Tag: COVID-19

Pantomime Farce

Yesterday I wrote defending the Christmas easing of lockdown.  I demonstrated awful timing.  By the end of the day, the 5 day period for seeing family was reduced down to Christmas Day itself and only for those who could travel locally Meanwhile, in the south of England a new tier 4 was introduced banning family… Continue reading Pantomime Farce

In defence of the government’s Christmas COVID measures

The UK government has come in for a lot of criticism for its response to COVID-19. Some of it has been spot on, some of it less so and some of it I would suggest completely unfairly.  The reality is that a Global pandemic hitting on the back of a decade of austerity was always… Continue reading In defence of the government’s Christmas COVID measures

We are literally broken by our hyperbole

Every year, my wife and I have a kind of traditional conversation. I ask her what she is working on and she tells me that she is preparing the “persuasive writing” class for her students where they will learn about a number of rhetorical devises.  I then respond with a grumble about how that is… Continue reading We are literally broken by our hyperbole

The year we were given

2020 was not the year we asked for and not the year we expected.  A lot of people had focused on the big number year and its association with vision as a significant milestone to aim for. We all had 2020 visions.  Others also because of the symmetry of the year had planned big wedding… Continue reading The year we were given

Journey out of lockdown – return to the Church building with communion

Yesterday was our first opportunity to meet again physically after the second English lockdown.  After the first lockdown, we kept things simple at the building. We decided not  to recommence communion and we continued to stream a Facebook service from someone’s home which people could then opt to watch at the building. Yesterday we did… Continue reading Journey out of lockdown – return to the Church building with communion

The vaccine and abortion (3) Doing ethics from three perspectives

There are three general approaches to how we make ethical decisions. Sometimes in history they have functioned as competing schools of thought but some contemporary thinkers (particularly John Frame) suggest that in fact we need all three perspectives to make decisions.  I’m going to outline them here – probably a little (a lot?) simplified for… Continue reading The vaccine and abortion (3) Doing ethics from three perspectives

The vaccine and abortion (2) How do we make ethical decisions?

The other day. I posted an article looking at the moral dilemma created by the fact that over the years, those creating vaccines have relied on cells harvested from aborted embryos in order to cultivate vaccines.  A few people began to openly wrestle with the implications to this.  They expressed discomfort at the news and… Continue reading The vaccine and abortion (2) How do we make ethical decisions?

The vaccine and abortion

I’ve seen a range of reasons given over the past few months for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available.  Some of them are understandable including concerns about whether we know about all potential side effects yet. Some people see it as a freedom issue, although as things stand, the vaccine won’t be compulsory,… Continue reading The vaccine and abortion

Learning to See – Navigating the scientific experiments and studies during COVID-19

This is a guest post from a medical perspective from Mark Surg.  In recent weeks and months we seen a flurry of research to do with the COVID-19 pandemic shared and commented on. It seems at times that people tend to choose the research that suits their own narrative.  I thought it would be helpful… Continue reading Learning to See – Navigating the scientific experiments and studies during COVID-19