The headlines you won't see (again!)

Almost a year ago, we posted about how you get a religious view into the secular UK media. And we suggested there are three ways to do it:

1. Fairly random (but probably quite attractive) academic says Bible inaccurate (subtext: Christianity foolish).
2. Vicar/choirmaster/any-old-church-employee runs off with teenager/someone’s wife/bloke (subtext: Christians are hypocrites).
3. Church/denomination rows/bickers/splits over something (subtext: Christians are divided and out of touch).

So, turn to the Telegraph today, and you can read the views of Bettany Hughes, who coincidentally is fronting a new BBC2 series and is an “expert in ancient history” (is there anyone, really, who is truly an expert in the whole of ancient history?!). She is claiming that the story of women in Christianity has been suppressed.

“Who knows whether God is a girl?” she muses. Presumably, God does, and could choose to tell us if He (I use the word advisedly) saw fit.

Anyway, it’s a great example of a Type-One Christianity-in-the-news story. As is this one, questioning what gender—if any—Jesus was. I’m not going to comment on it, because I think it’s groundless, and disrespectful to the Son of God.

While pieces like that continue to fill column inches, here are the three headlines we predicted a year ago you wouldn’t see, and which we haven’t noticed in the intervening twelve months. But they have been happening, unreported:

1. “Academic’s theory disproving Bible turns out to be pure speculation”
2. “Becoming a Christian saved my marriage/family/life”
3. "'It was God wot done it' says pastor as gospel-centred, outward-looking church doubles membership in a year”