Category Archives: Family & Society

Abortion used to be a feminist issue

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David Baker writes:

Once, abortion was a feminist issue. Alice Paul (1885-1977) denounced abortion as an evil forced upon women by men. A number of suffragists called abortion “child murder” in Susan B. Anthony’s publication, The Revolution. There are those who still bravely bear that flame today, with Feminists for Life of America, being one such organisation. Feminists for Life of America first revealed and shared many pro-life quotes from the first wave feminists and on its website you can read ‘pro-woman answers to pro-choice questions’…

Let the last words be given to feminist writer and bioethicist Fiorella Nash. …

Theology of sexuality and gender

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Here I summarise this essay by Andrew T. Walker, entitled, ‘Gender and Sexuality’.

Gender refers to the biological differences between males and females and to the different cultural ways in which creational distinctions are expressed.  Sexuality refers to God’s design for the procreative relationship between men and women and to the experience of erotic desire within that relationship.

Sexuality and gender in God’s design

Several axiomatic truths related to gender and sexuality are found in the Genesis 1–2 narrative.…

Galatians 3:28 – ‘All one in Christ Jesus’

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Gal 3:28 – There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

It is a real shame that, as with a number of ‘problem texts’, there is a danger of losing the positive meaning in the flurry of controversy that surrounds it.

But controversy there is, and we must face up to it.  For this verse has, in recent years, become the locus classicus for social egalitarians.…

Jesus’ attitude towards children

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Some things Jesus did for children

1. He took them in his arms and blessed them.

2. He provided for their physical wants in feeding the four and five thousand—”besides women and children.” He commanded that something to eat be given the raised daughter of Jairus (Mark 5: 43).

3. He healed them. How many were boys? (See John 4:46-54 and Matt. 17: 14-21.) How many were girls? (See Mark 7: 24-30 and Matt. 9:18-34.) Are there still others?…

Marriage: antidote to loneliness

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There is an epidemic of loneliness today.  This is due, not just to the (hopefully) short-term effects of Covid-19 lockdown.  There is the wider, and more persistent, problem of loneliness which is linked to the decline in marriage rates and the increase in marriage breakdowns.

God, in his wise and generous love, has provided a wonderful blueprint for flourishing marriages, and has used this blueprint to point towards a yet deeper and more lasting marriage – that between Christ and his people.…

The Bible and race

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The killing of George Floyd, a black American, by a white police officer, has become the lightning rod for protests and demonstrations around the world.

Church leaders in the UK have responded by voicing support for social justice, but seem to have little else to say that is distinctively Christian.

But what is a distinctively Christian view of race?  Or, to put it better (since the concept of ‘race’ is itself bound up in colonial-era thinking), what is a distinctively Christian view of ethnic, cultural and national diversity?…

Luke 7:2 – ‘Highly valued servant’ or ‘gay lover’?

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Luke 7:2-3 A centurion there had a slave who was highly regarded, but who was sick and at the point of death. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave.

(See also: Matthew 8:5 When [Jesus] entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help: 8:6 “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible anguish.” 8:7 Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”)…

Gender: what does the Bible say?

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When seeking to apply the teaching of the Bible to current issues around gender, it is tempting to start with specific passages such as Deuteronomy 22:5 (‘A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor should a man dress up in women’s clothing’) and 1 Corinthians 6:9 (which speaks of various kinds of sexual immorality).

Also recruited into the discussion is Jesus’ teaching about different types of eunuchs (those that were born intersex, those who have been castrated, and those who choose a life of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom; but note that this is in the context of Jesus’ affirmation that we are made ‘male and female’.). …

Attempted suicide rates in trans young people

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According to this set of ‘Key Stats’ from Stonewall, ‘almost half (48 per cent) of trans people in Britain have attempted suicide at least once.’

This is an alarming statistic; and our hearts must surely be moved with compassion towards any person who feels driven to attempt to take their own life.  Moreover, we should search our consciences to see whether our own attitudes and actions may have contributed to that person’s misery.

But is there an element of alarmism, both in the figure itself and in the way it is often used?…

LGBT: what does it mean to be ‘welcoming but not affirming’?

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In the eyes of many, the idea that churches can take a ‘welcoming but not affirming’ attitude towards LGBT people is absurd.  It inevitably leads to treating people as second class Christians, tolerated but not fully integrated into the life of the church.

The perceived absurdity is compounded by the myth that only two possibilities exist: either that of full and unconditional acceptance and affirmation, or that of rejection.  Any kind of middle ground is rarely explored.…