A friend sat watching the Australian Senate debating the contentious anti-discrimination bill before our Parliament today. It’s been the most rushed piece of legislation that is completely at odds with the gravity of the consequences of its enactment. The furphy around the legislation as it pertained to schools, was that it was presented as a […]
There’s always a soothing (false) prophet announcing “Peace, peace” when there is no peace. It was true in Jeremiah’s time. It is true in the church today. So in light of the fact that next week the Federal Government, wedged as it is by the Opposition, and vainly fighting for its survival, is about to […]
I’ve been moved, and encouraged, by the response I have received from many of you about my last blog post about my mum’s incredible grace shown towards my dad. And people have shared their own stories of grace in the midst of trial too. I’ve written blog posts that have been read more widely, but never – […]
I can, by nature, be a graceless man. I slip all too easily into either a snakes-and-ladders works-based righteousness; up when I’m doing well, down when I’m not. Or, worse, I fail to extend grace to other people. My bent towards being a chippy so-and-so, coupled with, – how shall we put it -, an […]
Yesterday was my last official day as Senior Pastor at our church, Providence Church Midland. After six years as Midland pastor and two previous years working with Providence’s city congregation, we made the change at our general meeting last night. Jill and I planted in our lounge room six years ago. Now after a year […]
The incredulity on the face of recently divorced, recently fired William Foster’s face when he utters those words in the classic movie Falling Down, sums up what many Christians feel in the current cultural moment. After turning rogue and becoming vigilante for a day, railing against injustices perceived and real, Foster comes to the end […]
The Tasmanian Toddlers, also known as the politicians that state’s lower house of parliament, have gotten into the knife drawer. And it won’t be pretty. Now there’s something cute about toddlers sitting on the kitchen floor rummaging through the Tupperware cupboard. Something cute. Something safe. Something innocent. Those little bundles of joy are in no […]
Well that didn’t take long. Back at the end of August, I wrote about how wedding magazine White was facing a blackban over its quiet stance on same sex weddings, namely that it didn’t promote them. Owners Luke and Carla Burrell are Christians who, while not making a noise about it, were holding to their conscience […]
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 […]
