Liberals, Evangelicals and Deep Church

A year ago I read Amy and Frog Orr-Ewing’s book, “Deep”. I realised recently I never wrote anything on my blog about it, even though it provoked some useful thoughts. Their assessment of the state of the Church in Britain today is often very useful, inspired amongst other things, by work in deprived areas and mission trips to repressive Islamic regimes, including Afghanistan.

For SCM: Vision and Mission

Student Christian Movement have begun a group blog, and are asking people to contribute their thoughts on the concept of “Mission” to get the ball rolling. I was wondering what to write, until my sister preached her first ever sermon, at which I’m both impressed and slightly envious. It was very interesting to hear her link Justice to Mission work, and Mission to Vision.

The Songs We Sing

Another heavily religious post, so apologies to the atheists. This tends to happen at this point in the year, as I grapple with a bunch of issues that have come up during Soul Survivor and Greenbelt. One of the major differences between the two events is quite often the approach to music in the context of faith that comes between the two events, and the misunderstandings attached.

Barriers to reducing HIV amongst Africa’s Gays

Amongst the many articles I have saved up and still need to write a blog post about (currently 36), was a news story on the HIV rate amongst Gay men in Africa. Its a difficult topic when one is dealing with entire states still in denial over the existence of Gay people. As a Christian, I realise this is an interesting topic to be dealing with, as many working to solve the situation would name religion as a major barrier to their work.

The Revolutionary nature of Jubilee

We’re not talking about the Silver and Gold Jubilees here, but of Social Justice Jubilee. If you’re not a Christian, I hope this is still a useful examination of active wealth redistribution with some secular benefit. This is mostly based off a random thought popping through my head and perhaps its not the most biblically correct or politically astute post ever, but here goes.

Blair’s Faith Academy

Some news stories just make you blink and stare, and the news that Tony Blair has established an educational foundation for inter-religious dialogue would count in that list. What precisely is motivating him, we’ll never quite know, but its possible it has something to do with his intense interest in the middle East conflict. Or maybe he’s just after fame and some kind of redemption in the eyes of history…

Reclaiming Christ the Reject, Part 3

Yes, there’s another section to this rambling piece, now over 2000 words long. But worry not, the last section is the shortest! Having addressed the problems posed by Jesus image being consumed into the state’s agenda, lets look at the way this can be lived out.

Reclaiming Christ the Reject, Part 2

At the end of the last post, I talked about the way that Jesus’ image had been massively tarred by the state’s use of that image to enforce its own positions and to create a hegemonic message. The question remains, however, as to how we recapture, reclaim, rediscover this amazing character of history from the grimy Imperial image we have been left with.

Reclaiming Christ the Reject, Part 1

I used to amuse myself at the names I might give to a radical church. “The Church of Jesus Christ the Rebel” was one such name I came up with, but lately I’ve wondered whether perhaps “Jesus Christ the Reject” would be a more accurate term to be using. Obviously this is all theoretical, no church is planned, but what does this term offer us in terms of identifying a Christ who isn’t part of the establishment.

Why Direct Action?

I’ve been asked to write this for a magazine, so I’m writing it here first. The questions being asked went along the lines of “should Christians take Direct Action, or should they keep politics and spirituality separate?” and “(how) does your faith motivate you to take Direct Action?”.