If you’re looking for me now …

… go here! I’ve moved from Romsey to Williamstown, and have a new blog to go with my new placement and new address.

Same-sex marriage and the dangers of polygamy

This is a section of the Cross Purposes article that I cut out before submitting it, because I didn’t think it added anything to my argument. It is an attempt to answer the concern that approving same-sex marriages will lead to the approval of polygamous relationships.

If marriage is based on primarily or only on procreation then, as the stories of Israel’s patriarchs remind us, polygamy is a sensible way of increasing the number of offspring. However, in the debate about same-sex marriage any historical or cultural link between procreation and polygamy is severed, and instead concerns are raised that it is the acceptance of supposedly non-procreative same-sex relationships that will lead to the acceptance of polygamy. Self-described ‘marriage nut’ David Blankenhorn, the founder and director of the Institute for American Values; the British ‘Keep Marriage Special’ campaign; and the Australian Christian Lobby have all made this link.

Thinking historically about same-sex marriage

A version of this essay was published in Cross Purposes, Issue 29, December 2012.

In common with the rest of Australian society, the Uniting Church does not have a single sexual ethic.[1] Reflecting recently on his experience of the Church’s (homo)sexuality debate Alistair Macrae mused: ‘In my long engagement with this issue, you’ve probably got twenty per cent of our Church on each end who have very strong opinions on this issue, mutually exclusive positions, and sixty per cent in the middle who are saying “complex issue, not sure”’.[2]

Sermon: How can we rejoice in a broken world?

The Third Sunday of Advent, 16^th of December 2012

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Isaiah 12:2-6

Philippians 4:4-7

I had another sermon for today. Today, the third Sunday of Advent, is “Gaudete” Sunday – Joy Sunday, the only Sunday in the entire liturgical year whose colour is pink or, more accurately, rose. The name comes from part of today’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians; in Latin, “rejoice in the Lord always” is Gaudete in Domino semper. In the midst of Advent, which can be rather a sombre time as we prepare for the Second Coming and are reminded to be ready for the return of the Son of Man, this third Sunday is a time of joy.

But my alarm is a radio set to Radio National, so the very first thing I heard when I woke up yesterday morning, before I was even fully awake, was news of the deaths in Newtown, Connecticut. My heart sank and I felt sick.