Football crazy...?

Well, England are through to the last 16...and all through Jermain Defoe's goal, and he has, in the past at least been credited as having a Christian faith.

This piece from The Guardian makes interesting reading - apparently Wazza now can't do God publicly; is it because football is now meant to be our national faith? I'm tempted to say, heaven help us if so!

Fly the flag...?

Well, with only 3 days to go until the start of the World Cup I now have two England flags flying from my little Ford Ka, courtesy of my 2 sons. Can't say I'm delighted about it, but then, on the other hand, I didn't want to say no. What is fascinating is just how widespread these flags are; someone round the corner from us has handpainted his garage door as a St George's cross, which is maybe a bit extreme. I guess at one level it's all about identity and the need to belong; and let's face it we're not very good generally at generating anything like that sort of sense of community in 21st century Britain, so if football can do it in a positive way, why not? As long as we as Christians remember that ultimately our identity is formed around another cross, that transcends all national and ethnic boundaries.

Oh, and for what it's worth I reckon England will make it to the quarter finals; maybe the semis at a push. But I guess we'll know before long anyway.