New Atheism, Christianity, and Identity

Someone re-tweeted this into my timeline today: "This is a test. If you don't believe in God, share/comment/like this image. If you do believe in God, pray that not one single person likes or shares this image. Let's see who wins." Now, there are a few obvious issues here, such as God not necessarily answering our prayers in the way we expect, the exhortation to waste a rich and deep prayer life...

Yes, I want the Welfare Budget Reduced

There has been a bit of a palaver in the church-y corner of the news recently, with articles saying that most Christians, or at least most Anglicans, "think the welfare budget should be reduced", see the welfare system as being in trouble, blame scroungers and foreigners for some of that trouble, and so on and so forth. This is being used in some instances to criticise the Bishops of the Church...

Reality Check

"The reality is that where you have a good vicar, you will find growing churches." --@ABCJustin earlier Today. All other factors being equal, this may be true. A "good" vicar or minister in a situation where a growth in church membership is possible is probably more likely, on the whole, to see that growth happen than a "bad" or mediocre one. Assuming growth in church membership is a good thing...

In which I show up anyway

Each winter, I help out at the Forest Churches Emergency Night Shelter. This is an ecumenical project, open the five coldest months of the year. Guests (or "clients") visit different local churches on different nights of the week. They get an evening meal, somewhere safe to sleep, and breakfast. St Andrew's is too cold to offer sleeping facilities, so some of us help out at Leytonstone United...

Who do you say that I am?

Who is considered "Christian"? Why do any of us care? Edward Green wrote an interesting post about the UCCF's Doctrinal Basis, a sort of pseudo-creed which it seems is sometimes used as a litmus test of who is "in" and who is not at university Christian Unions. Revd Green rightly points out that even the Catechism of the Catholic Church has a broader remit than that, stating that “All who have...