Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: John Dickson, Media, Michael Jensen, Peter Jensen, Sunrise
In light of my discussion with Matt over his criticism of Peter Jensen on Sunrise, I’ve been thinking about how Christians interact in/with the media.
I suggested that perhaps being involved in the type of deliberately adversarial TV slots (like the Jensen Sunrise one) is perhaps not the wisest choice. The issue being that the medium of 2 minute TV debates make it very difficult to present what are often complex issues in an adequate way (e.g. defending against the charge that science/evolution has debunked the Genesis creation narrative).
Contrast this against set-piece articles, two of which are online today.
Michael Jensen tackles the subject of “religion” on the ABC and John Dickson (in what seems to be an annual event) talks about the historicity of Jesus.
Both well written pieces that have enough room to properly develop and explain the ideas.
Bottom line; should we be wiser by turning down things like the Sunrise debate?
Mary McKillop, Tony Abbott and Peter Jensen
Matt takes issue (among other things) with Peter Jensen’s performance on Sunrise earlier in the week.
I suggested in the comments that he was being too harsh, but maybe I’m wrong? If you have a view, comment over at Matts blog.
On that topic, Jensen is in the Tele today giving a counterpoint to an Atheist Scientist.
Why I am a Calvinist (and you should be too)
Craig throws a bomb into the air at Sydney Anglicans and waits for the explosion.
I was going to blog on this survey in the SMH about Australian religiosity, but didn’t get around to it.
Nathan hits some of the main points in his summary of the survey.
He notes that “Atheism (is) de rigueur for the angry young man”. So tell me again why the church is pushing to better appeal to women?
Blog of Anton Marquez, our new Student Minister starting in Jan.
Christmas, curry and many faiths
An ex-muslim comments on Christmas when he was growing up. I liked this comment:
“The degree to which Christmas should be emphasised in a multicultural society may be contentious to some, yet voices of protest rarely emanate from non-Christians. I am particularly amused by the occasions when well-meaning folk have corrected themselves to call Christmas the ”holiday season” to appear more inclusive for my benefit.”
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Atheism, Anti-Theism, Richard Dawkins, Andrew Denton
Saw Richard Dawkins being interviewed by Andrew Denton on his “Elders” program tonight.
Denton asked some interesting questions. Dawkins avoided or refused to answer some of them, but all-in-all he didn’t come across as particularly arrogant. He actually showed reasonable humility when asked to comment on topics he felt he had no knowledge.
At one point Denton asked Dawkins if he had hope for humanity. Dawkins response was illuminating. He said (paraphrasing):
“At an intellectual level, no. The technology to for humans to cause so much harm is getting cheaper and more available.”
The other thing I noticed was that Dawkins, at times, really struggled to avoid using certain words and phrases that people of faith might use when describing the natural world or life in general.
But apparently he’s pretty sure that if there’s life on other planets then it will be following Darwinian evolutionary principles.
OK then.
So apparently we (as in Stanhope Anglican) will be tackling Romans in 2010.
Awesome…
Oh and the rest of Genesis and maybe some doctrine.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Driscoll, Evangelism, Missional Practice
“I’m still not sure that if most Pastors are aware that their churches are comprised of people they don’t yet know. Those people will never come to the churches, so the Pastors need to go to those people.
The hard part was fuguring out where to begin in trying to gather people. It seemed weird to just start hitting on total strangers at places like coffee shops, trying to get them to pray the sinners prayer, like a spiritual flasher”
Confessions of a Reformission Rev, Mark Driscoll, pg 61
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Children, Education, Missional Practice, School, Scripture in Schools
The ReThink Mission folks ask a good question…Do Missional Families Go To Public School?
Seems the issue in the States (context for the blog) is impacted by the profound lousyness of some of their public schools.
For us we have chosen to send our oldest (and will send our other two) to the local public school, rather than the any of the nearby Christian schools. I know that there are issues with our public school system, but both my wife and I are public school educated (which maybe you think explains some things) and overall we’ve found our local PS excellent.
This decision means needing to have more conversations working through various issues (e.g. why some kids don’t go to Scripture/believe in God), but these are good things to cover.
In the end I would ask can we, as Christians, actually justify the money required to send our kids to private Christian schools? I mean the cheapest you’re going to get is a couple of thousand bucks a year, which is not small change.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Awkward Conversations, Children, Marriage, Sex
No, we’re not expecting child #4.
The post title refers to the topic of conversation my wife had with Child #1 (6.5 y.o) last week.
Out of the blue, no pre-warning the question comes…”Mummy, how does the baby know when to go into the Mummies tummy”?, followed by “Does it just happen after the Mummy and Daddy get married” .
Deeep breath…
And so my slightly nervous wife proceeded to explain how babies are made. My son was alright with the whole thing until the mechanics of getting the sperm and egg together was explained. Then it was kinda gross.
She also explained that some people have babies without being married but that’s fornication and the babies are bastards.
OK, she didn’t say the last two bits…but i might.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Anglicanism, Sunrise, Liberalism, Guy Mason, New Zealand
Who says NZ doesn’t have any good churches (well, lot’’s of people, but let’s move on)?
St Matthews in the City are blazing the way for Anglicanism in Auckland with their own brand of Progressive Christianity™.
Check out their new Billboard campaign here.
Makes some of the Liberal Anglican’s here in Aust look positively biblical.
Oh, and check Guy Mason on Sunrise tomorrow morning @ 7:15am debating the aforesaid bilboard, and no doubt talking some sense.
UPDATE: Matt posts on the issue and notes that the online Atheist chatter about the billboard is all “These Christians are stupid” head scratching….and it seems the poster has been defaced.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Atheism, Mary Mckillop, Peter Fitzsimon, Roman Catholicism
Ggrrrr
Peter Fitzsimons is a grumpy atheist.
And fair enough too…Not sure what “Anglican” Kev is doing getting himself mixed up with the Mary Mckillop sainthood excitement.
Of course the whole “sainthood” thing is nonsense. Anyone reading the bible would see that pretty quickly.
