Tuesday, July 5
Playing hooky with the right and left
Tony Carnes and I had breakfast at the Holyrood and went over to the Roxy Art House to meet Richard Curtis, the screenwriter of Notting Hill, Love Actually, and the screen adapter of the Bridget Jones novels for the big screen. His latest project is The Girl in the Café, a BBC romance that revolves around the issues surrounding the G8 Summit. An Anglican priest friend of mine, Tory Balcolm, gave me a dvd screener of The Girl in the Café right before I left. Unfortunately, I have not watched it yet.

Along with Bob Geldof, Bono, and Midge Ure, Curtis is one of the brainstormers behind the Live 8 concerts.

Interestingly enough, Curtis related a conversation that he had with artist Charlie Mackay, a member of Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London. When the two were talking about the upcoming G8 Summit, Charlie mentioned that his pastor Nicky Gumbel, author of the Alpha Course (pictured right), had written a pamphlet on why Christians should support the goals of Make Poverty History. This caught my attention because I have met Charlie and seen his artwork at HTB. Additionally, I have hung out with Nicky on several occasions.

Apparently, Nicky sent the pamphlet to British evangelical statesman John Stott, who in turn signed on and sent it to gain support from Billy Graham and Rick Warren, author of the wildly popular Purpose Driven Life (22 million copies).

My friend Jen Waters at the Washington Times interviewed Warren at the Philadelphia Live 8 show. “You have every kind of political viewpoint,” he said. “There are different opinions on how it should be done, but we all believe poverty should be eliminated.”

We have been spending a lot of time with the One campaigners. I like them. Almost all of them are wonderfully committed and engaging -- not at all the kind of dour, pinched-faced zealotry that you sometimes encounter when hanging out with social crusaders. Many of them are young Christians and many of them are old-school political activists.
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Janelle Browning, a volunteer with Mercy Corp from Boston and pictured to your right, made an interesting observation: "I fully expected to be travelling with others like me. By that, I mean liberal, socially aware, and necessarily Democrat. I didn’t expect that this young group – I figured I’d be among the oldest there – would be Christians, or that their faith would be their reason for involvement. But I met a 21-year old theology student evangelist from Chicago, and a young pastor from Manhattan who just finished seminary and shares my affection for Scotch whiskey. Then there’s Pat, a woman I imagine is in her fifties, who has been doing work with church groups on debt relief for years. Easily what impressed me most on this trip is the incredible range of interests, belief systems, faith backgrounds, ages, what have you among this group of people who managed to agree to speak with one voice. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Speaking of diversity, this afternoon I played hooky with Charmaine Yoest, a conservative blogger, and John Aravosis, a liberal blogger. While that looks like a potential firestorm or a bad episode of "Crossfire," it ended up being really terrific. We took a bus tour around Edinburgh and had a blast. John and I even got scolded by our 85-year-old tour guide for whispering observations back and forth on the tour.

As we were cruising around, I noticed the Jekyll and Hyde Pub, complete with a whole dungeon motif. It was a bit peculiar to be sitting at the table with articulate and capable spokespersons of the right and the left in the middle of a dungeon pub. Actually, the two of them got along famously – considering that I figure that both of them had been warned about the other.

Edinburgh is a great town. Very gothic, a bit spooky and mysterious. I keep expecting Harry Potter and his chums to come popping out of some cobblestone alleyway. I have noticed that Edinburgh has a disproportionate infatuation with torture and death. There are more dungeon-oriented museums and tours than Starbucks in this town.

There is the Witchery Tour (“Visit the scenes of some of Edinburgh’s most horrific tortures, murders, and supernatural events”). The Auld Reekie Tour “guides you around the 200 year old chambers visiting a Pagan Temple used by a coven of Scottish witches, with over 70 supernatural occurrences in two years it’s bound to excite.” The Ghost and Torture Tour visits the “infamous Haunted Vault, as well as delving in Edinburgh’s grisly and ghostly past.” The Ghost Hunter Tour is a “terrifying night time walk delving into tales of the macabre and supernatural.” There is the Ghost and Ghouls tour, the Down into the Depths tour, the Saints and Sinners tour, the City of the Dead tour, or you can simply visit the Edinburgh Dungeon.

The Tron Church is now the home of the Auld Reekie tour and the Ghost and Torture tour. It was closed as a church back in 1952. Interesting commentary on religion in Europe.

As I wrote earlier, we met this morning at the Roxy Art House, a gothic church built in 1912. Charmaine Yoest has an interesting commentary on the sanctuary. "Today, at the front of the large hall, two stained glass windows depicting the life of Christ still hang. But the interior space is now used as the Angels Cafe where you can order an espresso or capuccino. Or from the bar in the back, you can get a pint, or hard liquor, for just under three pounds."

She goes on to point out the ironies. "Here is today's altar, where we worship at the church of ONE. The congregation is assembled -- the activists from the ONE campaign that we travelled with on the plane -- are here for a presentation by Richard Curtis, Hollywood director of Notting Hill fame, to show us PSA's developed for the ONE campaign....And here is the congregation, worshipping in Lady Willielma Maxwell's church. She was a woman born in the late 18th century, who became a widow at the age of thirty in 1771. After becoming impressed with the evangelist John Wesley, 'she became convinced that social reform was only possible through "methodical" attention to the intellectual, physical and moral welfare of the "dispossessed." She then began using the vast fortune her husband left her to establish a church to minister to the poor. She died when she was only 44. However, by 1912, her church was 'the busiest church in Edinburgh, humming like a beehive.'"

Charmaine concludes, "Now, we have Live8..."

After gallivanting around with those two, I was headed back to my hotel when I ran into Tony Carnes and Jen Waters. We slipped into The Mitre ( Edinburgh has more than 700 pubs) and I tried some haggis. Haggis has been in the news in the past few days because French President Jacques Chirac was overheard complaining about the “unappetizing” Scottish dish. As if anyone needed further proof, he is a buffoon.

There was a Natalie Imbruglia concert tonight, but only some of the media cadre got tickets. Oh well, we had a great time chatting with each other and some of the pub staff.

Despite getting shut out of the Imbruglia gig, we were invited to a private party at the Opal Lounge, an ultra swanky nightclub. This is one of the great perks traveling with the One campaign. The group is made up of funky and hip booty-shakers against poverty. Sir Bob showed up. That was cool. Needless to say, I left the club very late.

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