A couple of weeks ago The Washington Post ran a leader that was critical of the Methodist Church in Britain’s Conference resolution to ban BNP members from becoming members of the Church.

“If the Church is going to make gospel standards a requirement for membership, the BNP soon will be larger than the Church,” the article concluded cynically.

Here it is in full.

Today I came across a story online featured in the American publication, Christianity Today, bearing the news that United Methodists have defeated amendments which would have made Church membership open to all Christians regardless of sexual orientation.

So, should the observation be: “If the Church is going to make gospel standards a requirement for membership, homosexuality soon will be larger than the Church”?

Did anybody see 'Revelations' on channel 4 last night? The program - How to find God - observed a small group of agnostics (including an unemployed freegan, a comedy writer and a student) who were attending an Alpha course for the first time. The documentary followed them to see if any would embrace Christianity along the way.

In the initial stages, there weren't really any surprises: questions about the historical Jesus, asking why God lets people suffer, debating the literal truths of the Bible – all standard fare. But then, on a weekend away, the leader encouraged the (still unconvinced) agnostics to open themselves to speaking in tongues! And perhaps unsurprisingly, a few opened themselves to making a swift exit...

We all know sectarianism is wrong. We (especially those of us from Northern Ireland) have all been there and got the tee-shirt as they say. We all know prejudices and intolerances do not a successful community make. So why are some of us still unhappy at the thought of living next door to someone who is gay, a migrant worker or, horror of horrors, an Irish Traveller?

A report, coincidentally published at a time when we are dealing with the racist attacks and subsequent departure from Ireland of around 100 Roma Romanians, from the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland gives me and my compatriots a big shake up.

The Pew Research Center conducted a survey in April 2009, among US Americans on the question: "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?"

Given that the new President Obama has been highly critical of the previous administration's use of Guantanamo Bay and secret overseas locations for interrogations, there is not surprisingly a very significant difference between the responses of Republicans and Democrats, with almost two-thirds of Republicans saying torture can be often or sometimes justified, compared with just over a third among Democrats.

What was perhaps more surprising was the survey finding that the more often people went to church, the more likely they were to feel that torture was justified.

In 2007 an article by the Revd Howard Mellor suggested that numbers of active ordained ministers in British Methodism are likely to drop over the next decade by 40%, as a high cohorts of retirees are not replaced by sufficient new ordinands.

This projected loss, together with ageing congregations, will inevitably mean substantial changes within Methodism.

Planning to deal with this is already underway with investigations into potential amalgamations of circuits, with the prospect of a future reorganisation of districts.

You've heard it, I've heard it, even it seems the kids on South Park have heard it... Susan Boyle has a great voice, but isn't quite Katherine Jenkins in the looks department. She's gone the 47 years of her life without the likelihood of making it big in the entertainment industry, in all probability based on her appearance.

And yet... scores of celebs, without any 'obvious talents' but with generally accepted good looks (I'm thinking Ms Hilton, Ms Geldof, Ms Katona, Mr Best Jr, etc) hog our newspaper pages and get to write guest columns in glossy mags.

As I got thinking about this, I realised that it's almost impossible not to fall into the trap of judging people.

However you are feeling the effects of the credit crunch, it can be a wearying exercise tuning into the news. Hearing more stories about rising unemployment, the erosion of classic 'British' industries (car manufacturers, farming and so on) and the very real impact of the economic crisis on individuals and families around the country inspires gloom and doom, if not worry and panic.

The thing is, in an economic crisis it is always the poor and disadvantaged who feel the pinch first, most and for longest. These are the communities that often depend on the support and lobbying of charities.

And despite the recent fantastic success of Comic Relief (which raised a record-breaking £58m), charities - both those who work in UK projects and those who work overseas - are reporting that they too are struggling to make ends meet.

A nurse has just been struck off the Nursing Register making it impossible for her to work again in her chosen profession. Her crime was to bring to public attention the abuse of sick and elderly patients in a hospital.

Earlier this year a teacher was struck off by the Teaching Council for a similar reason. Both these individuals had failed to get their superiors interested in examining their complaints so they risked their careers for the sake of the people whom they served, not their employers but their patients and pupils.

Were they right to do so?

Driving up a motorway on the Easter weekend (don't ask which one, they all merge into one giant grey mass of tarmac) I noticed a big advertising siding positioned on the back of a trailer in a field. It was a political party promo for a Christian party who had as their strapline "Britain is a Christian country. Keep it that way" and below they had "Put your X next to the Cross".

It was a bit startling to see such a bald religiously political/politically religious statement hanging about on the side of the road - and that's saying something as I come from a country which specialises in political and religious sloganeering (Northern Ireland). A couple of things struck me.

The novelist Julie Myerson has been slammed for throwing her drug addicted son Jake out of the house and then publicly exposing him by interweaving his troubles into her latest novel.

20-year-old Jake, who was 17 when his mother changed the locks of their Clapham home so that he couldn't get back in, has described his mother's actions as 'obscene'. He has further accused her of being "wrapped up in her own world".

Last month, a report by The Church of England Children's Society - A Good Childhood - said that the selfishness of parents and adults was contributing to the unhappiness of our children (a 2007 UNICEF report found British children to be the unhappiest in the Western world).