Story Obese but immensely strong, the Japanese sumo wrestlers of the Arashio stable were beginning to stir. A young rikishi (wrestler) tripped over camp beds and heaving bodies, cajoling his fellow wrestlers out of their sweet slumbers. Some opened listless eyes, while others ignored the young man’s promptings and returned irritably to sleep. It Read more
Oscar Ichazo (born 1931) is the Bolivian-born psychologist who first developed the spiritual resource known as the Enneagram. The Enneagram focuses on nine personality types that are arranged into a chart resembling a pentagram. Ichazo, a Sufi-inspired mystic, claims to have had out-of-body experiences since childhood. He further claimed that Read more
Katie Price is an English celebrity, former model and businesswoman. She was the most successful page three girl featured in The Sun newspaper. She is notorious for her outrageous and rather tawdry lifestyle. A role model to some and an embarrassment to others, she is brutally frank about herself and asserted this Read more
It was both humbling and encouraging to spend two hours with sixth formers exploring the Mafia, evil, materialism, eastern religions and the Christian faith in Doncaster yesterday. When you tackle ‘hot’ topics like evil and unseen powers of darkness it is vital to pray and fast and I’d just like to Read more
Story Many call her Santa Muerte (Saint Death) but she has been condemned by the Roman Catholic church. The grim, skeletal female figure has a huge following in Mexico. Faith in Santa Muerte is popular among criminals, drug lords and ne’er-do-wells who sometimes crawl piously to a Santa Muerte shrine. Read more
Is Maradona the best footballer of all time? Worldwide there are 200,000 worshippers of Diego who attend the church of Maradona. The faithful follow their own ‘bespoke’ ten commandments which urge them to ‘love football above everything’ and ‘name your first son Diego’. The Church of Maradona insists that you get Read more
Talking to aggressive atheists can be enjoyable and fulfilling if you have an intelligent and creative spiel. I was talking to an atheist builder who had a pop at me for being a Christian. He declared boldly: “I’m on the side of science and not religion.” I was straight in Read more
Just came back from a great holiday in Crete with Anne. Truth be told, Crete has a lot more sunshine than Leeds and Zeus, the Greek god, was supposedly born on that fair isle! We didn’t bump into the husband of Hera or any other Greek deity but we did Read more
Last night I delivered my presentation on Mafia and the Problem of Evil to about thirty members of the evening fellowship at St Peter’s in Harrogate. At TFN we are committed to giving Christians an opportunity to think through challenging and difficult topics. Almost every day we hear about atrocities Read more
An Indian fakir had been living on a bed of spikes for 18 months. Why was he doing this? The desperate man said this: “I worship God in this way but I confess that the pricks of these spikes are not so bad as the pain I get from my Read more