Rupert Bentley-Taylor
Only a few decades ago, a high view of the Lord’s Day was standard among English-speaking evangelicals. Yet today, there are many Christians for whom the whole notion of one day set aside for God seems a quaint throw-back to Victorian values. It is easy to feel intimidated by the tide of this popular thinking within the evangelical world.
We have come to think of humanism as something to oppose. Secular humanism represents what most Christians view as the advance of the secular state: policy proposals and decisions which are based upon the centrality and priority of human reason or rationality without reference to God at all, never mind any basis in the revelation given in Holy Scripture.
The Tron Church Glasgow took the Institute’s recent Gnosticism publication, written by Dr Nick Needham, as its ‘Big Read’. As they discuss the booklet, Agnes Brough, Phil Copeland and Willie Philip seek to help Christians be better equipped to have informed conversations on such sensitive and difficult topics.
The Scottish Government has promised a public consultation on conversion therapy legislation covering both sexual orientation and gender identity by the end of 2023. It had previously committed to publish a Bill by this date.
The Christian Institute commissioned written legal advice from Aidan O’Neill KC in December 2022. This booklet offers a summary and extracts of the legal opinion received.
Trans ideology involves ‘escaping’ from the body you were born with and choosing your gender based on what you feel. The way this has captured so much of our public debate would have been unthinkable until very recently.
The Scottish Government is pushing ahead with dramatic plans to make it easier to change legal sex.
An election to the Northern Ireland Assembly has been called for 5 May 2022. As Christian citizens we should think carefully about how to vote. The Christian Institute is a registered charity and cannot endorse any political party or candidate in the election. We cannot tell you who to vote for.
The Government has introduced an Online Safety Bill to bolster regulation of the internet. It risks unfashionable views – like biblical teaching on sexual ethics – being censored because some people don’t like them. This could profoundly limit religious freedom and debate. If something is legal to say offline, it should be allowed online.