Interesting BBC news items

It's official. it's not just pie in the sky. Christians are happier then athiests NOW.

The least biased BBC article on homosexuality ever.

God still works

For some time I have been praying for suitible opportunity to say things that I needed to say (well, accrued confessions, actually) to someone. They had been weighing on my mind, and i wanted to speak, but whenever it seemed like it might be the time, the words stuck in my throat. When she was in a good mood, I didn't want to spoil it, when she was down, it ws clearly not kind to dump more on her. So I prayed. And the next day, etc.

Eventually I picked up the Bible - the Message [massage?] version. In Corinthians, talikng about the man who had his fathers wife and the church is told not to accept it, the message says something like "Of course, he will be devastated, and you will be embarrassed, but isn't devastation and embarrasment better than damnation?" So I knew it was now time to speak. Next time I met the person (5 mins later), God in his mercy steered the conversation naturally so that the topic was right and the mood was right so that I could add my piece without it seeming artificial or out of place or bigger than it really was. And so: no devastation, only a little embarrasment, no damnation, and a lot of peace.

What a good God we have, eh?

16th Century Replayed

I have just been hauled over the coals by the Catholic lady in my workplace fellowship. You may recall a few posts ago, I discussed her views on praying to saints. Well, apparently she took offence at me because I was too forceful, appeared to be trying to convert her, and kept quoting the Bible when she couldn’t respond in those terms because as she herself says Catholics don’t study the Bible. She also took the opportunity to assert her church’s position about tradition being equal or superior to Scripture, and that they are the oldest church so they are right.

Hmmmm.

I hold my hand up to the accusations of coming on too strong etc. I am passionate about what I believe, and I believe it is right….obviously if I didn’t believe it was right I wouldn’t believe it.

And yes, I do want to ‘convert’ people – if I believe that what I believe is right then obviously I want to convince them that that is so.

But I don’t want to upset people. I don’t want to browbeat them into submission, or leave hem stewing in anger over the Christmas holidays. I want them to hit me back! I want them to tell me why I am wrong, to challenge my assumptions, to show me scriptures I have missed, to show how my tradition is of less value than theirs. I expect them to treat me the way I treat them.

The trouble is, in any sphere of communication, although both people may be speaking English they may still be speaking a different language. In this case, I can quote Scripture at her till I am blue in the face, and she won’t budge an inch. She can quote tradition at me till she is blue in the face, but I only regard it as interesting and informative not authoritative – full of blunders as it is – and I won’t budge an inch.

So I can only pray for the Holy Spirit to illuminate us – to take from tradition what is right and good, and to understand the Scriptures and how they apply to us. To know what is worth mutual excommunication, and to know what is just diversity within the kingdom. For me particularly, in my role as a Licensed Reader and hence a recognised Teacher, to know how to go about that Teaching without being obnoxious about it.

Biblical inerrancy.

Rev Sam put me on to this, which I have found to be very helpful.

It shows that in some of my posts and comments on other blogs on the topic of inerrancy I have fallen into the usual pit of interpreting American words in a British context. The inerrancy i have been defending is not the same as the inerrancy that has been attacked.

Small World

On the beach I randomly met an old friend. The tide was coming in threatening a pile of shoes left by another family on the beach. I warned them about the danger – it turned out to be my former project manager who was a Rivers and Coastal engineer…and I was lecturing him about the tide coming in! As well as being my former manager he was also a college friend, a keen Muslim with whom I had had extensive theological debates. We swapped a Bible for a Quran. He is now the chief executive of a major Islamic institution in the UK. So it was good to catch up and remind him that some Christians are OK.