As a child I’d often wondered how God would collate everything we’ve ever done and present it to us in a neat package on the last day. And then Facebook came along. But seriously. I received the “balloony” thing today, accompanied by a photo of me, congratulating me on my ten well spent years idling […]
England football manager Gareth Southgate is the flavour of the month across social media (flavour of the minute surely!). Lampooned at Euro 96 when his missed penalty saw England bow out against Germany in the semi-finals, he was lauded two nights ago when his new-look England team held their nerve, won a penalty shoot out […]
And the point just before the repentance and then just after:
I am 100 per cent with The Greens in wanting the Lord’s Prayer abolished from Federal Parliament at the start of each sitting day. For 100 per cent different reasons of course. The Lord’s Prayer is too precious and too provocative for Parliament. It’s our prayer, not theirs and we must insist that we take […]
British ultra-marathon star, Steve Way, is one of my favourite runners. Here he is coming third in this year’s Comrades ultra-marathon in South Africa. And it’s not just his story that I like. Though that’s pretty good. A 116kg, 20 smokes a day, pie-eating IT worker who was fed up with being unfit, he hit […]
The reason there has been so much heat in our ethical debates of late is that our secular, sexular culture has moved all of its non-transcendent ground floor projects one floor up to the second floor, a floor given over to transcendence. Let me explain. Our culture has rejected the idea of an external transcendence […]
The trouble with the highly anticipated Incredibles 2 movie is that it is just not credible enough. Fourteen years after our hearts were stolen by the all too recognisable Parr family, a group of superheroes condemned to living par or even below par American lives, all the while knowing they were destined for something better, […]
It’s doubtful whether Marie Antoinette ever said “Let them eat cake”, but her Francophone counterparts in Canada have truly declared “They cannot practice law.” This week, while religious freedom advocates are all eating cake to celebrate the Supreme Court in the USA deciding for Masterpiece Cake shop baker, Jack Phillips, the real future for freedom […]
It’s been my contention that the bodies of the Sexual Revolution tsunami will eventually start to wash up on the shore. It’s also been my contention that the church has to be prepared for that time; to put behind it its sin of falling under the spell of that cultural narrative, admitting it has been […]
So when I read this headline today: I was thinking satirical Christian site Babylonbee. Sure sounds like that sort of thing. Sadly not. You couldn’t make this stuff up. You don’t have to make this stuff up. Cos truth is stranger, more cringingly and disturbingly so, than fiction. Or satire. This is from BusinessInsider Australia; an […]
Why would anyone looking for a solid education in the humanities bother signing up to a western university these days? The hostile rejection/mealy-mouthed surrender by the Australian National University of the Ramsey Foundation’s sponsorship of a centre on Western civilisation is case in point. It was all “hurrumph, hurrumph” and talk about academic freedom, but […]
It’s hard to know sometimes if the cake is fully baked just by looking at it. Sometimes it needs to be skewered to see if it’s done or merely half baked. A baked cake is delicious. A half baked one? Not so much The decision by the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) in favour of baker Jack […]
Christians are on a hiding to nothing if they play the persecution card in the upcoming discussion on religious freedom in Australia. There is zero traction in that approach or, as is more likely, there is negative traction in that approach. Let’s be clear. In our current clime it will simply make things worse. Any such claim […]
I want to write this because, in light of the abortion vote in Ireland, everyone wants their say. To write their narrative. To decide what it tells everyone about the direction of the culture. To cheer with the women (and men) in the crowds as the result is announced, or to be appalled that anyone […]
The resounding vote in favour of legalising abortion in Ireland is as much a final rejection of the traditional world in which Ireland has been steeped, as it is a triumph of the individualistic world into which Ireland wishes to step. In his book “Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationship Beyond an Age of Individualism”, Dale […]
Every generation or so someone writes a go-to book for mid-teen Christians and young adults interested in Christianity that captures the tone and mood of the times. 20 or so years back that book was John Dickson’s A Sneaking Suspicion. Those of us involved in Christian youth ministry in Australia bought it in bulk and […]
Dogs always make favourite children’s stories. Go, Dog. Go! was a favourite of mine as a child. The wonder of the dogs driving cars to wherever they were supposed to be driving them. The dogs of all shapes and sizes. The hats dogs do not like. Astonishing artwork. Vivid, sparse language that aids childhood speech […]
To miss one Royal wedding may be regarded as misfortune. To miss two looks like carelessness. (with apologies to Oscar Wilde) I missed the wedding of Charles and Di back in 1981. Not that I was invited of course, but as a fourteen year old lad living in sectarian Northern Ireland, refusing to watch that […]
Christian in the public square need to be more repellently attractive. Why do I say that? I’ve had some pushback on my last blog post concerning the Age of Apologetics or Persuasion being over. I stated that we have entered the Age of Proclamation. Cue pushback from public theologians. Here’s what I don’t mean by […]
There’s a Simpsons episode in which Lisa conducts a science experiment in a petri dish. Somehow she spawns a civilisation that rises, flourishes and declines right before her eyes. Watching Wild Wild Country, the Netflix documentary about the Rajneeshees/Orange People is like watching that petri dish. We see the rise, flourishing, decay and decline of a […]
I’ve just started watching Wild Wild Country on Netflix; a documentary on the Rajneesh Movement, more commonly called the Orange People, led by Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who died in 1990. And I’m riveted. My interest in the series was piqued primarily because the Orange People – so called because they primarily wore orange […]
Just some thoughts I wrote for The Gospel Coalition Australia on ANZAC Day and the need for something transcendent. https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/anzac-day-popular-secular-age/
Anyone spot the problem in this picture? Got it yet? Yep, after hundreds of flights, and an equal number of safety instruction demonstrations before the flight takes off, you know that you are supposed to put the oxygen mask around your mouth and nose. You did know that right? These passengers on the unfortunate Southwestern Airlines flight this past […]
