When it comes to involvement in our world, two options are available: escape and involvement. Many evangelicals seem to have opted for the first option. They have withdrawn from the world, pulled up the drawbridge, and, apart from occasional evangelistic excursions, been blind and deaf to those in need. After all, the Bible teaches us to separate from the world (doesn’t it?), and to wait for the new age that will be ushered in by the return of Jesus Christ. …
This is the title of a report by Dr John Hayward and Dr Guy Brandon of the Jubilee Centre. It provides an analysis of recent statistics derived from the British Household Panel Survey.
There are about 2.3 million cohabiting couples in England and Wales today, and that figure is expected to rise to 3.7 million by 2031. With age at first marriage now delayed to a mean of 32 for men and 30 for women, cohabitation is for some a prelude to marriage and for others an alternative.…
Good for philosopher Alain de Botton, who has challenged atheists to consider what virtues they think might add up to a ‘good life’. That’s better than worrying about how to be wealthier, or more attractive.
He has come up with a list of ten:-
Problems? Yes, I think there are some problems with this approach.
First, there is the problem of definition. Sacrifice? – of what, to whom? …
In any account that we might give of the Christian Church, we must honestly acknowledge its failures. There have been occasions – too many occasions – when it has accepted the world’s values and priorities, and accommodated itself to the prevailing culture, and rationalised its own unfaithfulness.
Among its most notable failings we must mention:-
‘I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.’ (Thomas Jefferson)
‘Truth is justice’s handmaid; freedom is its child, peace is its companion; safety walks in its steps; victory follows in its train; it is the brightest emanation from the gospel; it is an attribute of God.’ (Sydney Smith)
Injustice, suave, erect, and unconfined, Sweeps the wide earth, and tramples o’er mankind, While prayers to heal her wrongs move slow behind. Homer
‘By largely ignoring the central biblical teaching that God is on the side of the poor, our theology has been profoundly unorthodox.…
Justice is often assumed to be the same as equality. We treat people with justice, it is argued, when we treat them equally.
But it’s not quite as simple as that. Even in a court of law, two criminals may have commited exactly the same crime, and yet each receive a different punishment, because the judges see that different circumstances and motives apply.
Similarly in the home. If two children are fighting, a parent may send them to their bedroom as a punishment. …
It is interesting that both human rights activist Peter Tatchell and politician Adrian Trett have asserted that in times past the Christian church has actively endorsed same-sex marriage. And in both cases they have appealed as their sole source of evidence to John Boswell’s book The marriage of likeness: same-sex unions in pre-modern Europe.
Boswell argued that the ancient rite of ‘adelphopoiesis’ should be regarded as equivalent to same-sex marriage. It would follow, then, that sections of the modern Christian church are denying its own history when it opposes same-sex marraige today.…
“I should like balls infinitely better… if they were carried on in a different manner… It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing were made the order of the day.”
“Much more rational, my dear Caroline, I dare say, but it would not be near so much like a ball.”
(Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice)
Peter Tatchell and Peter D Williams recently discussed the question of same-sex marriage. Tatchell is, of course, a well-known human rights activist and supports same-sex marriage. …
Writing for the Christian Medical Fellowship, Dr Peter Saunders comments that there is increasing pressure in Britain to permit same-sex marriage. The question for many has become how (not if) the law should be changed.
Dr Saunders gives ten reasons why the law should not be changed:-
1. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman
Throughout history in virtually all cultures and faiths throughout the world, marriage has been held to be the union of one man and one woman. …
Writing in The Times (5th January), Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss (former President of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice) argued cogently against any change in the law.
I summarise:-
1. The law works well as it is. Each year, fewer than 20 cases of assisted suicide are considered by the Director of Public Prosecutions. In Oregon, by way of contrast, the number of assisted suicides has quadrupled since it was legalised in 1997. ‘Legalisation means normalisation’. …
