My views of justice and art in relation to faith have shifted radically during my life. In the fervour of recent conversion I once dismissed ‘justice’ as secondary to the over-riding priority of ‘salvation’. Years later I now regard justice as a fundamental outworking of Christianity.

I went through a similar journey with art. As a teenager I delighted in Christian alternatives to mainstream arts – from pop music to nightclubs. Through my university years I belatedly discovered and embraced secular entertainment, but (aside from the occasional Supergrass track) I could never see where Jesus fitted in.

Eventually I began to accept that Christianity did not have to sanitise the arts to make them ‘safe’. Just like justice, I came to regard the arts as a natural expression of faith. But it is only recently that I have also begun to see art and justice as ways of finding new perspectives on faith. Whilst many activists and artists dismiss God, in spite of this their music, actions or films have the power to give me a new perspective on myself and on my relationship with God. So, whilst I still secretly love Delirious, I can now hear God through many voices.

At a Make Poverty History debate I attended at Greenbelt the panel were unanimous that ending poverty was about giving people faith; faith in themselves and faith that they can change their own future. Although ‘empowerment’ is an over-used cliché within UK-based charities, it still seemed radical in the context of some of the poorest countries in the world. Yet isn’t this justice; that every person knows that they have the right and ability to change their own future?

What excites me about Greenbelt is that it asks these questions in the context of the arts. The organisation I work for runs a free art workshop. Watching withdrawn and marginalized people transformed by the simple act of painting or sculpting, I have seen the incredible power of art. Even if it is just for a few hours a day the man at his easel can think of himself as an artist, rather than just as homeless. By giving people the faith to believe in themselves again, art has the power to engage, inspire and revolutionise. Perhaps one role for us in seeking to end poverty will be to help people find faith in themselves through art?

I used to think that justice was about the rich helping the poor, thereby creating a fairer society. I realised some years ago that, not only was this view inadequate, it was fundamentally flawed. As much as I longed to ‘go’ and save the poor, I knew it was not my place to save them. In a world with finite resources there will always be rich and poor, and grand gestures are all very well but will never create a just world.

But this year at Greenbelt I found a fresh understanding of what justice could look like. Stumbling upon the ‘Living Generously’ stand I was challenged to live justly, not in a radical way but in a quiet, gradual way. Justice isn’t ‘going’ to save the world, it is staying at home and consciously limiting my consumer choices on a daily basis for the good of all, both rich and poor. This justice does not patronise continents and peoples I have been taught to pity rather than understand, but it does begin to redress the balance. And, as I am already learning, it is justice that takes faith - faith that small changes, quietly made, can change the world.

“Audiences deserve, and I believe crave, much more protein in their diet. Only by giving the viewer a workout, making them join the dots, use their own imagination, can we reclaim television drama as the challenging, exciting, life-changing medium that I and many others have known it to be.”

Good to hear Paul Abbott delivering the Huw Wheldon lecture at the Royal Television Society’s convention. Not especially because of his criticism of shoddy TV dramas, which has inevitably grabbed the headlines; more for his positive enthusiasm for programmes which treated the audience - and the subjects - with respect.

“The commonest excuse for drama being bland or inoffensive or just crap is that the audience can’t assimilate complex story-telling. This is just patronising. Audiences today can handle as much as you can throw at them.”

Being a GB worker tied to a venue for the past five years I’ve missed whether this has ever been a discussion topic at the festival; if not I reckon there’s mileage in it for GB06.

The best bit of Abbott’s speech I’ve not seen reported anywhere; it was about Clocking Off, that excellent series of factory-floor cameos which focussed on the life of a different worker each episode, and did so with integrity and depth. He spoke about his decision to jettison the usual working-class stereotypes and to explore the possibility that ordinary working people’s lives were complex, vital, vibrant, intense, and so on. How right he was to follow that instinct; how good were the results.

[based on an original post here]

Thomas Merton said “faith is a matter of questioning and struggle before it becomes one of certitude and peace”. (As always someone else got there before me and said it much better than me but I adore the quote) It’s wrestling Jacob style all night long, it’s being Amelia Earhart dying to fly, and it’s heading for an unknown horizon looking for India but finding America instead.

I both admire and am slightly bewildered by people who are so certain of hearing God’s voice or knowing their destiny in God. My experience of faith is one of uncertainty and possibility- these afford me a chance to ponder, wonder and dream. All this time isn’t spent daydreaming or doodling- it’s a form of prayer or meditation. Previously in life my faith experience always felt an arms length away from me- I wasn’t really in any danger of burning with passion about something. Now my faith is a living, breathing thing, it’s visceral, its blood, and it churns. Faith for me is an expression of something internal; it’s something that requires oxygen, interaction and light. I guess that’s why the Carpenter spoke of mountain moving mustard seed faith.

The question of justice is a perplexing one. We’re born. We die. We object to major injustices- poverty, slavery etc but every day we allow little injustices. We allow inequality of genders; we allow homophobia to breed and walk by the homeless. In some spheres the rules of the game of life are unfairly weighted in one group’s favour- some would argue that politics are to blame. When politics goes wrong it has the potential to produce more than just bad government- it can be a living nightmare. (We’ve seen that proved throughout the 20th and the start of the 21st centuries)
It makes me angry that there are all kinds of injustices around the world. It’s easy to take a stand on an injustice if there’s no risk involved; no sacrifice. It’s easy to give a pound to someone who’s homeless but keep a few quid so you can buy a bagel and a coffee on the way home. My anger becomes energy; it’s a force for change. There are things for which an uncompromising stand is worth. These injustices motivate us to do something, to take risks, knowing if we don’t, things will remain the same.

Ok. This started as one thing and ended up being something else.

Greenbelt is one of those places that’s totally different to other Christian camping events. Most other Christian camps I’ve been on have been about resourcing “the faithful” to go out and march forth and do stuff. I’ve noticed alot of the imagery surrounding that sort of idea of mission tends to be military in origin.

I used to be a missionary; a proper travelling missionary zipping round Europe and Eurasia working with students. My job was supposed to be winning souls to Christ but this didn’t really sit too well with me. As a post modern post evangelical poster boy I spent most of my time debating ideas, concepts and authenticity rather than preaching a specific dogma or orthodoxy. In short I didn’t feel much of a missionary. As part of a theatre company embodying questions about life we’d deconstruct long held ideas through physical theatre. It was challenging, stirring stuff; as one stoned student in Denmark put it “You really know how to kill someone’s buzzâ€?.

The guys I worked with wanted to know what my missiology was (and to tell the truth I had to look that word up) at the time I mumbled about sharing faith or something. Now I can answer that question a little better. It’s about going beyond mere belief in commands and into a life that’s in rhythm with God. And if everyone does that something like the kingdom of heaven (that place of mustard seed faith, wise virgin preparation, lost sheep searching and a welcome for kids that come home) will happen here on earth. Bonza!

Growing up within an independent evangelical house plant that got out of hand, Christians who “dabbled” in the arts were seen in a similar light to those who “dabbled” in other dark recesses. It was only ok as long as you used your art for “Holy Purposes”. Theatre must be bible stories. Nothing could be in and for itself.

Example.

In Charles Sheldon’s “In his steps“, that book spawned a million WWJD bands, the only acceptable use for an opera singers voice is to give up her place on tour, stay and sing for a local mission. If I were to approach writing that story now I’d have the opera singer head off to do a world tour of “La Boheme”?, see how she lives an authentic Christian spirituality on the road, how she stays connected with her spiritual centre when the location she finds herself in changes week by week. And if I were to write it, well, it’d end up being a Spiritual “Bridget Jones” “Rent” fusion- lots of fabulous parties, fabulous people wearing fabulous clothes and shoes and gossip but at its centre is our beautiful Red headed singer seeking a way to authentically express her spirituality.

Thanks to those bloggers who attended my seminar “The Spirituality of Blogging”. I left some short notes here but others may have better memories and notes than I.

BTW - Greenbelt rocked this year! That was my 3rd Greenbelt in a row and I think it gets better each year. Nice to meet you all!

I read in the paper today about the big stores getting into trouble because of overcharging for the use of their store cards. The Competition Commission is unhappy because they charge about 30% compared to normal bank rate of 18%, making about £100m a year in extra profit. At the same time the banks tend to back most of these cards anyway. The Commission harks on about the rate being too high, but in doing so seems to have completely missed the point. The reason for such a high rate is that the stores don’t really care too much who applies for a card and therefore the risk is much higher - hence the higher interest charge.

The focus should have been on why it is so easy in the first place to get a store card. It is a classic example of consumerism out of control - stores are perfectly happy for you to rack up £5k of debt with the risk of not being able to pay - yet if you get caught for shop-lifting they will prosecute. Not saying I condone shop lifting, more a case of the stores condoning people obtaining goods that cannot be paid for. Controls for obtaining cards should be made much tighter - in the same way you (used to) can only get a mortgage 3 times annual salary there needs to be much tighter credit control. Store cards in theory should not even be required - they are more expensive than a credit card - and if you can’t afford to purchase via VISA etc then you should not be allowed to use a store card instead. I’ve seen too many people struggle in their lives because of debt - about time someone did something to stop it.

At least those who run the Greenbelt Store have never caught on to store card fever - otherwise they would be issuing 20,000 cards to Greenbelters, enabling them to buy goods on site, repayable at extortionate terms over 12 months!