Category: Personal
-
Sexual harassment in schools: is education the answer?
I’ve noticed a spate of worrying articles coming out over the past year or two. It seems that sexual harassment is on the rise among young people – especially in schools. It’s becoming such a problem that earlier this year MPs launched an enquiry into it. This is something which is especially an issue for young…
-
King Saul and King Jesus: Thoughts on 1 Samuel 10
In the past few weeks at church we’ve been working our way through the Bible, trying to get the ‘big picture’ of the whole Bible story. This week we reached 1 Samuel 10, where God chooses Saul to be the next King of Israel and Saul is anointed by the prophet Samuel. It’s a fascinating…
-
Genesis 3 and Gender
This morning I was preaching on Genesis 3 – ‘the fall of man’. It’s a fascinating passage, very carefully and cleverly constructed, and bears studying carefully. One of the things I noticed in my preparation time but didn’t really have time to elaborate on in the passage is the way gender is portrayed. In Genesis 1-2,…
-
Happy Christmas!
Happy Christmas to one and all! I’m sorry for being a bit light on the blogging front this year, but thank you everyone for engaging. I’ve just returned from our candlelit carols service, and we looked at the difference between Santa and Jesus. At the end of the service we had this reading, which I’ll…
-
Review: The Plausibility Problem
I’ve just finished reading The Plausibility Problem by Ed Shaw. The book is subtitled “The Church and Same-Sex Attraction”, and I can understand why that might immediately put people off: surely, we don’t need yet another book on the church’s view of sex? And this is exactly the reason I wanted to write this brief review:…
-
Finishing College and Ordination
Those of you who have been paying attention will know that I’ve spent the last three years of my life in North London, studying for full-time Christian ministry in the Church of England at Oak Hill College. Well, those three years have positively flown by, and in the next two weeks I am going to finish…
-
Steve Chalke and the Bible vs Hebrews
Steve Chalke wants to start a global discussion about the Bible – see the video here or the document here. You may remember, he made his views on same-sex marriage clear last year, and I commented then that I didn’t agree with his understanding of Scripture. He’s gone one step further this time, but I don’t want…
-
Two Cheers for Human Rights?
The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. – G.K. Chesterton: “Orthodoxy” I read an article about a month ago called “Two Cheers for Human Rights“. It was published on 27th December so I…
-
Paedophilia and Orientation
I read something interesting today: the American Psychiatric Association (APA) now classifies Paedophilia as an orientation: In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), the American Psychiatric Association (APA) drew a very distinct line between pedophilia and pedophilic disorder. Pedophilia refers to a sexual orientation or profession of…
-
Surviving Parenthood
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times now, lately I have become a Dad. Now that Lydia is four weeks old, I thought it might be worth sitting down to type up a few reflections on my experience so far. It may be interesting to look back on, and if anyone else out there is…