Christianity

The problem with ‘The Muslim Problem’

Trevor Kavanagh, political editor of The Sun, wrote an article yesterday gracefully entitled: 'Now Philip Hammond is finally Out he must shut the door behind him and take control over our laws, our trade and especially immigration'. It was all…

charlottesville white supremacists nazi salute

Charlottesville: white supremacists are fundamentally anti-American and anti-Christian

August 13, 2017
391 Comments

Charlottesville has gone downhill a bit since The Waltons: the town where John Boy negotiated his first bank loan, Jim-Bob learned about his dead twin brother, and grandma and grandpa…

Theresa May did not instruct the CofE to allow gay marriage

July 20, 2017
157 Comments

'Prime Minister: The Church should "reflect" on allowing gay couples to marry', declares the Telegraph; 'Theresa May Suggests Churches Should Consider Conducting Same-Sex Marriages', says Huffpost UK; 'May: Church should…

Redefining hate: from diabolical anti-love to any criticism of the fragile self

July 14, 2017
327 Comments

This is a guest post by by the Rev'd Dr Gavin Ashenden. _____ During the General Synod debate on homosexuality I took to twitter. It’s like sitting up in the…

Church of England votes to ban Religious Conversion

July 9, 2017
652 Comments

The Church of England's General Synod has backed a motion calling for a ban on the practice of Religious Conversion, aimed at altering a person's religious orientation. Members of the…

Hounding Tim Farron about gay sex deflects from LibDem vote to abolish faith schools

May 2, 2017
377 Comments

While the Christian leader of the Liberal Democrats was being harassed and hounded day after day by liberal metropolitan journalists to pronounce on whether he believed homosexual acts were sin…

Michael Gove sugar-coats Jesus and preaches fake good news

April 18, 2017
249 Comments

This is a guest post by the Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden, former Chaplain to the Queen, who is presently in the (complicated) process of leaving the Church of England. ___________________________…

Julia Hartley-Brewer: it’s “bloody stupid beliefs” like prayer which help create acts of terrorism

March 23, 2017
447 Comments

Even as Tobias Ellwood MP was trying to get the blood to flow once again through PC Keith Palmer's heart, tweets of blame and judgment were flying about like a…

The Real Easter Egg and Sainsbury’s unreal stock-check

March 21, 2017
108 Comments

It was kind of Steven at Sainsbury's to offer to check their stock of The Real Easter Egg at their store in Canterbury, following yesterday's revelation that Sainsbury's don't, in…

Discrimination and discernment: an exercise in relativist supremacy

March 13, 2017
313 Comments

This is a guest post by the Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden, former Chaplain to the Queen. ___________________________ In the great amphitheatre of Twitter a gladiatorial combat recently took place between…

Philip North crisis: ‘Good Disagreement’ has become ‘bad bullying’

March 11, 2017
308 Comments

This is a guest post by the Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden, former Chaplain to the Queen. ___________________________ When the house that has been painstakingly constructed on the sand falls flat,…

Sex and the Church: how does a “radical new Christian inclusion” differ from the world’s?

February 16, 2017
382 Comments

You know that church that's seemingly in crisis and turmoil? Well, today it'll carry on praying, worshipping, visiting the ill and bereaved, loving one another... (and re-stocking food-banks). And it'll…

The Church of England should not tear itself apart over homosexuality and same-sex marriage

February 14, 2017
896 Comments

The General Synod of the Church of England is due to 'take note' (or not) of the Bishops' report ‘Marriage and Same Sex Relationships after the Shared Conversations.’ In the…

Simony, syncretism or sacred service? Canterbury Cathedral to host Freemasons’ celebration

February 12, 2017
509 Comments

Canterbury Cathedral is to host a service on Saturday 18th February exclusively (if not quite secretively) for Freemasons. The Dean, the Very Rev'd Dr Robert Willis, who may or may…

Shared conversations: some came to seek truth; others to conquer. Why can’t we just be kind?

February 5, 2017
584 Comments

Commenting on the Bishops' statement Marriage and Same Sex Relationships after the Shared Conversations ("a gamma minus piece of drafting if ever there was one"), Canon Professor Mark Chapman prophesies…

Same-sex marriage: what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?

February 2, 2017
541 Comments

This is a guest post by the Rev'd Dr Gavin Ashenden, sometime Chaplain to the Queen. ___________________________ ‘Archbishop Cranmer’ has written a balanced and generous analysis of the House of…

Trump and torture: you don’t fight Islamist fire with the embers of Christian virtue

January 26, 2017
460 Comments

President Donald Trump wants to keep his country safe from Islamist terrorists. He'd also like to destroy ISIS and wipe them off the face of the earth. In pursuit of…

Vegetarianism a protected belief? How can a quango ignore the will of Parliament?

January 23, 2017
285 Comments

At the end of last year, without much fanfare, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issued Religion or belief: a guide to the law. It's the helpful kind of…

Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden resigns as Chaplain to the Queen

January 22, 2017
225 Comments

After a conversation instigated by officials at Buckingham Palace, it is with regret that the Rev'd Dr Gavin Ashenden – theologian, academic, columnist and occasional contributor to this blog –…

Archbishops call on Queen to repent of being Supreme Governor of the Church of England

January 18, 2017
500 Comments

In this 500th anniversary year of an obscure monk called Martin Luther banging his 95 Theses onto the door of Castle Church in Wittenburg, the event which history marks as…