Blog

Faith, identity, and social justice — the AAC archive.

The Christian Test of Democracy Is How We Treat the Other Side

Christian political witness is tested less by winning than by how it treats opponents, minorities and truth. Australian churches can use six practical questions to examine whether their public life serves democracy or domination.

11 September 2026

LGBTIQA+ Inclusion

Hidden in Plain Sight: Modern Eunuchs and the Silence of the Church

In 2022 an international health standard devoted a chapter to modern eunuchs. Scripture moves from excluding eunuchs to baptising one, yet medicine, masculine shame and a metaphorical reading of Jesus have made their modern lives hard to see. The church has a quarrel with Isaiah, not with eunuchs.

7 September 2026

Faith and Politics

The Algorithm Has a Discipleship Strategy (Part One)

Algorithmic feeds offer boys belonging, purpose and a model of power, then monetise the grievance. Churches answer with sustained practice of the non-dominating masculinity Jesus describes, not panic or one annual talk.

2 September 2026

Faith and Politics

Church Schools and the Culture They Form (Part Two)

Research and a decade of public incidents show elite, single-sex and religious schools contain conditions that reinforce dominance and contempt for women. A church that claims a school as its mission owns the culture formed there and must govern it.

2 September 2026

LGBTIQA+ Inclusion

Ask Him, He Is of Age

A queer theatre company was evicted from a former Sydney church eight days after opening. John 9 has a scene the church rarely preaches. The healed man's parents are summoned; they know exactly what happened, and they refuse to say it. Fear of losing their place costs their son everything. Some of you have heard that silence.

29 July 2026

LGBTIQA+ Inclusion

When 'speaking the truth' wounds: a Christian reading of the Smith vilification appeal

NSW Supreme Court dismissed almost all of Kirralie Smith's and Binary Australia's appeal against the first findings of transgender vilification under NSW law (Smith v Blanch; Smith v Dennis [2026] NSWSC 879). The court confirmed the pair unlawfully vilified two transgender women who wanted nothing more than to play football with their teammates.

25 July 2026

LGBTIQA+ Inclusion

One line in 117: David Crowe's Amnesty column and the fight that never happened

A transgender advocate examines David Crowe's Sydney Morning Herald column on Amnesty International's withdrawn anti-rights report, testing its logic against the original document. The report names JK Rowling's centre once among 117 organisations and never mentions Rowling herself, while documenting rapid growth in gender-critical and Christian-right campaigning since 2017.

19 July 2026

Faith and Politics

Loving the Stranger

Pauline Hanson told the National Press Club that the stranger is the problem — fewer migrants, fewer Muslims, fewer who pray or speak or love differently, and the country would be more itself. The tradition she claims for the nation says the opposite. A faith-framed response to One Nation's program.

30 June 2026

Faith and Politics

Naboth's Vineyard

Pauline Hanson says wealth has been stolen from ordinary Australians. She is right about the theft and wrong about the thief. From Naboth's vineyard to the cross, the tradition she claims exposes the oldest trick for stealing wealth: a false charge against the powerless. A faith-framed response to One Nation's program.

30 June 2026

Faith and Politics

One Law for All

Pauline Hanson told the National Press Club that the country holds together by being the same. The tradition she claims says the opposite: a people is bound not by one blood or one tongue but by one law, applied to the citizen and the stranger alike. A faith-framed response to One Nation's program.

30 June 2026

Faith and Politics

The Stranger In The Harvest

Pauline Hanson told the National Press Club that the migrant is a cost. The tradition she claims keeps a different ledger: Ruth gleaned in the harvest field and was woven into the bloodline of kings, and today's nurses, carers, students, and seasonal workers carry us still.

30 June 2026

Faith and Politics

The Country I Was Given

Pauline Hanson told the National Press Club that Australia's many languages are a problem. But the country was never monolingual, the Census refutes her fears, and the faith she claims for the nation began at Pentecost — where God blessed many tongues rather than imposing one.

28 June 2026

Faith and Politics

The Housing Shortfall Is A Supply Failure

Pauline Hanson told the National Press Club that migration caused Australia's housing crisis. The pain is real, but the blame is false witness. Scripture protects the stranger and names the real culprit: the hoarding of homes and the sale of the public stock.

28 June 2026

Faith and Politics

Australia Has Never Been A Monoculture

A reply to Pauline Hanson's call for a monocultural Australia — the country has never been one culture, and the Judeo-Christian tradition she invokes commands welcome of the stranger.

26 June 2026

Personal Faith

This Is One of My Areas of Guilt

A short, raw confession about staying silent during the AIDS crisis and church debates while closeted, and the guilt of having hidden.

15 May 2024

Progressive Theology

Will There Be a 2023 Bonhoeffer?

A sermon on John 9 and Jesus executing justice, drawing parallels between today’s Western politics and pre-Hitler Germany.

19 March 2023

LGBTIQA+ Inclusion

There Must Be a Better Way — NRL

On the Manly Sea Eagles pride-jersey boycott, proposing patient, culturally aware dialogue between LGBTIQA+ and Pasifika players.

27 July 2022

Transgender Rights

Let’s Have an Honest Conversation About the History of Psychoanalysts

Responds to an op-ed on trans teens by recounting psychoanalysis’s harmful history with LGBTIQA+ people and conversion therapy.

3 November 2021

Progressive Theology

Evangelism and the First Third of Life

Asks what a post-COVID church should change to reach young people, addressing abuse, inclusion and a “we-focused” society.

10 October 2021

LGBTIQA+ Inclusion

Margaret Court — Dangers of an Upgraded Australian Honour

A letter to the Governor-General opposing Margaret Court’s upgraded Order of Australia, cataloguing her anti-LGBTIQA+ commentary.

26 January 2021

Transgender Rights

The Privileged Position on Gender Dysphoria Discussion — A Partial Response to Senator Claire Chandler

An ally’s response to Senator Claire Chandler’s Senate speech and op-ed on a gender-change bill.

11 December 2020

Progressive Theology

Christ the King Sunday and 2020

A year-end lectionary reflection on COVID, selfishness and the parable of the Sheep and the Goats.

22 November 2020

Transgender Rights

JK Rowling and the Transgender Community

Responds to JK Rowling’s tweets and blog on trans people, noting the Harry Potter actors’ support for the transgender community.

14 June 2020

LGBTIQA+ Inclusion

Gay Hate Crimes — the Australian Version — A Play

A Mardi Gras play on NSW gay-hate murders prompts a personal reflection on Adelaide and Sydney’s history of anti-gay violence.

3 March 2020

Religious Freedom

The Dangers of “Religious Freedom” Proposed for Australia

A blog version of the author’s submission on Exposure Draft 2, written as a businessman, Christian and gay man.

2 February 2020

Parliamentary Submissions

A Need to Reject Australia’s Proposed Religious Freedom Legislation

The author’s submission on the second exposure drafts, opening with Holocaust remembrance of persecuted homosexuals and others.

31 January 2020

Parliamentary Submissions

My Submission to NSW Curriculum Review

Submission to the NSW Curriculum Review on PDHPE, arguing for inclusive education amid the religious discrimination debate.

13 December 2019

Faith and Politics

Advent and Religious Apartheid

An Advent reflection on Jesus’ scandalous genealogy and refugee origins, warning the religious freedom bills risk a “religious apartheid.”

6 December 2019

Faith and Politics

In Need of a Prophetic Voice

A reflection after preaching, comparing public passivity amid bushfires and injustice to how ordinary Germans let Hitler rise.

5 December 2019

Parliamentary Submissions

Submission on the Exposure Drafts for Religious Freedom and Associated Legislation

Formal submission to the Attorney-General opposing the religious freedom bills as a danger to LGBTIQA+ people, women and others.

2 October 2019

Religious Freedom

Why Women Should Be Concerned by the Religious Freedom Push

Warns that religious “positive rights” laws aimed at LGBTIQA+ people could be a back door to rolling back women’s rights.

27 August 2019

Mental Health

Repetitive and Cumulative Trauma — Folau Adds to It

Argues the Israel Folau saga compounds cumulative trauma in the LGBTIQA+ community, drawing parallels with other traumatised groups.

26 June 2019

LGBTIQA+ Inclusion

Dear Former Brumbies Chaplain…

A rebuttal to a former chaplain’s defence of Israel Folau, drawing on homophobia-in-sport research and the author’s own gay Christian experience.

7 June 2019

Transgender Rights

Why Do Christians Attack Transgender People? It’s Not Love

Rebuts conservative attacks on trans people, citing Cornell research on the well-being of transgender people.

10 February 2019

Faith and Politics

What Is a Merry Christmas — Receiving or Agitating?

A Christmas Day reflection that Jesus was a refugee, challenging Australian leaders’ refugee policies and calls for religious privilege.

25 December 2018

Religious Freedom

Sydney Prayer Breakfast — “Freedom From” or “Freedom For”? I Think They Got It Wrong

Critiques Os Guinness’s prayer breakfast address, arguing the religious freedom movement seeks “freedom from” LGBTIQA+ people.

30 May 2018

LGBTIQA+ Inclusion

Where Would Jesus Be on Identity Politics?

Sparked by a Sydney Pride rally, uses the Book of Ruth to ask where Jesus would stand on identity politics and LGBTIQA+ rights.

11 June 2017

Progressive Theology

A Current Parallel to Jesus’ Story of the Man Born Blind

Reads John 9, the man born blind, as a parallel to churches today excluding people who do not fit their rules.

28 March 2017

Progressive Theology

Communion and Danish TV — Include or Exclude

Uses a Danish TV film on shared humanity to reframe communion as radical inclusion of all, with no exceptions.

11 February 2017

Progressive Theology

“Blessed Are the Cracked, for They Shall Let in the Light”

Reflects on the Beatitudes and argues the “religious freedom” push lets darkness in rather than the light of Christ.

7 February 2017

Faith and Politics

It Is Time to Rise Up!

Inaugural post using the Beatitudes to challenge leaders who claim Christian values while harming the poor, refugees and the marginalised.

31 January 2017