Are Natural Disasters the Judgment of God?
In the light of recent floods and bushfires, Australians are divided as to the cause of natural disasters … Yet, the one question we loathe hearing is this: Are natural disasters the judgment of God?
Wrath: The Divine Reality We’d Like to Gloss Over (But Mustn’t)
On July 8, 1741, in a church in Enfield, Massachusetts, USA, Jonathan Edwards rose to preach what has become probably the most infamous sermon of all time. His text was Deuteronomy 32:35—‘ …their foot shall slide in due time’. But it was the title that has stuck in our collective imaginations: ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.’ It conjures up images of poor helpless sinners being dangled by their ankles above the roaring fires of hell. At the time it is reported that many of the listeners were hysterical with fear afterwards. Some have labelled it ‘the most...
Hell Just Won’t Go Away
Once again, Australians are talking about hell. It was only last week that I wrote an article suggesting that the Israel Folau case might set a course for the future. Little did I realise that it would only take a few days before Australia would be hit with another example, and this time it’s one that might influence the outcome of a Federal election. The week started with a schoolyard journalist believing they’d discovered the great gotcha moment. They asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison, “Do you believe gay people are going to hell?” Mr Morrison gave a roundabout answer, which sounded...
When Talking About Hell…
When I went to sleep last Thursday I didn’t expect to wake and find that the topic of hell had become a national conversation piece. While we cannot control the public conversation with all its warts, snark, and well-meaning contributions, we can take responsibility for how we speak about what is a grave issue; the eternal state of people. Meanwhile, like Nero plucking his harp while Rome burned, columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald, Greg Growden, joked that “Folau’s version of hell, surrounded by drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters, actually sounds like good fun—especially if it excludes...
The Gospel According to Jack Reacher
Over 70 years ago, in an article, “Who Cares who Killed Roger Ackroyd,” Edmund Wilson wrote disdainfully of crime fiction as a “trivial pursuit”. “Reading detective stories,” he said, “is simply a kind of vice, for silliness and minor harmfulness, somewhere between crossword puzzles and smoking.” Trivial or not, the crime or thriller novel genre remains one of the most popular genres (“Crime novels” and “thrillers” aren’t the same. “Crime” is usually more about solving the puzzle, while “the thriller” is often more morally complex). It’s estimated that one out of every three books bought is crime fiction. Why? The...
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