Update – Schools, Scripture, Banning of Books and Sexual Orthodoxy
“My previous post mentioned that some books used in Special Religious Education (SRE) in NSW had been summarily banned by the Department of Education and Communities, apparently on the grounds that they conveyed classical Christian teaching about sexual morality.
In that post I said:
It is to be hoped that on review the Department will realise both that the way this was done is entirely unacceptable, and also that the content of the books concerned is not as harmful as it has been alleged to be.
One of those hopes has been realised, but the other has not…”
– at Law and Religion Australia, Associate Professor in Law, Neil Foster revisits the SRE ‘book banning’ in NSW. His comments are well worth reading in full – and be sure to follow the links.
The Failure of Winsomeness
“The United States has avoided Europe’s fate for a long time, but the churches here have finally lost the ability to coast on cultural momentum. The churches that don’t retrench around building their internal strength and coherence around orthodoxy – and that requires far more than catechesis, but it requires at least that: teaching our story to our children – and evangelizing from that position of strength, aren’t going to survive. The overculture is just too strong. The forces of atomization and desacralization are very hard to resist.
This is a reality that many Christians, Christians of all kinds, do not want to face. …
… if we believe that being winsome and likable and all that is going to earn us any points with the overculture, we are making a dangerous mistake. Assimilation is not going to be allowed absent giving up what makes Christians distinctive from the rest of the culture.”
– at The American Conservative, Rod Dreher urges Christians to prepare for the long night ahead.
The troubled conscience
“Does God speak through our conscience? Does changing your mind really change your behaviour? Should we follow our head or our heart?
At our next [Moore College] Centre for Christian Living (CCL) event Tony Payne and Peter Bolt will explore two concepts that shape the Bible’s teaching about these matters: ‘conscience’ and ‘mind’.”
– Tuesday 26 May at Toongabbie Anglican.
Reaching Islam (Part 1 & 2)
In the latest training videos from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, Rob Scott speaks about understanding and loving our Muslim neighbours.
Charles Simeon and his enduring influence on Australia
This year’s Moore College Library Day looks at the influence of Charles Simeon. It’s on Saturday 23rd May. Read the details and register for the day.
Is Christianity dying?
“Bible Belt near-Christianity is teetering. I say let it fall.
For much of the twentieth century, especially in the South and parts of the Midwest, one had to at least claim to be a Christian to be ‘normal.’ During the Cold War, that meant distinguishing oneself from atheistic Communism. At other times, it has meant seeing churchgoing as a way to be seen as a good parent, a good neighbor, and a regular person.
It took courage to be an atheist, because explicit unbelief meant social marginalization. Rising rates of secularization, along with individualism, means that those days are over—and good riddance to them.…”
– Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention responds to a recent study on church attendance in the USA. (h/t Justin Taylor.)
Related: Back in 2000, Peter Jensen (then Principal of Moore College) spoke at the ACL Synod Dinner and made these observations about Sydney –
“The 1950s saw large church and Sunday School attendances. The churches seemed to be flourishing. But an acute observer would have been very worried even then. The Christianity of the people was not evangelical. It was a sort of ‘common Christianity’, a ‘lowest common denominator’ Christianity. It had a strong moral emphasis; Christianity was about behaviour not belief; parents sent their children to Sunday School in the hope that they would grow up decent citizens rather than committed Christians. To be born once was enough; to be born again was excessive. The ranks of church-goers were swollen with the unsaved. The real religion was materialism.”
– Read it all in the ACL News of March 2001 – PDF file. (Text-only version here.)
Schools, Scripture and Book Banning in NSW
“There has been quite some concern in Christian circles in my home State of NSW over the last few days, over bureaucratic action to ‘ban’ some books from being used in Special Religious Education classes.
While events are still unfolding (the relevant Department has so far made no general public comment on the matter, which seems to be promised for the coming week), it seems worthwhile to set some of this dispute in legal context…”
– Neil Foster shares some much-needed background to SRE in schools at Law & Religion Australia.
Thank God for William Tyndale
Potted history from Adam Ford.
Thank God for William Tyndale.
Watch NEXUS 2015
The NEXUS 2015 Conference was held today at Ryde, in Sydney. If you missed it, you can watch the recording of the livestream thanks to the organisers.
Simon Manchester, Mark Thompson and Phil Colgan were this year’s main speakers. Very encouraging and worthwhile.
The video begins with Dominic Steele interviewing some of the attendees. The first talk (Simon Manchester on Galatians 6) starts at 64 minutes in.
The Forgotten God
The latest Credo Magazine is out and available for download:
“Looking back on the first half of the twentieth century, H. Richard Niebuhr famously described liberal Christianity’s understanding of the gospel like this: ‘A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.’ …
For many people today, Bible stories having to do with divine wrath, anger, or jealousy are embarrassing. And yet, no matter how uncomfortable they make you feel, it is nearly impossible to get through a book (sometimes a chapter!) of the Bible without coming face to face with these forgotten attributes of God.”
Will the American Church be a new Smyrna?
“As Christians brace for official oppression in America, Jesus’ words to Smyrna offer a great hope. Primarily, Jesus declares his sovereignty over such tribulation.”
– Rick Phillips at Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina, writes this reflection at Reformation21.
John Woodhouse on 1 Kings 1 and the Servant King
Former Moore College Principal, Dr. John Woodhouse, was back at college this week, and preached in Chapel for the first time since he retired.
Hear the sermon on 1 Kings 1:1-10 and the Servant King. Most challenging and encouraging.
NEXUS 2015 registration last days
It’s less than a week to this year’s NEXUS Conference – at St. Anne’s Ryde on Monday 11th May.
More than a feeling … but the feeling still counts
“Recently I asked a group of young people to jot down the world’s take on romantic relationships. There were no surprises in their responses: ‘Get into a relationship if it feels good and get out of it when it is no longer fun’; ‘It doesn’t have to last, it just has to be fun for both parties’; ‘Do what feels right for you’; ‘It’s about feeling’.
These answers capture so much of our culture. We love experiences. Our feelings really matter. Freedom and fulfilment are found in expressing our desires – having as few boundaries and restraints as possible as long as we don’t hurt anyone else. We are awash with a focus upon ourselves. As another of my respondents put it, sex and relationships are ‘about me’…”
– Positive insights on marriage from Dr. Keith Condie, Dean of Students at Moore College.
Gospel Coalition 2015 conference audio
The Gospel Coalition’s 2015 National Conference was held April 13-15, and audio files of all the talks and workshops are now available.
Plenty of encouraging and challenging talks to hear.
Last on the list of files, John Yates II and John Yates III speak on “The Anglican Book of Common Prayer: What relevance does it have to today’s contemporary worship?”. [John III spoke at NSW CMS Summer School this year.]
“More and more pastors and church leaders are discovering the remarkable contribution Thomas Cranmer made to us all through his Book of Common Prayer.
This Reformation martyr’s understanding of what matters in worship is reverberating more and more through the evangelical community all around the world. The genius of Reformation Anglicanism is found in Cranmer’s timeless insights into the human heart and our motivations for Christian service.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…