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?

‘The good book’s guide to great sex’

“Sex is God’s gift to humanity and healthy sexual behaviour should be the church’s gift to the world. As reported in The Age this week, we are neurologically wired to desire sex, to fall in love with the person we desire sex with, and for that love to develop into a deep personal attachment. Our bodies are wired to operate best with one sexual partner for life.

The Christian church has a positive duty to help all people form healthy sexual self-identities, which lead to healthy sexual behaviour, particularly in a world where highly sexualised images are commonplace…”

–  Kamal Weerakoon (St. Marys Presbyterian Church) writes in the Sydney Morning Herald. It’s a follow up to Monday’s article by Barney Zwartz in The Age.

Standing Committee of which Communion?

“…The listing by geography shows that none of the major African provinces of the Communion, with more than 60% of its total members, is even represented on the Committee. It follows that the current make-up of the Committee is designed to effectuate the will of a minority within the Communion…”

– A S Haley, the Anglican Curmudgeon, looks at the makeup of “the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion” and that of the Anglican Consultative Council. (Photo taken at the November 2008 JSC meeting: ACNS Rosenthal.)

‘We are Anglicans’

“The Pope, or more properly the Roman Catholic Bishop of Rome will visit England and Scotland from 17th to 19th September of this year. In recent years political figures and many in the media have fawned all over the Pope. More recently however, there has been growing attacks on Rome by secular humanists and the homosexual lobbyists, together with the media, which is dominated by both. Whilst we do not wish to be sucked into the ungodly agenda of these groups nevertheless it is important to say that this visit is also unwelcome for other reasons.

What does it mean to be Anglican? Though it is not normally where people look for an answer part of the nature of Anglicanism is set out in the Coronation Oath Act of 1688. This Act applies still in England and Wales and its well known wording was used at the Coronation of the present Queen…”

– David Phillips, Church Society General Secretary, writes in the latest issue of Cross†Way. (PDF file.)

An important distinction in our thinking about church

“It seems to me that we are not often as careful when we think and speak about church as we are in other areas of Christian doctrine. Confusions abound, sometimes through a lack of careful distinctions.

Earlier this year I was in a debate with some older brothers in the faith about the threefold order (bishops, priests, and deacons)…”

– Mark Thompson seeks to stimulate our thinking at Theological Theology.

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