Yes, I keep track of this stuff!

We watched over 241 movies in 2009 (up 25% from the 193 we watched last year), so our TV-series viewing was down in 2009. Still, our list of TV shows watched was quite sizable. Read on for the full list.

I try to list the more obscure stuff first, as it’s probably no surprise that I watch Heroes.

AWARDS:

MOST FUCKED UP SHOW OF THE YEAR: Food Party, followed by Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job
BEST NEW CARTOONS ADDITIONS: Producing Parker, Spaceballs:TAS, Strange Brew:TAS, Flapjack, The Goode Family. (Slacker Cats would get this if it was last year.)
BEST COMEDY CARTOON: Metalocalypse, South Park, American Dad
BEST PSYCHEDELIC CARTOON: Superjail
BEST LIVE-ACTION COMEDY: Food Party, Tim And Eric Awesome Show Great Job, The Office
BEST LIVE-ACTION: Heroes, Weeds (which I don’t consider a straight comedy; more of a dramedy)
BEST SUPERHERO CARTOON: Wolverine & The X-Men – most faithful X-Men yet
BEST SHORT FILM: Red: The Tube Bar Prank Calls – For it’s insanity, and it’s importance to The Simpsons legacy.

CELEBRITY APPEARANCES:

• Andrew Dice Clay - Howard Stern 20090303 appearance – amazing watching Dice try to keep up his persona while trying to deny his real feelings. Howard did an amazing job making Dice look kind of foolish, while at the same time being quite chummy with him.
• Ren & Stimpy: Howard Stern – John Kricfalusi Vs. Billy West – not a documentary, but it was ALL About Ren & Stimpy and the politics behind it. John K (Ren) definitely has some animosity directed at Billy West (Stimpy)! It was an amazing show, with epic tension.

DOCUMENTARIES, ABOUT SHOWS:

• Johnny Quest: Johnny Quest Presentation, by File 037 – a 2hr fan-made documentary about the original Johnny Quest series. Although Carolyn and I did not watch the original series, it was *incredibly* interesting. It covered absolutely every aspect of the show. It’s still censored on the dvds today. Anyway — we watched this over the course of 10 meals or so. We didn’t expect much. I had been dreading it. Instead, it really held our attention. It should have taken 20 meals, but sometimes we didn’t stop watching when we were done eating — because it was so damned interesting!
  

DOCUMENTARIES, MISC:

• 50 Outdoor Skills – finally watched this after having it for so many years. Good camping lessons.
• PFFR – Hands Of God – (click for my review) damn funny — but insanely scary as well. These Christian puppeteers really think God gave them the gift of ventrilloquism. Gawd.

CARTOONS, AIRING, COMEDY:

• American Dad – arguably better than Family Guy and The Simpsons
• Archer pilot- preview of new series by creator of SeaLab 2021 and Frisky Dingo. Will start in Jan of 2010.
• Dating Guy, The – Only 5 episodes so far, but a great Canadian adult series about dating crazies while living in the city.
• Family Guy
• Goode Family, The – Click for review. Mike Judge came out with something better than King Of The Hill, and it was promptly canceled. ABC tends to always cancel their cartoons after one season — like MTV. This was a major improvement over King Of The Hill, but people didn’t like it as much because it made fun of liberals instead of conservatives. Get a sense of humor, people!
• Kid Vs. Kat – #1-#3: click for review. Disappointed, stopped watching. Total kid crap.
• King Of The Hill – it’s finally over. I like it, but I’m glad it was over, because it allowed Mike Judge to create The Goode Family!
• Marvelous Adventures Of Flapjack, The – Although made for kids, this show is just twisted and subversive enough to be our primary choice for “I’m drunk, let’s watch one more show right before bed”. Recommended by Radha and Andy H.
• Metalocalypse – Really frickin’ awesome!
• Producing Parker – Click for review. An excellent new addition to the lacking category of “adult cartoons” NOT on AdultSwim or Fox
• Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade Of Comedy – a one-shot animated series of sketches from Seth MacFarlane, creator of American Dad and Family Guy. It basically felt JUST LIKE those shows, but with unknown characters. Good stuff!
• Simpsons – Still some really funny episodes now and then. Still better than King Of The Hill!
• South Park – Duh. This latest season had a couple weak episodes, but for the most part this show is as strong as ever!
• Spaceballs:TAS – Pretty damn awesome. 5/5 stars. And I didn’t even watch the Spaceballs movie until after the series. The Grand Theft Auto episode was memorable.
• Squidbillies – Awesome. And occasionally disturbing. Like the one that caused Parthena to hide in the kitchen for the duration of an episode.
• Strange Brew:TAS aka Bob And Doug McKenzie – Pretty damn awesome. And surprisingly dark at times. Carolyn hadn’t even seen Strange Brew, so we re-watched the movie before watching this. And yes. That’s 2 Rick Moranis cartoons!
• Snake N’ Bacon pilot – Uhhh… What just happened?!?!?!
• Venture Bros., The – Superhero parody kicks ass! If only this show was as consistently good as the best 50% of the episodes!

CARTOONS, AIRING, SUPERHERO:

• Batman: The Brave And The Bold – Worst Batman cartoon ever (not counting Superfriends). Still quite watchable. It almost seems like they had intellectual property/licensing issues at the beginning — they had all the imitation heroes and supervillains. Not The Joker, but FunHouse. Not ClayFace, but this… other dude. At first, every episode had a new, random hero who we’d never seen before — working with Batman. It’s like The Justice League, except nobody knows who these people are. I suppose we could view it as refreshing in that they aren’t using the same old characters… But when your characters are clearly derivatives of original characters FROM GOTHAM, it’s not refreshing. It’s just distracting trying to figure out “who” the imitations are. However, once we got a few episodes in, they seemed to start using typical characters (Aqua Man, Green Lantern) and villains (The Joker, Two-Face)… And when we started watching 1 or 2 episodes every night, we very quickly blazed through all ~25 episodes of the season. The final verdict? Still the worst Batman cartoon since Superfriends, but still a Batman cartoon nonetheless. And it’s kind of hard to go wrong with Batman. Some of the episodes were abtract and interesting. It’s definitely the *funniest* and *most immature* Batman incarnation since Adam West. There are a few laughs in every episode, and Aqua Man is HILARIOUS in this interpretation. Also, there’s almost no story. It’s action, action, action. Whereas the 1990s Fox Batman cartoon seemed aimed at an older audience, this one seems aimed at a younger audience. Still good fun, though. But man was the musical episode painful. Interesting, but incredibly painful. Batman sung? WTF?!! He uses Auto-Tune! He keeps it in his belt, in case he needs to sing perfectly to avert disaster.
• Spectacular Spider-Man – Greg Weisman, creator of Gargoyles, proves he can still make a decent superhero cartoon.
• Star Wars:The Clone Wars – I only keep watching this because the animation looks great in 720p, and I like Star Wars. Really… It’s kind of poor. Only for completist fanboys.
• Wolverine & The X-Men – The X-Men are back in style! I loved X-Men Evolution, but it was nowhere near as good as X-Men:TAS (1990s). X-Men Evolution was very unfaithful — putting them all in the same high school together [even the villains], and adding Spike when it should have been Marrow. It was a tad more juvenile. But this X-Men series gave the original 1990s series a run for it’s money. It is by far the most faithful X-Men animated series ever, and the one with the best budget and most characters. And it’s obtainable in 720p, too.

CARTOONS, RECENT:

• Gary The Rat: #12 – Missed one! Oops! I wish SpikeTV hadn’t given up on their foray into adult cartoons so quickly. ‘Toons take awhile to build fanbase.
• Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy: “MOVIE” #2 (45min): Wrath Of The Spider Queen – Somehow we missed this! Finally got around to watching it! A great series! The most AdultSwim cartoon on Cartoon Network that is not on AdultSwim (if that makes sense). Too bad it’s canceled, and too bad Season 1 DVDs are already out of print. DUMB. But you can find it on the bittorrent tracker named after a body part.
• Kevin Spencer: Series Finale – with John The Canadien & Parthena … This is one of the greatest cartoons ever. The “Canadian South Park”, but more like Beavis & Butt-head than anything. Canadian white trash acts like white trash.  We still haven’t watched the earlier episodes, and will probably go back and re-watch all ~90 episodes of this series. I’d place it in the top 20 animated series ever.
• O’Grady – A Stronger O’Grady – Oops! Missed one! Though not necessarily for adults, this cartoon, and its “weirdness”, is very trippy and delightful.
• Slacker Cats: the 6 episodes that never aired were posted on the ABC family website. Of course they canceled it. This is soooo NOT a family cartoon. It’s TV-14. This belongs on AdultSwim. I predict they’ll pick it up a few years from now.
• Space Ghost Coast To Coast: Chambrainge, Brilliant Number 1 – with Parthena & John The Canadian. The original AdultSwim show. Parthena had never seen it, and had to be exposed to the insanity. Plus, Brilliant Number 1 is how I got introduced to Rammstein.
• Superjail – psychedelic ultra-violence the likes of which I’ve never seen… If Willy Wonka ran a prison in acidland based on 1960s animation, this is what it would be like. Someone needs to create 2 montages: All the opening sequences, and all the fight sequences.

LIVE-ACTION, COMEDY:

• PILOT: Area 57 – Click for review. Peewee Herman as an alien? Matthew Lillard? Jane Lynch? 7/10. Pretty funny.
• Ali G – Borat’s Television Program – #1 & #2 – frickin’ hilarious Borat and Bruno stuff presented as 2 specials for The Ali G show. This could easily have been a dvd extra for the movies. Hilarious stuff. Like getting more of the movies.
• Delocated – more adultSwim brilliance from PFFR, creators of Wonder Showzen, Xavier:Renegade Angel, and the Hand Of God documentary mentioned above
• Food Party – wow. Like Pee-Wee’s Playhouse meets Wonder Showzen meets Tim And Eric meets lots of drugs. Ballsy for the IFC to try an AdultSwim-style show. Easily the most insane show since Tim And Eric.
• Fat Guy Stuck In Internet – Have stopped watching this twice now. It just isn’t impressing me. [AdultSwim live action]
• Human Giant – MTV 24-Hour Takeover Special (1h15m). Great comedy show; hadn’t seen this appearance.
• Kenny Vs. Spenny – including webisodes – awesome reality competition
• Ed Vs. Spencer – a tribute show that is a UK version of Kenny Vs. Spenny?? Wish I could get more of this!
• Michael & Michael Have Issues – Unfortunately, Stella and The State were funnier than this. It was still funny, though.
• The Office – including webisodes (Kevin’s Loan, Kevin’s Outburst)
• The Rising Sun [adultSwim] – Click for review. This show reminds me of what you would get if Delocated and Moral Orel had a baby: A parody live-action show that’s completely sacrilegious. The Virgin Mary is kind of a horny older blonde woman, and in 23 years of marriage to Joseph, he’s never gotten to take her to the “bone zone”. That’s because she’s still fucking God. By episode 3, God wants a threesome. But not with Joseph. Click the title for my review, which includes embedded video of the episodes [though CartoonNetwork probalby pulled them by now]
• Tim And Eric: Tim And Eric Awesome Show,Great Job, The Tim And Eric.com show, Tim And Eric Shrek promos (finally found them!), Tim And Eric Attack Of The Show appearance where they hijacked the show and pissed off the host hilariously–he threw their dvd on the ground later
• Troma’s Edge TV – Vol. 2 – I’d like to see more of this Troma makes great “bad movies”, but even better “bad television”
• TV Funhouse: #4: Mexican’s Day – a rerun, but a good show. Almost a precursor to Wonder Showzen in a way. Nice Sally Jessie Rafael self-parody too. And Joe Camel.
• Wrong Door, The: UK’s first sketch-comedy show to incorporate CGI into every sketch. Some laughs, but overall the decision was to not continue watching past episode#1.
• Young Person’s Guide To History (both parts) – Click for review. That was some of the craziest stuff I’ve ever seen. Yay, AdultSwim This is basically the same team that did Saul Of The Mole Men. One of the most random things I’ve watched in my life!

LIVE ACTION, VINTAGE:

• Spike Jones – All Star Revue (19520112) (b&w) (49m36s) – did not expect it to be nearly that funny!

…and another revue, some interviews about him, including Weird Al saying Spike Jones was his influence

ANIME:

• Yoroshiku (Starship Troopers) – 6 episodes. Not much happened. Definitely the worst Starship Troopers interpretation, despite what some people say. The aliens aren’t quite bugs as much either, they looked more like something out of a Rene Laloux movie.

LIVE-ACTION, ACTION:

• 24 - they’ve finally picked up from their 2-season decline, and the quality is back to what one expects
• Heroes – Staying as awesome as it always was! Sylar tried to kill me in my dreams!
• Smallville - This show is really going downhill. Damn it sucks to be a completist sometimes.

LIVE-ACTION: DRAMEDY:

• Weeds – S5 – Sooo happy this is renewed!

MUSIC VIDEOS, FULL LENGTH:

• Rammstein – Lichtspielhaus – full length videos + live shows + making of all videos + commercials/promos
• Weird Al: The Compeat Al. Review will be posted much later. A 1985 mockumentary about Al, including many of his videos. 7/10.

MUSIC VIDEOS, ONE SONG:

• Testament – More Than Meets The Eye (4m39s) – not that exciting, ‘cept for the guitar solo with lightning going into the fretboard. At least Alex Skolnick is back with the band?
• lots of The Church videos prior to the concert
• lots of KMFDM videos prior to the concert
• lots of Pixies videos after the concert
• some Chemlab videos

DVD EXTRAS (incomplete list):

• Arrested Development
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force
• Family Guy – Live In Las Vegas Album making of interviews
• Harvey Birdman:Attorney At Law
• Space Ghost Coast To Coast – lots of good stuff, including a bonus un-animated/storyboarded episode
• The State [because I got the box set at a yardsale for $10]
• …. and tons and tons more. We watch dvd extras for movies and shows every year

SHORTS:

• Tim Burton – Vincent [from Nightmare Before Christmas double-dvd version]
• Tim Burton – Frankenweenie [from Nightmare Before Christmas double-dvd version]. Apparently this is now being made into a feature-length film.
• Aspiring Adult Actress PSA 1117 – who sent this to me? Greg? hilarious!!
• Ultima IV – final dungeon – I played this for a year but couldn’t get through the final level due to my Apple crashing consistently during it. 20+ years later, I finally get to see how it ends! Thanks, Dave O!
• Red – The Tube Bar Prank Calls movie to short film adaptation starring Laurence Tierney. The basis for Bart prank calling Moe constantly.
• and tons of other shorts, but I don’t usually keep track of them [sorry Compn...]

And that’s it!

For past media consumption lists: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/category/media-consumption-lists/

Mood: annoyed at chkdsk
Music: Pixies – Lovely Day

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“The Coming Of The Messiah”
JESUS THE CHRIST (Ca. 5 B.C. – A.D. 30)

       Mark 1:1:  (The Daily Bible, New International Version)  The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Chist, the Son of God (Some manuscripts do not have the Son of God).

I like the silent church before the service begins…better than any preaching.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

On New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, many people celebrated the transition from 2009 to 2010. In Sydney, Australia (as happens every year) fireworks were set off from the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In London, England, fireworks exploded around the London Eye. Admittedly, I very rarely celebrate the coming of a new year- at least, not in the “party” style- and the arrival of 2010 wasn’t any different. As I was browsing the Internet on New Year’s Eve, I checked (as I often do) my BBC News RSS Feed. The Feed alone, which contained quite a lot of news reports, had some of the following headlines:

• Freed hostage tells of captivity.
• CIA chief confirms Afghan deaths.
• Woman held over killing at flat.
• Finland shootings leave six dead.
• Irish cardinal Cahal Daly dies.
• Shots are fired at police station.
• Obama briefed on plane bomb probe.
• Protests against blockade of Gaza.

Reading through those headers, a part of me (perhaps the cynical part…) couldn’t help but think, “How many people celebrating tonight care about those issues?”. Now, I’m not trying to take people down a guilt trip by saying that it was wrong of them to celebrate the New Year- if they wanted to do so, that’s fine by me. The same question applies to me as it does it anyone, “Who cares?”.

Six people died in a shooting in Finland- who cares? Shots were fired at a police station in Northern Ireland- who cares? Seven CIA staff members were killed in a bombing in Afghanistan- who cares?

The realist in me somewhat “glosses” over stories such as these- that’s not to say that I’m passive towards them, or that I don’t care about them, but that I sometimes shrug my shoulders and say, “That’s Life”. Cynicism aside, I think my sentiment is somewhat true- these are all a part of life- maybe in an ideal world there would be no shootings, no bomb-plots and no murders. That’s not to say that such acts are justifiable, but it is to say that such acts are (unfortunately) part of Human Life.

Hollywood blockbuster movies generally follow the same generic formula (at least, most action movies do): The Bad guys take over everything and the odds seem to be against the Good guys. However, at the end of the movie, the Good guys think of an ingenious plan which soon defeats the Bad guys- Evil is defeated and everyone lives happily ever after.

When most people go to the cinema, they want the Good guys to win- they want Good to prevail over Evil- even if it takes six movies to do so (as in the case of “Star Wars”). If, in “Return of The Jedi”, Darth Vader killed Luke Skywalker and secured the Galactic Empire’s victory over the Rebel Alliance, movie-watchers would feel a sense of dissatisfaction, “What happens next? Is Darth Vader ever challenged? Is there a totalitarian regime for ever-more?”. Whether we’re completely aware of it or not, most of us want the Good guys in a movie to win- the ones portraying Freedom, Love and Justice.

It’s that Fairy-Tale aspect, that “Happily Ever After” scenario, that most people want and enjoy- even if 90% of the movie is sombre or depressing, there is still a feeling, a hope, that the last 10% of the movie will be joyous and uplifting. People want to walk out of the cinema with a feeling of satisfaction- a satisfaction that the outcome of the movie rounded off the story well and made the Good guys the victors.

Perhaps the same is true with regards to real-life. In real-life, we feel a sense of injustice when someone is charged two years in prison for killing another person- we feel they should be in prison for life. We feel a sense of injustice when Law Courts don’t hand out severe penalties for crimes committed. There is even a feeling of injustice among people when immigrants, or foreigners, of other nations are more employed than the “natives”- people “of the land” believe they should be prioritised over the immigrants, whether the immigrants have legal citizenship or not. People react in quite a hostile fashion when their culture, their history, their heritage or their community is threatened with foreign influence or “takeover”- in the U.K., there has been a growing belief in going “back to British” from the Socialist Labour Party who many people believe have ruined British culture and society with the influx of immigration, amongst other things.

Lots of issues have swamped my mind recently, although the predominant ones seem to be love, the Church and my life as a single man…

I think the prevailing mentality in society with regards to love is that of: you have to be in a relationship and if you’re not in a relationship, or aren’t interested in being in one, then there’s something seriously wrong with you. I will freely admit that I’m not really interested in being in a relationship at the moment. In fact, if a girl does happen to be interested in me or would approach me (which doesn’t happen very often, mind you!) I would probably kindly turn her down- not because of anything on her part but because I’m just not interested in what a relationship entails- if I was to be plainer (and maybe cliché): I’m not interested in the commitment such a relationship would entail. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I don’t feel the need to be in a relationship. Many people feel that they need to be in a relationship, that it’s a social and cultural (or even biological) requirement. Finally, and this maybe ties-in with the previous point, I am a bit of an individualist- I do my own thing and I live my own life. That may sound very arrogant of me and I don’t want it to be misinterpreted. I’m not saying that I shun every single person in life whom I come into contact with but that I don’t see the need to have an “other-half”. In fact, I would even say that being in a relationship is not the most important issue in the world or in a person’s life- to me, there are far greater issues than who Joe Bloggs is “in love” with.

Of course, I’m not saying that it’s wrong of two people to be in a close relationship, but that I personally don’t see such a relationship as a necessity or requirement.

Cynically, I sometimes think of a “romantic relationship” as essentially being: find a partner, get married, have kids, grow old. No doubt people will retort and tell me that it’s the journey, not the destination, that counts, and no doubt that is true. However, there is (to me anyway) an anti-climax surrounding the whole thing. Even still, I think we have to ask why people feel the need to be in a relationship and why they feel the need to have children.

If you want a scientific answer, the reason for the likes of reproduction (and the relationship which precedes it) is, essentially, to pass on your genes to the next generation. A son or a daughter is a “mini version” of their parents- that is, they have parts of the mother and father’s traits, looks and personalities- some children might be more like their father than their mother (or vice-versa) but they still have the same genetic make-up as both parents- it is a combination of the mother’s X chromosomes with the father’s Y chromosomes.

The non-scientific answer as to why people get themselves into a relationship, or have children, is because of social acceptance- people find it bizarre when they hear of someone in their mid-50’s who has been single for a while or who has no children. Of course, somebody also finds themselves in a relationship with another person because they genuinely find that person fun to be around, or both of them might share the same interests.

I realise there’s no set age as to when someone can start dating but I somewhat look down upon teenage dating. Teenagers, as I remember well, find themselves in a society, and faced with a media, in which adult relationships are considered to be the norm. Most teenagers don’t want to be teenagers and instead want to be adults. It saddens me that some teenagers are more concerned with who they’re “going out with” than with the wider world around them. While I’m all for being mature and “grown up” I do think teenagers are increasingly being too grown up- it’s gotten to the stage where thirteen-year-old girls are plastering their faces with make-up. A part of me can’t help but think, “What ever happened to just being a kid?”. I’m not saying that teenagers should act like monkeys (although some do) but that they should get into perspective their stage in life and realise that (shocking as it is) being (or not being) in a relationship is not the most important thing in the world.

I suppose with every new generation comes a new set of norms to abide by and one of the “norms” that most teenagers feel expected to abide by is that of being in a relationship.

I recently finished a little book called “The Dawkins Letters”, given to me as a birthday present by a friend of mine; although, admittedly, I couldn’t start it for a while as I was swamped with work. I did find it to be a very interesting read- it being a series of letters written by a Christian Minister in Scotland, David Robertson to Scientist, Richard Dawkins. The letters themselves were published on Dawkins’ own website a few years ago.

I mention the book not so much because I want to specifically elaborate on it (it’s a very good book) but because it somewhat relates to the beliefs of another friend of mine (not the same friend who bought me the book!). My friend, to be honest, is not a Christian (or any sort of Theist)- if anything, he’s very much the opposite: he’s quite anti-Christian and anti-Religion. I even remember him saying one time, “When you go into the grave, that’s it”, referring to his belief that there’s no after-life and that death is the final stop. Although I’ve never heard him say it, I guess he is quite Atheistic. Why am I friends with him? Because he is, in my company (and others’), a very nice and funny guy and we get along very well.

While he frequently opposes and criticises the Church, I think he does so with good reason (or intention). What he sees in the modern church is, essentially, corruption. He believes a lot of Christians are hypocrites (that is, they don’t practice what they preach) and that the moral standards of Christians have dropped. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly, whatever way you want to look at it), I would actually have to fully agree with him. He doesn’t believe that every Christian is immoral and he acknowledges that there are some who are genuinely upright, but he does think that there are some Christians who are exclusive and who exclude others on the basis that, “They’re not Christians”. He also believes that some Christians engage in certain activities, and say certain things, which don’t reflect the Christian values of love, self-control and kindness. Again, I would have to agree with him.

I think his criticisms reflect the state of the modern Church in the West. The modern Church, in my opinion, is falling in standards, particularly moral standards, and there are certain ways of behaviour and speech which I quite passionately oppose. Of course, Christians are not perfect Human Beings, and they too make mistakes, but I think Christians too often hide behind that veil and don’t properly take responsibility for their own actions and words. Genuinely, I do worry for the state of the modern Church. Many Christians believe the Church is being destroyed from the outside, by Atheism and Secularism. I, however, would have to disagree. In my opinion, the Church is being destroyed (or corrupted) from the inside, by the Church itself.

The dilemma I often find myself in when it comes to this is that of the various denominations within Christianity. While I could pick-and-choose a couple of denominations and say what I disagree with them on, the fact-of-the-matter is that I think the whole Church has quite a few problems. Of course, the Church also gets a lot of things right, and that’s great, but I think you also have to look at where it’s going wrong and correct it.

I’ve struggled these last few weeks with regards to my church congregation. There hasn’t been a feud or a split and, to be honest, the struggle has really been a personal one. My church is a Presbyterian Church whose main doctrines and beliefs, in fairness, I don’t really have a problem with. The issue is not so much about Theological beliefs as it is the general conduction of worship and attitude to Christianity. In my cynical, yet honest, view I get the impression that the reason a lot of my congregation “go to church” each Sunday morning/evening is solely to “keep up appearances”. While thinking through the issue, I couldn’t help but think, “Well, people go to work and school on a set routine and they don’t decide to change it for the sake of it”. However, I think “Sunday worship” is different from the week-day work routine in that it’s an opportunity for Christians to gather, to worship, and to evangelise.

I think another reason I’m also struggling is because of the nature of the day itself.

Before the main church service, I have about one hour of “Senior Bible Class” where about nine or ten of us (the “young people”) read a passage from a particular Book of the Bible and have a discussion on it by answering questions from a study guide- again, the main “problem” is that I’m not a big fan of study guides and the set nature of the study/questions- to me, it sometimes feels like an academic exercise- something that has to be done. Although, sometimes the discussion is not based on questions- it’s “free-flow”. Of course, that’s my personal opinion- others may find that study guides help them and that’s fine if they do.

What also annoys me is the concept of formality. It’s not written in black-and-white, but (to me) there does seem to be an unspoken rule as to how you should conduct yourself fashion-wise. The unspoken rule is that you should wear a suit and tie. I remember hearing a story my sister told of a man who went to a church service casually dressed, only for one of the leaders (an Elder presumably) to hand him a suit to wear because that’s what everyone else wore. Thankfully, that’s not a problem in my church- you can wear what you want and people generally wont be bothered. Still, the fact that most Christians (not just in my church) feel they must wear their “Sunday best” each week seems, to me, to be missing the whole reason for worship and fellowship. To be honest, if someone came into a church service in the Summer wearing a t-shirt, shorts and a pair of sandals (and I’ve seen it before), I wouldn’t be bothered. If someone came into a church service wearing jeans and a white t-shirt, I wouldn’t be bothered.

In my opinion, what matters is not what somebody is wearing, but that they are there at all. I do understand, of course, that there’s been a long history and tradition in previous generations of wearing a suit and tie “to church”- sixty, fifty, or even twenty-years-ago, that was the norm and expectation. However, just because something is engrained in tradition doesn’t necessarily make it right or true.

The building of my church is situated in a village about three or four miles from the nearest town and doesn’t have a large youth presence. There are a few in my church who are my same age, but sometimes I think there’s an imbalance: there are a few who are about three or four-years-older than I while, on the other side of the spectrum, there are a few who are three or four-years-younger than I. As well as that (and I don’t want this to sound like a place of work) there is a drastic imbalance of males and females among the youth: there are far more males than there are females (in my Bible Class, there are seven or eight men and two women- the women being my elder sisters).

This week, a Northern Irish politician, Iris Robinson (wife of DUP leader, Peter Robinson), recently admitted to having an affair:

Over a year and a half ago, I was involved in a relationship. It began completely innocently when I gave support to someone following a family death.

I encouraged friends to assist him by providing financial support for a business venture. Regrettably, the relationship later developed into a brief affair. It had no emotional or last meaning but my actions have devastated my life and the lives of those around me.

I grieve that I have damaged my profession in Christ, but I am comforted that He was able to forgive even me.

I think it’s all well-and-good seeking forgiveness, and I do believe that forgiveness can and should be available, but I think people also need to take responsibility for their own actions. This is a woman who professed to be a Christian (presumably Born-Again) and yet she engaged in an adulterous relationship with another man. OK, so you could say that the two parties didn’t “intend” for anything further to happen in the relationship; however, I think that’s inexcusable as it suggests a lack of self-control and a lack of moral-awareness.

It reminds me of Jesus talking about secrets being revealed:

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.

Luke 8 v 17 (NIV)

Everything that is hidden will become clear, and every secret thing will be made known.

Luke 8 v 17 (New Century Version)

I often think, and somewhat strongly believe, that those outside the Church shouldn’t judge Christianity based on the Church. In other words, if you want to find out what Christianity is like, study the teachings of Christ and not Christians. That doesn’t mean to say that Christians and Christian Theology are useless but that, essentially, you should primarily study the source of the beliefs- in this case, Christ. Although, saying that, people do judge a belief system based on its followers- people judge Communism based on Communists, others judge Fascism based on Fascists. Again, it reminds me of what Christ said the Church was to be:

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

Matthew 5 v 14

Christians are supposed to be (if you want to use the term) beacons of light in the dark. They are taught not to be of the world or to follow the crowd.

While there has been growing intensity against Islam and Muslims by the West, I do think there’s also a growing intensity in the West against Christianity and Christians. Some will argue that it’s wrong for Christians to feel offended or “attacked” and that it’s wrong for Religion and Faith to be so highly “revered” in society. Richard Dawkins, in “The God Delusion”, argues:

Christianity, just as much as Islam, teaches children that unquestioned faith is a virtue. You don’t have to make the case for what you believe. If somebody announces that it is part of his faith, the rest of society, whether of the same faith, or another, or of none, is obliged, by ingrained custom, to ‘respect’ it without question; respect it until the day it manifests itself in a horrible massacre like the destruction of the World Trade Center, or the London or Madrid bombings. Then there is a great chorus of disowning, as clerics and ‘community leaders’ (who elected them, by the way?) line up to explain that this extremism is a perversion of the ‘true’ faith.

“What’s Wrong With Religion? Why Be So Hostile?”

I’m not saying that it’s wrong of Atheists (or anyone) to be vocally against Religion but I do think there is a difference between criticism and downright mockery. I remember reading an article on the BBC News website in December about Christmas and the Christmas celebrations. In the comments section of the article, some people saw it as an opportunity to attack Christians and Christianity. However, I read an interesting comment by one poster who said:

I am an atheist, but I am stunned at the number of posts by non-Christians who appear to think that if you do not celebrate the birth of Jesus then the only alternative is a depressing ‘bah humbug’ approach, moaning about the commercialism and 2nd rate telly!

Get together with friends and family, enjoy yourself – celebrate whatever you think appropriate. But for goodness sake cheer up and have a good time!

Merry Christmas.

Another poster, commenting on the same topic, said:

I’m a Christian, but of course everyone should celebrate Christmas how they see fit, and how they choose to – and yes I know the celebration of Winter goes long before Christianity.

But what concerns me is society has done a U-turn and now more than ever, those who do choose to believe in God are being targeted. People are put off from using the term “Christmas,” nativity plays are being dropped, nativity scenes aren’t shown for fear of “offence.” etc

With regards to the first poster, no doubt Richard Dawkins would be critical of their “I’m an atheist, but…” approach:

‘You want to get rid of religion? Good luck to you! You think you can get rid of religion? What planet are you living on? Religion is a fixture. Get over it!’ I could bear any of these downers, if they were uttered in something approaching a tone of regret or concern. On the contrary. The tone of voice is sometimes downright gleeful. I don’t think it’s masochism. More probably, we can put it down to ‘belief in belief’ again. These people may not be religious themselves, but they love the idea that others are religious.

“The God Delusion” – Preface To The Paperback Edition

It is, in some respects, like a battle to gain the upper hand, to come out on top and win the fight.

In my opinion, I think Christians (or Theists in general) react in a “hostile” way because of the persistent nature of the “attacks” or criticisms towards them. The same applies to anything else. If I was to persistently criticise your political beliefs or your taste in music, and be quite forward and aggressive, you too would (naturally) react in a hostile way- it’s not so much that you are hostile as it is you defending a viewpoint you passionately hold. Likewise, I sometimes get the feeling that many Atheists expect Christians to, in a sense, lie down for them and take the pounding- just be passive about our criticism, it’s wrong of you to feel “offended” or “attacked” by us. The bat doesn’t swing the other way, however, when Atheists are criticised- in fact, there is generally an uproar made by Atheists if they are criticised by those who hold a belief in God, quite akin to, “How dare you criticise us! What makes you so sure of your beliefs!”. In my opinion, it’s a gross case of double standards, “We’re allowed to criticise you, but you’re not allowed to criticise us!”.

Of course, I do not intend to paint all Atheists with the same brush- not all have that attitude- just like not all Christians are narrow-minded bigots.

In the two villages where I live nearby, there are four congregations: two Presbyterian, one Reformed Presbyterian, and one Church of Ireland. Trying to achieve unity between the four churches is easier said than done, especially when they hold different views- that’s not to say that all four churches ignore each other or have a grudge (they don’t) but that it can sometimes be difficult for each church to associate with the other.

I do realise that it’s maybe easy for me (or anyone) to sit back and criticise the Church and say that they should be doing this-and-that differently but, nevertheless, I do think that criticism can also be useful and helpful, where appropriate…

The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.

Ferdinand Magellan