Damilola Makinde
Damilola is the Evangelical Alliance's advocacy engagement lead.
Will Ozempic help us live life to the full?
21 November 2024Semaglutide, more commonly known as Ozempic or Wegovy, is a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes (Ozempic) and obesity (Wegovy). It works by suppressing appetite and regulating blood sugar levels. Approved for medical use in the US in 2017 (and in the UK in 2019), it hit the headlines in the UK two years ago as it was uncovered as Hollywood’s ‘skinny jab’, a secret ingredient to the picture-perfect bodies that fill our screens and haunt our mirrors. As such, it takes its place in the long list of…
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The local church can be a force for change in 2024
20 December 2023I studied law and was called to the Bar because I believe the law and public life more generally is a key arena in which to witness to the gospel. This understanding was always around me as I grew up in the church, but it crystallised when I did an internship with the Evangelical Alliance straight out of university. How I go about manifesting this belief looks different now to what I had in mind while training, but my work in churches still reflects this core idea – Jesus is Lord over all…
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I’m fed up with MPs throwing insults – but can I judge them?
7 December 2023I have found this episode profoundly disturbing on a number of fronts, not least for how it highlights how little we've come to expect from our politicians, and what it has showcased of the culture and language of PMQs. Those who represent us in government wield enormous power, and I wish they were more aware of this and appropriately temperate in their language. I wish they used the totality of their positions of influence to seek the peace and prosperity of this nation. Rather than pronounce…
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Like. Follow. Scroll. Repeat.
1 September 2022As a Christian, I will not disappoint. But before I go in on the ills of social media, I want to acknowledge its nuances. I am genuinely grateful to God that it exists. Social media isn’t bad As one who is blessed and destined to spend my life in dark brown skin, I am thankful that social media has exposed heinous abuses of power against people who look like me. I wouldn’t know the names of George Nkencho and George Floyd if not for social media. I wouldn’t have been able to see the harrowing…
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Being human: what's the point of my body?
9 December 2021I can’t say I’ve ever massively pondered the theological significance of my body. I’m certainly thankful to the Lord for it in general. I recognise that my body is a necessary part of my experience of the world, of what makes me, me, and so I am grateful to have it and for the fact that it by and large is in good working order. Like most people (I imagine – please tell me I’m not alone!), I have the odd gripe with how parts of it look and function, but on the whole, I think it’s a decent bit of…
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Cornerstone loses its appeal to only accept Bible-believing Christians as potential carers
6 October 2021In this latest judgment, the Court of Appeal agreed that the judge had been unduly dismissive of the importance of Cornerstone’s evangelical faith to its work and mission but ruled that this did not justify sexual orientation discrimination in the furtherance of that mission. The matter had initially arisen in 2019 when Ofsted issued a draft report to Cornerstone, downgrading its status from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ because Cornerstone, an explicitly evangelical Christian organisation,…
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Confessions of a hypocritical pro-lifer
9 July 2021Polls suggest that most people (women in particular) oppose such a move, and as one who affirms the value of human life both before and after birth, I am relieved that this is the case. As one who cares about how we might better host diversity of thought and belief in public life, I have been driven to ponder the aspiration that lies beneath such an amendment, the well of belief it is drawn from, the understanding of human flourishing that it is inspired by. As these things do, however, what…
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