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 […]
Christian student, for the love of God, study literature at school. Our local newspaper reported this morning that the number of students studying Literature in upper school in our state has plummeted over the past two decades. So much so that some Western Australian schools are no longer offering it as a university entrance subject. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Transparent waste recycle bins. So we can see what you/others are throwing away. Coming to a suburb near you. An inner-city or coastal suburb near you if you live in Perth, or actually coming to you if you live in one of those suburbs. There’s a good idea in there somewhere, probably down near the bottom under […]
In the aftermath of the media storm that engulfed his comments about homosexuality on Instagram, rugby union star Israel Folau has had a long, and personal article published in online player’s journal Player’s Voice Folau’s great crime in the eyes of the Sexular Culture was to answer a question about homosexual activity in the negative. […]
The resignation of Bill Hybels from Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago this past week follows the dispiriting pattern of mea culpas we have seen in the secular world, when issues of impropriety are exposed. Something creeps in to the church, a bracket creep in which the church edges its way towards the crisis management […]
So Israel Folau has not been sanctioned by the Australian Rugby Union for his tweet about those unrepentantly practicing homosexual behaviour ending up in hell. It’s been a merry dance for all concerned. And Folau has managed – just – to stay ahead of the pack. Following a meeting with the ARU it was stressed […]
I’ve noticed the Mazda ads in the bus shelters the past few days. “Be moved like never before” they cajole, offering me a level of transcendence usually reserved for love or religion. The TV ad has been around since mid-2017 and features a series of dancers, floating around the new Mazda CX-3. Visually stunning. And […]
It’s not often that the progressive and conservative side of life could raise voice in unison against an institution, but QANTAS is certainly giving them the opportunity. After years of big business being the bete noir of the Left for the manner in which it treats its workers; outsourcing, downsizing, sending jobs (and profits) overseas, […]
