{"id":140934,"date":"2025-10-30T12:08:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T16:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=140934"},"modified":"2025-11-01T11:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T15:51:12","slug":"premiere-bp-philip-north-resist-the-worldly-pressure-to-always-pick-a-side-jesus-shows-us-a-better-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=140934","title":{"rendered":"(Premiere) Bp Philip North&#8211;Resist the worldly pressure to always pick a side. Jesus shows us a better way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We meet against a backdrop of serious threats to national unity and social cohesion. One of our priests described to me a few days ago how his community has become a \u201ctown of two flags\u201d with one half festooned with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.premierchristianity.com\/opinion\/england-flags-are-everywhere-what-should-christians-make-of-it\/20019.article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the flag of St George<\/a>,&nbsp;the other with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.premierchristianity.com\/news-analysis\/explained-what-an-israel-hamas-ceasefire-might-mean-for-the-middle-east\/18783.article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the flag of Palestine.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have seen huge marches for Palestine or against immigration. We are seeing growing anger with politicians and the political establishment and the accelerated rise of populism. So many people seemed to be locked into a mood of anger. Then, three weeks ago,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.premierchristianity.com\/opinion\/now-is-the-time-for-christians-to-show-love-to-their-jewish-neighbours\/20209.article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">two people were killed in a terrorist-inspired attack on a synagogue in Manchester.<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Against such a backdrop, a world that understands only binaries demands that we take sides. But of course, for us as Anglicans, such binary choices are incredibly difficult to take. We are on the ground in every community so we hear and try to understand every voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We understand the desperate fear of asylum seekers driven from home, often for professing Jesus as Lord, and we want to offer a safe place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.premierchristianity.com\/opinion\/resist-the-worldly-pressure-to-always-pick-a-side-jesus-shows-us-a-better-way\/20368.article\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Resist the worldly pressure to always pick a side. Jesus shows us a better way<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DKLSumPwbi\">https:\/\/t.co\/DKLSumPwbi<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/prayer?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#prayer<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Premier Christianity (@Christianitymag) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Christianitymag\/status\/1983870202124120245?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 30, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We meet against a backdrop of serious threats to national unity and social cohesion. One of our priests described to me a few days ago how his community has become a \u201ctown of two flags\u201d with one half festooned with&nbsp;the<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=140934\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[389,635],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-england-coe","category-coe-bishops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=140934"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140938,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140934\/revisions\/140938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=140934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=140934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=140934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}