I’m writing this in a week (October 2026) when we have seen Danny Tommo arrested for cutting a criminal gang’s inflatable; five men arrested for a bombing attempt at RAF Fairford; the Archbishop of Canterbury changing her mind about giving a peace award to a terrorist; a police warning to Stephen Yaxley Lennon that there is a “credible threat” to his life; facial coverings in public banned after years of permitting them; a return to plane hijackings and a government pledge of millions to Gaza rather than our armed forces.

How does a Christian make sense of a world that praises terrorism, violence and abuse when carried out by the “right” people, overlooks it when it is Christians at the receiving end, lets rapists and the violent walk free whilst imprisoning people for saying the “wrong” words and condemning a small democratic country for defending itself?

Really?

Sometimes my humour gets the better of me, sometimes my cynicism, at others my desperation, but I hope never anger. A good example is feeling that one has to laugh (I think) that in 2020 everyone HAD to wear masks in public. Now we mustn’t! Whilst at the serious level realising that the whole COVID pandemic appears to have been a manufactured ploy to experiment with compliance whilst “poisoning” the majority of the world’s population. Or, to calm the conspiracy theory cries, another way of saying that I have given up believing anything I see or hear, especially from “experts” or the BBC. Oh, did I mention the twin towers? That’s a newly reopened can of worms.

Relax

The earth isn’t flat and the moon landings happened. Or at least I believe so.

Theoretical Christianity

Obviously as a Christian I would love to live in a world where everyone loved one another or at worst tolerated one another. Wouldn’t that be lovely. We are after all called to “love our enemies and do good to those who persecute you”. But in the real world some people hate others and not only wish them dead but are even happy to die themselves to make that possible.

Smith Wigglesworth used to say that he prays each day with a newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other. That’s kind of how I feel.

The end times.

How do we stay sane when we know that the world will get much worse; where we know that persecution is bound to come. The Bible is clear that a false religion will become prominent headed by an “Anti-Christ”. For the last 1300 years that has looked strongly like being Islam. Jesus said in Matthew 24: “¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains”. Where might that be I wonder?

In short I feel that I have two world views. The first is based on my beliefs (that which I think the Bible traches). The second is a much more earthly mix of fear, politics and incredulity, just like everyone.

There was a time when I bought into the belief that the Crusades were wrong because bad things happened at the hands of European knights and soldiers. Now I realise that Europe was fighting for its life against an aggressive Islam that threatened to take it over. War is abhorrent. But it seems inevitable. Even Jesus did once say, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10:34

Now we can argue that he meant sword in the same way as Moslems defend the word Jihad. But he clearly meant division and difference.

I have lots of pages on the subject of race, such as https://crosstownservices.co.uk/malcolminthemiddle/black-lives-matter/

Reflections on a Christian response to slavery and colonialism

Reflections on a Christian response to slavery and colonialism

Israel https://crosstownservices.co.uk/malcolminthemiddle/israel/

Diversity and the death of culture

The ultimate problem of King Charles honouring Islam is that as head of the Church of England he is committing blasphemy.

The Qur’an states:-

“They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them.”

This is the foundational text in the Quran that denies the crucifixion, and so therefore, the resurrection, of Jesus.

This is an existential crisis for the monarchy, for the C of E, for this country.

No-one can sit on the fence. If the Bible is true, the Qur’an is nothing short of a blasphemous lie from Satan which Charles has swallowed.

Christ is Risen — A Constitutional Crisis

Easter 2026 and the clash of two revelations – Gavin Ashenden

Link

Could this be the end for Khomeni and the Iranian Caliphate?

The current situation in Israel.

Israel has never been stronger. For Europe, it may already be too late

Spain is fantasising about nuking Israel.

Deranged anti-Semitism is normal in the Arab world

What the King’s speech didn’t say!

I love “The Chosen” – but with some provisos.

Last night we watched part 3 of Season 5.

Season 5 is a different level in terms of production and to some extent style. But it also goes further in adding to scripture, “filling in the blanks” if you like and there lies the danger.

There is so much embellishment, so much added dialogue that like a ship at sea there is a danger of losing sight of the coast! As an evangelistic tool it is very engaging, but a non-Christian, and I think especially of Moslems, could get very confused as to “what is truth?”.

Series 5 becomes rather indulgent, slow, reflective, allowing the characters and events to develop way beyond what we have on paper. Depicting real people means that even facial expressions become important. I know for instance that Jesus clearly had a sense of humour, but was he quite as witty as depicted? Which brings me to my main point. “The Chosen” has made me really think about who Jesus was. Or to be more accurate, what it was like to be Jesus!

How did Jesus cope with being “Son of God”, with being human, with feeling pain and rejection. In short, not going completely insane at knowing who he was. There is a great scene towards the end of series 5, the first conversation between Yeshua and Nathaniel (speculative of course) where Jesus invites Nathaniel to follow him and establish the kingdom of God. Humanly speaking Jesus sounds completely out of his mind. Quite insane! Well you would wouldn’t you living with the reality that you are the Saviour of the entire human race, Messiah, King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

But there we have it. The Chosen raises lots of questions. Sends us away thinking. Isn’t that what Jesus did?

In short Jonathan Rhoumie doesn’t nail it (pun intended) but he gets pretty darn close.

On the face of it a sermon calling for compassion on particular groups in society.

However when you begin to get behind the rhetoric what do you have?

A fresh divisiveness! An attempt to pull on emotions for those who now allegedly are fearing for their lives!

One reaction is well put here

“Jesus loves people. He loves you. He loves me. He loves illegal immigrants. He loves kids who are confused about their gender. His heart is merciful toward us. But loving every person does not mean He loves every idea or every action. Mercy doesn’t look like capitulating to ideologies that lead to harm. Mercy looks like intervening to stop the harm from happening, and it’s precisely that intervention that Bishop Budde was standing staunchly against in her speech. She framed the whole thing as love, of course, but the brand of love she was peddling wasn’t love at all, and that’s why it vexes me.

You should be able to step foot in a Christian church and find that the leaders are pointing you toward Jesus and the truth that can save.

Jesus says, “Come as you are,” not “Stay as you are.”  Faithful Christian leaders lovingly encourage their congregants to surrender their sins to Jesus and allow Him to transform them from the inside out. To be a Christian is to be willing to change. It means your identity is in Him, not your sexual preferences or rebellion against the material reality of your sex. “

Here we are then in a second Trump term. Will he prove to fulfil the fears or the promises?

He certainly hasn’t hung around in implementing many of the popular policies that he ran on. More than can be said for the U K Prime Minister who it seems was 21 on the list of national leaders Trump needed to phone!

Personally I fear that some of his policies will have negative effects rather than the positives hoped for. Only time will tell.

What strikes me as weird is all the negative, fearful reactions to the arrival of a man who has already been President for four years.

Although pulling back on some of the rhetoric around making Abortion illegal J D Vance has made declarations about supporting those who choose not to terminate pregnancies.

I get asked why Trump and not Biden / Harris.

On Israel ….

Four years ago, relations between the United States and Israel were at an all time high after Trump brought tremendous change to the two countries’ bonds. This quickly changed to a new low after the Biden/Harris administration took power.

Under Biden, U.S. sanctions were lifted from Iran, empowering them to attack Israel in various ways. Not only that, but the Biden administration claimed the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria were illegal under international law, which is the opposite of what the Trump administration stated in the historic Pompeo Doctrine. The Biden administration also sanctioned countless entities and individuals in Judea and Samaria.

Where have the last few years gone. It seems like COVID was just last year.

What happened to 21, 22 and 23? I’ve just come back from 3 lovely days on a yacht in the Solent after 5 years since the last time which feels like only a year or so ago.

In reality, we’ve had a couple of trips to Corfu, France and latterly Thailand, but time compresses in a strange way, perhaps more so as one gets older.

Great to be back again this year after COVID

Especially good to catch up with old friends and meet new ones

What a fantsatic set of organisations Reading has. Click on the Homepage to see the list of those currently taking part in WHD.

Lovely to have Street Pastors drop by, they too play an acitive part in supporting street homeless.