Third Way

No, not my confession of a weekend conversion to New Labour, but the title of a magazine to which I'm considering re-subscribing.

Some years ago both my wife and I would read it from cover-to-cover. But, then, the writing quality went downhill a little; there was too much ranting and invective; and it simply didn't cover enough insight on enough of the current issues of the day.

Well, I'm glad to say that if the latest, rebranded, relaunched, issue is anything to go by, these problems have been solved.

This post also serves as somewhat of a follow-on from my one on Blasphemy a few days ago. A local resident and I have been swapping emails about how one should (or should not) strive to protect our Christian heritage by enshrining it in our law, including the retention or otherwise of the blasphemous libel laws. Well, a great article in Third Way by its deputy editor Stephen Tomkins, goes into much more detail about the argument for its repeal, and pretty much gets my vote on it.

Unfortunately... their website is being updated with the new branding, and so I can't show you the whole article. But, to whet your appetite, here's a snippet:

"Don't the Ten Commandments put not taking the Lord's name in vain at the heart of Christian Morality? Perhaps, but there are two problems. The main is that Christian morality is for Christians. It is not obvious that we have a responsibility to impose it on the world and demand that people honour the name of a God they believe does not exist.
Secondly, it is not at all clear what misusing the name of the Lord meant in the ancient world.
It behoves Christians to put their own house of God in order before trying to control how unbelievers use the name of the Lord."