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Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jul 2001

In America there is a turn of phrase which makes a play on a previous word to indicate mild - sometimes humorous - derision. So someone might say about breaking the speed limit 'Oh speeding, shmeeding'. The 'shm' sound is placed in front to give the sense of the previous word not being important or not being considered worthy of full attention. Pomo is the shorthand word used by some to indicate postmodernism.

Enough of preliminaries! This letter from America wants to say 'pomo - shmomo'. Recently I asked a suitably trendy professor of English at Yale University about postmodernism. He told me in no uncertain terms that postmodernism was passe. This caught me by surprise. Don't you read Derrida any more? I asked askance. Oh yes, he replied, maybe, but that's all out of date now. Hasn't been fashionable since the mid-90s. What's in now? I asked. Ethnicity, he said.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Dec 2001

A threat that's hard to assess is a fear that's hard to keep away. The fear of the unknown is a primeval instinct of humanity. Such fears have been played upon in years past by documentaries and movies about biological warfare. The fact that some such tactic seems to have been employed by terrorists, and that some people have actually died from anthrax infection, means that there is a new cloud of unease hanging over American heads.

Of course, the likelihood of contracting anthrax is negligible, especially compared to other risks that we daily run. But that this risk, unlikely as it may be, is delivered by way of the mail and whose victims seem so random brings all within its scope of fear. The visit of the mailman certainly has a new dynamic to it these days in America. Few things could have been better calculated to unsettle the ordinary citizen than a deadly infection spread by the mail that in its early signs of contagion is practically indistinguishable from the 'flu.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Oct 2001

Eerily enough, the date on the calendar was 9/11. 911 is the 999 emergency call in America.

Words cannot describe the horror that has been visited on America. Somehow, with the destruction of the World Trade Center and the devastation of the Pentagon, Americans seem different. They are in shock. They are in mourning. They are angry. They are almost in a national state of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Sep 2001

What is the largest Protestant denomination in the world? By some counts, the answer to that question is the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

The SBC is just astonishingly big. Imagine the biggest big thing you can think of then times it by something even bigger. That's about it. Since its organisation in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia, the SBC has grown to 15.8 million members who worship in more than 40,000 churches in the United States.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Nov 2001

'When I use a word it means what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less'. So said Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Caroll's Alice Through The Looking Glass. These days the word 'evangelical' seems to be used in that kind of Humpty Dumpty way. Evangelicalism as a concept is increasingly flexible.

Some therefore wonder whether it should be disbanded altogether. If groups with very diverse theological convictions, and some with very few theological convictions, all feel they can gather under the banner of 'evangelical' is the term in any sense still useful?

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Aug 2001

There is a certain on-going friendly rivalry between Canada and America. One instance of this is the continuing disagreement between the two countries over who won the last war they fought against each other in the 19th century. Americans are taught that they did. Canadians know they did.

Another instance of this friendly rivalry is a radio show in Canada called Asking Americans. In this show, a radio reporter travels down to America and asks Americans various spoof questions. These questions are designed to expose Americans as being woefully ignorant of what is going on in the world outside their national boundaries.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jun 2001

When I came to America I expected to leave behind me the need to understand class distinctions.

In a sense that has been true. In England your accent immediately places you within a fabric of class distinctions (unless you are blessed to have been born with or cultivated that nondescript nowhere-in-particular accent beloved of TV hosts). Here my accent does not 'place' me, other than being from England (or occasionally Australia).

Towards the end of the 1950s, Richard Bowdler left the staff of All Souls, Langham Place, and the ministry of 'Chaplain to the Stores' passed to Michael Harper.

He was a Londoner (the family home had been in Welbeck Street) and he had long been an occasional visitor to All Souls. He was converted to Christ in his first year at Cambridge, and during the vacations had alternated between All Souls and Westminster Chapel.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 May 2001

Doctrinal controversies are far from uncommon in America. Of course, the ecumenical movement is influential here, with the Evangelical and Catholic attempts to form some kind of statement that can get mutual approval, the broad-based evangelistic campaigns of Luis Palau and the like, and with other, more liberal, ecumenical movements. But, there is still much in the way of doctrinal disagreements and arguments in churches, between churches, in denominations.

One of the most important ongoing battles in this regard is in the Southern Baptist Convention. The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the world, has extraordinarily rich reserves of money and talent, and is very influential throughout the world by way of its vigorous and commendable support of missionaries. Being so large makes it vulnerable to mega-politics.

On February 3 37-year-old Bruce Morrison was about to give an English lesson in a church hall in Wuchang, Hubei province. A madman rushed into the room and stabbed the young American. He was taken urgently to hospital but was found to have died.

His wife Valori was advised of the incident and came with her six daughters to the Outpatients Department. En route she spoke quietly to the children about the attack and the family resolved to forgive whoever had done this. When they reached the hospital Valori Morrison was informed that Bruce was dead. She said to her daughters, 'Your father has gone to be with Jesus. He is asleep in Jesus's arms.' Turning to the medical worker she said, 'Please contact the killer and tell him that the family has forgiven him and will be praying for him.' Some of the students who had witnessed the murder were at the hospital, deeply upset by what they had witnessed. Valori reminded them of Christ's words that if a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies it brings forth fruit.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Apr 2001

Writing from the US, Josh Moody aspires to be an evangelical Alistair Cooke as he begins a series ...

Sir Fred Catherwood recently represented Evangelicals at a forum in Kazakhstan to discuss religious liberty (see news item on p. 7). Here is the text of Sir Fred's speech, which passionately argues for tolerance.

I want to talk about the contribution which the Kazakhstan Protestant churches can make to this country.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jan 2001

He was an unusual character. Small, squat and very lively.

A group of bright-eyed, intelligent students were gathered around him, crowding out the large room in which we were meeting. There were books everywhere - wall-to-ceiling bookshelves with line upon line, double-shelved large volumes of theology and philosophy, science, and you name it.

Controversy in the letters page of EN regarding the new Praise! hymn book has set some historical alarm bells ringing. It seems that there is nothing new under the sun . . .

Since the Reformation1 protestant churches have divided, rancorously, over musical matters with depressing regularity. At different times, all manner of issues have caused bitter dispute. Often a conservative old guard opposed 'dangerous innovations'. Usually the dangerous innovation soon became general practice, and the oceans of print spilled over its introduction were completely forgotten. Below are listed some of the arguments that have raged over singing in church down the centuries.