MARRIAGE MATTERS

It seems blindingly clear that marriage, as understood in Christian teaching, benefits the whole of society and especially children. Yet our politicians seem afraid to even mention the benefits of marriage, especially for children, or take action to support the family. To the elites who get worked up about what pronouns should be used and whether or not biological men should be in women’s prisons, it seems preposterously reactionary to promote a traditional two-parent marriage.

Frightened Politicians Politicians know that as soon as they suggest that marriage may bring advantages in life they will be assailed with accusations of being insensitive, judgemental or bigoted. ‘My Mum was a single parent and she did a brilliant job.’ Anecdotal evidence may provide an emotional outlet but the hard statistical evidence shows most single mothers don’t do a brilliant job because every obstacle is in their way.

FOR SOME TERRORISM IS ACCEPTABLE

This Is Terrorism At the weekend Hamas fighters murdered and raped their way through southern Israel and kidnapped anyone from infants to the elderly to use as hostages. Hamas are even boasting of breaking the international conventions of war, posting videos of their terrorists beheading captured Israeli soldiers.

Noa Argamani Taken Hostage by Hamas Terrorists

Be in no doubt, despite the BBC’s insistence that these are ‘militants’, they are terrorists. Doctors who go on strike are militant, climate protesters who block roads are militant, gangs of armed men who rampage through villages entering peaceful homes to murder whoever they encounter are terrorists.

THE POWER OF WORDS

The Power of Words ‘Sticks and stones can break your bones but names can never hurt you’. We say this to our children knowing it to be totally untrue. Bruises quickly fade but the hurts of words can last a lifetime. Words are amongst the most potent tools there are: for building up and tearing down nothing quite equals the power of language.

Words are vitally important to the Christian faith. Creation itself begins with the repetition of words which bring everything into being: ‘God said, “Let there be . . .” and there was.’ God the Son, the One who shows us the reality of God, is introduced as the living Word: ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.’ (John 1:1)

BRAND – THE SYMPTOM NOT THE DISEASE

The bigger truth behind the recent Russell Brand furore is that Brand is a symptom and not the disease. We have created a society which is openly degenerate and is proud of the fact.

Russel Brand

Without absolving Brand of any personal blame, society is complicit in what has happened: our society expects and condones such behaviour. Sexual misdemeanours are reported as big news with wall-to-wall coverage because that is what our society wants; it sells newspapers and gets viewers eagerly switching on to participate vicariously in the latest scandal.

A BACKDOOR BLASPHEMY LAW

Common Sense Something rare happened this week: I turned to Richard Dawkins for a dose of reality.

Richard Dawkins

When Dawkins writes on science he is clear, precise, almost lyrical; unfortunately when he turns to philosophy he sounds like a know-it-all fourth-former, and when he touches on theology you could get greater insight and depth from your congregation’s Sunday School.

HEADLESS CHICKENS

The Wilko of Religions Way back in 1867 Matthew Arnold wrote: ‘The sea of faith was once, too, at the full … But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.’ The tide has been going out ever since and the withdrawing roar has become a whimper until today Christianity in the UK is, according to many, fading away like the Cheshire cat.

According to the Office of National Statistics the Christian population in England and Wales fell from 59.3 per cent in 2011 to 46.2 per cent in 2021. Meanwhile, in the same decade the Muslim population grew  from 4.9 per cent to 6.5 per cent, and the Hindu population grew from 1.5 per cent to 1.7 per cent. 37 per cent of respondents said they followed no religion at all.

A CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY

During the recent break in posting we visited Budapest, and were left with some remarkable memories. A beautiful city with a terrible past, and not only from the dreadful Soviet days. Below the imposing Parliament building is a row of metal shoes commemorating the Jews who were lined up, forced to remove their shoes, and shot dead into the Danube by the fascist Arrow Cross militia in 1944.

We were there for the World Athletic Championships which were worth the journey alone. There was the fascinating duel in the women’s pole vault resulting in two gold medals, and Femke Bol’s imperious domination of the women’s 400 metres hurdles. Seeing Edinburgh’s Josh Kerr win gold in the 1,500 metres, beating hot favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen into second place, was special.

JESUS IS NOT ‘NICE’

I am about to take a break, but I will be back in September. Meanwhile here is an article previously published in TCW Defending Freedom.

Traditional Christians have become used to being told we are psychologically damaged goods. With every attempt to uphold traditional Church teaching, we are assured that we are homophobic, Islamophobic, xenophobic and have just about every other kind of irrational fear possible. This is par for the course when it comes to society in general – that there can be a gulf between the world and the Church should come as no surprise.

More interesting is when unbelievers, who have as much understanding of theology as I have of equine psychology, attempt to define who is and who is not a Christian. ‘How can you claim to be a Christian if you believe: in restricting immigration, that the election of Trump is not ‘an existential threat to humanity’, that the NHS is not the established religion of the UK etc., fill in the blank from your own experience.

WILL THE REAL COUNTER-CULTURE PLEASE STAND UP

Foot Soldiers of the Elites We are experiencing cataclysmic social changes: the erosion of national culture, entrenched left-wing control of institutions, and the rejection of sexual difference. These social, intellectual and moral changes were never asked for by the people but were driven by a tiny minority of metropolitan elites aided by foot soldier activists. Although they see themselves as bold fighters for freedom and speakers of truth to power woke activists are merely tools of the establishment.

Greta Thunberg, activist and useful tool of the woke elites

Some, like Greta Thunberg, direct their arguments to national and international leaders. She turns up at the UN, meets political leaders, has an audience with the pope and gets nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She is lauded, and her every word listened to. Thunberg is pushing at an open door as our elites are already committed to the climate change agenda. She has achieved nothing and is little more than a compliant puppet of the elites, lauded by the media and used to push their programme.

THE END IS NIGH

An Existential Conflict

It’s difficult to believe, but at one time left-wing politics involved serious discussion by serious people about serious topics such as the nationalisation of industry, union rights and working conditions, or the creation of new towns and transport links. Earnest people got into the complexities of big issues. Today woke left-wing politics seems to embody catastrophic reactions to every cause.

If you don’t think a woman can have a penis, you are murdering trans children. If you drive a petrol car, you are causing the oceans to boil. If you don’t want biological men to compete in women’s sports, you are participating in genocide. These may be crazy, but are reactions we have all witnessed in the media.

Reason has fled and the woke brook no debate because all opposed to leftie woke campaigns are ipso facto wicked, hateful people who want to drown polar bears, put drag artists into zoos and re-establish apartheid. Every issue is an eleventh-hour conflict between the woke forces of good and the monstrous evil of normality.