Natural food disaster

I used to eat a lot of natural food until I discovered that most people die of natural causes

— Seen on The Northern tube line, London (25th June 2013)

Good Bishops actually exist!

When I grow up I want to be like Orombi! What a man!

Ditch the categories of gay/lesbian/straight sexual orientation

There's a provocative article (Reorienting our Sex talk) by Matthew Mason at the Trinity House site, arguing that we should ditch categories of sexual orientation, and identity, and instead use biblical language to talk about sex. Here are some choice quotes:

The Bible nowhere uses these terms [homosexaulity, heterosexuality, lesbian, and gay] for the very simple reason that the writers of the Bible had never so much as heard of homosexuality, nor had they ever encountered a gay, lesbian, or bisexual person. Not even the Church in Corinth knew of such things.

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The homosexual, along with his cousin the heterosexual, is an invention of nineteenth century European medical discourse.

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The idea that one’s sexuality permeates one’s whole person is a relatively new, culturally shaped phenomenon. It is intimately connected to the way in we which now talk about, think about, and inhabit our sexual desires. And it causes a number of problems.

Find out what those problems are here

Why be a veggie?

“By design and destiny, humans are omnivores. Our teeth and digestive systems are all-purpose and ready for anything. Our genes do not dictate what foods we should find tasty or repulsive. We come into the world with a yen for sweets and a weak aversion to bitterness, and after four months develop a fondness for salt. Some people are born particularly sensitive to one taste or odour... a tiny fraction of adults, between 1 and 2 percent, have true (And truly dangerous) food allergies. All human cultures consider fur, paper, and hair inappropriate as food. And that's about it. Everything else is learned. Yet by the age of twelve, we all suffer from a haphazard collection of food aversions ranging from revulsion to indifference. [But] by closing ourselves off to the bounties of nature, we become failed omnivores. We let the down the omnivore team. God tells us in the book of Genesis, right after Noah's flood, to eat everything under the sun. Those who ignore His instructions are no better than godless heathens.” 

In short, don't let the omnivore side down!

Quote taken from Jeffrey Steingarten's wildly funny The Man Who Ate Everything

Children should know how to fight!

One ongoing temptation that parents face when considering schooling options is the desire to find somewhere 'nice and proper' for the littl'uns (where bullying and bragging, tantrums and teasing are at an absolute minimum). Another way to put this is that parents are always tempted to find somewhere 'perfect' (or in theological terms somewhere sinless) for their children's education. The main problem with this is that no such place exists. Not even in the most godly home/church/school. Wherever people are, there sin resides. Or as Solzhenitsyn memorably put it the line between good and evil runs through every human heart. One way the Bible illustrates this is by repeatedly showing us what godly behaviour looks like in a world full of sin. Think about it - why is the Bible so full of stories dripping in sin? Partly because humans are doyens of evil but also because the Bible wants to teach us that the issue is not so much the presence of sin but more the response to that sin. The unbelieving world has various futile solutions that try and deal with our inescapable sin problem (including pretending it doesn't exist) but the most satisfying answer is the Biblical one: learning to love and trust the LORD in the face of conflict. In other words evil is there to be conquered much more than it is to be evaded. Christian parents must not fall into the trap of seeking a 'perfect' setting for their children's learning rather they should be seeking a setting that equips their children for the Fight. Our children should not be like Frodo and his 3 companions who when each given a sharp sword for their journey across Middle-earth are a bit bewildered:

Fighting had not before occurred to any of them as one of the adventures in which their flight would land them

Put another way, Christians should not be building fortresses for their children to hide in rather they should be showing them how to carry a strong shield—along with a gleaming sword.

Saturday smiles: Oh, Brother, it's hot!

HT: The remarkable Sacred Sandwich

The greatest doubters

I usually find that the greatest doubters are the people who do not read the Bible

— Spurgeon