Trying to make the crooked straight? You will fail
Two corgis who belonged to the Queen, Sandy and Muick, watched her funeral procession and reduced our dog-loving nation to tears.
Since the Queen’s death, sales of corgis have gone up. The Kennel Club reports a 30-year high for the registration of the breed. …
Deconstruction, an ‘oppressive’ Bible and what to do.
Vast swathes of our country do not know the gospel – we know that. The Bible Society report ‘Pass It On’ in 2014 showed that 54% of parents thought the Hunger Games plot could be in the Bible , and there is no reason to think things have improved.
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Is complementarian theology really abusive?
I recently found myself tagged in a lengthy Twitter discussion. Megan Cornwell interviewed me for an article called ‘Is complementarian theology abusive’ for Premier Christianity. She posted a link, and the responses began. …
Could the jobs crisis be an opportunity for churches?
We live in unusual times. Job adverts have been carefully drafted and widely distributed, yet the deadline for applications comes and goes with no one expressing interest. This scenario has been taking place up and down the country. …
Do we tell half-truths?
This year, there has been a stand-out new genre on streaming services: the scammer show. These dramatic reconstructions of ‘fake it until you make it’ chart the rise and fall of charismatic individuals who persuaded people to depart with eye-watering sums of money. …
Beware of gospel-ending conversations
Jimmy Carr’s comedy is certainly not to everyone’s taste: he has built his career on telling risky one-liners. In his Netflix show His Dark Materials (the clue is in the name), he played with the idea of career-ending jokes, and one such joke may have proved his point.
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Tipping Points: loveless marriages & abusive churches
It is the straw that broke the camel’s back. The final straw is small; it barely weighs anything but, added to the burden already carried, it crushes.
When Malcolm Gladwell wrote his book The Tipping Point: how little things can make a big difference, he defined it as ‘the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point – when everyday things reach epidemic proportions’. …
Gender and The Matrix
One of this year’s big Christmas films will be The Matrix Resurrections The original trilogy released between 1999 and 2003 generated a cult following with many fan theories. What came as news to me was the idea that The Matrix was a metaphor exploring the trans experience and transcending the physical form. …
Role Model
I have found a new role model. A woman prepared to act against her family for the sake of the Lord and his people. She used her abilities and the resources at her deposal to serve the Lord's cause even at the risk of her own life. …
More than volunteers
If you want to waste time on the internet, put Church names into the search engine of the Charity Commission and see how many ‘volunteers’ they have. Lots of churches do what ours has done. The number of volunteers recorded is the size of the Church family - it seems that everyone who belongs to the Church is a ‘volunteer’.