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The English reformer John Hopper was imprisoned from September 1553 and killed in February 1555. Just before Hopper was martyred for his faith in Christ, Sir Anthony Kingston, whom he had once offended by rebuking his sins, came to see him, and begged him, with much affection and many tears, to think about  his safety and recant.  Kingston said to Hopper, "Consider, that life is sweet, and death is bitter. Your life hereafter may do [much more] good."   Hopper answered : "The life to come is more sweet, and the death to come is more bitter”. After seeing that Hoper was not going to change his mind, Kingston left him with bitter tears, telling him, "I thank God that I came to know you, because God appointed you to call me to be His child. By your good instruction, when I was before a fornicator and adulterer, God has taught me to detest and forsake the same”.  John Hooper afterwards said that this meeting with Kingston had drawn from him more tears than he...

Death may not be an exciting topic but it is certainly an important, if often overlooked subject. Which is why Rob Moll's recent book The Art of Dying  is a welcome publication. The book has been written to address the question of the good way to die. Moll believes our culture does not know how to approach death because we have become so removed from experiencing it. This is a problem because we can't live well unless we are intimate with death and know how to die well. The Christian approach, Moll argues, is  that death is both evil and mercy wrapped in one. Therefore there are significant benefits from knowing how to die well. At the surface we should all be capable of dying well because people take longer to die than before which should offer plenty of preparation. The reality is exactly the opposite. For many Christians the allure of modern medicine has meant greater focus on self preservation and surviving at all costs than preparing well for death. Dying as a spiri...

The world has been mourning the passing of the actor Robin Williams. One of his best performances came in the movie Jack. Williams stars as a boy who suffers from a unusual aging disorder that has aged him four times faster than a normal human being. As a result he starts school for the first time with the appearance of a 40 year old man. The movie explores human frailty. In a moving scene towards the end,  Jack, with the appearance of a 72-year old but only 18 years old, arrives at his graduation ceremony and is given the honour of delivering the year's valedictory speech. Here is a moving quote from it:  I don't have very much time these days so I'll make it quick. Like my life. You know, as we come to the end of this phase of our life, we find ourselves trying to remember the good times and trying to forget the bad times, and we find ourselves thinking about the future. We start to worry , thinking, "What am I gonna do? Where am I gonna be in ten years?" But...

The graphic  is typical of most western countries, where it seems that suicides are rising for those above 40 years (accounting for population differences).   Prof John Ashton  attributes this to "the dramatically changed position of men in society vis-a-vis women and vis-a-vis the labour market" is affecting "men's self-esteem and self-confidence". If that is true then he simply means that it is all economically driven.

I recently went through a series of old Denzel Washington movies. I started with the Bone Collector (1999). Lincoln Rhyme (Denzel Washington) is the quadriplegic forensics expert, following a tragic accident at work, whose plans to commit assisted suicide are interrupted by a sadistic serial killer on the loose in New York. With time counting down between each abduction and possible death, Rhyme recruits the unwilling but talented rookie Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie) after she saves the first crime scene. Through radio contact, she becomes his eyes and legs on the scene, even as she battles her private challenges.

I recently had an opportunity to discuss music with a group of young people at church. For some unexplained reason I chose Price Tag by Jessie J (2011). The song consists of two verses by Jessie J, a chorus and a  final "rap" by B.o.B that more or less restates Jessie J's  two verses! Jessie J's first verse: Seems like everybody’s got a price / I wonder how they sleep at night / When the sale comes first / And the truth comes second / Just stop for a minute and smile / Why is everybody so serious? / Acting so damn mysterious? / Got shades on your eyes / And your heels so high that you can’t even have a good time The verse is a statement of the main problem under examination. The singer believs that "everybody's got a price”. And though her immediate target may be the music industry, her statement relates to everyone. Everyone is up for sale. In short, we have become "commodified" and for the right price we are easily morally trafficked to th...

Suicides among midde-aged Americans has been on the rise in the United States. More people die from suicides than vehicle accidents : In 2010, an average of nearly 18 out of every 100,000 people aged 35-64 died from suicide - four more than a decade earlier. In 2010, motor vehicle accidents killed 33,687 people, while 38,364 died from suicide that year, according to the CDC, the government agency tasked with providing research and recommendations on US health and safety. Among non-Hispanic whites and Native Americans, annual suicide rates leaped 40 percent and 65 percent, respectively. Nearly three times as many men as women in this age group killed themselves: around 27 men compared to eight women per 100,000 in 2010. And the CDC found that, while most suicides were committed with guns, the number of people dying from suffocation and hanging rose the fastest - by more than 80 percent - over the last decade. Experts are not certain why suicide rates are increasing so marke...

Another banker plummeted 80ft to her death from an exclusive open air restaurant on the roof of an office building in London last night. According to the Daily Mail , the smartly dressed woman fell eight storeys from the top of Sir Terence Conran's restaurant Coq D’Argent, landing in front of hundreds of commuters outside Bank station. One Eyewitness said, "I saw a handbag and a glass of wine that had obviously been the woman’s. From listening to what people were telling the police it sounded like she had been quite self-collected, just taken a sip of wine, and then stepped over the edge". This is the third suicide from what has been dubbed a "suicide sport for bankers" . In May 2007, City employee 33 year old Richard Ford died after he plunged from the terrace and landed on a bus. In July 2009, 24 year old stockbroker Anjool Malde leaped to his death from the venue holding a glass of champagne after being suspended from his job at Deutsche Bank. Aerial vi...

Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot the passers-by sneer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Savior on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and as witnesses to Him deride it, scoffing and saying, "O Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting?" - St. Athanasius ( Source : On the Incarnation )