I've done it again!

It is some time since I have had anything new to add to my C.V.!!! However, having been banned from commenting, reacting, posting good wishes to Facebook friends who were celebrating their birthdays, or even responding to personal messages for, this time, a seven day period, I feel that I may now include that particular accolade! At least, this time, I know that I am in good company! David Robertson has reported that no less a personage than Prof. Donald Macleod, former professor of Systematic Theology at the Free Church College, Edinburgh, and Principal for more than ten years, had also been banned! David also mentioned in last week's Quantum ("The Wee Flea podcast"), that Google and Apple had banned an 'app' because it cited John 3:16 and was "of no lasting value"! So much for the "free speech" for which most 'western' countries were, at one time, well-known.

As far as Facebook is concerned, Prof. Macleod had the temerity to voice some sympathy for Rev. Richard Cameron, minister of Scotstoun Parish Church, in Glasgow who, himself, has been suspended from his pastoral and parochial duties, by the Church of Scotland, for having publicly asked Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK Labour Party, "Who's going to be the first terrorist invited to the Commons when you're Prime Minister?" Given Mr Corbyn's well-publicised links with a number of terrorist movements, this does not seem, to me, to be an unreasonable question to ask. Thankfully, I do not believe that Mr Corbyn will ever enter 10 Downing Street as its tenant!

The Professor went on to state: "I am perfectly happy to let the LGBT community have their say. I am not happy that they should have a jealously-guarded right to monopolise the discourse, and I'm certainly not happy to concede the new dogma that the only wickedness is to question LGBT-ism. Christians, too, must have their say, and people should not lose their jobs because they are weak or off-message on such issues as homosexuality, bi-sexuality, trans-sexuality, or transgenderism." 

He continues: "Nor should we close our eyes and ears to where the gagging is actually leading. For example:

• If you are known to have reservations about the chosen lifestyle of LGBTs, you will not be allowed to be a teacher, a social worker, a parish minister, or a university professor.
• You will be barred from serving as a Member of Parliament, a Member of the Scottish Parliament, a local Councillor, or a member of the Judiciary.
• You will be ineligible for selection as an international sportsman (or, indeed, from participation in professional sport at any level).
• You will never secure employment with any charity.
• You'll never get a job with the BBC."

Please note that the Professor is not claiming that these conditions currently exist. Only that they are the almost inevitable outcome of the direction in which we are travelling. His complete article is well worth reading, and may be accessed at https://www.donaldmacleod.org.uk/dm/new-blog-post-4/  (copy and paste).

For myself, I again commented, critically, on a report regarding the 'marriage' of adult Muslim males - some very old indeed - to children as young as six years of age, and the particular reported comment by an imam that the hot weather made it more acceptable! The terms I used were terms that I have used many times before, without any comeback. However, this time ... ... !!!

Part of my reason for commenting was my (totally appropriate!) love for children, and my desire to protect them from any harm. This "child marriage" situation fills me with disgust, and I would cheerfully castrate any male (the word "man" does not seem, to me, to be appropriate) who wished to assault a child in this way. Just a few weeks ago there was a report of a girl of six, or eight, years of age who had died from internal bleeding caused by the penetrative sexual intercourse to which her adult "husband" had submitted her on their wedding night! I am, by both nature and belief, a non-violent person. However, give me 30 mins with that murderer ... ... !!!

It may be that Facebook will place a permanent ban on me, at some time. Not a problem - I shall then open a new account! However, it is sad that one cannot speak freely because these censors are checking every word we type. However, I'm back for the time being. Apologies, again, for having missed so much, and so many. I shall try to be a slightly better boy for the foreseeable future (but no promises!).

Contrôle Technique

For those who do not understand the heading, it is the French equivalent of the UK Ministry of Transport test (MOT) and, I am delighted to report that, when I submitted our car, last week, it passed! Part of the reason for that was my having just replaced all four tyres - two because they had reached the limit of the legal tread depth; and two because, although they had plenty of tread depth, they were not the same brand of tyre on a single axle - a French requirement that is not a UK one!

Of course, while I was aware of the tyre situation, there were many other issues on which the car could have been failed - issues of which I would have been totally unaware! I am thinking, for example, of the exhaust emissions. I had no idea as to whether, or not, they would be within the acceptable range!

It occurred to me, afterwards, that this is a bit like sin in my life! There are some sins of which, like my unsatisfactory tyres, I am all too well aware. These are the sins to which. I believe, the anonymous writer of the Letter to Hebrew disciples of Jesus was referring when he wrote: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ..." (12:1; emphasis added). There are areas in my life in which the enemy knows that I am most vulnerable - and he takes every opportunity to attack me there! Left to my own devices, I would always fail and, sadly, I often do. However, that quotation for Hebrews continues: "... looking to Jesus the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith Who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." (vs. 2-4; emphasis added). That's the answer - "... looking to Jesus ..."!

The important thing is to deal with these sins, as I dealt with my tyres - and to do so in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and with the assistance of God the Holy Spirit.

Of course, there may be other sins of which I have not yet become fully aware, or which I simply don't recognise as 'sin'! These are the equivalent of the exhaust emissions, or of a crack in a spring, in my car. This is where I have to ask for discernment, that I may recognise those "unconscious" sins for what they are. It may even be that I have to ask someone else - someone whom I trust! - to point them out to me, just as the Contrôle Technique examiner (or the MOT test examiner) would point out the problem with emissions, springs, brake discs, etc. Of course, when they have been identified, those sins, too, need to be dealt with!

Amost exactly five years ago, I published a post on "A spiritual MOT test!" You may be able to use the link to read the whole post, but let me repost a check-list (not my original!) that I shared then:

• am I clean in word, thought, and deed?
• is Christ, as far as I can make Him, the Head of my home?
• do they know that I am a disciple of Jesus where I work?
• are other people likely to be drawn to better things for knowing me?
• do I guard time, each day, for reading my Bible, and for prayer?
• do I regularly attend worship services, and attend at the Lord's Table?
• do other people find it easy to work with me in Christian service?
• am I generous, as far as I am honestly able, to Christian work?
• am I growing in Christ?

That list stands. It is a useful set of checks for self-examination. However, I think that I would wish to add to it! For example:

• what are the web-sites that I have marked as 'Favourites'? Are there any that would cause me embarrasment if my pastor were to see them? I recall some years ago, on a visit, asking my host if I might have access to the internet to check some e-mails. The access was readily given and, as I logged on, the 'Favourites' list was displayed. I noticed one site that I thought was that of a newspaper, but with a typing error in the name. I clicked on the link - and discovered, to my shock, that there was no typing error, as I was taken to a site that was obviously intended for those with an interest in homosexuality! To say that I was shocked would be something of an understatement!
• am I in control of my temper? Or is it that, even in print, I constantly resort to the use of upper-case letters - the literary equivalent, I am told, of angry verbal shouting?
• how am I treating those most close to me? I recall my own minister, spiritual mentor, and personal friend, the late Rev. George B Duncan, often commenting that if we really wanted to know what sort of person he was, we should ask his wife! We only saw him as "the minister"; she lived with him! We saw him at his best; she saw him at his worst! What would my own wife have to say about me?!! Perhaps I should ask her before anyone else does!

You see, all of the above applies as much to me as it does to anyone who might read this post - and maybe more than it does to some! The life of a disciple of Jesus is not a life of sinless perfection, but of sanctification as, through the indwelling of Holy Spirit, Father God makes me more like Jesus. A little home-made plaque on my study wall has these words: "In this life I shall never be sinless but, by God's grace, I may sin less!" (emphasis added). I think that the words are original! They are certainly true! 

My car is now, officially, considered to be roadworthy for another two years. But what about me? Am I still worthy to be a disciple of Jesus? If I am, and I trust that I am, it is all due to His grace, and mercy, and love. All of that is available to you, too.  Have you availed yourself of it? If not, why not? 

Unfair Dismissal!

The following has just been received from Christian Concern - (abridged):

"A Christian nursery nurse has been sacked for gross misconduct from her job in a London children’s nursery after explaining the Bible's teaching on homosexuality in response to a question from her colleague.

Sarah Mbuyi had worked at Newpark Childcare in Highbury, London, since April 2013. She became good friends with a gay colleague and they had frequent conversations about the meaning of Christianity.   

In January 2014, the colleague initiated another conversation with Sarah about Christianity. She said she was unhappy that she couldn't marry her female partner because of the church, and said she thought that God condoned homosexuality.

Miss Mbuyi explained: “When I said no God does not condone the practice of homosexuality, but does love you and says you should come to him as you are, she became emotional and went off to report me to my manager.

"I never ever condemned her, or accused her, but when she asked me directly what I believed, I was open about sharing the Bible’s teaching that homosexual sex (not the people) is wrong. It's clear that this offended her and she was determined to get me sacked, simply because I expressed traditional Christian beliefs."

After a one-sided disciplinary hearing in which Sarah was falsely accused of starting the discussion on homosexuality, nursery directors dismissed her immediately for gross misconduct.  

Sarah’s dismissal suggests her employers think that expressing Christian beliefs is a legitimate grounds for dismissal."

The Prime Minister has recently appeared to be very keen to give the impression that he is a 'Christian' - yet he has been instrumental in pushing through the redefinition of marriage in order to accommodate a minority within the minority homosexual/lesbian community.  As Andrea Williams, CEO of the Christian Legal Centre points out, "... he wants to mould Christianity to his political agenda."!

   

When I was informed that my voluntary service as a Force Chaplain with the Strathclyde Police Force was no longer wanted - because of my own outspoken support, only on this personal blog - I (and others) suggested that this was what would happen if that iniquitous piece of legislation was pushed through.  Sadly, cases such as that of Sarah Mbuyi vindicate that prediction.  However it is, at the very least, interesting that the person who was the Government's main spokesperson on the issue, has already 'fallen from favour'. "... Do not be deceived; God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." (Gal 6:7).

Of course, many have tried, over the centuries, to rid themselves, and the rest of the world, of the Galilean Preacher.  All have failed.  Contemporary attempts will fare no better.  Indeed, there is a Day coming - and sooner than many may think - when, " ... at the Name of Jesus, every knee [shall] bow, in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth; and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil.2:10-11)

Polite request!

Earlier this evening, I signed a pro-family petition against the E.U. Lunacek Report.
 
The link to the petition is: http://www.citizengo.org/en/2410-withdraw-eu-commission-proposal-make-declaration

The agenda of the Lunacek Report is extremely dangerous in that it would:

• Give LGBT individuals special rights that no one else is afforded.
• Potentially be politically misused to force Member States to allow "same sex marriage for all.”
• provide, for same gender couples, in all Member States, access to full adoption; in vitro fertilisation; and surrogacy.
• Guarantee freedom of assembly and expression for gay activists, and use language like "hate speech” and "hate crime” to silence Preachers of the Gospel, and critics of homosexuality and LGBT activism. In doing so, the European Parliament wants the EU and its Member States to apply double standards: unrestricted freedom of speech for the LGBT community, but restricted freedom of speech for possible critics.

It is an important issue, so I would appreciate it if you would also join me in this fight by signing the petition.

One rule for one ... ... !!!

I have just read an article from one of yesterday's newspapers, regarding the now-ended Conservative Part Conference:

"'Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, dead, dead, dead," scream the protesters as they file past the Midland hotel in Manchester. It is a cruel greeting for the Conservative party as it gathers in this most un-Tory city. "Filth, you're a waste of space, a waste of oxygen," they shout at the shiny young delegates as they pass. I suggest to a policeman that this constitutes intimidation, especially the bloke in the "Kill Tory scum" T-shirt who is filming people as they enter the secure zone. "We have to protect people's right to protest, but it's a fine line," he admits."

Now, I am fully aware that there are differences, sometimes significant differences, in the law in Scotland and that of the rest of the UK.  However, it is not only in Scotland that street preachers of the Gospel are being arrested for Breach of the Peace, so-called 'homophobia' (I wish that some people would work out the etymology of that over-used word), or whatever a local police officer decides is appropriate.

So the question must be asked.  If the police have a duty to protect people's right to protest, why does that not seem to apply when the person in question is 'protesting' about the normalisation of homosexuality, or the increasing sinfulness of our contemporary society?  The old proverb states that "What is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander".  I'm going to be writing to my own (Labour) MP, and to my MSPs, about this.  May I encourage others to do the same?

Marriage Mistakes #2.

"Mistake #2: Sexuality is a Civil Rights Issue.

When Lady Gaga sings, “Baby, I was born this way,” it makes for good music. [I don't agree with Phil on everything!]  When Barack Obama embraces it as a political philosophy, it makes for bad government.
He used his inauguration speech to liken the fight for same-sex marriage to the epic struggle won by Abraham Lincoln against black slavery, and by Martin Luther King Jr. against racial segregation, saying: “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.” Barack Obama is a master at rhetoric, but this is lazy at best and insulting at worst.

Issues of race and of sexuality are entirely different. To try to twist this is not to carry on the journey started by Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.; it is to insult what they stood for and try to hijack their legacy.
 
I have searched in vain for a robust medical study which shows that our sexuality is written deep into our DNA. It hasn’t been proven that homosexuality is genetic any more than it has been proven that homosexuality is caused by our environment. It appears that it is simply one of many sexual preferences that societies ought to weigh carefully, and then label right or wrong.

A boy who falls in love with his sister can’t marry her because we have ruled that incest is wrong. A man who falls in love with a twelve-year-old girl can’t marry her because we have ruled that child abuse is wrong.
We may decide that a man falling in love with a man is as equally valid as a man falling in love with a woman, but we can’t do so by appealing to genetics and civil rights. Men are twice as likely as women to become addicted to pornography, but their XY chromosomes don’t mean that their temptation is justified. 
 
It’s entirely right for us to have a free and open debate on whether homosexuality is right or wrong, but it’s entirely wrong to pretend that this is a civil rights issue like black slavery or racial segregation.
This is all about moral choices, not genetics. Barack Obama should be ashamed of himself for insulting the memory of Lincoln and King by suggesting otherwise." 

The above is Part 2 of Phil Moore's excellent article.  Be sure to check tomorrow, for the third, and final, episode!  Not having received any news to the contrary, I am now assuming that full permission to publish has been granted!   (No idea why this publishes in upper-case only!  It's in normal sentence style when I type it!).

Cancer Research, or homosexuality?

Which is of greater importance - Cancer Research, or homosexuality in its different "forms"?  I haven't shopped in Tesco since they started selling the "morning-after" contraceptive (read 'abortion'!) pill, over the counter, to under-age girls.  I hope that many more will now pin their colours to the mast and also boycott them! 

This artice is from "Marketing Week", a magazine focused on the marketing industry in the UK.

"Tesco has signed a deal to become a major sponsor of London Pride, the UK’s largest gay festival, as it outlines plans to host its biggest ever event in the capital.

Tesco will also host a family area designed to provide families attending the event with a “safe, relaxed and chilled out” place with family-friendly entertainment and activities aimed at younger children.

The supermarket will also contribute to funding the free-to-attend event, which is organised by volunteers.
click here

Tesco joins Smirnoff as headline sponsor for the annual event and builds on Tesco’s presence at the 2011 festival.

The news comes shortly after Tesco ended its 10-year partnership with Cancer Research’s Race for Life fundraising event.

Pride London is already the largest Gay Pride event in the UK and it is extending its carnival route and adding a second day to the festival for 2012, when it will host the global festival WorldPride 2012.

Andrew Higginson, CEO of retailing services at Tesco, says: “Tesco is the UK’s largest private employer, and a very diverse international organisation where everybody is welcome. Our Out at Tesco team will be working closely with Pride London to ensure next year’s event is even more a fun.” "

Perhaps Tesco just want to be trendy!!!

On baptism and homosexuality!

More than thirty years ago, I was wrestling with the subject of water baptism within the Christian Church, and the appropriate subjects for that sacrament.  I was a parish minister within the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) - a denomination that held (and holds) that it was (is) acceptable to baptise infants on the basis of a profession of faith made by their parents. However, after much study, and soul-searching, I had come to the conclusion that the teaching of the New Testament was that only those who had recognised, and confessed, their sinful state; who had repented of their sins; who had deliberately and consciously surrendered their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ; and had accepted the salvation that He had won for them on the cross at Calvary; were suitable candidates for water baptism.

My decision led to a period of almost two years before I accepted the inevitable and demitted (resigned from) my charge.  Less than a year later, I was baptised as a believer, on my own profession of faith, and gave up my status as a practicing minister of the Kirk.  None of this was easy!  I was married, with two small children, and in a 'tied' house.  We had very little in the way of savings (ministerial stipends were not known for their largesse!), and I believed that the Lord was now leading me into the teaching profession - requiring a further year of full-time postgraduate study.  Yet that same Lord provided for all of our needs - and blessed us abundantly over and above the necessities.

It was that experience that gives me, I believe, some authority to address the situation that is facing so many of my brothers and sisters in Christ who are still ministering in, and members of, the Church of Scotland.  The recent decision by the General Assembly of that Church to admit practicing homosexuals to the pastoral care of congregations goes completely against the clear teaching of the written Word of God. Accordingly, those who love that Word, and ministers who have sought - many of them for decades - to be faithful to it in their preaching and their teaching, face the same kind of dilemma that faced me all of those years ago.  

I understand something of the pain and anguish that they are currently experiencing.  I understand the brother who was only recently called to another congregation, and who feels that the Lord would not have called him there for just a few months.  I understand the members who are looking, in vain, for some clear guidance from the pulpit - I have heard of at least one believer who left her C of S service last Sunday in tears. She had gone to church expecting to hear something in the way of an observation regarding the acceptance, only six days earlier, by the Church of practising homosexual clergy; something by way of a response; something; anything. But nothing was said.

I also know that, when I stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ, it will be my faithfulness to Him on which I will be judged - not my faithfulness to a denomination, or even to a congregation, where such faithfulness goes against being faithful to Him!

When I was going through my own 'crisis period' a number of ministerial friends sought to provide me with help and guidance - usually quoting a selection of Biblical texts.  Without, in any way, belittling such texts, the words that probably made the greatest impression on me came from a dear minister friend (a Presbyterian!) in Australia.  Ian, in the course of a long, and lovingly-written letter, quoted these words, penned by William Shakespeare: "This above all: to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man" (Hamlet, Act 1, Sc.iii).

The word of the LORD through the prophet Haggai may be seen to be relevant: "Thus says YHWH Sabaoth: Ask the priests to decide this question, 'If one carries holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and touches with his skirt bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food, does it become holy?' The priests answered, 'No.' Then said Haggai, 'If one who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?' The priests answered, 'It does become unclean.' Then Haggai said, 'So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, says the Lord; and so with every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.'" (2:11-14; RSV).  In the vision given to the apostle, John, he hears a voice saying: "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities." (Rev 18:4-5; RSV).

As I share the pain of brothers and sisters, I commend all of those words to them.  It is a laudable aim to seek to 'change' the Kirk from the inside.  I fear that it is, in the current climate, an impossible task.

Of marriage, injunctions, commitment, and sexuality.

I suppose that I could always take the time to look back in the archives, and count the number of posts that I have placed on this blog concerning marriage.  I don't propose (no pun intended!) to do such a count, but I know that there have been quite a few.

Two of today's news items have to do with that honourable, and God-given institution.  The first was the news that a Lib-Dem MP had named the 'anonymous' married footballer at the centre of one of the, now discredited, 'super-injunctions'.  Of course, the internet has been filled with his name for many days, and the hard-copy version of yesterday's Sunday Herald also named him.  Personally, until yesterday, I had never even heard of Mr Giggs - but then, I am no fan of overpaid, over-hyped, sports 'personalities'!   However, I find this case to be of some interest.  I have read comments that place the blame for the whole affair (sorry! No pun intended, again!) on the female who was allegedly involved in an extra-marital affair with the soccer player.  I have seen her described as everything from naive, to a devious, money-grabbing, opportunist.

It is not my place to either condemn, or defend, her - but I would make the point that "it takes two to tango"!  Whether she seduced a married man and father, or whether such a man seduced her, or even if the whole situation was mutually planned, the fact remains that if he had been faithful to his own marriage commitment, then there would never have been a story.

One report states that "Mr Justice Eady said when rejecting a second application - the first of Monday's attempts - by Sun publisher News Group Newspapers to discharge the privacy injunction, that the court's duty "remains to try and protect the claimant, and particularly his family, from intrusion and harassment so long as it can"."  Surely such "protection" is, primarily, the duty of the husband and father, not the court?!

The other related news item has been the ongoing debate, within the Church of Scotland, at its General Assembly, regarding the ordination of homosexual and lesbian clergy.  According to a report in the (Glasgow) Evening Times newspaper, "The Church of Scotland has agreed to lift its ban on gay ministers.  Commissioners at the institution's General Assembly voted by 351 to 294 to throw out the ban, which was brought in two years ago."  The report goes on to say that: "The Church has also agreed to set up a new commission which will prepare a report on various theological issues linked to the subject to be brought before the Assembly in 2013. After the publication of this report, the Church will discuss the subject again."

I feel, so very much, for those ministers, elders, and members of the Kirk who take a Biblical view of the practice of homosexuality/lesbianism.  There will, I suspect, be a great deal of 'soul-searching' in the coming weeks and months.  Will this decision lead to an exodus, from the Kirk, of those who are not prepared to bow down to the idol of 'political correctness'?  It's a major decision - and one that I am glad I don't have to make.

Any who do will, almost certainly, be immediately tarred with the fallacious term "homophobic".  The 'liberal' wing simply don't seem to understand the Biblical concept of loving the sinner, while hating the sin.  Yet that is exactly what the Christian Gospel teaches is the attitude of Almighty God.  Whilst it is not a synonymous situation, I think of the woman who was, allegedly, caught in the very act of an adulterous relationship (those 1st-century Pharisees would have had no doubt as to the guilty party in any alleged affair between a former beauty contest winner, and a footballer!), and brought before Jesus in order to trap Him into either agreeing to her being stoned to death, or denying the Mosaic law that demanded that penalty..  When all had disappeared after His statement "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." (John 8:7; RSV), He asked the woman "... where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again"." (John 8:10-11; RSV).  He was able to love the sinner, but did not condone her sinful act.

It seems to me that too many are prepared to major on the love and forgiveness of God (both of which are of inestimable importance - indeed, the former is the very essence of His nature), but forget that He is also the holy One, Who cannot even look upon sin.  The proof of that is seen at Calvary where, in the Persona of the Son, He became sin for us (see II Cor.5:21).  It was at Calvary that, as Graham Kendrick puts it in his song Come and see, "wrath and mercy meet."    It was there that He suffered the death that each one of us deserves, that we - heterosexual, homosexual, or lesbian - might receive the life that He gives.  Of course, that involves my acknowledgement that I am a sinful being, and that only He can do anything about it.   I then come, in repentance; receive His forgiveness; and start a life that is so new it's referred to as being "born again" (see John 3:16).

It's a life that's truly worth living - and, indeed, a life for which, almost paradoxically, many in the persecuted church are prepared to die!