Alex's Story

a post by Alex O'Byrne for the Mind and Soul Foundation blog



8 months ago, I was admitted to psychiatric hospital with a severe physical manifestation of anxiety and depression. My brain slowed down to a crawl, my short-term memory was completely shot, I could barely speak and was slurring my words, and when I read my journal entries from those first few days, they look like they were written by a 5-year old. I , faithwas in the hospital for 5 weeks, and it was there that I first accepted the transformative power of faith.

As a child, I was always afraid. I was brought up in a volatile home, with one very religious parent, and one atheist. My mother had her own mental health struggles, and as the eldest child, with a father who showed his love through working to provide, I became her support from a very early age. My memories of this time are scattered and painful, with intermittent sprinklings of laughter and love. My journey has enabled me to see my parents for what they were, imperfect humans doing the absolute best they knew how. I associated a lot of the rigid nature of my home with my father’s faith, and would hide to avoid going to church with him. I found the services dull, uninspiring and didn’t connect with anything I heard.

Continue reading for this story of a life transformed by faith in God. If this isn't your thing then stop now.

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“Bringing heaven down to earth”: the purpose and place of religion in UK food aid

an article by Madeleine Power, Bob Doherty and Kate E. Pickett (University of York, UK) and Neil Small and Barbara Stewart-Knox (University of Bradford, UK) published in Social Enterprise Journal Volume 13 Issue 3 (2017)

Abstract

Purpose
This paper uses data from a city with a multi-ethnic, multi-faith population to better understand faith-based food aid. The paper aims to understand what constitutes faith-based responses to food insecurity, compare the prevalence and nature of faith-based food aid across different religions and explore how community food aid meets the needs of a multi-ethnic, multi-faith population.

Design/methodology/approach
The study involved two phases of primary research. In Phase 1, desk-based research and dialogue with stakeholders in local food security programmes were used to identify faith-based responses to food insecurity. Phase 2 consisted of 18 semi-structured interviews involving faith-based and secular charitable food aid organizations.

Findings
The paper illustrates the internal heterogeneity of faith-based food aid. Faith-based food aid is highly prevalent and the vast majority is Christian. Doctrine is a key motivation among Christian organizations for their provision of food. The fact that the clients at faith-based, particularly Christian, food aid did not reflect the local religious demographic is a cause for concern in light of the entry-barriers identified. This concern is heightened by the co-option of faith-based organizations by the state as part of the “Big Society” agenda.

Originality/value
This is the first academic study in the UK to look at the faith-based arrangements of Christian and Muslim food aid providers, to set out what it means to provide faith-based food aid in the UK and to explore how faith-based food aid interacts with people of other religions and no religion.

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The New Atheists loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it

I've been busy of late with the development of an interface for a website. The brief is very tight. I've been trying a number of different approaches to getting the required data into the "right" place to make sense for the users (without any usability testing) and ensuring that the "clickable menu system" provides access to the underlying data in a meaningful fashion AND achieving these two things without moving outside the "no more than twelve top-level terms leading to no more than twelve discrete elements". Ouch. All this meant that I have been neglecting writing here -- and nearly missed the atheism story which I picked up from The Edge.

Madeleine Bunting says (The Guardian 7 May): "Anti-faith proselytising is a growth industry. But its increasingly hysterical flag-bearers are heading for a spectacular failure."

Not only is it worth reading this article but looking at all of Bunting's columns for her views. My personal belief in God is actually strengthened by reading comment from or about the likes of Richard Dawkins. And, while I don't go out of my way to read his books, my son-in-law has them, and ones from similar authors, and I will often skim through.