As their once core demographic diminishes, Republicans are going to any lengths to capture and keep the white vote. As Republicans were promoting themselves as a multiracial party from the platform in Tampa two weeks ago, an ugly incident on the convention floor suggested not everyone had got the memo. From the podium a range of speakers of Read more
I recently travelled to Darwin and was surrounded by the living and remnant artefacts of the indigenous faiths by which the first Australians ordered their lives. It was another example, if ever I needed one, of the power of spirituality and its necessity for many, or indeed most, communities. The doyens of New Atheism taunt Read more
Maori are doing us all a big favour. Putting aside for one moment the rights and wrongs of the Government’s partial state assets sales plan, as a nation we may yet come to regard indigenous claims over water ownership and rights with some gratitude. For, if nothing else, Maori interests and determination that rights issues Read more
HA, what a laugh! Maori singing songs to rivers and claiming they have a special right to water and wind. Let’s charge them every time there is a flood. How about those Muslim women? Won’t let men see them out of veil. Take them to the Human Rights Commission! As a non-believer, I don’t have Read more
We hear so little positive news about the many and varied countries in Africa – most given the Catholic faith along with their subjugation by European powers intent on despoiling them. I want to redress the balance by sharing two stories from one of the poorest countries where Christian Life Community (CLC) is making a Read more
Growing up in poverty has pernicious, enduring, but preventable effects on children. Research suggests that poverty is the single greatest threat to child wellbeing. Its negative effects endure and escalate across the entire lifespan. It is concerning, therefore, that according to the recent report by the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty, approximately Read more
Just because your life’s fallen down doesn’t mean there’s nothing left I thought as I gazed at the skeleton of Knox Presbyterian Church in Christchurch. Instead of being desolate, this space had a stark kind of beauty. On the whole, space, silence and nothing are discomforting. So much so that we try to fill space, Read more
Vatican City — With the recent death of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, Catholics who call for church reform on issues such as homosexuality and priestly celibacy have lost one of their last leading lights in the top echelons of the church’s hierarchy. Martini, who died Aug. 31, was a Jesuit and an archbishop of Milan Read more
It’s not often I find myself agreeing with Archbishop Peter Jensen. But his latest foray into the public space was right about at least one thing: it’s time for a serious, grown-up discussion about the nature of marriage. But just how serious a discussion we can have when figures like Jensen refuse to acknowledge that “secular” understandings Read more
Two Sundays ago many Christians heard a passage from the Letter to the Ephesians which opens the door to the very different world in which the Church first emerged: Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the Read more