Two Brands of Christianity?
An article in the Spectator Australia by Terry Barnes applauded Scott Morrison’s squishy love Gospel and harpooned Israel Folau’s fierce “fire and brimstone” Gospel. It juxtaposed the two Pentecostals as altogether different brands of Christianity: one of unforgiveness and damnation, the other of forgiveness and love. Naturally, having carefully crafted such a context for comment, Terry praised Morrison’s interesting as it is an ambiguous exhortation, “Wherever you are, be who God made you.” Barnes inferred from this a divine endorsement on the entire list of Scripturally prohibited behaviours which Folau quoted, contrasting the “heartless” footballer’s meme and the Prime Minister’s positivity.…
Insults and Sarcasm in the Bible
To criticise and insult people is a somewhat precarious activity. In fact, for one sinner to have the temerity to criticise another seems particularly galling, and liable to do more harm than good. Therefore, it is not altogether surprising that one should hear praise, especially at funerals, that a certain person ‘never said a bad word about anyone’. It reflects a sentiment which is not without truth, but there is also truth in Richard Baxter’s barbed comment, cited by J. C. Ryle in discussing the parable of the talents (Matt.25:14-30), ‘To do no harm is the praise of a stone,…
The Good News You Are Rarely, If Ever, Told
There is an aspect of the gospel that you don’t hear about very often anymore. If you speak to any Christian they will tell you that the gospel is good news, indeed Gospel means good news. Many Christians will be able to tell you what the good news contains – that it is the message that God has saved sinners. Paul tells us this very clearly in 1 Corinthians 15 for example. Romans 10 also expresses a similar thought, as do many other passages. The good news that people recognize is that Jesus died on the cross, paid the penalty…
Tommy Robinson faces jail after being found guilty of contempt of court: ‘I’ve been convicted of causing Muslim pedophiles anxiety’
Tommy Robinson is facing jail time again after being found guilty of contempt of court. Robinson was accused of breaching reporting restrictions by live-streaming outside Leeds Crown Court last year during the grooming gang trials. Robinson denied the claim, saying he only broadcast information that was already published by other news outlets and in the public domain. Two senior High Court judges, however, said Robinson’s conduct “amounted to serious interference with the administration of justice.” One of the judges, Dame Victoria Sharp, said the court is yet to consider the penalty for contempt which carries a maximum two-year penalty. The…
We’re All Homophobes Now!
If you were one of the 20,000 people “who donated to Israel Folau’s bogus fundraising campaign” then you are a hard-core homophobe. At least, that’s what Claire Harvey, the deputy editor of the Sunday Telegraph thinks! According to Harvey, she is the only true believer whereas everyone else is just religious pretenders. As Harvey writes: Here’s the truth: I’m more of a Christian than Israel Folau is. I’m more of a Christian than anyone at the Australian Christian Lobby — and I don’t even go to church. I say you professional Christians are all fakes and phonies, and you’re riding…
Ten People Bullying Israel Folau
Since the re-definition of marriage, no one is denying the validity of the “slippery slope” argument anymore. Instead, they’re simply shaking their heads and wondering, “Has the world gone mad?!” It seems as though the world is hurtling down the slope faster than the Gadarene swine. According to The Australian, even Gillian Triggs, the former head of the Human Rights Commission, has accused the corporate sponsors of Maria Folau’s netball team of “bullying”. Media pundits, business leaders, as well as current—and former—sporting heroes all seem to be in front of the pack but, as Andrew Bolt rightly points out, one…
Madonna and Elton John slam Christians, claim Jesus would be pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQ
Madonna’s promoters are firing back at the New York Post for allegedly lying about poor ticket sales for the artist. At the beginning of June, the New York Post’s Richard Morgan reported that ticket sales for Madonna concerts promoting her latest album, ‘Madame X’, were lagging and had ‘tarnished’ the tour. Morgan went on to compare previous ticket sales in much larger venues with current ticket sales the smaller venues chosen for the concerts, suggesting that the comparison indicated ‘Madonna was struggling to sell them’. Chris Willman from Variety magazine cautiously came to Madonna’s defence, citing promoter, Arthur Fogel, (Live…
The Toxic Tolerance of Sweet Liz Ellis
In a nation that worships our sport and our sporting elites, Liz Ellis is a beloved Australian sporting hero. Liz played 122 netball games representing Australia, four years of which were as captain. Her personality displayed in the media is down to earth, her relative modesty and unassuming humour make it easy to like her. She seems like she should be a voice of moderation. But yesterday Liz Ellis effectively accused Maria Folau of supporting or endorsing homophobia in a comment on Twitter. There are serious problems with Liz’s comments, problems which reveal a toxic practice of intolerance and bigotry against…
Western Academics once wore rose-coloured glasses with regards to Nazism, they do with Marxism, and they’re doing the same with Islam
The opening sentence of Jacques Ellul’s, ‘Islam and Judeo-Christianity: A Critique of their commonality’, reads, ‘For nearly a decade, French intellectuals, generally speaking, have been seized with an excessive affection for Islam.’ (p.3) What follows is a ninety-four-page treatise on the reasons for why this excessive affection is not only dangerous but misguided. Ellul acknowledges the existence of a disproportionate tolerance of Islam. He then compares that to the disdain of how French intellectuals have been interacting with Judeo-Christianity (Biblical Christianity), since the 1960s’. The reason for this excessive affection is due to Islam’s proximity to Marxism (“scientific” socialism). Roger…
The Separation of Church and State: What it is and what it’s not
The separation between Church and State is not a divide between secular and sacred. Nor is this separation a divide between public and private. Church and State are spheres of authority within the structure of good government. Simply put: one wields the sword, the other the truth of the Gospel. As such the Gospel balances out the ideology behind who gets to yield the sword, when, why and how. This is why every totalitarian state either twists theology or purges Christians and the Christian faith. They need to suppress God’s moral standard for His creatures, in order to justify their…
World leaders and tech giants pledge to crack down on dangerous content online
World leaders and tech giants have gathered for a historic summit in an effort to crack down on online hate in the wake of the Christchurch shooting. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern organized the event, hosted in Paris by French President Emmanuel Macron, where she unveiled her initiative known as the “Christchurch Call.” Seventeen countries and eight tech giants came together in support of Ardern’s initiative which commits foreign countries and tech giants to tackle the spread of dangerous content on social media. Countries including Australia, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, India and Sweden said they backed the initiative.…
The Message of Israel Folau, Notre Dame and Good Friday
It’s wonderful news that all of a sudden Rugby Union Australia believe in God, Heaven and Hell. Many of us had been under the distinct impression they were largely indifferent to Christian theology and doctrine. All that was cleared up marvellously though when they judged the record try scorer of all time, Israel Folau, to be more immoral than the philandering, drunken cokeheads which litter the various Australian football codes. His unconscionable crime was that of claiming to know of an objective standard by which Scripture warns all men are measured, a standard accepted and preached for centuries, if not…
It would be a fatal mistake to reject The Ramsay Centre
My name is Aidan Green. I am a journalist and a proud alumnus of the University of Wollongong with a Bachelor of International Studies. Upon arrival to my degree, I was like everybody else, young, naive and left-wing. It is true what they say about the humanities faculties being taken over by the left. Throughout my three-year degree, I met only one politics lecturer who didn’t make it clear that they were left of centre. It was not until my second year where I began to think more critically and objectively, and it was not until my second year when…
Has Prime Minister Scott Morrison just revealed his true colours?
Scott Morrison says an Australian man massacred worshippers in an act of “extremist right-wing terrorism” which was streamed on the internet. I am deeply troubled by the words employed by the Australian Prime Minister as it could incite violence against so-called right-wingers. As it turns out, it appears that the terrorist is not even a right-winger. He is a self-described anarchist and a radical environmentalist, and an admirer of Communist China. In his own manifesto the terrorist gunman who killed 49 Muslims at a mosque in New Zealand wanted “no part of” conservatism described himself as an “eco-fascist” admired Communist…
Crying wolf about Nazism, diminishes the heinous crime of Nazism and dehumanises others
In August 2016, I posted a quick response to the hysteria surrounding the election of Donald Trump. I headlined that post, ‘Why Trump is Not Hitler, & Why American Evangelicals Are Not German Christians’. My aim was to counter a lot of what I was seeing posted on social media by people who were usually level-headed and intellectually responsible. It was disappointing to see normally sane individuals suddenly join in the anti-trump rants – which really were, I’m angry because the Leftist power structures, and its monopoly on power, has been diminished – tantrums. Worse still, some Christian conservative academics…
Change – A virtue or a slogan?
In an age of shallow thinking, it has become all too easy to pass something off as a value – when virtue is what is meant – and sweep the population along in a certain way of thinking – or non-thinking. An example of this is ‘change’. It is like the word ‘diversity’ and is almost invariably associated with whatever is good or progressive. To say that something has not changed for some time is a sure way of damning it. Like diversity, change goes both ways; it is not a synonym for ‘improvement’. When we look at old photographs…
New footage exposes dishonest media, busts claim that MAGA students taunted Native American.
This week CNN claimed, “A crowd of teenagers surrounded a Native American elder and other activists and appeared to mock them after Friday’s Indigenous Peoples March at the Lincoln Memorial.” A CNN tweet linking to the report also claimed: “Video shows a crowd of teenagers wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ hats taunting a Native American elder…” The video, which was widely shared by numerous news media outlets, shows a student from a Catholic high school staring at a Native American man as he chants and beats a drum in the young man’s face. What’s been implied is that the student…
The double-standards of liberals
Context and explanation meant absolutely nothing to the outraged leftist media complex collaborating with self-interested politicians when accusing Senator Fraser Anning of Nazi levels of racism for saying the words “final solution”. Senator Anning declared, “In the days of Menzies, immigrants arriving here were not allowed to apply for welfare and that attracted exactly the right sort of hard-working people this country needed. We should go back to that and ban all immigrants receiving welfare for the first five years after they arrive. The final solution to the immigration problem is, of course, a popular vote.” Turnbull called the reference…
Reagan’s reminder: “The martyrs of history were not fools.”
This has the sharp edge of poignant relevance painted all over it: Now let’s set the record straight. There’s no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender. Admittedly, there’s a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only…
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…
You must be logged in to post a comment.