And of Asher he said...

In Moses' final blessing on Israel he said to the tribe of Asher, "As your days, so shall your strength be" (Deut. 33:25). He promised that they would get strength for each day, and I think the McArthur family (owners of Ashers, the bakers) have proved this through the whole legal rigmarole of the last couple of years.

Bigotry? Yes, but...

I have just heard the most astonishing melt-down from (former) BBC radio presenter Iain Lee.

Redefining and refining...

Yesterday would have been George Orwell's 112th birthday. Animal Farm was required reading for us in English Literature class at school, but it was only in the last few years I actually read his book 1984. 

Freedom of conscience?

The year that has passed has seen a big squeeze being put on liberty in this country, the thing is that many people don't see it because they aren't being squeezed, or they don't care because at present they agree with the people doing the squeezing.

Asher's

Once again, the "tolerance" crowd are on the warpath because they have identified someone who doesn't agree with them, and they are not prepared to put up with (i.e. tolerate) such treatment.

Welcome to Room 101

The thought police are primed, ready to launch a dawn raid on anyone who dares to cause upset. They will respond immediately at the first sign of a tear in the eye of a sensitive soul, and bring the full force of political correctness upon the head of any who don't think the way they are supposed to.

Living in cloud cuckoo land

The cuckoo apparently doesn't build its own nest, but waits for another bird to build one then hijacks it for itself. That's what came to mind when I heard about 'God' being dropped from the Girl Guides' promise recently.

This change was the subject of Nicky Campbell's phone-in show yesterday (19/6/13) on Radio 5 Live. The final call of the show was horrendous, but not as bad as Nicky's response!

I will paste my email I sent to the BBC today. In it you will get the gist of what the caller and Nicky said.

Still without a leg to stand on

I wrote last year about a man (Robbie) with whom I had a long and interesting conversation (see here, here and here).  Well, I just spoke to him again today, and sadly he still holds to the same denials of reason and reality, all the while denouncing those who disagree as unintelligent.

All relationships are equal, but some are more equal than others?

It has become a mantra in our society, it's repeated by celebrities, politicians, and protesters. It has become a kind of continuous drone that gets into the subconscious, and makes anyone who questions the statement or probes into the assumptions look devoid of sense and full of hate. It is the slogan, "I believe in equality."

Use intelligence about intolerance

It's been a while since I've written here - sorry!  Things have been particularly busy lately.  I want to issue an appeal in this post, and it springs from a conversation I heard on the Unbelievable? radio show a while ago between David Robertson (Christian) and Mike Lee (atheist).

Thinking straight

It is a subject I haven't written directly on, quite simply because I don't want to...

Way out in front

I was looking through the stats of this blog and I just wanted to point out that there is one post that has received more than twice as many hits as any other post, it is We will not tolerate intolerance!

Surely it's wrong to be sure???

I want to talk about something that we hear a lot in our society in which people love to be offended.

Don't hurt my feelings!

This post takes up on the subject raised in the previous post in which I told you about a Hindu I heard objecting to Christians telling people they're wrong.  It strikes me that this is a very thin-skinned, immature attitude.

It's wrong to tell people they're wrong!?!

The Hindu I was listening to was telling a Christian that it's fine for him to believe in Christianity, he just shouldn't tell people what they believe is wrong...

We will not tolerate intolerance!

I find it such a strange thing that our society shouts so much about the need for tolerance and yet is fast becoming so intolerant, and the reason is because tolerance is being redefined. 

THE Question

It's an awkward situation because usually the person asking the question is looking for a one word answer, but a one word answer gives a completely wrong impression.  The question runs something like this, "Do you believe all _________ (fill in religion here, such as Muslims, Jews, Buddhists etc.) are going to hell?"  I have heard this question a few times.  I was asked it recently - the questioner had heard the Gospel and, with tears in his eyes, he asked me if he was going to hell because he was a Muslim.  I heard it in a radio discussion between a Jew and a Christian.  The host of the debate put the question to both participants - "Do you believe the other one is going to hell?"

The Narrow Way - narrow minded?

"Jesus said unto him, 'I am the Way...'" (John 14 v 6)
He was a colleague of mine - a fellow civil engineer, and he was telling me about the voluntary work he had been doing in Guinea. He told me he had been staying with an American missionary couple. His problem was this - the people in the country weren't eating their young, beating their wives or mistreating their elderly or anything like that, so why did these Americans feel they had the right or the need to go to their country and interfere with their beliefs? My friend isn't the only one who has raised this issue. It just seems so unfair and intolerant – no matter what kind of a life you have lived, no matter how good you have been, how hard you have tried, you get these Christians telling you that unless you believe just like they do you are going to hell. Surely if God is at all fair He's not going to exclude people from heaven over some point of doctrine, after all, how you behave is bound to be far more important than what you believe.

This objection seems perfectly reasonable and totally unanswerable, but is it? Was the Lord Jesus being egotistical when He said He was the only way? Where His apostles being bigoted when they said that there was salvation in none other than Christ? Are Christians today narrow minded or arrogant when they say you will perish if you aren’t a Christian? Let’s just back up in our thinking, because it seems that the outrage people have over Christ’s exclusive claims stems from them getting off on the wrong foot.