Dear Reader, this BLOG post is the second part of an interview with Kathy Baldock. For Part One please see this link. 4. Many religious people have expressed their concern as they see ‘homosexual behaviour’ as a sin against God and against Scripture. In fact, the Bible has been used as one of the main tools of…Continue reading A Chat with Kathy Baldock: Ally and Advocate – Part TWO
Category: Religion
A Chat with Kathy Baldock: Ally and Advocate – Part ONE
I was excited to meet Kathy Baldock in person last year when she visited Australia. Over the years I have admired her staunch support as an ally and advocate for the LGBTIQ community. Her writing is well-researched, articulate and informative (you can find more information about Kathy on this link). I am so pleased that…Continue reading A Chat with Kathy Baldock: Ally and Advocate – Part ONE
The Power of Yes
“Love is a place & through this place of love move (with brightness of peace) all places YES is a world & in this world of yes live (skillfully curled) all worlds” – E.E. Cummings – Yesterday was a Yes day. It was also a historic day in Australia. 79.5% of Australians took part in…Continue reading The Power of Yes
God on My Side?
I spent the first seven years of my life in a small village in Northern Germany. It was the sort of place where everyone knew each other and the children roamed the streets like herds of sheep. You had to be tough in those herds! Children aren’t always as nice as we like to imagine.…Continue reading God on My Side?
Have Your Cake And Eat It Too: Protecting Our Religious Rights!
“When we hide discrimination under the guise of ‘religious freedom,’ we make a mockery of human rights.” – DaShanne Stokes – There’s been a lot of talk around our fair isle about preserving ‘religious rights’ and ‘religious freedom’ in the last few months. The fear is palpable and has been used to keep campaigns alive…Continue reading Have Your Cake And Eat It Too: Protecting Our Religious Rights!
Maybe You Are Asking The Wrong Questions?
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” – Primo Levi (Holocaust Survivor) – Primo Levi did not consider himself a hero for surviving Auschwitz. Like other survivors, he had seen and experienced…Continue reading Maybe You Are Asking The Wrong Questions?
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
“It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.” – Patrick Rothfuss – Stories: they shape our world, they change our world, they are our world. We all live our lives to the rhythm…Continue reading The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Oh The Places You Will Go … And The Places You Must Leave …
“Our hearts of stone become hearts of flesh when we learn where the outcast weeps.” Brennan Manning I remember walking through the doors of a house we had built in semi-rural Melbourne. It was a home that in years ahead would be the place where many friends and family members would gather – a place…Continue reading Oh The Places You Will Go … And The Places You Must Leave …
Apartheid and the Ideas about God that Upheld It
This is a blog post from 2 years ago. As I travel Germany and am confronted by the many monuments that remember the holocaust and persecuted minorities, I am again aware of the fundamental role that dominant religions often play in oppressive regimes. May we never forget. I still remember the feeling of stifling hot air hitting…Continue reading Apartheid and the Ideas about God that Upheld It
Let’s Talk about Shame
It’s only taken me several decades to work out what a powerful motivator shame has been in my life. As an idealist and dreamer, the need to make things right has so often been driven by an exhausting sense of shame. Psychologist Michael Lewis calls shame the ‘quintessential human emotion’. In many ways, shame…Continue reading Let’s Talk about Shame