eChurch Blog

This was a comment I made recently on this blog:

And between you and I, I still struggle with the ‘school master’ view of God. I struggle with his love, as I generally feel unlovable.

But that’s more reflective of a personality defect than anything else.

Tim, a commentator on this blog, who I absolutely love, responded:

But no, you do not have a personality defect. The problem stems in large part from those legalistic Christians “You HAVE to do this! You HAVE to do that! Or else it’s the fires of hell for you!!!” They are the ones that tend to make the news and being so voluble and noisy are also the ones we hear in the streets (or used to at any rate). Hearing it again and again has an effect unfortunately.

Plus there is the thought, unbidden, of how someone such as He is can want anything to do with us and how can we compare? Until we realise that He doesn’t want us to compare ourselves to Him, He loves us as we are. In any relationship that can happen, not understanding how someone can love us as we are.

I think there is much to commend in Tim’s observations.

I will say though, that I do have a personality type that tends to give rise to cognitive ‘splitting‘, more commonly known as black-and-white thinking. I find it almost impossible to detect the ‘grey’ areas of life, including in my appraisal of others. But this is evidenced primarily in my self-perception.

I will always lean to the negative in reflecting on myself, unable to see the positive and can become fixated on my weaknesses  – or perceived weaknesses. This can give rise to a feeling of being unlovable or even unlikeable. Ironically, as my wife points out, the realities simply do not bear out this self-image, and she has been encouraging me to look at my positive aspects.

The reason I’m laying this out, is that this negative self-thinking impacts profoundly on my relationship with God. I become convinced that He is not really able to love me, and recently, as I meditated on meeting Him face to face, I was filled with a sense of dread. Now, this is not the sort of response one would expect from a person anticipating meeting someone they love, and that loves them.

I knew something was seriously wrong.

A few things have conspired of late to help. Part of this was Tim’s comment above; part of it has been my wife, family, and others, telling me of my positive qualities.

During one conversation with my wife, she mentioned how much I love the children and how much this shows. I found myself saying that I would love the children in the same way; no matter what they did, or became, or what trouble they got themselves into.

And then the breakthrough. My wife said: “and you think God does not love you in the same way; in fact he does, and infinitely more so”.

I was confronted with the realisation that I was operating in a manner as if I could love others in a way, that was superior than God Himself could love me . Which is patently absurd.

Alongside all of this, I came across a wonderful blog post written by Digitalnun and entitled: Gentleness with Self. Here is the conclusion:

The desire to do more can be commendable, but it can also be a form of spiritual ambition which is anything but godly. To tell them apart may require some delicate discernment. I may be wrong, but I suspect my need of sleep is greater than my need of extra prayer at the moment. God is being gentle with me. I just have to learn to be gentle with myself.

Learning to be gentle with myself hit me with such force.

We have a God who deals in inperfection and brokeness; it’s His very job, and He’s been doing this for a very long time.

As a result of trying to ‘go easy’ on myself, reflect on my positive attributes, as well as count my blessings, everything has improved and I have received a sense of peace that has been long missing.

God knows my weaknesses and accepts me as I am. Of course, a personality type like mine will always strive towards improvement, but I know right this minute that God loves – and even likes  – me, more than I could even begin to imagine. As we seek to towards growth and maturity of faith, it is 100% God’s responsibility, as well as 100% our responsibility. We are not alone in this and are called to corporate with Him.

Thank God.

He being all in all – we with as little power in ourselves, as little excellence, or merit, as the water in baptism, or the bread and wine in Holy Communion; yet strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Increase in me this Grace of love; in spite of all my unworthiness. (Blessed JHN – Christ in Us.)

This quote comes from a sobering and thoughtful blog post written by Cranmer, which is well worth a read in its entirety.

Pope Benedict XVI observed a few years ago that the global financial crisis ‘shows the futility of money and ambition’. He said: ‘He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand. We are now seeing, in the collapse of major banks, that money vanishes, it is nothing.’ And he added: ‘The only solid reality is the Word of God’.

Amen to that.

Yesterday morning I was alerted on Facebook to a blog post written by Alan Craig, entitled: Confronting The Gaystapo.

Many of us will be familiar with Alan as the head of the Christian Peoples Alliance and from his fierce opposition to the proposed ‘Olympic Mega-Mosque’. There’s even a website dedicated to this cause: MegaMosqueNoThanks

Anyway, it transpires that Alan’s blog piece was published in the Church of England Newspaper, and since the time I was notified of its existence, news of this has spread like wildfire.

Pink News have picked up on it, as well as the Guardian, and atheist websites such as the FreeThinker.

Much of the criticism revolves around the terminology used, especially the allusions to Nazism. The general tone of the piece is akin to a call to war.

Now, I don’t think any of this is particularly helpful and feel that the wording and tone of Alan’s piece is overboard, but I have seen exactly the same from the other side also.

Yesterday, for example, a minister within the Church of England – Lesley Fellows – lamented the fact that the Church of England have stated that they will not allow their buildings for the use of Civil Partnerships. Here’s Lesley’s concluding thoughts on this matter:

That comes as close to F Off as anything, as far as I’m concerned. And we wonder why folks think we are judgemental, immoral and irrelevant?

I wonder why we would issue such a statement that offers no hope of LGBT people being married in church? Is it because we are trying to kowtow to the Provinces who think LGBT people should be killed?

And so we have ourselves in a vicious circle on the LGBT issue.

The discourse becomes ever more polemic and aggressive on both sides; the trenches are dug, the weapons loaded, and ever more vitriol-tipped bullets are fired.

UPDATE: Judging by comments being received on the most recent Pink News Article on this issue, action is being advocated against Alan Craig and the Church of England Newspaper. Here is an example:

I have today made a formal complaint about Mr Craigs article, and the publication of it by The Church Newspaper as being an incitement to hatred and/or violence to the police.

I have contacted the newspaper to explain how offensive the article is, and that the editors tepid defense of being on holiday and that he would have managed the publication differently just doesnt wash.

I am also contacting the toothless wonder, the Press Complaints Commission and I would urge all PN readers who are offended and outraged by this to contact their local police, the PCC and the newspaper. The newspapers email is:
cen@churchnewspaper.com

The PCC is:
complaints@pcc.org.uk

I hope there will be a considerable volume of emails to both. Don’t just assume others will do it. Join in!

UPDATE II: Alan Craig has now blogged on correspondence between himself and the acting editor of Pink News, which you can view on this link.

OK, here is the final promised reminder.

Tonight: 9 – 10:30pm (GMT – Weds 9th Nov) is the much anticipated showdown between Dr Calvin Smith – the leading Christian Zionist scholar in the UK – and Revd Stephen Sizer – the foremost Christian anti-Zionist in the UK.

For links from this blog giving you some background information on Stephen Sizer: click here, and for a blog post written by Calvin Smith addressing Sizer, that I featured on this blog back in February 2010: click here.

The debate can be viewed live on Revelation TV and will be held in front of a studio audience in London – wish I were attending!

Sky Channel 581

Freesat Channel 692

Viewers in USA with a ROKU BOX can watch Revelation TV

Online Internet streaming can be found on this link.

This is gonna be fascinating folks and represents an enormously significant and important debate relating to Christian Zionism.

I will say that I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with Dr Calvin Smith in the past, in terms of blogging, and on the telephone, and he has a brain the size of a small planet and a MASSIVE heart for our Lord and the Jewish peoples. I’ll lay my cards on the table and say that I hope suspect Dr Calvin will firmly debunk Sizer. I know some of you don’t like this sort of combative talk, but many of us have been following the antics of Sizer for many years and have been left deeply disturbed by his polemics against Israel, and his associations with some less than reputable folk.

I’d urge anyone even remotely interested in the issue of Christian Zionism; both for and against, to watch this debate, as you will simply not again see these two foremost figures in close combat.

I suspect this will be educational and informative for us all.

In other words, it doesn’t get better than this.

Kicking back and letting the excellent British Religion in Numbers (BRIN) website take the strain and sort through the stats, is becoming something of a habit for me. I must repent of my sloth, I know.

Anyway, following on from my earlier post, if you followed the link to +Nick Baines, you would be aware that the St Paul’s Institute have now published their Value and Values report (subtitled Perceptions of Ethics in the City Today).

As part of this report, ComRes conducted an online survey of 515 finance professionals in the City of London.

BRIN have all of the finer details, but it’s worth mentioning this revealing – if not unsurprising – result.

Asked whether the City of London needed to listen more to the guidance of the Church, only 12% agreed, 76% disagreed, with 12% uncertain. Men (79%) were more likely to disagree than women (70%), with dissent reaching 80% among those who had worked longest in the sector (for fifteen years or more).

Nor can such attitudes be entirely attributed to an absence of faith. Belief in God ran at 41% and at virtually one-half for the over-55s and those who had been in the sector for fewer than five years. 38% disbelieved, but one in two of them said that they believed in a higher power or were a spiritual person. 21% did not know what to think about God.

16% of financial services professionals claimed to attend religious worship at least once a month, 37% less frequently, and 47% never. Total non-attendance peaked at 54% for the 25-34 cohort and 60% for those who had worked in the sector from six to ten years.

Put another way, it would seem that most London City financial services professionals would be happier for the Church to butt out of their business affairs.

Sad. A sign of the times I suppose.

And it comes courtesy of Revd John Richardson and can be read here.

UPDATE: Ah, just spotted +Nick Baines post on this topic and also well worth a read.

Ha. The Daily Mail have admitted the ‘Winterval’ myth and offered this correction:

We stated in an article on 26 September that Christmas has been renamed in various places Winterval.

Winterval was the collective name for a season of public events, both religious and secular, which took place in Birmingham in 1997 and 1998.

We are happy to make clear that Winterval did not rename or replace Christmas.

So my proposal, gentle ones, is that modernistic, ocarina-playing, gooey-gushy worship is not feminised. It is denatured. The heat of indivualism, the unnatural solution of modernism and the random radiation of post-modernism has broken down its secondary and higher structures . The relationship with God – the peptide link, if you will, of our worship – is still in place. But the super-structure of history, traditional Biblical interpretation, credal statements, the structure of the early liturgies, familial and social relationships and appropriate wearing of lovely lacy vestments is all lost. In such situations, there are still secondary linkages but they are chaotic and ad-hoc. All the shape we used to have is gone, and we are left with “oo God, you are great”. Which is true, but lacking in real structure and substance.

SOURCE

Wow. Time to become a Catholic dear Archdruid

Thanks go to Tim for sending this my way; we’ve been itching to view this and it’s hot off the press. Unfortunately, due to my absolutely rubbish Internet connection, I can’t watch this until first thing in the morning, when for some unknown reason I can stream videos. In the meantime, hope you enjoy!

I’m sorry to confess that I’ve brazenly nicked the below content from Professor John Byron, but it’s so interesting and I don’t really see how to re-phrase it. That’s my excuse justification and I’m sticking with it:

Here it is:

The third portion of the Baylor University Survey on Religion has been released with some interesting results. According to the survey, if you believe that God has a plan for your life then you are more likely to be poor and less educated. On the other hand, you are less likely to have mental heath issues.

Most Americans (73.2%) believe that God has a plan for them. Those who feel strongly that God has something wonderful in store for them tend to have lower incomes and less education (p.2-5).

Heaven is a more popular notion than Hell. Nearly two-thirds of American adults (62%) absolutely believe that Heaven exists, whereas barely half (51%) express the same certainty about the existence of Hell (p.26).

Those who believe in a very engaged God who is involved in the world and in people’s lives fared better insofar as mental health matters included in the survey when compared to those who believe in a very judgmental God who is critical, punishing, and angered by sin (p.14-15).

Respondents who strongly believe they have a warm relationship with God report 31 percent fewer mental issues, on average.

Those who strongly believe God knows when they need support report 19 percent fewer mental health issues, on average.

Those who strongly believe that God is responsive to them report 19 percent fewer mental health issues.

Respondents who strongly believe God’s love never fails report 17 percent fewer mental health issues, on average.