Biblical Truth, Not the End for Methodism and Faith in Politics

This may be the start of a new feature here at the SCM blog where I link to articles I've found in other places on the internet. If you see an article that you think SCMers would like to read or a site I should be checking then email me or post it in the comments. At the moment I'm heavily drawing from Ekklesia and Thinking Anglicans.

Simon Barrow looks at what it means to talk about Biblical Truth
"When televangelist Pat Robertson made his much decried comments last month about the Haiti earthquake being divine punishment for a "pact with the devil", critics and defenders alike took him at his word that he was asserting a "biblical view". This just goes to show how little we know."

The Guardian's Comment is Free asks if faith texts are lost in translation
"In the beginning was the word, but then the word changed. Translation has always been important in religions that seek converts. The Christian Bible has been through countless transformations in its 2000-odd year history, many of them extremely contentious. Islam, despite an orthodox insistence that the Arabic version of the Qur'an is the only authentic one, has yielded to pressure to open the text up to readers in Persian, Turkish, Tagalog and more. Outsiders have translated it into English, with controversial results."

Karen Burke writes that David Gamble's address to Synod is not anything new
""We are prepared to go out of existence not because we are failing in mission, but for the sake of mission", David said. "In other words, we are prepared to be changed and even to cease having a separate existence as a church if that will serve the needs of the Kingdom."
The press picked up on this as if it were a bolt from the blue: Methodists falling on their sword, offering their church on a plate to be swallowed by the officially established church. In fact, what David expressed was the longer view of the Anglican-Methodist covenant signed seven years ago; a vision that was conceived in formal talks between the two churches back in 1969."

Jonathon Chaplain shows that there is another way we should be looking at the faith schools and education debate
"The government's so-called "concession" on sex education in faith schools has unleashed a predictable array of responses: angry denunciation from Accord Coalition, lofty condescension from the Guardian, and splenetic hysteria from Mark Steel. On the surface, the issue appears to be just another spat in the mounting controversy over the place of faith in public life. Faith communities are presented as demanding special treatment from government and, instantly, opposing infantries take up their positions and launch the bombardment.
But underlying these surface altercations is a deeper but concealed fissure between two distinct models of public diversity – individualism and pluralism. Unless these models are made explicit and critically assessed the chasm will only deepen and the debate become yet further mired in confusion and sullied by pointless name-calling."

The Archbishop of York calls for Churches to engage with politics
"The role of church and religious leaders is one of warning their congregations not to sleep-walk down the street of despair, but to wake up and take responsibility to choose their political leaders. It is up to people to make up their own minds."

from TryingToFollow