“They’re bringing religion into Christmas Cards” she said to her neighbour as they looked at a card with the nativity scene! The comment is probably apocryphal but the cards of winter scenes, Robins and berries to say nothing of Santa far outweigh the “religious” cards. So what does the Bible say about the “religious” bit?

It has become popular to speak about Jesus birthday on the 25^th December but there was never a time when Jesus did not exist. He was with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the councils of eternity when Creation and Redemption of humankind was planned. True he did have a birth day when he took flesh and entered our universe via the womb of a virgin and was made in all respects like us except he was without sin.

Athanasius in the 4^th century put it clearly when he said that “Jesus became what he was not without ever ceasing to be what he always was”.

He was, is and always will be God.

Isaiah put it pro ... Read More »

Last week, Sky’s digital channel, Real Lives, showed the Oscar-winning documentary, “Right to Die” featuring Craig Ewert’s assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic. Craig had been suffering from motor neurone disease and died in the presence of his wife following a lethal doze of barbiturates.

As film directors take their craft into increasingly sensitive areas of human existence we are asked to confront matters previous generations were only vaguely aware of. The Hippocratic Oath bound the medical profession to heal not harm. The crucial clause states, “I will use treatment to help the sick according to my judgement and ability, but I will never use it to injure or wrong them”.

With advances in medical science comes the ability to sustain the life of the dying until the problem becomes an ethical rather than a medical one.

The poet has written;

Thou shalt ... Read More »

News of food contamination in the developed world travels fast. Sophisticated food testing in a number of European countries detected dioxins in pork fat as far back as September. Towards the end of November the source was traced to an animal food recycling plant in Ireland.

When confirmation of high levels of contamination was obtained from the UK laboratory last Saturday the Government acted swiftly to recall all Irish pork products produced from pigs slaughtered in the State.

Consumers emptied their fridges, retailers emptied their shelves and the process was repeated in our export markets as far away as Japan.

There have been reassurances from “experts” that there is unlikely to be any health issues occurring to those whose diet contained pork since September but they sound hollow in the face of total product recall.

The fear factor where food is concerned becomes paramount.& ... Read More »

The internal audit report into the corporate affairs of the state training agency FAS has produced evidence of profligate spending by a largely unsupervised public official during the years of plenty, which have now come to an end. The public official has a very different version of the events, showing that he was being given kudos for his actions which were being hailed as a great success. Two “truths”, which one is the true truth?

Part of the problem lies in the fact that the affluence existing in the early years of the 3^rd millennium no longer exists and what was “normal” then may well be looked at very differently today! Expenditure rules were treated as guidelines and budget over-runs did not attract the appropriate sanctions. Instead of amending the rules to legitimise the excesses they were simply waived and truth became a victim of prosperity.

Coming to terms with the truth was a problem even in Bible tim ... Read More »

The case of asylum seeker Pamela Izevbekhai who lost her appeal against deportation to Nigeria in the High Court last week was given a reprieve when the European Court of Human Rights intervened, delaying the deportation for 3 weeks, while they review the case to see whither or not the grounds for deportation were warranted.

The reason Pamela came to Ireland in 2004 with her two daughters Naomi and Jemima now aged 7 and 6 was to avoid female genital mutilation. Apparently her husband’s family observes this rite and insisted that she have the procedure carried out on her two daughters.

Pamela had a daughter called Elizabeth who had this procedure carried out by a cousin when she was 18 months old in 1994. Unfortunately she died when the bleeding could not be stopped and Pamela, not wishing to risk the same fate for her two remaining daughters, with the aid of her husband, applied for asylum in Ireland.

Presumably the Minister for Justice is afraid to permit one case which wo ... Read More »

Drugs have been in the news for all the wrong reasons this last week.

We had almost 2 tonnes of cocaine removed from the yacht “Dancing with Waves” when the customs seized her in the Atlantic.

Then came the death of Shane Geoghegan, a tragic case of mistaken identity, at the hand of a hit-man hired by a Limerick gang involved in a drug related feud.

The week ended with a similar incident in Finglas which left a man in hospital fighting for his life.

The street value of the yacht’s cargo of €500 million did not make the headlines but it does provide a clue to the size of the rewards accruing to the dealers. The craving of the addict provides an increasing market which has penetrated every strata of society. The admission by the Minister for Justice that we cannot police our coastline is stating the obvious whilst reliance on increased surveillance, phone tapping and information fr ... Read More »

It has been interesting to come back to Ireland at the end of last week to find that the Budget has been subject to revision by the people. Formerly it was the task of the opposition to critique the proposals and the Government to stand by the decisions they made. In fact it cut short Garrett Fitzgerald’s government’s term in office when they stood by their decision to tax children’s shoes back in the 80ies.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of this particular piece of legislation to yield to pressure groups is not the way to govern. In times of crisis the government needs to be seen to exercise its authority and bare the consequences of its decisions.

In short, the budget is not a discussion document.

The Bible is not a discussion document either!

What God has said is true. We are all descended from one source. We are here for a purpose. We are going to one of two possible places.

We learn that God is our maker. It also explains that our Maker is our redeeme ... Read More »

Using various financial devices different countries have had to come to the rescue of the god mammon this last week.

Mammon has been successful in creating the biggest wealth gap in human history as his devotees scaled hither undreamt of financial summits. How has it been done?

The New York Times wrote in 1999, “Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings” little did they realise how effective their spurs would be! Unbridled lending made many rich people richer.

Americans are growing angry over the "golden parachutes" that protect business executives even if their companies fail. After serving eighteen days as the chief executive of ... Read More »

When the former British Prime Minister, Harold McMillan was asked by a journalist what troubled him most in his political life he famously replied, “Events, Dear Boy, Events”!

This last week has seen the most cataclysmic events of our time hit the citadel of capitalism that America has become. The sheer scale of the debts incurred far exceed our comprehension. Indeed the mind struggles in trying to understand how these debts could have arisen in the first place.

We act like the humorist, Garrison Keillor’s Lutheran farmers in the Minnesota outback of Lake Wobegon who, when crisis arise, go and do yardwork!

Anything to take the mind off what is simply too big to grapple with.

It must have been a similar state of mind that prompted Simon Peter to say to his fellow Disciples “I am going fishing” and they replied “We will go with you”.

The events of the previous couple of weeks had left them bewildered. The unthinkable had happened. Jesus had been captured. P ... Read More »

It looks like the convicts are running the prison was the graphic description one commentator gave to the unbridled greed of the top Bankers who now face the liquidation of their banks. The removal of controls some years ago permitted ever higher risk lending resulting in the banks taking on the mantle normally worn by their entrepreneurial customers.

The time honoured practice of international banking also found itself drawn into the high risk environment. The trusted names with the highest credit rating have been the hit by what is now described as a financial tsunami. This particular wave may well travel around the world.

In sharp contrast to the financial disruption four emails arrived this week illustrating the way of life in Maasailand, Africa. The missionary who sent them was keen to illustrate how a relatively small sum of money had made a major impact in that society. Their struggle for survival was not helped by the disruptio ... Read More »