The blog of Richard Hall, a Methodist Minister in Wales.
From the category archives:
I understand that gay marriage is controversial. I absolutely get that not everyone will agree that having gay marriage enshrined in British law is a Good Thing. Many conservatives don’t accept that parliament is entitled to pass such a law. Principled disagreement has to be quite proper, and questioning whether ‘marriage’ is a proper term [...]
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…the threat to our world comes not only from tyrants and their tanks. It can be more insidious though less visible. The danger of global warming is as yet unseen, but real enough for us to make changes and sacrifices, so that we do not live at the expense of future generations.
Our ability to come [...]
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I’ve just finished reading Mark Thomas’ Extreme Rambling, a fascinating and funny account of the comedian’s attempt to walk the route of Israel’s security barrier. It isn’t a book that is likely to appeal to any of Israel’s apologists, though his route took in both sides of the fence and the effects of terrorism are [...]
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It is time to tell the truth about poverty, say British churches
13 million people – including 3.6 million children – live in poverty in the UK today. A major new report shows how evidence and statistics have been misused, misrepresented and manipulated to create myths that blame and stigmatise the most vulnerable in society.
The report, [...]
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I couldn’t believe the headline on readwrite social this morning: Unbelievable: The IDF Has Gamified Its War Blog
Yesterday, when I wrote about the social media campaign that Israel was waging alongside its attack on Hamas, I thought it was interesting. I thought it was a straightforward and effective way of presenting the cause behind the [...]
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The BBC reports from Uruguay
It’s a common grumble that politicians’ lifestyles are far removed from those of their electorate. Not so in Uruguay. Meet the president - who lives on a ramshackle farm and gives away most of his pay.
Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a well in a yard, overgrown [...]
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Bishop Alan on today’s gripping elections.
Thursday 15 November, and Election fever grips the Land. Three cheerful tellers sit behind a table in our village hall like the wise old monkeys they probably are, as the People Decide. The girls and boys in political rosettes have stayed away, I notice. Or maybe the Three Wise Ones [...]
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If you have an hour, this PBS documentary on the politics of climate change is well worth the time.
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“But there is still greater and more undeniable proof that the very foundations of all things are utterly out of course in the Christian as well as the heathen world. There is a still more horrid reproach to the Christian name, yea, to the name of man, to all reason and humanity. There is war [...]
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Libby Anne looks back on some predictions from Focus on the Family on what Obama’s election in 2008 would mean for America in 2012. It’s quite a list:
The Boy Scouts no longer exist
Elementary schools now include compulsory training in varieties of gender identity in Grade 1
homosexuals are now given special bonuses for enlisting in military [...]
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Churches support Drone Action Week
The Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church and the Baptist Union of Great Britain have called on the Foreign Secretary to distance the UK Government from the United States Government’s practice of using missiles to target individuals suspected of involvement in terrorism.
Church leaders have expressed their anxiety over the humanitarian [...]
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The Conversation: Cranks, crazies and globalisation – US politics is fair game for Aussies
Wayne Swan’s remark last month that the US Republican Party had been taken over by “cranks and crazies” is notable in two respects.
First, it is true.
Second, it marks a further move towards a globalised politics, in which political arguments routinely transcend national [...]
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Neil of The Oil Lamp laments a decline he’s noticed in the celebration of Harvest Festival. I can’t say I’ve noticed that myself. But I do share his deeper concern about the rise of food banks in Britain. These seem to be springing up everywhere, and are being well-supported by local churches.
Of course, it is [...]
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In today’s Church Times >> Andrew Brown: PR Perils of occupation*
I’d rather be an Arab civilian in Israel right now than one in Syria; I would also rather be an exploited Somali refugee in Tel Aviv than one enslaved for ransom by the Bedouin in Sinai. But what does undercut a great deal of pro-Israel [...]
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From an email…
An article in Electronic Intifada by Ben White published today reveals that a British Ministry of Defence (MOD) adviser who helped write the “religious engagement strategy” in Kandahar believes Islam might “be the rod of God’s anger”.
Patrick Sookhdeo, a Visiting Professor at the UK’s Defence Academy and former advisor to the Permanent Joint [...]
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