Author: stephenmcalpine

At last a good news story that has the potential to bring the endlessly warring hard Left and the hard Right together.  Iceland  has virtually eliminated Down Syndrome through its program of foetal screening and abortion. In one fell swoop the eugenics program that once guaranteed the rise of the glorious Ubermenchen of the hard […]

A lot’s going to be said about that postal vote before it’s all done and dusted.  This is not about that postal vote.  This is about what the landscape may look like afterwards as far as religious expression in the public square is concerned down the line. I have a lot of respect for rising […]

I am a pastor. A male pastor. A male pastor of a small “r” reformed, evangelical church plant that many would consider conservative. I also have a wife who has a higher level of education than I, and who runs her own clinical psychology practice.  There has never been a point in our lives where […]

The Protestant Church could do worse this 500th Reformation year than ending the habit that has gripped so much of the church at the pointy end of the 20th and start of the 21st centuries, namely the promulgation of self-indulgence. Just as the Reformation was birthed by Martin Luther’s revulsion at the sale of indulgences […]

My nine year old son asked me the inevitable “Did they have “BLANK” back in your day?” question recently, holding up a Rubik’s Cube for my perusal. He has asked me the same about coloured television too, which is more insulting as the cube is nowhere near as ubiquitous as TV.    What’s with kids […]

There’s something slightly cute and just a little pitiful about Richard Dawkins’ response to his recent “deplatforming” at a Berkeley book talk recently. Something that reminds me of a cosseted lapdog when refused a Battenberg Treat at the tea table. Just to catch you up, everyone’s favourite atheist was “deplatformed” ( a neologism you better […]

At least we’re cutting to the chase now in our culture. At least we’re cutting through all the cant about how the problem we have is that people hate the church but deep down really love Jesus. At least we’re not going to spend acres of time and millions of dollars devising strategies around the […]

Two weeks ago I had an identity crisis. It lasted for a week and it all happened while we were on holidays in Sydney.  For the entire week I found myself passing people in the street, being served in shops, eating meals in restaurants and sitting on the train, all the time wondering if everyone […]

Last Saturday night was one of the year’s highlights for me.  It just so happened that our Sydney holiday coincided with a once in a forty years (take note of that biblical time period) visit to these shores by English Premier Leagues giants Arsenal FC. And we got tickets.  At the last minute. Now I […]

So in honour of our move to a new building for church this week I have given my blog a facelift.  It was either it or I, though at six weeks away from turning fifty what amount of money could change my craggy features? It’s got that modern Mondrian look about it, don’t you think? […]