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The Simon Barrow Column

Reflecting on how Christian political imagination can help change society's agenda. Follow Simon on Twitter here: www.twitter.com/simonbarrow

  • 21 Apr 2011
    The religious betrayal of God and its antidote

    Good Friday and Easter Sunday we have some comprehension of (or so we think). But what on earth is Holy Thursday all about? Simon Barrow explores two actions in the story which embody, practically and theologically, both the awful tragedy and the true hope of Christianity in a world circumscribed by the use and absue of power.

  • 25 Mar 2011
    Cuts are about ideology, not the deficit

    The 2011 Budget offers useful cover for the central deceit of the government’s economic strategy, says Simon Barrow – which is that massive cuts in the public sector and in the local and national state are “unavoidable” and “necessary” to eliminate Britain’s massive deficit.

  • 13 Mar 2011
    Discriminating Christian confusions

    The arguments of the 'Christians are being discriminated against' lobby in the UK are confused about the law, equalities, rights, demography, theology and the distinction between Christianity and Christendom, says Simon Barrow. In the words of a recent High Court judgment, their claims are also "wrong as to the factual premises on which they are based and at best tendentious."

  • 6 Mar 2011
    The Sure Start rebellion

    Parents and carers across the country are outraged by government-forced cuts in 'early intervention' services and Sure Start, says Simon Barrow. Rhetoric on family support is not being matched by funding decisions.

  • 10 Feb 2011
    The 'Big Society' bubble is bursting

    David Cameron's 'Big Society' idea is taking a huge battering as public spending cuts bite and the substance behind the rhetoric shows, says Simon Barrow. Equally, the 'shrinking government' agenda becomes ever clearer.

  • 4 Feb 2011
    Fasting: reshaping our desires towards justice

    Christians and Muslims have been fasting for peace with justice in Egypt. But what on earth has giving up food got to do with changing the world? The answer, suggests Simon Barrow, is that it helps re-shape our desires as human beings, and therefore our political and spiritual orientation.

  • 24 Jan 2011
    Watching the Tartan political space

    The aim of the recent Scotland Bill, says Simon Barrow, is to please the growing number of Scots who favour more powers for their own parliament, while simultaneously clawing back a large sum of money from the Westminster block grant and undermining already-waning support for the SNP ahead of the elections in May 2011.

  • 2 Jan 2011
    Reform, persecution and future church

    The current ills of the Western church are more to be found in sickness within than in threats without, suggests Simon Barrow, echoing a recent landmark comment from the Pope. Likewise the way forward is through radical reformation not fearful reaction.

  • 25 Dec 2010
    Christmas and the rebirth of 'peasant Christianity'

    Soothing 'Christmas messages' have become practically unavoidable, says Simon Barrow. But most of them are bland beyond belief. In truth the birth of Christ confronts us with something much more demanding - a choice between two ways of living in a world dominated by empire.

  • 1 Dec 2010
    Shameful claims and alternative Christian living

    Across the world today, countless millions of people are persecuted. But churchgoers in Britain are not among them, says Simon Barrow. Instead of developing a misplaced 'persecution complex', which dishonours those who truly suffer, Christians in the UK have the opportunity to develop an alternative vocation of multiplying hope, rather than spreading fear.

  • 18 Nov 2010
    Tea and (sparse) sympathy: transatlantic politics

    What does the liquid insurgency of the Tea Party movement in the United States mean for political processes on both sides of the Atlantic? Simon Barrow compares and contrasts government, opposition and voter disaffiliation in the UK and the USA.

  • 21 Oct 2010
    Christians and ‘aggressive secularism’

    The problem for Christians today is not primarily 'aggressive secularism', but the confusion of Christianity with power, says Simon Barrow. That and the the distortion of public debate about religiosity and secularity into a false dichotomy between dominating belief or privatised belief. A better way is needed - based on living by example, not the lust for control.

  • 17 Oct 2010
    The Pope and alternatives to imperial Christianity

    Many progressive Christians found themselves experiencing profoundly mixed feelings both about Pope Benedict’s visit and about the protests against it, says Simon Barrow. This is perhaps because neither imperial religion nor rejectionist forms of secularism are adequate to the task of remaking public life and public faith.

  • 17 Oct 2010
    The big parties' conference Pas de Trois

    Party conferences, at least for the 'big three', have become an elaborate ritual for the faithful, says Simon Barrow. But their well-spun manoeuvres have little to do with the 'new politics', let alone the harsh word of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

  • 27 Sep 2010
    Cutting the economic branch from under us?

    The received wisdom perpetuated by the government is that deep and immediate public spending cuts are necessary and beneficial, says Simon Barrow. But there are strong economic arguments that point towards investment in long-term sustainability rather than hitting the most vulnerable to reduce the deficit.