“to those who have little, even what they have will be taken away…”
Is giving tax breaks to married people really going to help a society where we have rising numbers of lone parent families? Surely that’s bizzarrely distorted thinking. When Jesus said "To those who have much, more will be given…", I don’t think he meant it as an endorsement. Justice demands that our resources be aimed at people who are struggling on in the face of difficulty, not rewarding those who are already doing OK. Sorting out the hopelessly ineffective Child Support Agency, which allows hundreds of fathers to abandon their responsibilitites to their children without any redress, would be a good start.
Stuart puts it well with this little story from the word at the barricades...
My name is David I am 9 years of age. I stay in a housing estate near Glasgow. I stay with my Mum. I don’t know or see my Dad. My Mum is young. Sometimes she is patient sometimes not. Sometimes lonely, sometimes not. But she is my Mum and I love her. According to a recent report my situation means that I am much more likely than others to do badly at school, to get into trouble, to get involved in drugs and to commit crime. But Mr Cameron, he is also called David, is going to help. He is going to help by giving other families where there is a Mum and a Dad more money. How that will change my life I don’t know. But he must know, because he went to a better school than me. (Imaginary)
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author musician theologian
Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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