Is this the best they can do: Responding to questions from Virginia Senator Tim Kaine about Peter Hegseth, the nominee for Secretary of Defence, about having fathered a child by the Fox News presenter who became his third wife while married to the second, Sen Markwayne Mullin (Republican – OK) makes an impassioned case for Hegseth: “Any number of senators here have cheated on their wives, have been forceful with women, have taken drugs and have gotten drunk from time to time. In fact, the only reason why I’m here and not in prison is because my wife loved me.”
Hegseth came up with a better answer: “’I’m not a perfect person, but redemption is real.’” he said at one point, the New York Times reported. “He also said, ‘I have failed in things in my life, and thankfully I’m redeemed by my Lord and Saviour Jesus.’” Obadiah hopes for his sake that his repentance is real.
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Can these bones revive? This is a great letter from Richard Coombes in the Spectator on 30 December 2024 responding to a column by A, N Wilson “https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-end-of-christendom-is-nigh/”. Obadiah thought that the Age of Christendom is over already. But Wilson draws attention to the alarming rate at which UK churches are closing – for example 40 per cent of the Church of Scotland in the past decade. So how to respond? Our letter writer reminds us of Wesley and Whitfield and evangelical revival.
Sir: A.N. Wilson (‘Church ruins’, 14 December) is right to have doubts about whether congregations in historic Christian denominations are holding up. While some larger churches and cathedrals are bucking the trend, the overall picture is one of terminal decline. However, we should not despair. Three hundred years ago, the church was in an even more parlous state. In 1740, there were only six people at the Easter Day service at St Paul’s Cathedral, every sixth house in London was a gin shop, and alcoholism, poverty, violence, murder and family breakdown were rife, as Hogarth’s prints so vividly depict.
However, a year earlier, the evangelist George Whitefield recorded in his journal: ‘Wednesday, May 2nd – Preached this evening to over 10,000 on Kennington Common. Sunday, May 6th – Preached this morning in Moorfields to about 20,000 people who were very quiet and affected… and at six, preached at Kennington. Such a sight I have never seen before. I believe there were no less than 50,000 people.’ While Whitefield may have overestimated the crowds, we cannot underestimate the effects of his and his fellow evangelist John Wesley’s preaching, which led to an explosion of growth in non-conformist churches and a reformation of society.
We will probably not witness such crowds flocking to hear Christian preachers today, but similar numbers can be found in small, often non-denominational churches and chapels all over the country. They go largely unnoticed and unreported, and they have a high percentage of ethnic minorities, asylum seekers and refugees. They may well be the powerhouses of a 21st-century revival in church and society.
Richard Coombs, Rector of Cheltenham
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Mediawatch: Too rarely, in Obadiah’s view, do Christians give credit for media reports. So here a shout out to the ABC for North Korea the worst country to be a Christian, Open Doors report says. Obadiah sees it as a free kick for Oen Doors who do put considerable resources into researching persecution. “Timothy Cho, who works as a spokesperson for Christian charity Open Doors UK, told the ABC he escaped North Korea at age 17.
“Children in North Korea were subject to brainwashing in the state ideology to “believe, regard, speak and act as if Kim is god,” Mr Cho said, referring to the autocratic Kim dynasty who have ruled the country since the mid-20th century.
“North Korea often says Christianity is an American religion, and they try to use Christianity to destroy North Korean society,” he said.
“One’s Christian faith is thus considered treasonous and a “crime of all crimes”, punishable by being sent to a gulag or execution, he said.”
It is bylined “by Max Walden,” a reporter and producer with ABC Asia Pacific Newsroom in Melbourne.