A Luther for the twenty-first century

I have just watched Trouble in Amish Paradise, a BBC documentary about two extraordinary men who have been excommunicated from their Old Order Amish church. Both still live according to the Amish rules and among the Amish people. The reason for their excommunication? Meeting to study the bible.
It is amazing [...]

Youth of today

This survey of nearly 30,000 American teenagers makes for grim reading. Here are some of the lowlights:

30% admitted having shoplifted within the last year
42% sometimes lie in order to save money
64% cheated on a test within the last year
36% plagiarised internet sources for their homework

But wait, there’s more!
26% admitted that they had lied on [...]

The children of our church

I do miss Cresheim Valley Church, where I used to go in the US. I don’t know why it hasn’t occurred to me before to listen to some of the sermons from CVC online before. Not all of them are recorded or available, but there are some to download here. I’m just [...]

Deal Or No Deal

Okay, I’ll admit it. I watch this programme. Quite often. Okay, every day. Almost. I generally find myself closing down the laptop and packing up my things at around 4.30pm just so I can get home in time for the business end of it.
If I were in charge, I’d rename [...]

Who gets to choose?

Not me, obviously, because I’m not American. But I do think that there is an interesting dilemma posed for some by Sarah Palin’s nomination as Republican vice-presidential candidate.
If you think Sarah Palin is a candidate who best represents your views and would do a good job, it is possible you may also think that [...]

Great food

Last night I went out for a fabulous meal and it made me realise just how well I’ve eaten in the last couple of months.  Some of the highlights have been:
A home cooked Bengali meal in London – lots of ‘mystery’ foods, but all delicious.
A Moroccan lunch at Souk, followed by ice cream at Ben [...]

How do you tell the end from the beginning?

This statement announcing Pete Enns’ departure from WTS has just been made public.  I wonder what church historians will make of this in a hundred years time.  Maybe it will be seen as nothing more than a blip in the progress of the kingdom.  Perhaps it will be the beginning of the end for the [...]

Summer progress

In the olden days (and yes, that means I have no idea when) kings and queens and their courts used to leave their comfortable winter palaces in the summer months to go on a summer progress, or tour of their realm.  This is when they would stay with various highly-favoured subjects, bankrupting many in the [...]

Some good news

Or at least a step in the right direction.  Willow Creek seem to have finally realised that church isn’t about becoming like the world but about teaching and building up its members so that they can win the world.  It’ll be interesting to see how they respond when people start leaving the church as a [...]

Oh dear

So, okay, my knowledge of American politics is not what it could be.  But I think it’s fairly safe to say that one of the characteristics of the current administration has been the poor grammar, vocabulary and general communication issues of the president.
Things may not be about to improve any time soon.
From the Barack Obama [...]