I feel like I’ve written about this before somewhere… but… This week the West Australian Government banned, and then unbanned, the Australian Christian Lobby’s Martyn Iles’ roaming soapbox “The Truth of It” from two public venues it oversees; the Albany Entertainment Centre and Perth Concert Hall. They should not have done this — and not […]
Search Results: “christian lobby”
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A question for Martyn about #lethimplay
Israel Folau is a multimillionaire footballer who secured a multimillion dollar settlement from the Australian Rugby Union after a dispute around his sharing of a meme that targeted homosexuals and other sinners with a hatefully twisted quote from the Bible. Israel Folau is on the record rejecting the essential Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Israel […]
On my Eternity News story being pulled
It is difficult to draw attention to the culture wars, and the danger they present, without being drawn into the culture wars as a combatant. I have watched in horror this week as the conversations about my piece spiralled further and further away from its conclusion; entrenching division rather than bringing people to the table […]
We need an Aussie equivalent of the ‘Never Trump’ movement
Eternity News has asked a few people — including me — to contribute a regular column. This is my latest piece, it should be online over there shortly. Who can forget the events of January 6, when armed protestors stormed the U.S Capitol building fervently praying, chanting, and singing, while carrying placards bearing the name […]
Don’t be a Macarthur-in-the-closet on religious freedom… come out like Macarthur did
John MacArthur has been in the news quite a bit in the last 12 months. But he’s been a phenomenon on the Christian web for many years. MacArthur’s influence has spawned many of the darkest parts of the Christian internet; watchbloggers, discernment trolls, and theobros out to destroy anybody who disagrees with their spiritual framework […]
The Image of Trump or the Image of Jesus: on Trump’s sacrilege and the toppling of idols
In the last two posts I’ve explored how the practice of destroying statues — the damnatio memoraie — is an ancient one, and how public space has always been sacred and contested (and how when Jesus turns up in a contested public space, both sides of the contest joined sides to kill him). There’s a picture […]
On #BlackLivesMatter, colour blindness, centering, and Aboriginal deaths in custody
I’m still learning lots about Australia’s racism problem. You see, I’m white, I haven’t experienced racism, either overtly, or through my interactions with the structures and institutions that form part of Australian society — and even within the structures of the Australian church. I’ve had position, and forms of power, given to me through my […]
Fame does not qualify you to be a preacher
There’s a worrying trend developing amidst the church around a desperate bid for us to be ‘relevant’ and ‘change the culture’ of the world. A trend that is having the opposite effect of changing the culture of the church. This trend is a through line that runs in the U.S evangelical church’s obsession with Trump, […]
The ACL and Luther’s “Theology of the Cross v Theology of Glory”
Be careful what you wish for… I’m starting to think I liked it better when the Australian Christian Lobby never mentioned Jesus. The ACL’s website describes the organisation’s mission in the following terms: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34 To this end, Christian institutions are being undermined. Churches are being […]
Truth made public? Izzy, the ACL, and the smoking gun…
The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) re-branded recently. It adopted the tagline “Truth Made Public.” New chief, Martyn Iles, has successfully reintroduced religious language into the ACL’s public platform, and has set about creating a new approach to politics that saw the organisation focus its energies on marginal seats, which meant publishing election materials that promoted […]
We beat darkness by bringing light
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. — John 1:4-5 Reading the news (or the newsfeed) over the last few weeks has left me feeling pretty dark about the world. This statement could be made about any week — but I’ve […]
Something strange is happening at the ACL…
If you’ve been around these parts for a while, then you know that I’ve been vociferous in my criticism of the Australian Christian Lobby — not so much for its politics (though it should be reasonably clear by now that I think their platform is too narrow when it comes to issues that Christians should […]
The war didn’t begin last week; and we’re not the victims
Are we Christians that blinded by our own ‘plight’ that we are utterly unable to comprehend the actions of others? Are we that blind to how systemic and institutional stuff works that we think our not being complicit in particular actions means that we, as individuals, bear no responsibility for how people have acted in […]
Once more on the domestic violence in church thing: answering some common objections to the ABC’s coverage
Julia Baird’s piece has been in the wild for a couple of days; and there’s an ongoing cloud of ‘suspicion’ hanging over it in conversations online; particularly around the stats the piece uses from some American research from 2008, which have been ‘exposed’ by Andrew Bolt. Apparently, I’ve been told a handful of times today, […]