How US evangelicals could affect the entire world
Martyn Whittock
Date posted: 1 Mar 2024
So, ‘Super Tuesday’ has happened – and Donald Trump looks on track for the Republican Party nomination in the US presidential elections.
A lot could happen between now and the actual vote, of course – but currently polls show Trump leading Biden, and so we could well be facing a second presidency from the businessman and former TV host. The role that US evangelicals play could affect the entire globe – and should be viewed, as I will explain below, with some concern.
After COP 29: evangelical scientist claims ‘history on our side’
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 22 Nov 2024
‘Gravity, history, and progress’ make the drive to clean and green energy unstoppable, says leading evangelical climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe as the COP 29 gathering concluded.
The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference began on 11 November in Baku, Azerbaijan and ended on 22 November.
Hot Topic
Date posted: 1 Feb 2024
Dear Editor,
Stephen Carter’s letter, ‘Hot Topic’, en Oct, stated that ‘data from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) simply doesn’t support … climate alarmism’. On the contrary, IPCC’s Sixth Report, Part II, 28 February 2022, is headed: ‘Climate change: a threat to human wellbeing and health of the planet’ and states that: ‘This report is a dire warning about the consequences of inaction… (Hoesung Lee, Chair, IPCC).’ And, most ‘alarming’ of all: ‘Any further delay … will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.’
Three other election views: ‘What unites us is Christ’
en staff
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
Of course, other parties are also taking part in this election.
Writing on the website of Christiansinpolitics.org, Stephen Gray says that as a Christian he votes Green for two main reasons: ‘The first reference to government in the Bible is Genesis 1:26, where God says “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Climate hope – if promises are kept, say evangelicals
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Jan 2024
Even as it opened, the UN Climate Change Conference COP 28 was making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The BBC revealed claims that hosts, the United Arab Emirates, were planning to make oil and gas deals with 15 other countries at the event. Despite that, many Christian groups were represented there, some as part of the Christian Climate Observers Program, a non-denominational Christian presence advocating for God’s creation. All are, perhaps, encouraged by the fact that COP28 for the first time featured a ‘faith pavilion’. Evangelicals Now spoke to four leading Christian environmental organisations about their hopes and fears for the conference.
Seek to be peacemakers - and not partisans, US evangelicals are urged
en staff
Date posted: 4 Nov 2024
US evangelicals are being urged to act as peacemakers rather than partisans, as the drama of the 2024 Presidential election result unfolds.
Writing in The Times in the UK, leading evangelical scientist and author Dr Francis Collins, who led the Human Genome Project from 1993, urges: 'Take up the mantle of a peacemaker; you will be blessed; you may even be called a child of God.'
Climate ‘alarmism’
Date posted: 1 Apr 2024
Dear Editor,
I am surprised that David Golding (letters, en February 2024) should resort to describing those holding my opinion as ‘sinfully complacent’. I assure him that I am deeply passionate about this subject and, although I have many faults, being complacent isn’t one of them. For the record, I spent 16 years as a trustee of an evangelical relief agency.
letter from Morocco
A land of physical drought and spiritual thirst
David Baker
Date posted: 3 Dec 2024
‘Are you ready to find out everything there is to know about Marrakech?’ our guide asked us, with well-practiced faux enthusiasm?
We assented with as much vigour as we could muster, given the early start to the tour of this historic Moroccan city.
‘Evangelicals for Harris’ in late push for votes - but face struggle as vote looms
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 28 Oct 2024
Although many US evangelicals are backing Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has supporters among them too.
‘Evangelicals for Biden’ has rebranded as ‘Evangelicals for Harris’ in an effort to mobilise Christian voters for her campaign. The group argues that her faith ‘shines through in her clear Christian values displayed in her unwavering support for American families.’
Why are weather disaster movies so fascinating for us?
Kirsten Birkett
Date posted: 12 Sep 2024
I have just watched the movie Twisters, a remake of the 1996 movie Twister, which I enjoyed back in the day.
There are some differences, but the same basic plot; a weather scientist who has an almost mystic ability to predict tornadoes, trying to find a way to prevent them and so stop the tremendous damage that they wreak to human lives. It’s well made and fun; but this is not a review of the movie. What it made me reflect upon is why I like disaster weather movies so much.
Women’s group flourishes in Nigeria
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 17 Jul 2024
On a warm afternoon, the ululation, drumming and singing of a choir of two-dozen women can be heard across Gan Gora, a tiny village in Nigeria. ‘We are happy you arrived safely,’ they sing in Hausa, welcoming visitors to the community branch of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Zangon Kataf, Kaduna. One song is from the book of Habakkuk: ‘Oh Lord, how long must I call for help, but you do not listen?’
The Guardian has reported how about 100 women dance regularly, including Rifkatu Dauda Kigbu, 53, hobbling on a fractured knee. This is a weekly meeting of zumunta mata, a fellowship of married women. Their visitors are zumunta mata members from an ECWA in Gonin Gora, a Kaduna suburb.
A Liberal Democrat election view: A ‘change’ election
Tim Farron
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
This general election feels very much like a ‘change’ election. People feel things are broken; they are disillusioned and seeking something different.
But disillusionment often means looking for someone to blame. Elections should of course highlight dividing lines between parties, but any ‘us versus them’ debate that actively pits groups against each other should be a red flag to Christians. We mustn’t lose sight of the dignity and worth of our opponents as human beings.
Africa famine alert: ‘I failed to sleep when people came hungry…’ – pastor
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 May 2024
Christians and churches across vast tracts of southern Africa are bracing themselves for famine following a crippling drought. Across the region farmers suffered the driest February in decades. It has wiped out crops, led to power shortages, and now threatens to send already expensive food prices surging even higher.
In February, many parts of Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe had the lowest recorded rainfall since 1981. The dry spell, blamed on the El Niño weather system, is but the latest indicator of how severely Africa is being impacted by extreme weather events, which many scientists say are becoming increasingly frequent and severe due to man-made climate change.
After Smyth, after Makin – how does evangelical culture need to change?
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 21 Nov 2024
The Makin Review into the horrific abuse carried out by John Smyth was always going to send shockwaves through the Church of England – and the evangelical world both within that denomination and beyond it. Smyth – QC, church reader and sadist – abused at least 115 children and young men over a period spanning some 50 years. Some later attempted suicide.
The report does not hold back. The victims’ accounts are harrowing; the failures of successive CofE leaders – including many evangelicals – from the top down are exposed. Makin could not be clearer: conservative evangelical culture facilitated Smyth’s abuse. His brutal proclivities were an open secret among a faction within the church who could have acted – but didn’t. The institution, its beliefs and reputation, were more important than the individuals being abused.
Sound the warning, heed the alarm
David Golding
Date posted: 1 Mar 2024
The prophet Joel commanded the people of his day, 'Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain.' (Joel 2.1)
In our day, reasons for alarm are all too apparent. The average global temperature last year was the hottest ever recorded: 'What we’ve seen with 2023 is off the charts' (Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute in The Guardian). 'I want you to panic…,' said Greta Thunberg in 2019; now, after last year, no description seems too extreme for even experienced scientists.
politics & policy
Pursuing Christ alone
Tim Farron
Date posted: 1 Mar 2024
One of the accounts I follow on X is called Exploding Heads. It offers a satirical take on the way we interact with the news, and has a great character called ‘Colin from Portsmouth’ who constantly phones into a radio station to express outrage about the state of the country.
One of the funniest sketches involves him shouting out a ‘list of woke things’ to the bemused radio host, all of which pose a ‘threat to Western civilisation’. They include: The Guardian, the British Army nowadays, almond milk, ‘King Prince Charles’, and the laws of physics.
A Labour election view: Faith comes first
Rachael Maskell
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
Faith comes first. Serving Christ in our troubled and broken world is the call. But why intersect with politics?
Politics is one of many platforms through which to shape our society, challenge inequity and advance opportunity. It is the place where the distribution of wealth is determined through economic policy, how our public services are run, and sets the cultural direction of our nation here at home and how we address issues afar.
How US evangelicals could affect the entire world
So, ‘Super Tuesday’ has happened – and Donald Trump looks on track for the Republican Party nomination in the US presidential elections.
A lot could happen between now and the actual vote, of course – but currently polls show Trump leading Biden, and so we could well be facing a second presidency from the businessman and former TV host. The role that US evangelicals play could affect the entire globe – and should be viewed, as I will explain below, with some concern.