Marilyn McCord Adams writes in the Guardian about “The ‘size gap’ between God and man”. See Face to Faith.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about faith schools, see How schools ought to discriminate. So, last year, did Paul Vallely, see Beware the erosion of faith schools.
Simon Barrow and Jonathan Bartley respond to all this at Ekklesia in On not being idiotic about church schools.
Over at Cif belief Andrew Brown has written twice about the Californian teacher who described creationism as “superstitious nonsense”. See Enemies of creationism may be hindering science teachers and then Creationism judgement followup. (Original news story by Riazat Butt is here.)
Mary Boys writes in The Times that Christians should respect God’s covenant with Jews.
Marilyn commented that God is faithful to covenants. Amen. God is faithful to the covenant with Jesus, and with Noah, and Moses… We had a debate on TA a few years ago about whether or not the covenants before Jesus still applied. I recall making a rather terse posting that if the previous covenants don’t apply, then no one will mind if God floods a few cities. This was followed up a few days later with a tsunami through the Solomon Islands and Australia’s Sydney closing its ferry service because no one knew how big the upsurge would be. In… Read more »
The absurd escalations of our cultural wars, thanks mainly to the most conservative believers digging their heels in, and going on the hunt for Jesus? is, well, absurd, and in the long run, potentially damaging to all as our civic spaces are continually under rightwing presuppositional assault, in a winner takes all strategy. Why can’t calling out flat earth nonsense in religion be an acceptable a witness in our public discussions, especially in reply to Creationist believers? Calling out flat earth nonsense in our readings of the scriptures, our weighing of our rich traditions, and our applications (or not?) of… Read more »
I confess that I do not understand Canon Fraser’s article. If I were running a Christian school, I imagine that I would *welcome* non-Christian students alongside Christian ones.
As a matter of fact, that seems to be what happens in parochial schools in my state. I know that several Jewish graduates of my middle school have gone on to Roman Catholic high schools. It doesn’t seem to have harmed them or the schools.
“The Bible spans 1,700 years of human history, and so maps many social models on top of one another. In consequence, it portrays God as standing behind sexual mores and taboos erected to protect ancient societies very different from our own” – Marilyn Mc.Cord Adams, Guardian art. – Herein is a sometimes hidden truth – that God always speaks to a specific society and milieu. The Biblical saga is not immune to this specific directional focus – even though its basic message may have an eternal significance, too. Dr. Adams reminds us that revelation is still ongoing – as it… Read more »
Billy D wrote “I confess that I do not understand Canon Fraser’s article. If I were running a Christian school, I imagine that I would *welcome* non-Christian students alongside Christian ones.” Agreed. I know of a church maintained school in Nottingham suburbia that has “adopted” an inner city primary school, and any pupil from that primary school has an automatic right to a place. So whilst that church maintained school has an enviable academic and cultural record due to its suburban middle class catchment, those pupils from the inner city primary school, from very different academic, social and religious backgrounds,… Read more »
Newfoundland enshrined a denominational education system in the Terms of Union with Canada. We changed it in the 90s. There were originally 5 school boards Anglican, Methodist, Moravian, Salvation Army, and RC. The first four joined to form the Intergrated Board in the 60s, and then the Pentecostals successfully demanded to be included in Term 17. So we ended up with three. The government couldn’t fix a leak in an RC school, for instance, without giving the same amount of money to the other boards whether they needed it or not. It was perfectly legal to deny a job to… Read more »
When I read messages like Ford Elms’, I thank the Lord for the American First Amendment.
Congratulations to Canon Fraser but I do *fervently* pray that next year his school report won’t be ‘could do better’ again. Giles, I do not know you, and this is not meant to be ad hominem but a lot of this is stuff and nonsense. Discriminatory does not merely mean being able to tell differences – it hasn’t meant that since at least Dr Martin Luther King. The point is this: many working class people, many taxpayers, just do not get value for money from the education system. It’s not about ‘Secularism’ vs ‘Christianity’ or ‘faith’, or, if it is,… Read more »
When I read messages like Ford Elms’, I thank the Lord for the American First Amendment.