VERSION|0.5.1|SUBJECT|Rev Canon Dr Alan Billings, an Anglican priest in Sheffield  |CONTENT|[b]Rating[/b] 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)

[url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130812.html][img=images/2013/08/pic130812.jpg popup=false float=right][/url]Do you know what a "baby shower" is? I didn't, until my daughter went to one. It's a party for young mothers where cupcakes, presents and advice are exchanged. Apparently this country is having a lot of babies at the moment, thus making baby showers very popular. This means that we British now have the fastest rising population in the EU, at least for as long as we're in the EU.

Religions generally regard babies as a good thing. Judaism is quite unequivocal on the issue. Christianity is a little more ambivalent. Jesus never had children and anyone who says otherwise is just a dirty, rotten liar that you mustn't believe. To have children, Jesus would have had to do dirty things and we can't have the visible bit of the Invisible Magic Friend going around doing dirty things. However, there are strong indications that Jesus approved of children and therefore children are a good thing.

I'm not an expert on what other religions think about children, so I'm in no position to comment on them, but certainly Judaism and Christianity seem to approve of children.

Baby showers are a way of creating a modern extended family, without all the inconvenience of incontinence and dementia.

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01f0z4s]Listen/Read[/url]|CATEGORIES|83,9|IP-ADDRESS|94.168.119.214|DATE|1376292318|CREATEDBY|admin
