Geoffrey Rowell writes in The Times about things he found in Geneva and Romania, see Science and politics can mean nothing without faith.
Christopher Howse writes about Orkney for the Daily Telegraph in A round tower in the sea.
In the Guardian the Face to Faith column is written by Gordon Lynch and criticises several modern writers on religion.
Also in the Guardian Karen Armstrong writes that An inability to tolerate Islam contradicts western values.
The Church Times had a leader this week about The Crown’s right to choose priests.
And Giles Fraser wrote about how 1950s Britain was stirred by Bond, not shaken.
The article by the Right Rev Dr Geoffrey Rowell in The Times about faith in the hypothesis does not add that the hypothesis then gets tested and, if falsified, is rejected, so it is rather a different matter to have a faith by a tradition that goes on rather regardless, or where a change for cultural or humane reasons of inclusion has bishops standing up trying to damp down change and advancement. By the way, Rumania is also the land of village Unitarianism, thanks to Bishop Francis David and King John Sigismund, with bishops to this day (all of two).… Read more »
I like Karen Armstrong. Just do. She’s on the money that we can’t be intolerant of Islam if we claim to be strong enough to handle diversity. I am so tired of Muslims being insulted and used by bullies to justify their own bullying. History tells us that when the bullies become too rough, the muggles band together to challenge the bullies. The bible has the same imagery. I always think of Ezekiel 19 and Psalms 105-106 as a warning. God allows peoples to build themselves up on oppression, greed and hypocrisy. Then when they become too satiated, God raises… Read more »
Similar to an incident that Armstrong described, citizens of a small Michigan town were upset when a Mosque asked to be allowed to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer. I’m not so sure that there would be as much protest if a church was loudly ringing its bells a few times a day.
Armstrong is on the money. If Westerners don’t learn to get along with Muslims, then everyone will be sorry. If we do, though, then Muslims in Muslim countries and the West who might otherwise become radicalized will soften their stances.
Weiven. Yours is a noble sentiment and parallels my own. Unfortunately it will not completely solve the problem. In any society there is always a certain number of souls who crave violence. There are always those who become part of gangs. What we can do is bring that back into a perspective that these are souls who simply crave violence and will develop a subculture to justify their aggression. We can make it clear that this is not godly and that there is always a consequence for oppression and tyranny. God does not always intervene immediately, sometimes God hands us… Read more »