At 8.30 pm on Saturday March 26, electric lights and appliances will be switched off for one hour across Sydney, and around the globe, to celebrate Earth Hour, now in its fifth year. Earth Hour is a community event to raise awareness of the need to take action on climate change. Yes, there are the …
Quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan
We have all been overwhelmed by images of the massive earthquake that hit Japan on March 11, and the resulting tsunami, in some cases up to ten metres high and sweeping ten kilometres inland. And there is the Fukushima nuclear power plant, severely damaged by the disaster and at risk of partial meltdown and large …
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Action needed on alcohol and gambling
In a state election campaign in which the lack of policy differentiation between the two major parties is matched only by the intensity of voter boredom, or disengagement, there are two significant social issues on which, if the parties could break the stranglehold of industry lobby groups, some real policy alternatives could emerge, and some real …
Tony Blair on faith and progress
There's a lot of talk these days, and a lot of space and airtime given by media to popular, muscular atheism - the idea that God is dead, or doesn't exist. And many who do believe in God play down the significance of their faith for everyday life, or relegate faith to Sundays. So it …
Who speaks for the church on social issues?
Here’s an account of my twitter exchange on Sunday night (20 March 2011) with Dean Tregenza, whose Twitter bio identifies him as a librarian and “a tenderer of sacred spaces”: @rod_benson For NSW tweeps, I’ll be talking with Kel Richards on 2CH at 10.40pm on what the churches see as key policy issues ahead of …
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