Shape-shifting

When I was a boy, aged about seven, I would often attend the Kirk with my Grandad. I always wore shorts in those days, thus I recall vividly the horsehair pews. I recall too, most vividly, the collection plates being passed round, then their amalgamation into one heavy, jingling, sack.

After Church, we would go back to my Grandad's. Often the doorbell would go, and I would be ordered to hide behind the settee. Once though, we were caught by the Church elder. It appeared that he wished my Grandad to both alter his will and make a monthly covenant of monies (tax deductible) in the Kirk's benefit.

Even at such a young age, I realised there was something afoot and that the teachings of Jesus appeared, perhaps, to have been somewhat modified.

Today, times have changed. No longer do Sunday's have the same eleven o' clock bustle. Churches are fairly quiet nowadays.

The Kirk is no doubt concerned at the dwindling attendances and the lack of funds.

Although the Bible apparently is not too keen on homosexuality, yesterday it was reported that the Church of Scotland is becoming closer to ordaining gay ministers. I have nothing against homosexuals but wonder how an organisation which is based on teachings, can somehow forget or ignore those teachings.

It is fair to say that a lot of global "Christianity" was sourced in Scotland. It is fair too, to say, that the King James Bible has it's roots firmly in Scotland. Apparently, given the diversity of ancient texts, there was some debate as to whether to include the Book of Revelation within the KJV, some seeing it as the work of a madman. However, it is indeed there.

When Prince Charles was christened, at the age of 30 days, his mother the Queen chose the first hymn - Holy, Holy, Holy - to reflect the "sacred significance of the event". Prince Charles embraces all faiths, rather like another Scots-born, globally exported, institution: the freemasons.

The hymn, Holy Holy, Holy, paraphrases part of the Book of Revelation.

The Book of Revelation talks of a mark to be created in the hand or forehead to allow one to buy or sell. 

Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party, recently courted controversy by praising Russia's Putin. Alex Salmond wants every child in Scotland to have a state appointed "guardian".

Prince Charles, whilst in Nova Scotia (New Scotland) this week, compared Putin's policies to those of Hitler. The image used for the story in the BBC showed a bagpiper.

When Gordon Brown - who's father was a Kirk minster - preached to the Kirk's Assembly, he spoke of "higher common grounds and united religions"

This week it was revealed that Scotland is to be the first place in the UK to issue plastic banknotes. They will depict the Forth Rail Bridge and an image of it's "designer", William Arroll, who also oversaw London's Tower Bridge. One of Arroll's proudest honours was "being raised a Third Degree Master Mason at Houstoun St Johnstone Masonic Lodge No 242 on April 15, 1869". (Daily Record) From the same link:

FREEMASONRY is a system of morality whose purpose is to make good men better and inspire them to build a nobler world. 

It’s open to men of all religions, denominations, creeds, colours and races who believe in a Supreme Being called the Great Architect of the Universe.

Freemasonry proclaims all men are architects of their own universes.

Prince Philip's funeral arrangements are codenamed Forth Bridge (here)

We don't see much of a future for plastic banknotes.

We envisage a future where a young boy, sat in an all welcoming, multi-faith Kirk, watches the electronic device being passed through the crowded pews, each adult member of the congregation scanning their hand against it, monies duly deducted directly.

The boy can't wait to become an adult and get his chip, just like the celebrities he so admires.

cheers

Captain Kirk

He who pays the piper....

 It's the Scottish Kirk's General Assembly this week. The Queen has written to them, hoping that "people of faith" will "work together for the social good of Scotland whatever the outcome of the independence referendum". You see, some people in Scotland are taking the "independence" question rather seriously and, given one side must lose, there is likely to be some bitterness. Some people seem have forgotten, or perhaps don't even realise, that a global society beckons and "independence" will be fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme of matters.

Fighting on the Royal Mile, close to the Assembly.

Indeed, some of the Kirk's assembly surely remember then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, speak  in 2008 at the same venue, when he told of his vision for a "global society governed by a shared moral sense" (BBC News):

And we find that from the timeless wisdom of all the great religions - from which billions across the world derive daily inspiration - there is a consistent ethical core that propels us to act: encapsulated in the golden rule that informs not just Christianity and Judaism but also Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam - showing that we are not moral strangers but there is a shared moral sense common to us all:

And from these common precepts of the world’s great religions, we can - perhaps for the first time - move from old battlegrounds where religions confronted often each other to a higher common ground where people of all religions can unite around what binds them together. 

His sentiments were nothing new though, given the year before, whilst Chancellor and in India, he stated (Light Bringers):

"It is time to formally recognise on a more consistent and regular basis the reality of this emerging new world order."

Last year, the Scottish Kirk told how, in the event of independence, they would like Prince Charles to have a separate coronation in Scotland, and be crowned King of Scots. (Pennies from Heaven)

They followed that up a couple of weeks later with a report - which outraged Jews - stating :

 Biblical promises about the land of Israel were never intended to be taken literally, or as applying to a defined geographical territory...

 The 'promised land' in the Bible is not a place, so much as a metaphor of how things ought to be among the people of God. This 'promised land' can be found - or built - anywhere...

From this examination of the various views in the Bible about the relation of land to the people of God, itcan be concluded that Christians should not be supporting any claims by Jewish or any other people, to an exclusive or even privileged divine right to possess particular territory. It is a misuse of the Bible to use it as a topographic guide to settle contemporary conflicts over land.

The Inheritance of Abraham- A report on the promised land

The same Church report noted a post 1840  "widely held attitude that European colonialism meant that a land was ‘empty’ if western power and culture was not present."

The British did a lot of colonising and spreading of "Christianity"

It is reported today that Prince Charles is in hot water after comparing some of the recent actions of Russian president Putin to that of the Nazis (BBC News) :

 As they discussed Hitler's takeover of countries, the prince "said something to the effect of 'it's not unlike... what Putin is doing,'" she recalled.

The Prince made his remarks whilst in Canada's Nova Scotia - New Scotland. 

There was a lot of fighting went on when Canada was "colonised".

Here @newspaceman, we are of the belief that the  "united religions", that Gordon Brown spoke of, may well be found in tolerant, all welcoming Scotland first, before exportation globally.

Rather like UK amalgamater,  King of Scots James, and his revised Bible.

Salmond visits a Mosque

cheers