A number of years back a group of women from my church started attending the Colour conference run by Hillsong. Every year most of them come back with a bigger vision of who God created them to be and a determination to be those women. While those of us outside Hillsong often stand back and take...
The Kindness of Strangers
Tonight I set off for a Jervis Bay fishing trip. With my son Lachlan, good friend Steve, and Steve’s son Nick in the car and the boat trailing behind, we were all looking forward to the trip. And then it happened. The trailer started to vibrate, and after pulling over we discovered the right...
Why We Need to Move Away from Substitutionary Atonement
The last couple of months I’ve visited a few churches and been struck by how central the idea that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins is in their worship. It’s there in the songs they sing, in the prayers they pray, in the words of the worship leader, and inevitably makes an appearance in...
Aussies are the Wealthiest in the World and It Disturbs Me
Here is a disturbing fact: the richest 10% of the world’s population own 86% of its wealth, while the bottom half own just 1%. We live in a staggeringly unequal world. Here’s a second disturbing fact: with median per capita wealth of $220,000 Australia is the richest country in the...
Did God Really Command the Slaughter of the Canaanites?
When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you— and when...
Think Corruption, Think….
A few years back when I heard the word “corruption” it called to mind images of tin pot dictators stuffing billions of dollars into Swiss bank accounts. Now I think of multinational corporations. Here’s why: for every bribe taker there has to be a bribe giver, and in the case of...
Australia’s Non Existent Refugee Crisis
The infographic says it all.
I Want to Be Amish…Well, Not Really
Travel through the American countryside and you’ll possibly come across an Amish community. You’ll find no TV sets, no telephones and no electricity in their homes. Ask why and you’ll learn that it’s all about community. This is how an Amish bishop once explained it to Tony Campolo. The Amish...
Why We Should Respectfully Ignore the Climate Sceptics
Climate sceptics are entitled to their opinions but they are not entitled to pretend there is a scientific debate going on. They should be given the same accord in public debate and policy making that we give to those who argue children should not be vaccinated. I respect their right to their...
The Problem of Violence in the Bible
The Bible is a violent book that describes a violent God. In Genesis 6 God sends a flood that wipes out life on the earth he created. Only the select few on the Ark are saved. Fast forward to the liberation of the Israelites from slavery and God kills all the firstborn sons of Egypt before drowning...