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Well, Wednesday night was the last meeting of this year’s Moore Course module. We’ve been studying Ephesians, as I’ve mentioned before. (Well, I think I’ve mentioned it… can’t be bothered to go back and check now!)

I don’t know why but I feel like it’s not been quite as good as previous Moore Course modules that we’ve done. It just seemed to be based around a particular commentary a little too much. Sometimes the book would make statements which didn’t seem to be backed up by any of the verses it quoted – which I think is probably because the line of argument was traced through properly in the commentary, but not in the book.

Either way, I’m not sure about it. My exam marks over the past few years have been going steadily down – the weird thing is, I’ve been putting more time into revising since the first one! So this year I don’t know what I should do, perhaps if I spend less time revising I’ll do better… the exam is on 27th, so we have a little while anyway. No reason to stress about it either, whatever happens – whether I pass or fail – it’s not going to really affect my life in any meaningful way!

So, this weekend it’s the Proclamation Trust Bible Training Weekend. I’d post a link but I’M USING IE6 WHICH DOESN’T HAVE TABBED FRIGGIN BROWSING! *ahem* Apologies, it’s just that using IE6 is such an awful experience it’s actually almost painful.

Aaaaanyway. I thought I would do a bit of “Live Blogging” from the conference. Live Blogging, as defined by me, is blogging when you’re actually at the event, rather than looking back at it afterwards. That’s not the normal definition of live blogging. I don’t care. Talk to the hand…

So. As Wayne from “Wayne’s World” once said, let me bring you up to speed. I had the day off today (as I have the past couple of days). After lunch I headed over to pick up Quinlan, who I was travelling to the weekend with. Unfortunately I was about 25 minutes late (due to roadworks and getting lost, don’t ask), but we eventually headed off in his VW Beetle. Which I was driving. I think he quite likes being chauffered (he is a world-famous architect after all…) and so I drove. It was the first time I’ve driven a Beetle – new or old (this is an 04 model) and it seemed pretty nice. Standard VW really – drove well, steering felt light, decent engine. I did miss my Saab’s 2.0 litre turbocharged engine though – it really eats up the motorway miles and is pretty efficient. You could virtually see the fuel guage move on the VW!

Anyway. We got here at about 17:50, which gave me ten minutes to find my room and get to the first meeting. I managed to get there but stupidly forgot my Bible, notbook, pen, programme etc… looked over someone’s shoulder for most of it. It was OK though! The first session was from Adrian Reynolds on Ezra chapter 1, which was very interesting. Then we had dinner (Beef Chilli, nice, and some sort of chocolate cheesecake, also nice).

And then we had our second session, which was by Christopher Ash on Old Testament Narrative. I really enjoyed it actually, it gave a good taster of what we’re going to be studying this weekend. Won’t go into it now though as, well… if you’ve read this far you’re doing well.

Think that’s about it to be honest. After that I just chatted with some random people and started writing this blog… exciting stuff! To be honest I don’t have much else to say right now, so I’ll say ta-ta for now. We have some free time tomorrow aftenoon so I might update again then.

I don’t know if you’ve heard about it, but over the past week or so there’s been a bit of an outcry about a website called “Marital Affairs”. Well, it wasn’t actually the website itself, it was an advert for the website which as far as I can tell has been posted up nationwide.

Anyway, someone wrote a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about it, the ASA rejected the complaint, someone set up a Facebook group, etc etc. If you’ve not heard it already, you can read the background here.

Anyway, apparently the ASA have now upheld the complaint and taken the adverts down (see the Church Times article). One thing I wanted to pick up on is the ASA’s response after giving in and ordering the adverts to be taken down. They said: “people have the right to choose their own lifestyle” – which presumably is why they didn’t take the adverts down in the first place.

Now, I wouldn’t consider myself ultra-conservative or anything. But that statement strikes me as being a bit odd: Yes, people can choose their own lifestyles. But would you allow advertising that positively encouraged bad traits – such as breaking promises, letting other people down, acting selfishly? Because that’s effectively what they’re doing with the Marital Affairs advert – by allowing it they are tacitly saying, “It’s OK. Go on, have an affair. It’s your lifestyle, after all.”

My view is, when two people get married, they make a commitment to each other. If you get married in a church (specifically CofE, I think the wording is very similar in other churches) you agree to be faithful to each other for as long as you both shall live. I think those are beautiful words, but they are not just words: it’s a promise you make. If you go into marriage thinking that you’re not going to be able to keep that promise, you might as well not bother.

Adultery, or marital infidelity, whatever you want to call it, wrecks marriages. Even if the couple manage to stay together things can rarely be the same. It’s not just a broken promise, it’s actually potentially wrecking people’s lives.

And, given how the tabloids react when a famous person gets caught having an affair (for a recent example see Tiger Woods), I think most people would go one further and say that having an affair is actually an immoral action.

So, come on ASA, for goodness’ sake, what the heck are you playing at? Yes, people can choose their own lifestyles, and having an affair isn’t (and shouldn’t be) illegal, but it’s hardly advisable to promote a website which allows people to indulge in such a thing is it?

Here endeth the rant…

My latest article on Crossring is up. It’s based on Mark 6:14-29 (the death of John the Baptist).

You can read it here :)

My first article in the Crossring “Mark Marathon” has been published. It is entitled “Is Jesus Calling You Today?” and may be read here. The passage is Mark 1:14-20, although I spend most of the time dealing with the first couple of verses!

… Crossring’s coming back!

A few years ago I was involved with a site called Crossring, started up by a friend of mine called Simon. It was undoubtedly one of the best Christian websites around for young-ish people (I think it started off being aimed towards students, but we reached a lot of different people).

Anyway, due to no-one having the time to maintain it the website shut down, but come September 1st it will be back up again at the old address! Simon has asked me to write a few articles over the next few months – the initial series will be on Mark’s gospel. I’ve been busy writing the first one over the past week or so.

So, if you’re interested in Christian things, come 1st September do check it out – but in the meantime, if you’re a Twitter user you can follow the Crossring Twitter account for updates.

I’m currently watching Torchwood “Children of Earth” day four. It’s very interesting… but note that spoilers are contained within. So if you haven’t seen it yet, now would be a good time to stop reading ;)

The story so far: the 456 (or four-five-six, the aliens) have demanded 10% of the world’s children. It seems that they’re running some sort of protection racket: give us what we want, or we’ll wipe out your species. What I don’t quite understand is… if they want children so badly, why don’t they just wipe out the population and take them? If they do indeed have the power to wipe out everyone on the planet, why don’t they just do it?

I think they’re bluffing. But we’ll see!

One other thing about Torchwood I forgot to mention the other day which annoyed me. When Gwen was interviewing the doctor who wanted to join Torchwood, he said that one of the reasons he was interested was because of a woman who committed suicide. Apparently she was a devout Christian, and when she found out that aliens were real she couldn’t take it… “science had won”, she said. She realised that her place in the universe was, well, tiny. This annoyed me, because even if there were aliens, that would say nothing about the relationship between science and Christianity. It seemed bizarre – it was just perpetuating the myth that science and religion are in conflict. Lazy writing, in my opinion! Anyway, just a little rant.

I blame all this on Richard Dawkins and the so-called “new atheists”, they have a lot to answer for. Anyway, I’ll stop rambling on about Torchwood and science and stuff ;)

This Sunday@6 service at Fordham will be a youth service. Yours Truly is doing the talk, on “What good is it to gain the whole world but lose your soul?” I’m a bit nervous to be honest, it’s the first time I’ve done a talk at Fordham so the pressure is on!

I’ve spoken to Andy [assistant minister at Fordham] about the contents and he had some helpful suggestions. But I still feel like I don’t have enough experience doing these kind of talks. Still, it’s all part of getting experience, hopefully it will be good enough!

I ordered a new laptop yesterday. Phil has had her laptop – an old Sony Vaio – for about six years now, and it’s showing signs of aging. Actually, to be more precise, it was showing signs of aging three years ago (when we got married). It only has 256 megs of RAM, with a fairly small / slow hard disk – which means it crawls along when trying to do anything more complicated than… well, it crawls along no matter what you do.

We’ve been talking about getting a new one for a long time, but I finally decided enough was enough and ordered a shiny new Dell Inspiron yesterday. I managed to get a fairly decent deal (I think) – dual core Intel processor with 4GB RAM and a 250GB hard disk for around £400. OK, I probably could have got a better deal by shopping around, but I like Dell – my old company used to buy loads of stuff from them and we never had any problems. I’ve had a Dell desktop PC for about four years now and, again, had no problems with it.

So, that should be arriving within the next two weeks, rather exciting :)

The other thing I wanted to mention is the BioLogos website. BioLogos was established by Francis Collins (director of the Human Genome project), and contains lots of interesting information about science and faith. I found the questions on the fall of man and Noah’s ark particularly helpful.

So if you have an interest in Christianity and science, I would recommend it! :)

I was meaning to blog about this a few weeks ago but I happened across this article on the BBC news website today and it reminded me.

The BNP are using Jesus’ words in a poster campaign to try and garner support from the Christian community. The exact quote they are using is, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:20). Let’s leave behind the fact that this rather ignores the context (Jesus immediately follows this by saying “If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.”, and the whole thing is set within the context of people being rejected because they follow Christ).

The BNP just seem to be using the same tactic they use with all their other campaigns: fear and paranoia (or, as geeks like to put it, FUD: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt – what Microsoft like to spread about their competitors. But that’s another story). They bandy about the cry that we are “losing our national identity”. In this case, they claim that we are losing our Christian identity.

Now (to borrow a phrase from Gavin & Stacey) I won’t lie to you – I am a bit concerned about the spread of Islam in this country. But not because it’s somehow eroding our Christian identity and values or what have you.

In my opinion, Christianity should not spread by legislation or force. God’s kingdom is a heavenly kingdom, not made by human hands. Take these words, for example:

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)

Which, to me, seems to highlight the problems with the BNP’s approach. On their poster, the BNP conclude with the words “What Would Jesus Do?” (their emphasis). I think we know the answer to that question. And it’s definitely not what the BNP would do.

I just hope that the BNP’s usage of this poster campaign won’t make people think that the Christians in this country actually endorse their message!