The thing about The Young Ones, the cult British comedy from the 1980s, is that it aged badly. Nearly forty years on from the squalor of Thatcher, the program doesn’t fly. I used to guffaw at the antics of Rick, Vyvyan, Neil and Mike. But it would raise barely a chuckle today. The Young Ones […]
What weapons are we using in the wartime we are experiencing? Are we falling into the same trap as the rest of the culture in thinking that if we just get a grip on the levers of power we can shape things the way we want them? Check out the latest Life In Wartime podcast […]
We all know the legend of Rip van Winkle, the man who fell asleep for decades only to wake up and discover his wife dead, his family gone, and time having passed him by. You can imagine his consternation. “But I just sat under this tree for a nap!” Well church, I hope you are […]
We came up with the title for our podcast Life in Wartime off the back of the statement by our Prime Minister that the pandemic was a war. Little did we know that that war just handed on the baton to another aspect of the culture wars. It’s war, war, war, everywhere we look. And with […]
Okay, it’s a clickbait headline. But Guy Sebastian is cooked. Cancelled. This Australian Idol is set to topple along with any number of statues. He’s as cooked as Colonial Beer and The Wiggles. His crime? Thanking the Prime Minister Scott Morrison for including him in the round table discussion with representatives from the Australian arts […]
I checked out Aimee Byrd’s Twitter account yesterday to see how she was faring in the wake of the furore around her removal from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals podcast (among other things), the no-longer-aptly-named Mortification of Spin. I was appalled. The gutter level of comments from men (and some women) towards her on a […]
Have a listen to The latest Life in Wartime podcast from me and David Robertson, here. And our latest The Kitchen Table discussion on why/if/when society descends into Lord of the Flies is here.
Big word “revivification”. Big word, easy to understand. It means revive. Bring something back from the dead. And that’s exactly what the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals podcast Mortification of Spin has done, it has revived the very thing it always proudly announced it was killing: Spin. Spin. Ah spin, the beloved refuge of politicians and […]
The end is in sight for Zooman Beings. I can almost see the smile on your 3D face. Almost. My eyes are too strained by virtue of the several hundred Zoom calls I’ve been on in recent months, that even with my glasses I might struggle to see your face. But being a Zooman Being […]
So the book burning begins. Streaming service Netflix has started to remove movies. Time to rename it Notflix. Stranger things have happened. Though perhaps Stranger Things has crossed some imaginary line that will see it pulled soon enough. And I don’t know how they’ll go with that adult cartoon wonder, Bojack Horseman which pretty much […]
Well the inevitable result of the refusal by state governments and law enforcement agencies to enforce social distancing laws at the BLM protests has arrived, with the news that many businesses are going to openly defy the law, given others have gotten away with it without censure. Read what The Australian newspaper reports about the […]
The bold prediction by atheist gadfly and newspaper columnist, Peter Fitzsimmons that COVID-19 would deal a blow to religion because older people – who were more at risk – were more religious, has been gloriously exposed as wishful thinking. If truth be told, despite the suffering (or perhaps because of it?) the church has received […]
Beware of any religious types who roll up in a DeLorean promising time travel to either a nostalgic past or a pristine future (James KA Smith) One of the biggest traps earnest Christians fall into in their search for authentic expressions of church, is to follow the siren call of those who offer an expression […]
Ok, So I haven’t blogged for a bit. That’s unusual for me. I’m a blog a day kinda guy and that has fallen by the wayside the last month. I haven’t blogged for a bit is like me not going for a run for a bit. It doesn’t happen. Except at the moment it is […]
We’ve all gone down some rabbit holes during lockdown. My particular rabbit hole has been music reaction videos. That’s right. I’ve spent way too much time locked up at home watching funky young hip hop and rap dudes reacting to classic rock and pop songs that were delivered way before they were. And being astounded […]
What happens to love in a time of war? Do we become more compassionate and loving towards others or less so? What about this COVID-19 pandemic? What has it revealed about the way we love, what we love, and if, as David Brooks asserts in the New York Times, “pandemics kill compassion too”? Here’s the […]
Here’s a selection of the latest material on the Third Space website. First up, a new podcast hosted on the Eternity Podcast site, called Life in Wartime, featuring me with my colleague from Third Space, David Robertson. In this introductory episode we explore the similarities (and differences0 between our time in COVID-19 and the start […]
It seems sadly ironic that the national review announced today into the history of abuse by leadership within The Crowded House church network contains ten points. Why so? Because The Crowded House itself has historically had a list of ten values that it claimed shaped its life and ministry. The list of ten – a […]
Should churches, as not-for-profits, access the Australian Government’s JobKeeper scheme in order to keep staff if their giving decreases during the COVIC-19 shutdown and beyond? That’s a question that I have heard doing the rounds. Is it the right thing to do? Is it the wrong thing to do? What is at stake if we […]
I have devoted this guest post to a friend of mine, Talia. I have not read anything as moving, as heartbreaking, or as soul-enriching this year. This is her account of how her fourth child with her husband Dave, has deepened her understanding of God, even – and especially in the midst of deep pain. […]
So do we just get on with life after Easter in these COVID-19 times? Check out the latest from The Panic Room as we discuss the question, is it just another Manic Monday?
Just imagine if one man said he was both able and willing to suffer and die from COVID-19 in place of all the sufferers in the world, releasing the planet from the fear of this terrible scourge? How liberating would that be? Wouldn’t we just burst out of our doors laughing and crying with […]
Indian author Arundhati Roy is well meaning, but naive in her hopes about what the world could be like when we emerge from our coronavirus lockdowns. I mean, I love her sentiments, but it’s her last observation that makes me sigh “here we go again.” Have a look at what the Booker prize winning author […]
In any other year it would have been the biggest news story of the day, the week and the month. But it isn’t. Not in these early months of 2020. Yes, it’s there on the front page of the online papers. But it’s buried under an avalanche of stories about coronavirus and death. Cardinal George […]
