The has issued a stinging rebuke to the after a recent editorial dealing with a discussion on the Sunday Sequence programme.
Last Sunday, I interviewed Denis Bradley and the Revd Dr Lesley Carroll, two members of the Consultative Group on the Past, and both called for a serious public debate about whether provides a useful way forward for our society. The Gazette editorial for 17 June concluded that "both former CGP members came across on the programme rather as spolt children who have not got their way." Stephen Lynas, director of communications for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, subsequently condemned this description as "demeaning", and Bishop Trevor Williams, chair of the Church of ireland's Central Communications Board, expressed his regret at the "unwelcome personal tone" of the editorial.
The Gazette's editor, rejects claims that the tone of the editorial was a personalised attack on either Mr Bradley or Dr Carroll. But the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Alan Harper (pictured), has now taken the highly unusal step of issuing a statement challenging what he describes as a "gratuitous ... personal slight". The Archbishop's statement is included in full below the fold.
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Is it time to change UK law to prevent the into the armed forces? The United Kingdom is the only European Union country that recruits young people into the armed forces at the age of 16. permitting that recruitment. An alternative proposal, from British Quakers, is that recruitment be limited to those over the age of 18, while permitting 16-18 year olds to enter training as civilians.
The Quakers note that "in April 2008 there were 4,650 under eighteen year olds serving in the armed forces.[1] While those under eighteen currently constitute about 1 per cent of the trained strength of the armed forces, those recruited under the age of 18 amount to over a quarter of the army`s fighting strength. 28% of all recruits in 2007 to 2008 were aged under 18. Recruitment into the armed forces involves significant risks to the mental and physical well-being of adolescents. During the period between 1st January 1994 and 31st December 2003, 28 regular armed forces personnel under the age of 18 died while in service. During 2007 two under 18 year olds died while on training."
Read more about the Quaker's case for changing UK armed services recruitment .
In , Rachel Taylor from the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers argues that it is time for British armed forces to join the rest of NATO and stop recruiting people as young as 16.
"Duet or duel?" is the title of a book by one of my old professors, and it neatly sums up the intellectual choice we face in understanding how religious belief relates to contemporary science. Later this month,will expland on the theme i offering "a broad introductory overview of the science-religion debate from leading specialists in the field, covering topics such as the 'conflict model' of the science-faith relationship, how the debate is perceived in the media, how religious beliefs might be justified in the light of science, and the issue of miracles."
The Revd Dr Rodney Holder is Course Director of the Faraday Institute and was formerly Priest in Charge of the Parish of the Claydons, Diocese of Oxford. Will & Testament asked him to deal with some of the most common questions raised about the place of religion in an age of science. Dr Holder read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and researched for a D.Phil. in astrophysics at Christ Church, Oxford. He remained at Oxford for a further two years as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Astrophysics researching accretion of intergalactic gas by the galaxy. After 14 years working for UK Ministry of Defence clients as an operational research consultant with EDS (formerly Scicon), he returned to Oxford, and took a first class degree in theology in 1996. He is on the national committee of Christians in Science and is a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists, and is one of the lecturers at this year's Faraday Institute Belfast course (click for registration details).
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Here are some of the stories that got my attention this week. It's not a comprehensive list, just a taste of what's out there.
You can use the thread to suggest other news items and stories worth noting or debating.
Your idea might even make it onto this week's Sunday Sequence programme.
Religion and ethics in the news
Archbishop of Canterbury criticises coalition policies.
Apostolic visitation: first phase .
Gaddafi investigated over
Christians take prejudice row to .
Protestant
Christian writer to walk 160 miles to .
Sex-selective abortion only aggravates misogyny:
Weiner.
Facebook sorry over face tagging launch.
Mennonite college bans US national anthem
Canon John Mann appointed
Thinking allowed
New College for the Humanities: The art of .
In Search of
Kissinger on .
Some theatre critics are so powerful that a damning review could close a show overnight. Maybe churches should develop an ecclesiastical equivalent. Just imagine it: you open the Monday papers and you find your local church's music, sermon, and after-service care given the kind of honest, informed critique that we expect from drama, TV, music and technology critics these days. Something like the Mystery Worshipper idea, but with no mystery about the author.
If such a position becomes available, a former Presbyterian moderator might be up for the job. Dr Stafford Carson (pictured, right) has used his personal blog to set out of the Opening Night of this year's General Assembly. He says he is merely summarizing much of what he heard from others after the service, but his commentary includes criticisms of the service's duration (particularly the fact that it took so long to say goodbye to the outgoing moderator and welcome in the new one), the failure of the tech team to properly play a DVD (which "made the arrangements appear amateurish"), and the loss of "a significant piece of Presbyterian pageantry". This last point relates to the now discontinued tradition of parading moderators in and out of the service, then back in again, to welcome in the newly elected moderator. In past years, some have argued that this older tradition appeared rather Monty-Pythonesque, but clearly some former moderators quite enjoyed it.
Dr Carson's criticisms appear to have stung the outgoing moderator a little. Dr Norman Hamilton (pictured, left) has added a comment in response to Stafford Carson's critique. 'I absolutely accept that things could have been better last night - they always can,' he says, 'but I am a bit taken aback at the minimal level of comment on the ministry content of the evening . . . instead of concentrating so much on the packaging of the service, maybe we would do well to try to figure out exactly who the service is for and who it is NOT for; what we are trying to do and what we are NOT trying to do. I have lots of thoughts on this - but will keep them to myself at least at this moment in time - and see what others think! Some thoughtful, constructive and gracious discussion on this could be of real help!'
The debate about the Opening Night of the General Assembly continues on Stafford Carson's blog. Another contributor there comments: 'Sounds as if the occasion was more of a smouldering bush rather than a burning one.' Ouch.
The governor of Kentucky has defended plans by the state's tourism authority to grant tax breaks of more than $40m to a proposed Creationist theme park. Ark Encounter, a new $150m development by Answers in Genesis, will create a "full-scale replica" of Noah's Ark. Opponents of the grant say it drives a bus through the constitutional wall separating church and state. Defenders say the tax breaks will help to create more than 600 news jobs.
While you decide where you stand on that debate, have a look at , who explores the "mythic" aspects of both creationism and evolution. Money quote:
"Rather than ridicule or dismiss the Ark Encounter and its theme park sibling the Creation Museum, it's useful to see them as examples of mythic discourse, using the definition that historian of religions Bruce Lincoln proposed in his book Discourse and the Construction of Society. Myth, Lincoln contends, is most productively understood not as a false story, but as a narrative that has both authority and credibility for a particular audience, for whom it functions as a paradigmatic truth. A particular type of discourse, myth constructs and naturalizes its authority by appealing to some sacred or transcendent realm that is ostensibly beyond the petty interests of individuals. Unlike most other types of discourse, myth is able to engender shared feelings of belonging and purpose among its audience, making it an effective sociopolitical instrument. Hence we ought to assess myth not only in terms of its particular content but also in terms of its ability to successfully evoke feelings of affiliation (or estrangement) among its audience--the root sentiments from which social groups are constructed and through which they can be mobilized."
Here are some of the stories that got my attention this week. It's not a comprehensive list, just a taste of what's out there. You can use the thread to suggest other news items and stories worth noting or debating. Your idea might even make it onto this week's Sunday Sequence programme.
Ethics in the news
HIV and Aids:
Mary McArdle: Mary Travers murder 'a tragic mistake'.
Mladic extradicted.
Should the Danish Ban
Without belief in moral truths, how
Religion stories
World Atheist Convention in .
Malta votes to
Religion and sport: Do prayers help players?
First same-sex Jewish 'marriage'
Hollywood agent
Noah's Ark 'could arrive in
Mormons & Romney Presidency: "Dangerous"
Thinking allowed
The Science and Religion Debate:
How a red ribbon conquered the world.
The weird world of FIFA.
