Foster parents defeated by the new Inquisition – Telegraph

Foster parents defeated by the new Inquisition – Telegraph.

[The following is the full article available via the Telegraph. My brief comments are in a different colour and within square brackets. This is quite an astonishing and possibly a landmark judgement.]

‘Telegraph View: Why has it been left to judges to decide whose rights trump those of others.’ [It’s because Parliament is useless. They have completely lost the plot. If, the ruling, any ruling is in the interest of the child then it seems fairly obvious that the Johns would provide a loving and stable home – Good grief, we hear all the time about how many of society’s problems are rooted in a poor home life. We need children to have safe, stable and loving homes so any sensible person or judge would have seen this to be exactly what the child would have had. There’s no guarantee of that now for this child. It would be worth asking – how many Homosexual, Lesbian or Bi-Sexual couples have applied to Adopt or be Foster carers? I think we should be told some statistics on this. Under the law they could apply – how many have done so? And, what were the judgements?]

‘Eunice and Owen Johns are a God-fearing Christian couple, married almost 40 years, who offered a secure and loving family home to foster children aged between five and 10. But they are to be denied the opportunity to do so any longer because they are unwilling to promote [Going, or gone, are the days of being able to disagree – I think this country is witnessing free speech going down the toilet] a homosexual lifestyle to a child. Neither Mr nor Mrs Johns has anything against gay people [It’s interesting to note how this is being spun by other sectors of the press – as anti-gay not pro family. But it should be remembered there is more going on here. This is much more than a lifestyle choice – this is an ideological assault on Christianity by ideologically driven people within the homosexual & lesbian culture. I suspect some within the homosexual culture want these ideologues to just shut up.] but they are not in favour of sex before marriage, whatever an individual’s orientation [So the Johns are being consistent]. Their views were denounced by Ben Summerskill, of the homosexual pressure group Stonewall, as “old-fashioned”. Yet not that long ago they would have been considered mainstream and they are, in any case, the strongly held religious views of the couple.’

‘The reason that they were even asked about their views on homosexuality was because Parliament passed the Sexual Orientation Regulations, making it an offence to discriminate on the grounds that someone is heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual [Funny how discrimination is moving in the other direction just as was feared – so much for equality!]. These are the same laws under which Peter and Hazelmary Bull, Christian owners of a guest house, were fined last month for refusing to let a gay couple share a room. But in the case of Mr and Mrs Johns, where is the victim? They were not turning anyone away. Quite the contrary – they were offering a home to children who will otherwise end up in care, and there are precious few people who will. Furthermore, since the children would be aged under 10, matters of sexuality are hardly relevant – or is it being suggested that they should be? Astonishingly, the High Court suggested that it was not so much their Christian faith as the moral certainties [Current morals of subjectivity and relativity are obviously doing a splendid job!] of the Johns that were potentially harmful to children.’

‘There is another troubling aspect of this case. Equality laws are supposed to uphold the rights to religious belief. Yet the High Court ruled that laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation “should take precedence” over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds. Why has it been left to judges to decide whose rights trump those of others? This should have been decided by Parliament but, yet again, another sloppily drafted measure will have far-reaching consequences for freedom of conscience in this country. Already the Roman Catholic Church has had to close its adoption agencies because they cannot conform to the law. Perhaps there is a historical irony here, because we are witnessing a modern, secular Inquisition – a determined effort to force everyone to accept a new set of orthodoxies or face damnation as social heretics if they refuse. Parliament and the courts should protect people like Mr and Mrs Johns, but have thrown them to the wolves. It is a disgrace.’ [My first thoughts at the speed of these developments is this – how long will it be before Christian parents will be seen as a harmful infection in the lives of their own biological children? It’s actually chilling stuff. See the related article titles below for the language of tolerance!]

Aberystwyth Conference Speaker 2011

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The Aberystwyth Conference for 2011 will take place ‘between 6th and 13th of August‘.  The ministry for this year will be given by David Norman Jones. Before moving to Tasmania, David was Pastor of Grove Chapel, Camberwell, London . Other than this, there’s not a lot I can tell you with any certainty.

I have heard him preach a few times though. I remember (some years ago now) him quoting one of the Puritans and have never forgotten it. Speaking of the Lord Jesus ‘the suffering of His soul was the soul of His suffering’ and ‘who can understand that’ said David. If you can get to the conference you are in for a blessed time.

How to read the Bible

In the light of my recent post on what the Bible is about: I thought the following from a message (how to read the Bible) by Stuart Olyott succinctly (how else) puts the principle very well indeed. It’s a quote worth chewing over for a while. For example, the principle is that we are to look for Him. If we are not looking, or have never been exhorted to look, or if our hermeneutic will not allow us to look, we’ll not see Him. I do believe good men are nevertheless bound (in bondage) to their hermeneutic.

‘Look for Him who is the way – Because Jesus Himself taught us that He is there in all the scriptures.  And if I can open a passage and not see Christ some way or other, explicitly, implicitly, visible or scarcely visible, obvious or less obvious, that if I can’t see Christ in the passage I’m reading, I’m not understanding it you know.  It’s a book about Him.’

Stuart Olyott, How to read the Bible.  (from Stuart Olyott: MP3 Bible Sermons Online)

Here’s the full message:

History Lecture Audio Available

The audio from Monday’s lecture by Dafydd Morris ‘The Legacy of the Protestant Reformation’ is now available.

Listen / Download it here:

or, follow the links to download – ROCHE or Bulkington Congregational Church and search for lectures.

Harp from the Willows: Changing Times: the Christian in a secular society

Harp from the Willows: Changing Times: the Christian in a secular society.

Here’s a very good & helpful article by Mostyn Roberts based around the case of Mr & Mrs Bull the (Christian) hotel owners ‘who refused on principle to allow a homosexual ‘couple’ to share a room in their private hotel, were sued by the ‘couple’ (with help from the Equality and Human Rights Commission) and subsequently ordered to pay £3600 in damages’.

The article is well worth reading and is under the 4 heads below:

The legal background

What is our duty to God?

Rights, freedoms and duties

Wider issues

The Legacy of the Protestant Reformation.

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The Legacy of the Protestant Reformation‘ is the title of a lecture given by Daffyd Morriss last evening at Bulkington Congregational Church. The church, situated in the village of Bulkington,  is a smallish fellowship so it was a great encouragement for them to see so many there, even some in the balcony. The Pastor (Peter MacKenzie), thought it the best attended lecture since they took it over from Rugby Evangelical Free Church.

The lecture had three main points.

1) The legacy of a Bible in our own language, freely available for all to read. We should not take this for granted but be thankful to God for it and should therefore read it, study it and preach from it. He did make one very telling observation that there seems to be a move away from a Christ Centred understanding of the Bible and illustrated this with several quotations, especially from Martin Luther. There was a question about this during the Q&A at the end of the lecture.

2) The simplicity of a Relationship between God & Man. He described the complexity of Medieval Christianity with it’s multiplicity of holy days, fast days and the many stranded structure of priest, arch-deacon, bishop, etc etc. The Reformation brought a simplicity to our relationship with God and Daffyd illustrated this from among other things the Song of Solomon.

3) The Re-discovery of Justification by Christ alone. He gave a brief snapshot of Luther and the bondage he was in until God revealed that the Righteousness of God was not against him, but for him. Our Justification is purely and only on the basis of what Christ has accomplished for sinners on the cross. But there’s more. When a person casts their all upon Christ, it’s not just a clean slate that is received, but credited to the sinner is the life and obedience of Christ. This is salvation indeed! He also illustrated how this works out in sanctification through the life of William Gadsby the hymn-writer. We cannot fail to sin, we are going to continue sinning but Christ paid the price for it all – all of it, past, present and future.

The lecture will be posted soon on the Bulkington Church website and on My website. I commend it to you.

MacArthur and The Centrality of Christ to the Bible

I have come across, as I’m sure many have, the recent interview (or extracts) of John MacArthur by Tim Challies. I guess that’s fine, BUT, I find it strange, at least, that a man can get what the Bible is about so spectacularly wrong and yet be showered with so many accolades, to me it’s frankly quite worrying. Where is he wrong – the centrality of Christ to the Scriptures. And if you don’t believe me, check out his introductory notes on the Song of Solomon in his study bible. Does it matter – to me it matters a lot and that’s why I would tend to give him a wide berth. To be honest I base some of this on sitting under the ministry of a Masters Graduate (for about 3 years) but it did introduce me to MacArthur and I didn’t like what I found. To me (and the Reformers) the centrality of Christ to the Bible is so central, so important, so clear, so marvellous that I cannot join in the fanfare.

And don’t get the idea that interpreting the Bible in a NON Christ-Centred way is without knock on effects. The Masters Seminary actually go out of their way to defend this view to such an extent that I believe it’s verging on the cultic. In fact, it’s my view that it actually leads to Another Gospel. I am reacting through bitter experience here, but in the cold light of day, and, through a comparison with the Reformers on this you will have to agree. I’m glad that people are being blessed through (in spite of) the ministry of JM but I really do think believers should turn up the sensitivity of their Christ Detectors and actually question this particular way of understanding the Bible and not just fall in line with the accolades.

I’ll probably take some flack over this – but the centrality of The Lord Jesus Christ to the Bible and to everything is worth it.

A Few Books

I’ve just read, am in the process of reading and plan to read several books in the next couple of weeks or so. This is in part to prevent me from becoming obsessed with Van Til – and to be honest I think I needed a bit of a break from Presuppositional Apologetics.

A book I had wanted to read for a few weeks since going on the church holiday where he ministered is Mez McConnell’s book ‘Is there anybody out there? A journey from despair to hope’. This really is a great read. It’s easy to read – it’s not a dense text – but his story, his upbringing, was just awful. It’s an honest read. As you move through to his coming to Christ there are actually quite a few laughs – usually at the expense of Christians, that he sometimes refers to as ‘Muppet’s’. At Bible College he very quickly sees through all the experience based theology and puts it wonderfully. For example on page 102-3:

College is nothing like I thought it would be. I thought it would be like church except I could ask loads of questions about my faith and people would take the time to sit down and answer them with me. But people are so introverted here. They just want talk about their feelings all the time. I’m not interested in how I feel about my father and all that psycho-babble; I just want to know more about God, Jesus and the Bible. Apparently, that’s not possible unless I ‘understand myself’. Well, I think I understand myself pretty well. I was a liar, manipulator, thief, fornicator and all round scumbag. For some reason Jesus chose to die for me, and that will do for me. I can’t pretend to understand it all, but I accept it gratefully. So, I’m just not interested in revisiting the past. I can’t do anything about it, but with Jesus I can do something about the future. That’s about the only ‘self understanding’ I need.

I really commend this book. The honesty is very refreshing and deserves a much wider readership.

A book I’m working my way through – and enjoying – is ‘House and Philosophy: Everybody lies’. I really like the House series but wanted to delve into it a little more to try and understand what’s behind the series. This book isn’t endorsed by the program but each chapter takes an aspect of philosophy and relates it to the series. It might be better to watch it before reading; the book covers the first four seasons. I’m not sure why I like it so much but the character House is so anti God that I find it fascinating. Dr Gregory House is a genius diagnostician and is about as UN politically correct as it’s possible to be – a good reason to watch it in my opinion. Having said that, there’s loads of anti-Christian stuff but I can’t recall an instance of anti-Muslim rhetoric. I guess Christians are a soft touch.

OK, next up is ‘The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England’ by Ian Mortimer. I bought this because it looked interesting and thought it would give me a feel for pre-Reformation England. Mortimer writes from the point of view of a travel guide, as the title in fact. And this is what he does. So the book is written in the present tense – with the occasional comment referring to the actual present time. It works. He guides you through the filthy streets pointing out the different residences and the class structure. For people – like me – that like to refer to notes, there are further explanatory endnotes (put an extra bookmark in), a bibliography and an index.

I wanted to broaden my reading a bit so also in the queue is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This, I think, I will also find fascinating but I’ll come back when I have something to say on this.