Ease up on the bioethical propaganda please

I have been receiving emails and posted material urging me to mobilise the Lighthouse congregation to join in a concerted effort to stop the latest embryo and fertilisation legislation.

These have been coming from various evangelical groupings who are making common cause with the Roman Catholics and Anglicans who have been grabbing the headlines on this issue.

No hyperbole seems to be too great for my brethren on this matter. The future of mankind is apparently at stake and I will be guilty if I do not raise my voice in protest.

The proposed technology will attempt to place a nucleus or the chromosomes of an adult person into the the embryonic or egg cell of another mammal species in the hope that “stem cells” can be manufactured.

If the cell can be persuaded to grow and divide it is hoped that the successor cells will become predominantly human stem cells suitable for replanting into the original donor of the genetic tissue.

These cells have great healing potential since they can replace crucial cells in organs like the brain, spinal cord, liver etc. which have been destroyed by illness or trauma.

I personally find this proposal a great improvement on using human embryos for this kind of work and I am irritated by the inevitable invocation of Frankenstein and Dr. Moreau’s Island.

I had no such avalanche of junk mail in the long run up to the Iraq war – indeed many of us seemed to see that adventure as a way of “liberating” the Iraqi Christians. I fear the “sanctity of human life” concept has some very strange applications.

I have a post on human nature on the Theology Review which deals with some of the faulty assumptions behind this propaganda.

Who is holding back the revival?

There is going to be a Christian revival in London.  I have been thinking it for years but I wonder if God has a problem.  Every few months some nutty “prophet” - often from the USA - “Prophesies” that there will be a revival here.  How can God bless us if it will also authenticate a false prophet?

It is like that famous prophecy from John Wimber (deceased) that David Watson (deceased) would be miraculously cured of cancer (he wasn’t).  How could God answer prayer for healing after that?  Impressionable Christians would have canonized them as modern Apostles instantly.

The latest prophecy is from one of the pastors of Times Square Church, New York.  I can’t remember his name because the letter was instantly recycled.

May I make a request of all these self-appointed oracles? “PLEASE SHUT UP about London”.  Maybe then the Holy Spirit will bless us.

Was William Wilberforce bad for the churches?

I am am fed up with dear old WW.  It has been impossible to avoid him and I am sure many a church member is tired of the “topical” references to his 200 year old Act by lazy preachers.  Nearly half of all references mistakenly credit WW with abolishing slavery when all he did was to make the trade illegal.

He may have been (marginally) good for some oppressed people but I think he did the churches considerable harm.  They began to see their mission in terms of civilising the British through publicity campaigns and social engineering.  The moral crusading of the 19th and 20th centuries continually hyped and lauded the achievements of the Clapham sect (while generally ignoring the work of quakers and rationalists) as it rushed down the blind alley of social meddling in the name of Jesus.

Everything was cast in terms of abolishing the next “slavery” (child labour, votes for women, even banning alcohol in the name of setting free the slaves of drink).  The current application of the slavery model is things like forced prostitution and chinese manufacturing.

Am I in favour of these bad things?  No, but we already have a criminal code which should be able to deal with wrongs done in our jurisdiction and I doubt whether we can do much about China.

And I do not remember Jesus  calling his disciples to do all this stuff.

The liberation of Black Americans came when THEY began to insist on taking their freedom.  Most liberties have to be taken rather than given.

What is so good about a career?

In the modern world a man or woman with a career is a somebody.  It is the same in modern churches.  Some of the Pentecostals are up front about this - they will tell you 2007 can be the year of your spiritual victory and this will be proved NOT by being found worthy to suffer shame for Christ (Acts 5:41) but by being found worthy to be honoured by promotion.

In other churches career idolatry may be more subtle but is still there.  Who really believes this saying:

You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. [Luke 16:15]

 There is a fascinating article in the London Review of Books on the legacy of Hannah Arendt  which is packed with interesting observations and points out how careerism inspired Adolf Eichmann and so many other energetic servants of evil.  Whenever a career is seen as good in itself then the careerist becomes a danger to himself and other people.  He ceases to walk with God and walks in the light of his own good image.  He is pursuing promotion instead of virtue.

Please note, I am not saying that the mark of a faithful disciple is a failed career!  Self-control and conscientiousness are a sign of spiritual fruit and a repentant believer may be a model employee.  In some organisations these are highly prized qualities which are rewarded with higher status and pay.  But the character is what matters and not the recognition.

May the good Lord save us from the career bureaucrats, the career politicians and, above all, the career Pastors.

Christmas - my favourite Pagan Festival

Yes, I know Jesus was not born in midwinter, the wise men turned up weeks after the birth and that it was a common thing for Mangers to double as cradles. No, there was no donkey and there was no snow and “no room at the inn” just means the spare bedroom was already taken.

Even worse, Christmas is a hybrid of Nordic and Roman Pagan festivities and nearly all the colourful bits and pieces from mulled wine to Christmas trees have a wiffy background.

Censorious legalists will have nothing to do with it. Quite right too. What’s the point of being a self-righteous prig if no one notices?

Real Christianity is something of a chameleon. It is not defined by cultural separation but by the strange entry of a new life into every believer. It subverts and transforms the blessed sinner from the inside out beginning with the miracle of regeneration, continuing in the discipline of repentance and ending in the Resurrection to come. A quiet beginning and thunderous fulfilment. Like a baby born in a Jerusalem suburb who will call all humanity to Judgement.

Societies are not so much overturned as subverted by joy and hope. There is not - and can not be - a true Christendom until The Kingdom of Christ comes in it’s fulness. So enjoy the party.

In the meantime, may the Father of Christ bless you in your celebrations rather than that sad old fraud, Father Christmas.