It was when an evangelical said to Coco, the grace we gave for lunch counts for the coffee and cake that was taken later that Coco understood that despite the words of the partially unreformed confession; found in, inter alia, the Thirty-nine Articles, not the Steps, which are of an altogether different sort, of later fame, which states:
Continue readingFaith
AI – what can go wrong?
Having heard and read about AI chat machines and recommended their use by others, when the BBC mentioned one (Elusive Ernie) in particular Coco thought Coco should look.
Continue readingOn the [a]moral high ground?
Speculative misguidance?
Once again the BBC is to be thanked for bringing to our attention a prominent issue in our contemporary world by drawing attention to the Brattle report. The reference to the ‘19 million [who] include those Africans kidnapped and transported to the Americas and Caribbean and those born into slavery‘ which is indeed a blight upon those nations who participated in the slave trade originating in West Africa and conducted over many centuries, brings to our attention the extent of the harm caused by slavery, and also whilst pointing to the evidence that exists today of the transatlantic aspects of that slave trade by mentioning those ‘born into slavery‘ also leads us to ask where today is, and if there is none, why is there none, of the overland transportation of slaves from West Africa to the east? There is sufficient information available to provide an answer to that question, but I shall not rehearse it here lest the descriptions used infringe the sensibilities of the censors and my readers. Let me say nothing more than that some of the men at the least may perhaps have preferred the Western than the Eastern transport.
Continue readingPsalms, hymns and spiritual songs
09/07/2023 10:31
Politicians are well known for not answering the questions that has been asked, but had you noticed that it is not only politicians who do so, though the others may do so for quite different reasons.
Continue readingFreedom? With a price on your head?
Little has changed since 1524 when a young man began a work which would inflame the authorities in his homeland as he dared to defy the authorities who wished to silence him. Two years later the book that he had published, and which had been smuggled into his homeland, was being burned in the streets. He had to go into hiding, where he revised and improved his earlier work using the profits from the first then having been burnt printing. In 1530 he further enraged the chief executive who then sought his extradition. The extradition attempt failed for the lack of production of formal evidence. A price was however now on his head, and it would only be a matter of time before he would be betrayed by a ‘friend’, illegally held and then transported to a trial in which the charges were so designed that he could not be but convicted.
Continue readingButterfly
Coco was thinking about Cio-cio-san the other day and noticed a striking similarity between Madama Butterfly and the young Shulamitess in the stage play by Solomon. Madama Butterfly will be no stranger to you, and perhaps the story familiar. Some would say that Puccini spent forty years trying to write this opera and the last twenty years of his life trying to write it again, it containing the epitome of operatic drama outside Bayreuth however could not be reproduced.
Continue readingAre you a christian?
14/05/2023 12:33
It was a question this morning (James at Hebron – what was the question?) in conjunction with a question that had been asked in a court in Oxfordshire (A clerical case in which it was asked whether the defendant thought that the plaintiff was a Christian, upon which the answer thereto the judgement depended) a few years ago that made me think about it. Examination questions that require essays in reply may often be phrased in this way: What? Why?
Continue readingEurovision too
Backing track, back tracking or tracking back?
Vesna ‘are not your dolls’: Eurovision Q&A
Six piece girl band Vesna have already made the final, with a song that urges support for Ukraine.
Continue readingCoronas
Today is an important day for many reasons. We have crowned a man who is king, who in that crowning made certain clear commitments. We do not have to be monarchists to recognise the benefits of those commitments, and I would suggest that of whatever form of government you want if you do not require of the governor those same commitments then you do both yourself and your fellow countrymen a great disservice. There are only two, or perhaps three, on which comment shall be made here.
Continue readingO Miserable man!
An apology coming so soon after the previous one? One would have thought that cartoonists might have learned a thing or two by now. It is fitting however when two interesting articles are placed side by side they provoke an interesting thought, but given that this morning’s sermon was on Romans 12: Be subject to the authorities, I wondered whether political satire may sometimes be haram rather than kosher. But we do have Rutherford’s teaching also on the matter who promoted Lex rex rather than Rex lex, aptly illustrated by when on the appointment of one of his governors, Trajan handed to him a dagger with the words: ‘to be used for me (As Paul said: they hold the power of the sword) and [if I do wrong] in me’. How different from the lèse-majesté of another nation. On the basis of this, the interesting (or not so interesting depending upon your point of view) thought becomes public at the risk of offending those who by their nature are afflicted with the plague of sensitivity to that which is ill aligned with the contemporary notion of politica rectitude, and given with apologies to those who will recognise that I, being ignorant of such matters, have used the incorrect case.
Continue reading