Church of England’s #PrayForDawkins Campaign Garners Mixed Reactions

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Church of England’s #PrayForDawkins Campaign Garners Mixed Reactions

Christian Post Report – Well-known atheist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins speaks to supporters during the “Rock Beyond Belief” festival at Fort Bragg Army Base in North Carolina, March 31, 2012.

More Christians are participating in social media’s #PrayForDawkins campaign after famed atheist Richard Dawkins suffered a stroke last week.

Christians have been using the hashtag to offer their condolences and prayers to the public figure after the Church of England called on followers to do so. Some then criticized the church for being insensitive or sarcastic.

“It’s a strange world where the Church of England has to ‘defend’ praying for someone,” Chris Kilgour, a self-identified member of the Church of England, tweeted on February 13.

“#prayfordawkins – Not trolling, not trying to be funny. Being Christian,” another Twitter user added.

The Church of England received criticism by some on Sunday when it called on social media users to “Pray for Prof. Dawkins and his family.”

Some accused the church’s tweet of being an insincere trolling tactic, as Dawkins is known for heavily criticizing the church.

The Rev. Arun Arora, director of communications for the Archbishops’ Council, then sought to defend the tweet in a blog post, arguing that critics have misinterpreted the purpose of prayer.

“Some of the twitter reaction assumed that Christians only pray for other Christians. In fact Christians pray for all kinds of people. They pray for their friends and families. They pray for their community,” he wrote.

“They pray for the government (of whatever persuasion). They pray for terrorists, kidnappers, hostage takers. They pray for criminals as well as giving thanks for saints. Poets write poetry, musicians play music, Christians pray. And they love,” Arora added.

Nikki Sinclaire, a former Great Britain politician, called the church’s tweet “sarcastic and ignorant,” while former Anglican bishop Stephen Holme called the invocation “cheap and nasty.”

Dawkins and the Church of England have had public disagreements on several issues, with Dawkins going so far as to engage in a debate with the Anglican Bishop Rowan Williams at Cambridge University in 2013.

But Dawkins has also defended the church, arguing last December that a commercial promoting the church and the Lord’s Prayer should be permitted in British movie theaters, saying he “strongly [objects] to suppressing the ads on the grounds that they might ‘offend’ people. If anybody is ‘offended’ by something so trivial as a prayer, they deserve to be offended.”

Archbishop Rowan Williams has praised Dawkins’ personality, saying in 2007: “There’s something about his swashbuckling side which is endearing,” adding that he finds Dawkins and his wife, Lalla, to be “absolutely delightful.”

Dawkins confirmed his stroke in an audio recording posted to SoundCloud.

“What happened was that on Friday the fifth of February I was alone at home and I suddenly became aware that my left arm was not behaving properly — I couldn’t coordinate properly. When I tried to stand up I staggered about in a rather alarming way. I must have fallen because I later discovered a large bruise on my elbow,” he said in the message.

Source : Christian Post

‘Risen’: Witness Jesus’ Resurrection Through the Eyes of a Non-Believer

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‘Risen’: Witness Jesus’ Resurrection Through the Eyes of a Non-Believer

Christian Post Report – Joseph Fiennes (L) and Tom Felton as Roman soldiers Clavius and Lucius in a scene from “Risen.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — “Risen” flips the script on the traditional telling of the resurrection of Christ, focusing on the story through the lens of a non-believer, a Roman military Tribune tasked with finding Christ’s missing body in order to quash hopes among the Jews of a risen Savior.

Directed by Kevin Reynolds, the Sony/AffirmFilms faith-based movie stars lead actor Joseph Fiennes, 44, (“Shakespeare in Love” and “Luther”) who delivers a credible portrayal of the fictional Roman Tribune, Clavius. Ordered by Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) to find Yeshua’s body and prove the empty tomb of “The Nazarene” to be no more than a hoax to “keep a crusade alive,” Clavius will stop at nothing to that end.

With the help of his aide, Lucius, played by Tom Felton, Fiennes’ character scouts out clues that he believes will lead to Christ’s missing body, much like a detective would a criminal case, giving “Risen” a mystery-like quality that will appeal to believers and non-believers alike. It’s what attracted Fiennes to the film.

“I love the detective element,” says Fiennes to The Christian Post and other reporters gathered at a screening of the film.

Clavius is up against a ticking clock to solve Christ’s disappearance before he and Pontius Pilate face the wrath of Emperor Tiberius. Pilate commands the soldier to “find the corpse before it rots.”

As a non-believer, it is both ironic and symbolic that Clavius is searching for Christ — interrogating Jews, and scouring Yeshua’s empty tomb in search of clues that might help his cause. What appears to be the controversial Shroud of Turin even makes an appearance in the movie, giving the film modern references to which moviegoers can relate.

The film’s “Roman mindset” was also fascinating, Fiennes says. “The philosophy, the bared sense of religion and gods and warfare.” Clavius often prays to Mars, the god of war, for help in locating Christ’s body.

Fiennes believes that viewers will be engaged by the scope of the movie. “There are few films, and I can’t think of any, that deal with the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension all in one. ”

These significant events are well placed throughout the film and help the one hour and forty-seven minute movie to maintain a steady pace as do skirmishes between the Romans and the Jews, raids on Jewish villages, and interrogations of Jesus’ disciples like Bartolomew, a happy-go-lucky personality played by actor Stephen Hagan.

Actor Cliff Curtis’ portrayal of Jesus offers audiences a more accessible and literally “down to Earth” version of the Savior than depictions in previous films. The miracles that Jesus performs, including the healing of a man with Leprosy, and filling Simon and the disciples’ net with fish after they had fished all night with no success, are understated, adding to their impact.

The overall film feels like a fresh, easy-to-follow version of an age-old story. Crafting the film, however, was not an easy process.

There were challenges in retelling the story while maintaining a delicate balance between Scripture, other content that had to be preserved, and the process of adaptation and fictionalization, Fiennes explains.

There was another, more physical, challenge in creating the film — the heat while on location in Malta. Soaring temps became problematic while shooting scenes in full armor.

“I was on a horse and in full leather … and it was over 100 degrees — and that was in the shade,” Fiennes tells CP. The actor, however, used the heat to his benefit.

“It’s important for an actor to kind of get as close to what it [conditions] might have been like. From what I read, no Roman [soldier] ever wanted to be posted in Judea. It [the heat] was brutal. And so having that kind of brutality on filming, you soak it up, you kind of use it.”

When it comes to his character, Clavius, Fiennes was as equally intrigued by his journey as audiences will likely be. “We follow this protagonist and we want to see when he hits that moment of truth how it’s going to work out. … I thought the component of the non-believer, who is sort of a Tribune/detective, ramped up the tension. ”

“Risen” hits theaters nationwide on Friday, Feb. 19.

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Source : Christian Post