Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away;
for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.
Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede… 
[Isaiah 59:14-16a]

One year ago – almost exactly – I read this scripture. I was days away from starting my new job as ACL Managing Director.

Isaiah’s prophecy diagnoses many cultural maladies in his day. All of them are increasingly relevant to our times.

This one hits the bullseye.

Let me be the first to engage in some bigoted quackery and talk conversion.

That is to quote Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who has announced plans to ban so-called ‘LGBT conversion therapy.’

Late in 2017 I travelled through Germany. It was the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

The occasion made the sadness of what I observed more poignant.

The people who walked in darkness
  have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
  on them has light shone...

Stop Adani. Keep coal in the ground. 100% renewable energy by 2030.

Those are the demands of School Strike 4 Climate Action, a movement of 5-18-year-old students who have been walking out of school in their thousands in the name of “climate justice.”

I am late for International Men’s Day but felt compelled not to miss it.

So much of our public discourse now touches in some way on maleness and femaleness.

Toxic masculinity, Jordan Peterson, gender quotas, privilege, power…

I’m 6’7” with size 15 feet and my hands are hairy. If I lived in Tasmania (I don’t), and I was contemplating a gender experiment (I’m not), new laws would mean I could simply sign a statutory declaration to change my birth certificate and become a woman in a moment of time.

After a gruelling political campaign, Daniel Andrew’s incumbent ALP Government clearly defeated Mathew Guy’s Liberal/National Opposition to form government in Victoria.  

Most Victorians evidently form their voting decision around how they feel the state is at and what will affect their family.  Employment, economic growth, traffic, health and hospitals and crime all weigh heavily on why people vote the way they do.

For years I wondered why, of all the attributes of God, Jesus chose mercy for the fifth beatitude.

There is a logical progression to the beatitudes – they are not random statements. Nobody teaches or makes a point by way of random statements. This blog doesn’t, you don’t, and neither did Jesus.

Taken together, in order, they describe the character traits of the heart into which the kingdom of God has come. They are the Christian’s character reference.

They are profound.

Yes, Labor have backflipped on their plan to remove sex markers from Tasmanian birth certificates. However, what they and the Greens' are still proposing is still incredibly dangerous.