The future and the past are alike ever present to the eternal mind as a man gazing down from a lofty mountain takes in at one momentary glance all the objects which can be apprehended only through a lengthy series of successive experiences by travellers along the winding road beneath, in somewhat similar fashion the intuitive vision of God apprehends simultaneously what is future to us with all it contains.
A few links I found interesting for one reason or another:
Edward Feser – Modern biology and original sin, Part 1, Part II
Fr Z – QUAERITUR: Will I go to heaven if I die in the state of grace?
Telegraph – Watermelons v the Shale Gas Miracle
Among analysts of the ongoing unrest in Syria, it is a truism that the main reason Christians are generally not participating in demonstrations against Assad’s rule is because they fear reprisals at the hands of the Sunni Arab majority if the Alawite-dominated regime falls.
Alawites, who have incorporated Christian practices into their syncretic, Shi’a-rooted religion such as the celebration of Christmas and wearing of crosses, have always felt an affinity with Syrian Christians and have thus protected them since the establishment of the Baathist regime in 1963.
Less widely noticed, however, is the problem of tensions between the country’s traditionally marginalized Kurdish minority and the Christians. Several aspects of the Kurdish-Christian animosities have recently been documented by Dutch journalist Wladimir Van Wilgenburg. Specifically, disclosures from the U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reveal that Christians in the northeastern region of al-Jazirah consider the Kurds to be recent intruders, and fear that the Kurdish presence could lead to the formation of a Greater Kurdistan.
Police have requested that a cafe owner in Blackpool – Jamie Murray, Salt & Light Coffee House – stop displaying Bible texts on a video screen, because it breaches public order laws.
Apparently the police told him that displaying offensive or insulting words is a breach of Section 5 of the Public Order Act, and that the Biblical texts contravened this.
It seems that police were alerted to this heinous ‘crime’ following a complaint about “insulting” and “homophobic” material.
You can read about it here in the Daily Mail.
And this video is put together by the Christian Institue:
I am a nobody
Who will speak to everybody
About a somebody
Who can save anybody
Source unknown
Yep, every single week I go through the arduous task of scanning the sneering National Secular Society’s email bulletin, called: Newsline
The first thing to say is that I always smile at the fact my email system automatically trashes their email as junk.
Anyway, this week they make condemnatory remarks relating to Prime Minster David Cameron’s statement on the first anniversary of the Pope’s visit to the UK, in which he promises “ever closer co-operation” between the UK and the Holy See.
They also make this comment in regard to the Pope’s UK visit:
On the anniversary of the Pope’s visit to Britain, the Catholic Church has been trying to spin it as having been a grand success that brought Catholics flocking back to church and had a profound effect on the religious attitudes of the population at large. In short, we’re a better and more moral country because of the pope’s little outing.
So, for once, I decided to give the NSS bulletin some closer scrutiny.
They are touting the success of their: “Secular Europe Campaign – march and rally”, which took place in London on the 17th September and has its own dedicated website. How many folks turned out for this grand event? A paltry 1500, and that’s the number the NSS themselves report!
How many folks turned out for the Pope again?
Next, I moved on to their e-petition requesting separation of church from state. How many folks have signed their petition? A paltry 1,043.
They really are an irrelevant, noisy, fringe, extremist group.
The second challenge to worldwide Christianity of which I wish to speak is more profound and in our country more controversial: the secularized context of the world in which we Christians today have to live and bear witness to our faith. God is increasingly being driven out of our society, and the history of revelation that Scripture recounts to us seems locked into an ever more remote past. Are we to yield to the pressure of secularization, and become modern by watering down the faith? Naturally faith today has to be thought out afresh, and above all lived afresh, so that it is suited to the present day. Yet it is not by watering the faith down, but by living it today in its fullness that we achieve this.
Pope Benedict addressing the Evangelical Church of Germany today.
SOURCE – You should read it all!
Fr Ray Blake runs a lovely blog; very gentle, nuanced and balanced; however, just recently, he’s come under fire.
Fr Ray has written two blog posts. The first relating to Mike Weatherly MP, who recently suggested that any church refusing to conduct gay marriages, should be stripped of their licence to perform any marriages. The second, on the proposals to legalise ‘gay marriage’.
In response to these posts Fr Ray has been on the receiving end of abusive comments, which yesterday culminated in him receiving this email:
I need to tell you that your comments have caused widespread offence to members of the Christian Gay Community, and many of the comments made by other members of your blog, allowed publicity by you, are nothing less than inflammatory and inciting of hatred about members of the gay community.
It is an offence in this country to incite hatred against any group of people, and that is exactly what you are doing by allowing and promoting the kind of bigotry you are condoning. The comments are also causing grave offence to Catholics, many of whom I know are appalled by what you and fellow members of your congregation write.
Fr Ray goes on to tell us that letters will be sent his superiors, and others have announced their intention to have his blog closed down.
This is absolutely outrageous and I must admit has got me a little hot under the collar. I made these comments:
Why do some folk always resort to censorship?
They’re free to blog away and criticise what they object to, and no attempt is made to censor them.
Always censorship Fr, that’s what they always comes down to; not constructive criticism and mature debate, but the desire to silence what they don’t agree with.
Pathetic.
And:
I’m sorry this has really enraged me.
This is such a gentle balanced blog, these accusations reveal more about the pathology of these people, than anything else.
It’s always about their right not to be offended. That’s what they think Christianity should be all about. Well, wake up folks, the cross has always caused offense.
And I stick by my comments.
Fr Ray concludes by saying this:
There is something very worrying in our society when a priest cannot express his shock at a local MP saying that those who will not marry same sex couples should not be permitted to marry anyone, or when he says marriage is naturally ordered towards the procreation and education of children should be accused of “inciting hatred”.
Indeed.
I haven’t had the time to explore this yet, and so I’m posting this as a reminder to myself, and for anybody else that may be interested.
I’ve just come across a new online resource, focused on researching religion, hosted on the University of Kent’s website.
Here’s the gumpf:
The role of empirical research in the study of religion has become increasingly important in recent years. In the discipline of Religious Studies, more postgraduate students are undertaking field-work based projects, and in other social science disciplines there has been a renewed interest in religion as an area of study. There have been relatively few resources available however to support methodological training in this specific field.
This project, funded by an AHRC Collaborative Research Training award, has been designed to address this gap. With support from the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society programme, this website was designed by the project co-ordinator, Professor Gordon Lynch, to provide an easily accessible resource to support individual researchers as well as courses in research methods in the study of religion. Training materials and position papers on the site were initially trialled for use through an intensive residential workshop held for PhD students from across the UK and Europe run in Oxford in September 2010. The discussion papers and exercises on the site are intended as introductory resources to give readers an overview of key issues and approaches. Postgraduate users of the site, particularly at doctoral level, are encouraged to follow up with further reading using additional resources and links suggested for each topic. We hope to be able to add further relevant resources to the site over time, and welcome any feedback or suggestions for development of the site’s content.
OK, I confess, I’m a lapsed charismatic.
My church is doing some sessions exploring the charismatic gifts and the work of the Holy Spirit. To be honest with you, having witnessed some of the madness in some pentecostal charismatic circles, I feel rather resistant. I get the feeling that folk that have never been around – or experienced – the more charismatic side, feel that they’re missing something. The irony is that in my church, in normal services, the presence of God is more palpable than any other Church I’ve ever been to.
But I suppose everyone needs to explore for themselves.
Anyway, Jonathan Robinson, has a great little post on being a ‘lapsed charismatic’, and he makes a few confessions that I think nail some of the problems within charismatic circles:
If you have any thoughts, why not hop over and let Jonathan know.
