Children, Jacko and God

Twitter and Blogger Unfinished Chris writes some good stuff.  His entry on putting God in boxes is spot on, I couldn't agree more.  There is something about the way "traditional" religion is practiced and marketed that makes God seem so small and partisan.  That was very obvious listening to interviews by the Orange Order in N Ireland just now on the Sunday programme.  Is there a facet of the human mind that is programmed to take something huge and magnificent and put it in a drawer?  One of the problems is that real issues don't get much of a look in on the Sunday hour in Church.  Dry sermons on abstract ideas don't do it for me.  I want to hear about things that matter to my life here and now, like Iran, child abuse, youth crime and climate change - but then I was told the other day by someone pretty high up that the Catholic Church doesn't do issues.

Ok, well don't do issues directly, but deal with them somehow, through stories, parables, painting, music - anything - but deal with them.  I loved Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror, the best sermon I have heard for years and years.

What's the problem with speaking out when there is so much to say?  Making this podcast on the horror of Baby P it seems to me that the Christian Church has a lot to say about child abuse. In fact Jesus was utterly hard line.  No soft talk of forgiveness and new start - he said if anyone causes little ones harm it is better they had a millstone put round their neck and thrown into the sea.  Fighting talk for a man of peace.  So has anyone said that from a pulpit recently?  Not in my hearing.  Of course - issues.  Oh well, back to the box.