Television

Prof. Richard Dawkins presents The Root of All Evil?, the first of a 2-part programme on TV on Channel 4 tonight that might be worth watching. Channel 4 blurb...

Episode 1: The God Delusion
Richard Dawkins is astounded that religious faith is gaining ground in the face of rational, scientific truth based on hard evidence.

In this two-part Channel 4 series, Professor Richard Dawkins challenges what he describes as 'a process of non-thinking called faith'. Dawkins is well known for bringing to a wide audience the complex scientific concepts that underpin evolution. His first book, The Selfish Gene, was an international bestseller. [more from Channel 4]

Isn't this the second time in recent months Pat Robertson's got himself into deep doodoo with his extreme opinions? And to think, he was once a US presidential candidate!

Televangelist condemned by White House and Evangelicals for Sharon comments - Calls for controversial US televangelist Pat Robertson to retire are likely to intensify after the White House and Evangelicals sharply criticized the Christian broadcaster for suggesting that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for "dividing God's land." [Ekklesia News]

In wanting to take the 5 participants further in their spiritual journey at The Monastery, Abbot Christopher spoke to several of them about 'engaging emotionally' with the issues of Christian faith being presented to them during their soujourn at the abbey. His intention was to get them go further than merely an intellectual engagement that remained in the head, and to start to consider what it might be like if they were to take the matters being presented as true for them. How would it be for them if they were to engage emotionally?

In our discussion afterwards we had several different reactions to this suggestion.

The monastic tradition seems to have a strong sense of authority and the hierachy of the monastic institution. The offices of the day are enforced by consent to the authority of the Order and the Rule. It was interesting to observe the Abbot's reaction to the lads running down to the local village for 'virgins and cigarettes', or Lucozade if there were no virgins to be found. He seemed amused and fatherly about it, but also took the opportunity to gently chastise the men and teach them about the way of 'true freedom', as he expressed it.

It was interesting also to note our reactions as we watched. Rachel said that she would never have gone off the campus, but Jane, Louis and several others said that flouting the rules would have been the first thing they'd thought of. Not sure what I would have done. I guess I would probably have gone with the rules, but mainly because I'd have wanted to make the most of the limited 40 days' stay in the monastic environment rather than any fear of authority aspect. Maybe, if I'm not kidding myself.

The first word of the Rule of St Benedict is 'Listen', and the Rule has a huge emphasis on silence.

It is an alien concept to us modern people. We seem to fill life with noise for fear of silence. Certainly the men in The Monastery seemed to struggle with it, finding it hard to know what to do with the silent periods, struggling to refrain from talking and eventually having their mobile phones and iPods confiscated for the duration. But it seemed that it was during these silent periods that the men had were best able to contemplate and reflect.

In a discussion about Bible interpretation and engaging with what lies behind the text, Abbot Christopher argued that the monastic tradition, rather than taking the Bible as a book of answers, sees it more as a book of poetry. By entering into the 'poetic movement', he said, your soul becomes shaped by it and, as your soul is filled with the poetry of scripture, you will find your soul begins to expand and your heart becomes more generous. So, he argued, in the monastic tradition the Bible is not a book of answers or a book of Dogma - rather it is the word of God that comes through the text. So, he said, it is a book that feeds him.

The first tensions in the group of 5 outsiders at the monastery broke out between Anthony and Big Tony. Big Tony was disappointed that Anthony was happy, eager even, to talk about his metrosexual lifestyle (his money, house, clubs, friends etc.) but didn't let anything out about who he really was. This all blew up in a session with the novice master in which Big Tony tried to express this to Anthony.

Afterwards Anthony met with the Abbot to express how he'd felt victimised and singled out in the discussion. He confessed that when he'd gone into the monastery he'd known that there'd be typical group dynamics at play and that there'd be one person he got on with especially well, and one person he didn't get on with at all. Abbot Christopher asked him a very astute question - 'Who do you think can teach you the most?' And Anthony recognised at once that it would be the person he struggled with.

In discussion after the programme this issue was taken up again, particularly with the question of the homogeneity or diversity of our community. Are we too alike eachother? Do we see the world too similarly to eachother to effectively contest eachother's perspectives and thereby learn from/teach one another? Or do we have an essential diversity?

So, we watched episode 1 of the fly-on-the-wall documentary series ‘The Monastery’ that was on BBC2 first in May and currently being repeated. The programme took 5 ‘average’ men and placed them into Worth Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Sussex, for 40 days and 40 nights to see if the 1,500-year-old order had anything to say to the modern world.

One of the issues to come out of the first episode is the tension between individuality and community. This was typified in the programme when two of the 5 'outsiders' decided to take a run down to the local village for 'virgins and cigarettes', but if no virgins were available then Lucozade would do. Abbot Christopher challenged this by talking about the Benedictine call to obedience and humility. For him the issue was about subjecting one's personal preference to the greater call of the Benedictine community life.

Did you hear about this one yesterday?

Christians criticise Robertson for assassination call - Christians in both the US and UK have criticised religious broadcaster Pat Robertson following his call for the US to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. [Ekklesia News]

See also the BBC News Online article.

Not only am I outraged that a Christian, let alone a 'respected' leader like Pat Robertson could say this, but I am incensed by the distortions of both the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and national and international politics that is at the heart of this unbelieveably stupid man's unbelievably stupid comments. His position and influence with (generally the conservative wing of) American Christians is very significant.

There was recently a fly-on-the-wall documentary series on BBC2 called ‘The Monastery’. The experiment took 5 ‘average’ men and placed them into a Benedictine monastery in Sussex, Worth Abbey, for 40 days and 40 nights to see if the 1,500-year-old order had anything to say to the modern world. The 5 men included a metrosexual marketing executive, an academic on a 10 year spiritual search currently studying for a PhD in Buddhist Theology, a former loyalist paramilitary from Northern Ireland who had become a Christian in prison, a party animal who made trailers for a sex chat line, and a retired teacher and published poet who had rejected organised religion early in his life.

The programme was broadcast in 3 parts, each covering 2 weeks of the novices’ time in the monastery. The first 2 weeks initiated them into the rule and rhythm of Benedictine monastic life and the principles of prayer, silence and obedience; the 3rd and 4th weeks saw the men confronted with the more difficult challenges of the rule of St Benedict and the life of faith; and the final two weeks showed how both the 5 outsiders and the monks had responded to the challenges. Along the way there were tensions and struggles amongst the 5 men, but all of them confronted themselves, confronted their world and confronted God to some degree.