Would you like to listen to some of my handiwork?

Hitler's Muslim Legions is a history documentary I worked on with Jenny Chryss about use of Muslim recruits to strengthen the German army in the second world war. This is from the BBC web site.

It was after Germany's invasion of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in 1941 that Hitler's attention was first drawn to the potential for Muslim recruits to swell his ranks. For the many thousands of captured Soviet Muslims, the opportunity to serve in the Wehrmacht offered an escape from the brutality and starvation of the prison camps. Elsewhere, a major recruitment drive amongst Bosnian Muslims led to tens of thousands signing up for the Waffen-SS. Formed into exclusive Muslim units, these men fought in some of the most brutal campaigns of the entire war. This programme investigates why Hitler and Himmler apparently cast aside their Nazi ideal of an Aryan master race, justifying the admission of Islam into their ranks. It asks what attracted these men to fight for the Third Reich, how they were treated by their German officers and how they conducted themselves in the bedlam of war. Were they hopeless soldiers who committed unspeakable atrocities; or did they fight bravely for the Fuhrer? We examine the fate of these Muslims at the end of the war. With Hitler dead and the Third Reich defeated there was nothing to protect them, and most were killed as traitors.
Presented by Julian O'Halloran.
Producer: Jennifer Chryss
A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.

The story was a revelation to me and you will hear an eyewitness account from a German, now in his 80s, who lived and worked with Muslim soldiers when he was 19.

For more on the background to the programme go to the Radio 4 blog to read a post from Samir Shah who is the Executive Producer of Hitler's Muslim Legions.

The programme goes out on Monday 26th July on BBC Radio 4. If you miss it then pick it up on the iPlayer.

Faith should harness art's appeal

I came across this very interesting article in The Guardian by Jennie Hogan and here strap line is...

Tate Modern shows that art now inspires on a scale that religion once did. Churches should get a piece of the action

As she points out churches were once major patrons of the arts but no more....

Despite the centrality of faith in the art of centuries past, religious themes within contemporary art are fading fast. At Chelsea College of Art & Design, where I work as chaplain, God is dead. As students in their studios aspire to join the avant garde there is only a faint desire to look back at works in which the Christian tradition is central. Perhaps when universal themes such as death, suffering and delight are explored though a religious and theological lens the students cannot see them. Could it be then that art is replacing religion?

But as the article goes on to say it isn't all doom and gloom...

The Reformation damaged the natural connection between art and faith but some places are making serious attempts to heal it. All Hallows on the Wall in the City has created a venue, Wallspace, and describes itself as a spiritual home for visual art. St Paul's Cathedral may not attract the same numbers as Tate Modern, but the UK's most famous church has recently been commissioning work from prominent artists. Antony Gormley created Flare II, a shimmering, almost abstract form which revolves mysteriously below Wren's geometric staircase. Bill Viola is creating video installations for two altarpieces. Some commissioned works are explicitly religious but many others are not. Clearly, the dean and chapter are keen to explore faith though art. 

I know from the work we do with Wellspring helping Christian musicians as well as other artists, that many are not respected or understood and remain sat in the pew unable to use their gifts to express their response to God in church. The church also has a view that artists should give their gifts for free especially in this country. The church is no longer a patron of the arts commissioning (paying for) art in all its forms. There are all sorts of opportunities for engaging all sectors of our communities like asking artists to explore issues, as Jenny suggests, starting with the universal themes like birth, life, suffering, delight, and death.

Come on Church, engage with your communities and use people's creative talents to explore the issues that are front and centre in their lifes.

Simple thoughts on the Sabbath

Liz Hunter on the MediaNet site has posted a simple and thought provoking article on the importance of taking a break. She says....

Being frazzled is a badge of honour.  Most of the freelancers I know avoid booking holidays because they fear having to turn down a brilliant job, and they don't rest in the periods in between work because they are out touting for more!

As a freelancer I learnt the hard way that not having a holiday, in case a dream job came up, was a big mistake.

Now I book my summer holiday dates early in January and book and pay for a proper holiday which is a digital fast as well for 2 weeks. I tried one week so as not to take me out for too long but it isn't long enough. I find that I am only just winding down by the end of one week and if there is any significant travel too it really isn't long enough to do what a holiday should do.

My only concession is I check my answer phone every 48 hours and deal with any important calls but then the phone goes off again. My clients know this is what I do, they regularly ask earlier in the year when I am going to be on holiday so they can plan accordingly, and I send a global email out about a week before reminding everyone I will be away and my responses will be limited to checking my answer phone, but no emails, blogs tweets for two weeks.

Liz continues.....

As usual, the Bible has some pretty good advice on how to avoid burnout, and it's very straightforward.Take one day off a week. Really off. Complete downtime, family time, God time. I'm not sure it matters when we take it, just that we do. It should not be something we feel guilty about, as it was made for our good, not the other way around (Mark 2:27), but we can't go too long avoiding something God designed us to need.

As to a sabbath, that is more of a challenge. As a family we take a Jewish sabbath, from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, as being involved in church as both Sally & I are, means that Sunday is rarely a day of rest! However maintaining a digital fast is more of a challenge, although it does remain an aim. I do love Rob Bell's description of the Sabbath and as we often see on school reports "must try harder!"

More on the paywall issue

There are two interesting articles in The Observer on The Guardian web site relating to newspapers and paywalls. The first from David Teather reports the drop in users of The Times web site since the pay wall went up...

The Times newspaper's website has lost two‑thirds of its audience following the implementation of a paywall, according to data published yesterday – a dramatic decline, but not as steep as many had forecast.

But David reports there may have been reasons for this...

The drop may have been softened by an introductory charge of £1 for the first 30 days. Murdoch aims to charge £1 per day for access to the site or £2 for a week. According to Experian Hitwise, which monitors internet traffic, the biggest drop in audience came in the five weeks ahead of the paywall going up, when visitors were asked to register their details. The site lost 58% during that period and the decline has only been modest since the wall went up.

The second article by Peter Preston reports that whilst The Times might be loosing on line readers The Daily Mail is doing very well the increasing traffic appears to be bringing in the ad revenue....

Take the Mail in print. Around 1.9 million punters buying a copy every day, which means 4,881,000 readers scanning their favourite sheet each morning. And online, the growth from nothing much four years ago to 40,500,000 unique browsers a month is verging on the phenomenal: up 72% year on year. Through 2009, the Telegraph and the Guardian were two close competitors – sometimes ahead, often very near to, the Mail. Not now. Both still have good growth of their own, but Associated's electronic baby – 16 million unique browsers in the UK, 26.3 million in the rest of the world – begins to hint at a different league.

He reports that The Mail is doing some things differently, firstly....

Unlike its rivals, the Mail shuns newsroom integration and runs online operations totally separately, which means that costings and revenue are separate, too.

and secondly....

There is no rule that says online papers must play print's little brother. On the contrary, the most successful ones are more like inspired riffs on a print theme. Nor is there a rule that says big print sellers carry the same clout when they transfer to screen. 

So it seems that The Mail is doing things differently and is driving traffic to its on line site to an extent that the on line product could be about to turn a profit soon. But at what cost....

Look at those yards of celebrity gossip and pictures on the site; this isn't the Mail we know (and don't much love). This is a different beast that somehow doesn't count because it fights unfair.

So offer gossip and celeb pictures for free and watch the traffic come in.  It is a sad reflection on our society that to get the traffic to the on line version of a newspaper,  increase the amount of gossip and celeb pictures and you can soon turn a profit from advertising alone.

Does our image of God always have to be male?

We read in the first book of the bible - Genesis that "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created him".

All the way through the bible there are descriptions of God as compassionate. Reading the bible in the language it was written in - Hebrew; the word used for compassionate is 'raham' which is also the word for 'womb'. So when the writers of the bible refer to God as compassionate thy are describing God as womb-like, which is a completely feminine image of God.

With all the discussions going on about women in leadership, surely if God created us in his image both male and female then if we don't have her leadership, if we don't have her wisdom, her voice, her perspective; we are not just missing her, but so much of what is central to the very core of who God is.

The prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 66 and verse 13 "As a mother comforts her child so will I comfort you". When Isaiah spoke these words, his people didn't know if they had a future, they were full of despair and had little hope. Sound familiar in these times of recession, cuts and job losses? Isaiah was saying, and I believe God is still saying today 'You have seen a mother comfort her child, and this is what God is going to do for you.

God is so much bigger than the language we use; so if then limit his diversity, by saying than some people are second class citizens, then surely it's like cutting off parts of our body?

So my prayer is that you may be able to embrace the God who is way bigger than anything we can say.



This was inspired by one of Rob Bell's Nooma videos called "She". For more information on this and others go to the Nooma web site.

The Guardian's response to The Times' pay wall.

This has got to be a brilliant response to The Times putting the final bricks in their pay wall......

And a very warm welcome to all our readers from The Times. We're very sorry you awoke to find you could no longer read your newspaper online without a credit card and we feel your pain.

They continue to make their introductions.....

To many of you, much of our website may seem a bit unfamiliar. We're not going to try to hide the fact that on certain – make that all – issues we tend to be the teensiest bit liberal.
But don't let that scare you. We don't bite. Very hard. And we do have a few of our very own Tories writing for us, though apparently they don't like being called Tories so I'm not allowed to say who they are as they have friends in very high places and could get me fired.

And this bit I love especially as I am no fan of the Murdoch dynasty.....

There will of course be a few very noticeable differences. We don't always write about Rupert Murdoch in the way the North Korean media reports Kim Jong-il and we have occasionally made a critical remark about Sky and News International. You may however find it refreshing that we do also criticise the Guardian Media Group when they step out of line.

Lets hope the new readers, and their traffic, will help to put back the losses they suffered last year.

Finished working on this year's series of The Choice for BBC Radio 4

I have just finished editing and uploading the series of 4 "The Choice" produced by Dawn Bryan. Still can't tell you who the interviewees are yet as Radio 4 have yet to announce them but they are another excellent set of stories all very different from each other. They are due to go out from August 12th.

Michael Buerk interviews people who have made life-altering decisions and talks them through the whole process, from the original dilemma to living with the consequences.