the seven-facts-about-me [or I can't sleep] meme

From lilwatchergirl, who tagged me some time ago...

Seven facts about myself
1. I've only just learned how to use html to underline what I'm writing. I had a grandfather who liked to underline everything he wrote.
2. That was the same grandfather who once told me that Arthur Scargill was the most evil man who had ever lived. Until an extremely amused Sunday School teacher explained otherwise, I held an elaborate and sophisticated theology of Arthur Scargill as Satan incarnate, exactly in the same was as Jesus is God incarnate.
3. Talking of miner's strikes and suchlike, I think Billy Elliot was a lovely film. There's still a weeeeeny little bit of me that would have loved to be a ballerina too...
4. ... and it's fortunate that it's only such an ickle bit of me that does, because I cannot dance at all, and don't particularly even enjoy trying...
5. ... which is unfortunate because He To Whom I'm About to Be Married is an exceptionally good dancer. If he didn't come from a place even more macho than 80s Easington, he may well have ended up in a tutu...
6. ... but that's enough about that because my mum may be reading this. She's one of only four people who know "Grace" in real life.
7. I sometimes find real life utterly overwhelming.

thought for the day

The legally most straightforward places* for Grace and Fiance to elope for a Christian wedding ceremony leading to a UK-recognised marriage would seem to be South Africa and Thailand.

*This does not include the State of Nevada (ie Las Vegas). Resorting to a marriage officiated by Elvis would make Grace weep, and that would not be straightforward.

call yourself a Christian?

I woke up this morning to various graphic descriptions of the Eldoret church massacre in Eastern Kenya. I was there, briefly, in the mid 90s, and my memory of Eldoret was of utter PraisetheLordsville, with every other building a place of Christian worship. I visited Rwanda soon afterwards, soon enough still after the genocide that, when I visited one of the churches in which hundreds there were massacred, they were still sorting the dismembered body parts into neat rows... as though neat rows of dismembered body parts would somehow make up for what they'd done. And I felt this morning as I felt in Rwanda back then: how can people who call themselves Christians and claim a personal relationship with Christ perpetrate such evil?

And then, later on in the morning, I utterly blew up at three of my very closest friends. Certainly, I didn't take pangas to their skulls or burn their babies alive, but I did most definitely say things they found very hurtful that will change our friendships forever and I cannot pretend otherwise. And I call myself a Christian, too.

Theologically, intellectually, I struggle with the concept of Original Sin as a premise on which to base the Christian message. Intuitively, though, instinctively, I can feel such evil inside of me...

Happy New Year: "Women who stop church 'put health at risk'"

I've just found this article in The Telegraph. Or, to be honest, on MadPriest's blog. I'm sure there must be a pithy and witty gender-related comment or some reference to Foucault to make on this, but I'm not sure what it is. I just know that week I thought I was going to have to leave my church, I felt exceedingly lonely and drank ridiculous amounts of white wine...

"Researchers say women who let their religious activity lapse are three times more likely to suffer from anxiety or become dependent on alcohol than those who keep their faith active.
However, men who took part in the study and who became less religious in adulthood did not appear to suffer any increase in mental health problems.
Dr Joanna Maselko, the lead study author, of Temple University, Philadelphia, said women suffered more from losing interest in religion because they were more likely to lose friends and social contacts as a result.
Dr Maselko said: "Women are more integrated into the social networks of their religious communities.
"When they stop attending religious services, they lose access to that network and all its potential benefits. Men may not be as integrated into the religious community and so may not suffer the negative consequences of leaving."
Dr Maselko, whose research is published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, questioned 718 adults.
Among the women, seven per cent of those who had always been active in their religion had symptoms of anxiety disorder.
However, 21 per cent of those who were less religiously active than in their childhood suffered symptoms of anxiety.
They were also three times more likely to have had drinking problems.
This effect was not seen in the men. The survey found male participants who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer from serious depression than those who still went to church.
Dr Maselko said: " A person's current level of spirituality is only part of the story. We can only get a better understanding of the relationship between health and spirituality by knowing a person's religious history."