The en team were very pleased to receive 1,152 responses to the Readers’ Survey in the October issue. Such a large submission enables us to have confidence that data collected on the attitudes and demographics of en readers is robust. Thank you to those who took the time to complete the questionnaire.
One such respondent, Maggie Sleeman, was thrilled to hear she had won the prize draw promised to those who participated. The draw took place at a gathering of en staff in central London in January and the choice of either: a £200 book voucher, a Kindle Paperwhite (with £50 worth of Christian books) or a donation of £200 to a preferred charity, was offered to Maggie soon after. She chose the latter, and en had the privilege of transferring the funds to Christian Development Uganda, a UK-based charity with over thirty years’ experience supporting local partners with evangelism and community development projects among some of the neediest rural communities in south-west Uganda (christiandevelopmentuganda.org.uk).
As these words are written in March, the situation in the Middle East is fast evolving and unpredictable. By the time you read these same words, it is impossible to know what will be happening there: More war? Less war? Some kind of peace? Change in Iran? We do not know.
As Christians we tend to assess wars in a number of ways: perhaps we use the well-established “Just War” theory; or maybe we have embraced pacifism for theological reasons. We may consider war historically, figuring that some past US interventions (Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan) haven’t worked out too well. Or maybe, for some, there is a particular eschatological grid through which we assess these things (Gog, Magog, Russia, Iran etc). Here is not the place to assess the rights and wrongs of these different approaches.
There’s a row gathering over student loans, and I can’t help but feel somewhat personally culpable.
Back in 2013 as a new graduate – soon after tuition fees had been raised from £3,000 to £9,000 per year – I did a three-month job giving presentations about student finance in sixth forms and colleges.
Having devoured Jonathan Freedland’s The Escape Artist (2022) with fascination, I wasn’t going to miss reading his latest, The Traitors Circle (2025).
The former was a harrowing account of Rudolf Vrba, the eponymous escapee from Auschwitz, and his attempts to testify to the world about the evils being done there. It raised the uncomfortable question: Why did it take the world so long to believe him, and act on it?
I have been reading about a huge war and invasion, involving leaders in Iran and other Middle East regional leaders. Five cities were destroyed and thousands killed in a brutal war.
It happened though over 2,000 years ago and is probably one of the first recorded accounts of war in history – in Genesis 14.
February marked four years since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and 12 years since the Russo-Ukrainian War began with the invasion and annexation of Crimea. With so many other things going on in the world, an easily bored news cycle that eagerly moves on to the “next thing”, and limited attention spans, it can be far too easy for those of us in the UK to forget the significance and severity of what is happening, and I fear at times that its relevance is not felt nor its relationship to other conflicts grasped.
The horrors of World War Two serve as a helpful benchmark by which to consider what is happening in Ukraine. It is the most brutal war in Europe since then by total deaths, military casualties, urban destruction, confirmed civilian deaths and general intensity. It is the largest inter-state European conflict since World War Two, and the most strategically important.
In my last article of this series (which you can read here), I considered how migration and exile are experienced by Christians in the UK in a variety of ways.
Whilst exile is usually associated with geographical displacement, exile can be experienced in various ways without ever leaving home. Cultural, economic, political and/or ecclesiastical exile can occur to any group of Christians, migrant or not. British evangelicals may be experiencing all kinds of exile, whether or not we have moved. When we find ourselves living in exile, how should we live?
I am sure that many readers of en are rightly concerned about the conflict in Iran and the wider Middle East. I have a vested interest as my eldest son serves our country bravely in the Royal Navy.
I have spent the last few weeks glued to the 24-hour news coverage and have read countless articles and expert opinion pieces on the tensions – all to gain as much of an insight as possible, so that I can pray in an informed way for the needs of our service men and women and for our Christian brothers and sisters in Iran.
endoes not support any one particular party. However, we are interested in evangelicals within each of our political parties. Following the recent Green Party by-election win,eninvited Andrew Mellen to set out why, as an evangelical, he chose the party as his political home.His article can be readhere. Now, Scottish Presbyterian minister and religious commentatorDavid Robertson responds.
I am not a fan of clergy telling Christians who to vote for – that is not our job. In my previous congregation of St Peters Dundee, we had Tories, Labour and SNP supporters, Liberal Democrats and doubtless people of other persuasions – and that is the way it should be. However, there are exceptions to every rule.
It is rare that theology features in the decision making of great nations, but there are reports of US military commanders referencing the Biblical end-times narrative of writers such as Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsay. One officer is quoted by an NCO as saying, “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark His return to Earth.”
If you want to weigh up the rights and wrongs of the latest war in the Middle East you need to go further back than those writers or even the Victorian clergyman, John Nelson Derby, who inspired them with his dispensationalist theology. Great Christian thinkers like Augustine of Hippo and St Thomas Aquinas developed principles to restrain Christian princes from unnecessary military action. The intention to wage war was justified only if it passed certain tests. Here are three of them:
“The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” (Psalm 126v3)
After three years of speculation, debate and scrutiny, late Tuesday night the Scottish Parliament voted to reject the legalisation of assisted suicide by 69-57 votes. Along with The Christian Institute’s nearly 60,000 supporters, I rejoice that our gracious and merciful God has truly done a “great thing”.
I spent yesterday evening watching the Scottish Parliament debate assisted suicide. It was a Stage Three debate, which is the final time MSPs debate legislation and also the last time they vote.
Going into the debate, we needed at least seven MSPs to switch from their Stage One vote and we needed to ensure no-one went the other way. It was absolutely on a knife edge.
It has only been a short while since Gafcon (Global Anglican Future Conference) issued the Abuja Affirmation, declaring that “reordering the Anglican Communion is now necessary”.
Concerning that Communion, Gafcon also claimed to have “restored its original structure as a fellowship of autonomous provinces bound together by the Formularies of the Reformation.”
For days now my body has been tightening and releasing, tightening and releasing again. Contractions come, pass, and return. Time has lost its usual edges. I am waiting, but not passively. My body is doing something I cannot hurry or manage.
Between contractions, my mind keeps returning to words in Romans chapter eight. Not because I am trying to interpret this moment, but because Scripture sometimes gives language to things we would otherwise endure in silence. Paul speaks of creation groaning as in the pains of childbirth. Not poetic groaning. Physical groaning. Unchosen, involuntary, exhausting.
As Parliament debates whether to ban social media for under 16s, I find myself reflecting on a new TikTok trend: people choosing to “go analogue” - rejecting screens for books, tangible hobbies and time in nature.
I’ve been reading a lot of Jonathan Haidt lately. If anyone thinks we should be spending less time online, it’s him. He writes about how social media saps our energy, attention and focus and it’s also linked to a deterioration in mental health for children and young people. Haidt argues that we are raising an anxious generation – and I find it hard to disagree with him.
Every generation of Christians is tempted by causes. Ours is no different. We long for something to rally around, whether it is a campaign or a crisis. Something that will lift us out of the mundane of ordinary obedience and give us the sense that we are finally "doing something big for God".
It explains why sometimes Christians can mobilise more quickly around political slogans than around the basic command to love our neighbour. Or why our churches get excited about national campaigns rather than meeting a fellow Christian for prayer over a cup of tea.
How much responsibility do we have to know what is happening around us?
I have a relative in Australia who never listens to the news on TV or the radio and never scrolls through social media. He did not hear about the shooting at Bondi Beach until days after the event. When he did hear, he did not engage or find out more about it. Does it matter?
Two fires caught Glasgow’s attention last week. One was literal: smoke rising from a blaze at Glasgow Central Station that disrupted the heart of the city. The other was more familiar: the flare-up of anger and confrontation surrounding the latest Rangers–Celtic clash.
For a moment, the two seemed to echo one another — one a physical fire, the other the heat of football rivalry spilling over.
There’s a certain irony that it has recently been International Women’s Day, and I am writing about 1 Peter 3v1-6, which starts, "Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands…." If there is any topic that makes people view Christianity as outdated or anti-women, this is the one.
Yet our conviction as evangelicals is that the commands of the Bible are not just true; they are good. Here are three ways in which these instructions by the Apostle Peter are good for women.
Comment
And the winner is…
The en team were very pleased to receive 1,152 responses to the Readers’ Survey in the October issue. Such a large submission enables us to have confidence that data collected on the attitudes and demographics of en readers is robust. Thank you to those who took the time to complete the questionnaire.
One such respondent, Maggie Sleeman, was thrilled to hear she had won the prize draw promised to those who participated. The draw took place at a gathering of en staff in central London in January and the choice of either: a £200 book voucher, a Kindle Paperwhite (with £50 worth of Christian books) or a donation of £200 to a preferred charity, was offered to Maggie soon after. She chose the latter, and en had the privilege of transferring the funds to Christian Development Uganda, a UK-based charity with over thirty years’ experience supporting local partners with evangelism and community development projects among some of the neediest rural communities in south-west Uganda (christiandevelopmentuganda.org.uk).
The cost of war
As these words are written in March, the situation in the Middle East is fast evolving and unpredictable. By the time you read these same words, it is impossible to know what will be happening there: More war? Less war? Some kind of peace? Change in Iran? We do not know.
As Christians we tend to assess wars in a number of ways: perhaps we use the well-established “Just War” theory; or maybe we have embraced pacifism for theological reasons. We may consider war historically, figuring that some past US interventions (Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan) haven’t worked out too well. Or maybe, for some, there is a particular eschatological grid through which we assess these things (Gog, Magog, Russia, Iran etc). Here is not the place to assess the rights and wrongs of these different approaches.
Why student loans and all money is ‘hevel’
There’s a row gathering over student loans, and I can’t help but feel somewhat personally culpable.
Back in 2013 as a new graduate – soon after tuition fees had been raised from £3,000 to £9,000 per year – I did a three-month job giving presentations about student finance in sixth forms and colleges.
'An angular Messiah is our only hope'
Having devoured Jonathan Freedland’s The Escape Artist (2022) with fascination, I wasn’t going to miss reading his latest, The Traitors Circle (2025).
The former was a harrowing account of Rudolf Vrba, the eponymous escapee from Auschwitz, and his attempts to testify to the world about the evils being done there. It raised the uncomfortable question: Why did it take the world so long to believe him, and act on it?
Leadership: Abroad and at home
Leadership abroad
I have been reading about a huge war and invasion, involving leaders in Iran and other Middle East regional leaders. Five cities were destroyed and thousands killed in a brutal war.
It happened though over 2,000 years ago and is probably one of the first recorded accounts of war in history – in Genesis 14.
We must not forget Ukraine
February marked four years since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and 12 years since the Russo-Ukrainian War began with the invasion and annexation of Crimea. With so many other things going on in the world, an easily bored news cycle that eagerly moves on to the “next thing”, and limited attention spans, it can be far too easy for those of us in the UK to forget the significance and severity of what is happening, and I fear at times that its relevance is not felt nor its relationship to other conflicts grasped.
The horrors of World War Two serve as a helpful benchmark by which to consider what is happening in Ukraine. It is the most brutal war in Europe since then by total deaths, military casualties, urban destruction, confirmed civilian deaths and general intensity. It is the largest inter-state European conflict since World War Two, and the most strategically important.
DIY abortion up to birth: A wake up call for the Church?
Britain's upper house of parliament has supported measures to remove women from criminal liability related to abortion.
Dave Brennan, who directs Brephos (brephos.org) - a ministry that helps churches to respond to abortion - reacts.
How do we preserve our identity if we're in exile?
In my last article of this series (which you can read here), I considered how migration and exile are experienced by Christians in the UK in a variety of ways.
Whilst exile is usually associated with geographical displacement, exile can be experienced in various ways without ever leaving home. Cultural, economic, political and/or ecclesiastical exile can occur to any group of Christians, migrant or not. British evangelicals may be experiencing all kinds of exile, whether or not we have moved. When we find ourselves living in exile, how should we live?
Who should I pray for?
I am sure that many readers of en are rightly concerned about the conflict in Iran and the wider Middle East. I have a vested interest as my eldest son serves our country bravely in the Royal Navy.
I have spent the last few weeks glued to the 24-hour news coverage and have read countless articles and expert opinion pieces on the tensions – all to gain as much of an insight as possible, so that I can pray in an informed way for the needs of our service men and women and for our Christian brothers and sisters in Iran.
Can you be evangelical and vote Green?
en does not support any one particular party. However, we are interested in evangelicals within each of our political parties. Following the recent Green Party by-election win, en invited Andrew Mellen to set out why, as an evangelical, he chose the party as his political home. His article can be read here. Now, Scottish Presbyterian minister and religious commentator David Robertson responds.
I am not a fan of clergy telling Christians who to vote for – that is not our job. In my previous congregation of St Peters Dundee, we had Tories, Labour and SNP supporters, Liberal Democrats and doubtless people of other persuasions – and that is the way it should be. However, there are exceptions to every rule.
Reflecting theologically on war in the Middle East
It is rare that theology features in the decision making of great nations, but there are reports of US military commanders referencing the Biblical end-times narrative of writers such as Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsay. One officer is quoted by an NCO as saying, “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark His return to Earth.”
If you want to weigh up the rights and wrongs of the latest war in the Middle East you need to go further back than those writers or even the Victorian clergyman, John Nelson Derby, who inspired them with his dispensationalist theology. Great Christian thinkers like Augustine of Hippo and St Thomas Aquinas developed principles to restrain Christian princes from unnecessary military action. The intention to wage war was justified only if it passed certain tests. Here are three of them:
'Scotland has led the way, Westminster must follow'
“The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” (Psalm 126v3)
After three years of speculation, debate and scrutiny, late Tuesday night the Scottish Parliament voted to reject the legalisation of assisted suicide by 69-57 votes. Along with The Christian Institute’s nearly 60,000 supporters, I rejoice that our gracious and merciful God has truly done a “great thing”.
Scotland's assisted suicide vote: 'A victory for the vulnerable'
I spent yesterday evening watching the Scottish Parliament debate assisted suicide. It was a Stage Three debate, which is the final time MSPs debate legislation and also the last time they vote.
Going into the debate, we needed at least seven MSPs to switch from their Stage One vote and we needed to ensure no-one went the other way. It was absolutely on a knife edge.
Abuja: Has Gafcon 'divorced' the CofE?
It has only been a short while since Gafcon (Global Anglican Future Conference) issued the Abuja Affirmation, declaring that “reordering the Anglican Communion is now necessary”.
Concerning that Communion, Gafcon also claimed to have “restored its original structure as a fellowship of autonomous provinces bound together by the Formularies of the Reformation.”
Creation groans and so do I - reflections from an Iranian believer
For days now my body has been tightening and releasing, tightening and releasing again. Contractions come, pass, and return. Time has lost its usual edges. I am waiting, but not passively. My body is doing something I cannot hurry or manage.
Between contractions, my mind keeps returning to words in Romans chapter eight. Not because I am trying to interpret this moment, but because Scripture sometimes gives language to things we would otherwise endure in silence. Paul speaks of creation groaning as in the pains of childbirth. Not poetic groaning. Physical groaning. Unchosen, involuntary, exhausting.
This is what's missing from the social media debate
As Parliament debates whether to ban social media for under 16s, I find myself reflecting on a new TikTok trend: people choosing to “go analogue” - rejecting screens for books, tangible hobbies and time in nature.
I’ve been reading a lot of Jonathan Haidt lately. If anyone thinks we should be spending less time online, it’s him. He writes about how social media saps our energy, attention and focus and it’s also linked to a deterioration in mental health for children and young people. Haidt argues that we are raising an anxious generation – and I find it hard to disagree with him.
'Ordinary faithfulness'
Every generation of Christians is tempted by causes. Ours is no different. We long for something to rally around, whether it is a campaign or a crisis. Something that will lift us out of the mundane of ordinary obedience and give us the sense that we are finally "doing something big for God".
It explains why sometimes Christians can mobilise more quickly around political slogans than around the basic command to love our neighbour. Or why our churches get excited about national campaigns rather than meeting a fellow Christian for prayer over a cup of tea.
To what degree should a Christian engage with the news?
How much responsibility do we have to know what is happening around us?
I have a relative in Australia who never listens to the news on TV or the radio and never scrolls through social media. He did not hear about the shooting at Bondi Beach until days after the event. When he did hear, he did not engage or find out more about it. Does it matter?
When rivalry becomes hostility - and what this reveals
Two fires caught Glasgow’s attention last week. One was literal: smoke rising from a blaze at Glasgow Central Station that disrupted the heart of the city. The other was more familiar: the flare-up of anger and confrontation surrounding the latest Rangers–Celtic clash.
For a moment, the two seemed to echo one another — one a physical fire, the other the heat of football rivalry spilling over.
Wives according to 1 Peter: Models to the church
There’s a certain irony that it has recently been International Women’s Day, and I am writing about 1 Peter 3v1-6, which starts, "Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands…." If there is any topic that makes people view Christianity as outdated or anti-women, this is the one.
Yet our conviction as evangelicals is that the commands of the Bible are not just true; they are good. Here are three ways in which these instructions by the Apostle Peter are good for women.