Catch up with Big Brother's Christian winner - CFN Newsletter Week 123

CHRISTIAN FAMILY NETWORK NEWSLETTER 122

> Cameron Stout on faith, fame and life after Big Brother
> News:
> New 'cyber safety' pocket guide for kids launched
> Preparing for world's largest young carers' festival
> More than a third of parents admit sunburn slip despite warnings
> Sites:
> What should your church's child protection policy contain?
> Help and advice on teenage pregnancy
> Marriage MOT: Learning about marriage
> You've got to laugh: Goodbye, Mother
> Members' Zone latest

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Very quick greetings this week

Plenty to inspire, encourage, provoke and inform you this update. Keep us posted on what you find helpful, and what you don't.

May God bless you and your family this week

Russ Bravo
Christian Family Network
info@cfnetwork.co.uk
http://www.cfnetwork.co.uk

PS Christian Family Network is here to direct you to the best in parenting, marriage and family resources; to link you up with other Christian families up and down the UK; and to help you make the most of life as a follower of Christ - at home, at work, at school and college, at play and online.

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INTERVIEW

Keep going, brother

• JAMES HASTINGS talks to Big Brother winner and committed Christian Cameron Stout about faith, fame and his growing media career

You can just hear the cries of horror in the Channel 4 programme development room. The commissioning editor has discovered one of the contestants in the next edition of the station's raunchy, flagship late night show - where talk is about sex and drugs and four-letter words abound - is a Christian.

The only salvation lies in the certainty that the non-smoking, non-drinking Christian who doesn't believe in sex before marriage will be quickly voted off by the viewers.

In fact, at the end of the programme's nine-week run, Cameron Stout, a 33-year-old Scottish Christian who's spent most of his life working as a fish merchant on a remote island most people have never even heard of, has become the nation's favourite Big Brother.

Not only that, Cameron, 33, recorded the highest ever viewers' vote, figures for the show reached an all-time high and Channel 4 secured columns and columns of media publicity it could only dream of. Almost a year after he left the Big Brother house to the screams of thousands - and Davina McCall - Cameron Stout is still trying to assess what has happened to him.

"Since Big Brother, I've done everything from a wing-walk to a panto, opened a London motor show and spoken at Christian services," he says with understated amazement. "In September, I'm touring with a play about The Covenanters and I'll be back in London soon to commentate on the next series of Big Brother which I'm really looking forward to. I'm lucky if I spend three days a week at home in Orkney."

Perhaps it was the constant ringing of his new agent's phone or the fact that most of Orkney (that strangly-shaped island stuck on the top of Scotland on TV weather reports) crowded the harbour when he arrived home after Big Brother, which persuaded Cameron to leave his former job as a fish merchant in Kirkwall, the island's capital. He is now a regular on TV talk shows, speaks at business seminars and conferences and, of course, provides headline appearances at Christian events.

However, not everyone is pleased about the nation's newest TV celebrity. Cameron's consistently pleasant tone drops a key when he refers to criticism he has encountered - from Christians.

"Some Christians tell me I shouldn't have been involved with a reality TV show like Big Brother, let alone television," he says. "But you can't live your faith or your life in a holy huddle, only mixing and talking with others who share your beliefs. "Secular society tends to regard Christians as weirdos anyway, people who go around chanting hymns. If we're truly Christian, then we should integrate with society and show them that we're ordinary folk. Of course, that is not the same as surrendering our beliefs, but we must integrate."

He says he still has "absolutely no idea" why he entered for Big Brother, especially as he rarely watches television. However, he was thrilled to be selected as a contestant and would gladly do something similar again.

"When I told my parents I'd got on Big Brother, my dad said I'd be better off going to prison," he laughs. "I don't watch much TV but I was instantly attracted to the reality shows like Big Brother when they started. Many Christians don't like them, but I think they're living behind the times.

"This is what people are watching and what the media are writing about so I think there's a role for a Christian presence.

• To read the rest of this article, go to our Resources section at http://www.cfnetwork.co.uk/members/resources.asp

> THIS WEEK'S NEWS

> New 'cyber safety' pocket guide for kids launched

The first ever 'cyber-safety Pocket Guide', produced by the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service [CCPAS] aims to help parents keep their children safe online.

Go to http://www.cfnetwork.co.uk/members/news.asp for the full story

> Preparing for world's largest young carers' festival

More than 1,000 children and young people caring for parents, brothers, sisters and other family members who are seriously ill or disabled, will take part in the fifth national Young Carers Festival next month.

Go to http://www.cfnetwork.co.uk/members/resources.asp for the full story

> More than a third of parents admit sunburn slip despite warnings

More than a third of parents in Great Britain admit their child has been sunburnt, despite the majority knowing that over-exposure to the sun can cause skin cancer.

Go to http://www.cfnetwork.co.uk/members/news.asp for the full story

> MARRIAGE MOT

> Check out our archived marriage tips in the Members' Zone, plus stacks more marriage resources at http://www.2-in-2-1.co.uk

Learning about marriage

In a recent survey, when asked where children learnt most about marriage, over 90% of people said from the family in the home. There are few opportunities to learn about marriage at school and the media bombard children with images of often dysfunctional marriages.

So what are your children or the young people around you learning about marriage? What message does your relationship give to those around you? Have you ever thought that your marriage is not just something private between you, but something that affects society and the world where you live and work?

Does your conversation at work or among friends give them the true picture of your relationship? Do they see the truth in your behaviour towards each other? What would you like them to see?

It’s quite scary to think the profound influence your marriage could have on others. Does this make you want to live your life differently or are you simply encouraged that your marriage could have a purpose beyond the blessings you are receiving in it?

Worth some thought perhaps …

> EVENTS

> YOU'VE GOT TO LAUGH ...

It’s costly to care!

A young man was walking through a supermarket to pick up a few things when he noticed an old lady following him around. Thinking nothing of it, he ignored her and continued on.

Finally he went to the checkout line, but she squeezed in in front of him.

"Pardon me," she said, "I’m sorry if my staring has made you feel uncomfortable. It’s just that you look exactly like my son, who died very recently."

"I’m so sorry," replied the man, "is there anything I can do for you?"

"Well, yes there is," she said. "As I’m leaving, could you say ‘Goodbye, Mother’? It would make me feel so much better."

"Sure," answered the young man, and as the old woman was leaving, he called out, "Goodbye Mother!"

When he stepped up to the checkout counter, he saw that his total was £88.50. "How can that be?" he asked, "I only purchased a few things!"

"Your mother said that you would be paying for her," said the girl behind the checkout

From Joy Magazine Faith and Fun newsletter

> CHRISTIAN FAMILY NETWORK THIS WEEK
(MEMBERS' ZONE) - http://www.cfnetwork.co.uk/members/default.asp

> Advice

> Kate's Marriage advice - learning about marriage
> Eric Spellmann on downloading software

> Resources

> Cameron Stout on faith, fame and life after Big Brother
> Joni Eareckson Tada asks: are we nearly there yet?
> Christian Mums launch their own website
> Science howlers - real answers from exam papers

> News

> New 'cyber safety' pocket guide for kids launched
> Preparing for world's largest young carers' festival
> More than a third of parents admit sunburn slip despite warnings

> News extra: Parents' fears over 3G mobiles

> Top sites this week

> What should your church's child protection policy contain?
> Help and advice on teenage pregnancy
> Survivor music site revamped
> New Christian site on Euro elections

> Events: What's on near you

> Webwatch index: more than 650 sites categorised at your fingertips

> Site Search Engine: the easy way to trawl our 1,000-page plus archives

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