Facing the Challenge: more resources for Session 5 - Desperately Seeking Something
... and other contemporary opportunities.Web articles:
Web sites can appear, disappear, and change their addresses - specially on less well-established sites. If you cannot find the article you want, try looking for the title of the article using a search engine, e.g. Google.com.
There has been an interesting (and significant) move at the BBC away from broadcasting religion to broadcasting about spirituality. An article about Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, in the London Daily Telegraph on 3rd December 2002 says:
Review of 4th June 2000 episode of SOUL OF BRITAIN, written and presented by Michael Buerk
Review of 11th June episode of SOUL OF BRITAIN
For more on people's hunger for spirituality, see the review of the 16th July episode of SOUL OF BRITAIN
Books:
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Understanding the Spirituality of People who don't go to ChurchDavid Hay / Kate Hunt This is a report based on a sociological study of a group of people who considered themselves 'spiritual', but who were not connected with any established church or religious organization (and in this way they represent the majority of people in the UK today). It provides an interesting insight into what they mean by 'spirituality'. |
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Authentic Spiritualityby Josh Moody |
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Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religionby Wade Clark Roof |
Other contemporary opportunities
Contemporary openness to 'Spirituality' is surely one of the biggest opportunities for the Bible's message today. But there are other ways in which people may be more open today than they were thirty years ago. One is a massive loss of confidence in 'progress'. Another is a growing awareness of the hidden agendas that drive people. Yet a third is the growing body of evidence that contradicts contemporary 'lifestyle mythology':
EXPERIMENTS
IN LIVING: THE FATHERLESS FAMILY
This
new report details the effects on society of the growing trend for families
without fathers. It is important because it does not theorize from a
particular ideological position, but it carefully documents the results
of a wide range of sociological research. It describes the effects of
fatherlessness on:
- lone mothers
- non-residential biological fathers
- children living without their biological fathers
- teenagers living without their biological fathers
- young adults who grew up not living with their biological fathers
- the wider society
A mass of sociological research now confirms that the model of family life upheld in the Bible is the one that works best in terms of the well-being of the people involved. This could just be an amazing coincidence - or it could be because the Bible's worldview is actually true.
MARRIAGE-LITE,
by Patricia Morgan
We are told that all lifestyles are equal. Marriage is just
one among a range of alternative lifestyles, and it
does not matter whether you choose to marry or just to live together.
There is more and more evidence that marriage does make a difference. However, this evidence is often suppressed or ignored by the politically correct elites in government, media and family charities, because it does not fit with their own agendas.
According to family researcher Patricia Morgan, in her new study 'Marriage Lite', the official pretense that marriage is just a bit of paper is leading to a generation of children with poor mental health and educational achievements.
FAMILY
MATTERS INSTITUTE
This report
concludes that broken homes are impairing the health of the nation,
and that family breakdown is costing the British people about £15 billion
per year. It
was produced by the Family
Matters Institute, and commissioned by the Lords and Commons Family
and Child Protection Group
For more on how the facts do not bear out much contemporary thinking about family life, see the review of the July 2nd episode of SOUL OF BRITAIN, written and presented by Michael Buerk.
NEW FROM THE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE:
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'Counterfeit Marriage: How 'civil partnerships' devalue the currency of marriage. (Booklet downloadable in pdf format) |
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Children as trophies?Examining the evidence on same-sex parenting. Read more... By Patricia Morgan |
Loss of confidence in 'progress'
For more on contemporary attitudes to science, see the review of the 11th June episode of SOUL OF BRITAIN
Awareness of 'hidden agendas'
People today are more alert to the hidden agendas that influence us. (One of the most important postmodern gurus, Michel Foucault, did some particularly important work in exposing the way truth claims are linked to power claims). This new alertness is often used in an attempt to 'deconstruct' the Biblical worldview. But it can equally - if not more effectively - be used to deconstruct anti-Christian thinking. Here are just a few examples of how people's anti-Christian biases can distort their thinking:
Aldous
Huxley's not-so-hidden agenda
Huxley
was more
open than most about his 'hidden agenda' for arguing against Christianity.
Read what he said.
See also:
Reason in the Balance
by Phillip Johnson
Phillip Johnson argues persuasively that naturalistic atheism has become
a secular 'religion' that dominates public debate. In the name of the
separation of Church and State that exists in the USA, Naturalism is
making claims to be allowed within the sphere of public discourse while
any kind of belief in God (including Christian theism) is to be ruled
out of order. Religious believers are, he says, subject to a 'subtext
of contempt'. But what if naturalism is not, in fact, true?
Order
from the UK
Order
from the USA