Wanted: Christians who can cause a little more offence
Would Luther have been a blast on Twitter? Historian Tom Holland thinks so. In an edition of 'The Rest is History' podcast, he observes: "What happens is that Luther obviously…
Freedom of Conscience
Freedom of speech is under threat, so what do we do about it?
In the great pyramid of liberty and the incremental progression of human enlightenment, freedom of speech is often celebrated as preeminent among civil liberties, but it was preceded by freedom of religion. In order for the mouth to be free,…
Manners maketh Man/Woman/Other
At the State Opening of Parliament yesterday, television footage showed the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition leading a long line of their parliamentary colleagues into the Upper Chamber…
Decriminalising abortion: Labour abandons the Catholic vote
A few weeks ago the Liberal Democrats deselected one of their candidates. Robert Flello, a practising Roman Catholic (and so opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage) was ditched just 36…
Church of England guidance used against Christian in court
There's something ever so slightly disquieting about this, but not for the reasons permeating the websites and chat-threads of Evangelical Christendom. Dr David Mackereth, who said in a Department of…
Imposition or liberation? Abortion and same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland
"If I was a Northern Ireland MLA I’d vote for equal marriage, just as I did in Westminster," tweeted former LibDem leader and committed Christian Tim Farron. "But I support…
Gay cake: why don’t CofE bishops care about freedom of religion?
It was a landmark judgment by the Supreme Court. The queer case of the 'gay cake' has been rumbling on for four long years, and the highest court in the…
If Irish Catholic hospitals are forced to perform abortions, the Roman Catholic Church should close every one of them
Well, that didn't take long, did it? ‘Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has hit out at socialist parties and groups in the Dáil, accusing them of wanting to “turn religious people into…
If a bigot can’t be PM, why should one be allowed to become an MP?
Jacob Rees-Mogg walks into a TV studio. Grand Inquisitor Piers Torquemorgan has wheeled out his rack; his beatific assistant Susanna Reid has greased up the Judas cradle. Heresy is not…
Right to Life: where do the Party Leaders currently stand?
Lord Alton has done a useful (and very interesting) bit of digging on how the current party leaders have voted over recent years on a series of Right to Life…
Gender justice and LGBT equality: Martyn Percy demands female cardinals and gay imams
In another 5,000-word essay, the Very Rev'd Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, demands "a thorough and wholesale review" of discrimination in the Church of England. And by…
Ashers Bakery ‘gay cake’ appeal judgment: 11% of Evangelical Christians haven’t got a clue about religious liberty
It was very tempting to go with the affirmatory '89% of Evangelical Christians support freedom of religion', which would have been the wholesome, encouraging, Christian thing to do, right? But…
Vatican says UK is "better in than out" of the EU
"The Vatican wants Britain to stay in the European Union, the Pope's foreign secretary has declared." So writes the Telegraph, noting that Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with…
Should Christians in the public sector 'keep mum' to get on?
"Christianity is being subtly 'silenced' within the public sector in the UK because of a civil service culture which treats speaking about faith as 'not the done thing'," writes…
China abolishes the cross of Christ
China's stock-market has plunged: its GDP has crashed, the yuan has been devalued and economic confidence is in free fall. Another boom-and-bust bubble has burst: Mammon threatens another tidal…
The equality tyranny of the 'gay cake' judgment
"Equality as an aim in itself through government action is doomed not merely to defeat but to totalitarianism." So observed the Archbishop of Canterbury earlier this year at the…
Scotland's Roman Catholic bishops condemn Jim Murphy's hypocrisy
Another Pastoral Letter on the General Election – this time from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Scotland to their 841,000 worshippers spread across 452 parishes (which is an awful…
‘Gay cake’ case comes to court
This is a guest post by Peter Lynas – Director of the Northern Ireland Evangelical Alliance and a former barrister. Peter tweets at @peterlynas. _______________________ Today and tomorrow (26-27th March 2015), the…