Letter from America
Wars and rumours of wars
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Dec 2017
Many of us would suppose that we live in unusually disturbed times.
A leading relief organisation in America estimates that they are dealing with, on average, far more serious crises in the early part of this century than in previous decades. There appears to be a growing flame of upsets, civil wars, brutality – and downright barbarism. Not to mention North Korea: what on earth is the world going to do about that most unstable situation?
Letter from America
Fear & loathing in Las Vegas
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Nov 2017
When there is an event like the recent shooting in Las Vegas, a national conversation begins.
It takes fairly predictable lines and moves along standard patterns. The anti-gun lobby comes out in force, as does the pro-gun lobby, and the majority of people mourn and scratch their heads in wonderment that anything so awful could be perpetrated by a human being. Such socio-cultural events seem to have increased in frequency in recent years – whether they are events of violence, race, sexuality and gender, or scandals of one kind or another. And the church is increasingly being asked by a secular society to provide moral leadership with regard to these various ‘cultural issues.’
Letter from America
The Sovereign Plan or the plans of mice and men?
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Oct 2017
Perhaps the most frequent question I have received as a pastor in America over the last year or so is a version of ‘What on earth is going on?’
It is not hard to understand why variations along the lines of that kind of question are being asked by people today. We have clear indications of cultural change all around us, as well as a grievous lack of decorum and even basic civility in cultural battles. We have a multi-polar global scene with nations jostling for influence and power culminating in various wars or regional conflicts. We have terrorism continuing to spread its blight of vicious evil on the unwary. We have political populism that has thrown up global leaders who have caught many people by surprise.
Letter from America
‘Peace on Earth’
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
‘Peace on earth’ (Luke 2.14)
is a well-known Christmas
text that is often read with
a feeling of slight disbelief.
In what sense did Jesus bring peace on
earth? If he did what he claimed he would
do, why is it that we still have ‘wars and
rumours of wars’ (another biblical text that
hints that the first text is not to be understood woodenly)?
Letter from America
The forgotten art of listening
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Mar 2017
As I write, the signs look ominous for much of our world.
I’ve just come from a search of a recent news story seeing college students holding up placards saying ‘This is WAR’. As many will know, America has been embroiled in a low-simmering ‘culture war’ for many decades now, one that could boil over – the tensions seem to be escalating and the troubles mounting.
Letter from America
Violence, justice & church
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Feb 2017
I live in a city that had more
murders last year than New
York City and Los Angeles
combined.
In 2016 alone, Chicago had 3,550 shooting
incidents, 762 homicides. That’s two
murders and ten shootings per day. Per day.
What is more, that number (762) has surged
considerably from the previous year: in 2015
there were – I cannot say ‘only’ – 496 murders.
Now, given the huge population of Chicago,
the actual murder rate per capita is not even
close to the highest
in America. But the
combination of
sheer numbers of
those
killed and the dramatic increase over the last
year has many understandably concerned.
There is a ‘we must do something about this’
moment approaching.
Letter from America
Changing your life
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
Life is on the wrong track.
Many people today feel that way for one
reason or another. Whether it be politics,
cultural issues, moral matters or more prosaically economic
realities, much of
the
Western world senses that times are not so
much a’changing as a’worsening.
