October Round Up

It sometimes seems that Richard Dawkins says things just to be contentious. In this interview, however, he comes across quite well. Dawkins seems to hold Jesus in high regard, and says that if he was born in this day and age he'd probably be an atheist. Not sure about that one myself, with him claming to be the Light of the World and the Son of Man and all that. I'm also glad I'm not Anglican, as I would have taken complete objection to being called "harmless". Dawkins also had a few words to say about William Lane Craig in this article. This was definitely Dawkins being typical Dawkins, beginning with the sentence, "Don't feel embarrassed if you've never heard of William Lane Craig." I get the idea that he doesn't like him very much.

The area around St Paul's Cathedral has been occupied by demonstrators who oppose the country's current financial system. This has caused the first closure of the Cathedral since the Second World War and one canon chancellor to resign. The Guardian has some interesting articles on the subject:

• Giles Fraser explains why he decided to leave;
• Marina Hyde doesn't like St Paul or the church that took it's name;
• Another Marina doesn't like St Paul's Cathedral, and goes into some strange tirade about cults of Mary;
• Riazat Butt talks about how the likes of Williams and Sentamu are silent on the subject, but probably support the cause of the protesters;
• A lot of Christian groups, however, are voicing their support.

We can't do an October Round Up without mentioning the significance of the last day of this month: Reformation Day! What, not what you were expecting? In 1517, on October 31st, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a church in Wittenburg. I think my favourites are numbers 62,  "The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God", and 94, "Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and hell". You can read them in oldy-worldy English here, or a more modern version here.

Okay, so you expected me to talk about Halloween, didn't you? As I am but a slave to my readers, I will. The Resurgence website thought about whether we should receive, reject or redeem halloween. I'm going to go with redeem. We shouldn't forget that the contagious nature of Christ's holiness is far more powerful than then contagious nature of pagan frivolity. Jesus sat with tax-collectors and touched the ritually unclean. These were outrageously "irreligious" acts in his day. It was this sort of thing Jesus should have been rejecting. He, instead, redeemed them. I think we can be forgiven for giving sweets to kids dressed up as vampires or fairies. The Verge network posted some ideas on how to be missional during this holiday.

I can't have a monthly round up without a mention of my friends at the Church Sofa blog. This post reminded me of the Tea and Toast efforts of my Christian Union. It makes me wonder how many more drunk converts we could have made if we had this (Answer: none).

Quick Questions

1. What tough decisions have you made due to your faith/morals?
2. What did you do this Halloween?