On October 31st 1517, Martin Luther is said to have nailed 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenburg in Germany (although some say he simply sent them to the Archbishop). Those Theses provoked what is known today as the Protestant Reformation. Since the time of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses Paul’s letters to the Romans…
Author: The Meeting Place
First Thursday, October 2021
October 7th 2021 Summary Rising world gas prices were the first subject for our discussion. A good deal of blame has been placed on Russia, but that is probably unwarranted. The USA (and some others) are questioning Europe’s dependence on Russia for gas (through the NordStream pipelines), but Europe seems to be wanting to resist…
September 2021 First Thursday and 9.11
First Thursday September 2nd summary The history of Afghanistan explains a good deal of what has recently happened there: for example John Pilger’s article: https://newcoldwar.org/john-pilger-afghanistan-the-great-game-of-smashing-countries/ However his view received a rebuff in another article: https://medium.com/@pitt_bob/john-pilgers-fantasy-history-of-afghanistan-7a53d3c776d3 There is a need to understand histories, but which of us can give the time to the necessary research, especially…
Promoting Polyarchy
Polyarchy?? Oligarchy I recognise, and monarchy, and even anarchy, but who are you? (with apologies to Acts 19:15). The word was (first?) used in the mid-1970s, but “Promoting Polyarchy” is the title of a book published in 1996, written by William I. Robinson, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee. In it…
Universal Basic Income
Recently there has been plenty of discussion about reviving the UK economy after Covid to create new (and “greener”) jobs, especially to “level up” former “Red Wall” parts of the country, and “Build Back Better”. One solution gaining interest and scrutiny is Universal Basic Income, through schemes which guarantee everyone enough for their minimum needs….
First Thursday May 2021
Summary May 6th 2021 The rapid spread of Covid in India provokes a question whether our promised Autumn 3rd booster should not rather be for the “3rd” World. Some charities (such as Tearfund) are promoting vaccines for India and Nepal but more needs to be done, and can probably only be done by governments. “Until…
Yemen 2021
DEVELOPMENTS IN YEMEN – 2021 One of the first insights into new developments in the Middle East in 2021 and of the foreign policy of the new President Biden, specifically in the area, has come in his announcements on Yemen. As Pierson puts it however, just because the US President says a war has ended,…
Faith and Politics (3)
the Protestant Churches of Nauen District, Brandenburg PROTECTING THE CHURCH At the time Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, the parishes of the Nauen District were led by Superintendent Grasshof, who had been in post for less than a year. But two years later ill health forced his retirement, and he was…
Faith and Politics (2)
the Protestant Churches of Nauen District, Brandenburg OPPOSITION TO THE GERMAN-CHRISTIANS In the first part of this series we looked at the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power that came from many members and pastors of the Protestant churches of the Nauen District near Berlin, an enthusiasm which persisted with some pastors,…
Faith and Politics in 1930s Germany
the Protestant Churches of Nauen District, Brandenburg Twenty-five miles west of the centre of Berlin, and eleven miles outside its city limits, is the municipality of Nauen, in the Havelland district of Brandenburg, with eighteen thousand people living in the town and its surrounding villages. Havelland is a mainly farming and not densely populated part…