Rant alert! If you may wish to avoid this post if you:
(1) agree with the claims of Lord Carey that Christians are being persecuted in the UK
and
(2) want to get Delirious to number 1 in the charts for Easter
… as you are not going to agree with me or like what I say!
These two items in the news and flying around facebook have really niggled me over the last few days.
First Lord Carey whinging that Christians are being persecuted in this country and suggesting that we should stand up for ourselves. This has really annoyed me for two reasons. I believe the comments are incredibly insensitive in light of real persecution of Christians in other countries such as Nigeria or Zimbabwe. Rochester Diocese has strong links with Zimbabwe and we have been hearing horrendous stories of people being beaten and murdered by police for trying to attend church. When a letter from the bishop was read in the cathedral at the midnight service on Christmas Eve people were shocked and moved to tears. You can red more here. To suggest we are persecuted in Britain because some people cannot wear an item of jewelery at work is an insult to those Zimbabwean Christians.
Secondly, Lord Carey and his friends have suggested we should stand up for our rights. I thought that as Christians we are to imitate Jesus in our lives. I am interested how Lord Carey feels this is a demand that Christians can make? During Holy Week I am more conscious than normal that Jesus does not stand up for himself. Jesus does not defend himself during his trial even though he was innocent of any crime. Jesus leaves it to God. Show me anywhere in the Bible where Christians are told to stand up for themselves? We are warned, however, in plenty of places that life will be hard for us – Zimbabwe is experiencing that as I write and you read – and maybe in the UK we will experience something in the future. We are not, however, being persecuted, victimised or even sidelined now!
It’s exciting to see the current Archbishop, whom I admire greatly, speaking out against this inappropriate ‘persecution in the UK’ statement.
My rant continues to Delirious and the campaign to get Christians to unite to get their song to number 1 in the charts for Easter. I just wonder ‘why?’ in exasperation!
The only people to benefit from this will be iTunes and the members of the band.
Getting the song to number achieves …. well what does it achieve. Please, if I am missing something here tell me?!
It’s great that Christians can unite to do something, but please can’t we be more imaginative than getting our own songs to number 1? can’t we unite around something that will make a difference – that, if you like would really make history!
If we put this in a wider perspective – a few days ago we saw Sport Relief on British TV screens. We learned that 3000 children die unnecessarily each day of the year from malaria because they do not have a £5 mosquito net to sleep under each night. 3000 children each day of the year – that’s a 9/11 atrocity every single day of the year! That figure is just from malaria – imagine adding the figures from other diseases and hunger. I feel tears developing as I think. In case you were wondering that amounts to a death toll equalling more than the total population of Birmingham every single year.
Is it any wonder people do not take Christians or our faith seriously in this country? – 3000 children dying daily, brothers and sisters in Christ being massacred in other lands through wanting to worship – and we moan about not being able to wear a silver cross and get very excited about getting a song to number 1.
rant over!
The Shiny Headed Prophet 
"Getting the song to number achieves …. well what does it achieve. Please, if I am missing something here tell me?! "All proceeds will go to CompassionArt http://www.compassionart.tv/ which is a charity set up to help the poorest communities in the world.
Fair enough that the proceeds will go to charity, but how many malaria nets could be bought if we all gave the money direct to charity rather than via iTunes / royalties / etc.People will hear this song in the charts I guess, but mostly they'll think its a manipulation and not be very impressed. If its just about saying "hey, we've got a cool band who are Christians" then it only serves to reinforce the dualism that exists between secular/sacred, which seems to me particularly naive especially in Holy week, when surely we're called upon to remember God's breaking out of the confines of the religious rules and the Temple as the curtain was torn in two.Great post Rob!
Rob, Thanks for speaking sense!
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I agree with your Lord Carey comments wholehertedly, so much that I've made other people look at this post!But actually I'm inclined to be forgiving towards the Delirious campaign. Certainly I hope the people who took part had the sense to do it in the same spirit as the "Rage against the machine" campaign… ie. we want an original song that is by a proper, non-manufactured band, with a message that we approve of, and we'd like that in the charts as a way of countering all the stuff that we don't really like in the charts. Thus recognising that this wasn't an exercise in giving money to charity (though that's a nice side-effect), nor was it evangelism. It is the thing that really annoys me about Christian campaigns, and campaigns in general; when people are pressured into doing something they don't really want to do, with charity or evangelism as the justification, when charity and evangelism aren't really being benefitted. I once went to a church that released a CD, with great self-congratulating, and pressured everyone to buy it both for themselves and for someone else, preferably a non-Christian. The argument being, I suppose, that a non-Christian might hear the songs and want to know more. I find the gift-with-an-ulterior-motive a particularly annoying evangelistic tool, as is the invitation-with-an-ulterior-motive. It seems ludicrously anti-intuitive to give someone a gift I know they wouldn't want, when furthermore they know I know they wouldn't want it!Similarly, with History Maker – I mean, I like the fact that it's an openly Christian song, because it annoys me that Christian bands think they're somehow spreading the message by getting very vaguely spiritual songs into the charts, Delirious being a prime candidate for this (Deeper anyone?). I could easily conceive that History Maker, if any of the radio stations play it, could make a non-Christian wonder what it's about and want to know more. I mean, it was my absolute favourite song as a teenager – I think it's pretty inspiring. But people should be realistic. Radio 1 would never play Delirious anyway, and it's probable that many of the people that do hear it will be wishing those Christians hadn't meddled with the charts. It's not the most effective evangelism, nor is it the best way to get people to give to charity.But that said, why shouldn't people club together to get a song they like in the charts? Downloading a track only takes a minute and it is satisfying to play the Simon Cowells of this world at their own game, and get something they would never support in the charts, especially original songs by non-manufactured bands. What annoys me about music today is the lack of artistic integrity!