Spiritual principles series Dealing with refugees is one of the most intractable problems facing governments across the western world. Not only is it difficult to control the number of people seeking asylum from crossing borders, but there is the fear that among the asylum seekers may be Taliban of DAESH fighters bent on suicide terrorism. […]
I must admit it jolted me a little. I was walking slowly through a local shopping centre when I was confronted with the sign shown above. 46 Australian soldiers have been killed on active duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, since 1999. But more than 5 times that number of returned soldiers have committed suicide […]
The dictionary defines an extremist as “a person who holds extreme political or religious views, especially one who advocates illegal, violent, or other extreme action.” Search for photos tagged as “extremist” (as I did for this post) and the majority of the photos are of Americans protesting against their government, especially their President. The one […]
aka “a simple desultory philippic” a We interrupt this series on difficult questions for a short rant. Please move along quickly!
Spiritual principles series We don’t know much about the prophet Habakkuk, but he probably lived around 600 BCE when the Babylonians were becoming powerful and a threat to Jerusalem. Habakkuk is shocked by the violence around him, and asks God how long he will tolerate it. He gets a shocking and surprising answer, but one […]
The world does appear to be changing. For years, the scientists have been warning of global warming. The majority of people, in western countries at least, have accepted that our actions were causing a real problem, but few governments were willing to do much about it. But the problems are becoming more obvious, the alternative […]
Spiritual principles series Every morning, unless something extremely unusual happens, my wife and I spend about half an hour praying together. We pray for each other, for our children, our friends and other relatives, for the ministries we are involved in, and anything else that comes to mind. Maybe you’re thinking there’s nothing so unusual […]
Can christians find a loving and ethical response in the abortion debate?
In the west we generally live in post-christian societies. Although the majority of people in many countries may list their religion as “christian”, weekly church attendance is down around 5-15% in many countries, and somewhere around 30% in the US. It seems that in many cases, churches haven’t really adjusted to the end of Christendom […]
Difficult issues series This one’s been around for a while, but I hadn’t seen it until recently, so maybe you haven’t either. When Jesus healed a centurion’s servant in Matthew 8:5-13 & Luke 7:1-10, the Greek word pais is used and translated as “servant”. The word pais had several meanings, including young boy or son, […]