Opinion
The Truth and Nothing But the Truth
It is now apparent to even the most unenlightened or blind that there are two entirely different and opposing understandings of the Christian Faith now currently at work in the worldwide Anglican Communion...
Repositioning "Evangelical"
When Archbishop Fisher went home on the night of the Queen's Coronation in 1952 he made a momentous entry in his diary. "Today," he declared, "Great Britain has come close to the Kingdom of Heaven." What was even more remarkable was that the newspapers agreed with him the following day...
Who influences whom?
Billy Graham may not be as active or as publicly visible as he once was, but he remains the most trusted spokesman for the Christian faith in the U.S. His ministry peers also regard him as the person who has the greatest influence on American churches and church leaders...
The Church and the Charity Commission - Friend or Foe?
Winston Churchill once described Russia as a 'riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma'. I have no doubt that many Church leaders would say the same thing about the charity commission! Too often, the Commission has been seen to be something of an administrative Goliath towering over a tiny David...
The Mature and Holy Hope of a Nation
Over a Nigerian dinner a few moments ago, I asked a missionary deep into his second decade about the health of the Church in this nation ...
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...
Where Was God?
In the aftermath of a cataclysm, with pictures of parents sobbing over dead infants driven into human consciousness around the globe, faith-shaking questions arise: Where was God? Why does a good and all-powerful deity permit such evil and grief to fall on so many thousands of innocents? What did these people do to deserve such suffering...
Tsunami, Natural Evil and A God of Love
Natural evil, unlike moral evil, genocide and terror remains one of the most intractable of human problems that defy simply solutions or pat answers...
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...