Wibbling Thoughts

This is what I did today

I didn’t get in the photo, but the blue arm in the corner is me.

Yesterday I was looking at the news about burma, and I recieved an email – there was a demo planned for the next day. I use planned in the loosest sense of the word – near to the end of the time we were blockading I had this conversation with a police officer :

PC – who organised this
me – no one organised it
PC – who was here first
me – no one, we all came together
PC – but there must be some leaders, who are they?
me – there are some people talking to the press, some people talking to the police, some people playing Samba, but no one is our leader
PC – but someone must have organised it.

The truth is noone organised it, a proposal was made and over 30 people turned up – hearing about it from facebook, emails and word of mouth. In less than 24 hours. There was a hurridly painted banner, hand made signs and colouring on the forecourt of a petrol station. And it wasn’t just the usual suspects. Carrying the banner and sitting next to me on the road, learning samba and handing out leaflets were people who had never protested before. It was fantastic.

For the most part car drivers supported us – only one van got throught the blockade that we didn’t grudginly allow – of the other cars we let through one drove a car for a firm that had an account there and waited patiently whilst we decided to let him through – he left saying he would present our case to his firm (I don’t know if he will or not – probably not), another was a truck driver – and I mean one of those big articulated lorries. He drove into us. We were holding our hands up so he couldn’t give the excuse that he couldn’t see us. The Police officer who was there lost sympathy with him when the driver called him a tosser. He had an account there too, so we let him through. It was one of the most good natured protests I have been too. Most of the people we stopped going to just turned around when we explained to them. Passing drivers sounded their horns and some gave us thumbs up (just a pointer, if you’re ever driving past a protest you support, when sounding your horn make a thumbs up – because a horn can either mean that people support you, or that they think you’re a bunch of wankers.)

And this evening I babysat for two little girls, the kids of the ‘ranting vicar’ mentioned in the article – and it was lovely and I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy and excited about going to Faslane on Sunday!

I’ve started researching my dissertation (I need to stock up on sweet things, it’s a bit stressful…) and found a site called “Theocracy Watch” which gave me a nice list of reconciliation groups in Palestine/Israel. After looking at all the sites listed I saw a link down the side that said “Satan” so being a me I clicked it. It had quotes from Left Behind on it.

The books are stalking me. I can’t get away from them…

Today
I could light a candle in a church
Recite a poem about gulls landing on the spars of old ships
Walk down to a cafe in country park
Stop by the stream where we scattered your ashes
Remember mum almost falling in, and laugh and cry
And eat chocolate cake.
Or walk to the Folly on top of the hill
With a bunch of flowers tied tightly in a purple ribbon
Picked from our garden.
Today I could stand on a sea shore
Stare out into the waves
Today I could remember you, cry for you.

But I’m not.
I’m going to Otley Folk Festival.

(It’s my dads birthday today…which should explain this rather dreadful poem)

I went to Leeds today intending to go to the jumble sale at church and then get my macbook fixed, and get home by about 2 and tidy the house before Helen’s parents come round. I ended up at Ilkley folk festival.

The festival itself was fantastic – I was there for two singing sessions – one comedy session, where I listened to 2 fantastic songs about pirates, and one normal sing around. I also heard two concert sessions. Well, I say concert sessions but they all involved singing the chorus.

It was absolutely fantastic – there were songs about the right to roam, songs about war and against war, songs of sweethearts and pirates and ghosts – sometimes all in the same song. There were political songs, and social songs and love songs. And sat in the room were folkys of every age, all singing along to some of the most radical songs written. It was fantastic!

Day 37

I finished the damn things. And lost the will to live.

I’m now worried that they may be right, and the God who comes on a war horse and condems millions to death and eternal torment is real, and the loving, forgiving God is made up.

Help…

Well, I’ve just spent an hour working out who dies in what book and in what horrible way, and also rating the judgements for style, control, damage and agression.

I think I may have gone a little bit nuts.

I’ve got five days to read the last books, and then an article to write. Should be fun.

And then back to the joys of uni!

Day 35

I’ve just finished the second to last book. I’ve only got one to go now.

During this book, there was more preaching about how much God Loves everyone, more plauges and judgements poured out on the earth, and two more main characters died. Oneof them was Chloe, and one of them was either Buck or Rayford. Oh, and the Antichrists armies are massing at Jeruselum (still no mention of the Muslims living in the Old City or Palestine) and Petra (no Muslims there either – in fact…the only Muslims we’ve met in the books were in China…not Iraq or Jordan). And Jesus is about to rush in on a shining white horse and fight the bad guy and usher in a millenium of something. I’m not too sure what…

Day 32 (Later….)

Oh dear God…I googled…

Day 29

Two books left to read.

I think I’m missing something here. So much of the later book are harping on about God’s love. This is the God who sending massive plagues of death and destruction and killing most of the population, allowing an evil bastard – infact Satan himself – to rule the planet and raise from the dead. To be honest God is being a bit of a bastard. But according to Tsion Ben Judah it’s all because he loves us.

Interestingly iTunes on shuffle chose to play “Losing my religion” the second I finished that line. And I’ve not made that up.

A quote from the book ‘Apollyon’ is a perfect example of this thinking – “I beg of you not to look upon God as mean or capricious when we see the intense suffering of the bite vitims. This is all part of his master design to turn people to him so he can demonstrate his love.” So I have two problems interlinked with this. The first is that as far as I am concerned that quote is a slight on the character of God. I do not – will not – worship a God that could end the suffering of the world but chooses not to. The second is less of a problem, but is related to the people in the book who are shown to have converted. From reading the books, as long as you invite Jesus into your life, even if it’s just because you are scared shitless of all the devestation that he has wrought on the world, you have a ‘get-out-of-hell-free’ card.

I was temping today and reading a Doctor Who tie in novel. Now, call me shallow, but I don’t read Doctor Who novels for deep reflection, but this novel not only mentioned Dostoyevsky, but quoted from the books and Ace knew about him. This made me very happy, but also got me thinking about the responses to the problem of evil. As far as I understand it, traditionally there are three choices – Hume, an eighteenth century philosipher simply states the problem as “Is He willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is impotent. Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Whence then is evil?” The third choice is that God is both willing and able, but does not know about the evil in the world – which thinking about it is nonsence because then God is impotent. The traditional answer to the problem of evil is human free will – which is all well and good – but where is God?

As far as I am concerned, God is in the suffering. There is a story told about an execution in a Concentration Camp during world war 2 – three people were hung, two men and a child. The two men died instantly as their necks broke, but the child was slowly killed. Somebody asked “Where is God?” and was answered “He is there, dying.”

As far as Left Behind is concerned – God is in the people fighting to survive. He is as much in the group of Muslims who ‘died for Allah’ (and in the eyes of the authors died in vain) as in the GC forces who were shot running away from a raid as in the heroic Christians who weren’t afraid to die because of their assured place in heaven.

Unfortunatly the authors of LB would disagree with me.

Day 32

My friend is threatening to send me left behind slash fiction. Apparently most of the slash is better written than the books themselves. I’m resisiting the urge to Google.

Day 28

I’ve just worked out what day it is – and found I still have 12 days to read the last three left behind books. I do have some other entries that I need to type up, but I’ve mostly given up thinking about the books and have just been forcing myself to read the damn things.

I think I may have lost the will to live.