Cambridge Analytica, a company which specialises in behaviour change, is credited, along with Facebook, with Donald Trump’s victory in the US Presidential election victory on 8/11/2016. The homepage of Cambridge Analytica's website says “Data drives all that we do. Cambridge Analytica uses data to change audience behavior [sic].’ This is an acknowledgement that peer-group pressure …
Category: Behaviour
So you think you don’t have enough time?
Some people think that they don't have enough time to investigate the claims of Christianity and in particular the claims of Jesus Christ. They think that they have better things to do with their time. Only – they do have enough time. God has given them the time. It is called their lifetime, but more …
Another Lib Dem broken promise
The new Lib Dem leader's first pledge is to break another promise. Sir Vince Cable was confirmed as the new Lib Dem leader when the time for nominations passed and he was elected unopposed. He immediately announced that under his leadership, the Lib Dems will offer voters the chance to avoid Brexit - "to exit …
Control freakery is running wild
Prime Minister Theresa May was pilloried because she did not express public grief over the Grenfell Tower disaster in a politically correct manner. It reminds us of the public mood at the time of Princess Diana's tragic death. Instead of allowing the Queen to grieve in her own way, the public demanded that she grieve …
Jump to attention
Many public bodies think that their authority allows them to call the public to jump to attention. Take the tax office. One will wait weeks and even months to get a response from them, but they expect you to answer them within so many days, with the threat of penalties - even although you may …
What do we do about confusion in congregational preaching?
Intelligent listeners will notice differences in teaching between preachers even in the same denomination, as well as between denominations. The right of private judgment is permitted to Christians, but the continuous and unchallenged preaching of different doctrines only leads to confusion in congregations - and God is not the author of confusion 1Cor 14:33. So …
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When did the Bible last change your thinking or behaviour?
Christians claim to be submissive to the Word of God. They acknowledge that they are not 'the finished article'. So when did the Bible last change your thinking or behaviour? The development of one's Christian character is effected by the Holy Spirit applying the Word of God to one's thinking, speech and behaviour. It is …
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The maturing Paul
At a conference of Christian political party leaders in Leissigen, Switzerland, in 2013, I heard the following observations made by Valeriu Ghiletchi, a member of the Parliament of Moldova and a former President of the European Baptist Federation. He drew attention to four stages of the apostle Paul's life and ministry, to show his changing …
The power behind the throne
The Lib Dem peer, Lord Oakeshott, said on Question Time 30/1/2014 that if he was put in the position of choosing between defying his party leader, Nick Clegg, by voting for the ban on smoking in cars with children present, or defying his wife who is a doctor, there was no contest. If he voted …
Husbands are to study
1Cor 14:34-35: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: and let them ask their husbands at home." Application: this is not so much a restriction on the wife, as a requirement on the husband to study. John Knox on asking questions after sermons: “Everie week once, the Congregation assemble to heare som place of the …
Donald's Thoughts 