Annoyed By a Sermon

I attended a certain evangelical Church today. The preacher claimed to do an exegesis of Ephesians 2 -- but he had me more and more annoyed, the further he went. This sermon might more properly have been called "Fleeting Impressions of Ephesians, Discovered in Moments of Distraction". OBSERVATION: Exegesis looks at phrases, and draws certain conclusions from those phrases, based upon those phrases. The preacher analysed words that weren't even there -- and those that were, he liberally omitted. Enough said.

Water Stoppages

I do not find a blog post on the Internet which describes the water stoppages in South Africa. More than a third of South African households experience such stoppages. I have experienced it. One really, really cannot live without water -- not in the home, not at work. Many enterprises collapse without water. Well, why not buy drums, and store it? For many, drums may be hard to afford. And how then to purify the water? What about water theft? Then, how to use the water? Often, a water truck races onto the scene. How do the elderly use this? What about the working class, who don't have the time? What about children, carrying great weights of water? OBSERVATION: It is degradation. The government now announced that it has laid criminal charges against some 20% of our country's municipalities for their mismanagement of water.

One Church on Every Block

Elsewhere on this blog, I asked a village dominee in the Karoo how his ministry had changed since he started there thirty years ago. He said: "Thirty years ago, there was one Church in the village, and people's lives revolved around the Church. Today, there are forty Churches in the village, and people's lives revolve around everything." The village is Ladismith, and here is a satellite photo. Forty Churches means about one Church for every block. OBSERVATION: This fragmentation and proliferation of Churches began in 1994, the year of our first fully democratic elections. There was also an explosion of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, mostly untrained.

One Appointment a Week

After my mother died, a few years ago, I found her personal diary. There was not much in it -- many pages were blank -- yet into her eighties, she had made one appointment a week, to see this or that influential person. It cannot have been easy for her, to keep up that routine. OBSERVATION: In our Church, we had a woman, also in her eighties (and perhaps nineties), who every day wrote one letter of encouragement to someone. I, too, received such a letter. And she was oh-so-happy with the replies.

Bible Institute Panoramic Video

In the absence of anything more exciting today, here is a brief video of the campus of the Bible Institute of South Africa. It is taken with a 7.5 mm fisheye lens, from the patio of the main building and central hub of the Bible Institute, called Roxton.

Sermon at my Alma Mater

I had the privilege yesterday of preaching to students at one of my alma matres (old stomping grounds) -- my first alma mater, the Bible Institute of Kalk Bay. This is the first sermon that I preached in some time. It's a controversial title, but it's not as controversial as it might sound. Just original! The sermon is here: https://youtu.be/46mq-2_BlNs Semantic vs. Deconstructionist Exegesis: A Sermon to Students. I love this little chapel. It's a classic.

POSTSCRIPT: This video has nearly 70 views after three days. On the one hand an unspectacular figure, on the other hand this far exceeds YouTube's median (midpoint) 41 views per video.

Counselees Who Are Drunk?

There is a question which many counsellors must have asked themselves: should I counsel someone if they are drunk? The answer is generally no, because of impaired cognition, and in some cases, a loss of safety. My own answer, however, has been yes -- on condition that one is not endangered, and that that person is not beyond reasonable communication. I have three reasons for saying yes: they may have more to talk about than they usually do, there may not be a better opportunity to talk, and I believe that people do remember many things when drunk. OBSERVATION: It is a different matter if the potential counselee is high on something. To get the idea, see boom.com.

Recurring Fevers

In 2013, I was assaulted in Church, in my robes, by several people. I was quite badly hurt. However, apart from physical injuries, I contracted an infection -- apparently through nail scratches, which I had aplenty. At first, in 2013, I went down time and time again with fevers -- accompanied by characteristic swelling. A doctor diagnosed the infection (the diagnosis is elsewhere on my blog), and tried to cure it with antibiotics. But he had to prescribe increasingly powerful antibiotics -- until, he said, he had reached the final frontier. The recurring fevers were beaten back -- yet the infection still seemed to be hiding out. Now it is 13 years later, and I had been without the fever for a few years. I even said I was free. This weekend, the signature fever hit me again -- with characteristic swelling. It was a warm weekend, and I was shivering uncontrollably. Thankfully, two days later, I have recovered.

Early Schooling

For the first three years of my schooling, and for much of my fourth, I did not go to school -- I was home schooled. For the most part, I was on distant islands, surrounded only by Micronesian children -- the one exception being my sister. Finally, I spent a few months in a mixed English-Micronesian school on Tarawa, then a brief period at school in the UK. Then, my new life of schooling began in South Africa, in Grade 4. Immediately I was plunged into a group of White boys. They looked at me, and I was like them. I looked at them, and they were not like me. OBSERVATION: The teacher asked us what instrument we use to navigate. I said, the coconut cup. This led to a great commotion in the class. (The compass, incidentally, is less accurate).

Progressively Institutionalised

Godfrey Baldacchino, in the latest SHARE Magazine, writes: "A lifestyle that also privileges youth, business and careerism, will find it hard to accept and dedicate time to the old, the infirm and the chronically sick. These are, like death and dying, progressively institutionalised, away from public circulation." This has certainly been my experience in ministry. OBSERVATION: However, in my African family, quite the opposite holds true. People are not removed from public circulation. The reality of this is not easy.

Attempt Laws

If I understand Routh, who intended to assassinate Trump, fate had it that the assassination was never going to happen, therefore he could not be held accountable for something that was never going to happen. This is interesting! It is very hard to prove Routh wrong, because he is taking the argument to deep presuppositions. AI simply comments, "That’s not how attempt laws work."

Things Are Really Going

In city ministry, our office secretary said to me one morning: "Things are going in this Church! I mean, really going!" By which she was referring to everything being stolen! If it could be stolen, it was stolen. OBSERVATION: This required a shift of mindset of myself, as minister: theft was absolutely to be expected, and I should not be downhearted about it. This was not a suburban or country Church, where one could leave one's Bible in the pulpit, or plant something pretty in the garden.

‘She's Got Issues’

These days, people often come to a minister for counselling -- with only a shadow of a Christian background. Note that this is an "adult" post. A man came to see me for counsel. He said, "I bedded a woman I got to know. She then sat up on the edge of the bed and cried. I asked her what was wrong. She said that she had once been raped, and the memories had come flooding back to her. Reverend, she's got issues! She's more complicated than I thought! What shall I do?"

SHARE Magazine

Preview copies of the philosophy magazine, or journal SHARE February 2026 are now out. Printed copies will be distributed soon. Then the digital copy will appear. The theme is Social Philosophy in a Fragile World. I am a co-author of one of the articles, and solicited another two pieces inside.

Advice From ‘a Six-Year-Old Child’

AI need not be a super-intelligence, as it is by default. Today I received a reply from a government body, regarding accusations I had deservedly brought against it. But a child, I thought, could see through their reply! I asked an AI engine to simulate the mind of a 6-year-old child. Once I had my child, I asked it, did it "smell a rat" when presented with the government material? Oh yes, it said. This government body "appeared to be quite dismissive". It looked, too, as though it was "trying to downplay allegations". Thus a 6-year-old-child could see what they were up to. The government body is the Legal Practice Council.