The Guardian and belief

Some time ago I started reading The Guardian, having been brought up in a Telegraph reading household. It wasn't a political decision - I was reading The Times until they put the paywall up. The Telegraph has gone downhil, in my humble opinion, the Independent is too left-wing for me and the rest are a bit rubbish.

I'm not often in agreement with my new paper on most things (well, the sheer joy of London Irish's attacking play perhaps...) but I do admire them for their willingness to house a good debate. Some time ago I blogged about a debate raging on their website about the Pope's visit to the UK and the use of public facilities to house protest group meetings.

In their 'CIF Belief' section, the Guardian has been publishing an ongoing series entitled 'Is God Disappearing'. As it's the Guardian I don't think I need to tell you the general tone of the articles. I came across one today entitled 'It's better to be hated than ignored' that startling chimed with quite a few of my more conservative Christian views. I think 'disliked' might be a better word than hated but the author, a 'young Catholic' called Stephen Bullivant, strikes a chord with his general tone. The Christianity of Jesus, he writes, was not lukewarm. Bullivant specifically uses the example of the angel in Revelation (Revelation 3:16) - 'because you are lukewarm...I am about to spit you out of my mouth'.

The commentary below is interesting; occasionally challenging, occasionally surprising. Talk of a 'painfully childish mumbo jumbo'...well, you can imagine my reaction (Christianity is very far from childish; for one thing, it is extraordinarily complicated and concise). None of it strikes against Bullivant's fundamental point though. As my church's rector, David Harris, rightly noted, Christianity cannot simply sway with the cultural norms at all times as otherwise there would be no point to it. On the firmly held principles of the faith the Church must stand against contemporary culture of whatever sort: 'I am the way the truth and the light and there is no other way to God except through me' Christ says in John 14:6. As I've mentioned elsewhere, Christianity is a system of belief encompassing one's entire life; you either believe in an almighty God or you end up cherry-picking which bits of the Bible to pay attention to and which bits to simply ignore. 1 Timothy 2 for instance has much to say on the role of women which even when read properly is unpalatable to the modern ear. If you chose to ignore it though, in what way are you not placing your knowledge above the wisdom of God?

How logical is that for a Christian?

So kudos to The Guardian for printing the thing, kudos to Stephen Bullivant for writing it, and a few extra things to think about tonight. Oh, and do read through the remaining articles. If nothing else, they are of some interest.