Sermon by Rod Benson, 2 Dec 2001. Proverbs 18:10-11; 28:6 There are only 23 days to Christmas. Yesterday, in one of our annual rituals, our family installed our Christmas tree, weighing down its branches with tinsel, balls, beads and other decorations. As he has done every Christmas, when all is ready, Michael is lifted aloft …
Would you stop to help?
A lot of the news we hear is bad news – I suppose that’s just an indication of the kind of world we live in today. But one story I heard recently really troubled me, and got me thinking about our diminished capacity for compassion in the individualistic, narcissistic, social-media soaked world we inhabit. In …
Justice, compassion and asylum seekers
Three things give Christmas Island its reputation: phosphate mining (now in its last decade), the natural environment (who could forget those amazing red crabs), and the four detention centres where asylum seekers are housed while they await processing. The issue of desperate people trying to get to Australia in leaky boats deeply divides the community, …
Is Australia a Christian nation?
Four days ago the Rev Fred Nile made a stirring speech in the NSW Upper House on the subject of Australia as a Christian nation. American Christians often claim the United States as a Christian nation, founded by men who took their faith seriously and instilled Christian principles in the country’s central institutions and laws. …
Wordle of my Master of Theology thesis
Here's a Wordle image of the full text of my 2010 Master of Theology thesis on "Aspects of social responsibility among Baptists in New South Wales 1834-2009." And here's a Wordle of the first and last chapters (i.e. minus the detailed description and analysis of archival sources), indicating some of the key ideas:
iDigress 