Slowly, oh how slowly, the truth about ‘antidepressants’ is beginning to emerge. Even The Economist magazine, the weekly journal of the smug elite, has now conceded that maybe these pills are prescribed too much, that their effectiveness is overrated, that their side effects can be horrible and some people face real difficulty if they try to stop taking them. I would put all that much more fiercely. My own guess is that within 50 years they will be looked on with the same disdain we now reserve for barbiturates and lobotomies. Such a pity it will take so long. Mail.
Monday, October 31, 2022
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Please Sign and Pass on This Petition. Thankyou.
Christian Concern has launched a new petition, addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd Justin Welby, urging him to scrap the Church of England’s transgender affirming guidance, Valuing All God’s Children.
The Church of England’s Valuing All God’s Children guidance says that children as young as five should be affirmed if they want to identify as the opposite gender.
This guidance covers over 4,800 CofE primary schools and tens of thousands of pupils.
We believe this guidance is deeply damaging and wrong.
It is why we stood with Christian parents Nigel and Sally Rowe and supported them as they took legal action against the Department for Education over trans affirming policies in primary schools.
Nigel and Sally decided to take legal action against the government after they and their six-year-old son were labelled “transphobic” by a CofE primary school for refusing to ‘believe’ in trans affirming policies.
After five years of contending for truth and fighting the case, the Rowes won a huge legal victory, culminating in being awarded £22,000 in legal costs and a commitment from the government to reform their own transgender policies in primary schools.
They have now written to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, urging the Church of England to withdraw guidance that is used in schools to promote damaging transgender ideologies. They cite evidence that policies can have ‘catastrophic outcomes’ for gender confused children as well as a recent speech by former Attorney General Suella Braverman KC demonstrating how schools may be breaking the law by failing to safeguard gender-confused children properly. Her speech clearly demonstrated that the approach of Church of England schools, and their trans affirming guidance in Valuing All God’s Children, is not supported by the law.
Please sign this petition urging the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd Justin Welby to protect children by withdrawing Valuing All God’s Children as a matter of urgency.
This Blogger Has Often Written: "There ain't no such animal as a peace dividend.'' (If you disagree, you really need to get a better grasp of History over the last 230 years!)
THE SUN ON SUNDAY SAYS
We urge Rishi Sunak not to backtrack on ambitious pledges to boost defence spending
Defence spending is price of freedom
WE all know times are tough.
The nation is braced for painful public spending cuts and tax hikes in next month’s Budget.
4
Learn From The Book of Ruth.
Leadership Lessons from Ruth
- Do What You Know Is Right, Not What Looks Right to Others. ...
- Following Your Heart with Integrity Can Increase Your Influence with Others. ...
- Remember to Be Humble and Keep Working as God Blesses You.
Sunday, October 30, 2022
'You'll Wonder Where The Money Went With Trillions On Net Zero Spent'. (Those old enough to remember the ad - please sing along!)
"We remain committed to net zero and to leading international and domestic action to tackle climate change," a Downing Street spokeswoman said. "The U.K. is forging ahead of many other countries on net zero."
Blogger: SIGH! Even if you do naively believe in anthropomorphic climate change - why all the attached insanity? (Oh. We must hurry. I see. Especially, we need rush in Sheffield where our temperatures have climbed by a terrifying one degree centigrade in the last 150 years!)
Pits shut; fracking banned; oil rigs closed; nuclear plants not upgraded - and people wonder why young families, pensioners and so many more can no longer afford to turn the heating on!
Is This Rishi Explained? - Hopefully?
Britain's pragmatic new premier.
Efforts to pigeon-hole Sunak tell us more about those making them than about him
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Rishi Sunak makes his first speech as Prime Minister outside 10 Downing Street
Many outside the UK who don’t closely follow the intricacies of British political life (and some in Britain too) appear to be baffled by the UK’s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
They are finding it difficult to place him on the political spectrum. A convinced Brexiteer, he is nevertheless perceived to be part of a trans-national financial establishment associated with the EU.
As Chancellor of the Exchequer, he spent vast amounts on the furlough scheme and other financial assistance to get the country through the Covid pandemic. This led some to accuse him of helping promote a left-wing “big state” to seize control of people’s lives — even though he fought in Cabinet against the second lockdown in September 2020 because he thought the epidemiological evidence at that time didn’t justify such a measure. And even though he is more Thatcherite than many others in his party.
These efforts to pigeon-hole Sunak tell us far more about the people making them than they do about him. Outside the feverish imaginations of culture-warriors, people are complicated. They don’t necessarily subscribe to any ideology. They don’t fit into neat categories.
The reaction to Sunak brings to mind the joke about a Jew in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, the battle between Protestant unionists and Catholic republicans. A Jew is faced by a menacing mob in Belfast. They demand to know whether he’s a Protestant or a Catholic. “I’m a Jew!” he protests. “Ah,” comes the rejoinder, “but are you a Protestant Jew or a Catholic Jew?”
Here’s what we know about Sunak. He is a Hindu who was born in Britain. His parents, who were born in Africa of Indian Punjabi descent, migrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s. His father is a doctor and his mother is a pharmacist. Rishi was head boy at Winchester College, one of Britain’s most intellectually demanding independent schools; he gained a first class degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford university and an MBA at Stanford before working for Goldman Sachs and hedge fund companies. His wife is the daughter of an Indian billionaire.
This personal history has led to claims that he can’t speak for the British people because he’s rich and privileged. This is a spiteful and ignorant prejudice.
Sunak’s parents epitomise aspiration, hard work and humility, principles they appear to have transmitted to their son whose achievements are due to his outstanding intellect and self-discipline.
The disadvantage of his progress from one insulated and privileged institution to another, however, is the tin ear he has previously displayed to the way ordinary people think. Despite — or because of — his accelerated rise to the top of the Conservative party, he has behaved as a political naif.
That’s why he got himself into so much trouble by not anticipating the public blowback against both his wife’s “non-dom” status that exempted her from paying UK taxes on her overseas earnings (a status she subsequently reversed), and his own US “green card” that allows permanent residence in America and that he held while he was Chancellor until he returned it in October last year ahead of his first American trip as a UK government minister.
But Sunak is smart enough to learn from his mistakes and — because he isn’t ideological — is also able to acknowledge what he doesn’t sufficiently grasp and needs to understand.
Above all, he is a pragmatist. He relies on information and factual evidence that he carefully considers before reaching any conclusion.
This means he is cautious. The upside is that his decisions will be prudent. The downside is that he’s unlikely to possess the spark of leadership genius that sees beyond the balance sheet of risks and likely consequences into the hearts of those whose feelings are no less legitimate (faith, family, flag) or illegitimate (Islamist extremism, transgender dogma) for being unquantifiable.
We know that he’s a fiscal conservative, believing that the country has to pay for what it spends. We don’t know how he will conduct foreign affairs.
Although his first phone call as prime minister was to Ukraine’s embattled war leader Volodymyr Zelensky, we don’t know whether he will be as robust in his assistance as was Boris Johnson.
When Sunak was fighting for the party leadership against Liz Truss who accused him of being soft on China and Russia, he said China and its Communist Party represented the largest threat to Britain and the world’s security and prosperity this century and he called on British companies to pull out of Russia. We have yet to see how that now translates into practice.
During that earlier leadership battle, he also pledged that, in his first hundred days as prime minister, he would review or repeal the 2,400 post-Brexit EU laws that remain enmeshed in UK legislation. Now government officials have confirmed that target won’t be met.
He is reportedly seeking a new agreement with France to quell the huge tide of irregular migrants whom people-smugglers are ferrying in small boats across the English Channel. Yet all such agreements have failed to address the “pull factor” actually driving this traffic — that Britain is the destination of choice for so many because of the ease with which they can disappear into the country rather than being sent back.
On Israel, Sunak is extremely supportive. Refreshingly, he has declared that Jerusalem is “unquestionably” Israel’s capital and that he would like to move the UK embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — although he has acknowledged the difficulties in doing so. His innate caution and his other, more pressing priorities make that an unlikely prospect.
In terms of political theatre, he h?s made a good start. His attention to detail, sharpness of mind and personal composure enabled him to get the better of the Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer in their first set-piece encounter in the House of Commons this week. But as everyone knows, Sunak faces a perfect storm of crises on many different fronts which would test any prime minister to destruction.
Many in Britain assume that at best he will steady the financial markets and keep the show on the road, but that support for the Conservative party has effectively collapsed. At the next general election, goes this thinking, Starmer will become prime minister; that’s now baked into Britain’s rapidly sinking cake.
Don’t bank on it. While the Conservative party is indeed so deeply fractured it may not survive for much longer, Britain’s political cake isn’t yet baked. In the immortal words of America’s late defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, there are too many unknown unknowns and known unknowns— not the least of which is the performance in office of Rishi Sunak himself.
Recent posts
My most recent exclusive post for my premium subscribers warns that it’s no longer Russia v Ukraine and the west — it’s Russia and Iran v Ukraine and the west This is how the piece begins:
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Obituary.
Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, longtime pastor at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, dies at 73.
The Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, a prominent African American pastor of the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York City who was known for his social activism, has died at age 73 of cancer. CP.
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This Is The Government That Biden Apparently Wants To Have Nuclear Weapons!
Iranian celebrity chef 'beaten to death' by
security forces after anti-regime protests.
Verity Bowman, Ahmed Vahdat.
Iran's answer to Jamie Oliver was beaten to death by security forces after anti-regime protests, triggering a fresh wave of unrest.
Thousands marched on Saturday during the funeral for Mehrshad Shahidi, who was killed the day before his 20th birthday.
Dr Reza Taghizadeh, an Iranian affairs commentator, claimed that his death was causing a “second and even greater wave of national protests against the regime in the same way Mahsa Amini’s death did a month ago”.
Protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who died while in custody after being arrested in Tehran for an alleged breach of Iran's strict dress rules for women, have entered their seventh week.
A Mere 10 Million Dead. Choice, Huh?
Communications Officer Rebekah Moffett reports from
the solemn witness in Parliament Square on the 55th
anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act 1967. Christian Concern.
55 years. Over 10 million lives.
Yet in reality, it’s more than just 10 million lives that
have been affected – it’s
also the lives of all the would-be mothers, would-be
fathers, would-be aunts, uncles, grandparents,
godparents…
On 27 October, the 55th anniversary of the
passing of the 1967 Abortion Act, a large group
of pro-lifers gathered in solemn witness of the
10 million lives that have been ended due to
abortion. But more than just remember the ones
who have been lost, they also gathered to
commemorate all those lives that have been
affected by the loss of even just one. The group
took up the entire perimeter of Parliament
Square in silent witness, with MPs, other
politicians and journalists stopping to engage
and ask questions. Despite the solemnity of the
occasion, it was an encouraging sight.
10 million too many
Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian
Concern, was
there to mark the occasion: “I’m here because
I’m
passionately pro-life. Here we are, standing
in Parliament
Square, and we are speaking on behalf of
those that
didn’t get to live, didn’t get to have their first
breath.
“Can we even begin to imagine that 10 million
such people are missing since the passing of that
act 55 years ago? 10 million is way beyond all
the people that I can see in this square today; 10
million is way beyond all the people that I would
get to see as I travel London today. 10 million is
the whole of the population of Greater London.
10 million is two times the population of Scotland.
I don’t know if we can ever even begin to imagine
the concept of that number. 10 million too many.
“But today, what we see in the square is a
pro-life intergenerational force. We’ve got
everyone here. Those of us that are older,
right down to little children that are here
advocating on behalf of our unborn children.
“In 55 years’ time, we don’t want to say that
the number is 20 million – but actually, we
want to see an end to this intentional killing
of our unborn children. That is what our common
humanity requires, it’s what God requires. Because
God says that you and me, and everyone I see, is
precious in his sight and worthy of his protection.
Let’s work to that.”
Yeovil Ministry.
Rebekah Moffett, Communications Officer, speaks to Dominic Muir, lead pastor and overseer of a new church ministry in Yeovil, bringing more than just coffee and cake to its local community, providing people with the real Bread of Life. Christian Concern.
It’s easy to see an increasing hostility to the gospel message in this day and age, in our nation – particularly when the ‘gospels’ of comfort, individuality, instancy, consumerism are all around us. What room is there for the gospel of Christ?
In Acts 17, in Athens, Paul wanders around the city’s marketplace, seeing false ‘gospels’ – idols – all around him. But rather than shy away from an obviously hostile environment, he subverts the Athenians’ false gospels, showing them how they’ve turned a good thing on its head, and then pointing them to the true, living God. This true and living God is actually the answer to everything they’ve been searching for – but they’ve been looking in all the wrong places.
This account of culture sounds somewhat familiar. And it’s been exciting to find out what different churches across the country are doing to bring the truth of the gospel to their own communities – showing people the true source of the fulfilment they seek.
Not long ago, I spoke to Clyde Thomas, lead pastor of a church in Cwmbran, to find out how their grocery store has been blessing the community with the good news of the gospel. Now, Dominic Muir tells me of a new project he’s heading up in Yeovil, Somerset, to bring the gospel to a community that’s been looking for answers in all the wrong places.
Good news, good brews
Take a walk around Yeovil town centre, and you’re bound to pass a new coffee shop, Bread. On the outside, it might just look like another cool café, but this is one café with a different, deeper mission.
John 6:35 says:
“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’”
Bread aims not only to feed people physically, but spiritually as well, with the only one who can really quench our spiritual hunger. Its website explains:
“At the foundation … we are a community of people who have been beautifully touched by God. In this community built on the life and teaching of Jesus every woman, man, girl and boy – every age, every race – can find a home in God. A home where they belong. God has made us a family, and we want to be a community that operates as a family.“… Our mission is to bring gospel outreach, radical discipleship and 24/7 prayer and worship to dark, broken and dying high streets and people across the land. To couch all of the above within excellent coffee shops. Good brews and good news.”
Pioneering ministry
You might recognise Dominic and his wife Thea from the various different projects they’ve been involved in over the years. Dominic ran a church on the streets of London’s red light district for seven years. He has also authored a discipleship course, along with two books, led missionary teams across the world, and heads up various ministries, including Now Believe, Jesus Fields, and Returning Sons. His wife Thea also oversees their business and ministry I Am So Many Things.
Watch more from Thea below (you can watch the full video on YouTube):
However, after receiving a word from God that the couple would plant churches in the region they lived in (Somerset), a new project and vision started coming together, with other couples and families getting involved.
Dominic is clear about what led him to set up Bread, and exactly where he wants to see it go.
Dominic, thank you for speaking to us about this exciting new project, Bread, in Yeovil. What was the inspiration behind setting up a coffee shop in the centre of town? Why did you go down that route, given it seems so different to your other projects?
The inspiration came from, on one level, the prophetic word about planting a church. The second part of the journey was basically needing to be inspired as to what that church would look like, because honestly, I didn’t really want to just plant what I too easily imagine a church to look like: some sort of building with a carpark in a town.
On one afternoon, my friend Rick and I were wondering through Yeovil doing a bit of shopping. I was picking up some colouring pencils for my children in The Works. But in the middle of the shop was a stand advertising their ‘best-selling books’. And on that stand, it was full of books on the occult and witchcraft, spells, divination, you name it. I was shocked. This is a national franchise, a trusted family store. I couldn’t believe that they were selling these books – not as fringe books, but as best sellers.
I brought it up with the shop manager, but we pretty much got ejected from the shop – not from anything we’d done wrong – but because we really did warn and caution the selling of these books. It was an earnestness that essentially offended this woman. She asked us to leave, so we left.
But as I walked out into the high street in Yeovil, I was angry. This is not OK that this is happening, that people can just wander in and just pick up these books. There’s a verse in Acts 17 where it says that Paul was ‘provoked’ at the idolatry. That’s what I was experiencing. A jealousy for God’s people in Yeovil.
So I told Rick, we need to get a place in Yeovil. We need to have a place on the High Street, we need to have a shop people can walk into and access Jesus, access the Kingdom, really easily.
From then on, I began talking about planting a church on the High Street, next to Costa and WH Smith. I wanted it to be a place where people can just wander in and encounter Jesus Christ.
We realised that we needed to be far more accessible to this generation, who are not thinking about going to a church building on a Sunday. Religion is kind of off the cards for this generation; they want shops, they want community, they want coffee – they want the third space environment. Starbucks was coined the ‘third space’, the first place being home, the second being work, the third space used to be the pubs in our land. That’s less so now – it’s really the coffee shop.
That was the main push for Bread and the coffee shop idea. We, as a Church, should be in those spaces. We should become the third space.
Why go to high street? Isn’t the high street dying now, particularly post-pandemic?
We are at a cultural, societal, political, ideological, spiritual and religious tipping point. There is no neutral ground, everything is up for grabs – people, land, buildings, ideas, teaching and training, mind-moulding, the media airwaves – and if God’s people don’t grab it all boldly, the devil will.
It’s true, the high streets are bland, emptying and in trouble. The shopping mall is characterless, spiritually arid, fatherless.
Meanwhile, we have an ageing population with 2% church attendance, Christianity is seen as irrelevant, and church buildings are made into hair salons.
The third space coffee shop is popular – but one dimensional.
But we have a whole generation who need to meet Jesus Christ and who are ready to meet Him. The harvest is unreligious and packed.
Where are the people? Despite Amazon, they are still in the town centres, wandering the high streets. They go for community, out of habit, for physical, real-time connection, a helping hand and smiling face, a tube of toothpaste, a flat white, a loaf of bread. Mums need a place to take their babies and children, for example. But we know that what people really need is the Bread of Life – Jesus.
Bread, seeks to move into the high street vacuum created by the above and be a father to the fatherless, a beautiful, creative kingdom marketplace.
What was the inspiration behind the name ‘Bread’?
The initial name we came up with was Bread of Life. I knew that I wanted to bring Jesus front and centre. And Jesus describes himself, as you know, in John 6 as the ‘bread of life’.
But also, on the High Street, people go to it for bread! As far back as we can remember, the reason why someone goes into town, into the marketplace, the centre, is to buy food – a loaf of bread. It’s what we eat, it’s the basic food of life. So I also wanted to have a name which accessed that rudimentary need.
I started with Bread of Life, but then I shortened it to just ‘Bread’, because it had more of a ring to it, I suppose!
Bread is just huge in the Bible – you’ve got the broken bread in communion, just sitting round the table in fellowship, breaking bread, man doesn’t live by bread alone… It just had a ring, and it felt right. And obviously we’re going to be selling bread!
But it’s also a non-religious word. And if this grows to more venues, as we hope it will then it’s a brand that can be easily shipped out and used. It’s a cool name, yet its also utterly linked to Jesus.
You’ve said you’re hoping to ship out the brand – but what other successes are you hoping to see from this project?
Nothing short of revival! We want to see life being released all over Yeovil. What I mean by that is, people coming in, not necessarily knowing why they’re coming into our shop, and just encountering Jesus; meeting with his people, being witnessed to, feeling at home, feeling loved, feeling a connection to the place.
I’d love for the people that come here to think, “there’s something different about this place – the way I’m treated is different, the way I’m loved is different.” I want people to realise that we’re more than just a coffee shop, that we’re a community that does outreach. I’d love to see different types of evenings people can get involved with – ministry evenings, film nights. For it to be somewhere where there seems to be a real hub of life and creativity and activity going on. And for people generally to be swept into the kingdom.
Our tagline is “nourishing Yeovil in body, soul and spirit.” We want to nourish people in body – we want to be a place where people come away from our establishment having had a top quality cup of coffee, where people taste the excellence of the Kingdom, they feel nourished.
But also nourished in soul: we want people to feel loved and inspired. We’re hopefully going to run encouragement evenings, prophecy evenings, the 12 Steps course. Things that are a blessing to people, even if they’re not ready for Jesus yet.
And finally, nourishing people in spirit. Bread will be a success if people are getting saved, discipled and properly trained up in the ways of the Holy Spirit.
Bread isn’t just a ‘Christian coffee shop’; it’s an apostolic training centre! And, as I said, we have a big vision to plant this ministry, should it go as we believe it will, into many towns and cities across the country, and even across nations. We want this to be something that can be stewarded well. Almost franchised out, to use a slightly worldly term – kind of replicated out with a whole spiritual family cheering everyone on.
That’s a really encouraging vision! But I imagine there have been some challenges on the way…?
The main challenge is faith, stepping out into the unknown. I’ve never rented a commercial property – that has its own challenges, it’s more complicated than renting a residential property by far. Fundraising, as well – that’s been a challenge. And then things like battling discouragement. The classic pioneering challenges that one faces.
We’re asking ourselves, how are we going to run this as a business? What sort of business will it be? How will we staff this thing? Who’s joining this mission?
We’ve actually had two families move across the country to be with us. So people are moving, people are coming. People are sensing the leading of the Spirit. And we’re seeing people getting really excited about this vision.
When you have a word from God, a zeal that is God-given – then you have a cause. How can we not do what we are called to do? And, by the grace of God, his anointing overcomes all the challenges thrown at us. Through him, we are more than conquerors.
Finally, how would you encourage others who are thinking of starting a similar ministry?
I would say to people, find out your calling. Our calling as a Church is to do the will of Him who sent us. God has given each of us a call, and a grace to fulfil that calling.
Of course, if you’re considering doing something like this, you’re probably already getting in touch with that. Make it plain – on tablet, as the prophets said. Write it down in summary – what is it that you want to achieve? Make that clear in one, two or three steps.
Once you’ve got that, share that with your closest fellowship. See what the body of Christ is saying back to you. God confirms his word amidst the council of the saints – the corporate ‘amen’ of those people we have fellowship with. And then, if God’s calling you to start something, then he’s going to give you the people to do it with – so see who’s saying ‘yes, I want to get behind this’.
Then test it, fly it. If you need a space like we needed a shop, then put an offer in, go and have conversations with estate agents. You’ve got to move out in faith; you’ve got to get out of the boat and stride out into the stormy waves and winds of this fallen world, keeping your eyes on Jesus, just walk out in faith. And God will confirm his word, he will do the rest. You just go step by step in the grace of God.
You can find out more about Bread and how you can get involved on their website.
Saturday, October 29, 2022
T20 World Cup. Oz v England Abandoned Because of Rain.
England must now beat both Sri Lanka and New Zealand - my tournament favourite!
I Might Suggest That A Faith Without Experience of God Is No Faith At All.
Joy in the Christian life is all about perspective. True joy is not based on circumstances. The key to lasting contentment is found through a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the divine perspective Paul wanted to communicate to the Philippians.
Christ is the ultimate example for believers. Through following his patterns of humility and sacrifice, we can find joy in all circumstances.
Christians can experience joy in suffering just as Christ suffered:
...he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. (Philippians 2:8, NLT)
Christians can experience joy in service:
But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy. (Philippians 2:17-18, NLT)
Christians can experience joy in believing:
I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. (Philippians 3:9, NLT)
Christian can experience joy in giving:
I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:18-19, NLT) LR.
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