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How would David Cameron respond to Jesus?

David Cameron on how he would “respond to Jesus regarding his instruction to sell all our possessions and give the proceeds to the poor”, during a Q&A session in which the PM was asked about his religious beliefs:

Thoughts?

Sofa cant help but wonder if David Cameron was trying to avoid tackling the question. Perhaps if he answered it a bit more directly he may have appealed to the church going electorate a bit more, but obviously that depends on what he would have said.

How would you have advised David Cameron to have answered this question?

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Facebook gay wedding comment man wins demotion case

Interesting article on BBC News:

A Christian who was demoted in his job for a comment he wrote on Facebook about gay marriages has won a breach of contract action against his employers.

Adrian Smith, 55, lost his managerial position and had a 40% salary cut after saying a gay wedding held in a church was an “equality too far”.

Mr Smith, from Bolton, claimed Trafford Housing Trust (THT) acted unlawfully in demoting him.

He also alleged that the trust had breached his human rights.

Disciplinary action was launched against Mr Smith when he wrote “an equality too far” next to a BBC News Online story, written in February 2011, with the headline, “Gay church ‘marriage’ set to get the go-ahead”.

The father-of-two’s comments were not visible to the general public, and were posted outside work time, but the trust argued he broke its code of conduct by expressing religious or political views which might upset co-workers.

Read further on the BBC website.

Part of me wonders if there’s a little more to this story then what the BBC is reporting, or maybe I’ve read one two many conspiracy theories?

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Daily School Worship?

From the BBC News website:

Children at Mile Oak Primary School near Brighton

Many state schools in England are not providing group worship, despite legislation making it a requirement, a survey suggests.

The Comres survey for BBC local radio found 64% of the 500 parents questioned said their child did not attend daily acts of collective worship.

But 60% of the 1,743 adults asked said the legislation should not be enforced.

Some schools were opting to teach pupils about community rather than religion, said educationalists.

The Department for Education states that all maintained schools in England must provide a daily act of collective worship which must reflect the traditions of this country, which it says are, in the main, broadly Christian.

So it seems that schools are in the firing line again, but not due to failing maths, or English. Its due to some of them not providing a daily act of worship.

Now. I’m not what to think of this. While on one hand I do like the idea of schools and particulary “Christian” schools being open to a Christian message, I’m also very aware of how dull and boring some assemblies were – that I remember sleeping in. Some I simply avoided altogether…  Deciding just to hide around the school.

With that in mind, I did once go to “The Eucharist” to avoid having to go to an assembly…

 

Where do you stand on this?

Should schools do more to have a daily time of worship?

Should Christians be more worried about the worship time being relevant?

Should we simply not care?

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Weekly Roundup – The Religion Reboot Edition

Its the weekend!!!
Its the weekly round up!!!

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Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study says

According to the BBC:

Half-empty church

A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.

The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.

The team’s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.

The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.

The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Nonlinear dynamics is invoked to explain a wide range of physical phenomena in which a number of factors play a part.

One of the team, Daniel Abrams of Northwestern University, put forth a similar model in 2003 to put a numerical basis behind the decline of lesser-spoken world languages.

Read More

I cant help but wonder about the lack of time frame mentioned in this article.

 

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Weekly Round Up: The ‘Warning: religious symbolism’ Edition

What is Church About?

Heres some of the best we’ve come across this week:

  • Phil Ritchie has picked up on the fact that it seems that Religious Symbolism is something that Film 2010 feels people need to be warned about. Heres the Film2010 review of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – I was kinda amazed at the comments as well.
  • Whats a “Christian Tree”? According to the news broadcast I caught one has been cut down in Glastonbury. BBC News has the info…
  • Does the name Gavin Peacock ring a bell? Ever wondered what happened to him? The Independent has the answers… even if his name doesn’t ring a bell its an interesting article about a former footballer becoming a preacher man.
  • And finally… What would an atheist nativity play look like? (Warning: Humour Needed!)