Thoughts on faith, culture, and public life.
Skul bilong wok na save, na wok bilong bildim kantri long Papua Niugini Rod Benson i raitim Lae em wanpela siti em graun na ples bilong en i bin stiaim tru histori bilong en. Lae i stap long het bilong Huon Gulf, klostu long maus bilong Markham River, long hap we wanpela bikpela veli i …
Continue reading "Histori bilong Lae Technical College (Tok Pisin)"
Vocational education and nation-building in Papua New Guinea By Rod Benson Lae is a city shaped by its geography. It lies at the head of the Huon Gulf, close to the mouth of the Markham River, where a broad valley opens between formidable mountain systems and the sea. Behind the coastal plain rise the Atzera …
Rev Dr Stephen Bartlett, under whose watch the Baptist denomination in NSW suffered schism over marriage equality. By Rod Benson The debate over same-sex marriage within the Baptist Association of NSW & ACT provides a revealing contemporary test of Baptist convictions concerning Scripture, conscience, congregational autonomy and associational authority. The immediate question was theological: must …
Continue reading "Marriage equality and the cleaving of Baptists in NSW"
Rev Dr Ross Clifford AM, long-serving Principal of Morling College, who led the conservative push against marriage equality among NSW Baptists. By Rod Benson Baptists cherish freedom, but no Baptist community can survive without boundaries. Churches confess beliefs, establish expectations of membership, recognise ministers and determine the purposes for which they will cooperate with other …
Continue reading "When Baptist convictions become hard boundary markers"
Southern Baptist minister and educator Edgar Young Mullins. By Rod Benson Historically, Baptists have often been described as a radical and dissenting people. Not primarily conservative or fundamentalist, but radical and dissenting. That is the historic Baptist DNA. The earliest Baptists emerged from the contested religious world of post-Reformation Europe, questioning inherited ecclesiastical arrangements, rejecting …
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