Reignite

Is anyone else really hacked-off that the top story for at least a day this week was comic radio presenters doing the kind of thing they do all the time , when a possibly historic and progressive piece of climate change legislation was being debated in Parliament, that I didn't see reported anywhere. I listened to the Russel Brand thing and honestly can't see what the fuss is about, but whatever your opinion, how the hell can it possibly be justified as a top story on the news? There's a whole lot of other stuff going on in the world. Annoyed of Bolton.

When I was at Greenbelt this summer I decided to go along to the free speed dating evening run by a Christian dating website. When I got home I received emails inviting me to join their website. I did join for the free trial, but didn't pay to become a member. At the speed dating and on the website I didn't come across anyone I was remotely interested in. One of the reasons for this is that I found all those folks just too.... Christian. And now I have to explore what I mean by that. I suppose I really mean Evangelical Christian. But it's still worth exploring what I mean a bit more. It's difficult to express it, but a lot of Evangelicals seem to me to have a certain sort of personality. It's difficult to say without sounding insulting, but I find Evangelicals (in general) to be somehow simplistic, naive, timid and without a sense of humour. This could sound just like prejudice, and it's quite possible I can see the splinter in my neighbour's eye more than I...

It's been confirmed that the following people are running for election for the Unitarian Executive Committee, for the term beginning April 2009: Joan Cook -- St Mark’s Unitarian Church, Edinburgh, Scotland Jim Corrigall -- Golders Green Unitarians Elisabeth (Lis) Dyson-Jones – South East Wales Unitarian Society Dot Hewerdine – Chorley Unitarian Chapel Andrew Pakula – Newington Green Unitarian Church The Rev Dr Ann Peart – Cross Street Chapel, Manchester Louise Rogers – Newcastle under Lyme Unitarian Meeting House Sir Peter Soulsby – Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel, Leicester Alison Thursfield – Midland Union of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches The Rev Dr David Usher – London District and South Eastern Provincial Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches Howard Wilkins – Hinckley Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel

Have you heard about these biblical Unitarians? Like me, you may have seen their adverts on Amazon and if you google searched for something Unitarian. Which in itself, suggests there's some money behind this. I sometimes call myself an evangelical Unitarian, but it's a very different kind of evangelical Unitarianism than these folks. I watched this video (all two hours of it) yesterday with half an eye while I was constructing a sofa bed. Video Now, there's much I can agree with about what these folks are saying. I am still basically a Unitarian Christian, I might even call myself a biblical Unitarian. I certainly preach from the Christian scriptures or Hebrew Bible 80% of the time. Yet I certainly don't believe that the Bible is the Word of God in any literal or authorative sense. However good the menu is, it ain't got nothing on the meal. The style of this video is certainly American Evangelical. And the techniques of apologetics used are pretty poor. For example,...

Those people who are interested in evangelism within progressive or alternative Christian communities might like to check out this site promoting National Quaker Week. I'm more and more convinced for myself of the power of story-telling and personal testimony in evangelism. Here's a good example. It's also worth saying that "Thou Shalt decide for yourself" is a pretty good line for Unitarianism, if those darn Quakers hadn't nabbed it first.