Jonathan Bartley in The Guardian writes At cross purposes. Conflicting views of the meaning of the crucifixion have led to strikingly different patterns of behaviour among believers.
Proof of God comes in “resurrection moments” says the Archbishop of Wales in his Easter sermon.
Richard Harries in the Times writes Marginalised maybe, but we aren’t persecuted. Christians in Britain must learn to profess their faith without sounding superior to others.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times that The Left is just too patronising.
Stephen Tomkins writes in The Guardian about The Christian tradition of politics. It’s hard to believe sometimes, but Christian feeling for politics isn’t all about sex, as the pioneers of the labour movement show.
Tony Bayfield writes in The Guardian about Religion’s role: separate but engaged. While religion must be separated from the state, it should have influence in politics.
Christopher Howse writes in a Sacred Mysteries column in the Telegraph about The serpent-sharp power of prudence. A believer has someone to ask for the strength to go through with a prudent act.
Kathy Galloway writes in a Credo column in the Times that Our true life consists in what we value, not in our wealth. There is the danger inherent in the worldly power that money brings with it; the power to get one’s own way, to seek to buy people as well as things.
In a five-minute video Guardian religious affairs correspondent Riazat Butt talks to director Michael Whyte about his film No Greater Love, a portrait of a Carmelite convent in west London.
I note the sleight of hand in Barry Morgan’s piece: raised from death “to eternal life”. And I wonder, what does the New Testament say about the disciples’ psychological condition and religious beliefs prior to seeing Jesus as part of the expected end when “the disciples said that with the resurrection of Jesus that end time had already begun”.
I think Giles Fraser lost the right to call himself a ‘lefty’ when he very publicly renounced Socialism three – or was it four? – years ago now. At any rate, whether or not you are ‘of the left’ has nothing to do with your views on religion and everything to do with your views on economics, and neither Giles Fraser not Alistair Campbell (nor Christopher Hitchens for that matter) has been properly ‘left-wing’ for a very long time. And it is patently untrue that ‘the Left’ (as if this is some coherent and monolithic entity) inherently has a patronising… Read more »
One comment on the Jonathan Bartley piece in the Guardian has an idea that bears pointing out. Those who have been required to not wear a cross at work should substitute fish earrings – or, in the case of men who choose not to wear an earring or two, a tie tack or lapel stud or, if men still wear them, cuff links. The sign of the fish predates the cross as the symbol of Christianity. Wearing a fish instead of a cross has the added symbolism of returning to our roots when anything overtly Christian led to death, hence… Read more »
So Godless Lefties patronize and sneer at you, Fr Giles? Then stick around and EVANGELIZE them!
I’d MUCH rather deal w/ justice-minded *scoffer* than throw in w/ a GeeZus-worshipping (“figleaf”) Mammon-Uber-Alles-type ANY day of the week!
You can blame the know-nothingness of the far right and their takeover of Christianity for the left’s reaction Canon Giles. This is what small-mindedness gets you. Abandonment.
“A lot, of course, depends on the tone of voice. The word “Christian” can be said in such a way as to imply superiority. The other unfortunate implication of this labelling can be its divisiveness. For if I am “a Christian”, there are others who are not. They are not “one of us”. – Lord Harries – This one-time Bishop of Oxford has brought to our attention how off-putting Christianity can be when it’s adherents imply some sort of ‘superiority’ over those who do not share their faith. I well remember being told that true Christianity involves a particular humility… Read more »
Lord Harries said ‘The word “Christian” can be said in such a way as to imply superiority. The other unfortunate implication of this labelling can be its divisiveness. For if I am “a Christian”, there are others who are not. They are not “one of us”.
For such reasons I am sometimes tempted simply to call myself a human being.’
Thank you, Lord Harries. That’s just how I feel too.
Lois Keen, I might be wrong, but I believe England already had laws against religious discrimination even before the current debate in the Houses of Parliament, If an employer, regardless of whether the employer is an agent of the State, or a non-religious non-profit organization, or a for-profit business, ordered someone to remove a cross while at work or face consequences, solely because of the cross itself, that is an act of religious discrimination, and would be treated accordingly. Rather, I suspect that when nurses or others have been asked to remove crosses, crucifixes, Magen Davids, crescents, or other religious… Read more »
Richard ‘Harries said ‘The word “Christian” can be said in such a way as to imply superiority. The other unfortunate implication of this labelling can be its divisiveness. For if I am “a Christian”, there are others who are not. They are not “one of us”.
For such reasons I am sometimes tempted simply to call myself a human being.’
Thank you …. That’s just how I feel too.’
Posted by: Richard Ashby on Sunday, 11 April 2010 at 9:16am BST
Me too
Richard Ashby & Laurence Roberts,
Yes, exactly; and what Richard Harries was saying was also well put by the 19th c Danish theologian N.F.S.Gruntvig, when he wrote “Menneske først – kristen så” (First human, then Christian).
I do believe I am coming round to Giles Fraser’s view myself: the Left is now more anti-metaphysical than ever before – and this really is the touchstone: it doesn’t mean abandonding reason for emotionalism and bigotry as a response, or making a leap of faith for Creationism (which itself is mired in 19th C faux-scientism), but it does mean heralding and promoting an understanding of how humans are and should be that does not depend on the social, economic or political, sociological or psychological, on anything that is quantitative or calculated, no matter how sophisticated or nuanced in interpretation… Read more »
Giles Fraser’s comments made me think of the Christian Workers’ Fellowship here in Sri Lanka. It was started in 1958 as a response to the political upheavals that had followed the General Elections of 1956, by a group of lay Christians who were also members of the Marxist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Lanka Socialist Party), the oldest political party in Sri Lanka. The CWF continues to exist and on May 1st there is a May Day Workers’ Eucharist presided over by the Anglican Bishops and leaders of other denominations. The Christians in the CWF are unashamedly Socialist although the agenda… Read more »