The Personal Website of Michael Foord

My Mum recently sent me a link to an article: Why Does God Allow Terrible Things to Happen? It's a very emotional article, worth reading, on an emotional topic. Terrible, awful, horrific things happen in this world of ours. Even if you don't have personal tragedies you don't need to spend more than a minute or  two browsing a newspaper to find more than your fill of pain and tragedy. Stephen Fry publicly expressed what many people feel, calling a hypothetical God an " evil, capricious, monstrous maniac ": Stephen Fry on God   So how can a loving God allow such evil? I don't know, and according to everything I've ever seen anyone who thinks they do know is deluding themselves or lying. It's a fair question, perhaps the ultimate question. Something I find helpful when I think about this is a song by Godfrey Birtill, Outrageous Grace : There's a lot of pain but a lot more healing There's a lot of trouble but a lot more peace The

We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. ... By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies—all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. ... From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes. -- Aldous Huxley No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. -- John Donne In I was brought up I describe my Christian up-bringing and my journey back to faith via Cambridge university, atheism, Buddhism, homelessness and Christian community. In Pursuing Faith this came full circle with me having to reconcile my faith to how I saw the world and spirituality without faith. This article is a further exploration of how I am pursuing a genuine and deeper spirituality. My faith is a rational pursuit. It has to be.

The liberal agenda, much hated by much of modern Christianity, is a move of God. They hate the hypocrisy and wilful ignorance of organised religion. Their questions about God and faith are real. Their pursuit of equality is a genuine movement for justice, love and acceptance (in contrast to the prevailing spirit of the world that hates those who are different) and against oppression. It's heartbreaking to see the church resist and denounce this working of God in our society. That other, related, social movement "The 99%" is part of the same move of God. A pursuit of social justice. In both these movements I see people sacrificing and laying down their lives to build cultures of love and justice and to speak out against oppression. As I search for the fire of God these are some of the places I'm finding it. (Footnote: in case there's any doubt I include topics such as feminism, socialism, supporting marriage equality, supporting ethnic minority rights, a re