Should Christians get involved in interfaith dialogue?

Rowland.jpgRespected theologian, speaker, author and director of John Mark Ministries, Rev Dr Rowland Croucher turns 72 today. He’s an amazing guy who has been sharing his faith through various means for many years. He speaks to hundreds of thousands of people online each year.

A couple of years ago I spoke to him about interfaith dialogue. The Parliament of the World’s Religions had just been launched in Melbourne and was set down for December 2009.

Two years on and the parliament is currently being held in Melbourne with thousands of people from all the major world religions gathering to discuss faith issues.

I’ve just listened again to my interview with Rowland and what he had to say back then is just as relevant today. I urge you to listen to what he had to say by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

Is it arrogant to claim that any one religion has an exclusive connection to God? Does discussing faith matters with followers of other religions mean that we think it doesn’t matter which spiritual path you take? What is the role of interfaith dialogue in our spiritual walk?

I grew up in 60s and 70s in the suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. That means that I’ve generally had little connection with people who follow other spiritual paths. My two trips to India have helped to broaden my understanding of those who don’t hold to the same beliefs that I do. I haven’t changed my view that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, but thankfully I can dialogue with others about their journey without feeling that my own beliefs are being threatened.

Should Christians be dialoguing with believers from other faiths? Is there anything we can learn from those who follow other religions?

We are living in a world of greater and greater diversity. If you’re wondering how faith fits into that world I’d encourage you to listen to what Rowland said back in 2007.



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The spirituality of martial arts

694707_kungfu_1.jpgDean from My Jarrol Spot has raised an interesting issue today. he’s wondering about the relationship between christianity and martial arts.

Just wondering about initial views and opinions at the moment.

Something I’ve been reading about lately and pondering where it all fits in Biblically.

More to come…

It’s an interesting topic and I hope you’ll leave a few comments for Dean with your thoughts.

Is there a spirituality connected to martial arts that is incompatible with christian beliefs? Can christians be involved with martial arts? Is there a way of gaining the benefits that martial arts provide without adopting the spirituality?

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and Vice President elect of the Baptist World Alliance. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

A couple of weeks ago we tackled this issue and Ross had some interesting things to say about the matter. If you’d like to hear his point of view simply click the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

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Majority of Scientists Believe in a Higher Power

Lab

OK, so it’s not an overwhelming majority but it is a majority, which is certainly not what some people want us to believe.

The Los Angeles Times is telling us that while the science community is less likely than the general public to believe in God or a higher power, there is still just over half their number who think there’s more to life than that which can be verified scientifically. Surveys of the general public show a 95% belief in God or higher power.

According to a survey of members of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center in May and June this year, a majority of scientists (51%) say they believe in God or a higher power, while 41% say they do not.

You might think that most of those admitting to a belief in God or a higher power would be leaning towards the higher power end of the spectrum when in fact 42% of scientists say that they believe in a personal God.

The research doesn’t show that those who believe in God necessarily believe that he created the world in which we live.

Today, a century and a half after Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,” the overwhelming majority of scientists in the United States accept Darwinian evolution as the basis for understanding how life on Earth developed. But although evolutionary theory is often portrayed as antithetical to religion, it has not destroyed the religious faith of the scientific community.

But what would Darwin have said if he was surveyed on his beliefs? Charles Darwin’s original choice of career was to be a village vicar but it’s said that he lost his faith because it didn’t fit with his thoughts on evolution.

As for Darwin, his letters indicate that he was probably an agnostic who lost his faith not because his groundbreaking theory was incompatible with religion, but because of his grief after the 1851 death of his favorite child, his 10-year-old daughter, Annie. And even then, he may not have completely rejected the idea of a higher power. The concluding sentence of “Origin of Species” speaks of a “Creator” breathing life “into a few forms or into one.” The passage raises at least a little doubt as to how the father of modern evolutionary theory might have responded to the question on belief in Pew’s recent survey of scientists.

What do you think? How would you respond to the question? Is there a God or higher power watching over us? Did that God or higher power create this world or even set the process in motion? I’d love to get your thoughts in the comments section below.

Discovered via Phil Cooke.



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School Chaplains get the thumbs up

school.jpgAustralia’s first ever national research findings on chaplaincy in Australian government schools have just been released and the results are very positive.

According to the 688 principals who participated in the national study, chaplains in their government schools were helping to build the sense of community in the school , support the school ethos and were assisting the integration of those who were considered potentially ‘at risk’ students.

A couple of days ago on my morning radio programme I spoke to Fiona Pitkin, Head of Chaplaincy Services for YouthCare in Western Australia. Fiona explained more about the work of chaplains in Australian schools.

You can hear what she had to say by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

Did you have a chaplain at your school? What do you think of the idea of having chaplains in governemnt schools? Have you seen the beenfits of chaplains in your life or in the life of your children? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment in the comments section of this post.

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John Piper and Television

piper.jpgJohn Piper seems to be beating himself up about an answer he gave at Advance ’09. While I don’t see the problem, I’m glad he decided to explain his position more clearly.

His post, Why I Don’t Have a Television and Rarely Go to Movies, is a thoughtful explanation of why he is very cautious of trivial entertainment for entertainment’s sake. He tackles the issue I touched on in my recent post, Get Naked for Success. He talks about preachers trying to remain relevant by immersing themselves in popular culture through the latest movies.

There are, perhaps, a few extraordinary men who can watch action-packed, suspenseful, sexually explicit films and come away more godly. But there are not many. And I am certainly not one of them.

I’d have to say that I’m not one of them either.

I love Piper’s explanation of why nudity in films is not acceptable.

I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don’t really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.

I’ll put it bluntly. The only nude female body a guy should ever lay his eyes on is his wife’s. The few exceptions include doctors, morticians, and fathers changing diapers. “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1). What the eyes see really matters. “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Better to gouge your eye than go to hell (verse 29).

Whether we like to admit it or not, John Piper is right.

It’s not just sex and nudity in flims and on TV that bother Piper.

But leave sex aside (as if that were possible for fifteen minutes on TV). It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.

Even if you’re not a Christian, you’d have to admit that a lot of television tends to glorify the trivial and that can’t be good for any of us who want to enlarge our vision of the world and what we’re capable of achieving with the precious life we’ve been given.



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