Hey teacher in Christian school, if you want to continue your long and well documented tradition of discriminating against gay students in your school (deriding them, expelling them, pointing them out in the classroom, the sort of thing they’ve been doing up to this point with impunity), then you’d better get a wriggle on. For […]
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When Mike and Spike See Jesus.
It’s a hard truth, but it’s been the painful things in ministry that have shaped me most. I wish it were not that way, but it is. I wish the conferences and books and teaching series had been the biggest teachers. They’re all great things, and I appreciate them. But I suspect many are nodding […]
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The Religious Freedom Arm Wrestle
It’s time to get real. The debate around religious freedom in Australia is an arm wrestle and we’re at an impasse. Each side is straining at the other, and refusing to budge. And the reason each side is refusing to budge is that there is so much at stake. Paul Kelly nailed it […]
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The Religious Are Invisible Voters To Greens Leader, Richard di Natale
A friend sat watching the Australian Senate debating the contentious anti-discrimination bill before our Parliament today. It’s been the most rushed piece of legislation that is completely at odds with the gravity of the consequences of its enactment. The furphy around the legislation as it pertained to schools, was that it was presented as a […]
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Fr Rod Bower and His False Sign of The Times
There’s always a soothing (false) prophet announcing “Peace, peace” when there is no peace. It was true in Jeremiah’s time. It is true in the church today. So in light of the fact that next week the Federal Government, wedged as it is by the Opposition, and vainly fighting for its survival, is about to […]
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You Can’t Tell A Better Story if You’re Not a Better Story Teller (even if you’ve got a better story)
I’ve been moved, and encouraged, by the response I have received from many of you about my last blog post about my mum’s incredible grace shown towards my dad. And people have shared their own stories of grace in the midst of trial too. I’ve written blog posts that have been read more widely, but never – […]
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I’m the bad guy? How did that happen?
The incredulity on the face of recently divorced, recently fired William Foster’s face when he utters those words in the classic movie Falling Down, sums up what many Christians feel in the current cultural moment. After turning rogue and becoming vigilante for a day, railing against injustices perceived and real, Foster comes to the end […]
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White Magazine Goes Into the Red
Well that didn’t take long. Back at the end of August, I wrote about how wedding magazine White was facing a blackban over its quiet stance on same sex weddings, namely that it didn’t promote them. Owners Luke and Carla Burrell are Christians who, while not making a noise about it, were holding to their conscience […]
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Nationalism Is The Worst Thing Ever. Along With Globalism
Nationalism is pretty much the whipping boy of international progressive politics these days. And not without some reason. It is after all, 100 years this past Sunday, since the guns fell silent, ending the slaughter of the Great War that decimated the cream of Europe’s youth. French President, Emmanuel Macron, summed up the chastened […]
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The Precipice One Year On
This is the headline in The Conversation online journal today: Much to be done eh? One assumes that there are wedding plans to be pencilled in, flowers to buy, cakes to order (from reputable sources of course), venues to hire and suits and gowns to be tailored. After all as the article by la Trobe […]
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Sorry Modern Secularists, The Global Future is Large Religious Families.
The utopian ideal of the modern secular state is a world that looks Scandinavian. Cool, slightly detached, rational, autonomous units, small families, low carbon footprint (apart from all that IKEA packaging), and, most of all, post-religious. But demography is not the friend of those with such utopian ideals. A report in The Times of London […]
Recent Posts
Christian Leader: Surround Yourself With “No Men”
This is Ollie. Ollie is one of my “No Men”. Ollie has been one of my longest term friends. A man of Christian character over a long period of time. I took this photo of him in 1999 overlooking the Dorset coastline near Ollie’s family’s holiday cottage. Ollie and his wife, Phil, had just gotten […]
“The Establishment Is Appalled”: How The Gay Community Moved So Quickly From Margin to Centre
“The Establishment is appalled” With those words in his most recent article in The Guardian, Australian public intellectual and journalist, David Marr, revealed just how the marginalised gay community moved so quickly to the cultural centre. His statement is in reference to the storm surrounding the letter written by 34 principals of Sydney Anglican […]
…and also much cattle?
And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? (Jonah 4) The book of Jonah, that great text about racism and evangelism, ends in a curious way. After it’s all done and […]
Analogue Christianity in A Digital Public Square
The recent response from 34 Anglican School principals in Sydney concerning the religious freedom debate in Australia demonstrates once again that when it comes to commenting in the public square, Christianity operates in analogue. And the public square is digital. When I first read the letter, which outlined a clear, irenic and concise concern about […]
Imran Khan: From The Lion of Lahore to the Pussycat of Punjab
Growing up in Australia in the 1980s it was hard to avoid the amazing talents of Imran Khan, the great Pakistani cricketer known as the Lion of Lahore. He was a leader, a cricket god, and a sex god too according to the papers. And according to the French girl I went to uni with, […]
I’m Not a Team Player, But…
I’m not a team player. But last weekend I was part of a sports team that came third – yes, that’s right, third, a podium finish -, in the Open category of the legendary Blackwood Marathon in the rolling green countryside of West Australia’s south-west. The Blackwood Marathon turned forty in 2018. The event is […]
What a Pro-Life Church Looks Like
Right now one of our beloved church couples is winging their way to Taiwan to finally take home their adopted five year old boy; a little one has spent five long years in an orphanage. They would have adopted in Australia, except the adoption laws are way too restrictive and there are no unwanted babies […]
Church: Some Assembly Required
There’s no getting away from it. When it comes to church, some assembly is required. I love that little IKEA visual. It all makes it look so easy! Experience has taught many a person otherwise. But the challenging bit of church is doing the actually church bit; assembling together. Some assembly is required. In fact […]
What Having Only One Service Is Doing For Our Church
We only have one church service for our church. We don’t replicate. We don’t run two services and expect the same people to come to both (morning and evening like in the past). We don’t do homogenous unit principle church. We do one service. Now, hear me carefully. When it comes to how to do […]
Let’s Rip The Band-Aid Off Quickly
Are you a “rip it off slowly”, or rip it off quickly person when it comes to the dreaded Band-Aid? Whatever happens it’s going to be “ouchy”, right? So which “ouchy” do we want? Quick or slow? A friend asked me last night if I was feeling pleased that many of the things I’ve been […]