Thank God for the nhs…

There is lots of attention on the footballer Fabrice Muamba returning from hospital after his tragic collapse a few weeks ago. There has also been loads of Christian responces and prayers because Fabrice Muamba is himself a Christian (apparently Christians only like to get vocal when one of their own is injured – it seems fairly evident no one else was in hospital during this time)

Since Muamba’s return I’ve seen a few “thank the Lord” and “thank you God”…I haven’t got a big problem with this if people like to pray and thank God when events match their prayers but surely the real thanks belongs to the medical staff…they literally saved his life and I’ve seen no “thank you paramedics, doctors, nurses, surgeons”…I’m sure they got some from the family and Muamba himself but I’d like to see some Christian friends of mine appreciate that its the hard work of the medical staff and technological/medical advances that saved Muamba’s live…and to be really blunt about it, the prayers, albeit good will gestures, were indifferent to the outcome…

Clearly I have a bias opinion being married to a nurse, who spends her working life literally saving some lives and saying goodbye to others. All the patients families pray. Every outcome is different. But its the nhs which is

providing the daily miracles for countless people.

And so I’d like to see more people saying “thank God for the nhs”

Love Wins…

So I have just finished reading Love Wins by Rob Bell.

This book was more controversial around America than the Taliban Manifesto, and most of the speculation came before it was even published. Controversial because it was a book about Heaven, Hell and Salvation supposedly with a universalist twist.

So some reflections:

I’m not a massive fan of Rob Bell, he’s today’s trendy liberal evangelical, but it must be said that he is doing the job of bringing recent theological scholarship and reflection to the Christian masses.  His book is very easy to read, doesn’t really go into anything in a particularly deep or lengthy way and seems to explian otherwise intense theology in an easy to access manner.  Nothing of what Rob Bell says is new, as he himself points out, but it is new to many people. This is a great introduction. The beginning to ponder and question theologies of old and to drawn new and exciting conclusions which, I believe, will help many people.

Even the controversy is good. It opens the debate and lets the discussion role. In this respect the book is great.

My only real beef is the pedestal Rob Bell is on and the money floating around. May be this is self inflicted, may be this is out of his control, may be I’m just jealous and finding faults.

But on the back of the book, where usually you find praise for the book, you find praise for Rob Bell and nothing about the book. it’s all about Rob Bell “one of the most important 21st century christian leaders” “a central figure for his generation” “The next Billy Graham?”

And why should I pay £14.99 for such a short book? which is only just about 200 pages long because Rob Bell seems to be more keen on the return button than the comma…

As i said before i’m not a big fan of Rob Bell and these reasons are partly why. Yes, he is easy to read and Yes, he has some interesting things to say, which many people need to here. But what he has said has been said before elsewhere in a much fuller way and the author didn’t play ‘superpastor’ just like Rob Bell warned us of in Velvet Elvis…