But me, I’m still on the road
(June 29, 2016)Why young christians drop out, and what we might do to help them keep believing.
Tag: western society
"I don't know what they're doing with their lives"
(June 18, 2016)“All the people we used to know They’re an illusion to me now Some are mathematicians Some are carpenters’ wives Don’t know how it all got started I don’t know what they’re doin’ with their lives But me, I’m still on the road” Bob Dylan: Tangled up in blue I’ve been attending our very middle […]
Three views on christianity and politics
(May 21, 2016)The combination of religion and politics can be explosive. It is very easy to hold our political views with religious zeal, and I am not always an exception. And so we often think that God is on our side of politics. (Or else we think God stands in the middle between the two polarised views.) […]
Three different views of social justice and the gospel
(April 30, 2016)What part do social justice and community welfare play in the church’s mission? Are they something different to the gospel, and not as important, or are they part of the gospel? There are several very different views on this.
That sounds like a good idea!
(April 8, 2016)It seems to be a paradoxical fact that there are so many more people around in big cities, and yet people are lonelier. The crowds tend to isolate us rather than force us together. Smaller communities generally have a greater sense of, well, community. Yet some people are trying new ways to break this down.
Giving flowers, living in the opposite spirit
(March 25, 2016)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. […]
Walking wounded
(March 11, 2016)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 […]
Are you an extremist?
(February 28, 2016)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 […]
A short rant
(February 3, 2016)aka “a simple desultory philippic” a We interrupt this series on difficult questions for a short rant. Please move along quickly!
The shocking behaviour of God!
(January 10, 2016)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 […]