eChurch Blog

The following is a cross-post by Young Mr Brown of Marmalade Sandwich:

Andy Stephenson and Kathryn Sloane feel fairly strongly about abortion. So strongly, that they decided to mount a (peaceful) public protest outside an abortion clinic in Brighton. Their method of making their case was to display a large (7ft by 5 ft) graphic banner which showed a picture of an aborted human embryo. Police were called by a member of staff concerned that patients entering the clinic felt traumatised and upset. The Police arrived and told Mr Stephenson and Miss Sloane to take down their banner. They did so, replacing it with another similar banner. The police then arrested the pair, and took them to the police station. And there they held them for 14 hours before finally releasing them at 3 o’clock in the morning.

Mr Stephenson and Miss Sloane were released on police bail, and are due to return to court tomorrow to hear if they will be prosecuted under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. (Thanks to Gary Benfold for bringing this story to my notice.)

The issue, of course, is freedom of speech. I was somewhat amused by the comments of Ann Furedi, the head of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, who said she fully supported the right of pro-life activists to demonstrate against abortion clinics – but who then added: “There is a distinction between freedom of expression and actions that are designed to distress people who are accessing legal, medical services.” Actually, there isn’t. And it’s not as if Mr Stephenson and Miss Sloane simply wanted to distress people for the fun of it. They were trying to make the point that what abortion does to an embryo is something very distressing.

Section 5 of the 1986 Public Order Act says:

A person is guilty of an offence if he—

(a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or

(b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting, within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby.

Section 5 was also the legislation under which Dale McAlpine was arrested.

It seems to me that Section 5 is a piece of legislation in need of repealing. I’ve asked before, but I’ll ask again: “Why do we have a law on our statute book which means that someone can be guilty of a crime simply for using “insulting” words within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused “distress”?” The words “abusive or insulting” should go. In fact, the whole section should go – since the matter of threatening behaviour is covered by Section 4 of the Act.

Now, to be honest, I don’t like the pictures that Mr Stephenson and Miss Sloane displayed. They would put me right off my cocoa and buns. But that’s not the point, is it?

So let’s hope that Section 5 is included in Mr. Clegg’s Great Repeal Act.

38,000 denominations! Check out this Wiki page to get an idea of the scale of this. I personally find this statistic sad and wonder at the prayer of Jesus for the unification of believers.

I was once told that denominations were a by-product of pride and maybe there is some truth in this.

Salem News today has this article:

During the past nineteen hundred years over four thousand different Christian religious denominations, organizations, and movements, have evolved in the world. These four thousand we call main line groups. Go outside of these main line movements and the number of groups cannot be counted.

A great number of these main line groups have developed their own individual plans of salvation.

Between these four thousand movements we estimate somewhere between one hundred and two hundred different plans of salvation are believed to be the true salvation plan of God.

….continue reading

Hundreds of differing plans of salvation, surely that can’t be right. OK granted the more cultic like groups – you know the type, only we have the troof and everybody else is wrong, deceived  and doomed – may have elements within their salvation narrative which prescribe membership of their particular peculiar organisation as a prerequisite for salvation, the Jehovah Witnesses spring to mind.

In fact the dual ideology of: only we have the ‘truth’ and you must be a member of our organisation to be saved, is my own little personal definition of a cult. Some have argued that my definition would incorporate the Catholic church, which would make for a  1 billion+ membership cult and is plainly ridiculous.

As a result I have had to expand my definition of a cult to include the rejection of ecumenicalism and this current Pope is most certainly ecumenical, much to the consternation of some Anglicans and some Orthodox!

Additionally from my observations I have noted that most cults are fairly recent inventions that claim a new ‘revelation’ of God and effectively write off the last two millennia of Christianity.

On an aside, I know of a prominent ministry that deals only with combating cults and they got themselves in some serious hot water when they appeared at a major Christian exhibition here in the UK and featured the Catholic Church amongst their anti-cult literature!

Anyway, aside from the cults, surely most denominations would be largely in agreement of the tenets of salvation, or am I wrong?

Interestingly an article today in the Daily Press says:

Information and observation makes us aware there is a rise in the numbers and demands of religions in the United States. Christianity has long held its place as the number one faith group, but we realize that Islam is on the move. Therefore, Christians, known as the army of God, will need to unite in order to help our nation claim and remain one nation under God. This also reveals that it is time for Christian denominations to set aside any differences and give more attention to their similarities in the “Body of Christ.” Drastic circumstances in the United States that seem beyond control can help Christians realize that it is time to join forces. God has taught and prepared them scripturally as how to assist in bringing peace and joy to a world filled with uncertainties and frustrations.

Most people, who proclaim Christianity as their chosen faith, believe in the Holy Trinity which is God the Father, Jesus Christ Son of God and the Holy Spirit of God. Yet, denominational differences, disagreements and misunderstandings have kept them divided in many ways and fostered judging and even criticism among their people. The New Testament speaks to Christians in this manner, “Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but this rather, that no one put a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way” (Romans 14:13).

I’m not saying I agree with this article, however, perhaps the premise that the Christian community needs a powerful common foe to unify is not far off the mark.

A few links I found interesting for one reason or another:

Anglican Samizdat – God and Politics

Dr Calvin Smith – About That Conference

Catholic Herald – The Wild West of the blogosphere can revitalise the Church

Roger E Olson – Defining “fundamentalism”

Following the recent Pew Survey which revealed atheists know more about world religion than Christians, I got to thinking why this might be.

Yesterday I noted that P Z Myers had said:

….let’s stop pretending the believers have a shot at persuading us.

And previously I asserted that folk appear predisposed or even hard-wired for belief not based on deducible evidence.

In response to this Jim – a valued atheist contributor on this blog – commented thusly:

I can’t agree with your assertion that it would seem that humans are actually ‘wired’ for belief not based on deducible evidence. (I assume you mean all humans, and we are talking about belief in the supernatural).

Surely what PZ Myers argues is that some of us are not wired that way, (and I include myself), and we should stop pretending that we might be persuaded to change our minds. He’s asking us to be honest, even if that brings us into philosophical conflict with believers.

Indeed for many of us it is a mammoth task casting off all the supernatural “wisdom” pumped into our heads as small children – but when we achieve it, there appears to be no going back.

With the surprising religious knowledge of atheists coupled with the many personal accounts of childhood ‘indoctrination’, is it a safe assumption that most atheists are in fact converts from religious belief?

Perhaps the atheist has made a conscious choice based on their past experiences and pursuit of knowledge and in a strange sense has been through a conversion experience.

I would like to make a distinction of my own imagination between the ‘self-proclaimed atheist’ and the simple ‘non-believer’. I would ascribe to my ‘non-believers’ an apathetic passive relationship with religion, however, those ‘self-proclaiming atheists’ a more aggressive antipathetic relationship with religion.

My contention would be that if the self-proclaimed atheist is in the main a ‘convert’, this would create a ‘conversion passion’ which would drive a quest for religious knowledge.

This is a cross-post by Methodist Preacher and a follow up to this recent post.

There is growing interest in the discrimination case soon to be launched to rescue the reputation of  Britain’s Methodist Church for fairness and openness.

The case will be based on the premise that the preparation, motivation and outcome for a resolution on Israel and Palestine at the denomination’s conference in Portsmouth this year was discriminatory.

A carefully selected working party compiled a  report which was said to have distressed Britain’s Chief Rabbi  Lord Sacks. One Jewish witness at the conference complained “I felt like the accused in a Nazi show trial.”

Chair of the Methodist working party, Graham Carter, dismissed accusations of discrimination by telling the conference “I want to state quite clearly and categorically that there is no hint of anti-Semitism in what we have said or in what we intend.  If other people want to do things like that, that is their problem. It is not our problem as a Methodist church.”

Many British Methodists seem unaware of the international concern at the Church’s decision. The West Briton newspaper  in Cornwall, which has a large Methodist community, reported that few Methodist leaders were prepared to support the denomination’s stance.

However the story made the front page of The Jerusalem Post with strong backing to the bringing of the case from readers on their online edition. It also featured prominently in Britain’s  weekly Jewish Chronicle newspaper, though Methodism’s own British weekly, the Methodist Recorder, has ignored the story.

Concern has also been raised by members of the US United Methodist Church who have set up a discussion board on their facebook portal. Prominent Israeli blogger Daphne Anson has also carried the story.

Meanwhile I continue to get emails of support from around the world. Thanks for your prayers and numerous offers of assistance.

This post by Methodist Preacher is also worth reading in its entirety for background information.

Methodist preacher – The Small Print

I think this is really encouraging and it is so true that helping others is a major route to human fulfillment and wellbeing, as well as a major tenet of the teaching of Jesus of course.

Love your neighbour as yourself – it’s good for them and good for us.

Theos:

More than half of Britons believe helping others in the UK and abroad is important to achieving happiness, a new poll has revealed.

On the eve of a new report into human wellbeing, the survey found that 75% of those asked believe helping people in the UK is key to happiness, with 54% citing helping those abroad as important to happiness. Nearly 90% of people said that living in a world where the environment is protected and where poverty does not exist is important.

The poll, by aid agencies CAFOD and Tearfund, and think-tank Theos, asked British adults to identify what makes them happy. The top priority for 97% of people was spending time with friends and family, while having an interesting job was important for 92%. A high income was a much lower priority at 64%.

……Continue reading

The full report is available here in PDF format.

Just read this post by P Z Myers and the following Scripture leapt to mind:

1 Corinthians 1:15-31

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

P Z Myers states:

……there can be no god evidence, so let’s stop pretending the believers have a shot at persuading us.

Persuading them to what? Presumably faith.

As I asserted yesterday it would seem that humans are actually ‘wired’ for belief not based on deducible evidence. Is not the very essence and definition of true faith:

Belief that is not based on proof

Or put another way:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

So in one sense P Z Myers is correct in his assertion. If we could prove the existence of God with unequivocal certainty based on objective, repeatable, measurable, observable, natural, evidence, then there would be no need for faith and it would be no faith whatsoever.

It is my contention that the attempt to prove with objective evidence the existence of God is folly as the recipient would be left with no faith anyway.

It is the total misunderstanding of the concept and essence of our ‘faith’ – on all sides – which is perpetuating inane altercations between Atheists and Christians

This is just downright weird and freaky – so I couldn’t resist it.

I honestly don’t know what to make of it, so here’s the link to the interview and be warned it’s packed full of expletives.

Guardian – Insane Clown Posse: And God created controversy – America’s nastiest rappers in shocking revelation – they’ve been evangelical Christians all along

P Z Myers has already blogged and mocked and I haven’t happened upon any overt Christian response, but if I do find anything interesting I’ll post it here and in the meantime let me know what you make of it.

This was big news yesterday but I couldn’t be bothered to blog.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, an influential advisory body to European Union member states, voted on Thursday to make substantial changes to a resolution which could have curtailed health care workers’ rights to opt out of performing abortions.

This is quite significant and all the details you may want can be found on Peter Saunders’ blog.

I thought this a superb article and wanted to share it with you:

WorkAwesome – Are You Rewarding Yourself through Procrastination?