Should Christians practice Yoga?

“Some questions we ask today would simply baffle our ancestors. When Christians ask whether believers should practice yoga, they are asking a question that betrays the strangeness of our current cultural moment…”

– Albert Mohler looks at the modern sanitisation of Yoga.

The power of proximity

“Already I’ve been struck by the value that General Synod provides for proximity. That is, it brings together some of the key players and leaders of all the different dioceses in the Anglican Church of Australia. We are together with time and space forcing us to deal with things we could otherwise put off for years or just ignore for ever…”

– Over at SydneyAnglicans.net, Bishop Robert Forsyth blogs on General Synod so far.

And Anglican Media Melbourne reports –

“The General Synod, meeting at Melbourne Grammar School, adopted a resolution asking the synods of all 23 Australian dioceses to consider whether the Anglican Church of Australia should adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant and to report to the Standing Committee of the General Synod by December 2012. The resolution asked the Standing Committee to report to the next meeting of the Church’s national parliament in 2013.”

General Synod days 1 & 2

David Ould gives his take on the first two days of General Synod, meeting in Melbourne since Saturday.

(Here’s the official General Synod site.)

How much has ECUSA spent on lawsuits?

A.S. Haley, The Anglican Curmudgeon, attempts to work out how much the Episcopal Church has spent so far on lawsuits and ‘disciplinary actions’.

No need for God? Mohler on Stephen Hawking

“Professor Hawking is out with a new book, and in The Grand Design, he, along with co-author Leonard Mlodinow, now presses his case against God — or at least against any role for God in the origin of the universe or the beginning of time. …”

– Albert Mohler responds to some of the claims in Stephen Hawking’s new book, ‘The Grand Design’.

(As the book may come up in conversations, it’s worth taking some time to become aware of the issues.)

Why the Adoption act should not be changed

“A private members bill introduced by the Hon Clover Moore to allow same-sex couples to adopt children will go before the Lower House of the NSW Parliament this week.

The NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally has allowed a conscience vote by Government MPs and the Opposition Leader, Barry O’Farrell has allowed the same for Opposition MPs.

The bill has been amended to exempt faith-based organisations from having to facilitate adoptions for same-sex couples.

Although Anglicare Sydney welcomes this exemption, it still opposes the bill in principle and urges all MPs to vote against the bill because it diminishes children’s rights.

The Adoption Act makes it clear no adult presently has the right to adopt a child. The Act is based on what is in the best interest of the child. Introducing a right to adopt is contrary to the whole adoption regime.

And allowing same-sex couples to adopt children is not a test of civil rights – upholding the rights of children to have a father and mother when they have no say in the matter is.

Anglicare’s 12 reasons for opposing the Bill were sent to all State MPs. You can view them here.

With this issue now upon us, I strongly urge you to write to or email your local MP and request them to vote against Ms Moore’s Bill, with reference to ANGLICARE’s reasons.

Children’s rights are precious – they should never be a political football for others.”

– Peter Kell, CEO of Anglicare Sydney writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

The Wind of Change: All Africa Bishops Conference, Uganda

“In February 1960, British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan delivered his historic ‘wind of change’ speech in Cape Town, heralding the end of Great Britain’s colonial presence in Africa. Fifty years on, there is a spiritual ‘wind of change’ blowing in Africa which promises to end the predominance of London based institutions in the leadership of the Anglican Communion and the current All Africa Bishops Conference in Entebbe convened by CAPA (the Council of the Anglican Provinces of Africa) provides the clearest evidence yet of this change in the spiritual weather.

It must have seemed to Lambeth strategists that the Archbishop of Canterbury’s presence at this high profile African conference with an agenda dominated by uncontroversial humanitarian issues would be a golden opportunity to portray the Anglican Communion as back to ‘business as usual’ after Rowan Williams’ decision to invite the consecrators of Gene Robinson to the 2008 Lambeth Conference led to the principled absence of some 230 mainly African bishops.

If so, they badly misjudged the mind of the conference. After the first day, the public relations dream is threatening to turn into a nightmare and Dr Williams may well by now be wishing that he had stuck to being a merely virtual presence by video as at April’s South to South Encounter in Singapore.…”

– Read it all at SPREAD.

‘The heresy of Oakeshott’s hero’

“Your story says Peter Cameron was found guilty of heresy for supporting the ordination of women (”Uncompromising heretic caught in the national spotlight”, August 24). This is untrue.

I quote from the press release at the time… ‘The matters at issue in the judicial process have related to Dr Cameron’s view of the Bible and its authority…’”

– In today’s Sydney Morning Herald, two letters respond to yesterday’s story about the independent MP Rob Oakeshott. On the Letters page – near the bottom.

(Photo: Rob Oakeshott.)

Why aren’t ‘Emerging Adults’ emerging as Adults?

Albert Mohler writes about a significant shift in US culture (it’s also happening in Australia).

Related: The Spirituality of Emerging Adults.

Trivia served up for the twittering classes

“Saturday night will be the first election in 33 years that I won’t be behind a microphone for an election coverage. For the first time, I’ll experience an election party and probably turn to the internet for updates…”

– Russell Powell has some reflections on the coverage of the election campaign in his weekly roundup at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Also, don’t forget the resources for comparing policy statements at Australia Votes from the Australian Christian Lobby.

The Inerrancy of Scripture: The Fifty Years’ War… and counting

“Back in 1990, theologian J. I. Packer recounted what he called a ‘Thirty Years’ War’ over the inerrancy of the Bible. He traced his involvement in this war in its American context back to a conference held in Wenham, Massachusetts in 1966, when he confronted some professors from evangelical institutions who ‘now declined to affirm the full truth of Scripture.’ That was nearly fifty years ago, and the war over the truthfulness of the Bible is still not over — not by a long shot…”

While it’s never been quite the issue in Australia as it has been in the US, the implications of questioning the trustworthiness of Scripture are clear in this piece by Albert Mohler.

To Serve is to Suffer

“In a world where physical health, appearance, and convenience have gained almost idolatrous prominence, God may be calling Christians to demonstrate the glory of the gospel by being joyful and content while enduring pain and hardship. People who are unfulfilled after pursuing things that do not satisfy may be astonished to see Christians who are joyful and content after depriving themselves for the gospel. This may be a new way to demonstrate the glory of the gospel to this hedonistic culture.”

– Christianity Today has published this challenging essay by Ajith Fernando, national director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka.

Killing a Church

“Murchison argues that Old Money helped define, and unravel, the Episcopal Church. Growth and dynamism require entrepreneurship and risk. But who wants that when you have endowments and beautiful buildings? Provocateurs like Pike and Spong could push far, but there was far too little push back. Why risk the conflict?

Meanwhile, comfortable Episcopal elites, ever with a sense of noblesse oblige, embraced the Civil Rights Movement, denouncing segregation in 1955 as ‘contrary to the mind of Christ.’ Ten Episcopal bishops joined Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. The Episcopal Church then and now has few black members. But commendable civil rights activism sated a thirst for social change among Episcopalians that led directly into the feminist movement, including the 1970s ordination of women, and ultimately homosexual causes in the 1980s to the present. No longer mostly confined to saving souls, church elites saw themselves as liberating American society from ‘privilege.’…”

– in The American Spectator, Mark Tooley reviews Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity by William Murchison. (The book was published in 2009.)

Do Christians need a Christian prime minister?

“Recently disendorsed NSW Liberal candidate, David Barker, expressed concern that Julia Gillard was ‘anti-God’ and that a non-Liberal vote would be a vote for Muslims, thus reintroducing religion, kicking and screaming in protest, to the campaign agenda.

Associated with the NSW Christian right, Mr Barker’s comments raise the question of whether Christians in Australia expect a Christian prime minister…”

– Greg Clarke, Director of the Centre for Public Christianity, had this thoughtful opinion-piece published on the ABC’s ‘The Drum Unleashed’ yesterday.

Moving Forward?

“After the strident, disdainful renunciation of the Communion’s official teaching concerning sexuality, as expressed in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10, and in direct opposition to and repudiation of the request of the Instruments of Communion, the response of the Archbishop of Canterbury in his 2010 Pentecost Letter has been as devastating as a feather duster and as effective as an ashtray on a motorbike…”

– Bishop Glenn Davies writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Related: ‘Dialogue’ trumps Scripture — again?

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