Current affairs

« Previous Entries

Jesus and Kim Jong-un - 2 January 2012

The New Year message from the government of North Korea called upon the people of that country to defend their new leader Kim Jong-un to the death.

Jesus apparently thought things should be the other way round.

Illegal abortions - 9 December 2011

Roughly 200,000 abortions take place in the UK each year. The legal justification for about 98% of these is that they are necessary to safeguard the mental health of the mother.

However, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has released the results of new research, regarded as “the most comprehensive and systematic review to date into the link between abortion and mental health problems.” This research ” has confirmed that women who have an unplanned pregnancy are at an increased risk of experiencing mental health problems after an abortion” (source: Christian Concern).

In other words, far from improving the mental health of the mother, an abortion is likely to worsen it.

These results imply, furthermore, that the “mental health” grounds for abortion can no longer be justified in law, since they are not supported by the best medical evidence. For doctors to authorise abortions on this basis, according to Dr Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship, would be illegal.

Dithering isn’t going to help - 7 December 2011

Douglas Wilson gives some helpful advice about public theology in the UK:

“I think UK Christians ought to dedicate themselves with solemn oaths and vows to be as culturally inappropriate as they can possibly be. Their nation is in peril – it might be past the point of no return – and dithering isn’t going to help anything.”

And there’s more. Get it here.

Not Ashamed 2011 - 25 November 2011

It’s that time of year again. 1 December 2011 is Not Ashamed Day. Click the logo for more information.

Creating wealth ex nihilo - 23 November 2011

I don’t always find myself in agreement with Nick Robinson, Political Editor at the BBC, but this article entitled “Ten things about your money and how they spend it” contains some shrewd observations. Here are some of the most intriguing ones:

On the subject of who pays how much tax, “Some 60% of households are net recipients from the Treasury … The top 10% of households contribute, on average, five times more than they get back … The top 1% of earners – just 300,000 people – pay 27% of all income tax.”

On the subject of what we pay for, “In 2010-11, we spent more paying interest on our national debt than we did defending the realm.” That’s alarming, since defending the realm is one of the few activities of our government that the Bible actually says they should be doing.

On the subject of debt and deficits, “Deficits have been a feature of British political life for decades. In the early 1990s, for instance, John Major’s Conservative government ran up a deficit of more than £50bn, or £77bn in today’s money. The deficit which the coalition inherited is much bigger.” What – we owe money? Who knew?

On the subject of who’s to blame for the mess, “For much of the last 30 years, our politicians have promised higher spending, and lower taxes – and we’ve encouraged them.” Correct. The reason our rulers have spent years telling us lies about their ability to create wealth ex nihilo is that we have elected precisely those rulers misguided enough to do so.

But now those lies are finally coming home to roost in a big way – in the form of massive public debt. And the Great British Public is turning its ire on… you guessed it… the government. It’s a bit like Israel blaming a famine on Baal.

Here’s the heart of the problem: our rulers are only people, just like us. They’re not God. So they can print fivers, but they can’t produce real wealth out of thin air. By insisting that they attempt the impossible, we have turned the ordinary men and women who rule us into idols, and now we’re surprised that they can’t save us. Whenever you turn a created thing into an idol, you ruin it.

God has given us the rulers we deserve. We have sown the wind, and now we will reap the whirlwind.

The next President of the USA? - 18 August 2011

I know next to nothing about US politics. Really, next to nothing at all. Certainly not enough to commend one candidate over another in the pre-election rumbles that have now taken hold of the American media.

However, for what it’s worth (not much, given those caveats), I’m impressed with what this guy says. Not, I hasten to add, because I know anything much about him or his policies. But because he’s got the courage not only to nail his Christian convictions to the mast (that doesn’t take much in Republican America…), but also to connect them to actual policy positions in his manifesto. At one point, he even comes close to saying, “We should do x because the Bible says so.”

Furthermore, when he makes connections of this kind, he makes connections that to my mind seem right. Not the familiarly anaemic “The Bible says we should ‘Do justice’, therefore let’s tax the rich and give to the poor,” but the rather more robust and controversial “The Bible says we should use honest weights and measures, so printing money in private to give to rich bankers is sinful, even if the printing presses are owned by the government.”

Make your own mind up. Here are a couple of clips from his personal Statement of Faith:

I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and I endeavor every day to follow Him in all I do and in every position I advocate.

It is God Who gave us life. As He is free, so are those He created in His image. Our rights to life and liberty are inalienable.

As I trained to practice medicine, I became convinced without a doubt that life begins at the moment of conception. I never performed an abortion, and I never once found an abortion necessary to save the life of the mother. In fact, I successfully helped women struggling with their pregnancies to seek other options, including adoption.

We must stand for life – not allow millions of innocent children to continue to be slaughtered with the government’s approval.

We must follow the Biblical mandate of using honest weights and measures – not printing money out of thin air in almost complete secrecy and then handing it over to oppressive dictators.

We must only send our men and women to fight for our country when the mission is clear, every necessary tool needed to win is provided, and we respect the Constitution by declaring war.

Once war is declared, it must be waged according to Just War principles. We should only fight when it’s in our national security interest, and we should no longer do the corrupt United Nation’s bidding by policing the world.

In Congress, I never vote for any piece of legislation that violates the Constitution’s strict limits on government power. I also do not participate in the congressional pension system.

That explains (almost) everything - 12 August 2011

A friend of mine says he’s not seen the Hayak/Keynes rap. Yikes – how do you expect to understand the FTSE without it?

Here goes…

The Road to Serfdom - 11 August 2011

Prime Minister David Cameron has indicated that he will do “whatever it takes” to restore order following the recent riots. The measures he has in mind could, if enacted, grant considerable new powers to police and the courts.

For example:

Plans to look at whether wider powers of curfew and dispersal orders were needed
New powers for police to order people to remove facemasks where criminality is suspected
Courts could be given tougher sentencing powers
Landlords could be given more power to evict criminals from social housing
Plans to extend the system of gang injunctions across the country and build on anti-gang programmes, similar to those in the US

All that, coupled with the promise of new “welfare” measures:

The government would meet the cost of “legitimate” compensation claims and the time limit for applying would increase from 14 to 42 days
A £10m Recovery Scheme to provide additional support to councils in making areas “safe, clean and clear”
A new £20m high street support scheme to help affected businesses get back up and running quickly
Plans for the government to meet the immediate costs of emergency accommodation for families made homeless

Uh oh… we’ve seen this before. And economist F. A. Hayek saw it first in The Road to Serfdom.

Check out the full cartoon version here. We’re at the end of stage 9, and could be about to enter stage 10.

Don’t just blame the police or the politicians – we asked for this in the years following the Second World War when we started to put our trust in Prince Welfare (Ps 146:3).

The donkey challenge - 24 June 2011

Numerous versions of the following story are all over the web, deployed in various contexts – normally in support of some kind of campaign against government bailouts (hence the final paragraph). Since the EU seems to be on the verge of dumping yet more good money after bad, now seems to be a good time to think a little about the issue.

Now, here’s the challenge: Can you explain what, if anything, Curtis and Leroy did that was dishonest in biblical terms?

If you think you can, reply via Facebook.

Curtis and Leroy saw an ad in a local newspaper: “Donkey for sale – £100.” They paid in cash, and the farmer agreed to deliver the animal the next day.

The next morning the farmer drove up and said, “Sorry, fellers, I have some bad news: the donkey died last night.”

Curtis and Leroy replied, “Well, then just give us our money back.”

“Can’t do that,” the farmer said. “I’ve spent it already.”

They said, “OK then, just bring us the carcass.”

The farmer asked, “What in the world are you gonna do with a dead donkey?”

Curtis said, “Don’t ask questions – just bring us the animal.” Bemused, the farmer agreed.

A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis and Leroy again. “What’d you do with that dead donkey?” he asked.

They said, “We raffled him off. We sold 500 tickets for £2 each, and made a profit of £898.”

The farmer said, “But the donkey was dead! Didn’t anyone complain?”

Leroy said, “Well, the bloke who won was upset. So we gave him his £2 back.”

Curtis and Leroy now work for the government – they’re overseeing the bailout programme.

The minimum wage is dumb - 17 June 2011

At last – a British politician who understands something about economics. The only trouble with Philip Davies’ proposal to abolish the minimum wage for the disabled is that it doesn’t go far enough.

It ought to be perfectly obvious that everyone should be permitted to work for whatever wages they want.

First, it ought to be obvious morally: Why should I not be allowed to sell my time at the rate of (for example) £2 per hour if that’s what I want to do?

Second, it ought to be obvious economically: no one is helped (except in the very short term) by transactions that take place at a rate above or below what the (free) market determines. Politicians who don’t understand this should go back to school. Actually, on second thoughts, maybe that’s not such a good idea. They should read Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson instead.

The economic argument, in brief, is this: Minimum wage legislation simply ensures that anyone whose labour is worth less than the minimum wage will not (except for a short time, in unstable circumstances, and in a minority of cases) be employed at all. Consequently, it causes most harm to those very people (the disabled, asylum-seekers, the very poorest in society) whom it is ostensibly designed to protect.

Those charities and politicians who have spoken out against Mr Davies’ proposal need to actually go and meet some really poor people. I could introduce them to a guy called P___, for example, who told me just yesterday that he would quite happily work for a couple of quid an hour, cash-in-hand. I can guarantee that his life would be considerably improved by a job like that. I can also guarantee than no company on earth is going to pay him the minimum wage to do anything. So he’ll probably just carry on begging.

The attack on the family - 17 May 2011

Christian Concern are advertising what looks like a very worthwhile conference on 2nd July 2011, 10am to 4pm, at Emmanuel Evangelical Church (not this Emmanuel Evangelical Church – a different one), Marsham Street, London SW1P 3DW.

Here’s an extract from the blurb: “In education, in the media, in politics – the family, as designed by God, faces constant challenge – threatening the wellbeing of our children and the future of our society. There is an urgent need for Christians and churches to respond effectively. But how? Join us for a special day conference for church members and leaders as we examine the key issues and identify practical steps that we can take together.”

A Spanish Inquisition every couple of days - 10 May 2011

A few statistics about death, prompted by something Douglas Wilson mentioned at the Emmanuel Family Conference on Saturday 7 May.

The statistics are approximate (compare Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, etc) but the general impression is, I’m afraid, accurate.

Somewhere between 3000 and 5000 people were murdered during the Spanish inquisition. That’s bad. Really bad – killing innocent people out of misguided religious hatred.

Now let’s compare some other figures – this time where secularists are in the driving seat:

Approximately 30 million people perished during WW1.
Approaching 60 million people were killed in WW2. How many of those were innocent civilians? Who knows.
Since 1973, approximately 45 million unborn children have been killed (sorry – “terminated”) in abortion clinics in the US. That’s over 3000 per day. The current daily figure for the UK is about 500 abortions per day – roughly the same in proportion to the size of the population.

Let’s look at why people do this.

One study in 1998 revealed some of the reasons given by women who seek abortion: 33.4% sought an abortion because they either didn’t want kids yet or didn’t want any more kids; 21.3% said they couldn’t afford a baby; 14.1% put the problem down to the state of the relationship or the partners aversion to children; 12.2% were “too young” (though not too young for sex, apparently) or faced pressure from others; and 10.8% claimed that a child would disrupt their education or career. No kidding.

Only 6.1% of abortions were carried out because of a risk to the health of the child of the mother.

So secularists in Britain and America conduct a Spanish Inquisition every couple of days because the kid is inconvenient.

Police state for kids - 27 April 2011

In an earlier post I made some observations about the direction our nation is heading in. Here’s some more on the same subject.

You know how the games that kids play reflect the world as they see it? Kids living in cities line up all their cars nose-to-tail in a long line; kids raised in the countryside spread them out with room to drive somewhere; and so on.

Well, a few days ago I saw a kid from church playing with lego. He was making a little model village. The village had a total of three residents (one of whom was a police officer), two vehicles (one of which was a police car), and three (yes, three) CCTV cameras.

Out of the mouths of babes and infants.

Dear Mr Cameron… - 10 March 2011

… we ain’t happy. Where “we” = lots and lots of Christians (some of whom voted for you, and are now having second thoughts).

The list of people who agree with this:

Recent Equalities legislation and its interpretation in the courts has led to several individuals who hold to mainstream Christian teaching being barred from different areas of public life and employment, running counter to our country’s long heritage of Freedom of Conscience, and creating a serious obstacle to the Christian community’s full and active involvement in the Big Society initiative.

We call on the Prime Minister to act decisively to address this situation, securing the change necessary to ensure that the law provides a basis for widespread involvement in serving society whilst properly upholding the dignity of every individual, including those who seek to live with integrity to Christian conscience and teaching.

… is growing by the minute as more and more people sign the petition here.

What’s next? - 9 March 2011

According to the Daily Mail Online, Prime Minister “David Cameron has stepped into the row over the Christian couple who have been barred from fostering children because of their belief that homosexuality is wrong.”

Apparently Mr Cameron believes that “Owen and Eunice Johns had been dealt with in an ‘appropriate way’.”

This isn’t the place to wade into the details of a debate that has already generated so many misunderstandings that it’s hard to know where to begin untangling them. I do, however, want to make one observation, and to ask one question.

The observation: A couple of generations ago these statements would have been unthinkable.

The question: What currently unthinkable statements do you think the British PM will be making in 2050?

Phew – for now - 27 January 2011

According to the Christian Institute, “Voluntary Sunday school teachers, church elders, deacons, prayer group leaders and all other church volunteers have been saved from an avalanche of equality diktats following an important court ruling.”

The age of tolerance is over - 18 January 2011

Mr and Mrs Bull, the Christian owners of a Bed-and-Breakfast, lost their court case today after being sued by a homosexual couple over their double room policy (HT: Christian Institute). Here’s an extract from their statement.

We’re trying to live and work in accordance with our Christian faith … [our] guest house is not just our livelihood; it’s our home. We don’t expect everyone to agree with our beliefs, but we do want the freedom to be able to live by our own values under our own roof. Everyone benefits from those liberties, and everyone loses something when they’re watered down.

In handing down his judgment, the Judge recognised that the decision forces Mr and Mrs Bull “to act against [their] deeply and genuinely-held beliefs.”

The age of religious tolerance is the UK is quite clearly over.

BBC tabloid trash - 14 January 2011

The BBC has marred the 400th anniversary of the Authorised Version of the Bible with the claim, made by playwright Howard Brenton in a Radio 4 programme last weekend, that “To a secular reader the story of David and Jonathan’s love” as described in the first and second books of Samuel “is obviously homosexual, the only gay relationship in the Bible.”

Here’s the relevant clip (HT: Christian Institute):

This comment reveals that the writers of the programme are either ignorant of the facts or deliberately trying to provoke Bible-believing Christians. The simple truth is that no serious scholar of the Old Testament would make such a claim. Sure you’ll find wackos on the fringes, but not among the ranks of people who’ve actually bothered to try to understand what the text says. If such a reading were indeed “obvious” to a “secular reader,” a decent documentary would have immediately pointed out that the claim is also wrong, not merely “controversial.”

This documentary displays one of the classic signs of poor scholarship – misleading, marginal and widely-discredited claims presented as the scholarly orthodoxy in an attempt to be sensational and pull in the punters.

What a shame that the BBC so lacks confidence in its research and programme-making that it doubts its its ability to attract an audience with well-produced, high-quality, accurate material. People who know what they’re talking about (and who therefore deserve to be listened to) don’t resort to this sort of tabloid trash.

Street preacher wins court case - 10 December 2010

A Christian street preacher who was arrested in June 2008 won a legal victory today, the Christian Institute reports.

The court ruled that Mr Anthony Rollins “was wrongfully arrested, unlawfully detained and his human rights to free speech and religious liberty were infringed. The police had arrested him after receiving a 999 call. PC Bill, the arresting officer,

failed to make further inquiries before arresting Mr Rollins;
handcuffed Mr Rollins despite the fact that he was “calm and compliant”; and
failed to interview Mr Rollins despite holding him at a police station for over three hours.

The court upheld the charges of wrongful arrest, unlawful imprisonment, assault and battery and infringement of Mr Rollins’ human rights. The judge further criticized PC Bill for “a lack of thoughtfulness,” described his demeanour in the court as negative and evasive, and said that his conduct was “incompatible with Mr Rollins’ human rights to free speech and religious liberty.”

I’m delighted to say that I’ve never met a police officer who has behaved in this appalling fashion. I hope I never do.

A song for Christmas - 7 December 2010

Christian singer-songwriter Josh Anderson has written and produced a song as part of the Not Ashamed campaign.

The song is catchy, though Josh himself would probably be the first to admit that the video production has the occasional glitch. I imagine it was produced on a tight budget – all the more reason why it would be great (not to mention funny – like Psalm 2:4) if it made it to the Christmas number one.

And if it gets 100,000 downloads, that’s probably what will happen. Nice.

When you’ve listened to it (once), click here to buy it on iTunes for a whopping 79p.