The sheep and the goats: The distinction between a Pilgrim’s Progress and a Progressive Pilgrim.
With over 2000+ years of thought, action and in some cases really good ideas, that simply just crashed and burned, Christian history is rich and vibrant. If we ignore this history and the theological enquiry attached to it, we turn our backs on faith, heritage and hard lessons learnt along the way. The old saying still reigns: “I believe in order to understand.” Unfortunately, we live in a ‘Just get me to the chorus’ era: “Give me the theological truth – but if it doesn’t fit in a MEME that I can like, share or wave passive aggressively at my…
The Exclusion Zone contagion is spreading.
Queensland: Exclusion-zones went into force this week in Queensland, along with the state’s new act that moved abortion into the health code. Queensland is the fourth Australian state to enact the zones – this includes New South Wales, where abortion is still technically illegal; both territories also have the so-called ‘Safe-Access’ zones. Pro-lifers who wish to pray outside abortion mills and offer help to the women entering them will now have to stand 150m away from the entrance or risk huge fines and potential incarceration. Graham Preston, the prominent activist who is one party in the High Court challenge to exclusion-zones, has been…
A good reputation is not proof of good character: substance trumps appearances.
God is love. It’s his character revealed – Love is His language – peace, long-suffering, patience, joy, kindness, it does not envy or boast it is not arrogant or rude, it is not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Among the three top things rated in life: faith, hope and love – love remains the greatest. (1 Corinthians 13) Sex is not God. Money is not God. Love is not God. Things we own? Not God. Social status? Not God – the…
No, the public is not secular. Here’s why.
I constantly read and hear people saying that religious schools shouldn’t be able to discriminate because they receive public funds, and thus they must play by the public rules. The problem with this argument is that the people who send their children to denominational schools are part of the public too, they pay taxes and thus make up this hallowed ‘public’. The ‘secular public’ argument against denominational school funding and “discrimination” defines the public as ‘secular’; in other words, the public it is talking about is not real, it is a gerrymandered public that excludes the parents of the c.35%…
Political Correctness and ‘hate speech’ laws are the secular equivalent of Sharia Law.
Political correctness in its excessive form is the secular equivalent of Shari’a law. It might not have the full judicial weight of Western law behind it yet, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t trying to manipulate the system so as to implement it. I used to think that the only thing wrong with political correctness was the excesses that went along with it. Take the good, reject the bad. However, the more I learn from those who practice and enforce the ideals of political correctness, the more I arrive at the conclusion that political correctness is the secular version of…
Is anti-discrimination the first commandment?
Drawing on the work of two American writers, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, Paul Kelly wrote recently of ‘the three great lies corroding Western cultures’. In his view, these are: first, that disputes today are a battle between good (defined as the oppressed victims) and evil (defined as the privileged minority); secondly, that people will be made weaker by being challenged so they need to be protected and made safe; and thirdly, that we must always trust our feelings. All that is undeniable, but associated with these great lies is the confusion in our view of the law. In the…
The writing is on the wall.
Arrested four times, Paul Schneider became one of the first theologians of the Confessing Church to be murdered by the Nazis, and the first protestant pastor to die in a Nazi concentration camp. In a nut shell, Schneider was labelled a firebrand. Like a lot of the Confessing Church Pastors and theologians, his theological resistance was “politically incorrect”. His defiance was a veritable revolt against ‘compromise with Nazi ideology, and the indifference of the people.’ As a result the ‘terror state would forbid him to preach, and attempt to silence his opposition by enforcing a form of exile’. Schneider was…
Genuinely conservative.
In 2040, when I am hauled before the Department for Eradication of Hate, Bigotry and Offending Protected Minority Categories (or DEHBOPMC), and I am asked, “did you, or did you not, join the Australian Conservatives Party in 2017?” I will feel compelled by my conscience, and the fact that they probably have evidence, to say “yes”. And then I’ll be admitted to some compulsory psychiatric sessions or a reconditioning labour-camp, or have “don’t platform” stamped on my forehead until they can map out the network of phobes and isms that constitute my particular condition. Or maybe I’ll even get shot…
Not everyone in Hollywood is a flake: Frank Capra’s factivism.
After being summoned by General George C Marshall on February the 11th, 1942, Hollywood directer, Frank Capra, famous for ‘It’s a wonderful life’, and ‘You can’t take it with you’, walked into the Pentagon. Before Capra had received the invitation, he had been in the process of reviewing an offer of a partnership which, in his own words ‘would have made him part owner of “United Artists”. Easily placing him in the multi-millionaire class’ and potentially exempting him from War time service. After wrestling with the decision Capra concluded: Why trade fame, glamour, and wealth for a number stamped on a…
Capitalism needs compassion, compassion needs capitalism; socialism outlaws both.
Capitalism may be plagued by greed, as it hinders the free market through hoarding and monopolies, but ultimately capitalism creates room for compassion. Laws exist to fortify the free market, so as to protect the free market from the death blows of a greed-is-good culture. Through the referee of small government the free market is nurtured. Through capitalism, doors are opened for freedom; for people to be free to be compassionate; free to give out of the abundance of what they have earned. Free to give out of the abundance of what they are free to own and earn. Socialism,…
The Church should have the freedom to refuse allegiance to the State on the issue of Gay Marriage.
If Australia’s Prime Minister is serious about fairness, he’ll preserve the right to a conscientious objection to SSM; the right for people to hold the view, and teach their kids that marriage is between a man and a woman; and that those children have a right to equal access to their biological father and mother. As I have hopefully made clear in the written contributions I’ve made to this national debate, I see the issues as a matter of social justice. The “no” vote has been about defending truth, liberty, fraternity, science, and even equality, from unbalanced ideological servitude. The State wants…
French President Emmanuel Macron wants to build a European army to oppose the United States.
The speech delivered by Emmanuel Macron, at the Armistice Centenary this week, was a carefully targeted rejection of Donald Trump and his popular platform. French President Emmanuel Macron remarked: The old demons are rising again, ready to complete their task of chaos and of death. Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. In saying, ‘Our interests first, whatever happens to the others’, you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: its moral values. Macron…
If Hitler looked at Europe today, what would he see?
If Hitler were to look at Europe today, what would he see? He would see a Europe dominated by Germany, with France its loyal lapdog. He would see anti-Semitism on the rise, with more and more Jews wanting to leave Europe. He would see that the disabled and the weak are being culled out of the gene pool through abortion. Just as he sought to do with Eugenics. He would see the elderly, weak and disabled convinced that they should take themselves out of society because they have been convinced they are a burden. Euthanasia is less dramatic than gas…
Anne Aly is an expert in political opportunism
It was reported Saturday that Labor MP Anne Aly was highly critical of the Prime Minister for how he handled the terror attack in, where else but, Labor’s Victoria. Touted as a counter-terrorism expert, the leftist Islam apologist accused the PM of ‘dividing the community’ by pointing out that “the greatest threat to our way of life is radical, violent, extremist Islam.” Of course, fundamental Islam is more than a bit of a problem for all culturally Christian nations where it has any significant presence; and the bigger the presence, the bigger the problem. The sober reality which doesn’t fit…
Who Are the Real Fascists?
If the facts cannot be squeezed into a meme the level of attention those facts receive is reduced. Attention to detail is overlooked for what will best attract a view, a like, a follow or a share. Information is seen purely as a commodity.
Hate speech is a myth: It’s a shaming control technique used by those who can’t debate the issue.
By no means is this a conclusive run down on what I see as the need to find, and advocate for, a fair use of the vehicles we choose to communicate, and receive information through. By pointing out inconsistencies, and connecting them to a possible cause, my purpose here is primarily an attempt to suggest, that when it comes to social media, we practice the proverb of looking before we leap. A few years back an incident showed me the contrast between hard reality, and cheap comment. Comments from people, who in the comfort of relative security, only seem to be far more concerned with the side of the story that sells best, than with finding balance. Surely,…
Death by lynch mob: Brett Kavanaugh, Asia Bibi and the shared rage of the mobs out to get them.
There’s an eerie similarity between the protests against Asia Bibi and the protests against Brett Kavanaugh. The tension, and rhetoric, of anti-blasphemy protesters in Pakistan, are at the same fever pitch, as anti-Kavanaugh protests were during the senate hearings, surrounding Kavanaugh’s supreme court nomination (and subsequent confirmation) in the United States. Placards brandished about during the Ford-Kavanaugh debate which labeled Kavanaugh a rapist (without evidence or a judicial trial), have much of the same intensity as the placards brandished about by Islamist protestors in Pakistan. For evidence of this, see the long list of celebrity outrage expressed online against the…
The death of sanctity.
Economics tells us that the value of a thing is nothing more or less than what someone is willing to pay for it. The most amazing painting, the rarest antique, the most ingenious book… none of these have any value if no-one wants them. What, then, is the value of a person? If this question were asked in eighteenth-century Britain, the answer would be something like “three guineas, maybe four. Does he have all his teeth?” At that time, the slave trade treated humans as a commodity within a capitalist framework. The economics definition applied:like gold, oil and toilet-paper, a…
Why Social Justice Warriors are the brethren of Judas Iscariot, not Jesus Christ.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, a Social Justice Warrior is ‘a person who expresses or promotes socially progressive views.’ The online Urban dictionary offers a more substantial explanation: A pejorative term for an individual who repeatedly and vehemently engages in arguments on social justice on the Internet, often in a shallow or not well-thought-out way, for the purpose of raising their own personal reputation. A social justice warrior, or SJW, does not necessarily strongly believe all that they say, or even care about the groups they are fighting on behalf of. They typically repeat points from whoever is the most…
Multiculturalism has failed: Identity politics sets people on a trajectory towards tribalism and slavery.
In 1944, C.S Lewis wrote: “The demand for equality has two sources; First, the noble: the desire for fair play. Second, the mean-spirited: the hatred of superiority. If you seek to appease envy: 1. you will not succeed. Envy is insatiable. 2. you are trying to introduce equality where equality is fatal. “Political democracy is doomed if it tries to extend its demand for equality into the higher spheres of beauty, virtue and truth. Neither of which are democratic. Ethical, intellectual or aesthetic democracy is death.” Lewis’ position can be read as a push back against extreme egalitarianism and the quagmire…