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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
