19 posts
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A sermon on John 9 and Jesus executing justice, drawing parallels between today’s Western politics and pre-Hitler Germany.
Asks what a post-COVID church should change to reach young people, addressing abuse, inclusion and a “we-focused” society.
A year-end lectionary reflection on COVID, selfishness and the parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
An Advent reflection on Jesus’ scandalous genealogy and refugee origins, warning the religious freedom bills risk a “religious apartheid.”
A reflection after preaching, comparing public passivity amid bushfires and injustice to how ordinary Germans let Hitler rise.
A Christmas Day reflection that Jesus was a refugee, challenging Australian leaders’ refugee policies and calls for religious privilege.
Sparked by a Sydney Pride rally, uses the Book of Ruth to ask where Jesus would stand on identity politics and LGBTIQA+ rights.
Reads John 9, the man born blind, as a parallel to churches today excluding people who do not fit their rules.
Uses a Danish TV film on shared humanity to reframe communion as radical inclusion of all, with no exceptions.
Reflects on the Beatitudes and argues the “religious freedom” push lets darkness in rather than the light of Christ.
Inaugural post using the Beatitudes to challenge leaders who claim Christian values while harming the poor, refugees and the marginalised.