out and about with Rob

I am not a fundamentalist.  But recently I have had to do a great deal of thinking about fundamentalism due to a friend asking me to give a U3A lecture on the topic.  Tonight I’ve been asked to talk to a Rotary Club on the same topic.  I’m wondering what’s going on!!

My research into the history of the movement leads me to believe it has little to do with religion – that’s what counsellors might call the presenting issue.  Fundamentalism runs on a continuum.  The media likes us to believe that their sensationalist view of the world is the correct one.  In some ways they are colluding with extreme fundamentalists here.  By parading the extremes as news journalists normalise that end of the spectrum. But I also suspect it’s the fear factor that is behind the invitations I have to speak about it.

And fear is the baseline of fundamentalism too.  The fear of nihilism leads some people to espouse the view that the world’s issues are only solvable by God.  The world is too corrupted to make the changes needed.  All our systems fail us at the existential point of asking what is the point.  Enter the certainty of the fundamentalist.  And the absolving of any human responsibility. 

I wonder what the Rotary Club are expecting of me and my “talk”.  I wonder what their answer to the question of nihilistic angst is.  Oh well, I’m off soon to find out!  I’ll let you know.

I’ve been asked to talk about our trip to Britain.  That raises a pressing question.  What is interesting to other people?   What fascinated  me  may be totally boring to someone else.  I looked in churches and cathedrals for Green Men, a  topic of  interest to me.  Sometimes I had to ask an attendant  to show me where they were.  The most fun place in that regard  for me was Ely Cathedral.  Several  cathedral  attendants were standing round waiting to help visitors.  They do a great job.  I went up to  one of them, and asked where I would find their green man that I had read about. He suddenly came alive.  No-one has asked about that for ages he said, come with me.  But before I show you where the green man is, let me show you the Ely imp.  It’s rather hard to see – it’s above the choir stalls.  He gleefully pointed it out to me, then we raced into the Ladies Chapel where the Green Man was.  He explained how somehow Cromwell’s men had missed it when they purged cathedrals of statues.  So it’s older than lots of other carving. 
There it was, above the door.  The Green Man of Ely.  Other churches and cathedrals have several Green Men.  One attendant in another place was reluctant to show me where theirs was  He didn’t believe in them even though there they were in his church in Stratford Upon Avon.  Smacks of paganism, he said.  Another attendant reckoned the builders were hedging their bets.  This male principle of growth is ancient, and is certainly mixed up with all sorts of belief.  I like it appearing in churches too. Pagan?  Hedging their bets?  Maybe.  But a sign of the real nature of religion – to find ways to live in a world beyond our control, and try to make sense of it. 
If you want to follow up the Green Man, use Google – there are heaps of sites!

Hi there.  Just when I thought I’d give this blog away I decided to test the water again.
Since my last writing I have been on the other end of the world:  England and a wee bit of Europe.  Being guests of Westminster College in Cambridge, England for a term was a wonderful experience.  We made new friends, explored theology together.  I wrote and thought.  I walked around the streets of living history, walked a labyrinth on a lawn and inside a famous chapel.  I considered the place church has in a society that struggles with organised religion.  As a learning experience it has been unparalleled for me. 

I came back to Aotearoa with many concerns too.  A friend who lives in London is reaching an empty place in his life – over 60, and wondering what lies ahead.  As far as he can see, there is nothing.  We talked for a long while about this.  I wish he was alone in his concern.  He is not!  Since returning home I’ve had the same basic conversation with two other men about the same age.  I identify with it – I can see a new turning point in my life too – the word retirement is one with little meaning when maybe a third of our  lives is lived after  our normal paid employment finishes.  This raises new and uneasy issues for us as human beings which previous generations did not seem to have in the same depth. The question: what will become of me? is not an idle one.

Simplistic answers do not help at this point.  Being part of an intentional faith community at least offers me a place to explore this issue and to learn from the wisdom of others.  St Ninians offers me this place.  Westminster College offered the space to think about it – for that I’m eternally grateful to those wonderful students and staff.  Especially those for whom my point of view about theology and God were rather different from theirs!  Here’s a Guiness for you guys.