Scientific arrogance?
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Dear Editor,
I’ll admit that I was not inclined to lend a sympathetic ear to William Philip’s article, entitled ‘The fanatical arrogance of men of science’ (en June), given his insensitive stance on climate change during COP26 in Glasgow (see http://ne-calltoaction.org.uk/?m=202207). Indeed, it really upset me to see all the good people I’ve worked with over the years maligned in this way and I hate to think of the damage such teaching could do to young people. The article fosters an attitude of fear and antagonism towards the whole scientific community and this is undeserved. ‘Men (and women) of science’ are not generally ‘fanatically arrogant’, any more than are men of politics, lawyers, school teachers – or ‘men of the church’.
John Stott’s ‘new’ book: a heartfelt environmental plea
Thomas Creedy
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
In 2011 IVP published what was intended by the author to be his final book – summing up decades of prayer, study and ministry. John Stott’s The Radical Disciple, ten years on, continues to provoke, encourage and inspire.
Stott’s own purpose in that book was ‘to consider eight characteristics of Christian discipleship which are often neglected and yet deserve to be taken seriously’. One of these was ‘creation care’, an issue which is increasingly coming to our attention and the focus of the world. With the Stott centenary running from April 2021 to April 2022, IVP took the decision to publish John Stott on Creation Care, a definitive collection of Stott’s writings on the topic, carefully compiled from throughout his ministry. Sam Berry and Laura Yoder, in their own way, have carefully curated tens of thousands of Stott’s own words, adding interpretation and context, to produce a vital new book.
Climate reactions
Date posted: 1 May 2022
Dear Editor,
Just to say how pleased I am to see the interview with Sir John Houghton in the centre-page spread in the April issue of Evangelicals Now. Many thanks.
en expert warns on climate
en staff
Date posted: 1 Sep 2021
The latest international report on global climate change is ‘a stark warning of the crisis facing the planet,’ according to an expert who writes for Evangelicals Now.
Simon Marsh (see photo), who has expertise in geography, environmental assessment and regional planning, and who works for the RSPB, was speaking after the release of the news delivered by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of scientists whose findings are endorsed by the world’s governments.
Evangelicals warn over ‘shocking’ cost of living crisis
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Oct 2022
Politicians have a moral duty to act, given
the
‘shocking’ rises
in
the energy price
cap – and the energy price guarantee for
consumers does not go far enough, Christian
charities have warned.
CARE – Christian Action Research and
Education – said immediate action is needed
to protect the vulnerable. It issued the warning
just before Liz Truss’ new government was
formed
in early September, and ahead of
another significant rise in fuel price.
‘People are suffering, are dying, how dare you?’
Date posted: 1 Feb 2021
Dear Editor,
Thank you for publishing the helpful article, ‘Caring for God’s earth’ by Simon Marsh (en, January 2021). He referred to the injustice of our consumption of more than our fair share of the world’s resources, but we should also remember the terrible damage being done to the lives of the poor by climate change, right now, as a result of our combustion of fossil fuels. As Greta Thunberg put it, at the UN in September 2019: ‘People are suffering, people are dying. how dare you?’
earth watch
After COP26: eco-anxiety?
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Dec 2021
What keeps you awake at night? Perhaps it’s the threat of coronavirus. When I was a teenager, it was the threat of nuclear armageddon that made me anxious.
These days it’s ‘eco-anxiety’ that’s likely to be a worry, especially for children and young people. Eco-anxiety is the chronic fear of environmental doom; it’s not a medical diagnosis, but according to the British Medical Journal, reported in the Guardian, recognition of eco-anxiety and its complex psychological effects is increasing, as is its disproportionate impact on children and young people. According to the same report, a 2020 survey of child psychiatrists in England showed that more than half (57%) are seeing children and young people distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment.
earth watch
Would you break the law?
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
Have you ever been on a protest march?
I’m not a natural protester, although there have been a couple of occasions when I joined a climate march. Most recently (before the pandemic) it was in support of a youth climate march in Cambridge. It ended on King’s Parade where many of the marchers lay down on the lawn in front of King’s College. I confess that my respect for authority was such that I kept off the grass.
defending our faith
Job, a witness for today
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
In the midst of Covid, brutal murders,
energy crises, and the impact of climate
change, no doubt many of us are drawn to
the Book of Job as a work that expresses
what it means to live in a world of sorrow.
For apologetics and sermons it provides
a context to deal honestly and directly with
tragedy and pain.
Afghanistan: Christians flee from cities
Iain Taylor, Release International
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
The latest reports from Afghanistan reveal
that Christians have been fleeing
the
cities, moving to remote areas to escape
the Taliban. Many Christians who remain
are trapped inside the country, unable to
leave via its now-sealed borders. Some have
received death threats.
Although many Christians managed
to
get out ahead of the Taliban advance, there
are still thought to be several thousand in
Afghanistan. Even if they wanted to leave
they could not, as the borders are strictly
controlled by the Taliban.
earth watch
A story of hope
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Jun 2022
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the enormity
of the climate and ecological crisis.
‘Eco-anxiety’ may not be a medically-recognised condition, but
it’s
something
many people can relate to, especially if they
care deeply about
the natural world. It’s
important for Christians not only to share
the hope we have in Jesus Christ, but stories
of hope we can experience
in the world
about us. Indeed,
secular communicators
recognise that always harping on about the
bad stuff only puts people off taking action,
and so organisations working to care for
creation need to tell positive stories (while
not ignoring the bad news).
Teenagers, mental health and the gospel
Eleanor
Date posted: 1 Feb 2021
If you ask any teenager today to summarise in a word what they think of the state of the world, I doubt you would get one positive answer in a thousand.
Recently, in my sixth form PSHCE class, the teacher started the lesson off with that question, and sure enough the answers were immensely depressing. ‘Racist’, ‘Sexist’, ‘Classist’, ‘Empty’, ‘Dying’, ‘Pointless’ – by the end, the teacher seemed slightly taken aback at the dark direction his ‘think about the world’ exercise had taken!
earth watch
Rising sea levels: what’s the truth?
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
Where I live in the former county of Huntingdonshire is a long way from the sea. But according to some predictions of sea-level rise, it could be a lot closer soon.
In one scenario, with widespread inundation of the Fens, Cambridge could virtually become a coastal city by 2050. London, Cardiff, Blackpool and Hull could all be severely affected. Scenarios like these are alarming and make great media headlines, but what is really going on?
Why do some US evangelicals still support Donald Trump?
By evangelical historian, Martyn Whittock
How strong is evangelical support for Donald Trump now? How has his recent bout of Covid affected that perception? And watching from outside the US, how is it possible Bible believing Christians can back such an extraordinary figure?
defending our faith
The right to offend and ‘the coddling of the American mind’
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Jan 2022
Apologetics, like comedy, requires that we are able to challenge points of view, express unusual opinions and think outside of the box. Apologetics, also like comedy, is not to the taste of the easily offended.
In February 2021 Merseyside Police had to issue an apology over a poster campaign which had claimed ‘Being Offensive is an Offence’. The force had released an unfortunate media picture of a police van bearing the false claim and including four menacing police offers, one holding what could be interpreted as a cane. In the wake of widespread criticism it was withdrawn and the apology issued. According to the Crown Prosecution Service finding something offensive does not mean you are a victim of a crime and causing someone offence does not mean you have committed a crime.
defending our faith
The Schaeffer paradox
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
If you have any interest at all in apologetics
– the defence of the faith – you will have
come across the work of Francis Schaeffer
(1912-1984).
It
is hard
to over-estimate his great
influence on thoughtful evangelicalism. His
range of writings, from climate change to
postmodern art, reflect a rare calling as a
missionary to culture. There were weaknesses
in
his ministry,
oversimplifications
of
philosophical
theory
and
a
perilous
partnership with secular political power, but
contemporary apologetics is enormously in
his debt.
After the vote: what next for evangelicals in the US?
(As en went to press, various lawsuits disputing the result were ongoing.)
Gerald Bray reports from Alabama
The coronavirus pandemic has unexpectedly found me in Alabama, where I have enjoyed a front-row seat in the 2020 elections circus.
news in brief
Sex ed man returns
The creator of the sexually-explicit Warwickshire sex ed curriculum removed from use in the county earlier in 2020, has made a comeback with a new curriculum on his Going Off the Rails website.
Jonny Hunt claims his new work closely follows the government Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) ‘curriculum’. A training session must be attended before the materials can be purchased. The self-styled ‘sex ed’ consultant’s biography still includes no academic qualifications in the field of education or RSE (en January 2020).
Nigeria: complex causes,
systematic destruction
All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for International Freedom of Religion or Belief
Date posted: 1 Aug 2020
A report was published on 15 June titled
‘Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide?’
It points out that the violence has claimed
the lives of thousands of people and displaced
hundreds of thousands more. It has caused
untold human and economic devastation and
heightened existing ethno-religious tensions.
Despite the scale of the violence, the conflict
is much less well known internationally than
the ten-year-long Boko Haram insurgency.
COP 26 and the Great Commission
Climate science is a sophisticated business, so it is a sitting target for sceptics and climate change deniers. But you don’t need computer modelling to sense that something is not right with nature.
Southern species are moving northwards. I picked up two ticks this year walking in the north of Scotland. You can now find hummingbird hawk moths in Derbyshire. And if you want to climb down to the Mer de Glace, a mighty glacier near Mont Blanc, you must abseil 300 feet further than when I first did that descent in 1974; the glacier is shrinking!