Jerry Springer: The Opera and the Christian Faith!

The broadcast of this musical on BBC2 has caused a great deal of controversy from Christians. A storm of protest hit the BBC with over 45,000 complaints being received by email, phone, letters, etc. The main items of complaint was the excessive use if profanity (8,000 instances of swearing) and the blasphemous use of the Jesus, God, and Mary.

Now a lot of people without faith have wondered what the hullabaloo has all been about, but if they take the most dearest thing to them and then let a broadcaster publicy degrade and debase it/them, then they may appreciate why Christians are not happy over this broadcast!

The main bone of contentions are:-

1. The BBC is the public services broadcaster in the UK who operate under a royal charter. This charter encourages the promotion of the Christian faith and respect for all faiths, and protects against the broadcast of programmes that cause deep offence. The BBC has chosen to ignore this part of the charter.
2. As the public services broadcaster, the BBC is funded through the television license which everyone with a TV has to pay for. Some Christians feel that it is inappropriate for the BBC to be using their financial contributions to broadcast such a programme. Anyone wishing to see the play could pay to go to the theatre, or perhaps pay-per-view or subscription channels would like to put it on. (Although I doubt they would take the risk!)

I personally have written to the BBC, OFCOM, my Member of Parliament, the Prime Minister objecting to this blatant abuse of the BBC's charter. Whilst I did not watch the play all the way through, I took time to see what the fuss was about and was deeply offended by the depiction of Christ.

Having said that, I believe all the media attention paid to the Christian action against the programme only served to promote the programme all the more with many of the alledged additional 300,000 viewers (for this time on BBC2) looking in to see what the fuss was about. If we had remained quite, then viewing figures may have been very disappointing to the BBC proving that their action was sheer folly. However, as Christians we are called to stand up against things that blaspheme His precious name, so I suppose we are stuck between a rock and a hard place on this.

We, as individuals, need to make a stand for the things in which we believe. I believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the true God, the Saviour of our world and He is worth standing up for!

For Jesus Christ!

God and Earthquake Disasters

My job as a pastor of a Baptist Church has been more challenging than usual in the last few weeks. "If there is a God, why does he allow this to happen?". "If God, is a god of love, why cause so much devastation and suffering?" "You cannot tell me there is a God when you look at what has happened in the Asian Earthquake/Tsunami disaster!".

These are just some of the comments we face after that dreadful event, and we have all been affected emotionally with the images from the media, and perhaps even speaking to someone who has lost a loved one in the area. I have a problem in grasping the ernormity of the devastation and loss of life. I just cannot comprehend what it must be like there.

But down to the questions. Why does God allow this to happen? After all, he is the Creator of all things, did he make a mistake in the design?

Our planet is home to a great diversity in landscape, flora and fauna and it is this diversity that provides it with so much richness of life. Tectonic plates are part of the created clockwork that produces our landscape with mountains ranges, volcanoes, and such, and it is these things that make the scenery breathtaking. Over the many thousands and millions of years they have shaped our planet to what it is today.

We have known the relationship between earthquake and tsunamis for a long time now. The US have had their Pacific warning system for over 50 years now! So why hadn't a similar system been installed in the Indian Ocean where there has been a history of earthquakes and tsunamis? Is this God's fault? He has given us the knowledge and technology, we have failed to consider others in danger and not acted.

Does God like to see suffering? No, he is a God of love and hates to see suffering of any kind. However, it is because he is a God of love that he has given humankind freewill. We all have it with regard our personal faith and beliefs. We can choose whether to believe in God or not. He does not force us to follow him. So what has this got to do with this disaster?

We live in a fallen world, and bad things have been happening on this planet since Adam and Eve went against God in the Garden of Eden. God's perfect planet was destroyed by humankind going against him. Ever since, we have struggled to produce crops and tame nature in our effort to become like God. God promises a new heaven and new earth where we will not see famine, flood, earthquake, disease, but we have to wait for now!

But God is at work in Asia right now. Each day we have heard of miracles on how individuals have survived, and I am sure God is working these. I am also sure that this single biggest disaster has been the turning point in many relationships. We are seeing countries from around the world pulling together to provide relief to the victims. We are seeing Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhists, Sikhs and other faiths all working together as one to help. We are seeing Tamil Tigers providing food and water to their enemies, etc.

I do not understand why this has happened, but I know that God is working through this in many ways. I continue to pray each day that he will work miracles and continue to rescue victims from this tragedy. The healing process will take many years, and the scars will remain forever, but God loves to heal. He will be watching over the people of this tragedy and will be responding to their prayers.

I also continue to pray that God will prompt me to respond to this in whatever way he wills. Whether it is financially or practically, I will do what little I can. If everyone who reads this blog takes time to do the same, the drop in the ocean will become larger and larger until it makes a difference in Asia.

God bless!

Pete