Religious Intolerance

Posted by Ben Hughes

I was taking my dog for a walk through the local wood last week and we met a couple of women with another dog. The two dogs were running around and playing with each other, rolling on the floor and dashing backwards and forwards. Everything seemed lovely in the warm summer evening. Then suddenly I heard my Bessie yelping and screaming in pain. I ran over and she was lying on her side making the worst noise I’ve ever heard from an animal.

To cut a long story short, I took her to the emergency vet and eventually found out she’d broken her leg with one of the worst and most painful breaks she could’ve suffered. After spending a lot of money (and I’m talking thousands of pounds), she’s finally back home and on the way to a full recovery.

It’ been a difficult week, but at least she should be okay. There was talk of having to amputate her leg or even have her put down if things were that bad. We look at her now and think things could’ve been a lot worse. As bad as it sounds, having to remortgage maybe isn’t that bad after all.

Sometimes, it’s things like this which help put other things into perspective.

Posted by Ben Hughes

Suddenly it’s the end of April and the year’s edging out of springtime and towards summer. Where has the last few months gone?

As you’ve probably seen, I haven’t updated this site for a while. What’s been happening? Well, it’s been a combination of things but hopefully I’m getting things back on track now.

I’ve never hidden the fact I don’t like my day job and I’ve been searching for new employment, so far unsuccessfully because of the lack of jobs in my area at the moment. But I’ve still be looking and filling in application forms as much as I can.

I also had a car crash a few weeks ago – nothing too bad but it was a bit of a shock, especially when I thought of what could’ve happened.

I took on some new writing work which took up a lot of time and to make everything worse, my puppy chewed through the lead of my laptop and the first replacement lead was faulty. I worked when I can on my old computer but it’s so slow I can hardly get it working most of the time.

All in all, it’s been one rollercoaster over the past couple of months. I’ve managed to write some articles and now all I need to do is upload them. So watch this space and email me with ideas and comments to help improve the site.

Posted by Ben Hughes

I’m just coming to the end of another week off work and as usual I’ve probably been busier this week than I usually am. It’s been a week of seeing family, straightening my garden out and spending most of my time writing articles.

I say I’ve been straighten my garden out, but I really mean making a mess. Why do we have to make a mess before we make things tidier again? I’m now stuck with a garden of mud until some turf is put down again and my dog loves digging in the earth and getting muddy.

And why is it you can never get hold of workmen when you need to? It’s either them not turning up to give a quote or not turning up to do the work. Sometimes I think it would be quicker for me to do it all myself.

But at least I’m safe and my family’s safe; there are some things I take for granted and our safety is one of them. Read this week’s article and see how you would feel if you had death threats made against you because of your beliefs. It would certainly put my muddy back garden and missing workmen into perspective.

Posted by Ben Hughes

Today has been my last day at work for over a week as I look forward to another week off work. In many ways, it seems as though it’s only been a short time since the last one, but the six weeks which are just coming to an end remind me that they don’t come around too quickly at all.

How many other jobs are people expected to put up with being shouted at, sworn at or assaulted on a daily basis? It’s no wonder so many people are leaving the teaching profession.

But then I don’t expect all schools are the same as the one I work at – and I don’t expect all school management teams would put up with pupils at their schools the way that mine do and refuse to do anything about it.

So if you disagree with something, are you the sort of person to speak out against it or just put up with it? And what if it threatened to cause a split in your whole organisation? It’s just this sort of thing which some Anglican Churches are doing after years of feeling ignored and sidelined. The future of the whole Church is now at risk – more because of itself than any outside influence. Read the article here.

Posted by Ben Hughes

With just a week of work left until the holidays, it can’t come quick enough. A bit of peace and quiet, a bit of a life back and, hopefully a bit of time to relax.

One thing which is really starting to bug me at school is the moment is the complete lack of interest of some pupils in the life of others. It’s been the same old comments this week: why do we have to study religion? I don’t want to know about anyone else. I don’t care about anyone else. It’s the same old story. One girl even told me that in her four years at school, she’d only ever studied Muslims in RE and never once studied her own religion; but when I asked her what religion she is, she said she didn’t know but proudly announced she doesn’t believe in God anyway.

So who are the first ones to complain about prejudice and discrimination against them? The same people who give it out to others.

Somehow it wasn’t surprising when the anti-Archbishop of Canterbury comments started to hit the news. But it also makes me wonder how accepting these people are of other groups.

Read the article here and add your comments.

Posted by Ben Hughes

I can’t believe that it’s February already and all those January blues are slowly fading away with Christmas seeming like a lifetime ago. The days are beginning to get lighter but now the weather in the UK is changing again – gales, rain and threats of snow, some of which has already fallen and caused problems in different parts of the country.

I went to one of my climate change group meetings this week and it’s amazing how quickly climate change is becoming such a major international issue. We’re running a series of local talks and I’m doing the first one on Transition Towns which is an idea to make communities more local and sustainable in economic and environmental terms.

Just as it appears as though the climate changing groups are lobbying for nothing, people are now suddenly taking notice. We’ve gone from a persecuted group to one which is still small but is slowly making ground as it looks as though we might be talking some sense after all.

Check out the discussion on the discussion board and add your comments.

Also have a look at this week’s article about religious discrimination in Armenia to see how people are still being persecuted for what they believe in.

Posted by Ben Hughes

After a very difficult start to the week in which I really didn’t feel like bothering getting out of bed, my old dog died and now it’s suddenly the weekend again.

I don’t know what it was towards the end of last week but I was feeling quite melancholy and lethargic and was getting totally and utterly fed up with my day job. My feelings didn’t improve over the weekend and by the start of this week, I felt as though I’d finally had enough of it.

To make it worse, I had a phone call from my Mum to say that our dog had finally died after years of getting older, deafer and blinder. It didn’t make it much easier though, especially for my Mum.

So I was quite surprised when my week started picking up after that. Apart from the obligatory fight I had to break up at work it turned out to be quite a calm run down to the weekend. Long may it continue.

At least it seems to have been a bit of a calmer week that Tom Cruise’s one. His last seven days have seen him involved in more Scientology controversy. Read the article to find out more.

Posted by Ben Hughes

How often do you hear a writer is too busy for words? Well this week it’s just been one of those weeks for me. I’ve started some more writing work and with extra (day) work as well, it’s been a week which in some ways has just whizzed by and suddenly it’s the weekend again.

I’ve spent the evenings writing short articles and another evening out with my day job which has meant late nights and early mornings and now my head feels as though I haven’t slept all week – which is just about right.

The more time goes by the more I realise how much I love writing. It’s the sort of thing I’d love to do more and if I worked in a normal job I’d probably have the time to do it. But at the moment it’s just not possible to spend any more waking hours away from my family.

One good thing that happened this week was I took my son to work with me on Wednesday afternoon. It was an attempt to show pupils that if a 2 year old can do what he can, what can God do? I’m glad to say that Sam was perfect and enjoyed every minute of it. I suppose it just goes to show that teaching can be good fun after all.

Posted by Ben Hughes

My first week back at work after a holiday is always something I never look forward to and it always takes me a few days to get back into the swing of things again.

This week was no different from any other and the first few days seemed to drag with memories of before the holidays with rudeness, swearing and bad attitudes from most of the little darlings I teach.

But before I knew where I was it’s suddenly the weekend and I’m at home for a couple of days. And it’s strange how much everyone looks forward to just two days at home – and how quickly they go by compared to days at work.

I keep thinking there must be more to life than counting away the days so I’ve spent most of the week working on new writing projects. I’ve joined a new writing community at Helium and will hopefully be able to reach new heights and new markets. If nothing else it’s another route of escapism from the daily grind and keeps my dream alive of an early retirement – okay, I did say it was only a dream..

I hope you’ve all had a good start to the New Year and all the best for 2008.

Posted by Ben Hughes

Christmas now seems a lifetime ago and people are busy making New Year’s resolutions as even the beginning of January feels longer ago than the five days it really is.

I was half expecting, or hoping, that I’d get stuck at the other end of the country with the snow that was being forecast this week but nothing really materialised so it meant a long drive home from the south coast to the north west after spending time with family. For some reason, the threat of snow always brings Britain to a standstill – motorways shut, cars abandoned power supplies down. But this Christmas there’s been nothing to mention so far.

So it was a long drive home and now I’m left to get ready for work on Monday. I can’t believe that two and half weeks can go so quickly and I never seem to have as much time during my holidays as I think I’ll have.

Not being someone who believes in New Year’s resolutions I haven’t made any. But I just want to wish everyone all the best blessing and wishes for 2008. Let’s hope it’s better in every way than the year just gone.