Thoughts on faith, culture, and public life.
New Guinea's northern coast near Sialum, Morobe Province. Photo: Assistant District Commissioner Bob Hoad, 1972. By Rod Benson New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland. The human history of New Guinea extends far beyond the appearance of the Lapita cultural complex about 3,300 years ago. Archaeological, environmental and genetic evidence indicates that …
Continue reading "Before Lapita: The earliest human settlement of New Guinea"
A reflection on the classic hymn, O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus Part 1 By Rod Benson Samuel Trevor Francis’s hymn, “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus,” is a compact but substantial meditation on the love of Christ. Commonly sung to Thomas John Williams’s Welsh tune Ebenezer, its surging phrases reinforce the recurring …
By Rod Benson Is there such a thing as Judeo-Christian values”? The term “Judeo-Christian” is a relatively modern expression. Judaism and Christianity are distinct religious traditions, and political appeals to “Judeo-Christian values” may obscure their differences or distinguish supposedly authentic members of Western society from outsiders. Yet it does not follow that Judaism and Christianity …
Over the past two weeks, we have been immersed in Ezekiel’s visionary account of a futuristic temple where the presence of God is real and the grace of God is palpable and free-flowing in the form of a river emanating from the doors of the temple to restore and replenish the earth that humankind has …
Likud lawmaker Hanoch Milwidsky. By Rod Benson In remarks circulated on video in September 2026, Likud member of the Knesset Hanoch Milwidsky reportedly declared: “We are not like everyone else,” adding that laws applying to others do not apply to the Jewish people. According to the published English translation, he also described the Jewish people …
Continue reading "Election is not exemption: Human rights, Scripture and sacred exceptionalism"
