morepraxis

Many Victorian rural communities have been devastated by bushfires in the last month. People have lost homes and sustained significant property damage affecting long term livelihood. Some communities are mourning the death of loved ones.

 
Age 

I used to love ���The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe���, and I used to love reading anything by C.S. Lewis; whether it be fiction, or theology. Or���as was often the case���both.

Watching the ���The Chronicles of Narnia”, I was disappointed to feel that this time around, I wasn���t able to bear with him in the same way. Allegory with which I had earlier identified, and which at the time seemed to wonderfully capture a deeper truth,… now sounded hollow, trite, and completely unsatisfying.

One quote of Lewis which gets a lot of airtime in Christian circles (and which is not so subtly woven into dialogue between Peter and the Professor), is the question of Jesus being either ���a liar, a lunatic, or Lord���. The logic being that he was either deliberately lying, crazy���because of the claims he made���or was actually who he said he was. I wonder now why I fell for this logic, which sets up a choice of three options, ignoring the possibility of any others. Just because somebody is honestly mistaken in their world view (which, obviously, is a matter of opinion) doesn���t make them a lunatic. A forth option could very easily be that Jesus was a fallible human: A human capable of being misguided in some ways, but still being an authoritative voice in others. A human with flaws, but with gifts.

This is a fairly decent cinematic portrayal of C.S Lewis��� story of the children���s first visit to Narnia through the magical wardrobe in the house of the professor. There are a number of differences between the film and the story, but many of the differences can quite easily be overlooked.

My first observation is that the original story does not cover the violence and much of the battle, the original story���s almost always told from the point of view of Lucy, in the book the girls are with Aslan during the battle, and we hear more about what happens in the castle than the battle. I can understand why the movie would focus more on the battle, but as they do the story takes a different shape. The focus on the battle increases the violence in the story, which for a children���s tale is already quite high and because of the way the story is shaped we actually don���t get to know much about Aslan either..

 
Age 

“We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live. So much of modern life can be summarized in that arresting dictum of the poet Thoreau: “Improved means to an unimproved end.” This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern [humanity]. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual “lag” must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the “without” of [humanity's] nature subjugates the “within,” dark storm clouds begin to form in the world.

This problem of spiritual and moral lag, which constitutes modern [humanity's] chief dilemma, expresses itself in three larger problems which grow out of [humanity's] ethical infantilism. Each of these problems, while appearing to be
separate and isolated, is inextricably bound to the other. I refer to racial injustice, poverty, and war.”

In Sri Lanka One year on from the Boxing Day Tsuanami (December 26, 2004) a fragile ceasefire in Sri Lanka is under threat. There has been an increase in violence and in ‘get-tough’ rhetoric on the part of both the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

A return to open conflict would be devastating for the tsunami reconstruction efforts, for the country as a whole and, especially, devastating for the poor.

LEADS, one of TEAR Australia���s partners in Sri Lanka, has asked Australians, and concerned people of all nationalities, to participate in a global campaign calling on both parties to renew their commitment to a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the conflict.

Please take urgent action as a global citizen to call for a return to peace in Sri Lanka. Email the Sri Lankan Leadership

To copy the campaign email in full click here

For more background information on the campaign and the situation in Sri Lanka, go to http://www.tear.org.au/advocacy/srilanka/index.php

Ben

Any thoughts?