It is in welcoming a poor child into the world and into our hearts that we begin to meet a love that cannot be contained or used as a pawn in any war of position, says Simon Barrow.

The Bank of England reports that members of the public now owe £1.457 trillion, £1.219 trillion of which is secured on dwellings, the value of which con­tinues to diminish, says Giles Fraser. So is more shopping the answer?

The season of Advent is about waiting and anticipation. But what kind of Jesus is the church expecting by the way it behaves, asks Simon Barrow. What is it truly mortgaging itself on?

The issues in the Damian Green saga are significant and should be monitored closely, says Simon Barrow. But the hysteria surrounding them tells us we are losing proportion and far greater injustices may be happening under our noses.

The political instinct is to react, and sometimes to overreact to cultural blips as well as big issues. Simon Barrow suggests that we might all need to lighten up to regain a deeper sense of perspective.

The biblical theme of judgement confronts us with some tough issues, says Simon Barrow. But rightly understood it is about liberation not vindictiveness, and a reorientation which is economic as much as spiritual, political as much as religious.

You cannot defend the church by being defensive and going on the warpath, says Giles Fraser. We can only find freedom from the ego's ever narrowing obsessions by placing our centre of interest outside of ourselves.

Today is Remembrance Day. But what is ‘remembering’ in human and Christian terms, asks Simon Barrow? How can we probe beneath the emotion and ceremony in order to discover (and practice) something life-affirming as we recall the tragedy of war?

This Sunday 9 November, churches up and down the country will make a political statement which will be widely covered across print and broadcast media, says Jonathan Bartley. But it is likely to pass without so much as a murmur of criticism.

James Bond may be fantasy, but according to an army expert our media replicate many of the psychological tech­niques used by the military to over­come our resistance to killing, says Giles Fraser. No wonder the murder rate is rising among the young.

Much church self-promotion misses the point, says Jonathan Bartley. the church to which church-leavers return must be different from the one they left. In other words, the solution is moving forward, not going back.

Measuring the number of times politicians mention or don't mention God misses the point, says Simon Barrow. The issue is whether the subversive language of the Gospel can challenge top-down religious and political systems.

The current global economic crisis is not just a squeeze on lenders, borrowers and spenders. It also crunch time for the politicians and for the Christian churches, says Simon Barrow. Now is a time to be investing in practical alternatives.

The main British party conferences were about to sidestep the economy, but the latest bank crunch has made the topic unavoidable, says Simon Barrow. But do politicians or the churches have anything meaningful to say?

Nick Clegg has been making waves on tax and social policy at the Liberal Democrat conference recently. Here Simon Barrow probes him on his beliefs, religion, Europe, his political creed and more.