The following video ran at the end of the Australian Christian Lobby’s recent webcast, “Defining Marriage“. I missed the broadcast, being on a plane, but hope to get some viewing in over the next few days. Here’s the “Marriage Act” video. The Marriage Act from whatismarriage on Vimeo. Clever. I think I’d want to focus […]
The BBC Reith Lecture – an interesting insight into human nature
The BBC Reith Lectures are always stimulating. Yesterday I listened to a great one by Niall Ferguson entitled “The Darwinian Economy“. The transcript is here. There’s lots of good stuff on the current economic crisis. Ferguson states his basic thesis: In my view, the lesson of the 1970s is not that deregulation is bad, but that […]
The Regnerus Study on Same-Sex Parenting
Finally we’ve got a study on this topic that begins to provide meaningful results. Science Direct have the text of “How different are the adult children of parents who have same-sex relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures Study” (pdf here). Here’s the abstract: The New Family Structures Study (NFSS) is a social-science data-collection project that […]
Boswell wrong on Byzantine Adelphopoiesis
From the New Oxford Review back in December 1994. Writing the history of a religious institution involves understanding concepts and language within their historical and cultural context. Otherwise, the risk is taken that history will be rewritten to suit current preoccupations. Boswell’s attempt to prove that the Byzantines regarded adelphopoiesis as a form of marriage fails because […]
Anglican Unscripted 43
From 22:30 I talk with Kevin about Gay Marriage inside the church and out, in Australia and the UK.
“There was no Global Flood, therefore Homosexual Practice is OK”
Believe it or not, that’s the line being run by a former evangelical, Keith Mascord, in today’s smh. After a brief summary of the potential issues with believing in a global flood (Genesis 6-9) he concludes, the only reason a plain (and church-history-long) reading of the Noah story has been overturned in favour of seeing […]
The “Church” Times on “Gay Marriage”
Chris Johnson is worth repeating in full… The Church Times is not down with the Church of England’s official opposition to homosexual “marriage,” which it calls “tendentious and poorly-argued.” At this point, I don’t particularly care one way or the other what the C of E or the Church Times thinks about anything at all but among the Times ”arguments,” this one […]
Peter Jensen goes Public on “Gay Marriage”
Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, has made a public intervention in the national debate over “Gay Marriage”. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, he sets out his opposition: We are in the midst of a sustained and brilliantly orchestrated campaign to radically alter the marriage laws of this country to allow same-sex marriage. Three […]
Polygamy in the Bible – A Sordid Tale
A great post at the Briefing by my good friend (and imminent replacement!) Lionel Windsor: Off the top of my head, here are some of the stories about polygamy in the Bible: The first polygamist, Lamech, calls a family conference so he can boast about his inordinate vengeful violence. He’s clearly not a nice man […]
The Modern Marriage Ideology
A magnificent piece by Andrew Cameron of Moore Theological College in the Southern Cross and on sydneyanglicans.net In the middle of these changing loves, Christians can ask helpful questions (there’s not much point being polemical when so little thought has been given to the nature of marriage). We can ask our neighbours: ‘Are you sure […]
