How to impact a whole city at Easter

Across the western world it seems that Christianity is in retreat from the public sphere, however, Australia's largest Christian festival, Easterfest, is achieving the exact opposite.  Instead of keeping the Easter message inside the four walls of a church, Easterfest is spreading its message throughout the entire Queensland city of Toowoomba this Easter.

Easterfest (formerly the Australian Gospel Music Festival) has traditionally been held in Queen's Park - a large and beautiful park next to Toowoomba's CBD, however, this year there is a twist.  The festival is literally moving into the city's central business district with the launch of Easterfest City.

Easterfest City includes Christian music in local cafe's and restaurants, an Easter musical in the local theatre, buskers on the footpaths, an entire film festival in the local cinemas, a partnership with McDonalds and non-stop Christian artists performing in the local shopping centre.  Even the local pubs are on board with one establishment hosting an Easter church service!

The impact on the city is immense as thousands of church and unchurched residents join with tens of thousands of visitors from all across the country to celebrate the life changing message of Easter. 

Peter Hitchens: The Rage Against God

Christopher Hitchens, the virulent atheist, has a brother Peter. And brother Peter has deserted atheism to become a committed Christian. To the point that he has written a book, due to be launched in May 2010. Here's an extract from the blurb:

Here, for the first time, in his new book The Rage Against God, Peter Hitchens, brother of prominent atheist Christopher Hitchens, chronicles his personal journey through disbelief into a committed Christian faith. With unflinching openness and intellectual honesty, Hitchens describes the personal loss and philosophical curiosity that led him to burn his Bible at prep school and embrace atheism in its place. From there, he traces his experience as a journalist in Soviet Moscow, and the critical observations that left him with more questions than answers, and more despair than hope for how to live a meaningful life. With first-hand insight into the blurring of the line between politics and the Church, Hitchens reveals the reasons why an honest assessment of Atheism cannot sustain disbelief in God. In the process, he provides hope for all believers who, in the words of T. S. Eliot, may discover ‘the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’

Does the brain control our 'moral compass'?

Scientists have discovered a real-life 'moral compass' in the brain that controls how we judge other people's behaviour, claims an article in The Daily Mail online (UK). The region, which lies just behind the right ear, becomes more active when we think about other people's misdemeanours or good works.

In an extraordinary experiment, researchers were able to use powerful magnets to disrupt this area of the brain and make people temporarily less moral. The study highlights how our sense of right and wrong isn't just based on upbringing, religion or philosophy - but by the biology of our brains.

While the science may be accurate, this article demonstrates how scientists and journalists alike can extrapolate to a wrong conclusion. A 'moral compass' - we used to call it conscience and spirit - has to reside somewhere. To attack that location magnetically, or by any other means, does not mean that the location controls the behaviour. It means that the container has been distorted, or rendered dysfunctional, thereby distorting the 'compass'. It's a bit like saying that if a can of food has been dented, ipso facto the can must be controlling the contents. Under normal circumstances, the can serves to protects the food and allows it to utlimately do what it was designed to do.

Britain becoming post-Christian

According to the National Centre for Social Research, the number of people in Britain describing themselves as Christian has fallen by 16 percent in the last 25 years, says Jenna Lyle writing for Nat Cen, Britain's leading independent social research institute. The survey of more than 4,000 people across Britain found that the number of people describing themselves as Christian has dropped in the last 25 years from 66 per cent to 50 per cent.

NatCen said the drop was due largely to the steady decline in numbers belonging to the Church of England, with only 23 percent of those surveyed describing themselves as Anglican today in comparison to 40 percent in 1983. "Half of those who described themselves as Anglican said they never attended church at all and less than one fifth said they attended church once a month," Lyle reports. Non-Christian faiths have seen a small increase in affiliation, from two percent to seven percent. Immigration growth amongst ethnic minorities had contributed to the growth.

The number of Britons saying that they do not belong to any particular faith rose from 31 percent in 1983 to 43 percent today. Lyle writes that NatCen also conducted the survey in the US, where it found ties to religious faith to be far stronger than in Britain. Sixty-one percent of Americans said they had 'no doubt' that God exists, compared with just 17 per cent in Britain, while 37 percent of Britons described themselves as atheist or agnostic, compared with only eight percent in the US.

While 70 percent of Americans said they adhere to a particular religion, believe in God and attend religious services, just 26 percent in Britain said the same. Lyle said that the survey also identified what it called the 'fuzzy faithful -- those who identify with a religion, believe in God or attend services, but not all three. In the US, fuzzy faithfuls make up 24 percent of the population, compared with 36 percent in Britain. In Britain, 73 percent of those surveyed felt people with strong religious beliefs were often too intolerant of others, compared with 66 percent in the US.

Meanwhile.... the former Archbishop of Canterbury exhorts Christians to stand for their faith.

"Pressure is building against Christians in Britain" according to former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, who says that Christianity is being bullied out of public life in the name of political correctness. "No politician is expressing concern that Britain should remain a Christian country," said Carey. "That is a scandal and a disgrace to our history. Christianity, has given so much to our country, yet is being sidelined as though it is a stranger to our nation. We must stand up against the marginalizing of faith. We must constantly remind society of its Christian roots and heritage."

Kiwis more accepting of swear words

Kiwis are becoming far more accepting of swear words, according a release from the Broadcasting Standards Authority reported in the NZ Herald.

New research has found attitudes towards rude language on TV and radio are generally softening, but some words still have the power to offend. "Bitch" is no longer the profanity it once was - with 26 per cent considering it unacceptable, compared to 38 per cent in 2005. And "bollocks" is now intolerable to just 12 per cent of those polled, compared to 23 per cent five years ago.
The number of people who thought the f-word was unacceptable decreased by 7 per cent since 2005 to just over half of those interviewed, a drop of 19 per cent since 1999.
The only word on the list to increase in offensiveness was the c-word.In 2005, 70 per cent found it unacceptable. But in the latest survey, it had edged up to 74 per cent.

Greatest unrealised Christian potential probably rests on business people

A survey of nearly 700 evangelical pastors on their current perceptions of the gospel and mission compared with their understanding a decade ago shows that pastors' attitudes and beliefs are changing. When asked if "the kingdom of God is a present or future reality, or both," 37 percent of pastors said they believe it is a future reality in heaven, 20 percent said the kingdom is a present reality on earth, and 33 percent said both. This compares to 58 percent who ten years ago said they believed it was a future reality, with only 9 percent then saying it was a present reality.
The movement is clearly toward understanding the kingdom as a present, earthly reality, even if it remains a minority view. Here are more trends uncovered by the research. Compared to ten years ago: Pastors are focusing more on the Gospels than on the Epistles. More pastors believe the gospel is advanced by demonstration and not simply proclamation. More pastors say the goal of evangelism is to grow "the" church rather than to grow "my" church. More pastors believe partnering with other local churches is essential to accomplishing their mission.
The greatest "unrealized potential" in the Christian movement for the next 20 years probably rests on the shoulders of Christian business people. That's great news for every Christian person who loves business. Talk about a life of adventure. What more could you ask for when your faith and your love for business intersect? The marketplace is the only institution that touches virtually every person on planet earth. Pastors are very limited in their direct exposure to the marketplace.

~ From businessasmissionnetwork.com

Christopher Hitchins rewrites the 10 Commandments

Christopher Hitchins, the dogged atheist, has a go at deconstructing the 10 Commandments, and creating a new set of his own. While he seems to be almost completely incapable of understanding the original, funnily enough I would agree with many of his new ones - not to supplant the others, but to show that the originals have valid outworkings today.

Supersizing the Last Supper

The Christian faith holds several acts of "super-sizing" to be miracles accomplished by Jesus Christ -- a handful of fish and loaves of bread expanded to feed thousands; a wedding feast running low on wine suddenly awash in the stuff. Now a new study of portion expansion puts Jesus once more at the center.
In a bid to uncover the roots of super-sized American fare, a pair of sibling scholars has turned to an unusual source: 52 artists' renderings of the New Testament's Last Supper.
Their findings, published online Tuesday in the International Journal of Obesity, indicate that serving sizes have been marching heavenward for 1,000 years. ~ LA Times, Last Supper Helpings Have Grown

The scandal of natural law

The expression "natural law" refers to the basic principles of right and wrong that are true for everyone because they are rooted in the very nature of the created human person, and knowable to everyone because we are endowed with conscience and the power to deliberate. In principle, the natural law provides a point of contact, a common ground, among people of every culture -- although, as I've written, it is a slippery one." ~ J. Budziszewski, The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

Catholic thinkers are doing a lot of work in this field.

Is Europe inevitably secular?

"I was pretty certain that Europe was doomed to a future of secularisation and shrinkage (which, so far, have gone together) taking the children of Muslim immigrants down with it," writes Carolyn Moynihan at Mercatornet. "I imagined London, Paris and Berlin would eventually be inhabited by small populations of Richard Dawkins clones and Optimum Population Trust faithful.
"But on the way to Spain (Catholic country, lots of immigrants, total fertility rate 1.3 children per woman) I got to read a conference paper that shot holes in that notion. Eric Kaufmann, a Reader in Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck, University of London, reckons that the secularisation trend in Europe is slowing down and by 2050 the continent will begin to become more religious, thanks to various factors, not the least of which is current Muslim immigration. Second generation European Muslims are tending to hang onto their religion as a matter of political identity, says Kaufmann (who has a book on the subject coming out this week) and will not follow the secularisation pattern of native Europeans or Christian immigrant groups."

Debate over women's attempt to starve herself to death

Family Life International says it is appalled at the apparent lack of action being taken to save the life of Margaret Page, who is currently trying to starve herself to death in a Wellington care home. “Based on comments attributed to Margaret Page in a news story which appeared online today, it appears that she may be suffering from depression” says Family Life International media spokesperson Brendan Malone. “The article states that Margaret Page had been thinking about trying to kill herself for a long time; if this is true, then it casts serious doubt on the suggestions that she is making a sound and rational judgment about this matter” says Brendan Malone. “We know from reliable research that, in the majority of cases, once the psychological needs of a patient are attended to, the desire to take their own life vanishes. We have also heard commentary today suggesting that food and water are medical treatments,which is very concerning, because, in actual fact, food and water are not medicines, but basic necessities for life, and as such they should be provided to a patient” says Brendan Malone. (You can read the full statement here.)
Meanwhile, according to today's NZ Herald, medical ethics experts have stood by Mrs Page's wish to starve herself to death, saying a doctor's task is to prevent suffering and not death.