SOPA/PIPA

The unfolding saga of SOPA/PIPA is pretty unmissable. Sure enough, right when I thought I would be fine, I found myself needing to check something on Wikipedia on the day of the Blackout. I disagree with the proposed laws for a number of reasons, but I have to say I find some of the companies taking part in the protests quite self-interested in their actions.

Parenthood in a time of scarcity

Being in my mid-twenties, its unsurprising that some of my peers are having kids. But quite a large number aren’t, and a sizeable chunk of my female friends are very fervently “not having kids”. Its a huge change in one’s life, and so perhaps its not surprising how quickly it becomes a divisive issue.

Five reasons to stand against London 2012

This post is a republishing of one of the earliest things I put on this blog, but with 2012 upon us, I thought I’d give it a quick dusting down and repost it for people to see. It first appeared in March 2007, and is based on a speech I gave a few weeks earlier. It doesn’t seem like much of the content has been given anywhere enough exposure.

Something in your eye, Mr Cameron?

I find the undertones of Cameron’s speech on Christianity quite disturbing. Whilst some have read it in a very favourable light, a look at the manipulation of American Evangelicalism by Karl Rove and other Republican Party Grandees should show just how dangerous this speech is. At a time when Bishops and other church leaders are raising their voices in opposition to

The Hero and the Media Whore

Its perhaps natural that the names “Bradley Manning” and “Julian Assange” are often written together on banners and in agit-prop. They are, after all, both names associated with Wikileaks, and are both wanted in America for punishment over the release of cables relating to America’s conduct of war. But that’s probably where the similarities stop.

Criticism and the Church

It annoys me that the Church is so bad at hearing and dealing with criticism. There are plenty of things the Church needs to hear, reflect on and respond to, particularly from its own members and especially if it is to regain credibility as a place where people’s hurts are healed.

Happy New Year!

Its not just that the first 2/3rds of 2011 felt like a full year all by themselves, I genuinely wish we could move New Years day to September 1st. So many people’s lives restart at this point in time, it just makes sense.

A Housing Culture Crisis?

Today’s revelations about the state of Britain’s housing make for grim reading, but tucked away behind a lot of the reporting is a fundamentally flawed attitude towards housing ownership as one of life’s ultimate aims. It may not be a stretch of the imagination to name it as a contributing factor to our current crisis.

Surviving life in two cultures

One of the debates about the Church and Christian life that recurs in Soul Survivor is the difference between trying to expand Christian Subculture and actually taking Jesus’ messages of love, justice, forgiveness, etc to the people. Its a critical debate on one level, especially for a church so laden with its own peculiar culture that is butting up against many other cultures.

Phone Hacking: a crisis of agency for the rest of us

The unearthing of a hacking scandal at NewsCorp and the massive media circus of Murdoch ‘on trial’ before the commons select committee provided a spectacle that held what felt like the whole population in some sort of trance. It felt as if the whole of the establishment was just about to cave in on itself. The problem, and the reason I found the whole episode so difficult to deal with, was the impossible task of finding a way to do anything.