Sandy and I have watched the last few seasons of House Rules, a TV reality show in which couples renovate each other’s homes. What strikes me is that the attraction of the TV show is not the quality of the renovations produced – if it was we would not be watching amateurs do their thing – but the human drama. Will the couple whose home has been renovated like what they see? Will the...
People often inquire how I’m going with my Parkinsons, so I thought I’d provide an update… Over the last few months I have deteriorated a bit. I take meds every 3.5 hours. When they have fully kicked in I move freely, but as they’re kicking in or wearing off my muscles stiffen and my hands tremor, sometimes wildly, and I shuffle about the house like an old man on speed...
In an article published on the Moore College website Tony Payne argues that this election is different from any other in that the legalisation of same-sex marriage will threaten the freedom of Christians to proclaim the gospel. He does so with some humility, recognising that he may well be overstating the threat. I think he most surely is. As I understand it, there are two sets of laws under...
The world faces a refugee crisis. 20 million people are refugees and another 2 million are seeking asylum. There are three possible solutions for those who are refugees: that they returned home when it becomes safe to do so; that they settle down and build a new life in the country to which they first fled; that they resettle in a third country such as Australia. At present less than 2% are able...
On Q&A last Monday night assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer tried to explain to a man on a very low income why it was better for the government to spend $50 billion providing tax cuts to companies than it was to provide tax cuts to low income earners. The argument essentially boiled down to this: lower tax rates will leave companies with more money to invest employing people. Or as a...
Finally, some sanity. I have spent the last week in the US, where there is wall to wall coverage of the presidential primaries, most of it dominated by reporting and analysis of the Trump campaign. This morning I woke to a retired general pointing out that the military are not the plaything of the President, but are sworn to defend the US Constitution and to abide by various instruments that...
I’ve never done a promo on my blog, but I’m making an exception for a kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for a project by Michael Henderson, a gifted artist and pastor. Michael is creating a series of 16 paintings on aspects of the human experience of life, the beauty and struggles of this experience, using familiar events from the Bible. He writes Painting may seem redundant in an...
I too have been shocked by the violence in Paris over the weekend. It is almost incomprehensible to me that people would walk into a public space, fire off rounds from a machine gun with the sole intention of killing people, then blow themselves up. It makes me both angry and sad. But it also makes me wonder how I should respond. In particular, how do I respond as a follower of Jesus? Here...
In the past couple of months I have found myself involved in many discussions around a biblical approach to same-sex relationships. Not only is our Parliament to debate same-sex marriage, but some prominent Christian leaders, including Steve Chalke, Tony Campolo, and ethicist David Gushee have called for the church to change its mind on homosexuality. At the moment those calling for a change are...