Fancy identifying as a cat?

A cat's face merged with a girl's faceNot that anybody did, but the idea has done the rounds of the mass media.

I am following Nesrine Malik. At a Year 8 class in a school in Rye, it seems, a heated debate took place between some schoolgirls and their teacher. The kind of debate that takes place every day in every school. One of the girls recorded it – again, the kind of thing anyone can do.

Continue reading

Posted in Ethics, Society, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Boris Johnson and the misuse of democracy

Boris Johnson's head falling from the Houses of Parliament

Background photo by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabayy

So Boris Johnson has resigned. In a hurry, and in a huff. The man who won the last British general election with a colossal majority was later told by his own party to give up being Prime Minister and now, faced with a legal procedure establishing that he broke his own Covid rules, resigns from Parliament altogether.

This kind of thing shouldn’t happen in a well-run democracy. How did it happen?

Continue reading

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What should governments value?

Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry

This is a British question. For the best part of another two years, Britain is stuck with a government that seems not to know what it is supposed to be doing. Lots of people are on strike, mainly people providing essential services – nurses, doctors, teachers, railway workers – and the Government just doesn’t seem to care. The most they do is say they can’t afford to give them more, while at the same time spending taxpayers’ money on luxuries like private jet rides. There is a widespread sense that, although we have to wait a while longer, their time is up. We will then reach the end of this era.

But what kind of era will replace it? What do we want instead?

Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Environment, Ethics, Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why does it take an archbishop to crown a king?

The Archbishop of Canterbury crowning King Charles IIIThere is a reason. It’s rooted in religious sensibilities since prehistoric times. But it’s a reason that only works with some religious traditions, not others.

This post describes why: why we can’t escape the religious significance of coronations, but also why the significance expresses an oppressive kind of religion.

Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Ethics, God, Politics, Society | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

National Conservatism and cuckoo religion

Cuckoo‘National conservatism could set us on a path to post-brexit prosperity’, write David Frost and Jacob Rees-Mogg in the Daily Telegraph, as they advertise the forthcoming National Conservatism conference the week after next.

The movement trumpets its commitment to God, religion, the Bible and Christianity. This post argues that their values conflict with any such commitment.

Continue reading

Posted in God, Politics, Society, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A first century Jewish resurrection

Computer at the tomb saying 'Error 404 Google cannot find the body'In my last post I described the difference between modern debates about the resurrection of Jesus and what the New Testament authors said about it.

The implication is that if we want to understand what the New Testament authors meant, we have to ask what resurrection would have meant to first century Jews.

Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ancient and Modern Resurrection

William Blake, Christ Appearing to the Apostles After the Resurrection, c. 1795

William Blake, Christ Appearing to the Apostles After the Resurrection, c. 1795

Jesus rose from the dead. Therefore Christianity is true.

People don’t rise from the dead. When you die you stay dead. It’s one of the laws of nature.

God can break the laws of nature. Oh no he can’t. Can. Can’t. Can. Can’t.

So runs the modern debate. For 150 years people have been writing books saying Christianity and science are incompatible, so you can’t believe in both.

I’m so used to hearing this that it took me a long time to realise what’s wrong. The New Testament stories of the Resurrection are talking about something completely different.

Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Science, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

20 years on, have we learned anything?

Troops invading IraqIt wasn’t just Tony Blair.

He certainly got it wrong about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and that was his main argument in favour of attacking.

But what if Iraq had had them? How would that have added up to a reason for invading?

Continue reading

Posted in Ethics, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Britain’s spiritual leader: a football commentator

Small boat full of peopleThe British Government’s ‘Small Boats Bill’ – technically the Illegal Migration Bill – has been condemned for breaking eight fundamental rights – including the home secretary’s duty to protect people from being killed and to prevent inhumane and degrading treatment.

But serious debate about it has been overshadowed by the identity of its most celebrated opponent. So how has it fallen to a football commentator to express the moral heart of the nation?

Continue reading

Posted in Ethics, Society | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Praying for peace in Ukraine

Map of Ukraine surrounded by hands

Image by Pixabay

Yes, I know, a lot of people are praying for peace, and a fat lot of good it’s doing. Why doesn’t God listen to us?

Maybe that’s because we are not listening to God. The point of praying is not to make God see things our way, but so that we see things God’s way. Even if you don’t believe in God, imagining God like this may help break down the common Western assumption that we know what should be done.

Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorised | 3 Comments