Welcome to my new blog home

Having had so much trouble with my site of late I decided to go for an all-singing, all-dancing website and blog system. I am impressed with Squarespace thus far. It ought to facilitate easier commenting (I had complaints about the old system) and much cleaner loading. I still have much work to do here - and construction will be on-going over coming weeks. Your comments are welcome.

Comments

[Peter C Glover]

Me too. PCG

[Peter Turner]

I wish you well in your new home and I hope you remain as controversial as ever.

Peter T

[David]

My comment, Peter, is that you speak a lot about Judeo-Christian worldviews, but not much about the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Do you only preach political solutions to political problems, or do you have something to speak to our souls too?

[PCG]

Ironic that you should ask - but then that is the failing of the assuming you know someone via an online blog perhaps.

I have been a Christian for over 20 years. I am actually Reformed and evangelical. I have spent all of that time working through my church - half of that time in leadership roles, teaching the Scriptures and how to apply them.

For 8 years I was director of the Christian Research attempting which worked towrads reforming the church on core doctrines.

In all of this I would fit the bill for the person I think you want me to be. In all of that time however I found that so many in the church around had either capitulated to the world or withdrawn from it. Consequently, there is hardly a signle British evangelical working in the mainstream of public debate and public life. Something has plainly gone wrong with our understanding of what it means to be a Christian in today's world.

What I am trying to do (in one small, journalistic way) is bridge that massive gapbetween church and world. Sometimes, to be bale to say what you would really like to seay to people you don't 'preach' it down their throats.

So, for the record, you should know that th is is NOT a 'Christian' website in the way I think you would prefer it to be. I want to take on worldly ideas through reason and faith. For that I have to speak to people where they are - not where I, or you, might prefer them to be.

If you don't mind me saying so, your question actually spells out exactly what the core problem is with modern, woolly, Christianity. (I do not mean that personally, rather as a general comment which shows just why Christianty has become so irrlevant. Like you, I believe passionately in Christ. On a personal level I still teach all those things. But that is not what this site is all about.)

[Ben Wilson]

Welcome to your new home, Peter. How long before the new carpets are laid down?

[Peter C Glover]

Ben I am still waiting for you to come around and help me shift the technological furniture!

Actually, I am more of a minimalist wood floor man in fact.

Given the above post...I an say that this is a site and I am man most decidely still 'under construction'.

[David Price]

Nice move, Peter. Hope all is well with you. We need to catch up soon.

[Dawn]

Good luck with your new web site. I enjoy reading your posts very much.

[Terry]

On a general level concerning Christian blogging, some bloggers analyse moral/political issues affecting a society, and put their points across forthrightly, without being bothered over whether or not it might upset people.

It may be that the blogger's analysis comes with sarcasm or insults, which are not necessarily qualities you would seek to instil in your church members. The problem is that in the political arena it is the ideas which count, and if we have a blogger with a sharp tongue who is right on the issues of the day he or she is worth reading.

If though the blogger was in your church then you would be right to speak to them how best to put the points across without resorting to insults etc. What we don't want is a "Christian" who is manifestly wrong in the political or moral opinions he holds but who passes them off as "Christian" because he is one. That's actually the essence of taking God's name in vain - claiming God's authority for something he hasn't authorised.

[Mike Iliff]

I like the new site. A good move.

David (above) should understand there are thousands of websites that fit the typical 'Christian' mould, but few trying to do what you are attempting.

There are bound to be disagreements, but in spite of that:

Keep it up!


Mike

[The UK Daily Pundit]

Where's the archives gone? Gone but not forgotten I hope?

[Mike's America]

Hey Peter: Great to see your new page.

As for the comment stream that started with "Do you only preach political solutions to political problems, or do you have something to speak to our souls too?"

I don't do religion on my blog either, though there are certainly references to it as part of our political discussion.

But I would just say to David that I can see no higher calling for a Christ-inspired life than to seek effective paths for real peace.

Abraham Lincoln said it best in his Second Inaugural Address: "To do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Too many times, and in more years than I have been alive, we've seen the hopes of peace and the "forgiveness" which you allude to dashed because we failed to achieve a "just and lasting peace."

And in the words of another American that I usuallly do NOT quote, the Reverand Jesse the problem boils down to this: "No justice, no peace."

Anyway Peter, glad to see you up and running. Might I suggest you do a series of posts regarding your impressions of travel in the United States? I get the idea that most Europeans think it's all cowboys and shoot-em-ups over here 24/7.

[PCG]

As regards the archives..they are still available at http://petercglover.livejournal.com/