Make me a Christian (2)

So George Hargreaves continues to patronise non-Christians for not behaving. Atheist Martin is more drawn to the Islam of one of the participants than to the Christianity he's signed up to investigate. And then there's the praise party on a hill...

Sexuality is tackled. The lesbian is told to change before becoming a Christian, and told that change happens after becoming a Christian. No one seems to see the contradiction in the order of things here. I always thought we came to Jesus and then he changed us, but this version asks people to change themselves first. The testimony of a pentecostal pastor from Scotland is a bit more helpful. Couples sleeping together are told not to and given games to play instead. Let's flee sin by pursuing triviality rather than Jesus. Yeh, that'll work!

In the Daily Telegraph, Revd Joanne Jepson: "Christian behaviour is only possible after a spiritual transformation. We were encouraged to take part on the understanding that we were dealing with a group of people who genuinely wanted to embrace Christianity. But that was clearly not the case." She may be right but they still seemed to be leading with behaviour. I want to say Hargreaves, Jepson & co. mean well, and I accept they're not necessarily being well served by the producers... but nonetheless they still seem to be imposing morality rather than introducing people to Jesus.

Some will take offence, and some will pity us. Like Charlie Brooker in the Guardian who calls it: "The single most infuriating broadcast of the week. And it actually makes me pity the Christians because they're so badly misrepresented."

A fair representation probably wouldn't make such 'good' TV... unlike the rest of this evening on Channel 4 is Wife Swap, Big Brother, and The Perfect Vagina. Where's the OFF button....

Is Cultural Relevance a Fallacy?

There is a great danger, therefore, in only letting the Bible say what our culture will allow it to say. If we write off anything we disagree with as merely cultural in its time, then the Bible will never challenge our own cultural assumptions. We will capture the Bible within the gravitational field of what we already think or are prepared to hear. If Jesus had decided he could only say what was culturally acceptable then he wouldn't have been crucified. He wouldn't have been offensive enough.
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