eChurch Blog

According to this website:

UK Debt Bombshell

Although some have the “true” debt at around 4.8 trillion.

Go Britain!

From the Guardian (Where else?):

It is only institutional religion that continues to regard women as second-class citizens.

That’s not so bad I hear you say. We only have to look at Islam…..

The Guardian continues:

If Catholicism believes that recruiting a handful of renegade Anglicans who share its institutional misogyny will buttress its position it is mistaken.

That’s right it’s Catholicism.

So presumably Catholicism has no female Doctors of the Church.

Or perhaps Catholicism has no venerated female saints.

Not to mention Mary of course.

To reduce the Ordinariate to the singular issue of female ordination as this crappy article does, simply displays the utter ignorance and bias of the author.

However, this ignorance is not exclusive to the Guardian.

UPDATE: Oh and here’s another woeful article from the Guardian, fisked competently and thoroughly by Caroline over at I have a Snail in my Pocket.

This from Israel Today:

In a couple of months, Israelis and Jews around the world will celebrate Purim, marking the deliverance of the Jews of the Persian Empire from extinction 2,300 years ago. In Iran, the center of the ancient Persian Empire, the date will be marked with mourning and anger.

For years already, Iran has been teaching schoolchildren that Purim marks the massacre of 75,000 Persians by the Jews under the command of Queen Esther. It is presented today as an ancient Iranian holocaust perpetrated by the Jews.

The Iranian version leaves out the part where Haman, the royal advisor, convinces the Persian king to sign a decree permitting the wholesale slaughter the Jews of the empire. When Esther reveals her Jewish background to the king and reveals that Haman was tricking him, the king issues a second decree, allowing the Jews to defend themselves. By God’s grace, the Jews are largely spared, while their enemies are slaughtered.

….continue reading

A couple of weeks ago a group of about 250 student-members of the Basij militia gathered in front of the tomb of Esther and Mordechai and threatened to destroy it in retaliation for the alleged ongoing destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Israelis.

This from JTA

Iranian authorities have now downgraded the status of the site known as the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai the Jews and the the Iranian news agency – Fars -  has begun pushing the idea that Esther and her uncle Mordechai were responsible for a massacre of Iranians.

The reports, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center citing Fars, also call the tomb an arm of Israeli imperialism that impugns Iranian sovereignty; report that its name must be wiped away in order to teach Iranian children to “beware of the crimes of the Jews”; call for the shrine’s return to the Iranian people; and say that the site must become “a Holocaust memorial” to the “Iranian victims of Esther and Mordechai” and be placed under the supervision of the state religious endowments authority.

In a letter to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Director-General Irina Bokova, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director for international relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, urged UNESCO to “call upon the Iranian authorities to take appropriate measures to terminate this campaign of racism and desecration.”

“It is perhaps time for UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee to establish instruments for the universal protection of holy sites,” Samuels concluded.

…..continue reading

Jonathan Tobin comments in Contentions (Hat-tip Point of no Return)

While we cannot know whether the Iranians will follow through on this threat and actually tear down the tomb or transform it into a center of anti-Jewish hate, it does provide yet another insight into the virulent nature of the attitudes of those in power there. Not satisfied with whipping up hatred against the State of Israel and the tiny, cowed remnant community that still lives there, the Iranians are now striking out against biblical Jews. The vicious nature of this regime is rooted in a view of Islam that apologists for Tehran have consistently sought to ignore. While the blow against Esther and Mordechai may be purely symbolic, it must be placed in the context of a long-running campaign of incitement against Jews and Israel that makes the possible acquisition of nuclear arms by this country even more alarming.

The Iranian war on Purim makes it even more imperative that they never be allowed to gain the power to do what the ayatollah’s ancient hero Haman attempted: the physical elimination of a Jewish population. Anyone who thinks that we can live with a nuclear Iran needs to consider the madness of allowing a government that thinks the Purim story should be reversed the power to do just that.

….read all

Indeed.

Telegraph:

The case will expose the growing use of hugely controversial therapies, from the United States, which attempt to make homosexual men heterosexual.

The therapy has been described by the leading professional psychotherapy body as “absurd”, while the Royal College of Psychiatrists said “so-called treatments of homosexuality” allow prejudice to flourish.

A small group of counsellors believe all men are born heterosexual but that some choose a homosexual lifestyle which can then be changed through counselling.

Lesley Pilkington, 60, a psychotherapist for 20 years, faces being stripped of her accreditation to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) after treating a patient who had told her he wanted to be “cured” of his homosexuality.

The patient was in fact a prominent homosexual rights campaigner and journalist, who secretly recorded two sessions with Mrs Pilkington, a devout Christian, before reporting her to the BACP.

Mrs Pilkington says her method of therapy – Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) – is legitimate and effective. The therapy is practised by a handful of psychotherapists in Britain.

….continue reading

That is the headline of a BBC news item listed in their “most read”.

Check out Clayboy’s post on this, he is in masterly blogging form right now

The [non] news that there is a 13th Zodiac sign – Ophiuchus – coupled with the [non] new revelation that the Earth’s “wobble” has shifted the zodiac signs, has caused an Internet earthquake. Both “zodiac” and “Ophiuchus” were trending on Twitter and folk appeared to be genuinely dismayed, angry and fretting.

Of course, the fact that this “news” is over two thousand years old is neither here nor there:

Sofia Whitcombe began her day with the startling realization that she might not be exactly who she thought she was.

“My whole life, I thought I was a Capricorn,” the 25-year-old publicist said. “Now I’m a Sagittarius? I don’t feel like a Sagittarius!” It felt, she said, like a rug had been pulled from under her feet.

“Will my personality change?” she mused. “Capricorns are diligent and regimented, and super-hard-working like me. Sagittarians are more laid back. This is all a little off-putting.”

Countless people reacted on social networks Friday to the “news” that the stars have shifted alignment, astrologically speaking. No matter that the astronomy instructor who started it all in a weekend newspaper interview said it was an old story — very old; 2,000 years old, actually — and that astrologists were insisting it wouldn’t change a thing. The story had traveled around the blogosphere like, well, a shooting star.

Some people seemed angry. “I believe it’s a zodiac scam,” said Jose Arce, a 38-year-old from Fort Lee, N.J., who runs a body shop. “I’ve known myself to be a Sagittarius, I believe, since I was born. So to come up now with some new sign? It’s unacceptable!”

[.....]

Astrologers across the country reported a wave of calls, e-mails or website hits from concerned clients. “People are more attached and loyal to their signs than they thought,” said Eric Francis, editor of PlanetWaves.net, who said he had had 25,000 hits on his site since midnight. “It’s interesting how many people are panicking their sign is wrong.”

…..read all

The fact this has caused such brouhaha is intriguing however, in that it shows humans are disposed to reach beyond the [so called by atheists] “rational” to find meaning and explication in their lives.

Personally I feel that astrology is complete bunkum, but the fact that it’s so prevalent in our society certainly needs further analysis from a Christian perspective.

Are folk in reality desperate for the ability to predict the future and gain a sense of control? Are folk desiring for the supernatural? Are folk searching for meaning within astrology?

Any thoughts…..

The British Religion in Numbers website is reporting on statistics from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) Citizenship Survey, released on 13 January.

I must say the findings really fly in the face of conventional wisdom.

Here’s a few examples of what I mean and I’ve set in bold those factors that stand out for me:

The proportion in England and Wales believing that there is more religious prejudice than five years ago has dropped from 52% in 2008-09 to 46% in 2009-10 to 42% in April-September 2010. Surprisingly, ethnic minority groups were more positive than whites, the former recording figures of 44%, 36% and 31% respectively, and the latter 53%, 47% and 43%.

Christians (78%) were least prone to mix and Sikhs (96%) the most, followed by Muslims on 95% and Hindus and Buddhists on 94%. Overall, 15% of all such mixing occurred at a place of worship, but this was significantly higher for Sikhs (48%), Muslims (46%) and Hindus (40%).

Christians in England felt least able to influence decisions affecting their local area, 37% compared with 38% of those with no religion, 40% of Sikhs, 44% of Muslims, 45% of Hindus and 58% of Buddhists.

Christians in England also felt least able to influence decisions affecting Britain, 20% against 23% of those with no religion, 32% of Muslims and Sikhs, 34% of Hindus and 49% of Buddhists.

88% of all adults in England said they belonged strongly to Britain. This was also the figure for Christians and those with no religion. Sikhs (94%) and Hindus and Muslims (90% each) claimed an above-average attachment to the country.

Does anyone else find these results surprising?

Do hop over to BRIN for further analysis and a link to the original research.

I came across a Vatican Radio interview with Justin Bedford, the deputy head of mission at the British Embassy to the Holy See, which you can listen to here:

Justin Bedford Interview with Vatican Radio

Justin Bedford was asked to respond to recent comments by Pope Benedict in which he spoke about religious freedom, and lamented the violence against Christians in many Muslim countries. Mr. Bedford urged caution when asked about requests for the European Union to be more directly involved in the protection of Christians in the Middle East.

Here’s some of what he said, with some comment from me:

““We need to be very careful as to how the West, and the EU as part of the ‘western construct’, approaches the question of religions,” he said. [In other words it would be better if we stayed quiet and didn't get involved.]

He added there Is a danger in presenting Christianity as too closely associated with the West. [Christianity is already closely associated with the West in the minds of Islamists and nothing is going to change that.]

That could, if the West took the concept of Christianity under its umbrella, [The West was built on Christianity?] provide a reason for extremists to continue to divide those societies…we would seek to avoid that, if possible,” he said. [Extremists don't need a reason to continue attempting to divide Islamic states, they are already fully motivated]

This is a cowardly response by the diplomat and exactly the pusillanimous attitude Islamic extremists are banking on.

Why shouldn’t the EU be vigorous and vocal in condemning the wholesale slaughter and intimidation of Christians in Islamic lands?

And further, if the EU sends foreign aid to any Islamic state, then this should be directly tied to their treatment of minorities.

Archbishop Cranmer today has a fine example of current typical treatment of Christians in Iran, which details the arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and routine torture, and is well worth a read.

As Cranmer notes towards the end of the piece:

“The British Government must also speak out against these arrests.“

And so should the EU, without fear.

I began my journey toward God through the Jehovah Witnesses and I have one particular memory seared forever in my mind. I went along to a major gathering in Godstone (Surrey) at the central assembly hall and during the proceedings a young girl and her parents were wheeled out.

We were informed that the girl was serioulsy ill with a life-threatening condition (I think it may have been leukemia, but I may be wrong) and told how the parents were holding to the principles of the ‘faith’ by denying her the blood transfusion she so desperately needed.

This was met with applause.

It looks as if that parental decision would be overruled by the courts nowadays, and rightly so.

I suspect the young girl is dead now.

RTE News

A baby boy was given a life saving blood transfusion under court order after his parents, who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, objected on religious grounds.

The order was made after a late night court sitting in the home of a High Court judge on 27 December. The written judgment was published today.

Mr Justice Gerard Hogan said the courts had the jurisdiction and the duty to override the religious beliefs of parents where a threat to the life and welfare of a child was concerned.

The baby, who became unwell on Christmas Day, was given the transfusion shortly after the hearing concluded before Mr Justice Gerard Hogan in the early hours of the morning on 27 December.

The child’s condition has improved since and he is no longer critically ill, the court heard.

…..continue reading

Michael Patton over at the Parchment and Pen blog has just announced that yours truly will be looking after his Theology in the News blog.

I can’t tell you what a shock it was to receive the email inviting me to join with Credo House Ministries as the News Editor, as I have been a HUGE fan of Michael’s for a long time.

As well as running the ministry teaching theology, Michael is one of the most popular Christian bloggers on the net. He has to be one of the most transparent, honest, insightful and thoughtful bloggers I know.

I will of course be continuing to maintain this blog and I imagine there will be a degree of cross-over between the two blogs, however, I still urge you to sign up for the News Feed and hope that you’ll also follow and comment over there.