There was a time when much of British public life at least assumed a broadly Christian moral framework. That did not mean Britain was ever truly a “Christian nation” in the Biblical sense, nor that previous generations were necessarily more godly. But Christian convictions about marriage, family, human dignity, sexuality, the value of life and the place of religion in public life were often understood, even by those who did not personally believe the gospel.
Much sporting focus has gone into the end of the calendar’s traditional summer events and the start of the new football season, but one development worthy of attention is the uncertainty surrounding the future of LIV Golf, a professional men's golf tour.
The infamous Saudi-backed start-up venture was launched in 2022 to rival the flagship PGA Tour and it pinched several of the game’s biggest names thanks to eye-watering financial incentives: Phil Mickelson was reportedly signed for $200 million, while big-hitter Bryson De Chambeau was offered a $125 million signing bonus and Jon Rahm eventually followed them for a multi-year deal believed to be worth over $300 million.
When I attended state schools in Derby from the mid-1950s to the late-1960s, every school day began with an act of Christian worship which included a hymn, a Bible reading, and prayers always concluding with the Lord’s Prayer. All this was a requirement of the 1944 Education Act. I gather things are somewhat different today. Most British schools don’t feel comfortable any more “doing God”, let alone Jesus.
That’s the reverse of what’s happened in the USA. It’s all very different over there where such things are decided not by legislation but by the Constitution as interpreted by the US Supreme Court. Let’s start with the Constitution. The First Amendment to the Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.” From the 1960s through to 2000, the Supreme Court interpreted that prohibition on a nationally-prescribed religion to declare unconstitutional a host of Christian practices in public (i.e. state-run) schools.
There was a stream of articles and commentary in the weeks leading up to Jason Arday’s resignation as Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge; the stream became a deluge in the weeks following, and the deluge almost an ocean in the wake of his death. I followed the story avidly—did you?
First, I laughed: stories of inflated achievements invited ridicule, and the pomposity of an elite institution was put on display. The academic emperor was exposed as decidedly underdressed.
In 1898, the young Winston Churchill rode with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, later describing the charge as a desperate struggle for survival in a "whirling melee of death".
In My Early Life (1930), he portrayed himself as a fearless cavalry officer cutting through enemy ranks while bullets flew around him. He painted a similar picture of his service on the North-West Frontier of India, presenting himself as a calm and decisive officer, while under intense enemy fire.
Some of the most powerful people in world football are currently arguing about power. And one of the things they apparently agree on is that leadership should not be about possessing it.
Amid threats of World Cup boycotts, breakaway competitions and an increasingly bitter struggle over Gianni Infantino’s future, one sentence in an extraordinary letter from three of FIFA’s confederation presidents stands out: "Leadership in football is not a possession. It is a duty of service."
After struggling with insomnia for all my adult life, I can tell you with great confidence that there are many different reasons why someone may struggle to sleep. Rest, with which sleep overlaps so much, is obviously the same.
Just as the shepherd calls the sheepdog away so the sheep can settle, resting requires us to safeguard ourselves – for a while and as best we can – from those things which conspire to keep us constantly in physical, mental or spiritual motion.
In this, my third column on supporting people when disability arrives in their lives, I’m going to be looking at the issues around personal denial of a disability.
At Living Out, we are aware of the responsibility that we carry. We know it from the emails that we receive from believers who experience same-sex attraction and are looking to us for help and resources. We know it from the churches who come to us for advice and wisdom as they seek to hold a Biblical position on both sexual ethics and pastoral care.
In the two months since the announcement that Sam Allberry has been declared disqualified from ministry by his church in Nashville, USA, quite a lot has been written.
It has been good to read many articles expressing compassion and personal support for and appreciation of him. This is right, and is often missing in responses to the fall from grace of gospel ministers.
What do you think the greatest fear in the Western World is? Death? Poverty? Climate Change? For decades, the number one fear has been shown, in both the US and the UK, to be public speaking.
Anecdotal evidence and the lived experience of many would seem to suggest that congregational singing is in many churches, if not all of them, much poorer than it used to be. This is not a wholly new development. As long ago as 2008, the now defunct magazine The Briefing carried an article entitled “The Slow Death of Congregational Singing”.
“It is winter in Narnia and has been for ever so long ... Always winter, but never Christmas,” the faun Mr. Tumnus responds to the despair of Lucy Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Haunting, beautiful, and powerful imagery that author C.S. Lewis used to describe life in Narnia under the White Witch.
Imagery that I loved, but will now confess, I had never really understood, until God called me to minister in the place that is now home.
During a recent trip to Ghana, Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally renewed her commitment to a £100 million reparation fund in light of the Church of England’s historic investments in companies involved in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
The fund was originally pledged by Mullally’s predecessor Justin Welby, who argued that the reparations would give a "better and fairer future for all, particularly for communities affected by historic slavery".
During every trial that I've gone through, I have tangibly experienced the presence of the Lord, but none more so than in the last three years.
To lose one close family member is hard, but three? In quick succession? A tougher person than me might ask "Why, Lord?" and buckle or lose faith under the weight of such devastation.
The Clacton by-election takes place on 13th August with 33 candidates – none from the main political parties – challenging Reform’s Nigel Farage to become the MP.
Mr Farage said that he triggered the election to set up a contest between "the people" and "the establishment", appealing to the voters to vindicate his conduct over the heads of the Parliamentary authorities.
Jeff Featherstone, an evangelical member of Reform UK, replies to Lib Dem MP Tim Farron's piece "The rise of populist politics?".
Jeff writes:
As a former Liberal Democrat councillor who is now a Reform member, Tim Farron’s article on the Evangelicals Now website is of particular interest to me.
I was born in the mid-1970s when there were three television channels in the UK: BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. That was it. If you wanted to watch TV, you had very little choice about what to watch and no choice about when to watch it.
If your favourite programme was broadcast at 8pm on a Tuesday, you had to be there to watch it at 8pm on a Tuesday. If you missed it, you missed it. And that was that. No video recorders. No internet. No streaming. No catch-up. You missed it.
John the Baptist was dead. Beheaded. It was unjust, brutal, and senseless.
On hearing the news, Jesus left what He was doing and went with His disciples to a solitary place. He must have wanted to mourn, and pray, away from the crowds. But when He arrived, there was no solitude: somehow, word had spread about where He was going, and now a large crowd was waiting for Him.
My son does social media for his part-time job. Part of the task is creating posts for the business's social media account.
The hope behind so much online activity is shared by many: that one day a post will "go viral", meaning that a post catches the algorithm, the numbers rise, strangers pass it to other strangers, then suddenly, thousands of people are paying attention (and buying stuff!).
Comment
Faithfulness in a 'post-Christian' Britain
There was a time when much of British public life at least assumed a broadly Christian moral framework. That did not mean Britain was ever truly a “Christian nation” in the Biblical sense, nor that previous generations were necessarily more godly. But Christian convictions about marriage, family, human dignity, sexuality, the value of life and the place of religion in public life were often understood, even by those who did not personally believe the gospel.
That landscape has changed.
LIV Golf uncertainty – good for the game?
Much sporting focus has gone into the end of the calendar’s traditional summer events and the start of the new football season, but one development worthy of attention is the uncertainty surrounding the future of LIV Golf, a professional men's golf tour.
The infamous Saudi-backed start-up venture was launched in 2022 to rival the flagship PGA Tour and it pinched several of the game’s biggest names thanks to eye-watering financial incentives: Phil Mickelson was reportedly signed for $200 million, while big-hitter Bryson De Chambeau was offered a $125 million signing bonus and Jon Rahm eventually followed them for a multi-year deal believed to be worth over $300 million.
Prayer in schools?
When I attended state schools in Derby from the mid-1950s to the late-1960s, every school day began with an act of Christian worship which included a hymn, a Bible reading, and prayers always concluding with the Lord’s Prayer. All this was a requirement of the 1944 Education Act. I gather things are somewhat different today. Most British schools don’t feel comfortable any more “doing God”, let alone Jesus.
That’s the reverse of what’s happened in the USA. It’s all very different over there where such things are decided not by legislation but by the Constitution as interpreted by the US Supreme Court. Let’s start with the Constitution. The First Amendment to the Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.” From the 1960s through to 2000, the Supreme Court interpreted that prohibition on a nationally-prescribed religion to declare unconstitutional a host of Christian practices in public (i.e. state-run) schools.
Truth, shame & the search for blame
There was a stream of articles and commentary in the weeks leading up to Jason Arday’s resignation as Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge; the stream became a deluge in the weeks following, and the deluge almost an ocean in the wake of his death. I followed the story avidly—did you?
First, I laughed: stories of inflated achievements invited ridicule, and the pomposity of an elite institution was put on display. The academic emperor was exposed as decidedly underdressed.
Churchill & Arday: Double standards?
In 1898, the young Winston Churchill rode with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, later describing the charge as a desperate struggle for survival in a "whirling melee of death".
In My Early Life (1930), he portrayed himself as a fearless cavalry officer cutting through enemy ranks while bullets flew around him. He painted a similar picture of his service on the North-West Frontier of India, presenting himself as a calm and decisive officer, while under intense enemy fire.
What does FIFA's dispute reveal about leadership?
Some of the most powerful people in world football are currently arguing about power. And one of the things they apparently agree on is that leadership should not be about possessing it.
Amid threats of World Cup boycotts, breakaway competitions and an increasingly bitter struggle over Gianni Infantino’s future, one sentence in an extraordinary letter from three of FIFA’s confederation presidents stands out: "Leadership in football is not a possession. It is a duty of service."
How do I rest when the pastures aren't so 'green'?
After struggling with insomnia for all my adult life, I can tell you with great confidence that there are many different reasons why someone may struggle to sleep. Rest, with which sleep overlaps so much, is obviously the same.
Just as the shepherd calls the sheepdog away so the sheep can settle, resting requires us to safeguard ourselves – for a while and as best we can – from those things which conspire to keep us constantly in physical, mental or spiritual motion.
When someone isn't ready to call themselves disabled
For the first two articles in this series, see: "My church friend has become disabled: What do I do?" and "How to support a church friend facing disability".
In this, my third column on supporting people when disability arrives in their lives, I’m going to be looking at the issues around personal denial of a disability.
A helpful challenge – but I don’t recognise those views
This article was written in response to the article "Same-sex attraction and identity: Are evangelicals on the right track?" by Matthew Roberts.
At Living Out, we are aware of the responsibility that we carry. We know it from the emails that we receive from believers who experience same-sex attraction and are looking to us for help and resources. We know it from the churches who come to us for advice and wisdom as they seek to hold a Biblical position on both sexual ethics and pastoral care.
Same-sex attraction and identity: Are evangelicals on the right track?
In the two months since the announcement that Sam Allberry has been declared disqualified from ministry by his church in Nashville, USA, quite a lot has been written.
It has been good to read many articles expressing compassion and personal support for and appreciation of him. This is right, and is often missing in responses to the fall from grace of gospel ministers.
Why do I feel vulnerable when I evangelise?
What do you think the greatest fear in the Western World is? Death? Poverty? Climate Change? For decades, the number one fear has been shown, in both the US and the UK, to be public speaking.
Does that surprise you?
Sing UP!
What is your church like at singing?
Anecdotal evidence and the lived experience of many would seem to suggest that congregational singing is in many churches, if not all of them, much poorer than it used to be. This is not a wholly new development. As long ago as 2008, the now defunct magazine The Briefing carried an article entitled “The Slow Death of Congregational Singing”.
Belfast and poverty – both physical and spiritual
“It is winter in Narnia and has been for ever so long ... Always winter, but never Christmas,” the faun Mr. Tumnus responds to the despair of Lucy Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Haunting, beautiful, and powerful imagery that author C.S. Lewis used to describe life in Narnia under the White Witch.
Imagery that I loved, but will now confess, I had never really understood, until God called me to minister in the place that is now home.
Should the CofE pay slavery reparations?
During a recent trip to Ghana, Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally renewed her commitment to a £100 million reparation fund in light of the Church of England’s historic investments in companies involved in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
The fund was originally pledged by Mullally’s predecessor Justin Welby, who argued that the reparations would give a "better and fairer future for all, particularly for communities affected by historic slavery".
How God used my grief to bring me closer to Him
During every trial that I've gone through, I have tangibly experienced the presence of the Lord, but none more so than in the last three years.
To lose one close family member is hard, but three? In quick succession? A tougher person than me might ask "Why, Lord?" and buckle or lose faith under the weight of such devastation.
The rise of populist politics?
The Clacton by-election takes place on 13th August with 33 candidates – none from the main political parties – challenging Reform’s Nigel Farage to become the MP.
Mr Farage said that he triggered the election to set up a contest between "the people" and "the establishment", appealing to the voters to vindicate his conduct over the heads of the Parliamentary authorities.
Populism: Reform members reply to Tim Farron
Jeff Featherstone, an evangelical member of Reform UK, replies to Lib Dem MP Tim Farron's piece "The rise of populist politics?".
Jeff writes:
As a former Liberal Democrat councillor who is now a Reform member, Tim Farron’s article on the Evangelicals Now website is of particular interest to me.
The liberty of exclusivity: Choice, freedom and Jesus
I was born in the mid-1970s when there were three television channels in the UK: BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. That was it. If you wanted to watch TV, you had very little choice about what to watch and no choice about when to watch it.
If your favourite programme was broadcast at 8pm on a Tuesday, you had to be there to watch it at 8pm on a Tuesday. If you missed it, you missed it. And that was that. No video recorders. No internet. No streaming. No catch-up. You missed it.
Why I believe God does give us more than we can handle
John the Baptist was dead. Beheaded. It was unjust, brutal, and senseless.
On hearing the news, Jesus left what He was doing and went with His disciples to a solitary place. He must have wanted to mourn, and pray, away from the crowds. But when He arrived, there was no solitude: somehow, word had spread about where He was going, and now a large crowd was waiting for Him.
Beyond the algorithm: Faithfulness in a 'viral' age
My son does social media for his part-time job. Part of the task is creating posts for the business's social media account.
The hope behind so much online activity is shared by many: that one day a post will "go viral", meaning that a post catches the algorithm, the numbers rise, strangers pass it to other strangers, then suddenly, thousands of people are paying attention (and buying stuff!).