Thank you everyone who’s encouraged me about my last post kicking off this ‘Verging on Heresy’ segment on the blog. It’s been cool, and I’m excited to crack on with it now. Today, my first worry about the way we sometimes think and speak has to do with this phrase: “It’s a justice issue.” Surely justice is […]
It’s not the start of a tasteless joke. It was the start of my day today, and the pastor in question was me. I want to tell the story, because I’ve been reflecting on it a little. It’s raised some questions and I’m not sure if the way I reacted was the best, so I want […]
I haven’t posted on here in a little while. There are a few reasons, but the main one is this: every time I’ve loaded up my computer to write a blog post I’ve seen all the status, tweets, blogs, news articles and profile pictures all pointing to one thing—Christians being persecuted and slaughtered. Things like […]
There are a few verses from Luke 4 which I (and lots of other people) really love! They are part of a passage in Luke’s gospel commonly known as the Nazareth Manifesto, where Jesus heads to the synagogue, opens up the scroll of Isaiah and quotes these words. Then he preaches, starting with the words: “Today […]
A few weeks ago I wrote some blog posts about a document produced to combat the myths use about poverty in our country (here and here). I am delighted that this document is now part of a campaign by the charity ‘Church Action on Poverty‘. I have used their website to send an email to […]
I was going to post another in the ‘Christlike’ series today, but instead want to do something else. In one sense, this post won’t include anything original from me, because I want instead to bring to your attention a series of four very moving videos, all posted below. They are four poems, written and performed […]
A week ago, I posted an article called ‘Politics, Jesus and Us’. It was sparked by the first half of a document called ‘The Lies we Tell Ourselves: ending comfortable myths about poverty‘. I was basically saying it is a good thing – though a sadly rare thing – that major Christian denominations were speaking […]
I am halfway through reading a document put together jointly by the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church, the Church of Scotland and the United Reformed Church. It is called ‘The Lies we Tell Ourselves: ending comfortable myths about poverty‘. The full document can be found here. Like I said, I’m only halfway through. […]