Apologetics
Christianity in the public square
£1,200 a year for your child’s mind
Here’s Peter Hitchens column from Last Sunday’s Mail newspaper on what the government really thinks of motherhood.
The more fuss we make about mothers, what with all those soppy cards and special Mothering Sunday lunches in restaurants, the less we seem to want them to bring up their own children.
You can read the whole article here, and it’s hard to deny that our secular liberal ruling classes want to encourage parents to have as little to do with the upbringing of their children as possible, in the light of the most recent announcement of a £1,200 bribe to parents to ‘warehouse‘ their children in state regulated child care.
It’s clearly not as innocent a move as giving parent’s a choice on how they wish to raise their children, if the state incentivises one means of child-care, while to all intents and purposes it penalises (cutting child benefits) the other option. There’s something more sinister going on.
To illustrate this, below is an exert from a piece in today’s Telegraph quoting an education minister’s response to the accusation that stay-at-home mums are being discriminated against
“We have helped stay-at-home mothers with increasing the free early education from 12.5 hours to 15,” she said. “We all know that childcare is so expensive that parents simply don’t have the choice to go out to work because they can’t afford the childcare. What we’re doing is helping parents make that choice.”
Did you spot that? We’re helping mother’s engage in the high calling of motherhood, enabling them to be the most influential voices in their child’s upbringing, by paying someone else to look after their children for a large proportion of the week. Some choice!
Is civil marriage for gay couples good for society?
Douglas Wilson, pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, ID, and Andrew Sullivan, British author, editor, political commentator and blogger, debate the question: “Is Civil Marriage for Gay Couples Good for Society?” Peter Hitchens will moderate the debate. Full video of the event will be over at CanonWired.
Science and the Christian
Science a personal view from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.
St Helen’s Bishopsgate have produced a series of videos with a number of of Christians who are scientists explaining how their faith makes sense of science.
Watch the video above for an overview or click here for a full list of all of the videos in the series.
Why you’re probably not a bigot
So Nick Clegg was almost brave enough to say what he thinks about those of us who hold opposing views to him and thus demonstrate just how tolerant he really is.
The fact is many people think Christians who oppose gay marriage are bigoted, and my guess is that with all the cries for equality and fairness hurled against us, not a few Christians may by now be beginning to doubt their stance and wonder if the Bible really is bigoted.
Isn’t the fair position for marriage to be open to all?
Not if the word marriage refers to a specific relationship. Just after I’d heard about Clegg’s dishonest two-step shuffle, I read this on Doug Wilson’s blog.
I cannot think of a single genuine right that I have that homosexuals do not have together with me, and for the same reasons.
At this point in the proceedings, someone clears his throat and says, “Umm, marriage? You have a right to marry, and they do not.” But “marry” is not an unspecific verb with no direct object. I have the right to marry a woman, and so do they. A man and a woman together is what marriage is. The fact that they don’t want to marry a woman is their look out. I have a right to own a gun and so does your spinster Quaker aunt. The fact that she doesn’t want to own a gun is perfectly acceptable. But what she is not free to do is redefine everything, and say that gun ownership is very important to her, but that for her, gun ownership means owning a quilting rack.
I’d highly recommend reading the whole blog post here.
The truth about Nicaea
One of the barriers that can prevent unbelievers from genuinely considering Christ is an false understanding of the authenticity of contemporary Christianity. Can what we believe in 2012 really be the faith once delivered to the saints by the Apostles?
One of the false claims is that orthodox Christianity as it’s been held throughout history was actually all made up at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD by the Emperor Constantine and a group of bishops. The video below is helpful account of what actually took place.
[youtube http://youtu.be/WSKBGdv07nQ?rel=0]
Render to Caesar
Who get’s to decide what’s Caesar’s and what’s God’s?
Mike Ovey, Principal of Oak Hill Theological College, recently wrote an article on the challenges and contradictions of equality in Britain. Amongst his wise words is the following,
When it comes to “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s, Caesar is taking it on himself to work out which things belong to him and which belong to God. Not surprisingly, Caesar wants more and more.
Because He wrote a book
The Resurgence have posted the next in their series of outtakes from “Collision”. It really is worth taking a bit of time not only to watch the video, but additionally to read Wilson’s accompanying notes which are found after the link, where he highlights the reasons for and the shape of the difference in views.
Feel free to insult me
What do the Christian Institute, the National Secular Society and Peter Tatchell have in common?
They are all supporters of a new campaign to reform Section 5 of the Public Order Act, by removing the word insult from it. At present the police and law courts can decide if you or someone else has been insulted and can prosecute because of it.
If you believe that street preachers should be allowed to preach the gospel of salvation in Christ alone, that a Christian cafe owner should be free to display Bible verses on the walls of his cafe, and that we should all be free to disagree with others on issues of religion and sexual conduct, you could profitably inform the Home Secretary, Theresa May of that on the other side of this click.
Love Your Enemies, Huh?
The Resurgence have posted the next in the series of ‘deleted scenes’ from the Collision DVD here, in which Christopher Hitchens and Doug Wilson debate whether Christianity is good for the world. What’s so helpful here is Wilson’s analysis below the video where he highlights Hitchens’ advocacy of how we are to treat our enemies, whist condemning that very same attitude in God.
WHATEVER IS COMMENDABLE 