Epigrammatic Episodes

Some believe that the terrorist drama currently being played out throughout the world is not about religion at all, but the result of the West's historically destabilising influence over those they wish to manipulate. On the other extreme are those seeking to place blame entirely upon the Arab world and its historically aggressive religion.  In truth, both are to blame. The West's bullying politics encourages acts of retaliation,   and it's human nature to retaliate.  However the flavour of Islam preferred by the fundamentalists seems intent on using violence as a winnowing fork of division, inflaming society so as to create an Us and Them dichotomy; Muslim and non-Muslim; and to force the “moderate Muslim” majority to make a choice, to pick a side. But why is that? Why are Islamic terrorists, in particular, so predictably extreme? Who or what are they looking to for guidance in how to retaliate against their perceived enemies? Mohammed Muslims, ...

'We're a Christian Nation'. At best this refrain is used to imply that the Bible has influenced our Nations culture more than any other religious text in her history.  For Australia, this is undeniably true. However, the term 'Christian Nation' is misleading. For as much as the Bible may have influenced this nation, there is only one group within her borders that biblically can be called Christian, and they are those that believe in and obey the Bible's message.  Yet this nation contains a high and growing percentage of people who do not believe (and probably many more “believers” who merely give it lip service).  So the reality is we are neither biblically or statistically a Christian nation.  Instead we are historically a nation influenced by Bible believers.  Yet, though influential, the Bible wasn't given as a text book for establishing national law & policy. Rather it was given to believers as a means of reminding them of God's purposes...