I'm no prophet but ...

I happened to notice a blog I wrote a few years ago. You can find it here.

Roger Harris, CC BY 3.0
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons

It is Justin Welby capitulating on women bishops. Well, unsurprisiingly, he has now capitulated on homosexual sex too.

He now says “Where we’ve come to, is to say that all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship whether it’s straight or gay.”

So what is next?

Vegan Halal Nail Polish

 

I was surprised to see this in my local pharmacy but it is a thing as you can see from the ad in the corner. It's a modern world.

How it is these days 3 (The C of E)

It is difficult to track down the quotation but it is agreed that Charles Hodge in Old Princeton was one who took immense pride in his oft-repeated claim that there was nothing new or innovative whatsoever in his theology or in that taught at Princeton during his time at the helm.

Contrast that with Justin Welby the present Archbishop of Canterbury. He is widely reported as saying recently, in light of the acceptance of women bishops, “Today we can begin to embrace a new way of being the church and moving forward together”  and “I think it means above all that we have started a completely new phase of our existence as the church."

Of course, it won't stop there. People are already saying that it must be gay bishops next and logically, I suppose, who can blame them? And atheists too and (consenting) cannibals!!!

How it is these days 2 (funding projects)

A very nice local lady phoned me yesterday to ask if I would help spread the word about a project that seeks to turn a rather water logged part of the local park into a marsh garden for the kids. When she mentioned it would be a national lottery funded thing I said that as a church we would probably find it difficult to be involved. When I looked into it further I discovered that it is part of a thing called The People's Millions whereby since 2005 projects have been nominated and then compete against each other for (what is in this case) the £50,000 prize (prizes vary in value).

On a certain day (this one will be next Wednesday) people are encouraged to phone a certain number and the side that manages to organise the most calls (705 of calls are usually organised rather than spontaneous reactions to the TV reports) the £50, 000 (or whatever) for their cause. Calls cost 15p a time and you can make as many as 10 per person. I have tried to discover where this money goes but there is no mention of this. Presumably after BT, the provider, the lottery people and ITV go back to their den and share it out.

I discovered that on average it takes 5,400 votes to win which = £810 (plus however much you get from the losers). So it is only a thousand or so a day that is being raked off but a lot of that will be with no reward for the good hearted people who pay up. Of course, the money has already taken gained from people foolish enough to put money in the national lottery. There must be a better way.

How it is these days 1 (Punishing your kids)

Karl Gabor, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has recently highlighted what a mess parents are in when it comes to punishing their children when they misbehave. Oliver is quoted as saying "It is not very popular beating kids any more, it’s not very fashionable and you are not allowed to do it and if you are a celebrity chef like me it does not look very good in the paper. So you need a few options." Well, what are those options?

Oliver tells a frightening story of how his daughter once showed him disrespect and so, he says, "Five minutes later she thought I had forgotten and I hadn’t. She asked for an apple. I cut it up into several pieces and rubbed it with Scotch Bonnet and it worked a treat." His wife was understandably not happy about this. It involved deception and Oliver apparently thought it was funny.

It is easy to criticise someone for such an action but the real problem is that this child was deprived of a punishment that was just and fair because of the general opposition to such things these days. The sooner Bible based ways of discipline are rediscovered the better for all of us.