“Make your life extraordinary” is the advice school teacher John Keating gives his class in Dead Poets Society. Otis Clark seemed to achieve this without really trying. Otis died recently at the age of 109. He had a long and eventful life.
What is the future of the church as we know it in the western world? I have written about this many times (see The future for the church), believing that much needs to change. It is like the tide is coming in, the island the churches are sitting on is shrinking, our feet are wet, […]
Almost one billion people, an eighth of the world’s population, are hungry as you read this. Why?
Alice Cooper used to be considered as evil personified, but now he is a christian believer, some don’t know how to take him. So I enjoyed this interview with him, especially these comments by the reporter: “In the same week, it’s possible that Cooper may be on stage fake-executing himself with a guillotine and helping […]
I have previously reported on the ethical dilemmas posed by eating chocolate, due to the trafficking and exploitation of children in growing cocoa in West Africa (see My pleasure, their misery? and Easter eggs and slavery), and on the responses to my letters to chocolate manufacturers (see Fair Trade chocolate – report 1). I have […]
We can read the statistics which show that, in most western countries, church attendance has fallen in the last century. In some cases it is still falling, though in others it has levelled out. The ‘leavers’ are not necessarily giving up all belief in God – many list themselves as ‘not committed’ – but some […]
Easter’s coming soon, and if you live in the west as I do, you’ll probably be eating your share of easter eggs. But what if the eggs came from cocoa grown using child labour, that is effectively slave labour?
I met Jon Owen at the Black Stump music festival. Over three days I listened to his stories and was impressed. I laughed a lot, but had the odd tear as well. Jon and his wife Lisa live in one of Sydney’s most depressed suburbs as part of a community supported by Urban Neighbours of […]
Back in November I reported on exploitation in the world cocoa trade in My pleasure, their misery?. At that time I wrote about this to two prominent chocolate manufacturers. I subsequently reported (Fair Trade chocolate – report 2) that I had received a reply from Cadbury indicating their ongoing support for Fair Trade products. I […]
I’ve never used Twitter. I’m not really interested, and I doubt anyone would want to read my tweets anyway. But many christians use it, especially well-known ones – writers, leaders, entertainers and bloggers. But I’m beginning to wonder whether a lot of this christian tweeting is counter-productive.