The Catholic Church has issued a set of ’10 driving commandments’. See the BBC news report, or the full text of the document (warning: quite lengthy). The document also talks about prostitution, street children and the homeless.

There are of course humourous aspects to a document such as this, but overall I think that it is a very good initiative. Well done to the Catholics. I think that Christians generally would do well to reflect on how they conduct themselves on the roads. The following section from paragraphs 25 and 26 resonated:

The domination instinct, or the feeling of arrogance, impels people to seek power in order to assert themselves. Driving a car provides an easy opportunity to dominate others. Indeed, by identifying themselves with their car, drivers enormously increase their own power. This is expressed through speed and gives rise to the pleasure of driving. This makes drivers wish to experience the thrill of speed, a typical manifestation of their increased power.

The free availability of speed, being able to accelerate at will, setting out to conquer time and space, overtaking, and almost “subjugating” other drivers, turn into sources of satisfaction that derive from domination.

Cars particularly lend themselves to being used by their owners to show off, and as a means for outshining other people and arousing a feeling of envy. People thus identify themselves with their cars and project assertion of their egos onto them. When we praise our cars we are, in fact, praising ourselves, because they belong to us and, above all, we drive them. Many motorists, including the not so young, boast with great pleasure of records broken and high speeds achieved, and it is easy to see that they cannot stand being considered as bad drivers, even though they may acknowledge that they are.

[Being a campervan driver "the free availability of speed, being able to accelerate at will" is a slightly foreign concept, but that is an aside.]

A good summary of the driving 10 commandments:

Those who know Jesus Christ are careful on the roads. They don’t only think about themselves, and are not always worried about getting to their destination in a great hurry. They see the people who “accompany” them on the road, each of whom has their own life, their own desire to reach a destination and their own problems. They see everyone as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of God. This is the attitude that characterises a Christian driver.

[PS. Thanks for the contributions to my cartoon ideas thread below. Please don't stop!]

Posted by Dave at 10:40 am on June 20, 2007 and filed under Church, Religion, Transport.

8 Comments

I try not to ask for cartoon ideas too often as it makes me look a bit unprofessional. I can only hide the truth for so long, so here I am again. I must say, before I go any further, that the ideas you gave me back in November have been a huge and great help to me. I have the whole comments section printed out along with a couple of e-mails that were sent, and I have regularly taken the list off to Costa coffee or the Hungry Horse to peruse. So thank you.

Today’s question, which is very general:

Which aspect of church do you find the most perplexing?

‘Church’ and ‘perplexing’ may be defined in any way you choose. I’m looking for any aspect of church life you’d like explaining. Many thanks in advance for any responses.

Bonus links:
I know that a few of you really enjoyed the John Shuttleworth video the other day, so here are a couple more I enjoyed:
John Shuttleworth – Austin Ambassador Y Reg
John Shuttleworth – Incident On Snake Pass

Sundry news and apologies:
I sent about 3 e-mails today, so I now only have 110 unanswered ones. If I have not answered yours it is nothing personal, it is just that I have administrational fatigue and occasional flagging of my organisational morale.

I am working on the no smoking signs. By working, I mean that I have borrowed by wife’s red fibre tip pen. That’s the ‘broad’ fibre tip, not the ‘fine’. I don’t think I’m going to need the ‘fine’. We shall see – I may yet change my mind and borrow the ‘fine’ as well.

Posted by Dave at 11:06 pm on June 19, 2007 and filed under Cartooning, Religion.

34 Comments

Evie sits on the desk and shows me where the lines should go. Unfortunately she is rather more interested in things like noises and creatures, so her attention is often divided as the picture shows.

This evening I had planned to some of the drawings you suggested earlier and also one or two e-mails, but I spent the evening attempting to feed tablets to cats instead.

• Tablet crushed and sprinkled on catfood: failure
• Tablet crushed and sprinkled on lovely chicken: failure
• Tablet inserted into a piece of catfood: failure
• Tablet inserted into a piece of lovely chicken: failure
• Tablet inserted into a piece of lovely cheese: failure
• Mouth of cat opened by force and tablet shoved in: failure

Tomorrow I will be phoning the vets and explaining our problems.

Apologies for the things I have left undone (e-mails etc). See note above about tablets.

Posted by Dave at 11:48 pm on June 18, 2007 and filed under Cartooning, Essex Life.

24 Comments

I have taken this from my ‘to scan’ pile. Drawings go in the ‘to scan’ pile if I am not filled with enough enthusiasm to scan and use them, but they are worth keeping rather than throwing in the bin. It is a kind of purgatory-like state in which cartoons can stay for many weeks or months. Possible years in fact, but I do not think that the ‘to scan’ pile has existed for a year yet. Before that the ‘to scan’ pile was part of a shared ‘paperwork’ pile, which in turn has existed in one form or another since I was old enough to own paperwork, so perhaps about thirty years.

It is a rough copy of a motivational Bible reading poster. The idea is that such a poster would be affixed to the wall, perhaps with blu-tak, and by its presence would encourage greater diligence in Bible reading. It is a project I might or might not pursue depending on the demand. The artwork is shoddy thus far, I will admit. The man has a thin head and no ear. I know that there are people with thin heads and no ears, but this is a poor depiction.

I could produce motivational posters on other topics if the demand was there. Perhaps general ones: ‘Show greater enthusiasm’. That sort of thing.

Posted by Dave at 11:57 pm on June 17, 2007 and filed under Art, Religion.

10 Comments

I Can’t Go Back To Savoury Now – John Shuttleworth

This is the video to the single, which is now out as a download or a compact disc. You can also hear it on John Shuttleworth’s Myspace page.

I remember hearing John Shuttleworth on the radio years and years ago and finding him very very funny. Neil posted something about him the other day, so I went and had a look at the website, where I discovered this song, which I think is rather splendid. There are lots more radio interviews and bits and bobs on the site – the couple I’ve listened to I enjoyed very much so I thought I’d pass the link on.

Posted by Dave at 11:59 pm on June 16, 2007 and filed under Sundry posts.

5 Comments

Posted by Dave at 11:53 pm on June 15, 2007 and filed under Mundane.

8 Comments

This post is of interest mainly to people reading who are fairly local to me, which is probably in the region of between none and three.

The Leigh Art Trail is on at the moment in Leigh on Sea. The idea is that lots of local artists display their work in different venues, and people can wander around and take a look. This is a BBC report. It finishes this Saturday, the 16th of June, so I am a bit late posting about it.

We are going there this evening as some of my oil paintings are on display in the college where I have been doing my evening course. It is part of an exhibition called ‘ART’, so called because that is what it is. The exhibition does not really seem to be advertised anywhere unfortunately, but it it is at the Leigh Community Centre in Elm road, which is about 12 minutes from the railway station. It is next door to the Police Station and just down from the Sarah Moore pub. Leigh is about 50 minutes from London Fenchurch street using the railway. The Art Trail would make a nice day out on Saturday perhaps. You could print off a map and everything. Do not travel specially to see my paintings from any distance though as your disappointment will be widespread and bitter.

If art isn’t your thing there is a free folk festival in a few weeks time.

Posted by Dave at 1:27 pm on June 14, 2007 and filed under Art, Essex Life.

7 Comments

This has been the main Anglican news story of the last week (apart from the one involving dubious ordinations). I have not posted about it because I was on my Church Weekend Away and then there were some other reasons. Sorry that the cartoon is mildly mediocre. The man on the left is leaning a bit, but then some people do lean a bit.

The gist of the story is that a computer game distributed by Sony uses images of the inside of Manchester Cathedral as a venue for some shooting of aliens and they did not ask first. Ruth Gledhill reported on it and has a video of the game on her web blog.

Having seen these images I have no hesitation in agreeing with the Cathedral Authorities (with whom I have spoken) that the use of the Cathedral in the game is most inappropriate. The latest news is that the Cathedral is asking people in Japan to put pressure on Sony to change its ways.

In my own small way I will join the campaign by encouraging people to use TDK audiocassettes rather than Sony ones. You might be particularly interested, for instance, in the TDK endless cassette. These are often used by Charismatic worship groups to record worship sessions that go on ad infinitum. “I could sing of your love forever”, and that sort of thing. To quote the TDK promotional blurb:

If you think nothing is endless, think again.

Indeed.

There are some other bloggers who have provided more interesting and / or in-depth analysis. Most of these would describe themselves as Christians, but they might not all do, I can’t remember:

The Complex Christ | Signs of Emergence: Manchester Cathedral vs.Sony
wannabepriest / Break out the heavy weapons, it’s the Dean & Chapter of Manchester Cathedral
rejesus blog » Blog Archive » Jesus and Virtual Desecration
The Wardman Wire » Video Game Battle between Sony and Manchester Cathedral: Update
Sanctus1 Blog: Cathedral treads the path of most Resistance, also More on the Cathedral and Sony…
Tech Digest: Does the Church of England have any rights over a virtual Manchester Cathedral? (By Andy Merrett, who is a Christian)
Grumpy Gamer – Manchester Cathedral vs. Sony (This one is on Sony’s side)
Gun-fight gaming and Manchester Cathedral « Spirituality of Play

Lots of bloggers who are self confessing not-Christians have posted too. I have read quite a few, and whilst most of the blogs themselves discuss the matter in a reasonable way the comments often showed the depth of hatred a lot of people have for the Church of England. It didn’t surprise me, but also it did, if you understand what I mean. I’m not posting any links in case a horde of grumpy gamers come after me and start shooting me with computerised guns.

Posted by Dave at 11:59 pm on June 13, 2007 and filed under Anglican goings-on, Church, Current events, Religion.

13 Comments

At the weekend we went to a Church Weekend Away. This is a time when a church goes away, usually for a weekend. The aim is to become a more enthusiastic Christian. We went to Ashburnham. I love Ashburnham. It is a sort of a Mecca for Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and those on Church Weekends Away. For Evangelicals it is probably one of the holiest sites in East Sussex.

These are some leaves I wrote on and left on a bench for the Pentecostals to discover. I enjoy leaving messages for Pentecostals. You should try it.

In the end I went back to the bench and retrieved the leaves as (1) I decided that you might enjoy them more than the Pentecostals, and (2) It occurred to me that one of the Pentecostals might have their Church Weekend Away ruined by finding the leaves and not knowing what to make of them. The last thing I want to do is ruin someone else’s Church Weekend Away.

Posted by Dave at 9:41 pm on June 12, 2007 and filed under Art, Church, Religion.

18 Comments

Most people would, if given the chance, like to work from home. There are of course huge benefits. Unfortunately I am finding that the perceived benefits are all outweighed by the sheer isolation. As a cartoonist I’d say about 95% of my communication is done via the internet, about 3% by letter and perhaps 2% by telephone. It is therefore entirely possible for me to go a week of my work time without speaking to another human being on the telephone, let alone face to face (I do speak to people in non-work time I should hasten to add). This is not really good for my general wellbeing, mental health etc. This has the knock on effect that I then find the work I have to do harder to do, meaning I spend even more time staring at a blank piece of paper and less out and about, and so on and so forth.

I think I need to make some sort of change, but I’m not sure what. I’ve tried to find somewhere local to go and work where there are other people, but without success. I can get into London fairly easily, but the cost of travel and renting a desk would make doing my current work from there prohibitive I think. I can get to other places on the London Fenchurch Street-Upminster-Basildon-Leigh-Southend railway line easily too, but again I haven’t found anything.

I don’t really know why I’m telling you this. I do try to avoid angsty self-centred blog posts as much as I can, but you’ll have to forgive the odd one. But you never know, there might be someone reading who has an idea or good advice or with whom I could collaborate in some way. If so get in touch – in the comments or dave (at) cartoonchurch dot com if e-mail is more appropriate.

This might be my last blog post for a few days for one reason or another. We’re just a bit busy with this and that. See you on Monday or thereabouts all being well.

Posted by Dave at 1:07 am on June 8, 2007 and filed under Cartoons, Starting a Business.

27 Comments

There is a new church cartoonist in town – see Ian’s Youthful Blog for the particulars. I am impressed. I am not good at doing cartoons about baptism and especially communion, so have secretly made some notes.

On a not-really-related-but- slightly-related-I-suppose note, here is a good piece about how to display artwork on the internet. It is taken from the promising-looking ‘lines and colors‘ weblog. I will be reading half of it because I do not really do colours.

In News: I had mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwiches for lunch in an attempt to lift my morale. I pick the basil leaves fresh from the plant in the kitchen which you are only supposed to water when it droops. It seems cruel but that is what the label says to do. I love basil. I even like the sound of the word. Basil, basil, basil. Mmmm.

Update: Ian has added more junior cartoon church pictures.

Posted by Dave at 11:59 pm on June 6, 2007 and filed under Art, Cartooning, Links: cartoonists.

9 Comments

It seems to be fashionable to be against the Olympic Logo, so I am going to be for it.

One reason is that I was once rude about a logo I had seen, and then discovered that the person I was talking to was the person who designed it. I was mortified and have not yet really recovered (I wore sackcloth for a while, but now just prefer to wear a t-shirt with an abrasive label on the collar). Just in case I meet the designer of the Olympic Logo at Tescos whilst pondering the chilled Indian ready meals I am going to say I quite like it.

I suspect the reason that most people do not like this logo is that we have come to expect logos to be boring and corporate. We are so used to seeing the bland and ‘safe’ logos of multinational companies that we have come to think that that bland and safe equals good. This logo is not boring, which to my mind a good thing. Of course everyone thinks they can do better – lots of people have spent twenty minutes on their computer designing a logo and sent them into the BBC, but the results look like designs done by people who have done them in twenty minutes on their computers.

One thing that needs to be borne in mind is that this is not a static logo, but rather an animated one. In five years time of course everything will be animated – adverts, t-shirts, even the labels on chilled Indian ready meals, so there is no point designing a logo that is not animated. You need to watch the video to see the whole animated sort of aspect.

Of course it has not gone down well with the newspapers, though it should be noted that the same tabloids who have poured scorn upon the design have been very happy to receive a large cheque from Lloyd’s bank to display a full page advert with the logo at its centrepiece.

Other Pro-logoers:

prblogger.com » Blog Archive » I like it
Byrne Baby Byrne » London 2012
gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": 2012 olympic "brand launch"
The Rosemont Loving: Where is the love?

Update:
John’s point about the Olympics taking funding away from worthwhile projects is one that needs to be heard.

In other news, Radio 5 just phoned me and wanted me to be on their show defending the logo. I declined because my thoughts are jumbled and not well thought out. Also they wanted me to defend the £400 000, which I cannot do. Hopefully they found someone else – the piece is on at about 11 o clock.

Posted by Dave at 4:26 pm on June 5, 2007 and filed under Current events, Design.

28 Comments