In all the moral outrage around allegations of a betting scandal involving Pakistani Test cricketers, the amount cricket owes to God is never credited.
Cricket is the product of a Christian civilisation, and that is why honesty, integrity, fair play, and respect for external authority are so vitally important in the game. Violations against these principles are not just ‘not cricket’. More significantly, they are not Christianity.
Those principles are also vitally important in the activity that provides much-needed sponsorship for cricket - commerce. A culture where lying and cheating are allowed to thrive will not only be morally impoverished but financially as well. Some will do well in such a climate of course - in a fallen world the wicked can and do prosper (cf Psalm 73) - but if trust is undermined by a widespread culture of dishonesty, commerce cannot thrive.
The highly articulate comment by England cricket captain Andrew Strauss – ‘Cricket is in the headlines not just for the wrong reasons but for the worst of reasons’ - reflects the ethic of the Christian culture that gave birth to the game. Mr Strauss is among those who have called for a ban for life for any players found guilty of the kind of cheating being alleged here.
It is about time a leading cricketer/commentator had the moral courage to declare how much the high standards of their sport owe to the revealed will of the almighty God and Father of Jesus Christ, who 'never lies' (Titus 1v2).
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Friday, 27 August 2010
POPE CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS FAILURE OF FEMINISM
The poster campaign on London buses by Catholic Women’s Ordination demanding that Pope Benedict ‘ordain women now’ can only serve to highlight one thing: the failure of feminism.
A number of realities need to be faced:
• Women are treated with significantly less respect in permissive Britain than they were in Christian Britain. Various feminist writers including Natasha Walter, Rosie Boycott and Joan Bakewell have highlighted the degrading impact of the permissive society on young women - their socialisation and their self-esteem.
• Women have been turned into wage slaves. Christian Britain regarded the nurture of children as a vitally important calling and Evangelical social reformers such as the Earl of Shaftesbury worked tirelessly to reform working practices so that women were liberated to pursue that God-given calling. But the inflation of house prices by double incomes is forcing young mothers back to work.
• Women are being psychologically oppressed. The pressure to behave like men and to be competitive rather than relational is forcing them to act contrary to their God-created psychological and emotional make-up. It also deprives society of the unique gifts women can bring.
The world is increasingly realising this, leaving feminist activists in the Church looking like 1970s’ bra-burners out of a TV sitcom. Some of the most impressive Christian disciples Cranmer’s Curate knows are women and one of things that makes them such effective servants of Christ is that they are fully paid-up members of the female sex.
A number of realities need to be faced:
• Women are treated with significantly less respect in permissive Britain than they were in Christian Britain. Various feminist writers including Natasha Walter, Rosie Boycott and Joan Bakewell have highlighted the degrading impact of the permissive society on young women - their socialisation and their self-esteem.
• Women have been turned into wage slaves. Christian Britain regarded the nurture of children as a vitally important calling and Evangelical social reformers such as the Earl of Shaftesbury worked tirelessly to reform working practices so that women were liberated to pursue that God-given calling. But the inflation of house prices by double incomes is forcing young mothers back to work.
• Women are being psychologically oppressed. The pressure to behave like men and to be competitive rather than relational is forcing them to act contrary to their God-created psychological and emotional make-up. It also deprives society of the unique gifts women can bring.
The world is increasingly realising this, leaving feminist activists in the Church looking like 1970s’ bra-burners out of a TV sitcom. Some of the most impressive Christian disciples Cranmer’s Curate knows are women and one of things that makes them such effective servants of Christ is that they are fully paid-up members of the female sex.
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
PRAYER BOOK VERDICT ON GAY EUCHARIST
Writing in the Guardian’s Comment is free belief, the Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Revd Alan Wilson, celebrates the enduring quality of the Book of Common Prayer:
Amen, bishop. And the ‘normative liturgy of the Church of England’ is quite clear about the nature of the relationship between the director of Changing Attitude, Colin Coward, and his soon-to-be civil partner. The relationship is to be celebrated at a service of Holy Communion at the Wiltshire church where Mr Coward is licensed to officiate.
According to the BCP's order for Holy Communion, sin is not a trivial offence against a hypocritical, repressive and outdated moral code. It is, according to the Confession at Holy Communion, a profoundly serious matter. Our manifold sins and wickedness against Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Maker of all things, and the Judge of all men provoke most justly his wrath and indignation against us.
Does the BCP regard extramarital sex as sin? Its Solemnization of Matrimony gives a clear answer.
The service describes marriage between a man and a woman as
One of the causes for which God ordained marriage was
However carefully worded the liturgy may be at the Eucharist celebrating the ‘friendship’ between Mr Coward and his civil partner to avoid any suggestion of a 'blessing', the parishioners of St John the Baptist, Devizes, can surely be in no doubt that an active homosexual relationship is being given spiritual recognition in a Church of England parish church.
Clergy entering civil partnerships are supposed to give an assurance that their relationship is celibate. According to BBC Wiltshire
It would of course completely negate the point of Changing Attitude if its director did give such an assurance.
The BCP’s unequivocal description of extramarital sex means that both those who attend the Eucharistic celebration of his relationship and those who refuse to condemn it are colluding in sin.
Anyone who identifies with the 'normative liturgy of the Church of England' should be in no doubt about the evil of celebrating in a parish church that which the Prayer Book calls sin at a service which it describes as a 'perpetual memory...until his coming again' of the Lord Jesus Christ’s
Supplemented by newer liturgical compilations, the BCP remains the normative liturgy of the Church of England. It has been translated into over 150 languages. Its words have resonated through almost 450 years of English life and culture.
Amen, bishop. And the ‘normative liturgy of the Church of England’ is quite clear about the nature of the relationship between the director of Changing Attitude, Colin Coward, and his soon-to-be civil partner. The relationship is to be celebrated at a service of Holy Communion at the Wiltshire church where Mr Coward is licensed to officiate.
According to the BCP's order for Holy Communion, sin is not a trivial offence against a hypocritical, repressive and outdated moral code. It is, according to the Confession at Holy Communion, a profoundly serious matter. Our manifold sins and wickedness against Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Maker of all things, and the Judge of all men provoke most justly his wrath and indignation against us.
Does the BCP regard extramarital sex as sin? Its Solemnization of Matrimony gives a clear answer.
The service describes marriage between a man and a woman as
an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church.
One of the causes for which God ordained marriage was
for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication; that such persons as have not the gift of continency might marry, and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ’s body.
However carefully worded the liturgy may be at the Eucharist celebrating the ‘friendship’ between Mr Coward and his civil partner to avoid any suggestion of a 'blessing', the parishioners of St John the Baptist, Devizes, can surely be in no doubt that an active homosexual relationship is being given spiritual recognition in a Church of England parish church.
Clergy entering civil partnerships are supposed to give an assurance that their relationship is celibate. According to BBC Wiltshire
Colin says he has no idea what the consequences might be should he tell the bishop (of Salisbury) he is no longer upholding his vow of celibacy.
It would of course completely negate the point of Changing Attitude if its director did give such an assurance.
The BCP’s unequivocal description of extramarital sex means that both those who attend the Eucharistic celebration of his relationship and those who refuse to condemn it are colluding in sin.
Anyone who identifies with the 'normative liturgy of the Church of England' should be in no doubt about the evil of celebrating in a parish church that which the Prayer Book calls sin at a service which it describes as a 'perpetual memory...until his coming again' of the Lord Jesus Christ’s
full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.
Monday, 23 August 2010
SUPERB SERMON ON PSALM 47
Blackburn in Lancashire may not appear the most glamorous of holiday destinations, but Cranmer's Curate was fortunate to have a most refreshing break in the one-time Victorian mill town, which now has a substantial Muslim population.
It may be recalled that the former Secretary of State of the United States of America, Condoleezza Rice, visited the Blackburn parliamentary constituency of the then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. There was some mockery in the London press of the town's inclusion in Dr Rice's itinerary.
On Sunday, your curate was privileged to hear a superb sermon on Psalm 47 at St Barnadas Church in Blackburn. The exposition by the Revd Jonathan Milton-Thompson was a model of clarity in congregational preaching. He explained how the Psalm celebrates God descending to subdue His enemies and then ascending in victory amidst the praise of the people He loves. The connection to God's victory through the death, resurrection and ascension of His Christ was made beautifully clear.
Your curate drew encouragement to keep on proclaiming the word of life, however counter-cultural it has become and despite the resistance, apathy and indifference of a post-Christian culture. Even in Britain, the living God is building a people who will praise Him.
These two pieces by cc recently appeared on the US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline:
Sitcom 'Rev' personifies irrelevance of liberal Church
and
Kuwait invasion anniversary: further from Christ closer to Saddam.
It may be recalled that the former Secretary of State of the United States of America, Condoleezza Rice, visited the Blackburn parliamentary constituency of the then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. There was some mockery in the London press of the town's inclusion in Dr Rice's itinerary.
On Sunday, your curate was privileged to hear a superb sermon on Psalm 47 at St Barnadas Church in Blackburn. The exposition by the Revd Jonathan Milton-Thompson was a model of clarity in congregational preaching. He explained how the Psalm celebrates God descending to subdue His enemies and then ascending in victory amidst the praise of the people He loves. The connection to God's victory through the death, resurrection and ascension of His Christ was made beautifully clear.
Your curate drew encouragement to keep on proclaiming the word of life, however counter-cultural it has become and despite the resistance, apathy and indifference of a post-Christian culture. Even in Britain, the living God is building a people who will praise Him.
These two pieces by cc recently appeared on the US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline:
Sitcom 'Rev' personifies irrelevance of liberal Church
and
Kuwait invasion anniversary: further from Christ closer to Saddam.
Monday, 9 August 2010
PAUL'S STRIKING COMMAND TO 'PURSUE' LOVE
As Cranmer’s Curate blogs off for his summer holiday, he leaves the youth group with a thought from his own personal Bible reading as he journeys through Isaiah in the Old Testament and Paul’s Corinthian correspondence in the New. Your curate is struck very forcibly by the command the Apostle Paul issues to the Corinthian church directly after his famous demonstration of the more excellent way of love in 1 Corinthians 13.
‘Pursue love’ (ESV) or, as the RSV translates it, ‘make love your aim’, says Paul in 1 Corinthians 14v1. This is a very striking command when one considers what Paul omits to say. He does not command the church to feel love or even experience it but to pursue it in action (in terms of Paul's argument in chapters 12-14 by exercising their spiritual gifts in a way that builds up the body of Christ).
Your curate is aware that Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is directed at the problems within the Corinthian church and particularly their unloving and ego-tripping approach to the exercise of their spiritual gifts in their gatherings. He has heard this passage described as a piece of ‘polemic’ against Corinthian abuses but he respectfully dissents from that as a definitive description of 1 Corinthians 13.
By appealing to the enduring character of love, Paul’s words, whilst pertinent to his argument with the Corinthians, stand above the argument. Authentic Christian love within the body of Christ is how Paul describes it, whatever the state of the relationships amongst any particular group of Christian believers.
Love for the body of Christ is to be pursued as a quality extrinsic to ourselves because such love is rooted in God's eternity. It is not rooted in us, thank God, though the church by God’s grace can have it when by God’s grace we pursue it.
Your curate personally found this idea of pursuing love for the body of Christ both inspiring and humbling for his Christian discipleship and ministry. The Collect for the Second Sunday after Trinity (which this year fell on June 13th) is particularly appropriate:
‘Pursue love’ (ESV) or, as the RSV translates it, ‘make love your aim’, says Paul in 1 Corinthians 14v1. This is a very striking command when one considers what Paul omits to say. He does not command the church to feel love or even experience it but to pursue it in action (in terms of Paul's argument in chapters 12-14 by exercising their spiritual gifts in a way that builds up the body of Christ).
Your curate is aware that Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is directed at the problems within the Corinthian church and particularly their unloving and ego-tripping approach to the exercise of their spiritual gifts in their gatherings. He has heard this passage described as a piece of ‘polemic’ against Corinthian abuses but he respectfully dissents from that as a definitive description of 1 Corinthians 13.
By appealing to the enduring character of love, Paul’s words, whilst pertinent to his argument with the Corinthians, stand above the argument. Authentic Christian love within the body of Christ is how Paul describes it, whatever the state of the relationships amongst any particular group of Christian believers.
Love for the body of Christ is to be pursued as a quality extrinsic to ourselves because such love is rooted in God's eternity. It is not rooted in us, thank God, though the church by God’s grace can have it when by God’s grace we pursue it.
Your curate personally found this idea of pursuing love for the body of Christ both inspiring and humbling for his Christian discipleship and ministry. The Collect for the Second Sunday after Trinity (which this year fell on June 13th) is particularly appropriate:
Lord, you have taught us that all our doings without love are nothing worth: send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you. Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
SELF-ADMINISTERED PRIDE TEST
Pride is surely as serious if not more serious a sin than any other which Evangelicals may be concerned about in the contemporary church. Certainly, competitiveness in ministry is a more pressing issue than Cranmer’s Curate ever imagined when he first considered getting ordained more than 20 years ago.
Here are some indicators of a serious pride problem that has nothing do with concerns over false teaching or Christ-dishonouring unfaithfulness in pastoral ministry:
• Fault-picking in thought or word over the ministries of fellow Evangelicals.
• Resentment over the ‘success’ in ministry of fellow Evangelicals.
• A sense that one could do better than fellow Evangelicals in their ministries, reflected in a feeling of frustrated ambition.
• A sense that one's own ministry is not properly appreciated by fellow Evangelicals.
• Inner gloating over set-backs in ministry for fellow Evangelicals.
• Exaggerating numerical growth in one's own church in front of fellow Evangelicals.
• Boasting about the 'success' of ministry initiatives in the context of prayer requests or sharing the 'problems' of success (or even in neither of those contexts - just boasting).
The only cure is to realise one’s own spiritual and moral bankruptcy before God and to cast oneself on the grace and mercy of God at the foot of the Cross of Christ. A pride problem in the Corinthian church is the context for Paul's vital corrective:
That corrective of the Cross is reflected in Isaac Watts' classic hymn:
Here are some indicators of a serious pride problem that has nothing do with concerns over false teaching or Christ-dishonouring unfaithfulness in pastoral ministry:
• Fault-picking in thought or word over the ministries of fellow Evangelicals.
• Resentment over the ‘success’ in ministry of fellow Evangelicals.
• A sense that one could do better than fellow Evangelicals in their ministries, reflected in a feeling of frustrated ambition.
• A sense that one's own ministry is not properly appreciated by fellow Evangelicals.
• Inner gloating over set-backs in ministry for fellow Evangelicals.
• Exaggerating numerical growth in one's own church in front of fellow Evangelicals.
• Boasting about the 'success' of ministry initiatives in the context of prayer requests or sharing the 'problems' of success (or even in neither of those contexts - just boasting).
The only cure is to realise one’s own spiritual and moral bankruptcy before God and to cast oneself on the grace and mercy of God at the foot of the Cross of Christ. A pride problem in the Corinthian church is the context for Paul's vital corrective:
And I, when I came among you, brothers, did not come proclaiming the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling (1 Corinthians 2v1-3 - ESV).
That corrective of the Cross is reflected in Isaac Watts' classic hymn:
When I survey the wondrous Cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.
Monday, 2 August 2010
FIRE CHRISTIAN ACADEMICS BAN BOOKS NEXT
Though Professor Kenneth Howell has just been reinstated by the University of Illinois after he was barred from teaching for defending Catholic morality to students, his case has major implications for academic freedom. It is surely optimistic to believe that he will be the last academic in the US or the UK to fall foul of a 'hate speech' complaint.
If universities in the US and UK start firing academics for sins of speech against political correctness, consider what they would have to do with some of the texts that are taught on their courses. Here is an extract from John Le Carre's classic novel, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, first published in 1963:
No Christian should use a derogatory term like that or foster a supercilious, Pharisaic attitude towards particular groups in society. We are all fallen creatures and that includes our sexual natures. But the statement by the novel's hero, intelligence agent Alec Leamas, simply reflects the widespread disapproval of homosexuality in the society of the time. The author indicates no disapprobation of, or self-distancing from, Leamas' outlook in this regard. Indeed, if he had done so explicitly or implicitly, he would have been very much out of tune with his readership.
If Christian academics and students can get into trouble with university authorities and student unions for politely stating Christ's teaching in its counter-cultural aspects, whilst refraining from name-calling, then consistency demands that Le Carre's novel and other works of literature expressing politically- incorrect sentiments far less politely should be censored or even banned altogether.
How many novels, plays and poems that were written when English was the language of broadly Christian peoples could end up being banned from university libraries and even from being displayed on the bookshelves of members of the student union?
It would be ironic if Le Carre's masterpiece were subject to Soviet-style ideological censorship because it is a compelling description of the nominally Christian West rapidly losing its spiritual and moral compass.
If universities in the US and UK start firing academics for sins of speech against political correctness, consider what they would have to do with some of the texts that are taught on their courses. Here is an extract from John Le Carre's classic novel, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, first published in 1963:
'They picked me up this morning. A man called Ashe.' He lit a cigarette. 'A pansy. We're meeting again tomorrow.'
Control listened carefully to Leamas' story, stage by stage, from the day he hit Ford, the grocer, to his encounter that morning with Ashe.
No Christian should use a derogatory term like that or foster a supercilious, Pharisaic attitude towards particular groups in society. We are all fallen creatures and that includes our sexual natures. But the statement by the novel's hero, intelligence agent Alec Leamas, simply reflects the widespread disapproval of homosexuality in the society of the time. The author indicates no disapprobation of, or self-distancing from, Leamas' outlook in this regard. Indeed, if he had done so explicitly or implicitly, he would have been very much out of tune with his readership.
If Christian academics and students can get into trouble with university authorities and student unions for politely stating Christ's teaching in its counter-cultural aspects, whilst refraining from name-calling, then consistency demands that Le Carre's novel and other works of literature expressing politically- incorrect sentiments far less politely should be censored or even banned altogether.
How many novels, plays and poems that were written when English was the language of broadly Christian peoples could end up being banned from university libraries and even from being displayed on the bookshelves of members of the student union?
It would be ironic if Le Carre's masterpiece were subject to Soviet-style ideological censorship because it is a compelling description of the nominally Christian West rapidly losing its spiritual and moral compass.
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