| Getting the name right: revisionism |
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| By and large you don't get too many Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on doors on the campus of a conservative evangelical theological college like ours. When they do, the odds are that the first question is, 'What do you think is wrong with the world?' |
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| It's a searching question because it makes you try and boil down all your misgivings into as small a phrase as possible, preferably even a single word. It makes you focus. The short-hand answer is 'sin', and put less technically perhaps something like, 'We have all loved ourselves at the expense of our love of God and of our neighbours.' |
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| In a similar vein, Anglicans at the moment have to answer the question, 'What do you think is wrong with the Anglican church worldwide?' Because there's a pretty widespread agreement something is. And while it is right to answer that question in terms of sin and a disordered love of self, it is also helpful to try and be a bit more specific. |
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| Read on and comment |
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| Can banning things lead to tolerance? |
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| 'London is intolerant of intolerance.' |
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| So said the Mayor of London as he stepped in to ban adverts which drew attention to the existence of people who identify as 'post gay'. It is difficult to deny that our culture is increasingly confused about the meaning of tolerance. Should women playing football be banned from wearing the burkha? In 2007 FIFA outlawed the headscarf (on grounds of health and safety). That ban has just been lifted. |
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| On the same day as London's Mayor declared that, 'London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world,' the Vice-Chancellor of London Metropolitan University revealed that he is hoping to ban alcohol on university grounds since some groups view it as 'evil' and 'immoral.' Muslim groups and the Policy Adviser for the Methodist Church welcomed the move. Tolerant or intolerant? |
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| Read on and comment |
