It was the great theologian Karl Barth who declared that the proper preacher held the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. His point being, of course, that we are called as Christians to live in the present, to find ways in which the Gospel of God’s love can be proclaimed in this day and age, not just two thousand years ago.

The twentieth century has brought sweeping changes to not just our way of life but our very understanding of what this life means. In recent decades, our view of reality has been expanded by explorations into space, explosions of violence in our streets, the liberation of feminism, the fall of communism...the list continues and we are fools to ignore it.

So, how do we proclaim the Good News today?

For many in the church, the answer is rather simple: we continue doing what we’ve always done. We open the Bible to the tried and true and demand belief. Or we blow the dust off the ancient works of the church fathers and require acquiescence.

Judging from the diminishing rolls of many churches, I am not convinced that such a tactic is viable any longer.

Others have tried to couch the Gospel in trendy language that often reveals nothing more than a rather shallow and superficial understanding of the amazing grace of God.

Such an attitude is perhaps best exemplified in that memorable song of a few years back: "Drop-kick me Jesus through the goal-posts of life."

Surely we should be taking the impact of the changes in our society seriously. To dismiss the cries of women or minorities or gay sisters and brothers is demonic. We may not agree, we may not understand, we may not want to hear it but there is no option for the Christian but to take their pain and their cries seriously. To demean the suffering of others through derisive humor or insulated ignorance is to turn our backs on Christ. Of that, I am certain.

It is time to face facts: a God who is white, male and Christian is a God who first is for white, male Christians and then for others.

Such an image is antithetical to the God revealed in Jesus the Christ.