Pray for Peaceful Proclamation
We should pray that local, state and federal governments in Australia will recognise the socially harmonious benefit of religion in general, and of Christian beliefs and behaviours in particular.
We should pray that local, state and federal governments in Australia will recognise the socially harmonious benefit of religion in general, and of Christian beliefs and behaviours in particular.
There’s a scene in Sorkin’s masterpiece, The West Wing, where President Bartlett (that unicorn democrat of fable & fiction) has just learned that a military aeroplane has been shot down over Syria. His personal physician and friend, a passenger on the aircraft, has been killed and President Bartlett is vengeful. It’s not just that America has been wronged—this is personal. The question that sucks up all the oxygen in the situation room is simple: how are we going to respond? Contrary to the “proportional responses” presented by the joint chiefs, the President, pained and grieving, slams his hand down on...
Last Monday, many well-informed Christians thought Australia might have a Religious Discrimination Bill by the end of the week: a bill that would enshrine common-sense legal protections for people of religious faith. Alas, by the middle of the week, our hopes were dashed. Last Monday, many well-informed Christians thought Australia might have a Religious Discrimination Bill by the end of the week … by the middle of the week, our hopes were dashed. The politics around this Bill were so toxic that the Federal government had shelved it. It’s disappointing that our Federal Parliament could not pass a Bill that...
There are so many moving parts with the recent issues around the transgender issue in schools it is hard to know where to start, but one thing is certain, it’s the most complex matter that faith-based schools have had to face. The transgender issue is the most complex matter that faith-based schools have had to face. And the way the narrative is going, this could be the issue that sinks Christian schools that hold to an orthodox understanding of sexuality. Right now, it looks like sinking the Religious Discrimination Bill, which was there to offer some measure of protection. The...
Would a Federal Religious Discrimination Bill (RDB) allow a nurse to say to a patient with HIV that AIDS is a punishment from God? Would the RDB allow a disability worker to say to a disabled girl that her disability is caused by the devil? Would it allow a doctor to refuse treatment to a gay patient just because he’s gay? None of the above claims—and many like them—have any basis in reality. These are some of the claims being made about the Religious Discrimination Bill that’s before Federal Parliament. At best, the RDB is disparaged by many secular commentators...