Category: Culture

Death of the author and murder of the story

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Roland Barthes famously talked about “the death of the author”.  By this he meant that we shouldn’t waste our time attempting to work out and authors intention when writing.  The author’s relationship to the text ends as soon as they have written it. S/he is to all intents and purposes dead to his work and… Continue reading Death of the author and murder of the story

Who knew Charlie Kirk?

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Pretty much every UK based comment from my generation and above have started along the lines of “I hadn’t heard of Charlie Kirk until this week .” Personally I’d heard a little. I knew about Turning Point and had an awareness of some of the politics.  However, I also realised that I had seen a… Continue reading Who knew Charlie Kirk?

Lions, Lionesses and Narnia

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One of the hot rumours about the forthcoming Narnia film is that Meryl Streep has been asked to provide the voice over for Aslan. This has led to further rumours and lots of controversy.  Does this mean that Aslan will be female or possibly in some way transgender. If do how will that affect the… Continue reading Lions, Lionesses and Narnia

An inaccurate hostage situation (spoilers)

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The TV show currently gripping everyone’s attention is Netflix’s Hostage.  The story focuses on a new British Prime Minister whose husband whilst serving with Medicine Sans Frontiere is taken hostage by a terror group with a personal vendetta against the PM.  It’s a great watch for the tension, political intrigued, running, shooting and explosions (if,… Continue reading An inaccurate hostage situation (spoilers)

Why you shouldn’t treat football as trivial

If you know me, then it won’t have escaped your attention that something significant happened in Bradford at the weekend and I was there for it.  The significant thing was a football game.  It is worth pausing there.   Some of you may be choking on your coffee at the suggestion that there is anything significant… Continue reading Why you shouldn’t treat football as trivial

Islamisation? It’s not really about them and that

I am coming back to my response to Aaron Edwards’ articles where he talks about Islamisation of Britian.  Previously I wrote about the need to engage properly with the reality of Islam on the ground and that means listening to Christians who regularly engage with Muslims because they live, worship and witness among them.  However,… Continue reading Islamisation? It’s not really about them and that

A tale of two film reviews

The other day, I published a friend’s review of the film “King of Kings”. I’ve just seen another review from Growing Young Disciples. The differences between the reviews are remarkable. Whilst both are generally positive about the film, the GYD review includes a couple of comments which markedly shift the tone. First, the review asks… Continue reading A tale of two film reviews

A “King’s” review of a film about the King of Kings

Based on El Greco

Sorry, I could not resist the word play. This is a guest post from Ryan Burton King (Pastor, Grace Baptist Church, Wood Green) about a new film coming out over the Easter period. It looks well worth going to see “The King of Kings” is the first major cinematically released animated biblical film since The… Continue reading A “King’s” review of a film about the King of Kings

Thank you for telling me what I think

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Evangelicals Now have published a couple of articles responding to Trump’s inauguration, one from a concerned Evangelical. The other from someone seeking to explain why Trump has evangelical support. Unfortunately most of the article is given over to telling us UK Evangelicals what we think about Trump and why we are mistaken. We are also… Continue reading Thank you for telling me what I think