I recently wrote about how church discipline should function in the light of the recent Stephen Sizer case. This did prompt one question about what to do with the church discipline process is itself abused. The example was given of a pastor who persistently contacted another church to presurrise them into keeping a former church… Continue reading What if church discipline becomes abusive?
Posts
Princeton, slaveowners and statues again
Once again, there’s a debate rumbling about what to do with a statue of someone from the past. Once again, the issue is that the person concerned had been a slave owner. This time, we’re talking about John Witherspoon, the former president of Princeton. Students at Princeton have been campaigning for Witherspoon’s statue to be… Continue reading Princeton, slaveowners and statues again
Ten you may have missed
Yesterday I published a list of this year’s top ten most read blog articles. It’s often a surprise and sometimes frustrating to see what does and doesn’t make it towards the top of the list. Sometimes you find that people are more interested in a particular subject than you would be, sometimes, something you expect… Continue reading Ten you may have missed
But they are not a racist
I want to come back to one of the points I made when looking at the Tribunal ruling on Stephen Sizer. In previous articles I wrote that I thought it was unhelpful for the panel to engage in an attempt to assess whether Sizer was by nature antisemitic. I argued that they would have done… Continue reading But they are not a racist
Review of the year – top ten articles
It’s time to have a quick look back at 2022. Here’s a list of the top ten blog articles from Faithroots this year. It gives a bit of a clue as to what topical issues and hot topics were of particular interest through the year. In at number 10 and number 9 respectively were articles… Continue reading Review of the year – top ten articles
What did the Unions ever do for us?
This is a question I’ve seen asked a few times over the past few weeks as rail, mail and NHS strikes have started to bite. The response from those supporting/defending union action has been to argue that Unions and Strike action have played a significant role in labour reforms in the UK including better pay/conditions,… Continue reading What did the Unions ever do for us?
A virgin birth and “a conjuring trick with bones”?
A Christmas and Easter tradition on social media seems to be to refer back to the infamous Bishop of Durham, Rev Dr David Jenkins who in the 1980s allegedly denied the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus. I say allegedly because I note that there have been significant attempts to defend Jenkins. Those defences… Continue reading A virgin birth and “a conjuring trick with bones”?
Why we don’t want to weaponise prayer
The other day, I wrote about the lady who was arrested for silently praying outside an abortion clinic. Some commentary made it sound as though a random person, simply passing by and praying had been arrested for a one off, incidental event. The reality was that their arrest followed a series of actions on their… Continue reading Why we don’t want to weaponise prayer
Can we really know God? More on incomprehensibility and the inner life of God
I want to say a little bit more about how and what we know about God following on from the article I wrote the other day and some further discussion. In the first article we observed the following: All of this means, I believe that describing Eternal Generation as revelation does not make the Son… Continue reading Can we really know God? More on incomprehensibility and the inner life of God
The wondrous gift
This is a short message to wish you all a Happy Christmas. What a wonderful way to celebrate the special day by being able to celebrate it on the Lord’s Day. I hope that you are celebrating with great joy and that this includes giving and receiving some fantastic gifts. All of the little presents… Continue reading The wondrous gift
Faithroots 