One day like this

So, throw those curtains wide

one day like this would see me right....

Can't put it better than Guy Garvey (and if you want a real treat press the red button on BBC TV and watch the wonderful Radio 2 concert of The Seldom Seen Kid that Elbow performed last week - including a spine-tingling, riotously uplifting version of One Day like this).

So, I threw my curtains wide this morning and this is what greeted me:

I know the snow brings chaos - but isn't it also so beautiful? Let's chill and praise the one who made this and gave us the eyes and hearts to appreciate it.

And remember to say 'hi' to someone in the street today and check on any people vulnerable in the cold weather.

All publicity is good publicity?

A group of atheists is raising money to run the following ad on the side of London's bendy buses: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

They've raised the money through a subscription on the Guardian Comment is Free website and, naturally, from Richard Dawkins (who, I was interested to note, has recently helped to establish a Tory humanist group...mmmm!). Assuming all the money comes in, the ads will run in January 2009.

They're doing it because, they claim, there's so much advertising on behalf of God on London's buses. I assume they are referring to the annual Alpha splurge and the occasional advertising by the Met Tab and KICC.

But I loved this response from the Rev Jenny Ellis, Spirituality and Discipleship Officer for the Methodist Church: "We are grateful to Richard for his continued interest in God and for encouraging people to think about these issues. This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life."

Nice one, Jenny. It just goes to show that all publicity is good publicity!

It should be noted, of course, that for a bunch of atheists the group seems to be hedging their bets with the word 'probably'.

Perhaps now is a good time for us to be reminding people to be happy and enjoy life because there is a God and he loves us and he's seeking relationship with us that will last forever.

Reinventing English evangelicalism

I've just started reading Rob Warner's Reinventing English Evangelicalism, 1966-2001: a theological and sociological study. It's his PhD, completed at Kings College under Andrew Walker. Andy Goodliff and Jim Gordon have both blogged reviews in great detail, so I'm not going to that, though I will be commenting on things that strike me as I read it.

The first of these is something that Warner notes from studies of American Christianity. He suggests that despite their numbers, American evangelicals have made precious little difference to American life.

'Notwithstanding the high proportion of Americans professing evangelical beliefs,' he notes, 'these may not be the primary or dominant convictions in the personal lives and socio-political convictions of American churchgoers.'

In other words, faith is a private matter that might influence personal morality but has nothing to say about business ethics, buying and selling, military policy or any other political issue. It seems that Christians have settled for the enlightenment division between the public and private realms - faith belongs in the latter and is not allowed to set foot in the former.

Sadly, I suspect the same is true in the UK as well. Too many Christians bolt Christian faith on to their ordinary trust in the way things are, trusting God in their personal lives, but trusting the military to keep them safe and their bank balance to keep them secure.