Rob Bell

It doesn’t matter what perspective you come from, if you are in any way involved with Christianity you will probably have an opinion about Rob Bell.  This past weekend at Greenbelt was buzzing with talk of the man who would take to main stage on Saturday morning.  People were intrigued by what he was going to say or do.  Everyone loves a a scandal or controversy.  Later when talking with people about who they had seen so far, Rob Bell seemed to be the topic of conversation that they would inevitably return to.

I don’t really have an opinion about the Rob Bell I saw at Greenbelt weekend.  When I went to the big top for a later talk he was sitting on the grass four feet in front of us.  I can confirm that Rob Bell is a mortal man.  He eyeballed me as he left the venue and they are very much the eyes of a normal guy looking down the road in front of him. 

There is a much more interesting take on the engaging nature of an encounter with Rob Bell on John Khurt’s blog.  Here there is a fascinating post entitled “An Atheist’s Encounter With Rob Bell”.  I suggest you read the whole thing as it is a great read.  For now I will leave you the concluding paragraph (spoiler alert).

We live in in an age of continuous scientific development and this continues to raises doubts about all forms of faith. Rob Bell and like-minded Christians offer a potential conduit towards the restoration of credibility for Christianity. Furthermore, from a self-interested perspective, although not ‘a believer’, I feel more involved and included and, most importantly, open and curious towards faith and the message of Jesus.

Whatever your view of “that book” this is the sort of encounter with Christianity that the world is seeking.

Experimental Monotheism

 

XKCD Guy does it again!!  I love his quirky combination of maths, physics and philosophy.

I can’t believe I just added Rapture as a category on my blog!!

Religion. What is it good for?

There has been a lot said about the debate between Christopher Hitchens and Tony Blair.  Ian Linden at the Guardian has a good take on this.

Religion creates a framework in which it is possible to love extravagantly, to be a champion of compassion, to sacrifice self-interest and even self, to be a saint. It makes it possible to do the unsafe, to risk, to live on the margins, to allow hope to be the only security, above all to forgive.

Religion it is not so much a “force for good in the world” as an inspiration to strive for, a pursuit of goodness. It holds out the possibility of an alternative world and a new humanity.

The article is well worth reading.

Glad to see You’ve Got Religion…

I don’t know whether to be downhearted or warmed by these words.  It would seem that the humbug nature of the October Christmas advertising on’t gogglebox has done a good thing by inspiring me to drag out the Loudon Wainwright albums….

Religious Freedom and Liberty

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a long time.  Life has been really busy for the moment.  I have only just got around to watching the programme “Are Christians Being Persecuted”, a documentary shown on the BBC at Easter.  I was expecting a sensationalist view in either direction as people seem to like shouting.  I wasn’t expecting the even handed treatment that people from all sides were given.

One of the most compelling  quotes was about one of the darkest periods of the Church’s history and comes from the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks.

“Rights are a good thing. And they arose, really, in England in the 17th century after a century of religious warfare throughout Europe when, to put it bluntly, Protestants and Catholics were killing one another. So the major question was, how can people of strongly conflicting religious beliefs live peaceably together?”

“People stopped saying ‘Religious belief is supremely important, therefore everyone should have my religious faith.’ to saying ‘Religious faith is extremely important, so everyone should have the right to the faith that they, in conscience, believe.’ And with that one simple move, religion turned into a friend of liberty instead of being its enemy. That’s why it’s ironic when rights themselves become a threat to religious liberty.”

And on a personal level, I’ll try to be a better blogger.

Social Class, Athiests and Theists

The church mouse has written an article that simplifies the research into social background and religious belief by Theos.  Check out the article but mouse raises an interesting question about why there are more people of faith from higher educational and social backgrounds.

The obvious next question is why on earth this should be the case? Perhaps because most of our evangelism approaches are designed in such a way as to appeal to those who want to ‘study’ or debate the issues – perhaps more attractive to those who have been through the university system.

I Am A Christian

What do people think of this?

De-Baptism

There is an interesting article in the newspapers today about an athiest who wants to be de-baptised.

I have too many questions about this.  What do you all think?

Post-Modernity?

Don’t have a lot of time.  Just happened upon a famous quotation that made me think about how we move from expressing our faith through modernity to expressing it through post modernity:

God created man in his image and then man returned the favour.

–  George Bernard Shaw

More Bus Stuff

Well here we go.  Now the trinitarian bible society have put the KJV on buses.