Columns

In praise of blasphemy

Last Saturday, BBC2 showed a brilliant piece of musical theatre. Jerry Springer - The Opera was obscene, offensive, blasphemous; and the BBC was absolutely right to broadcast it. Right because the obscenity, offensiveness and blasphemy are used not just to entertain, but to convey a disturbing message...

Coping with Stress in the New Year

It's clear that stress is a killer. The question, however, is what can be done to reduce the ravages of stress? The only answer that Epel and Blackburn's study could offer was...

Tsunami: Christian West Are Biggest Givers

When an earthquake struck deep in the bowels of the Indian Ocean and Tsunami waves broke on distant shores, the world stood in stunned shock at the horror of the dimensions a few breaking waves could cause. No one initially fully realised its horror...

Christian Citizens and the News Media--Part Two

We are living in an age of unprecedented media access and almost every home has access to multiple media options. Cable news channels provide a constant stream of reports even as the Internet erases the final geographic barriers to information transfer...

Christian Citizens and the News Media--Part One

How should Christians engage the news media? The expanding controversy over CBS News reports on President George W. Bush's National Guard service--and the network's acknowledgement that it used faked documents in its report--raises a host of issues about truth-telling, media credibility, and evangelical responsibility...

Christianity and Secular Government

Right at the beginning of history, we discover a clear political dimension to reality. The creation accounts reveal that it is God who rules. After establishing his rule and order God hands over the maintenance of that order to humankind...

The Anti-Terror Laws

This week the nation has shared the indescribable trauma of the Bigley family as they await news of British hostage Kenneth Bigley. The rise in hostage-taking in Iraq is just one example of the unintended consequences of the high anxiety about terrorism post-9/11 and following the war in Iraq...

Study shows Protestant Ministers want to evangelise Non-Christian Faith Groups

Study results being released for the first time in the September/October edition of Facts & Trends magazine show the vast majority of Protestant clergy in this country feel strongly that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, and that they believe Christians have a responsibility to try to convert active members of non-Christian faith groups...

Love's Got Nothing To Do With It

With all the wrangling over same-sex marriage within both secular and religious circles, the debate seems stalemated. And one reason Christian debaters have not succeeded is that they overlook one simple fact: Biblical love is not based on romance...

Don't blame God, Dr Williams

It is depressing to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, confess on Radio Four that the Beslan atrocity has made him doubt his faith. Asked, "Does your faith not tremble just a tiny bit?" he replied, "Of course it does. Yes, there is a flicker, there is a doubt...