by Peter James | Nov 12, 2024 | Sarah Williams
We have turned the Good Samaritan parable into a mushy morality tale. You know, be like the Good Samaritan and show kindness to people. We have tamed this provocative short story and blunted its subversive impact. Make no mistake, when Jesus first spoke this parable,...
by Peter James | Nov 11, 2024 | Josephine Butler
British Parliament passed the Contagious Diseases Acts in 1869 to stop the spread of venereal diseases, especially among the Royal Navy. The law afforded police broad powers to arrest and detain any women suspected of prostitution and subject them to degrading...
by Peter James | Nov 10, 2024 | Henry Lyte
He seemed ill-suited to pastor a church in a remote fishing village along the English coast inhabited by sailors earning their living from the sea. While sailors had minimal education, he was a first-rate scholar and accomplished poet. He brought his extensive library...
by Peter James | Nov 9, 2024 | John Livingstone
He described himself as “timorous and averse to debate.” You could have fooled me. I can’t detect a trace of timidity in him when he was called on the carpet for refusing to comply with the Act of Conformity of 1662 (called the Glasgow Act in...
by Peter James | Nov 8, 2024 | Edmund Calamy
I came upon Sermons of the Great Ejection recently, nine sermons from well-known Puritan preachers delivered on the Sunday before the Act of Uniformity of 1662 became law. The Church of England had become the official state religion, and anyone who couldn’t...
