Christians and Twitter
18 Dec 2011 2 Comments
in Behaviour Tags: behaviour, christians, mission, western society
I’ve never used Twitter. I’m not really interested, and I doubt anyone would want to read my tweets anyway. But many christians use it, especially well-known ones – writers, leaders, entertainers and bloggers.
But I’m beginning to wonder whether a lot of this christian tweeting is counter-productive.
Barriers to belief: church abuse
22 Nov 2011 1 Comment
in Apologetics, Behaviour Tags: apologetics, behaviour, christianity, churches, ethics, mission
In Barriers to belief I reported that the biggest barrier to non-believers was the many much-publicised cases of sexual abuse within the church. How should christians respond to this?
My pleasure, their misery
21 Nov 2011 10 Comments
in Behaviour Tags: behaviour, Change the world, Chocolate, christianity, ethics, world
A short time ago, I posted on poverty and the growing world population (Christians and world poverty), and about the challenge of deciding how to respond (How much to save the world’s poor?).
Let’s start with something small which most of us can do this week, or this year.
Atheist vs christian internet wars
18 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in Behaviour Tags: apologetics, Atheism, behaviour, christians
The past six years, I’ve spent a lot of time on the internet, making comments on blogs and discussing on forums. The two most common subjects I’ve discussed have been web design and God. The people I’ve met discussing web design have almost always been friendly and helpful. I wish I could say the same about discussing God, religion and christianity!
I’ve made a lot of friends over that time, but I’ve also seen some ugly personal attacks, a mass of derogatory put-downs and a lot of polarisation. Modern day atheism can be a lot more militant and outspoken than it once was, no doubt partly in reaction to provocation, and I have sometimes been on the receiving end even though I try not to be provoking.
But the sad thing is, I see just as much bad behaviour from the christians.
Christians in society
28 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Behaviour Tags: behaviour, christianity, mission, religion, western society
A recent survey of American religion reveals some interesting facts
Robert Putnam (Harvard) and David Campbell (Notre Dame) undertook extensive research of religious attitudes in the US, and late last year published the results of their research in American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. I haven’t read the book, but I’ve seen an outline of their findings and an interview with David Campbell.
Prayer and mission
21 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Behaviour Tags: christianity, christians, mission, prayer
Felicity Dale at Simply Church has posted some interesting accounts in Does prayer make a difference? Two groups of christians prayed for non-believers, with very striking results:
- A church in the US identified 160 homes, and prayed for 80 of them for 90 days. Then they approached all homes with the offer to visit and pray for them. Only one in the “not prayed for” group accepted the offer, but 69 out of 80 homes that were prayed for responded positively.
- Christians in India picked two villages and prayed for one. When they visited both villages they were thrown out of the village they didn’t pray for but made many converts in the village they did pray for.
I have a few difficulties about praying for one group and not another, though I guess they can at least rectify this following the experiment. And I certainly don’t think we can use these examples to “prove” that prayer works. (In fact, as you can see at Intercessory prayer and healing properly scientific studies of prayer show only moderately positive results.)
But I think we can see these accounts as a great encouragement to pray. We all believe in prayer and know we should pray more, but as TS Eliot said:
“Between the idea, and the reality ….. falls the shadow.”
Christians and climate change
05 Aug 2011 2 Comments
in Behaviour Tags: christianity, environment, reason, world
Lately I have been pondering two facts:
- The majority of world climate scientists believe the evidence shows that our climate is changing because of human activity, and, if allowed to continue unchecked, this will have disastrous consequences for hundreds of millions of people.
- Christians are well represented among those who are unwilling to accept these conclusions.
Why is it so?
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