How to avoid persecution (according to Screwtape)

Life

Our subject today, my novice fiends, is ‘How to help the Enemy’s urchins avoid persecution and suffering’. Now, hush your maggoty howls and listen to your Uncle Screwtape! Our Father didn’t promote me to Professor of Persecution for nothing, so listen and learn. (more…)

Choosing the right move

Up front

When thinking about euthanasia recently, I found myself also thinking about the samurai of ancient Japan. In particular, my thoughts turned to a book titled Hagakure (‘hidden leaves’) written in 1716 by a samurai called Yamamoto Tsunetomo.1 (more…)

Engraved on God’s hands

Up front

The Lord asks his people in Isaiah 49:15, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?” How would we, his people today, answer that question, I wonder? (more…)

A baby in a bottle

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the great abortion battle that ended in the great pro-life defeat in Western Australia in May 1998. Do you know how it all began? (more…)

What if the pastor did make fun of Islam?

The judge who convicted two Christian pastors of religious vilification in Victoria (December 2004) found, among other things, that one of the pastors ridiculed Islamic teachings and traditions while conducting a public seminar on Islam. In his Summary of Reasons for Decision, Judge Higgins states:

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Sons laid down their lives

Thought

Something heartbreaking happened to a family at Black Point at Easter two years ago.

Black Point is an isolated place, accessible only by four-wheel drive, on the south coast of Western Australia, and the Stallard family travelled there to fish. The parents, Ron and Debbie, lived in the south-west of the state, but their two sons, 25-year-old Paul and 19-year-old Andrew, lived in Perth. So the fishing trip was something of a family reunion too.

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Turning a Christian prayer into Muslim propaganda

Eight years ago, on 23 January 1996, Pastor Joe Wright delivered a prayer to the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka, USA. His prayer was remarkable for its courage and clarity in condemning many evils prevalent in American society and in Western societies generally.

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Chasing fantasies

Life

When I think about gambling I think about a comment our first daughter made when she was just six years old. Overhearing my wife and I discussing whether or not we had enough money to buy something, she chipped in, “Why don’t you buy a Lotto ticket? Then you’ll get some money.”

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Making sense of disaster

Life

Disasters strike mankind with great frequency and variety. Most of the ‘smaller’ ones go unreported, and are known only to the friends and relatives of the victims. The ‘larger’ ones, however, usually make the news headlines, and arouse feelings of bewilderment and loss in the wider community. Earthquakes, floods, shootings, crashes—how do we make sense of such disasters? In particular, how do we make sense of why they happen to whom they happen?

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Homosexuality is a choice

Life

Not so long ago, we looked at how homosexuality has become ‘normalized’ in modern Western society (‘How we went gay’, Briefing #221/2). We closed with a promise to return to the issue, and in the following article we begin to do so. Andrew Lansdown looks further at the changing face of the gay movement. In particular, he shows that all the current talk of the gay gene, and being ‘born gay’, was rejected by the generation of gay activists who led the charge in the 70s and 80s.

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The First Duty of Fatherhood

Life

Australian feminist Eva Cox says any mother who isn’t back in the workforce after her child turns one is a bludger. Why this growing attack on motherhood? Andrew Lansdown thinks that the changing role of the father has something to do with it.

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A Christian Upbringing

Life

“Being brought up in a Christian home is hard on a child.”

I have heard variations on this comment at various times and it has set me thinking. In fact, I have begun to feel somewhat bitter towards my parents, who gave me a thoroughly Christian upbringing.

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