Questions asked about God and tsunami one year on
-24/12/05
TV journalist and former Do
Questions asked about God and tsunami one year on
-24/12/05
TV journalist and former Dominican friar Mark Dowd will explore the question ìwhere was God in the tsunami?î in a programme to be shown on Britainís Channel 4 on Christmas day.
He talks to Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and others about whether such terrible events make it more difficult to believe in God and in purpose to life.
The programme follows hot on the heals of the BBC1 Doctor Who ëChristmas Invasioní sci-fi special, which will have an anti-war message directed at prime minister Blair and President George Bush.
The figure linking the two programmes is, interestingly enough, embattled Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.
As revealed on Ekklesia, Dr Williamsí family are fans of Doctor Who, the goody ëTime Lordí whose iconic enemy, the Daleks embody what the Archbishop says is the fruitlessness of raw intelligence divorced from the ability to empathise.
The metal baddies are unable to develop a true appreciation of the ëothernessí of different life-forms, and to see them as a non-threat. They have a pathological need to be in control.
Some will feel this has faint echoes of the warring factions in his own church on questions like sexuality and civil partnerships.
Anglicans are divided between those who believe that the love of Christ should enable Gospel people to overcome age-old prejudices against lesbians and gays, and those who feel that they are simply too alien.
The Archbishop was also embroiled in a wrangle with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper over the tsunami a year ago.
Having written an article offering pastoral support and encouragement to those bewildered and grief struck by the Asian natural disaster, which killed tens of thousands and devastated a huge section of a continent, Dr Williams was confronted by a headline suggesting he had lost faith in God.
This was untrue. In fact what he said was that he could understand why peopleís faith might be shaken. But he went on to explain that the God shown in Jesus Christ was one who fully identified with human suffering.
After the paperís mistake was challenged by Ekklesia, its misrepresentation of the Archbishopís views was widely publicised, but it declined to correct the headline or to offer a public apology.
Mr Dowdís programme for Channel 4 will talk to people from a range of different faith communities in the region impacted by the tsunami, which struck on 26 December 2004.
He discovers that attitudes to religion and tragedy are very different in the East, as compared to the West.
He also explodes the view that all religious approaches to these questions are superstitious and unsophisticated, though there are strong elements of fatalism uncovered too.
Ekklesia co-director Simon Barrow on Is God A Disaster Area?
[Also on Ekklesia: Archbishop tackles Tsunami faith controversy in Christmas message; Catholic and Anglican archbishops pray together for tsunami; Tsunami questions our ideas about God, says bishop; Paper admits it misrepresented Archbishop of Canterbury]
Questions asked about God and tsunami one year on
-24/12/05
TV journalist and former Dominican friar Mark Dowd will explore the question ‘where was God in the tsunami?’ in a programme to be shown on Britain’s Channel 4 on Christmas day.
He talks to Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and others about whether such terrible events make it more difficult to believe in God and in purpose to life.
The programme follows hot on the heals of the BBC1 Doctor Who ëChristmas Invasion’ sci-fi special, which will have an anti-war message directed at prime minister Blair and President George Bush.
The figure linking the two programmes is, interestingly enough, embattled Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.
As revealed on Ekklesia, Dr Williams’ family are fans of Doctor Who, the goody ëTime Lord’ whose iconic enemy, the Daleks embody what the Archbishop says is the fruitlessness of raw intelligence divorced from the ability to empathise.
The metal baddies are unable to develop a true appreciation of the ëotherness’ of different life-forms, and to see them as a non-threat. They have a pathological need to be in control.
Some will feel this has faint echoes of the warring factions in his own church on questions like sexuality and civil partnerships.
Anglicans are divided between those who believe that the love of Christ should enable Gospel people to overcome age-old prejudices against lesbians and gays, and those who feel that they are simply too alien.
The Archbishop was also embroiled in a wrangle with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper over the tsunami a year ago.
Having written an article offering pastoral support and encouragement to those bewildered and grief struck by the Asian natural disaster, which killed tens of thousands and devastated a huge section of a continent, Dr Williams was confronted by a headline suggesting he had lost faith in God.
This was untrue. In fact what he said was that he could understand why people’s faith might be shaken. But he went on to explain that the God shown in Jesus Christ was one who fully identified with human suffering.
After the paper’s mistake was challenged by Ekklesia, its misrepresentation of the Archbishop’s views was widely publicised, but it declined to correct the headline or to offer a public apology.
Mr Dowd’s programme for Channel 4 will talk to people from a range of different faith communities in the region impacted by the tsunami, which struck on 26 December 2004.
He discovers that attitudes to religion and tragedy are very different in the East, as compared to the West.
He also explodes the view that all religious approaches to these questions are superstitious and unsophisticated, though there are strong elements of fatalism uncovered too.
Ekklesia co-director Simon Barrow on Is God A Disaster Area?
[Also on Ekklesia: Archbishop tackles Tsunami faith controversy in Christmas message; Catholic and Anglican archbishops pray together for tsunami; Tsunami questions our ideas about God, says bishop; Paper admits it misrepresented Archbishop of Canterbury]