Archbishop panel member believes gay people can ‘change’ sexual desire; Religious people are more likely to be leftwing, says thinktank; Hope invasion in York; Bishop warns stripping Britain of religion leaves country vulnerable to extremism; A society that persecutes Christ is heading for terrible trouble – leading journalist; New fund to help with disasters
Archbishop panel member believes gay people can ‘change’ sexual desire
Guardian – Liberal Anglicans alarmed by presence of Glynn Harrison on panel that will recommend successor to Rowan Williams. A leading member of the Church of England who believes some gay people can be counselled to suppress or possibly change their sexual orientation is helping to select the next archbishop of Canterbury.
Glynn Harrison, emeritus professor of psychiatry at Bristol University, is on the Crown Nominations Commission, which will recommend a successor to Rowan Williams, to be approved by the prime minister and the Queen. His role on the 16-strong commission has alarmed some liberal Anglicans who fear it could deepen divisions over homosexuality in a church riven by the issues of holding gay civil ceremonies in churches and the consecration of gay bishops.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/09/archbishop-of-canterbury-crown-nominations-commission?newsfeed=true
Religious people are more likely to be leftwing, says thinktank Demos
Guardian – “We don’t do God,” Alastair Campbell famously insisted when journalists pressed the former prime minister, Tony Blair, on matters of faith.
But it appears that New Labour’s high command missed a trick by declining to talk up their religious convictions, for new research suggests they would have been preaching to the converted: people with faith are far more likely to take left-of-centre positions on a range of issues, including immigration and equality.
The research, revealed in a new report by the thinktank Demos, undermines the widely held view that members of religious groups are more likely to have conservative tendencies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/08/religious-people-more-likely-leftwing-demos
The report itself titled Faithful Citizens can be found on the Demos website as a PDF file – link below . Demos itself summarises the report thus:
Religiosity has always been closely associated with conservatism: the Church of England is sometimes described as ‘the Conservative party at prayer’. In the United States, the Republican party and the religious right have become increasingly interdependent, but a similar trend has not occurred on this side of the Atlantic. This report, based on original analysis of the Citizenship Survey and the European Values Survey, investigates the different relationship between religion and politics in the UK and Europe.
The report presents two key findings. First, religious people are more active citizens – they volunteer more, donate more to charity and are more likely to campaign on political issues. Second, and more counter-intuitively, religious people are more likely to be politically progressive. They put a greater value on equality than the non-religious, are more likely to be welcoming of immigrants as neighbours and when asked are more likely to put themselves on the left of the political spectrum.
Based on this, Faithful Citizens recommends that progressive politicians should work with faith groups on issues which they are particularly engaged, including immigration, women’s rights, international development, the environment and youth work. Faith group members, the report argues, will be key to any future, election-winning, progressive coalition.
www.demos.co.uk/files/Faithful_citizens_-_web.pdf?1333839181
Hope invasion in York
Christian Today – Young people used drama and music to share the Christian faith in schools in York in the run-up to Easter.
More than 70 teenagers from the city’s churches took part in Hope Invasion. They visited 10 secondary schools for the last two weeks of the school term to lead religious studies lessons for school years 7 to 9.
They also performed dramas and put on live concerts during lunchtimes.
The group also took the message of hope to the streets of York, handing out freebies, doing creative evangelism, and chatting to young people who were invited to a free concert.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/hope.invasion.in.york/29635.htm
Bishop warns stripping Britain of religion leaves country vulnerable to extremism
Telegraph – Stripping Britain of its Christian foundations would leave the country vulnerable to “the most sinister of ideologies”, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury has warned.
The Rt Rev Mark Davies used his Easter Homily to express anxiety at the consequences of undermining Britain’s religious heritage.
He cited the recent history of Europe to voice fears extremism would fill the void if Christianity was weakened.
“It has, indeed, been the experience of this past century, as both Blessed John Paul II and
Pope Benedict XVI have observed how the most poisonous ideologies have arisen within the Christian nations of Europe,” he said.
“Thus Nazism or Communism attempted to discard the Christian inheritance of faith and morality as if it had never existed.
“They sought either to return to the pagan past or to “re-create” and “redeem” humanity by political will and ideology with terrible consequences.
“If Christianity is no longer to form the basis and the bedrock of our society then we are, indeed, left at the mercy of passing political projects and perhaps even the most sinister of ideologies.”
Bishop Davies became the latest influential religious leader to warn of the consequences of increasing secularisation.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9193140/Bishop-warns-stripping-Britain-of-religion-leaves-country-vulnerable-to-extremism.html
A society that persecutes Christ is heading for terrible trouble
Telegraph – Chrles Moore, former editor writes – Politicians in the West – and atheists – ignore at their peril the benefits and power of organised religion. This week before Easter, I chanced upon the following two quotations. The first says: “Not for 2,000 years has it been possible for society to exclude or eliminate Christ from its social or political life without a terrible social or political consequence.” The second says: “Religion taught by a prophet or by a preacher of the truth is the only foundation on which to build a great and powerful empire.”
The first is by Margaret Thatcher, opening her foreword to a book called Christianity and Conservatism, which appeared in 1990. The second appears in Tom Holland’s outstanding new book In the Shadow of the Sword (Little, Brown), which traces the rise of Islam from the ruins of the Roman and Persian empires. It comes from Ibn Khaldun, the great Muslim historian and political counsellor of the 14th century.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9190483/A-society-that-persecutes-Christ-is-heading-for-terrible-trouble.html
New fund to help with disasters
BBC – The Department for International Development has announced a fund to encourage new solutions to assist after natural disasters.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17649115