Tag: #mediawatch

Is Vicky Beeching the ‘authentic’ voice of Christianity?

In 2014, the well-known British Christian musician Vicky Beeching ‘came out’ as lesbian, and has been an ever-present interviewee even on mainstream media since. Grace Dalton (left) asks whether her recent TV and radio interviews reflect the authentic message of Christianity. Several years ago, Vicky Beeching’s albums were -deservedly – selling well and her music

Independent Online ‘shames’ Christian woman for being true to her beliefs

On 12 September the Independent Online posted an article entitled, “Texts show incredible response to aunt who declined wedding invite because of ‘Christian values’.” The article referred to a number of screenshots from an SMS message conversation between an LGBT person referred to by their Twitter account “@DPGay” and their aunt, which had been posted

Australian PM’s Christian faith mocked on TV

New Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s evangelical Christian faith was mocked on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) satirical programme Tonightly on 27 August, with a pair of comedians singing, “You’ve got to love thy neighbour unless they vote Labour or are foreign or gay.” Other lyrics included: “we love Jesus, Jesus, but not refugee-us,” and,

‘Forbidden History: Uncovering the Historical Jesus.’ Really?

As Christians, we have good grounds for believing that the facts presented in the Gospel accounts are true — even when a Christianity-busting programme such as “Forbidden History: Uncovering the Historical Jesus” bursts onto our TV screens. Grace Dalton considers why the programme is not the devastating demolition it claims to be, and why, as

Barnabas Fund — Christianity “despised by Western society”

According to the Barnabas Fund’s daily prayer diary for Saturday 18th August, Christians are increasingly finding themselves despised by Western society. Its daily prayer for that day states, As Christians in many Western countries find themselves increasingly despised by society at large and their freedom of conscience and freedom of speech being gradually eroded, pray

Why religion is behind the exodus from US state schools

Commendably, on Saturday the BBC website published a story exploring the religious — and social — reasons why many more Americans are now home schooling their children, rather than entrusting them to an increasingly politicized state education system. Quoting statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the article said that the number of

The sexualization of religious imagery as ‘virtue’

Grace Dalton reflects on the increasing trend over the last few years for pop culture to regard the sexual use of religious imagery as ‘virtuous.’ I really shouldn’t check the Trending topics on Twitter, it is a horrendous waste of time. Recently, when I succumbed to curiosity, one trending hashtag was #GodIsAWoman. Well of course.

Pakistan’s blasphemy law highlighted on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme

Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy law, responsible for the suffering and deaths of many Christians and other religious minorities in the country, was highlighted on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme this week. Dr. Farzana Shaikh, a specialist on Pakistan at the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House, was being interviewed on the programme on Thursday

Christmas in July

How do we know that/whether Jesus was born on 25th December? And are Christians really so dumb as to think he was born on that day? Grace Dalton considers. In a recent online debate over abortion, I was assailed with revelation that the 25th of December was originally Yule; and that “Easter” is from Oestre,