Advent Reflection: the strange case of Zechariah

If there is humour to be found in religion, I find it in the matter of fact way biblical authors speak of extraordinary, supernatural and miraculous events without any hint of needing to clarify how strange the whole situation is. It leaves one most sympathetic to the characters of the drama, however much they appear to be rebuked by the text.

Advent Reflection: Post-Christian Britain now needs a Christian minority fuelled by the audacious hope of the gospel

The recent revelation that the 2021 census revealed Christians to be a minority for the first time really should not have been met with the flurry of news headlines that it was.

Matt Hancock is either a proposition to be believed or blatantly psychopathic – you must choose

The month was April 2020. No story appeared to be more heart-breaking in a sea of pandemic headlines than the tragic death of 13-year-old Covid patient Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, forced to die alone in a London hospital due to the cruel and thoroughly inhumane pandemic measures.

It was on one of those tedious press briefings to which we all became hooked that, promising something would be done to ensure no such horror would be visited upon another family, then-Health Secretary Matthew Hancock (who signed the rules off incidentally) burst into tears.

Why Jordan Peterson is not about to become a Christian

I was made aware over the weekend of a video that has been made, chronicling the faith journey from 2017 to 2021 of Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and unlikely intellectual phenomenon. The video is 22 minutes in length and so is a serious commitment – a highly able occupational psychologist told me once that people can’t passively listen for more than 15 minutes at a time and I have always stuck to this advice even when it’s proved a nuisance to my plans.

The video features a selection of clips, culminating in a now-viral clip in which, at a time of great personal crisis, Peterson breaks down discussing the resurrection of Christ.