by Maggy Whitehouse | Mar 28, 2018 | Spirit
This year, the Jewish festival of Passover runs over Eastertide – just as it did at the first Easter. I love the years when they coincide because it helps me to see how both festivals have the same root meaning – betrayal, sacrifice and resurrection. Of course that...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Dec 6, 2017 | Uncategorized
It’s Advent 2017 — the start of Christmas, right? Certainly it’s the time when folk like me who refuse to even consider the Festive Season until December finally surrender to the behemoth that is Saturnalia or, at least, to the shopping and preparation thereof....
by Maggy Whitehouse | Oct 9, 2017 | Uncategorized
I was lying in the bath, pondering the Bible passages that orthodox religious folk use when discussing the folk they disapprove of – as you do – when I got a sentence in my head. This doesn’t happen all that often. And when the sentence appears in...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Aug 9, 2017 | Spirit
Today I bought a rainbow-coloured clerical shirt for going to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe. I’m not gay and, to be totally honest, gay marriage still makes me feel slightly weird. It’s not that I don’t support the idea, I do—it’s just that...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Aug 8, 2017 | Spirit
Let’s face it, God has had some very bad PR. Interpretations of the Holy Books haven’t helped. According to the Old Testament, God’s fond of mass genocide (Noah’s Ark), destruction of idolators (Exodus, Kings), flattening of cities (Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis) and...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Jul 18, 2017 | Spirit
Until about a hundred years ago, we were all pretty comfortable with a small, exclusive, tribal God. We lived in villages, towns and cities without a wider view of the world and when news came it was generally several days old. Even when we got radio and TV, what we...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Jul 5, 2017 | Fiction
Please enjoy this excerpt from chapter two. Should you want to read the rest of the book, it’s available here, on Amazon. I turn, reluctantly, back up the hill, trusting Frankly to follow me, just as Stella comes trotting into view. ‘Oh there you are!’ she...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Jun 21, 2017 | Comedy, Spirit
‘I could never do that.’ If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. They say that chubby, shy kids are often funny to divert any criticism away from them. I was chubby and I was shy but I wasn’t funny. They say that journalists, like doctors, have a wicked...
by Maggy Whitehouse | May 23, 2017 | Spirit
When you get to appear on TV or radio talking about faith, you’re almost certainly going to attract a few folk who are worried about your immortal soul and whether you’re ‘born again’ or a false teacher. That’s exactly what happened this...
by Maggy Whitehouse | May 9, 2017 | Spirit
One of the great theological debates about the New Testament is ‘why four gospels?’ We know that many more were written, including the famous Nag Hammadi scripts with writings by the disciples Philip and Thomas and even one accredited to Mary Magdalene. These were...
