Nicole invited me to join the panel at a film club in Balham - organised by Dershe. They were showing "Oh My God" by Peter Roger - a documentary comprising interviews with people about their belief/non-belief in God.
A strange congerie of individuals – including Hugh Jackman [Wolverine!]. But the film was excellent: tightly edited and an impressive attempt of one man to understand religion, suicide bombings, and warfare.
The film, inevitably, represented relativist liberalism [believe anything if you’re sincere]. But it also exemplified renewed openness to spiritual exploration in western culture - welcome reversal of modernity’s dismissal of faith.
I was even more impressed by the 20+ young adults who had gathered. Eagerly engaging in serious, animated discussion about personal meaning and significance. Predictably critical of Christianity but nevertheless evidence of profound wrestling.
Also interesting was the difference in mode between the [black British] majority, and the Muslims present. The latter wanted to prove the rationality of their faith, its rules, and absolute truth.
The others, however, seemed moved by emotion/feeling, heart over head; worried that truth claims segregate people into positions of superiority-inferiority.
Among London’s urban sub-cultures, God’s Spirit is already moving over the face of the waters.
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