Hippies and the Pavilion (From The Argus)
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Hippies and the Pavilion
5:20pm Monday 16th January 2012 in Blogs By Carl Sommer
I feel like I am acclimatising to living in England. There were a couple of orientation events for the university.
It was absolutely nothing like Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) – Purdue's equivalent of freshers week – and as a former BGR leader, my biased instincts told me it wasn't as good.
I am thankful I was able to meet new people.
If that Friday were an exclusive indicator of British life, it would seem that everyone in England is American.
The vast majority of people I met were from the US, one girl was from Chile though and one from Canada. So...that's three countries represented.
Since then I have managed to meet some actual English people.
On Saturday I went into Brighton on my own for the first time, to wander around, get lost and pray to God that I would manage to get back home OK. Fortunately it really wasn't as terrible as my typically horrible sense of direction led me to imagine it would be.
Actually, it was a fantastic day.
If I had to choose one highlight.... well, the highlight any day always involves Bob Dylan or Reggae and the highlight of this day involved both.
There were a number of street performers in Brighton and my favorite were two hippies who were playing a reggae version of Don't Think Twice, It's Alright with a steel drum, ukulele and harmonica.
I gave them some money and hung around to listen to the end of the song and when they were finished we started talking.
Aside from the awesome hippie-ness about them, they were quite fascinating.
One of them is Mark Stewart! That's right...THE Mark Stewart!
OK... I didn't know who Mark Stewart was.
However, after he told me how we are all family and all we need is love, he explained he used to be a stuntman and was Christopher Reeves' stunt double for Superman 3 and 4.
I know that isn't 1 or 2...but at least it wasn't Superman Returns.
I looked him up on Internet Movie DataBase afterwards, and apparently he was also Guard #4 in Tron as well as a few other things.
Needless to say, I thought they were awesome.
Sunday was even more incredible.
I started off going to the only church by campus.
The American stereotype is that so many people in England don’t have a relationship with Christ and that most of the churches around are more postmodern than Biblical and when I walked in that was my immediate impression.
There were about ten people and the service was very multi-denominational, which implied postmodernism, but after talking with the pastor for a while I learned quickly that he had a strong relationship with Christ and understood the Gospel clearly.
I met with him again today for coffee and we had a pleasant, long discussion about theology.
He said God had called him to evangelize through services that can’t be rooted to a specific denomination.
After church I went with the other international students on a coach tour of Brighton, Devils Dyke and the Royal Pavilion.
Devils Dyke was really cool.
We went in the middle of January mind you, and there were hang gliders and para sailors everywhere.
Oh and the Royal Pavilion, WOW!
The outside is absolutely nothing compared to the inside.
I can’t do it justice through verbal explanation, but the entire thing was extraordinarily ornate and elaborate.
If any political leader tried to do anything like it today I would be furious, but since it is long past history I’m ok with it.
On the tour, aside from learning the history of the Royal Pavilion and George IV, we saw caricatures of the king by revolutionaries in the early ages of comic strips like George Cruikshank.
I felt I was only person who cared about that on the tour.
I have been in the city a few more times now and each time has been a great experience.
Comments(5)
lindi_lmf
says...
6:15pm Mon 16 Jan 12
laxxmi
says...
9:20am Tue 17 Jan 12
Well, the man of the cloth must have been very relieved to get your supercilious seal of approval!
btw, are you studying EFL?
anubis
says...
1:38pm Wed 18 Jan 12
If you needed ‘pray to God’ as you wandered our streets on your first day in Brighton, adequately ‘set the scene’, confirmed by your prompt fellowship with the local pastor (“who understood the Gospel” – we assume, therefore, you are both competent students of ancient Greek!?).
You ought to be aware your fears that the local population “don’t have a relationship with Christ” were indeed well grounded. The United Kingdom national census of 2001 indicated 66,955 of the 247,817 residents of City of Brighton & Hove (that’s 27% of the population) described themselves as having ‘no religion’; the highest score for ‘Godlessness’ of any locality in the UK.
Simultaneous with this discovery, the Argus set up an electronic poll; respondents were asked to select which of three statements best represented their own view of their town’s inhabitants being described as “godless’ -- here are the percentage of responses to each statement:
+ yes, it’s a fair statement, but needs to be changed: 3%
+ irrelevant; Brighton has its troubles but it is generally a good place: 2%
+ being described as Godless is a compliment: 95%
Naturally, most do not show their rejection of religion by writing letters to the press – they simply ignore the issue, which is arguably the most sensible response!
Coincidentally, in the same week of the publication of the Brighton poll, the national press carried reports of a country-wide survey:
"A POLL to promote Christianity backfired when 96 per cent of respondents said they didn't believe in God. More than 88,000 answered posters and adverts urging people to consider evidence before completing an online Alpha Course survey. Three percent said they did believe with one percent unsure about God's existence."
In the ‘Alpha Poll’ the question asked was simply, “Does God exist?” and the respondent had to select one of three options; final scores were ‘Yes’: 2%, ‘No’ 97% and ‘Probably’ 1%.
Although it was never founded as a Christian nation, since the time of the cold war, the United States of America has created a mythology about its own past, and has transformed itself before the rest of the world into a society allegly ‘based upon Christianity’. The founders of America would turn in their graves had they known that in the 21st Century a candidate for the Presidency is required to be a ‘born again’ disciple if he has serious hopes of being elected!
Along with all this garbage, yours is a land where beliefs of the medieval days still thrive. Hobgoblins, witches (Sarah Palin), or more recently (?) alien invasion. “3.7 million Americans, according to a Gallup Poll, believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another”. In 1994, John E Mack, professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School published details of face-to-face interviews with more than eighty American citizens describing their ‘alien abductions’. Thousands of hours of interviews convinced Mack these men, women and children were truthfully reporting authentic experiences … he describes, in great detail, their accounts of encounters with the ‘beings’ who transported their immobilized ‘victims’ to a space craft ,,,,
You’ll seek in vain for any such mass insanity in this country, Carl – but I’m sure your blessed pastor will value your fellowship. Maybe he’ll manage to get a dozen in his congregation next Sunday !?
SmileyD
says...
11:16am Fri 20 Jan 12
Peter O'hanra-hanrahan says...
6:04pm Mon 16 Jan 12