Choosing the butter

A sermon on 2 Kings 2:1-18 One of my favourite French atheist philosophers is a man of about my own age called Michel Onfray.  When he was 28, Onfray nearly died of a heart attack brought on, in part, by his love for classic French cuisine.  As he recovered, his doctor spoke those words we …

Bethlehem’s Child is Lord and God

In William Shakespeareโ€™s play, Twelfth Night, Malvolio says to Fabian, โ€œBe not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.โ€ Jesus Christ, whose birth Christians celebrate on this day each year, was great in all three ways.ย  King Herod referred to him as โ€œthe one who …

Father Chris Riley sells out

The founder of Youth Off the Streets, Father Chris Riley, has lent his support to a Clubs Australia advertising blitz targeting two million homes in NSW, as the gambling lobby intensifies its battle against the Gillard governmentโ€™s proposed poker machine reforms. Father Riley, whose charity receives substantial donations from gambling venues, seems at the very …

ACL unrepresentative, say Victorians

In a direct attack on the Australian Christian Lobby, the Victorian Council of Churches this week expressed dismay at what it called โ€œthe one-sided portrayal of Christianityโ€ in the Australian media. The Victorian Council of Churches described its role as โ€œacknowledging a variety of emphasesโ€ and enabling โ€œa safe environment to prayerfully discuss and discern …

Bill Crews supports pokies reform

The decision by Father Chris Riley to support Clubs Australia in its fight against the federal governmentโ€™s poker machine reforms has prompted a strong response from the newly formed NSW Churches Gambling Taskforce. Rev Bill Crews, chair of the NSW Taskforce, said that counselling was an important part of helping people overcome addiction to poker …