An Asian Christian woman living in London blogging about the everyday issues of religion

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Church House to Host Arms Industry Event


The message below is from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT).

Hi there,
I am writing to you as a member of CAAT's Christian Network, to ask you to take urgent action to call on Church House conference centre not to host arms industry events.
On 1st and 2nd November, a conference sponsored by some of the world's largest arms companies is taking place at Church House, which also houses the administrative headquarters of the Church of England. The conference focus on “Air Power” suggests that it will be used to promote continued high military spending and the use of drones, which the Bishop of Wolverhampton says “reduce death to the level of a computer game”.
The Church House conference centre is run by a charity, whose president is the Archbishop of Canterbury and whose council includes “representatives of national church institutions”.
CAAT Christian Network, along with Pax Christi, Christian CND, Christianity Uncut and other concerned Christians, is calling on people to raise the matter with the Archbishop of Canterbury, asking him to ensure that Church House conference centre will never again host events which support and legitimise the arms industry.
Please also forward this message to others who might be interested.
Yours sincerely,
Anne-Marie O'Reilly

Tuesday 30 October 2012

The Dirty Games Republicans Play


hink you know ? Think Again!CHILLING: Can You Guess Who I Am?..  …
 Hitler was black? The person in the picture has a black neck.
Image will appear as a link
 This is serious game playing in the sense of using fact to create distortion.

Monday 29 October 2012

Romney's Take On Disaster Relief #HurricaneSandy

Could a Blindfold + a Child make a difference?

The search for a new Coptic Pope is nearing the final stage. On 4 November three names of the finalists will be put in a box. A blindfolded child will pick a name out. Egypt will have a new Pope. Apparently, this method of selection is believed to reflect God's will in the decision making process. Could our new Archbishop be elected in the same way? It might speed the process up. 


P/S I don't know why these annoying white boxes around my text keeps appearing. 

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Putting Women In Boxes #bindersfullofwomen





I set the alarm clock for 2am to watch the second Presidential debate. It was certainly worth hauling myself out of my warm bed during a cold and rainy night to catch Mitt Romney put women in boxes. I am not American and, it goes without saying, that I cannot vote but my interest lies in the fact that American social and political trends always make their way across the seas to the UK

So can the UK now expect binders full of women to be the new catchphrase for equality rights? I certainly hope not because one of the mindsets feminists have fought against and continue to fight against is the placing of women's issues in situations and locations that suit the patriarchy. Women figure in all layers of life and in all spheres of life. While Romney did not and will never grasp this fact he did the next best thing in patriarchy terms. He trumpeted the fact, allegedly false, that he promoted women to positions of high-power. Equality legislation has made it easier for men to play the equality card by hiring women and playing to the 'women on boards' debate while making cuts and demeaning women in other ways. 

Amidst all the twitter jokes, slurs and twitpics what is lost is the fact that Romney can only equate female rights to the workplace. Granted that the question was phrased in terms of pay rights but Obama was able to extrapolate his answer to include the role of women as mothers, nurturers and to highlight the difficulties faced in overcoming adversity both at home and in the work place. Obama said:

"And, you know, I was raised by a single mom who had to put herself through school while looking after two kids. And she worked hard every day and made a lot of sacrifices to make sure we got everything we needed. My grandmother, she started off as a secretary in a bank. She never got a college education, even though she was smart as a whip. And she worked her way up to become a vice president of a local bank, but she hit the glass ceiling. She trained people who would end up becoming her bosses during the course of her career...And that's an example of the kind of advocacy that we need, because women are increasingly the breadwinners in the family. This is not just a women's issue, this is a family issue..."

A vote for Romney will be a vote for the decimation of women's rights. You know that saying 'in your backyard'? Ann Romney's daugther-in-laws have spoken about how she taught them to buy nice shoes and not bother their husbands with talk of domestic difficulties when they returned from work. There lurks the nugget of the rollback of women's rights should the Republican candidate in. 

Tuesday 2 October 2012

The Christian Vote for Romney?



Mormonism is a complete mystery to me but with the amount of concern/fuss over Mitt Romney's faith I wondered whether Christians, good old CoE type stalwarts, would face a dilemma in voting for him. An 'Internet Evanglist', (as the Christian Post refers him), called Bill Keller of  LivePrayer has provided an answer in a fire, hell, throw the kitchen sink type rant in his reasoning as to why the Mormon faith clashes with Christianity.

Keller claims that Mormonism worships Satan (I don't think so personally) because Mormons do not pray to the God of the Bible but to a mythical God whom they believe was once a man. Keller said, "Those in the Mormon cult use the words 'god' and 'Jesus'. Yet the 'god' and 'Jesus' of the Mormon cult are NOT the God and Jesus of the bible. Mormons believe their 'god' used to be a human who rose to god like status, just like Romney, Glenn Beck and all Mormons believe they will too after their death".

Here's my favourite bit. If you thought Romney was a just raving venture capitalist who is looking to further the interests of neo-liberalists then you are wrong. According to Keller, Romney is, "a 5th generation high priest of a cult that worships Satan and propagates a false gospel leading souls to hell...". Golly, and I thought an American vote was only designed to bestow a sense of democracy on the voter and not a one way ticket to hell.