As a bill comes before parliament to legalise assisted dying, James argues that the real issues going on here are to do with mortality and the desire to be in control. To think clearly, we need to recover confidence in the sovereignty of God, our own mortality, and God's judgement and grace.
4 facts about Facebook advertising that ad up to a big problem:
Our church produces a quarterly magazine that goes, free, to every household in our parish. It's called The Well.
As vicar, I get to write a letter near the front of each issue, in which I seek briefly to bring a Christian perspective to bear on some contemporary issue or other.
Yesterday evening, I attended a General Election hustings organised by Churches Together in Sevenoaks and District. All 6 candidates for the Sevenoaks Constituency attended, and did a good job at tackling a range of questions fairly efficiently. The event was full, with most seats in the large nave of St Nicholas Sevenoaks taken. The tone was positive and engaging.
Coming away, I had a few thoughts, that I share here in no particular order.
Start with a couple concerning how Christians engage with politics.
Some regular readers may know I'm a fan of a free market.
That's to say: When someone buys something, and someone else correspondingly sells, it should be a free exchange. Both parties are convinced that they would rather buy / sell than remain as they are. Which means the price is whatever price is fair and agreeable to both parties.
I think it is harmful if the state interferes and tries to control prices on things.
As part of my sabbatical study, I've been reading the late Mike Ovey's book, Your Will Be Done: Exploring Eternal Subordination, Divine Monarchy and Divine Humility.
I'd forgotten Mike's love of the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, and his concept of "the tyranny of the majority".
On page 119, Mike has a pertinent quotation from De Tocqueville's Democracy in America, I.xv:
Yesterday, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, gave a speech at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference in Manchester.
In many ways it was a very fine speech. He spoke out for the needs of the poorer members of society with clarity, compassion and awareness of the issues:
The BBC reports a fascinating development at this year's Pride march in London, which took place last Saturday (8th July 2018).
Here's the summary from the beginning of that BBC report:
Members of lesbian and feminist group Get The L Out demanded to march behind the rainbow flag, which marks the start of the event, organisers said.
The group argues the trans movement is attacking lesbian rights and said it protested to protect those rights.
With the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, people are discussing remarriage after divorce. Why do some clergy allow this and some not? Does this undermine the teaching that marriage is for life? Let's try and think clearly.
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