Monthly Archives: June 2025

A Change of Perspective

Aviation, Insights, Others' stuff

As my regular readers will know, one of the basic premises of my blog is that a life of faith has many parallels with the sport of flying light aircraft.

I have a subscription to the excellent ‘Pilot‘ Magazine, and I was even priviliged to have had an article of mine published in it some years ago too. In the July, 2025 edition of the magazine, the Editor, Eugenio Facci, published his editorial and, on reading it, it was immediately apparent to me that he ‘gets it’. Not that this is surprising, of course, because I would say many Pilots feel the same, but he described really well the almost-spiritual freedom and indeed life-changing perspective one gets when flying a light aircraft[1]. I identified with his words so much that I thought, right, that’s one for the blog. Eugenio has kindly given me his enthusiastic permission to use his piece so, without further ado, here it is:

Eugenio Facci

When I was ten, I used to spend a fair amount of time at the local flying club, where my dad was working towards his PPL[2] – and where I would occasionally fly in the back of a PA-28 [3] during his training flights.

One day, one of the club’s pilots asked me if I wanted to fly with him – in a Cessna 152, meaning in the front seat! I was ecstatic! Of course I did: I was ten, obsessed with flying, I (thought I) knew everything about aeroplanes, and the floor of my bedroom was covered with avidly-read aviation magazines.

I said yes, trying to appear absolutely unfazed – I had read somewhere that a good pilot always keeps it cool – and up we went. The Cessna 152 lifted off into the grey October sky. Once level, the moment came: “Do you want to take control?”

It was a very big deal for me. I put my hands on the yoke and looked around, initially just keeping level. Then, a gentle turn to the right. I saw the right aileron move up (what a nerd), the wing getting lower, the world moving. Wow… I was making the world move! What a sense of power, of freedom, of a different existence! The drudgery of normal life seemed so far away; up there in the sky, I felt like I had graduated into an upper echelon of the universe.

The day after, a Monday, I went to school a different person. Life didn’t have the boundaries of before, nor did I. The experience of flying an aircraft had been empowering and (strangely) humbling at the same time. I quietly told my closest friends (I wasn’t sure everybody would really ‘get it’), and those friends saw a different child from just a few days before. Like meditation changes the mind of a zen master, so flying had changed my mind and soul. Most of all, it had given me one of the most precious things in life: confidence, and of the right kind.

This is not something you stumble upon easily. Nowadays, many young people struggle with confidence, and, quite a few studies seem to show that there are rising problems with anxiety and mental health in younger generations – possibly due to the impossibly high standards and constant scrutiny that comes with social media. As it happens, General Aviation[4] can help with this problem, and various organisations are already very active in that regard. Just to name a few, Youth and Education Support (YES) in England, the Take Off charity in Scotland and, expanding beyond the world of youngsters, Aerobility.

This is great, but the positive social impact of this could be amplified if this confidence-building exercise became a formal tool within the education policy of a country. The opportunity is there; most science topics can be explained in a fun and interesting way by using aviation as an applied example, and many children like aeroplanes – so you would not have to impose a boring topic onto them.

In addition, the big wave of investments that will come with rearming Britain and the Western world is the perfect time to ask ourselves: What kind of youth do we want to bring up? After all, a nation is only as strong as the minds of its citizens, and the UK (like most other countries) does little to train systematically its youngsters in terms of confidence, resilience, and emotional maturity – just to name a few key aspects that flying helps you develop.

Personally, I am very grateful for the confidence, energy and sturdiness that aviation gave me while growing up. I think we owe the younger generations the same opportunities, and possibly better ones.

– Eugenio Facci
Editorial, Pilot Magazine July 2025

Used here with his kind permission.

Footnotes

Footnotes
⇧1 I couldn’t speak for flying a large aircraft, of course, having never done it!
⇧2 Private Pilot’s Licence – Ed
⇧3 That aircraft is described in this article – Ed
⇧4 General Aviation is the branch of aviation in which you find things like private pilots (like Eugenio and I), business jets, TV station helicopters, and all that sort of thing. Mainly, then, flying that is neither military nor really commercial, in terms of the big passenger jets and similar – Ed

On Guilt by Association

Insights, Others' stuff

The concept of ‘guilt by association’ – where if a person associates with someone who others think of as somehow ‘bad’ for whatever reason[1] then somehow that person becomes ‘just as bad as ‘they’ are’ simply by associating with them there ‘sinners’ – has never sat well with me. Even writing about the concept makes me feel sick.

My opinion, of course, is radically different from the norm. If someone is ostracised for treating another person as a fellow human being, no matter what their leanings or beliefs, then it is the people doing the ostracising that are in the wrong[2]. Plain and simple. To these abusers – and such they are – a person associating with someone being shunned means that the person doing the association will also get shunned too[3]. Sadly, in these days of cancel culture and all the other judgmentalism perpetrated by people in general, and especially Religious people (who really should know better, according to their own rules), this sort of behaviour is rife. In some cases, especially in cults[4], it is even taken as far as the complete exclusion of the people involved from their community[5], which intentionally deeply harms the victims of such practices. It’s no wonder that Jesus didn’t do it then, eh?

I myself have never practiced this particular form of abuse (and abuse it is); it has simply never made any sense to me. I have always been aware that others have opinions which I may not share, and that’s fine[6]. Yes, I regularly rant about the Religious, but that’s because a) Jesus did it, and I am feeling His heart on that, and b) they are the people who push their views on others, so they need pushback. But still, I do not do guilt by association. That’s simply not on. And even when it is explained to them that Jesus did it, the boringly predictable response is always, ‘Ah yes, but Jesus didn’t condone their sin!’.

Well that’s correct in one way, but actually it’s only correct because He never even mentioned their ‘sin’ on those occasions – their ‘sin’ being the perceived reason(s) why the Religious considered them ‘untouchable’. For Jesus, it wasn’t even an issue. No, it was the Religious that brought up the subject, via their judgmentalism.

For the Religious, and even for some of Jesus’s followers, the habit of assigning guilt by association was present, and they read into His association with these people that He approved of their ‘behaviour’, as did St. Paul later in places in his letters. Of course, Jesus was having none of that.

And so I present here, in a refreshingly clear and perceptive article, my online friend, Rhonda, expressing an excellent series of points saying why it should not be ‘common practice’ to do ‘guilt by association’, despite it being ‘in the Bible’. Over to Rhonda:

Jesus never taught guilt by association. In fact, if there was one thing that constantly scandalized the religious elite of his time, it was precisely his refusal to treat “sinners” as untouchables. He dined with them, befriended them, healed them, and even gathered them as his closest followers. Prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, Samaritans, Roman centurions, and yes—even Pharisees—were all welcomed, loved, and drawn into his circle of grace. Jesus embodied righteousness in association, never in separation. His holiness was not a fragile thing that recoiled from impurity; it was a powerful, compassionate presence that made the unclean whole.

But it’s sobering to notice that this radical example of love and inclusion didn’t always carry over into the writings of some early Christians—even those who genuinely loved Christ. For instance, Paul, in his more combative moments, wrote of certain believers: “I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” (Galatians 5:12). Not exactly gentle. In 2 Thessalonians 3:14–15, he says: “Take special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter. DO NOT ASSOCIATE (CAPS mine) with them, in order that they may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer.”

John—yes, the beloved disciple—also wrote things that sound surprisingly harsh, if, indeed, it was the Apostle John who wrote them, but deep Bible scholars question their actual authorship. In 2 John 10–11, the writer says: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, DO NOT TAKE THEM INTO YOUR HOUSE OR WELCOME THEM (CAPS mine). Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.” That’s a far cry from Jesus’ warm table fellowship with everyone from doubters to traitors. And in 3 John, the author condemns a man named Diotrephes for not acknowledging his authority, writing in verse 10 that he “spreads malicious nonsense” and REFUSES TO WELCOME FELLOW BELIEVERS—ironically while hypocritically doing the same in return.

Even 1 John—filled with beautiful words about love—draws absolute lines. “THEY WENT OUT FROM US, BUT THEY WERE NOT REALLY OF US.” (CAPS mine) (1 John 2:19). That verse has been tragically used to justify excluding people who think differently, believe differently, worship differently, or honestly question ideas.

All of this, to me, is one of the clearest evidences that inspiration is not the same as inerrancy. People filled with love for Christ can still let fear, ego, and tribalism slip into their words. They can be profoundly inspired and also profoundly human. They can write deep spiritual truth and still get things wrong. We shouldn’t feel the need to paper over this tension—it’s honest, and even hopeful, because it reminds us that God works through imperfect vessels, like them… and like us.

So when we find inconsistencies between Jesus and those who tried to speak on his behalf, we don’t have to reject their words wholesale—but neither must we sanctify their every phrase. Jesus is the touchstone, the lens, the living Word. When the Bible leads us to him, we treasure it. When it seems to lead us away from his example, we step back and say, “That sounds more like us than like him.”

And that’s okay. It just means we’re still growing.

– Rhonda

I think that’s just brilliant. And it’s also an excellent example of how the Bible should, and should not, be ‘applied’ in our lives today – and in our cultures. Not as a one-size-fits-all set of rules, but as a set of documents that were written by imperfect humans who were growing and changing in their faiths, in a world and in cultures that were very different from ours.

We could do with remembering that.

Grace and Peace

Footnotes

Footnotes
⇧1 …whether it’s because of differing opinions, ‘sin’, crime, being on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, whatever.
⇧2 Also, consider this. In the Second World War, in Occupied France, sometimes, escaping Allied service personnel (usually downed fliers and similar) would be found by local French civilians, say hiding in a barn. Often, those civilians would look after the needs of the stricken young man: feeding him, tending to his wounds and so on – just because a) they were human and b) he was human. But if the occupying German forces found out, those giving the help would be severely punished. Just by associating with the escaping airman, then, those civilians were seen as ‘guilty’ by the Germans. There is absolutely no difference between this behaviour, and the guilt-by-association practised by people in society these days, and especially those with an axe to grind – like the Religious.
⇧3 I’m a loner anyway; shunning has no effect on me! 🤣 But I’m painfully aware that others are deeply affected by it.
⇧4 I include much of Evangelical Christianity in this bracket
⇧5 Which makes me certain that the ‘community’ was not worth being a member of in the first place. Pick yourself up, shake the dust, move on.
⇧6 And if a person with Asperger’s Syndrome (me) can be aware of that, then surely neurotypical people can?? And I apologise for calling you Shirley.

“Ex-Batt Christians” – Reblog

Insights, Ministry, Reblogs

Ten years ago to the day, I published the piece “Ex-Batt Christians”, which was what I still consider to be one of the most important and meaningful essays I have ever written. It still applies today, because a) many Christians (including most Evangelicals) are still trapped inside the cage of religion[1], and b) many people are finding their way out of that cage and are unsure of what to do next, or even if it’s ‘safe’ to be outside the cage. 

This piece was almost a parable, and can still be read as such today. Some of the minor details have changed (for example, we no longer have four chickens; just one now and she, of course, wasn’t one of the four mentioned in the essay[2]) but still the lessons are just as applicable now as they were then.

Here we go, then. Enjoy!

My family has a flock of rescued chickens. At present, there’s four birds in the flock, and most of them are ‘retired’ caged chickens.

Caged chickens are what used to be referred to as ‘battery hens’; hens that right from the day they were hatched have never known freedom. From before the time they begin laying, until they are about a year old, they spend all their time in a cage. Then they are either sent off for slaughter or they are rehomed as ‘ex-battery’ hens, or ‘ex-batt’ for short. Three of our girls are ex-batt hens; the fourth was a stray whom we adopted.

Now, about six weeks ago, our two newest hens arrived. Apart from being all bedraggled and nearly bald (we thought they actually looked ‘oven-ready!’), they simply didn’t know what to do with their new freedom. They spent the first couple of days huddled together in the (open) chicken cage, while the hens we already had were roaming about their large pen, pecking at this and that like chickens do. Then, after a couple of days, they dared to come out of the cage a couple of feet; after that, they came right out but hid in the bushes for most of the day.  All the time, they felt they had to be near the ‘safety’ of their cage, so they could bolt back to their place of security. Only after about four weeks with us did they realise that they had choices, they had freedom, and it was up to them how they spent their day. Stay in the chicken coop? No problem. Sit in the shade? Mmmhmm, and have a dust-bath while you’re there. Want to wander round the chicken pen and explore? Go right ahead, it’s perfectly safe. And occasionally they even get let out of the pen and into the whole garden, on what we call ‘rampage’. And they love the freedom!

I’m sure you can see the analogy. I feel that there are many Christians who are still in the chicken coop. They have been set free from the kingdom of darkness, but they are not enjoying the ‘glorious freedom of the Children of God’ (Romans 8:21)

Much of the time, they find it hard to emerge from the ‘safety’ of the coop. Sure, it’s safe in there, but it’s not freedom. Even once they emerge, they are ready at a moment’s notice to bolt back in there.

Jesus was castigated by the religious authorities of His day, for associating with ‘sinners’. He was admonished most severely for partying and having a great time with His friends. Mark 2:18 – “Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” These people – even John the Baptist’s disciples, who were effectively part of a ‘new’ movement – felt that religious observance meant being dull, dry, and having a straight face all the time. No fun is allowed, folks, and certainly no laughing!

But Jesus was having none of that. When the Bridegroom (Jesus) is with us, we don’t need to ‘do’ all these religious rules and observances. We just need to live our lives in the glorious freedom of the Children of God. We can live lavishly, we can live in extravagant, outrageous freedom – freedom that will appear to the ‘religious’ (and those who think they know how ‘religious’ people should behave) to be outrageous. “What? These people believe in God and they’re happy??“

Like when I fly, my home base airfield is near a huge reservoir lake with a dam at one end. So, of course, we do low-level ‘Dambuster’ runs over it. A shallow dive, picking up speed, race across the water at high speed only 200 feet up….and then call ‘bombs away’ and a sharp, high-‘g‘ pull-up into the climb away. Tremendous fun, perfectly legal and perfectly safe. But people hear the stories of that sort of thing and they say, ‘You do, like, what??‘ And to be perfectly honest, it takes a good few days for the grin to disappear from my face after a Dambuster run…. but you see the thing is that we enjoy it. Really enjoy it. It’s part of our freedom. ‘Pilots shouldn’t do things like that’ is only said by those who have not experienced the freedom of flight – and who have not spent all those years of hard training; British pilot training is the most thorough in the world of civilian aviation and we produce the safest private pilots in the world. And yet still we do Dambuster runs, because it’s perfectly safe – because we have trained for it. It’s what we are equipped and free to do.

And so it is with the things of faith, the things of God. Those who live in freedom appear to those on the outside to be completely irreligious. They laugh and joke. They appear to be filled with an inexpressible joy. They party (in whatever way suits them), they dance, they’re free. They associate with all different types of people, including those who society sees as outcasts. They do kind things. They do daft things. And those outside – both believer and non-believer alike – look in and say, ‘No way they’re Christians. They aren’t behaving at all like a Christian should behave’. ‘How can you call yourself a Christian and still do that?’ Y’see, they just don’t ‘get’ it. The thing is that most of these unwritten expectations of behaviour are completely founded in others’ opinions and not in Scripture. Even if they were founded in Scripture, it’s not there to restrict us; rather to set us free.

People of faith who discover this new-found freedom also sometimes feel insecure in that freedom. They are emerging from the chrysalis of rules and regulations, of unwritten behavioural ‘standards’, and are exploring the pen near the cage. They’ re ready to scuttle back into the cage if they feel too unsafe. But you know, God made us for freedom, and ‘it is for freedom that Christ has set us free’ (Gal 5:1). It’s what we were made for! But don’t worry if at first you feel insecure. You no longer have the ‘rules’ as a backstop. But you don’t need rules anymore. Heb 10:16 – “I will write My laws upon their hearts”. Holy Spirit is your backstop and He will not let you fall. In any event, your salvation is secure even if/when you do make mistakes. This is the freedom we possess! Once saved, always saved. Click here for my blog posting on that truth.

So, can you see then that these ‘ex-batt Christians’ really need to come out of their cage and enjoy the freedom of the pen. That’s what they were rescued for! That’s what they were adopted for!

Life in all its fulness! Come on out of the cage and into the pen – or better yet, out into the garden. The freedom out here is wonderful!

chickens
Our chickens on ‘rampage’, having fun 😉

Hope that helps, with anything that’s on your mind or your spirit 🙂

Grace and peace to you.

Footnotes

Footnotes
⇧1 Religion, in the sense of trying to ‘do’ things in order to please God, in order to appease any ‘wrath’ He may happen to be feeling towards them. Essentially, it’s legalism cloaked under a thin veneer of a completely misunderstood and misrepresented ‘grace’. Wanting to please God because you love Him is one thing; trying to please Him in order to appease Him, and thereby avert anything nasty that you fear He might do to you, is another thing entirely.
⇧2 Chickens generally live for about five years; the oldest one we had, Florence, was eight when she died and she was one of the four mentioned in the essay.

The Wisdom of Age

Others' stuff, Wisdom

I have found that my attitudes to many things have changed over the years. This is perfectly normal and is indeed what one would expect, given that experience is, in and of itself, a learning process. You experience something, and your skills, attitudes and thinking change because of that experience – notwithstanding the header image![1] 😀

I saw an interesting article on the Internet the other day, which encapsulates this idea very well, and shares some of these attitudes. I thought that my readers may well be blessed by reading them, so I share them here for your edification.[2]

“I asked a friend who has crossed 70 & is heading towards 80 what sort of changes he is feeling in himself? He sent me the following:

  1. After loving my parents, my siblings, my spouse, my children and my friends, I have now started loving myself.
  2. I have realized that I am not “Atlas”. The world does not rest on my shoulders.
  3. I have stopped bargaining with vegetable & fruit vendors. A few pennies more is not going to break me, but it might help the poor fellow save for his daughter’s school fees.
  4. I leave my waitress a big tip. The extra money might bring a smile to her face. She is toiling much harder for a living than I am.
  5. I stopped telling the elderly that they’ve already narrated that story many times. The story makes them walk down memory lane & relive their past.
  6. I have learned not to correct people even when I know they are wrong. The onus of making everyone perfect is not on me. Peace is more precious than perfection.
  7. I give compliments freely & generously. Compliments are a mood enhancer not only for the recipient, but also for me. And a small tip for the recipient of a compliment, never, NEVER turn it down, just say “Thank You.”
  8. I have learned not to bother about a crease or a spot on my shirt. Personality speaks louder than appearances.
  9. I walk away from people who don’t value me. They might not know my worth, but I do.
  10. I remain cool when someone plays dirty to outrun me in the rat race. I am not a rat[3] & neither am I in any race.
  11. I am learning not to be embarrassed by my emotions. It’s my emotions that make me human.
  12. I have learned that it’s better to drop the ego than to break a relationship. My ego will keep me aloof, whereas with relationships, I will never be alone.
  13. I have learned to live each day as if it’s the last. After all, it might be the last.
  14. I am doing what makes me happy. I am responsible for my happiness, and I owe it to myself. Happiness is a choice. You can be happy at any time, just choose to be!


I decided to share this for all my friends. Why do we have to wait to be 60 or 70 or 80, why can’t we practice this at any stage and age?”

I think that’s pretty good 😀

Footnotes

Footnotes
⇧1 Which, if you think about it, does not preclude my opening argument!
⇧2 Unfortunately, the original author was not credited in the piece I read.
⇧3 Actually, I do consider myself to be an honorary rat. My daughter keeps pet rats, and they have accepted me as being part of their ‘mischief’ (the collective name for a group of rats). Well, if it’s good enough for them, then it’s good enough for me, and so I am a rat, in their thinking at least. I consider this a great honour 😀

You are Included

Others' stuff, Ministry

Well, it’s starting to leak out. The message of God’s inclusion of all humanity in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, resulting in them being forgiven, loved and included.

This is, very gradually, now being preached by a very few mainstream, big-time ‘famous'[1] preachers such as televangelist Creflo Dollar. I make no comment about Creflo’s ministry here, about his other teachings, or anything like that; I am simply stating that the Grace and Inclusion message is getting out there.

Creflo has already suffered rejection and condemnation from Christians, of course, for preaching this amazing message. They are like the Prodigal Son’s elder brother, who thought he had to work for his father’s approval. The message of Grace says this is not so. Over to Creflo:

“God doesn’t look at the world through the lens of judgment. He looks through the empty tomb Jesus stepped out of. And when He rose, He raised the world into a new status: Forgiven, Loved, and Included. This is the human race. To everybody in the human race… to anybody here that’s not a born-again Christian…. He raised you to this status. *You* are forgiven, you are loved, and *you* are included”.
 – Creflo Dollar

Brilliant!

 

Footnotes

Footnotes
⇧1 My regular readers will know that I don’t really go in for ‘big names’ and famous people; all believers have in them the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. There is no ‘Holy Spirit Lite’; She’s the same Spirit. Yes I understand about special anointings and all that but I don’t believe that anointing should elevate anyone to ‘celebrity’ status. This is simply an artefact of society in general wanting other humans they can, in some way. ‘look up’ to.