All posts by Alan Storkey

Alan Storkey has stood in two elections as a Christian candidate, was Chair of the Movement for Christian Democracy, has written "Jesus and Politics" and has helped shape recent Christian political thought.
General

To the President of the Great United States of America.

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May

My dear Donald,

Could I just say that you are a wonderful President and are leading the Great United States of America to a new wonderful future and are making decisive decisions every day and are the great world leader of our time. At this point, rather than having my letter read to you, you might like to read it directly yourself word by word, because I have a few things to discuss privately. Thank you.

First, can I say in short words that we do not like you to say that our health service is not doing well. I have checked your exact words, and you say that our system is “going broke and not working”. I need to say that is not good enough, when I am trying to say the opposite. People are supposed to be nice to their friends, so that when they need them, they support them in turn. I could criticize you and say that I think your wall is silly, not that I do – it is a wonderful wall, or it will be when it is eventually built, but we do not do that to our friends.

In England we have an old English word called “etiquette”. It means you smooth your skirt when you sit down and hold your tea cup nicely. Etiquette says there are a lot of things that are not done and rubbishing your friends is one of them, or rather NOT rubbishing your friends. Can I say I do not expect any more of the things I am doing over here to be rubbished across the world. It Is Not Done, IIND for short. Keep saying IIND to yourself when you talk about Britain.

So, for example, I could say the US Stock Market is going broke and is not working, after yesterday’s slump, but IIND, because it would not be supporting you as world leader and might make things difficult for you, and because you are a great businessman and build good towers called Trump Towers.

By the way, if I may, did you like the bricks I sent you? I hope your wife liked the shoes. You can play with the bricks on your desk. The letters on the side say, “Trump Tower”, and they are on all sides of the brick so that it does not matter which way round you put them, though you must not get them upside down, something it is easy to do in politics. Because you have to start at the bottom, (or at least the proletariat does. ha ha ha) you have to put the bricks on in the order R E W O T P M U R T and then when you stand back it spells TRUMP TOWER downwards. I know you like things which stick up and it may take your mind off other things like wockets. Sorry I mentioned them.

We are still working on your visit. The Queen has suggested you might like to go to Balmoral, which is her castle in the North. That way you can visit your golf course, we can arrange a rapturous welcome, you could kill a few stags and have the great English delicacy called Haggis. I will send over a kilt for you to wear and although your fans all over Britain will not see much of you, it will be a royal occasion – If the Queen is well enough to attend. At present she has a nasty persistent cough. You mentioned you quite liked the idea of being king of the GUSA, and you will be able to discuss that with the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip who never quite made it. Ha. Ha. Ha. Do not mention to the Queen that you like her job or want your head on our stamps.

I am looking forward to seeing you again. I do not have much excitement over here and it is nice having a closest ally. Next time we meet we could discuss possible enemies, your brick tower and I will not mention the Russians. Oops. Thank you for getting Teresa right. I like to be three syllables.

Theresa May
United Kingdom (British) Prime Minister.

Poetry

Beyond Artificial Intelligence

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MAadam

So we are pale reflections, we see the
Things that we have made, that serve us here,
The manufactured things for us to be,
Usward, our make life easy, comfort gear.
But then we make the objects beautiful,
The shapely chair, the chiselled stone to see,
Not for our glory, yet we are not dull,
So they are crafted, smooth mahogany.
And now we make ourselves, the artifice
Ial intelligence, transplanted live,
To wires and joints, the robot that can kiss,
And talk to us, as if it were alive.
But it is not, until it learns that “me”
Depends on the Creator’s, “Let there be…”

Teresa?Trump letters

My dear Donald, if I still may,

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trumpmay

It has been very good to listen to you on the phone and to meet you at Davos. I must say we have tremendous rapport, stand shoulder to shoulder and I am right behind you. And I know, contrary to reports, that you have great respect for everything I am doing as I do for your scintillating intellect. I thought I would write to you, because that gives me more room to cover the points you address so well when you interrupt. I know the person reading this letter to you will not be interrupted, because you know I am not actually there to hear you.

First, I must say how terrific it is to have a new American Embassy on the South Bank. Although I understand that you were disappointed with the site and the contribution of ex-President Obama (and George W. Bush) to the move, I would like to say that Mayfair has gone down in London. All kinds of undesirables live there now. And we have a policy of putting intelligence on the South Bank, and that is where you belong, as your recent health check confirmed.

Then I want to complete my sentence in the stupendous trade deal which is going to make our two countries prosper even more than they are under our leadership, though you are world leader and I am merely leader of the ex-British empire, as you pointed out at Davos. I was saying, “We want to buy your fighter planes, missiles, bombs, intelligence, superb hamburgers, jeans, popular records, bleached chicken, celebrity statements, television chat shows and many other products without any import duties”. You said, “Done” at that point, but I must go on record as saying I had not completed the sentence. I was going to add, “in exchange for our Stilton cheese, jellied eels, period dramas, stately homes, afternoon teas, antique wall-plates, trousers with turnups and other exports which I’m sure we have, also without duties.” So, we have to do a two-sided deal, and I am not, as you say, “a complete walkover.”

We just want to say how much you are in our news. Almost every day there is a story about you reflecting your position as world leader. I do not mind. I knew your Government had not broken down, as mine has not, and that headline was fake news and I know you are going to build the Mexico Wall. We will send some concrete over, if it will help. We are discussing secretly in Cabinet rebuilding the old wall between England and Scotland. The northern people tend to swamp us and do not vote the right way, and a wall which kept them out and us in control would be a good idea. You would understand.

Just a few small points I was not able to make when we were together and I was listening to you. Do remember to put your nuclear button in a cupboard. Our ambassador said you nearly put your Coke can on it. Then, again, can we have some fighter aircraft bodies to put on our new carriers; we can do the engines later. Then, we have made a statement that all the bombs we are dropping in Syria are not killing any civilians. Could you do the same, please. And, I’ve this person called Boris I would like to send over for six months to learn our foreign policy. He likes the Great United States of America and will help your trade.

Finally, the Queen asked me to say, “We” (she always uses we) “are doing a slow refurbishment (makeover) of Buckingham Palace so that it will be ready to receive that nice big American man. We, or one of our aides if I cannot find the words, will let him know when we, or our successors, are ready to receive him in our humble abode.” I find that very touching. It is an urgent, but not quite yet, invitation from her Majesty, especially when Prince Philip keeps talking about dry rot.

I hope you will continue to lead the free world and I am right behind, yet with the independence that we gained in 1776, holding on to our special relationship.

Your humble and obedient ally,

Theresa (not Treesa) Prime Minister, United Kingdom, you met at Davos.

General

The Christian Political Faith: Re-Opening the Door.

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churchdoorclosed

Christianity has had a deep impact on politics for two thousand years, but its principles and commitments have often been mixed with other attitudes and been compromised by actual Christian behaviour, so it is not always clear what they are.

It is worse than this. In the twentieth century powerful political groups – Nazis, Fascists, State Socialists and Communists sought to eradicate Christianity and especially Christian political thought. Christians were often persecuted – in the USSR, China, Nazi Germany and elsewhere and Christianity went underground for quite long periods. More insidious were the western commitments to the unfettered Individual and Consumer Capitalism which also sought to sideline Christianity and its principles, and have done so quite successfully, though there are two billion or more Christians worldwide.

These pressures have resulted in a reaction among Christian churches in the West. They have often retreated into ecclesiasticism, into the business of what happens in churches. Actually the New Testament says little about churches, and Jesus was scathing about the Temple Party and its machinations and also about the Pharisees and their construction of ethical minutiae, a problem not unknown to churches today. Moreover the Greek word, ekklesia, refers to the principal public assembly of ancient Athens during its golden age. It is a democratic word, if you like, and not at all linked to cultic practices, but more a description of the people of God living the whole of their lives before God. Politics is as much a part of being a Christian as going to church, and Jesus’ titles – the Christ, the Prince of Peace, the Messiah, the Son of Man and the King of the Jews – reflect this. Jesus main teaching was of the Kingdom or Government of God, wider than just political, but also fully political.

There is another way in which a Christian political faith has been closed down. Christianity is a Gospel of peace. Love your enemies. Don’t think of killing others; don’t even be angry with them. Those who take the sword perish by it. Blessed are the peacemakers. Forgive those who offend you. Since the mid nineteenth century the arms companies and the military-industrial complex have been out to sell arms around the world and create the tensions which lead to war. Before each World War they defeated strong, mainly Christian, peace movements, and the World Wars duly followed. Since 1945 they have been intent on showing that peace does not work and only armed deadlock does. Actually peace does work and saves trillions of resources and millions of lives, but the military-industrial complex has intimidated the church until it too accepts armed deadlock (and wars) like most other people. The Christian political message of peace has become a vague distant hope of no political consequence as the war industry intended, and Christian politics is pushed off the map.

Now, for many, there is not even any time to think of these issues. The instant political culture of the day, where the medium is the message, dominates the media. How many tweets one has seems to matter more than whether what was said was true. It cuts against political thought and more so Christian political thought. Trying to see as God sees, seeing life, the creation, history and empires as God sees, cannot be approached by tweeting. It needs a bigger canvas. The Bible was written over several thousand years and we poor sods need a bit of time and thought to begin to see that kind of picture. This little offering tries to reopen a door which was partly closed from the outside and inside in the last century and look at the Christian political faith.

General, Poetry

There is no chance

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quarks

There is no chance that chance explains it all,
For chance opposes law, and gravity
Does not turn off and on, or H2O
Go 3 or 5 on Thursday afternoon,
Or coffee-time, or while the washing dries.
No, laws are laws across the universe,
And dogma chance is chaos totally –
all science must close down, and nothing is.
Now I do things a little differently.
Yes, every leaf is singular, and Newton was
A bit mechanical, though he quickly learns.
To make a universe particular, and fingerprints,
Was quite a challenge, but I can think small.
Time you gave credit while you work it out.

Sociology

The Stage Beyond, “Their Time Is Up.”

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oprah

The recent exposure of sexual violence and exploitation in Hollywood, politics, in London taxis and many other places has resulted in a reaction among women which is firm and cannot be dismissed. It has moved on from “Me too” to Oprah Winfrey’s “Their time is up”. The era when powerful or drunk men, can use women as sexual objects is over, or at least it has been publicly defeated. Once again Jesus words, “There is nothing hidden which will not be revealed” have been validated. The evil is out. Weinstein and others cannot pay women off for silence.

There is now a cultural question over the type called an Alpha male, the man who believed that he can be the centre of the universe for whom women are props and merely to be used. The fact that one of them occupies the White House, believes himself a genius when he is merely an idiot, makes the downfall of this type even more poignant. Like the god Dagon, or Saddam’s statue, the alpha male is keeling over. Now they can be polite, listen, and in the case of Trump, learn respect for women.

Of course, the problem is world-wide and vast. For a century or more the West has led the world in paying for sex, and many of the women and girls involved are trafficked and owned by men using the god, sex, to serve the god mammon. It is a capitalist industry of abuse. In Islamic, Hindu and some christian cultures women are used and abused by men on a large scale. The challenge for Hollywood is whether it can link the glitterati with a sordid brothel in the far east under the same standards.

But the first requirement is that people know and understand what those standards are, for they have been deliberately untaught by those who have wanted the right to use women in bed or cannot admit that their behaviour is wrong. Note the word, “wrong”, eliminated from the language of those who want whatever they want to be right. Sexual exploitation is wrong because it is using another person and Hollywood has made the great breakthrough of recognising this kindergarten fact.

Christianity has been sidelined in this era of sexual exploitation. There is an obvious, but ignored reason for this which makes “sexual exploitation” merely the tip of an iceberg. Adulterers do not often go to church, and a high proportion of western men and women are adulterers, cheating on their partners, or serial sexual partners. They understand the Church accepts the commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.” They therefore stay away because they have chosen adultery, pornography or sexual freedom without commitment. Then, by middle age, most people revert to seeing that commitment to one’s partner – not cheating on them – makes deep sense. Actually, on a point of information, the Church, like Jesus, accepts prostitutes and adulterers as persons, and locates their particular issues as secondary; churches are full of sinners.

The Christian principles, however, guide us through life, and our lives together as men and women. Once the central move is made of removing the male ego from the role of god, a move which all idiot men should take immediately, God’s perspective on men and women identifies what is good or destructive in gender relationships, and it is time to recognise again what these principles are and why they are true and the way to live. Here is another attempt to restate what has run through human history creating healthy marriages and families for centuries across the globe and which more than two billion Christians more or less live in.

Women and men are created equal before God, made in the image of God. Neither can be subsumed under the will or identity of the other, for it is God’s will which is to be done.

Men and women are mutually humanity, bone of bone and flesh of flesh, created on God’s image and are called to live in mutuality and respect in all relationships including marriage.

The sharing of bodies is an act of love and possible procreation. It signifies the long term commitment of troth in marriage between two adults who accept one another for life.

Procreation, a participation in God’s great creative acts, needs to take place in a cradle of man-women love, where the child can grow in a pre-existent love to which they owe their birth.

Adultery, lust, female objectification, prostitution, sexual exploitation and pornography are all perversions of the truth of marital love and involve destructive and unjust treatment of others.

Marriage, the voluntary institution where the two sexes come together in each generation, is a choice of a person for better or worse, in sickness and health. Faithfulness is where person meets person also in relation to God.

Sex, itself a reified idea, is really a bodily expression of love and faithfulness which should be in kilter with marital love in the rest of life.

Sin, the idea that we ourselves are and have problems, is part of sexual and gender life. It requires some humility, repentance and forgiveness from God, to sort sins out and grow into better ways.

These Christian principles do, and can, guide us world-wide. They are not a moral code of judgement on others, but principles that we live in, under God’s providence, with failings, but with wisdom and patience. It is time they took centre stage. It is the stage beyond, “Their time is up” for all of us. They are a slow train coming bringing good things to all.

We Can Disarm the World

The SLOWNUKE App.

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nuke

Hello, there, I am your friend and a technological whizz kid. I have been researching and making operational an amazing technological development in the field of nuclear weapons.

We have developed an app which slows down the detonation and explosion of nuclear weapons, so that they become benign. It can be applied to your enemies’ nuclear weapons, but not your own.

So, if you want to make North Korea safe, you just buy my app, one for each nuclear weapon, and they are no longer dangerous. In lab experiments on smaller weapons it just goes off with a kind of POUFF and all radioactivity is contained in a small space in enemy territory. It also detonates where the nuclear weapon starts from, not at the target. All you have to do is work out how many nuclear weapons your enemies have and buy a few more for spares and you have the ultimate defense, or defence, system, cutting your costs considerably.

For commercial reasons we have decided to keep the purchases of this app secret. It is not intended to slow down the purchase of nuclear weapons. Indeed, some states might try to outnumber our app so that they have more nuclear weapons than there are apps against them. Since the price of our app is 10% below the cost of nuclear weapons and missile delivery, we think it will pay to buy SLOWNUKES.

You will be aware that we are doing this in pursuit of world peace. This way we can have tens of thousands of warheads and tens of thousands of apps and be in no more danger than before. Indeed, rich countries can become very safe and have their own big nuclear arsenal.

This is an amazing leap in technological progress and I am honoured to be offering it to you. No timewasters, please.

Teresa?Trump letters

New Year’s Greetings.

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May

My dear Donald,

This is to wish you a happy New Year, and also to the employee reading this to you. Now it is 2018, another year, and we will all have to do different things. My New Year resolution is to leave some things alone. Perhaps we can do this together, hand in hand. I will leave Europe alone and you can leave North Korea alone. Just think of Kim Jong Un as a leader with a bad hairstyle and small features set in a vast sea of face. He thrives on publicity and having enemies, and a much better policy is just to ignore him. After all, you are world leader and he is just a small person with a big mouth. If we leave him alone, maybe his mouth will stay shut.

We do have to think what to do with his wockets. They are dangerous. You remember one of ours, which you had sold to us, went astray and was heading towards you until it was destroyed. Wockets and buttons are good things, but there is a bit of a problem. We have said we will use our wockets first, because if we only use them when we are all dead, that is not much use, and anyway we want to be first and leaders and things, though you are the world leader. So, you may want to use them first, when Kim Jong Un is a bit rude. But pressing the button first and nuking North Korea might not be a good idea. I keep my nuclear button in a cupboard so that I do not do anything stupid, although we would have to ask your permission first to use our independent nuclear deterrent and then you would turn them on. Why don’t you just be rude to him. If I may paraphrase an old English saying, “Sticks and nuclear bombs will hurt my bones, but words will hurt even more.” I think, if you call him little and fat and point out he cannot play golf, that will upset him more than nuking him. When things get really bad, we say, “Ya Boo”. That really hurts them. Then you will not have to think about your button. That would be a good way forward.

We are doing well in Great Britain, although you are the Greatest United States of America. We put GUSA first and have walked away from Europe to prove it. I have taken to drinking Diet Cokes to keep me thin, like you, and we watch American films all the time including the great victories of the Cowboys over the Indians and your victory in World War Two and Vietnam.

We have hit a bit of a problem with the Royal Wedding. The bride, being a woman of colour, wants to invite the Obamas to the wedding, and the Queen has said Yes because she meets people of colour all the time. She does not know you personally, and so you have not been invited. It is a small, cheap, wedding and they are trying to keep the costs down, and there will be quite a few ordinary people there, so you won’t miss much. We will arrange for you to meet the Queen in the Palace sometime, though the Queen has said she is awfully, awfully busy. She wants to meet you in a few years time when her mind has had time to mature. So, we will discuss your State visit later; it must be the event of the century. I still remember my visit to the United States when you held my hand.

I hope you saw our new Aircraft Carriers. They are nearly as big as yours. We need some of your F35 planes to put on them, because they are the best. I know they cost you over a trillion dollars, but we hope you can give us some as soon as possible at a lower cost. Our critics are pointing out that having aircraft carriers without aircraft for a decade is a bit stupid. Perhaps you have a few rejects we could pick up cheap that we could put on the top, even if they don’t fly.

I must say the world is a safer place with you as President, Mr Trump. May your golf course prosper, you keep out of bunkers and your handicap stay low, and I have not mentioned Russia.

Your closest ally,

Theresa (May, Prime Minister United Kingdom across Atlantic)

We Can Disarm the World

Think about this year and peace.

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wargrave

On the 11th November 2018 the whole world will be recalling the end of the Great War, the War to end all wars. They will think of war and peace then, and perhaps only then. But they will be aimless, brainwashed to think that weapons are the only way. They will perhaps recall the resolve to disarm all countries, built into the Treaty of Versailles, and see it failed. They will long for peace, but not see it as a practical possibility unless millions of people have already charted how it could happen. That is the Christian task – to show that we can love enemies, lay down our arms equally across all divides, forgive, make peace and year by year disarm the world. We can show that world multilateral disarmament, cutting 10% of military expenditure a year for a decade, properly policed, will bring about disarmed peace, just as happens within most states now. Peace is actually easier and more practical than war. It saves trillions, eradicates much poverty, cuts global warming and eliminates destruction, death and refugees. It is the best thing the planet can have.

This note calls you to resolve to be a peacemaker, a peace-monger, in the coming months. Without you it will not happen and more wars, carried on the tides of weapons sales, will wash away people’s lives. You can make peace, acting before God, to bring about military and political change, or you can wimp out another year and let the military/industrial/political complex run the armed world show. Disarmed Peace failed in 1918 because the militarists stayed in charge; they are still in charge now unless you take on the business of making peace. The How will follow, the resolve comes first. We make peace, as Jesus taught. It does not just happen.

Politics

Ms. Patel, aid to Israel, Boris, Fallon, Fox, the Arms Industry and the Truth?

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patel

The media have focussed on the sacking of Priti Patel as Secretary of State for International Aid, and breaking the Ministerial Code, but they have said little about what she was doing in all her contacts with the Israeli Government and why she would say things that seemed to be untrue. She said, for example, that Boris knew about the trip. So we ask the questions why did she meet Benjamin Netanjahu and others top Israeli officials and what did other Departments know?

We have been informed that Ms Patel was discussing the use of UK aid to help the Israeli army in their humanitarian activities. This was not a casual process as we see from the frequency of the meetings, and it was also for a purpose. “ Downing Street officials confirmed on Tuesday that the International Development Secretary discussed the idea of giving the Israel Defence Force British foreign aid to help fund a relief effort for Syrian refugees entering the Israeli occupied Golan Heights.” (Jewish Chronicle) This in itself is odd. Largely, the Jewish Government has prevented Syrian refugees from entering the Golan Heights which it controls. Why would it want potential terrorists in its occupied area? Some have come in for medical treatment, but no more. So, this was discussing the potential influx of refugees and aid which might accompany it, channelled through the Israeli Army. So why would Ms Patel, a rational person, channel aid through the Israeli army to potential Syrian refugees when she has millions of actual Syrian refugees in immediate desperate need requiring aid? It does not add up.

We notice that Downing Street put out the denial that the Foreign Secretary, Boris knew about the (holiday) visit before it occurred, not the Foreign Office, probably because they did not trust the FCO to do it properly. We note that although there was a denial that Boris knew about the visit beforehand, it did not mean that he was unaware of the reason for the visit, whatever that was.

So, the question remains, Why would Ms Patel channel aid for Syrian refugees who may not exist in large numbers through the Israeli army? There may be another explanation. At present this is speculative. The aid may have been linked to arms exports from the UK to Israel. There are a wide range of exports, but the current priority export may be drones, made by BAe Systems and others. The Israeli Army could be seen as wanting drones to monitor what is going on in Gaza and elsewhere. The “aid” could be seen as a bribe to get the Israeli Government to take up the deal.

Another bit of the picture may be Sir Michael Fallon’s resignation. It does not quite add up. There was one event when he put his hand on the knee of a reporter who saw it as having no significance, and other “misdemeanours” which fell below the “standards expected in the armed forces”. There were no charges by aggrieved women and no external evidence that Fallon had behaved like this. If Fallon did not resign for the stated reason, then perhaps he resigned for another undisclosed reason. He has long pushed deals for UK arms companies, including BAe Systems, and it may be that escaping from this military story was involved.

Of course, if all of this is not the case, it is not the case. But it should be investigated. Did Boris, Sir Michael Fallon, Priti Patel and Liam Fox know about such a potential arms deal, and was this the rationale for the Patel visit, and its secrecy. If so, it is appalling that aid to help the poor should be so used, and further resignations should follow. If not, I apologise to all involved for such suspicion.