Some Mafia names are very entertaining! What is your favourite?
1. Jimmy ‘The Weasel’ Fratianno
2. Anthony ‘Fat Tony’ Salerno
3. Vincent ‘The Chin’ Gigante
4. Leo ‘Lips’ Moceri
5. Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano
6. Salvatore ‘Fat Sally’ Scala
7. Vincenzo ‘The Egg’ Cotroni
8. Johnny ‘Big Lips’ Pescatori
9. Jimmy ‘The Chop’ Marini
10. Ants ‘Ice Man’ Zamboni
11. Joey ‘Kneecap’ Santorielli
12. Roberto ‘Wrinkle Free’ Capelli
In May 1992 mafiosi Giovanni Brusca set off a huge bomb in the small Sicilian village of Capaci that killed antimafia investigating magistrate Giovanni Falcone, several police officers and his wife.
At the state funeral of Falcone and the other murdered government officials, Rosario Schifani, the widow of one of the dead police officers said the following in a very public way:
“To the men of the mafia – who are here in this church too – I want to say something. Become Christians again. I ask you, for Palermo, a city you’ve turned into a city of blood. Men of the mafia, I will forgive you, but you will have to get down on your knees.”
Her brave speech had a huge impact for the good. Many Mafiosi stopped their killing and extorting etc. People began to notice and fight against the mafia. Does Rosario sound just like one of the OT prophets? Study Micah 7:1-7.
In 2007 when mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo was arrested they found the Mafia’s equivalent of the ten commandments in his house! Here they are.
1. No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
2. Never look at the wives of friends.
3. Never be seen with cops.
4. Don’t go to pubs and clubs.
5. Always be available for Cosa Nostra, even if your wife’s about to give birth.
6. Appointments must be respected.
7. Wives must be treated with respect.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.
10. People who can’t be part of Cosa Nostra are anyone with a close relative in the police, with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn’t hold to moral values.
Why were these ten commandments written down? The answer would appear to be that Sicilian mafiosi (the more conservative wing) were very worried that American Mafiosi (the more liberal wing) were getting too flash and corrupted by Hollywood consumerism. In other words the yanks were breaking the sacred code of the Sicilian code of conduct!
In 1973 Leonardo Vitale a Sicilian man of honour/mafiosi had a profound spiritual crisis. He began to seek God for forgiveness. As a young boy his uncle asked him to demonstrate his ‘valour’, first by killing a horse, and then at the age of nineteen, by killing a man. He was driven past the victim in a tiny Fiat 500 and stood up on the back seat to fire at him with a shotgun. Later after his spiritual wrestling and repentance he said “do you see my hands? – they are stained with blood.” He clearly had some kind of conversion to the Christian faith. In 1984 as he was coming home from Mass he was shot in the head two times. His crime was to break the vow of omerta (keep silent/stumm). He had sinned against the mafia!
Isn’t this a great story to get people thinking about repentance and conversion?
Here follows a great review of Tom Wright’s new book by Arthur Jones.
I am just finishing reading Tom Wright’s latest book: Simply Jesus: Who He Was, What He Did, Why It Matters (London, SPCK, 2011) It carries a glowing (back cover) commendation from Rowan Williams (‘Tom Wright is, as always, brilliant at distilling immense scholarship into a vivid, clear and accessible form. This book is yet another of his great gifts to the worldwide Church.’).
What distinguishes his approach and makes the book quite different from any other on Jesus that I have ever read, is Wright’s worldview approach (which, of course, is no guarantee that there aren’t other books like it – if you know of any, do tell me!) Wright has applied this approach in his major academic series Christian Origins and the Question of God and the first book in that series The New Testament and the People of God (SPCK, 1992) is dedicated to Dr Brian Walsh from whom he gained the inspiration for this approach. Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat have applied it in their Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire (Downers Grove, IL, IVP, 2004), but Wright has established himself as the major theologian and Biblical scholar using it.
Wright’s worldview approach is as developed by Reformational scholars (Brian Walsh, Al Wolters, Michael Goheen et al.) rather than Evangelicals. For commentary on the distinction see, e.g. Bonzo, J. Matthew & Stevens, Michael eds After World View: Christian Higher Education in Postmodern Worlds (Sioux Center, Iowa, Dordt College Press, 2009), Smith, James K.A. Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Academic, 2009), Smith, James K.A. “Worldview, Sphere Sovereignty and Desiring the Kingdom: A Guide for (Perplexed) Reformed Folk” (Pro Rege, 39 (4), June 2011, pages 15-24)
Simply Jesus is the first of Wright’s popular books that really shows the power of this wholistic, big picture approach. Jesus, he contends, came to bring God’s wise, healing rule to bear on the Earth. He did not come to teach people ‘how to get to heaven’, or to mount some kind of quasi-military revolution, or to do things that ‘proved his divinity’:
The gospels are not about ‘how Jesus turned out to be God’. They are about how God became king on earth as in heaven. … It has been all too possible to use the doctrine of the incarnation or even the doctrine of the inspiration of scripture as a way of protecting oneself and one’s worldview and political agenda against having to face the far greater challenge of God taking charge, of God becoming king on earth as in heaven. But that is what the stories in the Bible are all about. That’s what the story of Jesus was, and is, all about. That is the real challenge, and sceptics aren’t the only ones who find clever ways to avoid it. (page 147)
One of the greatest challenges facing the church today is the evangelisation of young people. On average half of the children of Christian parents do not grow up to share their parents’ faith, whereas nearly 100% of the children of non-religious parents grow up to share their parents’ lack of religious commitment. Today many Christian young people find themselves in schools or colleges with few or no other identifiable Christians. My, and Mark Roques’, experience is that stories incorporating that wholistic, big picture approach engage young people effectively, whereas many traditional approaches no longer work. But after years of worldview-based mission I am still learning a lot from Wright’s new book. I’ll have to seriously revise my teaching notes on both ‘Biblical Introduction’ and ‘Worldviews’!
I really enjoyed talking to Martin Saunders and Jamie Cutteridge on the Youthwork podcast on Wednesday. Both lads are very friendly and have great banter. It was also great to meet Sarah Wynter, the new editor at the mag.
We talked about a lot of topics – youthwork, storytelling, the biblical story, eschatology, prayer, fasting and, of course, football. We even had a brief discussion about my deep love for Hertfordshire and the wonderful people who make it such a great county!
Green Pastures is a wonderful kingdom structure but it isn’t all plain sailing!
The kingdom of God is here but not fully here. Consider some of the obstacles and frustrations. Sometimes the project has to deal with tenants who take liberties on a sustained and exhausting pattern. We’re talking tenants who wreck properties and cause mayhem. Sometimes Vicki and Pastor Pete have to embrace tough love and ask people to leave. Some people abuse the project’s kindness and Christian generosity. They have to go!
We should also notice that the media take liberties as well. Study carefully how the BBC reports on the story and you will encounter the all-pervasive editing out of the Christian basis to the work. The BBC is very good at doing this rewriting of ‘charity work’. In a recent article the BBC manages to convey that pastor Pete is really a loving humanist/atheist!
For more on this skilful editing see this link.
Here follows an account of one of the most amazing ministries in the UK today. It is an outstanding example of what David Bosch calls wholistic mission.
The Green Pastures charity was started by Pastor Pete Cunningham in 1999 in Southport. Pete cashed in his pension worth £6000 and bought a pair of flats and began to house and care for two homeless couples.
The mission of Green Pastures is to house marginalized and vulnerable people who have struggled to secure housing. Today Green Pastures works with 24 partners across the UK. It owns 275 properties worth £20 million.
It houses more than 400 people in Southport and other parts of the UK. In
2005 the local authority recognised that there were no longer any long-term rough sleepers in Southport! All this without ever receiving any government grants!
Pete says – “As well as caring for their physical needs we are sometimes given the privilege of leading our tenants to Jesus. In the last few years we have seen 27 come to faith, 19 baptised and currently 32 of our tenants and former tenants are attending Shoreline or other churches.”
Green Pastures’ latest project is to help formerly homeless people create sustainable businesses for themselves and others to help them get off benefits. Recently a Green Pastures house in Wigan has been rewired, plastered and had a new heating system fitted by a group of of ex-homeless men who have been trained in construction skills by The Lighthouse in Rotherham, another Green Pastures partner.
Pete’s son Andrew Cunningham says – “This is such an exciting project; here we have men who were homeless, now using the skills they have been taught to make a house ready for homeless people to live in – it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Pete comments – “When you see a rampant alcoholic come off the booze, get a job and start to earn his own money, there is no greater buzz.”
What a great story to get people thinking about God’s kingdom!