Thoughts on faith, culture, and public life.
Ed Sheeran By Rod Benson The controversy surrounding Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour eventually reaches a question deeper than celebrity politics: can compassion remain morally credible when it becomes selective? Public culture is saturated with the language of kindness, inclusion, empathy and love. Yet those virtues are tested not when they are universally applauded …
Continue reading "Selective compassion: How would Jesus respond?"
Recent controversy surrounding Sydney’s Divine Playhouse has reopened an enduring and vexed question within liberal democracies: Should artistic freedom extend to the deliberate parody of religious symbols held sacred by millions of believers? Responding to performances and promotional material that appropriated Catholic imagery—including references to the Eucharist and the sacrament of confession—Archbishop Anthony Fisher argued …
Continue reading "Artistic freedom, religious freedom, and the sacred"
Part of the huge police presence at today's Town Hall Square protest rally in Sydney. Photo: Rod Benson Attending the protest rally against Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia was not part of my plans for this evening. I left work at my city office around 4.15 pm and headed to Gadigal Station to …
Continue reading "On the power and fragility of public protest"
