Getting the name right: revisionism

“By and large you don’t get too many Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking on doors on the campus of a conservative evangelical theological college like ours. When they do, the odds are that the first question is, ‘What do you think is wrong with the world?’

It’s a searching question because it makes you try and boil down all your misgivings into as small a phrase as possible, preferably even a single word. It makes you focus. The short-hand answer is ‘sin’, and put less technically perhaps something like, ‘We have all loved ourselves at the expense of our love of God and of our neighbours.’

In a similar vein, Anglicans at the moment have to answer the question, ‘What do you think is wrong with the Anglican church worldwide?’ Because there’s a pretty widespread agreement something is. And while it is right to answer that question in terms of sin and a disordered love of self, it is also helpful to try and be a bit more specific…”

– Dr Mike Ovey at Oak Hill College in London reflects on last week’s address by Archbishop Eliud Wabukala at the FCA Leaders Conference.

You Have to Get Religion to Get Religion

“Charles (Chuck) Colson got religion, but those people who haven’t got it, do not get it. They keep missing the point of his imprisonment as they retell his story. Sometimes they even get the chronology wrong – and in this case the chronology is important.

Chuck wasn’t converted in gaol, but beforehand. In fact he was gaoled because he was converted. Not that he was a martyr; persecuted and imprisoned for his faith. He went to gaol as a criminal because he had ‘got religion’. If he had not got religion he most likely would never have gone to gaol. …”

– Phillip Jensen’s weekly column tells the real story behind Chuck Colson’s imprisonment.

Gambling is not a numbers game

“I applaud Mr. Wilkie for his efforts in championing poker machine reform amidst broken promises from the Federal Government.

However, the fact that this issue is only on the agenda because Mr. Wilkie holds a controlling vote demonstrates a sad state of affairs. The Government should repent of its opportunism…”

– The Bishop of Tasmania calls for a radical change in politics.

Long to reign over us

“It is characteristic of the Queen that, on the eve of her jubilee year, she should address the Commonwealth not by drawing attention to herself, but by preaching the Gospel in her annual Christmas broadcast. She has done this before, most notably at the turn of the millennium, but never as clearly as last year, when she spoke quite directly about human sin, the forgiving power of Christ and the need for each of us to be born again.”

– In his Editorial for Churchman Spring 2012, Gerald Bray writes about Queen Elizabeth II and her legacy. (PDF.)

Anzac Day: Damien Parer

“Last time I was in Canberra I visited the National Film and Sound Archives. While there one particular exhibit caught my attention. It featured the first Australian Academy Award winning film … ‘Kakoda Frontline’.

The film images are now iconic. The ‘diggers’ fighting their way across the steep, mountainous terrain, hampered by dense jungle, continuous rain storms, river crossings but ever by their sides helping; sometimes carrying the wounded are the New Guinea natives, the legendary ‘fuzzy wuzzy angels’. It was little wonder the film won an Academy Award…”

– BCA Missioner Rod Oldfield on King Island shares an ANZAC Day reflection.
(h/t Bishop John Harrower.)

QandA — or Question Un-answered?

“Were you disappointed by the Dawkins/Pell debate? You’re not alone – all Christians I know, were unhappy. Not because our ‘gladiator’ lost the contest to the atheist ‘gladiator’, but because he seemed to lose the plot and mangle the gospel…”

– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen comments on the recent episode of ABC TV’s Q&A.

The deep limitations of digital church

“There is something good, healthy, and Great Commission-minded about the eager use of new communication technologies.  …

At the same time, there are dangers. … Christ clearly intends for his people to be gathered together into congregations. The fellowship of the saints is a vital means of grace for the disciple of Christ.”

– Albert Mohler warns against ‘doing church’ on the Internet.

In a similar vein, Carl Trueman has been writing about ‘multi-site’ churches –

Multisite, the Poker Tell and the Importance of Presence
“Presence is important. In a world where it is easy to simulate presence, even visible presence as by television, webcam or skype, it remains the case that actually being in the immediate physical proximity of somebody is important…”

No life in the Moon but is that necessarily a problem?
“Moments after finishing my piece on the importance of presence for Ref21, a reader emailed me a link to a quite bizarre story: Olympic organisers in London had apparently been hoping to have Keith Moon play at this year’s opening ceremony…”

Folk Religion…?

“Do we imagine that if we pray longer or with more people that God will be more likely to hear our prayers? Do we imagine that reading the Bible with others will automatically produce Christian maturity? Do we imagine that if we preach a certain way, the church will automatically grow?”

– Greg Anderson, Head of the Missions Department at Moore College, asks if Christians might easily embrace a form of folk religion.

The Post-Christian Condition

“The horrifying case of Anders Behring Breivik has opened a window into the reality of Scandinavian justice — and that window also reveals the shape of justice in a post-Christian world.

The Scandinavian nations are, according to many sociologists, the most radically secularized nations on earth. A study undertaken by sociologist Peter Berger years ago rated Sweden as the world’s most secular nation, with neighboring Norway close behind. But the Scandinavian nations are not merely secular; they are specifically post-Christian. The specific religious worldview they have lost or rejected is that of Christianity — the faith that shaped the culture of these nations for many centuries…”

– Dr Albert Mohler looks at what happens to a sense of justice once you choose to be ‘Post-Christian’.

What’s in a name?

“I am often asked why Moore College is called a ‘Theological College’ rather than a ‘Bible College’.

Because the word ‘theological’ sounds rather obscure to many Christians today, some people refer to Moore College as a ‘Bible College’…”

– Moore Theological College Principal John Woodhouse answers a common question – at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Can banning things lead to tolerance?

“‘London is intolerant of intolerance.’

So said the Mayor of London as he stepped in to ban adverts which drew attention to the existence of people who identify as ‘post gay’.…”

– Peter Sanlon at Oak Hill College asks what principles are involved really being tolerant.

The Journalist’s Question

“Last week a journalist came to church. He was covering the compulsory Easter story. He asked one of our staff – ‘Do you think people have stopped coming to church because they have internalised their faith?’

It was a strange question to ask as a huge number of people crowded into the Cathedral…”

– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column.

Women Bishops in the Church of England

“We all know there are within the Church of England those who conscientiously object to the principle of consecrating women bishops. Those people, both lay and ordained, have been reassured on many occasions that they are loyal, faithful Anglicans. They have been reassured there is a place for them – on some occasions it has even been called an honoured place – within the church. They have been told that that place will remain. So far, so good, you may think…”

– Church Society Council member George Curry points out some of the implications of the Church of England’s current trajectory – in the latest issue of CrossWay (PDF file).

Professor versus Cardinal (#qanda)

“…Q&A on ABC television was an Easter Monday special, featuring Professor Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, and Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell for a live discussion of faith, science, and morality. The show’s audience was 863,000, its biggest audience since it covered the 2010 federal election. …

Cardinal Pell is creedally orthodox, and conservative on personal and sexual ethics. However I am very unhappy at having him as a spokesman for biblical Christianity. Because on Q&A, he managed to insult the Jewish people, question the existence of Adam and Eve as merely mythological, forget whether or not God actually inscribed the Ten Commands for Moses… stated that atheists can certainly go to heaven, and pushed the unbiblical ideas of purgatory and transubstantiation…”

– read all of Sandy Grant’s comments at The Briefing.

Related: Nathan Campbell, blogging as “St. Eutychus”, comments on Q&A – and links to raw footage of a Good Friday SBS interview with Archbishop Peter Jensen (scroll down).

Image: ABC TV.

Appalled by some Church leaders’ Easter messages

“Each year at Easter I am regularly disappointed by the comments of prominent church leaders in the media here in Australia. Easter is one of only two times in the year when they know that they’ll receive headline prominence in the newspaper, on radio and in every evening TV news bulletin.

So tell me this … why do the majority squander this amazing opportunity by being irrelevant, off message and even (apparently) bored, disinterested and completely devoid of passion in proclaiming the greatest Message of all?…

Now, please understand something. I am not into denomination bashing which is why I’ve deliberately not named the leaders or the denominations to which I refer…”

– Bernie Dymet (ChristianityWorks.com) voices what others may have been thinking.

Related: One message which we think didn’t miss the mark.

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