大象传媒

'Slowly I started to comprehend the connection between architecture and history -- the centre of Belfast was dominated by the monumental City Hall with its high dome and richly marbled interior, a striking symbol of Belfast's nineteenth-century economic achievement. At first it mightily impressed me, but as a teenage intellectual I soon discovered that cultured circles despised it as ostentatious and vulgar. Now I gather the City Hall's undoubted exuberance is seen as exhilarating.'

From McDowell on McDowell: A Memoir by R.B. McDowell (Lilliput Press, Dublin), soon to be reviewed on the new series of The Book Programme. I wonder what Professor McDowell would make of the Belfast Eye which currently shares space with the monumental city hall.

The story that has e. There are many unanswered questions in the story of Josef Fritzl's appalling abuse of his children and grandchildren. Today, investigators proved that Fritzl is the father of six of his daughter's children. That much we already knew. What no-one can understand yet is how he managed to imprison, rape and torture his daughter for 24 years in the basement of the house he shared with his wife and family without anyone noticing.

Today's papers predictably -- and understandably -- reached for religious language to describe Fritzl. The Mirror and The Sun described him as the world's most 'evil dad'. It seems when we encounter horrific crimes of this order, horrors which defeat any effort to make sense of them, the media (and everyone else) find religious or quasi-religious language necessary as a response. Often, pathological language is linked, or language which mythologizes the crimes committed (e.g., 'evil monster'). In the face of such depravity, ordinary language is emptied of power.

"I served six years in the military - does that make me patriotic? How many years did Cheney serve?" Barack Obama's former pastor has found a suitably diplomatic response to the controversial triggered by his sermons at the Chicago church attended by the Obama family. For more on his speech to the National Press Club,.

Nearly a million people have already paid their respects at the remains of the Italian saint better known across the world as . The body of the saint, famous for bearing the marks of the stigmata, was marking the fortieth anniversary of his death.

Often controversial in life, has proven just as . The Vatican once banned him from saying mass, but Pope John Paul became one of his greatest admirers and eventually canonised Padre Pio in 2002. Not everyone is comfortable with the surrounding the saint's body. Even some of his own family have raised concerns, and more strident critics regard the commemoration as a macabre spectacle.

Both supporters and critics voiced their views on yesterday's edition of Talk Back, which I presented. (David Dunseith, though absent in body was, I assure you, present in spirit.) A key issue for some critics is the claim, now well-documented, that Padre Pio regularly purchased carbolic acid and used the substance to re-open wounds. This allegation was brushed aside by the Vatican investigators -- though some think those investigators failed to properly consider evidence from the pharmacist making the allegations.

One caller pointed out that the remains of John Calvin, the founder of Presbyterianism, were buried in an unmarked grave (in a graveyard in Geneva) because the Reformer wished to prevent any shrine to his memory developing. (Though, curiously enough, the Find-a-Grave website has a listing for John Calvin's grave, .) But I wondered aloud if some Protestants do not in fact engage in a form of veneration when it comes to the Bible. I know some Protestants who treat bibles as holy objects -- even refusing to consider throwing out old copies of the Bible. You may have some other examples of Protestant veneration.

There seems to be an outbreak of d. The country's 28,000 priests have been warned that they could face imprisonment if they copy sermons from the internet. It seems that younger priests are the main culprits. Homiletic panic attacks are apparently commonplace on Saturday nights, and worshippers in Polish churches are paying the price.

It's an old story, and one I've covered more than once on Sunday Sequence. One of the difficulties is that preachers seem not to regard sermons as copyright material, and do not regard even their own work as such. Thus, it seems perfectly fine to lift illustrations, introductions, conclusions, jokes, points, and the like, then incorporate them into a new sermon. In some cases, preachers have lifted stories and anecdotes as though they were personally involved. It's as if the Eighth Commandment -- "Do not steal" -- seems not to apply when it comes to homilies. Yet a speaker's credibility is clearly undermined when it emerges that he or she has been voicing up other people's work. Increasingly, congregations are not prepared to tolerate such an abuse of the pulpit.

Now, a 150-page guide has been published for priests in Poland advising them on how not to break the rules of plagiarism.

What are the worst blights facing our society today? A version of that question was asked 104 years ago by Joseph Rowntree, one of Britain's most famous Quakers. Rowntree thought the "scourges of humanity" facing his world were poverty, war, slavery, intemperance, the opium trade, impurity and gambling. commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation asks a similar question of the UK population today, and the results could have Mr Rowntree turning in his grave. The "dominant opinion", according to researchers, is that religion is a "social evil" which leads to intolerance and ignorance.

Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society is claiming a victory of sorts; the public, he says, have had it with religion. I suspect that religion will continue to flourish long after the National Secular Society has ceased to exist. But the question people of faith need to ask is why the public today are so distrustful of religious believers. One answer to that question is the public's perception of religious people as Victorian nay-sayers who oppose scientific progress and bemoan the diversity we now see in so much of our society. One respondent in the study said: "Faith in supernatural phenomena inspires hatred and prejudice throughout the world, and is commonly used as justification for persecution of women, gays and people who do not have faith."

Three priests from Northern Ireland have signed with Sony BMG. Fr Eugene O'Hagen, his brother Fr Martin O'Hagen, and have been friends since schooldays at , Garron Tower; and they've been singing together since then too. The terms of the contract include provisions enabling the priests to continue their pastoral work, and profits from the sale of CDs will go to charities.

In the past few years, I've seen them perform individually in various roles at , and David is a former colleague of mine from our days working at the University of Ulster (where he also sang with the university choir). But their diaries may now be too full for local opera. "The Priests", as they'll be known, now join a list of other Sony BMG signees including Westlife, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Justin Timberlake and the now strangely-well-named Usher.

The revamp of the 大象传媒 blogs has been a great success so far. There are still some things to sort out and Aaron Scullion and his team have been noting your comments here about the odd continuing problem. Feel free to leave your suggestions in this thread.

A new counter extremist think tank is launched today at a press event in the British Museum. The is named after Abdullah William Quilliam (1856-1932), a solicitor from Liverpool who converted to Islam and founded Britain's first mosque. The foundation's director, Maajid Nawaz, was jailed in Egypt with two other British men for belonging to the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The British Museum is an interesting choice of venue for the launch of the new foundation, as is the decision to honour in the foundation's name. Another organisation, the , has been in existence since 1998, celebrating the life and work of Sheikh Abdullah. They provide a short biography of William Henry Quilliam . I've been fascinated to read more about Quilliam and his conversion to Islam; perhaps we'll have a chance to talk in more detail about his life on this week's Sunday Sequence.

Well, .

Father Michael Cleary was renowned during his lifetime as one of the greatest communicators in the history of the Irish Catholic Church. He hosted his own television chat show and a phone-in radio show, was a regular guest on the Late Late Show with Gay Byrne, released albums as "the singing priest" and wrote a book about the challenge of faith in the modern world. What the public didn't know, until a month after his death in 1993, was that Father Cleary had a secret life. The housekeeper he lived with was in fact his common law wife and they had a son together. A year before Father Cleary died, Alison Millar, who was then a young film student, decided to make a documentary about his life and was given permission to live at the Presbytery house for a year. When Father Cleary's secret was posthumously revealed, Alison received many lucrative offers from newspapers interested in the footage she had gathered; but she turned them all down. Fifteen years later, she decided to make her own film about Father Michael Cleary and his secret family. 大象传媒 Northern Ireland on 大象传媒 One at 9.00 pm.

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For the past couple of days, the Blueprint team has been meeting the public in a special event at 大象传媒 Blackstaff Studios. The Ulster Museum have partnered with the 大象传媒 in creating The Blueprint Experience, an exhibition exploring many of the themes we cover in the Blueprint series. They've constructed a dinosaur at the centre of the exhibition, with fossils and other artefacts on display. The Time Travel motif is everywhere to be seen, and the public are queueing up to have their picture taken beside Dr Who's famous police call box. The Blueprint production team have built a TV studio inside a TV studio and we're making our own show during the exhibition, entirely staffed by the public. Carole O'Kane is out in the scanner (the outside production van) with our future TV directors and vision-mixers; Natalie Maynes and Paul McGuigan are on the set briefing future TV presenters on how to interview guests; and Ophelia Byrne is turning the young and old(er) into weather presenters in front of our CGI blue screen. Actually, the weather man/woman job is proving very popular with the parents. We've fully-grown adults pushing forward to present an ice age weather report complete with computer-generated snow. Next to that job, I'd say operating our three studio cameras is the next most popular job of the day. Everyone taking part (about a dozen volunteers each show) will be sent a DVD of their moment on TV.

While that's going on, we also have a radio drama studio, where John Simpson, David Shepherd and their colleagues are have developed a Dr Who drama, complete with sound effects and theme music, with the public playing all the parts. It's only at the end of the recording, when the voices and effects are joined with the music, that participants actually work out what the drama is about. I popped in yesterday and recorded my own drama, playing all the parts -- which meant dashing from one microphone to the next throughout.

Darryl Grimason and his Off the Beaten Track series producer Louis Edmondson have joined forces with the Mountain Leader Training group from Tollymore to put together a terrific orienteering game which is proving very popular. Andrew Davison is working with Liquid TV to show off some of the CGI effects -- and they've managed to put a tetrapod on top of Broadcasting House.

The response so far from the public has been terrific -- and that's a real compliment to Geraldine McCourt and her team, who have brought together so many people to make this event a success.

You have a final opportunity to see the exhibition for yourself -- and make your own TV or radio programme -- this afternoon, from 2pm until 6pm.

I'm receiving excellent feedback about our blog upgrade. Congratulations to Aaron Scullion and his team over at 大象传媒 Blog HQ for dealing with the problems users have been having while posting comments. The feedback suggests that posting comments is much faster and works first time without any problems. All you have to do is register on the system, and you are still able to maintain anonymity in doing so. The registration process takes less than a minute. So, if you haven't registered yet, I encourage you to do that now; the conversation here is about to quicken up considerably!

You may notice that the "Being Discussed Now" section is currently empty, even though discussion is taking place on a few posts. We hope to have that sorted out in the next few days. I look forward to joining you in debate across a wide array of topics in the next few days. Welcome to the newly-improved Will & Testament blog.

Your wish is my command: feel free to join the debate, here, about Ben Stein's new film. You may remember as the economics teacher in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Stein has returned to the classroom in his new film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which is released in the US on Friday. The film is billed as a documentary exploring the world of "Big Science" and the intolerance of the academic world to those who believe in intelligent design theory. Its critics, including the US National Center for Science Education, claim the film is anything but a balanced documentary. The NCSE have even launched their own website, , which challenges the film's claims and accuses Stein of misrepresentation and presenting creationist propaganda in the guise of a documentary.

If you haven't heard it yet, I recommend this week's edition of In Our Time, which examines the relationship between W.B. Yeats and Irish politics. It's quite superb. Melvyn Bragg's guests are Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History at Oxford University, Fran Brearton, Reader in English at Queen's University,and Warwick Gould, Director of the Institute of English Studies in the School of Advanced Study, University of London.

I'm sure you've noticed that our 大象传媒 blogs are looking and feeling slightly different. We've made some changes which will, hopefully, solve some of the problems people have been experiencing while leaving comments. One key difference is the introduction of a registration-based comments system. A downside of the changes is that previous posts are now closed to comments; but I hope you will agree that this is a price worth paying to deliver a faster and more reliable commenting system. For more information about the changes we've made, see here. Let me know what you think.

Also: If you haven't made plans for the weekend yet, why not pop along to the Blueprint Experience at the 大象传媒 Blackstaff studios tomorrow (morning or afternoon) or Sunday (afternoon)? Admission is free and it's a great way to find out more about the natural history of Northern Ireland. We have joined forces with the Ulster Museum to explore many of the themes addressed in the Blueprint series. You can even try your hand at broadcasting in our TV and radio studios and meet the team that made Blueprint. We held a schools event today, which was a great success, and our doors open to the general public on Saturday and Sunday. You don't need a ticket: just come along to the Blackstaff Studios in time for one of the sessions. Details here.

Since I'll be Blueprinting for the better part of the weekend, my colleague Kevin Magee will be minding the shop on Sunday morning.

You may remember as the economics teacher in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Stein has returned to the classroom in his new film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which is released in the US on Friday. The film is billed as a documentary exploring the world of "Big Science" and the intolerance of the academic world to those who believe in intelligent design theory. Its critics, including the US National Center for Science Education, claim the film is anything but a balanced documentary. The NCSE have even launched their own website, , which challenges the film's claims and accuses Stein of misrepresentation and presenting creationist propaganda in the guise of a documentary.

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In tonight's episode of Blueprint, we tell the story of Ireland's first human settlers, and how they colonised this island over the past ten thousand years. The programme starts at Mountsandel, near Coleraine, the site of the earliest human settlement in Ireland. We use computer imaging technology to rebuild the Mountsandel settlement, then follow the story of our Bronze Age ancestors as they made their home here. From Mountsandel, the story widens to take in a great sweep of history, including the ancient kings of Ireland, the arrival of Christianity, the Plantation, the Famine, and the urbanisation of modern Ireland. Ten thousand years of history crammed into 50 minutes of television. Tonight at 9.00 p.m. on 大象传媒 One.

Is Hillary Clinton a modern-day Annie Oakley? Senator Obama thinks so. Barack Obama has been fighting hard to make up ground he appears to have lost in Pennsylvania, ahead of the primary on 22 April, after his recent comments about small-town religion. Describing the loss of jobs in places like Pennsylvania, he said: 'It's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations.'

Hillary Clinton and John McCain say the comments are tantamount to intellectual elistism and the belittling of faith in small-town America. Here's Barack Obama's spirited response to their attack.

On yesterday's Sunday Sequence, a biblical scholar, a human rights lawyer and a humanist clashed on the morality of sibling-relationships. The discussion was prompted by the story of John and Jenny Deaves, the Australian couple who are also father and daughter. David Shepherd argued that incestuous relationships are unbiblical -- but accepted that a number of currently accepted relationships are also unbiblical. John Larkin QC argued that human rights law does not require states to decriminalise incestuous relationships -- but accepted that this wasn't in itself an argument against such relationships. Brian McClinton rejected sacred texts as a arbiter of pubic morality and argued that society needs to decriminalise incestuous relationships, just as we have decriminalised other taboo relationships. Incest has been decriminalised in a number of other countries, but is still an offence in the UK and most European jurisdictions. The main arguments deployed yesterday merit examination: (1) the Bible prohibits incest; (2) Incestuous relationships pose risks to the children who issue from those relationships; and (3) Society in general regards incestuous relationships as unacceptable. Are these arguments compelling?

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I know many of you have experienced difficulties while posting comments on this, and other 大象传媒 blogs. Well, I've heard from 大象传媒 Blogs Central Command and they tell me that a new system is on the way which will hopefully deal with those technical problems. I'll have more information about the system change next week. Many thanks for your patience with us as we've tried to find solutions to some of the problems.

Richard Harries, the former bishop of Oxford, and Simon Jenkins, former editor of The Times, have been having a correspondence-debate on faith and reason on the Guardian website. Read their correspondence here.

Money quote from Bishop Harries: "Your description of me as "a vaguely agnostic bishop" gets it wrong on both counts. I am a definite agnostic in the sense of St John of Damascus, who said that what God is "in his essence and nature is absolutely incomprehensible and totally unknowable". And a definite believer in that the only faith I can live with in a world of such anguish is in a God who is at once crucified and risen."

Peter Klaver has been in touch with details of a dinner to which all Will & Testament bloggers are invited.

A small group of the regulars on this blog had dinner together some time ago. We were thinking of doing so again and expanding the group this time. So this is an open invitation to the posters here (and Will too of course), both believers of any flavour and non-believers, to have dinner with a group later this month. For the date we had Friday the 25th or Saturday the 26th in mind. Mourne Seafood in Belfast is the current favourite venue, but, in case the number of attendants grows beyond the number of seats available, please suggest your favourite alternative venue. Apart from noting your attendance (please state availability for both 25th and 26th, so that we can decide on which one) on the blog here, sign-ups please also email t.p.c.klaver@qub.ac.uk. Hope to see you the 25th or 26th. -- Peter Klaver

Please get in touch with Peter directly if you would like to book, or leave your comments and suggestions here.

A quick reminder that the 大象传媒 will also be hosting "The Blueprint Experience", in partnership with the Ulster Museum, on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th April at the 大象传媒's Blackstaff House in Belfast. The event is free and tickets will become available online (just click here) or call the Ticket Line on 0870 333 1918. Our colleagues at the Ulster Museum have been so very generous (and their fossils) with their expertise throughout the production; I'm delighted that we are able to work together on this important exhibition, which is a chance to dig deeper into our natural history. You can also meet the Blueprint team and try your hand at natural history TV production.

Don't worry, the bears are now gone. But you will see a few bear crossing signs dotted around Northern Ireland as a pointer to the Blueprint season currently running on tv, radio and online.

While that's going out, I'm busy writing a script for a new project. In a couple of months, Radio Ulster will be broadcasting the entire book of Genesis, in the voice of the actor Jim Norton, with dramatic effects and production courtesy of John Simpson and Studio 3 (who also gave birth to the concept). My role is to write the commentary that accompanies the eight-part series (to be called "In The Beginning"). This is the world of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah鈥檚 Ark, the great father-figures of the Hebrew faith -- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Methuselah, the world鈥檚 oldest man; the collapsing Tower of Babel; Joseph and his amazing technicolour dreamcoat. I'm currently making my way through chapter 25. Here endeth my coffee sabbatical -- I mean, break.

Here's a serious government strategy aimed at tackling workforce obesity. The Japanese health ministry is imposing fines on any company that fails to bring worker-waistlines under control. Under control apparently means less than 33.5 inches for males of average height over the age of 40. If a UK tabloid picks up on this story, I predict the following headline: "Japananny State". Unless you can think of a better one ...

One of Britain's best-known "traditional values" campaigners has resigned from the leadership of his church in Essex after admitting to an extra-marital affair.

Michael Reid founded Peniel Pentecostal Church more than thirty years ago (though the church was recently renamed "Michael Reid Ministries"). In 1982, he also founded Peniel Academy, a Christian school, and until his resignation operated a satellite TV ministry. He co-presented "What God Can Do for You" with his wife, Ruth. He has served on the Board of Advisors for Oral Roberts University, and recently became a patron of the English Constitutional Convention.

All the websites associated with Michael Reid Ministries were taken down this weekend, and an announcement was made to Peniel Church members that Michael Reid's resignation had been accepted by the church's governing body. Pastor Peter Linnecar has already taken over the leadership of the church.

Mr Reid is a founder member of the Christian Congress for Traditional Values (CCTV), which campaigned last year against the UK's new sexual orientation regulations. You can see him interviewed, below, as part of a protest outside Parliament (hat-tip to Ruth Gledhill of The Times).

Anne, Brown, a spokesperson for Peniel Church, is interviewed about the details of Michael Reid's resignation.

Pastor Reid has made this statement: "It is with great sorrow and regret that I have resigned from the church board and have stepped down from official duties. I confess that I have sinned by committing adultery. I recognize that I have failed in my duties and acted in a way that harmed the Church. I take full responsibility for my actions and so I resigned. I apologize to my wife and family and all of you whose trust I have betrayed and ask for your forgiveness and prayers."

Meet John Deaves, 61, and his daughter Jenny, 39, pictured in a screen-grab from the. John and Jenny have revealed in a television interview that they are also partners, and have a nine-month-old child, Celeste, to whom John is both father and grandfather. John left the family home shortly after Jenny was born; they re-met in 2000, some 30 years later. They formed a relationship and had a previous child in 2001, who died from complications related to congenital heart disease shortly after birth.

Incest is illegal in Australia, as it is in the UK (under the Sexual Offences Act 2003), and last month a judge ordered the couple to stop having sex. There have been attempts in some European jurisdictions to legalise sibling-unions, but as yet only Sweden has introduced legislation permitting such marriages. In a number of jurisdictions, however, though marriage is not permitted, sex between siblings (so long as they are consenting adults) has been legalised. France, for example, abolished its incest laws 200 years ago.

The issues raised by this case are quite complex. Some religious groups will point to prohibitions of incest within their sacred texts (for example, Leviticus 18, which not only rules out sex with siblings, but also prohibits sex with near-in-laws such as aunts and uncles, and imposes death sentences for the sin of incest). Merely appealing to a sacred text in the context of a secular legal system is increasingly unpersuasive to many people. In any case, those texts need to be interpreted just as carefully as texts prohibiting divorce or inter-racial marriage.

Some argue that couples like John and Jenny have a human right to form a relationship, even if other members of society disapprove of that relationship. Society in general may disapprove of all kinds of relationships which are nevertheless legitimate. Others argue that these relationships present dangers to the children born to sibling-couples. Such children are six times more likely to die at birth than other children, and are significantly at risk of congenital illness. Those children who survive birth without physical harm are also likely to carry a significant psychological burden throughout life.

In response, couples could point out that some non-sibling-relationships face comparable medical issues because one or both parents may have a genetic disorder, yet the law does not criminalise those couples. If the basis for objection is merely the impact on children who issue from a union, what about the ethical status of the sibling-couples who decide to remain childless? And what degree of closeness (sometimes called "consanguinity") is ethical or unethical? Is forming a sexual relationship with a first (or second) cousin legitimate?

So, the basic question I am asking you today is this: Should the UK law be changed to permit siblings to consensually form adult sexual relationships (possibly even marriage)? This is a sensitive and serious question, so let's keep the comments on-topic and avoid unpleasantries.

Stephen Nolan has so far received two on-air invitations to hear Dr Franklin Graham speak at this weekend's event at the Odyssey centre. I think there may be a campaign to try to convert the host of the biggest show in the country. On both occasions, Stephen pulled the plug on the call. But if he's wondering what he's missing, Billy Graham's son will be a guest on this week's Sunday Sequence.

In recent months, we've reported on the theological splits at Wycliffe Hall, the evangelical theological college in Oxford. Now, it emerges that one of America's best-known conservative evangelical colleges is so divided over a doctrinal dispute that it has suspended one of its professors. The trustees of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia to suspend (pictured), an Old Testament professor, following the controversy triggered by the publication of his 2005 book, Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. (See Peter Enns's personal website .)

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After more than a decade as taoiseach, Bertie Ahern is to step down. He is making the announcement at a press conference right now. Mr Ahern is to face questioning in the D谩il over what the Opposition claims are inconsistencies in his evidence to the Mahon Tribunal. Last week his coalition partners suggested he needed to quell public disquiet on the issue. He will step down on 6 May.

The New Yorker has an interesting piece by Kelefa Sanneh on Barack Obama's family church in Chicago and the impact of the Jeremiah Wright controversy on the church.

The article includes this assessment from James Cones, doyen of the black liberation theology movement in the United States: "Cone calls Trinity 鈥渢he best representation鈥� of black liberation theology. 鈥淚t鈥檚 offensive, because it speaks the truth in harsh, blunt terms,鈥� he says. Yet, after all those years of talking and organizing and agitating, Wright became black liberation theology鈥檚 most famous exponent a few weeks after he stepped aside, during a period when, for perhaps the first time in his adult life, he wasn鈥檛 holding forth on anything at all."

The embryos survived for up to three days in research carried out by scientists at Newcastle University. Parliament will soon vote on the future of such research in the UK. In the meantime, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which grants licenses for embryo research, has agreed in principle to the creation of human-animal hybrids.