Truth

We need to focus on religious literacy – before it’s too late

"For religion to be taken seriously there needs to be an improvement in religious literacy across the media," wrote the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby last year. The context was the BBC Charter renewal and debates around the ownership and…

Protect the Pope? Francis is “destroying the Catholic nature of the Church”

July 19, 2017
694 Comments

'Protect the Pope' was a blog established in 2010 by the Rev'd Nick Donnelly, a kindly, humble and intelligent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church (and the second-nicest Catholic in…

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…

Safeguarding in the Church of England: when is a victim of child-abuse not a victim?

July 5, 2017
128 Comments

This is a guest post by Martin Sewell, a retired Child Protection Lawyer and a member of General Synod. ______ Yesterday I advanced a more sympathetic perspective on why Lord…

Child abuse in the Church of England: hypocrisy, inconsistency and ongoing cover-up

July 3, 2017
331 Comments

Child abuse is a seriously distressing matter. The violation, confusion, fear, self-loathing, guilt, depression... suicidal thoughts. It can take years and decades to come to terms with the misery and…

Tory MP hates social media: “It gives a voice to people who don’t deserve one”

June 30, 2017
90 Comments

Gary Streeter is the Conservative MP for South West Devon. He is a committed Christian who helped found the Conservative Christian Fellowship. He now chairs the cross-party group Christians in…

For millennials, Corbyn came as Father Christmas; May as the Wicked Witch of the West

June 12, 2017
286 Comments

"What do the millennials want from policy makers?" asked a group called Common Vision (CoVi) in their 'Manifesto for Millennials'. Millennials are 'young people', who appear to have (uncharacteristically) turned…

Welby says Islamism is everything to do with Islam, and Muslim leaders must take responsibility

June 6, 2017
272 Comments

The Archbishop of Canterbury has boldly gone where other other religious leaders fear to tread, and politicians daren't hardly ever go. Cutting straight across the liturgical denials of those who…

We need to talk more about Jesus and Mohammed and less about Christianity and Islam

June 5, 2017
380 Comments

This is a guest post by the Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden. _____ The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham claimed in public that Salman Abedi, the man who slaughtered children…

London Bridge terror attack: they shouted “This is for Allah!”, as the Holy Spirit descended for Pentecost

June 4, 2017
251 Comments

Just as the nation was crowning techno-pianist Tokio Myers the winner of Britain's Got Talent, a few more Islamists decided to stage their own version of the show on London…

Justin Welby is not a heretic, he’s a very faithful Anglican

May 15, 2017
310 Comments

In the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Westminster there is a list of Archbishops of Canterbury which chronicles the centuries of communion between the popes of Rome and the chief pastors…

Bishop of Sheffield: Martyn Percy asked for bread; Sentamu and Welby give a stone

March 27, 2017
625 Comments

No doubt there has been a lot of frantic to-ing and fro-ing between the palaces of Bishopthorpe and Lambeth since Philip North felt unable to take up the nomination as…

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…

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…

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…

Will Theresa May restore religious liberty by adopting reasonable accommodation?

December 6, 2016
284 Comments

Theresa May is an Anglican, and her faith appears to be sound and secure (ie, it doesn't fade in and out like Magic FM in the Chilterns). A few articles…

Ashers Bakery ‘gay cake’ appeal judgment: 11% of Evangelical Christians haven’t got a clue about religious liberty

October 24, 2016
660 Comments

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…

Which is worse in a presidential candidate – dirty words about sexual assault or conspiring to conceal rape?

October 10, 2016
166 Comments

Donald Trump is a vain, obnoxious, arrogant, lying, bombastic sleazebag. Or, as they say across the pond, "an asshole". Everybody knows it, or seems to. So when a decade-old recording…