eChurch Blog

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

Deacon’s Bench – Best. Fingerpainting. Ever.

The Thirsty Gargoyle – The Pope and the Diplomats

Mail Online – BBC sex education video ‘is like porn’

Accepting Abundance – Cognitive Dissonance and Geocentrism

A Grain of Sand – God is the Issue

The Atlantic – What’s Wrong With the Phrase ‘In Real Life’

Science and Religion Today – Why Might Our Minds Be Better Suited to Religion Than to Science?

FutureShapeOfChurch – Nothing Good

National Catholic Reporter – Five myths about anti-Christian persecution

The pope is a Catholic; perhaps it’s in the nature of the news business to be freshly astonished by this fact every couple of months.

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Some members of the Catholic Bloggers Guild – Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma- are getting behind US presidential candidate Rick Santorum and have proposed a Rosary campaign. Remarkably, news of this has spread as far as Spain!

On the topic of Rick Santorum, I was among those disturbed by an article written by Mehdi Hasan in the New Statesman entitled: 10 things you didn’t know about Rick Santorum. Item number eight was:

When his baby Gabriel died at childbirth, Santorum and his wife spent the night in a hospital bed with the body and then took it home where, joined by their other children, they prayed over it, cuddled with it and welcomed the baby into the family.

This was deemed by many as inappopropriate for this list and much criticism was levelled against Mehdi Hasan. Hasan has now responded to his critics and there is a superb analysis of this controvery written by Dr Petra.

This is the headline that caught my attention in the local Coop emblazoned on the front page of one of my local newspapers:

Church Man in Attack on Wife

This is a grim story of a man who physically attacked his wife in the street, who it seems, was delivering clean washing to him and picking up his dirties. From this it does seem that they were living separate lives and the article notes she was his second wife.

His attack was only stopped by a passing firefighter who intervened.

She’s was left with PTSD, badly bruised face, damaged wrist and broken finger. She’s currently not able to work and he was given six months, suspended for two years, with twelve months supervision.

Right that was a few facts.

Now, the very first words of the article are: “Church Elder” and the very end of the article ends with a quote from a reference given by one of the man’s friends:

….”he had been a postman, union official, church elder, blood donor, qualified first aider, St John member, and a volunteer worker for a political party”.

Given this quote I’m left unsure as to whether the man is currently a church elder. Irrespective of this, is it not interesting that the newspaper leads with “church elder” and includes “church man” in the headline.

Of course, the newspaper could have led with “postman” or “union official” but it didn’t.

Despite what you may think right now, I’m not about to turn this into a post on media bias. If the man cites the fact that he was – or is – a church elder, then the newspaper has every right to highlight this particular fact. Of course, the media loves to broadcast on Christians behaving badly and why shouldn’t they? Why shouldn’t Christians be held to a higher moral standard? And why should we be surprised if the media lap up Christian immorality?

Us Christians have a duty to set an example and when we fail, we bring shame on the Church, and ultimately, God Himself.

The eyes of the world are upon us and their gaze is intense. The way we operate in the public sphere – and behind closed doors – shows the world not only how much we value God, but how much those watching should value him.

This newspaper article served as a reminder to me that the manner in which I conduct myself, is paramount. Whether we like it or not, our Church and our God, will be judged on our behaviour, in the world’s eyes.

A bit of Saturday lightheartedness.

The producers of this beer commercial borrowed a small 150 seat cinema playing a popular film, and filled 148 of its seats with rough-looking, tattooed bikers, leaving only two free seats in the middle of the theater. They then allowed theater management to sell tickets for the last pair of tickets to several young couples.

What would you do?  Watch till the end …..

Even more interesting was Mark Mardell’s report from Iowa in which he described Rick Santorum as an “evangelical Christian.” Rick Santorum is of course a devout Roman Catholic.

This could be seen in two ways. It could, like the previous example, be in line with the cultural bias of the BBC and be an attempt to label Santorum with a denigrating label. In the BBC mindset evangelicals are really foaming at the mouth fundamentalists who wish to stone homosexuals and force everyone else to wear chastity belts. If they are Americans they also speak in tongues, marry their sisters and handle snakes. Scary or what?

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

Maggi Dawn – Battle On

A biologist’s view of science & religion – Typologies, categories, and the myth of science and religion at war

Washington Post – Vatican launches Catholic home for U.S. Episcopalians

Engage – Daily Mail reports that halal meat rejected in Parliament restaurants and cafes

A Tiny Son of Mary – God Bless the Oratorians!

The New Oxonian – Accommodationist of the Year!

Doug Chaplin – Maybe they should be ashamed of that gospel?

Theology Under Construction – Should Christians Refuse to Explain Christianity?

However, as I pointed out in a previous post, the ONLY place in the Middle East where the Christian population has grown since the end of WWII is Israel, and the flight of Christians from Palestinian controlled areas, such as Bethlehem, is primarily the result of persecution by the majority Muslim population.

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If you’re at all interested in the recent controversy surrounding Tim Minchin’s ‘Woody Allen Jesus’ song being cut from Jonathan Ross’ Christmas Special Show, then I suggest you hop over to Thirsty Gargoyle’s blog for a rundown.

Archdruid Eileen has posted on this also and you can listen to the song here.

ChurchAds have revealed their new Christmas 2011 poster:

ChurchAds had this to say about their new campaign:

We are asking individual Christians and church fellowships to donate towards a National Christmas Advertising Fund. Every penny of this will be spent on advertising in national newspapers, on posters in major shopping centres and on radio.

Research has revealed that 85 per cent of people agree with the statement that “Christmas should be called Christmas because we are still a Christian country”. But it also shows that only 12 per cent of adults know the facts of the Christmas story in any detail.

So if we Christians really want to keep Christmas focused on Christ, we must constantly re-tell the story of his birth in ways which engage positively with the public’s interest.

Our “Christmas Starts with Christ” campaign re-tells the Christmas story in modern, secular contexts to capture the general public’s attention and interest. Poster ads in previous years have set the nativity in a bus shelter and featured a dramatic “Jesus babyscan”. Radio ads have placed the story in a football match, horse race and pop chart countdown.

Research shows 61% of people surveyed like the message “Christmas Starts with Christ”, with 41% saying it makes them think more about the true meaning of Christmas.

This year we have a very simple but dramatic idea. To re-set the nativity in modern professions and high street fashions. Shepherds become cycle couriers and plasterers. Wise men are successful entrepreneurs and their gifts are iconic “treasures” of modern culture: a Swarovski crystal perfume bottle, a Faberge egg and a replica Damian Hirst skull. All are sharply dressed. But the traditional nativity arrangement is unchanged, with Jesus as its clear focus. And the message is compelling: “However you dress it up… Christmas Starts with Christ”.

It’s the meeting of Christianity and high street consumerism, with Christ in the middle.

In the final few days before Christmas, millions of people will be heading for shopping centres. Could there be a better time to expose them to this Christian message?

Church leaders across the denominations have welcomed the campaign and are urging Christians and churches all over the country to get involved.

Love it. And we should support this.

Enter stage: The Rev Dr Peter Mullen (Ebenezer Scrooge) – Boo…Boo…Hiss..Hiss

No doubt all this clodhopping heavy glitziness will be described as “ironic” and “prophetic”.

Well, I suppose we should all just enjoy a good giggle at the churches’ latest expedition into the land of idiocy. Except for one thing which troubles me deeply. The replacement Wise Men are cast as three successful entrepreneurs. And I worry as to how the church hierarchy will answer for this sign of conspicuous consumption and the virtues of capitalism when they next go to talk adolescent politics with their mates in the Occupy camp outside St Paul’s.

You should read the whole miserable piece in the Telegraph to see what a negative, miserly, moany, cheap, piece this really is.

And what a breathtaking example of utterly missing the point.

The whole premise of the poster is that it doesn’t matter a hoot about your bling, it doesn’t matter about your wealth, it doesn’t matter about your gifts; it’s ALL about Jesus.

That’s the point Mullen.

So to conclude. Good for ChurchAds for another fantastic poster campaign and congratulations to Rev Dr Peter Mullen for winning my coveted “Scrooge of the year” award. Boo….Boo…Hiss….Hiss…He’s behind you….