Son of Westboro founder speaks, Dawkins converting people to Jesus and more

In a week dominated by the Royal Visit and, in NSW at least, politics and wine, you’d be forgiven for not having heard anything else. So, on this Easter long weekend, here’s a chance to catch up.

The son of infamous Westboro Baptist founder Fred Phelps Sr spoke with Christianity Today this week about God’s redeeming power of grace and how hard it is to see his family behave as they do: “My family does not display Christ-like behavior. I hurt for the people my family has hurt.” Read the full interview here.

While Westboro Baptists have frequently been accused of putting people off Christianity with their placards and insensitivities, famed atheist Richard Dawkins was also once thought to have a similar effect from one outside the faith. Not anymore, according to The Telegraph in the UK. Columnist Damian Thompson says he’s heard of two people in the past week who’ve been ‘lead to Christ’ by Richard Dawkins.

“If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might conclude that Prof Dawkins secretly converted to Christianity decades ago, and then asked himself: “How can I best win souls? By straightforward argument, or by turning myself from a respected academic into a comic figure fulminating against religion like a fruitcake at Speakers’ Corner, thereby discrediting atheism?”” Read the full article here.

Atheists on social media may be out in full swing this Easter, but so are the theologians. The ABC Religion and Ethics web portal has some juicy pieces for your reading pleasure this weekend, including this piece by Australian New Testament scholar Mike Bird who examines the arguments of writer Bart Ehrman’s latest effort How Jesus Became God, which suggests that the ‘myth’ of Jesus as divine became popular at the time of Roman Emperor Constantine, as a means of using Christianity to keep his empire together. ” As popular as this narrative remains, it has one fatal flaw—namely, it is demonstrably false,” writes Bird. Also up on ABC this weekend is Stanley Hauerwas on ‘Hearing the sound of God’s silence‘ and N.T. Wright on ‘God’s Theatre on the streets of Jerusalem‘.

If you’re looking for more Easter fanfare, we’ve rounded up the best Easter resources, videos and music here, and some great examples of what churches around Australia are marking the death and resurrection of Jesus over here.