Matthew Henry John Bartlett

Kuyper is quoted in Lew Daly’s article on Bush, Kuyper and faith-based initiatives as saying:

Whenever one uses the phrase ‘social question’, one recognizes, in the most general sense, that serious doubt has arisen about the soundness of the social structure in which we live. One thereby acknowledges that public opinion is at war over the foundation on which a more appropriate—and therefore more livable—social order may be built. Merely to raise the question in no way implies that it has to be answered in a socialistic manner. The solution one reaches can be of a totally different kind. Only one thing is necessary if the social question is to exist for you: you must realize the untenability of the present state of affairs, and you must account for this untenability not by incidental causes but by a fault in the very foundation of our society’s organization. If you do not acknowledge this and think that social evil can be exorcised through an increase in piety, or through friendlier treatment or more generous charity, then you may believe we face a religious question or possibly a philanthropic question, but you will not recognize the social question. This question does not exist for you until you exercise an architectonic critique of human society, which leads to the desire for a different arrangement of the social order.

[via Thinknet]

In A Generous Orthodoxy, which my friend Fred lent me, Brian McLaren said:

Some people I know once found a snapping turtle crossing the road in New Jersey. Snapping turtles are normally ugly: gray, often sporting a slimy coating of green algae, trailing a long, serrated, gator-like tail and fronted by massive and sharp jaws that can damage if not sever a careless finger or two. This turtle was uglier than most: it was grossly deformed due to a plastic bottle top, a ring about an inch and a half in diameter that it had accidentally acquired as a hatchling when it, too, was about an inch and a half in diameter. The ring had fit around its midsection like a belt back then, but now, nearly a foot long, weighing about nine pounds, the animal was corseted by the ring so it looked like a figure eight.
   My friends realised that if they left the turtle in its current state, it would die. The deformity was survivable at nine pounds, but a full-grown snapper can weigh 30. At that size the constriction would not be survivable. So, they snipped the ring. And nothing happened. Nothing.
   Except for one thing: at that moment the turtle had a future. It was rescued. It was saved. It would take years for the animal to grow into more normal proportions, maybe decades. Perhaps even in old age it would still be somewhat guitar-shaped. But it would survive.
   A ring of selfishness, greed, lust, injustice, fear, prejudice, arrogance, apathy, chauvinism, and ignorance has similarly deformed our species. When I say that Jesus is Saviour, I believe he snipped the ring by judging, forgiving, suffering, dying, rising and more. And he’s still working to restore us, to lead us, to heal us. Jesus is still in the process of saving us. Because I have confidence in Jesus as Saviour, I’m seeking to be part of his ongoing saving work, sharing his saving love for our world.

Dooyeweerd’s theory of entities
Nick Cave on the Gospel of St Mark [via Deb]

Where did Turkey get it’s name? Did Ataturk give it, or borrow it? What’s the connection (if any) with Turkmenistan?

Adobe acquires Macromedia [via Antipixel]
Wellington inner-city bypass simulation video [11MB AVI]

I’ve recently finished Ngati Toa School’s website.

Recent talk about the coming world oil production peak makes me think that perhaps for those nations like ours whose way of life is largely dependant on oil the axe is already at the root of the tree.

JH Kunstler on Tom Wolfe
JHK’s memoir, 1972-73

The one-room (+ bathroom/laundry) flat next to our house is vacant at the moment. It’s tidy, with harbour views and a deck. Rent is $150/week. If you’d like to live next to Bartletts, give me a yell before Wednesday.

Icons by Daniel Nichols

Brian Stableford: An Introduction to Place in Literature

I was sad yesterday early on because I broke the email at work and it took hours to fix and even when it was fixed it was still half broke and it was in my mind underneath all day or pressing down in the way but then I walked up to Kelburn and helped out at Newswatch and the lady from China and the man from Indonesia and the girl from Japan were happy to see me and I was happy to see them though sometimes I still speak too fast & mumbly for even Mum to understand.

I have not bummed across America
with only a dollar to spare, one pair
of busted Levi’s and a bowie knife.
I have lived with thieves in Manchester.

I have not padded through the Taj Mahal,
barefoot, listening to the space between
each footfall picking up and putting down
its print against the marble floor. But I

skimmed flat stones across Black Moss on a day
so still I could hear each set of ripples
as they crossed. I felt each stone’s inertia
spend itself against the water; then sink.

I have not toyed with a parachute cord
while perched on the lip of a light-aircraft;
but I held the wobbly head of a boy
at the day centre, and stroked his fat hands.

And I guess that the tightness in the throat
and the tiny cascading sensation
somewhere inside us are both part of that
sense of something else. That feeling, I mean.

[via Idiolect]

I came across a quote today which might interest those of you who participated in the recent discussion on interest and lending. It’s from Muhammad Yunus’ book Banker to the poor, which one of you fine humans bought me for my birthday last year.

Many Islamic scholars have told us that the Shariah ban on the charging of interest cannot apply to Grameen, since the Grameen borrower is also an owner of the bank. The purpose of the religious injuction against interest it to protect the poor from usury, but where the poor own their own bank, the interest is in effect paid to the company they own, and therefore to themselves.

I recommend the book. It is inspiring. Muhammad Yunus appears to be someone who knows how to get things done, and I like the things he chooses to get done.