Rumours of God's death somewhat exaggerated!

An interesting article on the 'Everyday Sociology' blog, reminding us of how often the prophets of secularisation have (wrongly) predicted the demise of faith in the face of the forces of secularisation.

Messrs Dawkins and Co. would have us believe that secular humanism is the thinking person's way forward, and yet, plainly, a great many thinking persons still hold fast the view that there is a spiritual dimension to life that secularism fails to address.

So, as ever, the task before us as Christians, is not to convince people around us that there is, a spiritual aspect to life, but to demonstrate the reality of our relationship with The Author and Perfecter of that life.

I'm flagging this up as I have realised that it's often the minority highly vocal and provocative atheists who hog the "airwaves" in discussions of spiritual matters, whilst the quiet majority, who understand that spirituality is a vital part of being human, are somewhat sidelined.

Perhaps we need to learn to avoid being drawn into "red herring" conversations by the acolytes of Dawkins et al, and to pay more attention to the quiet majority who are quietly seeking to understand their spirituality, and who would be delighted to discuss matter of faith in a reasonable manner?

Preparing the Garden

This week in our intercession cycle we are asking Father to prepare people's hearts to make them ready to receive His seeds of faith. I'm very aware that few people today are involved in agriculture, and that for many people the last time they planted a seed was at school. (Remember mustard in cress grown on soggy cotton wool...remember how cool it was to see it start to grow?...Ahh memories!)Even today it's still a great picture of the process of faith taking root in a person's life, and gradually developing into new life.

If you have ever progressed beyond cotton wool and cress and tried to grow anything in the great outdoors, you can't have missed the fact that for some reason, lots of other stuff suddenly decides to burst into vigorous growth right there along side your prize blooms! I'm told that anything growing where it is not wanted is technically classed as a weed, and for some reason weeds have the supernatural ability to grow FAR more rapidly than any non-weed planted near them. (OK so maybe the supernatural bit is a slight exaggeration...but only slight!) If you have faced this onslaught of unwanted growth, you'll know that it takes a lot of work just to keep the blighters down, so they don't get a hold and choke the life out of your seedlings.

Jesus knew this, and he also knew only too well the other threats to the tiny seedling of faith as it struggles into life, hence his parables on the topic, encouraging those who got His drift to make sure they did what was needed to ensure that new life grew in healthy soil. So let's make sure that we don't fall into the temptation of thinking that we can skip preparing the ground in prayer, it's an important part of the process of making disciples.

Now simply offering kindness is an offense!

I read with a sense of some concern the case of a nurse suspended from work for simply offering to pray for an elderly patient. Apparently such acts of kindness as sufficient grounds to have someone suspended from their work.

Boundary barmy?
Now don't get me wrong I believe that there should be professional boundaries, and that as Christians we must never abuse positions we hold at work to encourage people to consider Christianity - But on the face of it the case in question was simply a genuine offer of kindness. We live in a multicultural world, and I'm all for making sure that we don't cause offence to people, but how sad is it that people can't offer acts of kindness to one another?

That's lovely, but no thank you
I for one would not be offended if say a Moslem or a Hindu offered to pray for me, actually I'd be rather pleased they had asked. As a Christian in those circumstances I'd thank them for their kind thoughts but decline as I hold different beliefs to them (which I'd be happy to share if they showed an interest in knowing them).

Any colour as long as it's grey?
How crazy is it to live in a multi-faith, multi-cultural world if it means that no one can share anything of that faith or culture with anyone else as an act of care or concern?

No tea!
I can see the next memo from the powers-that-be, coming even as I write; "Please refrain from offering cups of tea to anyone when you meet, as it's well known that tea is a very British drink and so offering such a beverage opens up the risk of offending various diverse groups examples listed below:
- Americans, their national drink is coffee, to offer tea may open old wounds.
- Mormons, adherents to Mormonism are forbidden to drink stimulants.
- People from India, who may possibly feel you are making a colonialist stance.
- Vegans, who may be offended if you offer them tea with milk."

I'd laugh if it were not so sad!