After three months its time to return to our weekly round up of events that illustrate where our culture is at. Light Engaging Darkness tries to identify general trends in culture (each week we take seven items) and apply some Gospel light to them! Whether we succeed or not – you can be the judge! This link is for the previous one – many moons ago!
Meanwhile this week….
1) Happy 70th birthday to the NHS –
The National Health Service is one of the best things about Britain and we rightly celebrate it. Even this week I have benefited from it (my second home is Ninewells hospital) and I regularly come in contact with it. My daughter is training to be a nurse, half my congregation seem to work in it (it is Britain’s largest employer) and all of us make use of it. (Can I say to my American friends….you really could do with some socialised medicine!)….We have much to be thankful for…but we also need to recognise that it is in deep trouble and that, unless there is substantial reform, the NHS is unlikely to survive in its current form. In my own city there is a chronic shortage of GP’s and money. The morale amongst staff is low and there are considerable cuts taking place (despite official denials). I was told by senior staff that operations are going to in effect be cut to ten months per year and that you can only have one cataract operation – which is tough if you have two eyes with cataracts. Every politician says all the right words – but who is going to act?
2) The Prime Minister Apologises to Peter Tatchell and is given Absolution –
Prime Minister May met with Peter Tatchell and other gay activists to give an abject apology and promise them a 75 point action programme and more money. Mrs May has given in to everyone of their demands and is promising more (sounds like her negotiations with the EU!). The latest will be the banning of what is termed ‘conversion therapy’. This excellent article from Peter Ould explains why this ban is such a dumb idea…but facts and reason are nothing to do with the debate here – if Peter Tatchell and co. say it is wrong, it must be wrong. Expect the usual virtue signalling from the Establishment as they all pile on board as they attempt to prove that they are not homophobic. Of course the Church of England have joined in the calls to ban conversion therapy (I’m tempted to say that is because they don’t believe in any kind of conversion) and Vicky Beeching is using her new found celebrity in order to campaign against it as well.
The propoganda continues incessantly with the major corporations falling over themselves as they seek to jump on the bandwagon – Tesco can now be added to the list Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Corporate Capitalism, the World Cup and the Sign of a Society Committing Suicide . Here is an interesting clip from the BBC (warning contains some offensive language) – have you noted how ‘safe’ comedians are nowadays? They just parrot the values of the Establishment and act as the mockery leaders for the mob. How daring to attack the DUP, mock marriage and make up straw man arguments! Can you imagine how radical and brave it would be for a comedian to make fun of SSM?!
For free I am happy to offer this joke to any comedians who want to cause a real shock. You know how your colleagues oft trot out the hilarious point “if you’re against gay marriage don’t have one’? – how about this variation – “if you’re against gay therapy, don’t have it”? Does that work for you? Is the logic not the same?
3) No Christian Refugees from Syria?
12% of Syria’s population are Christian. They are the ones most likely to be discriminated against and attacked by ISIS and their supporters. And yet in an astonishing revelation – it turns out that almost none were allowed into the UK. What is even more astonishing is the reluctance of the UK government to release the figures – you would think they were trying to hide something!
4) Schools Ban Skirts for Girls
An increasing number of schools in the UK are banning girls from wearing girls clothes like skirts – so that they can be gender neutral. Yep – this really is happening….
5) Ireland faces Depopulation Crisis after Abortion Vote
After voting to permit abortion and the killing of children in the womb, it now turns out that Ireland is facing a population crisis – with not enough children being born to maintain the population. One can hardly comprehend the stupidity of a contemporary society that seems so determined on suicide. If you kill your children in the womb – they won’t grow up to be the adults you need!
6) Fake?
7) Tim Keller Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in the UK Parliament.
This is well worth listening to…a great example of ‘speaking truth to power’.
See you next week!
(In case you missed it – have a look at this interview – which deals with the background to many of the above issues – John Anderson Interview – Where is the West Heading?
Very informative! But I still oppose socialized medicine because it creates shortages of doctors and procedures. The cost may be your own life or the life of a loved one. I had cataract surgery in both eyes because that was what I needed, by the way.
1) NHS is surely in crisis. Can’t take it for granted. Pray and act.
2) Peter Tatchell does not need an apology. He avoided conscription in his own country; Came to UK and had a boyfriend of 16 when age of consent was 21 (he was 19); He is an anarchist; a corrupter of public morals and in my opinion, has the ‘mindset’ of a paedophile. He needs a trial.
3) We’re not a Christian country – we are rapidly becoming anti-Christian
4)Homo = man
Phobia = irrational fear
Homophobia = irrational fear of man
Yep, we all have it!
5) a) Gender neutral is certainly a cause for concern (while strangely at the same time we don’t see opposition to the most gross sexual objectifying of women I have ever witnessed in my lifetime)
b)I’m glad they didn’t ban trousers instead of skirts! (Maybe they wanted to also sort the problem of boys turning up in skirts)
c) If I was a mother of girls I might be pleased they banned skirts!! Those 12″ long skirts are a cause for concern?
5) Republic of Ireland has a severe spiritual and moral vacuum since the significant downfall of the Catholic church and clergy. There is not enough evangelical witness there.
6) Apparently the fake whiskey is getting increasingly hard to detect. I heard about that.
7) I will listen to Tim Keller later on.
I thought Tim Keller was eloquent, intelligent, informative and very inspiring!
Martha –
I find your comments about Peter Tatchell very objectionable and I am surprised that David finds them fit for publication on his blog.
@John
What comments are untrue or unfair with regard to my opinion of Peter Tatchell’s behaviour based on what I have witnessed over the years or based on articles he has written?
Your comments about Tatchell are mean spirited and serve no other purpose than to satisfy your completely transparent desire to besmirch his character.
Tatchell would be one amongst thousands of young men who avoided compulsory military service in the war in the terrible war in Vietnam by moving to a different country. Perhaps you support the sending of teenage boys to foreign countries by their governments in order for them to kill or be killed in senseless wars of aggression – if so then pity you.
The implication of your stating that Tatchell was 19 and had a boyfriend of 16 (when the age on consent was 21) can only be that Tatchell was involved in criminal sexual behaviour – this is a completely and utterly baseless assertion. Your accusation that Tatchell has the ‘mindset’ of a paedophile is based on selective reading of Tatchell’s writing on sexual behaviour amongst the young, you at least owe him the courtesy of a full examination of his writing on this topic.
Such a drama queen.
You have accused Peter Tatchell of “having” (in the present tense, himself) the mindset of a paedophile. However, it is more than 20 years since he demonstrated his then sympathy with the rationale that a paedophile typically uses to justify the expression of his sexual orientation with children, when he wrote, “The positive nature of some child–adult sexual relationships is not confined to non-Western cultures. Several of my friends – gay and straight, male and female – had sex with adults from the ages of nine to 13. None feel they were abused. All say it was their conscious choice and gave them great joy. While it may be impossible to condone paedophilia, it is time society acknowledged the truth that not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive and harmful.”
It follows that, in fairness, you ought to have pulled your punches, saying, at most, that “Peter Tatchell used at least to have the mindset of a paedophile”. You can’t be sure that the leopard hasn’t changed his spots.
I feel an inordinate amount of grief today that I have to grapple with the mire of current thought (we have deviated so far from ‘whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable–excellent or praiseworthy’) and at the comment made by John, who said “I find your comments about Peter Tatchell very objectionable and I am surprised that David finds them fit for publication on his blog.”
1) To insinuate that David Robertson, a minister and moderator of the Free Church, a husband of a wife, a father and grandfather should protect the virtue and honour of Peter Tatchell, who has an organisation behind him and the support of the mob, who has had an apology from the Prime Minister, and a blue plaque unveiled outside his flat; that he should protect his honour, over and above the desire of one mother who would seek to protect the minds and bodies of her children, and the children of others, against a godless, depraved agenda (in terms of children’s ‘sexuality’; sex education; marriage equality; the unborn among other issues) clearly displayed over many years by Peter Tatchell – I find that to be a deeply distressing concept.
Perhaps David Robertson should have added a caveat before he allowed my reprehensible comments or perhaps he should retrospectively show some regret for allowing them? Maybe he should delete my comments altogether!!??
I gave no opinion about the avoidance of conscription, merely stated it, the same people who would defend him would be quick to pin the same on Donald Trump (I am not defending Trump but the ‘tolerance’ defenders are often prone to double standards). I have no desire to send boys to war, so you have no need to pity me in that respect.
Make what you like of Peter Tatchell having a 16 year old boyfriend when the age of consent was 21 and his constant efforts to lower the age of consent. Make what you like of everything he has said and written over the years. I don’t keep a scrap book of his articles and musings to keep me up-to-date about his moral standing on certain issues. I have seen how he shifts premise when it suits him. For example, I have heard him first of all slight biblical marriage by referring to descriptions of OT polygamy and selling daughters, then by the same token say his reason for seeking ‘equal’ marriage is on the basis of ‘love’! Then when Christians disagree that the government should allow same sex marriage; he, as an atheist, says discrimination is not a very Christian characteristic. That is deceitful twisted reasoning. I would not consult Peter Tatchell on how to influence the developing sexuality of children. I have read enough of his ‘sex education’ material and it is corrupting. He wrote it! I don’t care when!
I am deeply, deeply grieved that I live at a time where ‘good is called evil and evil good’ . I feel like Lot, in the bible.
2 Peter 2: 4 “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgement; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgement. 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority.”
It surprises me that Lot is called a righteous man when we read about him, but I guess I am more harsh than God. If Lot could be called righteousness, then there is hope for me.
I will not resort to copying and pasting the vast amount of obscene writings by P T, whenever they were written, to prove anything. I will though, take this opportunity to copy and paste the standards that I defend and uphold; the standards that I clumsily and imperfectly try to pass on to my children; they are not my own, I fall short. But I will not pay homage to a man just because everybody else does; I bow down before the One who made us all and who is perfectly pure and righteous.
Genesis 1:26ff “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,”
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Jesus said – Matt 19:4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”
and
Hebrews 13:4 “Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”
Peter Tatchell is an active enemy of all of the above which God has instituted. I owe him nothing, except to have the grace to pray that God might change his heart and yours too John. I don’t take the moral high ground, because it is “by grace that I have been saved and not by works”, but I will defend God’s standards, in my own faltering, imperfect way as someone in need of God’s sanctifying saving grace who has been redeemed from the pit.
Jude insinuates that an archangel was obliged to protect Satan’s honour. 🙂
@ John Allman
In response to your Peter Tatchell quote above, I do not believe he has retracted the statement …”While it may be impossible to condone paedophilia, it is time society acknowledged the truth that not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive and harmful.” I have heard him say that he defends people’s right to describe their childhood sexual experiences as non-abusive and as giving them great joy. My problem with that is the lack of deep and real concern for such people. We all know that a child can have a very ambiguous reaction to abuse, especially depending on their circumstances; for example if they were unloved then any attention is better than no attention. Sexual abuse is horrendously confusing for a child because of their physical responses.
Peter Tatchell has made some very dubious remarks, vague enough to seem innocent, while at the same time being designed to desensitise the reader or listener towards juvenile sex. He is very clever and chooses his words very carefully so as to cover all bases at once. He has done this as recently as in the last 10 years at least. But when he comes under fire, he can easily rationalise his statements. He wouldn’t be so quick though, to protect the rights of people to explain that they are ex-gay or that they desire counselling for unwanted same-sex attraction. He constantly harps on about people being homophobic (an annoying misnomer simply meaning fear of man). What if someone started some pseudoscience (to borrow your phrase) movement stating that ‘homophobia’ was genetic; would he defend the rights of homophobes too? I can only be sorry for Peter Tatchell who has spent so much of his life trying to convince the public that sin is good. May God have mercy on him.
You are wrong about one thing. The root “homo” in “homophobe” is Greek, and means the same. It is not from the Latin word homo, which means a human (i.e. a man, including a woman or a child).
My criticism of you for commenting about Peter Tatchell was tongue-in-cheek.
I have not yet succeeded in finding anybody offering gay conversion therapy in the UK. The need for this proposed legislation is entirely psychological, I suspect, and devious, a weapon formed against the church.
I have fleetingly suspected that all the over-hyped gay conversion firms in the US that have long-since folded, might well have been false flag operations all along. This conspiracy theory of mine goes like this, expressed as a conversation between the usual suspects within the Secret Power of Lawlessness, the demons Wormwood and Screwtape.
“How can we attack those churches that minister to those who wish to learn to repress their homosexual drives, exercising self-control, by the power of the Enemy’s spirit?”
“Let us set up bogus psychotherapy firms, purporting to be the Enemy’s, that provide useless services. Then we ban such services, after our undercover agents all admit, all at once, that their therapies were bogus all along. We can use the ban we thus achieve, in order to interfere with religion, on the pretext that society should no longer tolerate the Enemy’s people continuing to do what they have always done, because (we say, for the first time in history) this ministry of the Enemy is ‘therapy’.”
“In other words, rather than introducing faith crimes out of the blue, which would sound alarm bells even in the minds of the National Secular Society, we recruit pseudoscientists to muscle in on faith undercover, pretending that what they are doing is medicine, setting up false flag front organisations. Then tell them to pull out. We then introduce measures against *quackery* crimes, using as evidence for the need for this, the very quackery firms we ourselves started and then told to pull out of the market, admitting their quackery. We pass a Quackery Act without objections, and use it to prosecute the Enemy’s people of faith, for preaching and practising the Enemy’s doctrine, the doctrine that You-know-who saves, including from unwanted sexual urges.”
“You’ve got it!”
“Brilliant!”
Ah, John Allman! Interesting and intelligent post as usual. Haven’t seen you here for a while. You must have been on holiday while this amateur continued to attempt to back up DR. Hope the conversation on vacation was riveting (no mumbo jumbo of science!) and that the food was just as good( no ‘word salad’!)
Thank you for the link to the Tim Keller message. I love how he ends with asking society to critique (hold to account?) Christians’ actions based on what should be their own values. Much of what passes for western Christianity today desperately needs this.
The problem with where we are on the NHS is that we have made it an idol (pace Polly Toynbee https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/03/nhs-religion-tories-health-service ), and so make it impossible to have a sensible discussion of other means of providing universal healthcare. France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden have different public/private and insurance models, which serve everyone in society, produce better outcomes and are not political footballs. The NHS is a system for providing health, it must not be worshipped as beyond reproof or improvement
It’s great until they start acting as gods over life and death as happened recently with two wee children.
No thanks to socialism. I love my freedom.
You mention “two wee children”. Are you by any chance thinking of Alfie Evans, as one of the two? I’ve written to the Liverpool coroner about that, in a formal Letter Before Action under the Pre-action Protocol for Judicial Review.
The coroner decided not to hold an inquest into Alfie’s death. An inquest is required when the senior coroner has reason to suspect that the deceased died while in custody “or otherwise in state detention”. The coroner decided he didn’t have any reason to suspect that. However, when dismissing appeals against the refusal of an application for habeas corpus to get Alfie released into his parents care, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court had both said that IF Alfie was in state detention, it hadn’t been UNLAWFUL detention, not that Alfie definitely wasn’t in detention.
You can read about this impending court action of mine over on my blog.
Hi John
I read about Alfie on your blog and most of the comments too. I had no idea that there was anything untoward behind the unfolding of events as presented by the media; neither did my husband. I feel I’m am very uniformed. I was really grieved to think that our country, and those in positions of power, is/are sometimes maybe far more corrupt and unscrupulous than I suspected. Well done for persisting with this; I’m sure it is not easy. Do you know how Alfie’s parents feel/think in retrospect about all of this? I don’t wish to pry into their feelings at this time of grief but are they speaking out or have they retreated in order to grieve? Who is supporting them?
I’m sorry I didn’t answer your questions.
@ John Allman. Thanks for correcting my ignorance regarding the root of homo. Correction taken. Didn’t realize it was Greek not Latin. But it would still only mean ‘fear of the same’ then?? If so, it is still a misnomer.
Interesting you point out that ‘homo’ in Latin includes man, woman and child. I personally always felt included, and respected in the use of the word ‘man’ when it was in the bible. I don’t like the mouthful ‘human being’ and ‘humankind’. Too wordy for me! Psalm 8:4 “What is man that You are mindful of him”. I feel patronised when people try to work that verse, as if I wasn’t included in there already!
I did wonder about your ‘leopard’s spots’ comment! I knew I was being controversial with what I said and so already felt a bit defensive. I felt incredible grief for Peter Tatchell yesterday! I’m sure he has some redeeming qualities, perhaps more than me! But I believe he is wrong on so many issues and spends so much of his life and energy defending and promoting sin.
Many languages have flaws, quirks and illogicalities when it comes to gender. At least English doesn’t have male and female cutlery items, like French.
(See: “Masculism, Feminism and the Euro Tunnel”.)
I find it inconvenient sometimes that English hasn’t got a word that means a male adult human, and only that. The word “man” either means a male adult human, or any human at all regardless of age and sex, depending upon the context.
The word “woman” is clearly a contraction of womb-man, a “man” (sense 2, i.e. a human) with (or supposed to have) a (fully-developed) womb.
It is a consolation that the vocabulary used to discuss our bovine livestock is also quite complicated, as with the human. Age and gender and other roles, and so-on, are even more finely distinguised. There are oxen and cattle and calves and cows and bulls and bullocks and heifers for a start. I expect the list is much longer than that.
@ John! (not Allman this time)… You’re still speaking to me! That’s nice! When you see a mad Irish woman jumping out at an opportune moment, in front of television cameras, at the next London Pride march, to attempt a citizens arrest of Peter Tatchell – on the grounds of the ‘corruption of public morals’ – then you can call me a drama queen!
” (Can I say to my American friends….you really could do with some socialised medicine!)”
At least a third, probably closer to a half, of US medicine is socialized. We have Medicare and Medicaid which are huge entitlements. The condition all of our socialized programs is the same as that of Rev. Robertson’s description of the NHS in the UK:
“…but we also need to recognise that it is in deep trouble and that, unless there is substantial reform, the NHS is unlikely to survive in its current form. In my own city there is a chronic shortage of GP’s and money. The morale amongst staff is low and there are considerable cuts taking place (despite official denials). I was told by senior staff that operations are going to in effect be cut to ten months per year and that you can only have one cataract operation – which is tough if you have two eyes with cataracts. Every politician says all the right words – but who is going to act?”
Most of the socialized programs in the US are funded by some form of IOU. Our social security is actuarially bankrupt now. That is to say that if you applied generally accepted accounting practices, it’s bankrupt now. Even our government admits it will run out of money in 2034. Mandatory entitlement spending is swallowing the US’ budget.
The real danger of state-controlled health is in another article. Some NHS doctor has been sacked because he refuses to acknowledge all the invented forms of gender:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5930593/Doctor-fired-government-role-insisting-gender-determined-birth.html
I am persuaded by J. Vos’ commentary on the WLC 141:
“5. Is socialism contrary to Christianity?
The word socialism is used with such varying meanings that it is difficult to speak definitely of it unless it is first defined so that it can be known precisely what is meant. Marxian socialism, which is the root of modern communism, is certainly contrary to the Christian religion. Yet there is a limited form of socialism that is not contrary to the teachings of God’s Word. For the government to operate the postal service, instead of leaving it to the initiative of private persons or corporations, is a sort of socialism; yet it cannot be regarded as sinful for the state to engage in this enterprise. In most countries of the world the railways, ways, telegraphs, and telephone service are operated either chiefly or exclusively by the state. We may consider this wise or unwise, but we can hardly prove that it is contrary to the Bible. However, a line has to be drawn somewhere; it would certainly be wrong for the state to take over and operate all business and commerce. The operation of business by the state should be confined to such activities as the postal service, which are essential to all the people of the country and which for cheapness and efficiency require a nationwide monopoly. The state should maintain conditions in which private business can be carried on, and should regulate private business in the interests of justice, but should not supplant private business by competing with it. God instituted civil government to promote the welfare of men by maintaining justice in human society (Rom. 13:4), not to develop into a colossus of collective enterprise in competition with its own citizens.
Johannes Geerhardus Vos. Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary (Kindle Locations 5047-5056). Kindle Edition.