe share a combined wealth of £1tn, as much as the poorest 3.5 billion of the world’s population.

Astonishingly, 85 people have the combined wealth of half the planet’s poorest. How long can this stockpiling of wealth go on before the whole system collapses? When 85 people have 95% of the worlds money?

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Salt and Light

Took a break from sermon writing to grab some lunch. This is what we found in the health food shop underneath Ginger cafe!

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The Big Benefits Row

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I’m always cutting edge and up to date, never several days behind.  No no no.

I recorded The Big Benefits Row the other night because I’d had a bad day.  A well informed individual from the local area was using Facebook to inform everyone that Foodbanks were just a way for “trendy, dogooder, left wing, anti government Christians” to “feel good about themselves”.  Having given real examples of real lives from the food drop in and St George’s Crypt, it was clearly going around in circles as “all money for the homeless is spent on drugs and booze”. I did not really fancy The Big Benefits Row:  The clue is in the title,  more of the same.

If I’m honest, I turned it off after Edwina Currie.  I grew tired of Edwina Currie and Katie Hopkins’ plum accents shouting down the regional accents of the “poor people” and refusing to let them speak.  It was exhausting to watch.  Like watching a pack of dogs tearing a puppy to pieces in a dingy cellar somewhere in the East End of London as a sweaty man takes screwed up five pound notes from a baying crowd whilst going on about the savings he’ll now make on Winalot.  So I turned it off.