Two themes run in parallel through Scripture with regard to men and women. Equal dignity and significant difference. Women are badly served when their essential dignity as human beings is disrespected. They are also badly served when equality is assumed to mean sameness. Radical feminism cheered for equality, but failed to take sufficient account…
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Withdrawing two primary-age children from a week of schooling is a step of last resort. But that is the point that two concerned parents reached just before the summer. Faced with a new Sex and Relationships Education curriculum, Matthew and Naomi Seymour felt they had no other choice. ET caught up with them to…
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The three deadliest words in the world today are the words: ‘It’s a girl!’ Over 100 million females are missing in the world due to gender selective abortion, infanticide, or neglect. And that’s just one of many markers of female inequality. Feminists are rightly outraged by this. If we ask what lay behind the…
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Controversial questions on gender identity and sexual orientation are to be included in the 2021 Census in England and Wales. These questions will differ from most of the census questions, in that both will be voluntary and only asked of respondents aged 16 or over. The only other voluntary question in the census will…
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In the last edition of ET, I examined the transgender agenda. What is it? Where did it come from? Where is it heading? This time I ask, how should churches respond? I suggest there are at least eight things we must do. 1. We need to provide biblical teaching about God’s good purpose in…
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Safeguarding practices have been an important part of churches since the late 1990s, but as society has changed, has the way we safeguard our children changed? Paul and Sue Harrison, who started Christian Safeguarding Services (CSS), are concerned that some churches are ‘stuck in a time warp’ when it comes to this area. ‘As…
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For the next twelve months, we have asked Stephen Rees – an experienced pastor – to share some thoughts on various topics. Whilst his column may be edited for reasons of length or style, his words and opinions are his own and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Evangelical Times. What is…
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No one can ignore the current demands for ‘transsexual rights’. Both the UK and Scottish governments are considering proposals to make ‘changing sex’ as easy as buying a TV licence. Our instinctive reaction may be to assume that the demand for ‘transsexual (or transgender) rights’ is mainly about protecting a tiny minority of troubled…
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The Judeo-Christian heritage, which gave us the freedoms that we have enjoyed for many decades, has now, for the most part, gone. Consecutive governments have worked at eroding the foundations and the Ten Commandments that laid those foundations. We may not yet be experiencing persecution, but the pressure on Christians is mounting. We are…
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It’s some months now since I read a headline in The Daily Telegraph. “We should applaud the end of the nuclear family, says top judge”. I read the story with interest and a growing sense of anger and then checked to see what other newspapers were saying about it. The story concerns Sir James…
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I was taken aback by a conversation I had recently following a Sunday service. In the course of the sermon I had made reference to the Great Fire of Rome. I quoted a Roman historian by the name of Tacitus. Tacitus wrote about the Emperor Nero’s attempts to blame Christians for the fire and…
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Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s Chief Inspector of schools, in a speech to a Church of England foundation (quoting Psalm 119), commended educationalists who made the focus of their schools the teaching of ‘knowledge and good judgment’. She also said, ‘Ofsted inspectors are increasingly brought into contact with those who want to actively pervert the purpose…
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