Testing Trials, Egregious Errors: Good Friday Reflections

Luke 22: 71a – And they said, “What further need do we have of testimony?”

Matthew 24: 27 – Now when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; you yourselves shall see.”

A good friend summed up the apparent hopelessness of our position.  She said, “…sometimes, they won’t let you be clergy, much as Bonhoeffer was not allowed be a Lutheran Pastor or the theologian he was called to be”.  She added, “sometimes, all there is to do is stand and face what is coming. You did not choose this path: it is a vocation, and we just cannot imagine the cost.  What is asked of you is not necessarily to fight back, but simply to stand. They will keep attacking. Thank you for not running away….”.

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Churches and Cultural Climate-Change Denial (Part Three): Forecasting and Futurescape

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If English Anglican white Evangelicals thought the analysis of Robert P. Jones represented a range of subjects on which they’d rather not comment on (i.e., “…Let’s just get back to those Mission Action Plans, church-plant, grow, grow, grow…”, etc.), then he has done some more calculations and projections for us to wrestle with.  As he is charting the deep and rapid changes in the cultural currents, his data and research that should give yet more cause for concern to white Evangelicals in the UK and USA. 

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Churches and Cultural Climate-Change Denial (Part Two): Money, Sex and Power

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One of the leading commentators on religion and politics in the USA is Robert P. Jones, who is the CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).  His recent books on the churches and racism have rightly attracted high praise for their depth of research, the range of statistics he draws on, and the bodies he consults (e.g., Pew Foundation, several Washington DC-based polling and research centres, etc). Best of all, perhaps, is his unimpeachable clarity: the boldness and frankness of his prescient analysis; and his conclusions and future projections.  Few could easily argue with his devastating blend of data, history, cultural and political analysis, and his very nuanced feel for and understanding of religion in contemporary America.

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