peoplemovin is an amazing website that visualises population movements throughout the world.

It bothers me that the Church in the UK is so dependent on Gift Aid.  To me it feels like the remnants of a time when Church and state were so intertwined that the Church became a pawn wielded by the state in the interest of securing political power.

For those of you who don’t know, Gift Aid is the means by which organisations that have been afforded charitable status can claim back the income tax that has been paid on any gifts that they’ve received.  This usually means that for every £1 that’s given to a church, they actually receive about £1.20.

In churches where biblical generosity is practiced, this extra 20% can make a big difference to their annual budget.

I’m sure many of you reading this are thinking “what’s wrong with that?  Surely that money is better used by churches than to fund wars?”  And sure, in one way I agree.  I’m not opposed to the church having access to extra funds.  What I am bothered about is the conditions and restrictions that are tied up with Gift Aid, and the churches growing dependence on state.

The early church came about during the time when the Roman Empire was the dominant world force.  Becoming a follower of Jesus during this time meant risking your life.  To be a Roman Citizen, and thus a friend (not an enemy) of Rome, you would proclaim “Caesar is Lord.”

When the Roman army invaded a place, the choice given to it’s people was: pledge allegiance to Caesar, or die.

Followers of The Way (the early name for those who followed Jesus) made the highly controversial statement, “Jesus is Lord.”  Instead of accepting hand outs from Caesar, they redistributed what they had, so that those who were poor among them were taken care of.

Joining The Way was a highly political activity that challenged the authority of the empire.  Following Jesus meant choosing Him as Lord instead of Caesar, even if it meant that your personal safety and security was under threat.

Fast forward to 2011, when the British Government offers the church hand outs (in the form of Gift Aid), providing they fulfil certain criteria, which is determined by the Charities Commission.

A Government Agency dictates the activities that must be pursued by Followers of The Way (the church) in order for them to receive a considerable chunk of their annual income.

Does this sound strange to anyone else?

When the government talks of cutting back Gift Aid, Christians are up in arms.  They lobby, they pray, they send emails to other believers, all with the aim of securing their access to this tax money.

How did such a counter cultural, empire-threatening group become so preoccupied with state-provided financial security?

Carl Medearis has been traveling between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, witnessing first hand the kind of discrimination faced by the Palestinian people:

We noticed as we were getting in that this bus was extremely dirty. Filthy actually. And there was no air conditioning. As soon as we got on I noticed that they were all Palestinians on this bus. Immediately a lady holding her young son said to us in near-perfect English, “This is the bus for the Palestinians. You need to be on that other bus. It’s for foreigners and tourists.” I responded, “Oh that’s okay, we don’t mind coming with you”. She said, “Well, thank you, but you can’t. You HAVE to go on that bus.”

(read more here)

As you might have heard, the UK has been hit by some pretty severe snow storms during the last 36 hours. This morning I was horrified to learn that there were no trains running from Cardiff to London, where I was due to catch my flight to Sweden (via Copenhagen). I spent the morning on hold, before being told that my flight had also been canceled and could be rescheduled free of charge.

In the meantime, I’ve invented a new concept: The Snow Crunch.

Defn. The Snow Crunch: The sudden tightening of an individual’s personal finances caused directly, or indirectly, by a snow storm.

Today in London there was an increased demand for accommodation due to flight cancellations. As a result, the hotels increased the cost of a room, thus perpetuating The Snow Crunch.

District Six was a multicultural area that was destroyed during the Apartheid years in South Africa. People of African descent were moved by force to particular townships, people of mixed ethnicity were moved to other areas, their houses bulldozed and the land offered to white families.  However, many white families refused to move in because they disagreed with the actions of their government.

Today we visited the District Six museum in Cape Town’s city centre and were introduced to a few of the stories of this neighbourhood. One of the most shocking was of a man categorised as “coloured” (of mixed ethnicity) married to a woman categorised as “black”, who were forced to live in different places.  If they wanted to see each other they had to apply for a pass from the police, who would grant them one visit every three months.

Afterwards we debriefed the experience and explored what we could learn.

It’s so easy to look at the instigators of the Apartheid regime as evil and to simply stop our analysis at that, but there is so much we can learn.  Within each of us is a tendency to fear what we don’t know, or to hold prejudice against others.  Our distinctions may not be down racial lines, but we would be naive to think ourselves immune.  We are often so saturated by our cultural norms that we become inebriated to our own weaknesses.  It’s like asking a fish to describe water.