Christians and the Capitol riot

The US Congress has begun to investigate the appalling violence at the US Capitol on January 6 (The Epiphany of the Lord, in the Christian calendar) 2021.

A violent mob attacked America’s Parliament building, in an attempt to overthrow the result of the US Presidential election. They were incited by the loser, Donald Trump, who to this day continues to claim that the election was ‘stolen’ from him. Although this is patently untrue, many Americans say they also do not believe Joe Biden was elected fairly.

General Assembly 2022 summary

Following my previous posts about the 2022 Church of Scotland General Assembly (here and here), you might want to read this excellent brief summary of the Assembly, produced by the Church of Scotland magazine, Life and Work.

There is also a BBC television programme on the Assembly, presented by Sheena McDonald, available on the iPlayer.

Video highlights of the week are on the Church of Scotland website.

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How can Christians justify gay marriage?

Following the decision of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to allow same-sex weddings, someone who was not religious told me they were happy to see the decision, but wondered how it could be justified, given that the Church’s has been traditionally hostile to same-sex relationships.

Pondering how to answer that, I remembered a talk I gave at an event in Inverness in 2012, at the invitation of the Highland LGBT Forum, in which I tried to explain the theological logic of an affirming approach to LGBT issues for an audience of non-specialists.

I have now posted the talk online- click below for the PDF. I realised that it’s now 10 years out of date (I should probably redo it sometime). And I should also say it’s my personal attempt to do the theology- others have done it better!

Faith and LGBT issues 2012