OUTRAGE VERSUS REASON

Social media gorges on outrage, allegations are made, insults fly, threats emerge. It is all rather pointless and does nothing to advance understanding. Christians should have a more positive response.

Double Standards

The latest Twitterstorm has been over the differing fates of two people who said the same type of thing.

Jake Hepple claimed responsibility for the aircraft which flew over a football stadium towing a banner with the slogan ‘White Lives Matter Burnley’. Outrage followed, and not just amongst the Twitterati but the entire progressive establishment.

Outrage won. Hepple was sacked from his job and as the icing on the cake for progressives his girlfriend Megan Rambadt was also sacked for being a racist. From social media evidence it is apparent that Hepple and Rambadt do hold racist views.

BLM BANDWAGON

The greatest societal power bloc of our day is Black Lives Matter. It is uncritically promoted by the media, politicians kneel before it, it is allowed to destroy and vandalise property whilst policemen kneel, the billion pound entertainment industry which is football tells players to wear its name on their shirts and kneel before games. Should Christians get aboard the bandwagon and kneel for BLM?

Labour MPs Kneel

Who can be against social justice? Declining to ‘take a knee’ to comply with the demands of BLM will be construed as either hard-hearted indifference or outright support for racism. Even the supposedly ultra-establishment Times headlined with a cartoon showing Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab putting his foot in his mouth because he said he would kneel on only two occasions, when before the Queen and when he proposed to his wife.

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE

A Fatal Mistake

By adopting the language of progressive intolerance Christians are playing into the hands of progressives. We have all fallen into this trap as it is so tempting: we think that if we turn their weapons against them we can point out their errors. It doesn’t work.

If Christians publicly uphold biblical ideals of sexual morality we are almost inevitably going to be accused of ‘hate speech’. Point out that Jesus is the only way of salvation and we will be accused of hate speech against Muslims. Step outside the orthodoxy of the progressive cult and you can be sure of being accused of hate speech or some ‘phobia’.

SHOULD WE AGREE TO DISAGREE?

Why get bothered about progressive Christianity: surely we should just agree to disagree?

Differences amongst Christians can have profound consequences. The briefest acquaintance with the history of Scottish Presbyterianism reveals the consequences of failing to tolerate theological differences. Our church history reveals a bewildering numer of church splits, and we must admit that some were over less than vital issues. Most agree that one result is that the witness of the church has been weakened.

Revd Dr Jonathan Draper

Perhaps we should all adopt the stance of leading progressive Christian and one-time Dean of Exeter Cathedral Revd Dr Jonathan Draper, now general secretary of Modern Church, and say: ‘There simply isn’t one right interpretation or understanding against which all others are wrong.’ Surely the church would be better off if we just agreed to ‘Go along to get along’?

WHAT ABOUT SLAVERY?

Unbelievers challenge Christians with ‘What about?’ questions. These are not requests for an answer, they are ‘Gotcha’ questions intended to stump Christians and silence us. What unbelievers don’t realise is that their ‘What about?’ questions give us an opportunity to explain something of Scripture and the faith. Today, with cultural vandals pulling down statues of slave profiteers, the question confronting Christians is ‘What about slavery?’

The challenge basically runs: ‘The Bible does not condemn slavery therefore it accepts and condones slavery, the Bible got slavery wrong therefore the Bible is wrong.’ That this is not logical doesn’t deter unbelievers; because something is not condemned does not mean it is condoned. The challenge nevertheless has to be answered. If the Bible condones slavery then Christians have a problem.

YOU MIGHT BE A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN IF …

THERE have always been movements in the church attempting to draw Christians away from historic Christianity to a more world-friendly version of the faith.

Last century we had liberal Christianity which endeavoured to make Christianity more palatable to a culture shattered by the inhumanity of wars of destruction and the fetishising of science. Towards the end of the century the ’emergent church’ appeared, trying to create a Christianity in tune with post-modern thinking. Today the emergent church has morphed into progressive Christianity.

In the UK very few would use ‘progressive’ as a self-descriptor although its influence is spread throughout mainstream churches. How can you tell if your denomination, congregation or pastor are leaning towards progressive Christianity, are open to it, or have swallowed it all, hook, line and sinker?

BUT IS IT ART?

Go into a Japanese department store, make your purchase and the sales assistant will hand you back an exquisite package.

In Japan the presentation of a gift is almost as important as the gift itself. The gift is seen as a form of communication between the giver and the receiver and the wrapping plays an important role in shaping the message associated with the gift. The wrapping is considered to be part of the gift itself and should reflect both the gift and the emotions behind it.

WHO IS TO BLAME?

If your home was raided by burglars who stole what they wanted and trashed what they didn’t, who would be to blame? The burglars, of course. But if you had employed a watchman and found out he was asleep on the job, would he be culpable for what happened and shoulder part of the blame? If you then found out that the watchman wanted to be a friend of the burglars and shared their view of property rights, would you see any difference between him and the burglars?

The last few decades have witnessed the decline of the morals and morale of a crumbling Western civilisation; at first the decay was gradual, now it is precipitous. Who bears the blame for this? Those who are doing the destroying and their accomplices, the complicit watchmen of the church.

MUSLIMS GET A FREE PASS

Why do Muslims get kid glove treatment?

Following every Muslim atrocity politicians with minimal theological expertise rush before the cameras to gravely assure us that ‘Islam is a religion of peace’.

Rape gangs  who prey on vulnerable girls are overwhelmingly comprised of Muslim men of Pakistani origin. The media invariably refer to them as ‘Asian’ men. Hindu’s, Sikhs, Buddhists, the Chinese, Thais, Indians, Cambodians etc., all are lumped in; but their feelings don’t matter to the elites as long as Islam is not indicated. Basil Fawlty famously cried ‘Don’t mention the war’. Today our elites cry ‘Don’t mention Islam’.

Don’t think the progressive elites who run our country actually like Islam, there are other reasons.

WHY DO PROGRESSIVES TARGET CHRISTIANS?

Why do progressives continually attack Christians? Because they are afraid.

In their efforts to enforce political, social and intellectual groupthink, progressives target Christians. This isn’t because they think we can be brushed aside – it’s because they realise that Christians are the only genuine roadblock to their total triumph.

It’s not persecution. We aren’t being thrown to the lions, but we do face job losses, harassment and social stigma. Christians, especially evangelicals, are turning into the sort of minority that it’s socially acceptable to scorn and marginalise. Ordinary rules of civility and social inclusion don’t seem to apply to people who believe in biblical teaching.

Street preachers are arrested. Health professionals are disciplined for offering to pray. A government-appointed body attempts to close down a valued adoption agency – why? Because it has an evangelical ethos. A Christian doctor is sacked for refusing to describe a bearded 6ft-plus man as ‘she’. The leader of a supposedly liberal political party is forced out of office because he holds Christian views. Evangelical churches face planning objections when they want to build. Where does all this come from?