To live consistently as a follower of Jesus in a counter cultural way is one thing – to do so in regard of keeping the law is quite another. Being counter culture could be no more than being nice to your neighbours or not rushing out to buy the latest in iphone technology but to be consistent with the law, to live up to its requirements is something very different and far harder to accomplish.

And yet this is ...

Introduction

Evan Roberts was a sham revivalist and Peter Price, his arch-critic at the time, was the true voice of God during 1904-05 Welsh revival. When did you ever read a Christian author making these points? The answer, of course, is never. All we’ve ever read says quite the reverse. And yet the truth, I would contend, lies somewhere in between these two polemical points. Our history, however, seems to have been inf...

Never have so many parrots been sickened for so little pleasure by so few inept footballers – or so Churchill may have said were he still alive today. The poor man must be spinning. But before we blame the players – maybe even instead of blaming them – we should consider the role inflexible leadership had in yesterday’s poor performance.

As the leader directly responsible for the England team, we should begin with ...

So the plans for securing the reestablishment of ancient Britain under Welsh rule are progressing well these days – though seeing a Barry born woman become the Aussies’ first female prime minister was a bit unexpected. She used to be minister for education – thus proving her Welsh origin – but she’s also described as a straight talker, so obviously her many years down under have given her extra skills. Being a rep...

For the effect of an upside down Kingdom value to be itself turned upside down really is a difficult concept to hold onto! But this is what Jesus seems to be saying in his words about being salt and light (Matt 5:13-16). In the previous paragraph Jesus says that being his follower will draw persecution; in this one he says that it will get people glorifying God. Confused? I am – no wonder I keep getting migraines!

To be a foll...

I’ll jump straight in – for this probably won’t be a popular post – but I think that overall and considering how bad the country’s debts are, that was a fair budget. Is it right to freeze child allowance for three years? No, I don’t suppose it is. What about the VAT hike – well it will hit the poorest the hardest, no doubt. So there are some negatives in there, I accept.

But overall this was fair. ...

Homosexuality is an ideology that is being imposed upon us by the new Conservative government. Or so suggests a leading Christian campaigning group as it calls on its followers to protest against the government’s equality agenda. Christian Concern for our Nation refers to the newly published equality programme by Home Secretary, Theresa May, as a ‘major departure from the views held’ by her ‘personally and by her party mo...

In London people protest when talk of building a ‘super-mosque’ is in the air; in Barcelona they want to ban the burqa; in Switzerland they want to ban minarets. All over Europe, it seems there is a backlash against Islam and so often Christians are to be found among those protesting. Living in a plural society – a society with many faiths and none – is obviously a difficult concept in the 21^st century.

Last week I gave an update on some changes in our village following (hopefully!) my praying into a sense that a blanket of poverty was holding people down here. We’ve seen the post office re-fitted and the pub is in a similar process at the moment and I also noticed this week that the snooker hall has also had some work done on it (new windows, door etc) and though not a business it does give a feeling that the village is getti...

Can a society ever recover from the wounds of imperial power that have created deep bitterness and resentment? Can a community torn in two by national and religious differences ever be made whole, where both sides feel accepted, valued and equal? What role does justice and the pursuit and punishment of the guilty have to play in ensuring this wholeness? These are the deeper questions raised and as yet unanswered following t...

The ethnic tensions and violence in Kyrgyzstan is becoming a feature on our news bulletins. It is yet another example of nations struggling to conduct their lives following the gaining of independence from colonial powers. One sad feature of this pattern is that people of different ethnic, religious, or some other backgrounds turn against each other – an indication, perhaps, of the effects of that old colonial t...

It’s been a while since I last posted on Stuart Murray’s Post-Christendom. The last post was my resume from the book of what empire church is like. If you want a reminder of where Murray has taken us so far it may be worth spending some time reading that post which deals with the legacy given to us by Christendom.

In chapter 8 Murray begins to suggest some ways forward in this the beginning of the post-Chris...

It is not a coincidence that those listed as being blessed after the peacemakers are those who are persecuted (Matt 5:10-12). To be a peacemaker in a world that has learned the perverse value of confrontation is no easy task and will surely draw opposition. But in the face of such opposition Jesus is saying that the correct stance to take is to be one of peacemaking.

Today in the west and in the UK especially the...

Rather than give you more teaching in this post, I thought I would update you on some progress made in our own village of Brynsiencyn. At the beginning of this current process of prayer-walking I used to take Ruth (the dog) to some open land by the children’s play area so that I could throw a ball for her and pray at the same time. The prayers began in a very general way for the first few times but as I asked G...

Yesterday I was sent an email by some friends forwarding an email doing the rounds about a petition in the US calling for Christian broadcasting on television to be banned. The petition was, apparently, gaining much support with nearly 300,000 signatories and was calling for people like Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen to be silenced on the airwaves. The email encouraged recipients to sign a counter petition in order ...

Today the polling company YouGov have released their findings from a survey on British attitudes towards Islam. Headline figures include the following stats: 58% associate Islam with extremism; 40% do not believe Muslims have a positive impact on society; and 70% believe it is a religion that represses women. Astoundingly some 50% link it with terrorism.

It shouldn’t take us much thinking time to realise how i...

Check out this excellent link on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It gives you an opportunity to ‘move’ the spill on Google maps and place it over a region you know well. I typed in Anglesey only to see that the spill would actually cover the whole of Wales and more. If one wasn’t aware of the enormity of the situation beforehand, then this map certainly presses the point home.

The thing that strikes m...

Of all the Kingdom values and virtues listed by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount it is being a peacemaker that we have moved farthest away from. We struggle with some of the others, too – especially being poor – but peacemaking is probably the one we have most difficulty with. Few Christians today would renounce the use of violence even though the church in the first three hundred years of its existence did ju...