Dave Andrews I used to teach a course on Christian community work at a Theological College near here. At the start of the course, I always got students to draw a picture of their ideal community. Not surprisingly many of the Christian students drew a picture of a Christian community with a church with a […]

Dave Andrews I know what can happen in a country when a majority turns against a minority. I was living in India in 1984 when two Sikh bodyguards assassinated the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, and the majority Hindu community turned against the minority Sikh community in Delhi, whom they judged guilty by association. […]

Statement from Christian leaders in Logan City Kuraby Mosque, Friday 26 September 2014 A Call For Christians And Muslims To Stand Together As Christians and church leaders, we are standing today side by side with our Muslim brothers and sisters, to condemn all violence and to plead for peace and respect in our community of […]

In his classic book On Killing, paratrooper psychologist, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman. suggests that contrary to some of our cultural stereotypes ‘the vast majority of men are not born killers.’ At most only 2% of men could be considered psychopathic personalities with a predisposition towards killing. Brigadier S.L.A. Marshall’s study of soldiers’ in World War […]

Dave Andrews If you have seen the Courier Mail in the news stands the last few weeks, you would have noticed how much the press love putting scary stories on the front page of the paper. They quote the most blood-curdling statements from the most hair-raising extremists they can find, without any regard for the […]

One of my close Muslim friends is a woman named Salam. Yes. That’s her real name. ‘Peace’ by name. ‘Peace’ by nature. She is an embodiment of all that is best about the Islam I have encountered in her circle of friends – vital, vibrant and alive; soulful, wise and strong; gentle, gracious and engaged. […]

The abusive treatment in detention of children seeking asylum in Australia has touched a nerve. Normally quiet well-dressed law-abiding middle-of-the-road religious people all over Australia are rising up and risking arrest to protest Australian Government Policy that The Australian Churches Refugee Task Force recently unhesitatingly labelled as “State-Sanctioned Child Abuse”. There is much concern over […]

The abusive treatment in detention of children seeking asylum in Australia has touched a nerve. Normally quiet well-dressed law-abiding middle-of-the-road religious people all over Australia are rising up and risking arrest to protest Australian Government Policy that The Australian Churches Refugee Task Force recently unhesitatingly labelled as “State-Sanctioned Child Abuse”. There is much concern over […]

  OPEN LETTER TO CHRISTIANS ON AUSTRALIAN ASYLUM SEEKER POLICY July 2014 This letter is an open-hearted appeal for a Christian response to people seeking asylum in Australia. It is a call to church leaders and people to inject a new urgency as asylum seeker policies plumb new depths. For two reasons: one, Australian politicians, […]

This is a speech I gave at a recent Rally For Refugees. ‘To be human is for our hearts to beat with the desire to love and be loved. If there is a single universal rule of ethical human conduct recognized by the whole of humanity, it is that ‘we ought to love our neighbours […]

Read this interview with this rag tag bunch of ‘veteran activists’, (on page six of the July edition of Journey magazine), about the ways we have found to continue to engage in the struggle for change against the overwhelming odds of any apparent success and the ongoing persistent temptation to give up. http://journeyonline.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/jny_July2014.pdf

Recently I wrote about ‘Entering A New Dark Age’ I said as I look around I can see signs the New Dark Age has begun. Some of the features of emerging neo-feudalism that I observe include: 1. The emergence of powerful, unelected and/or unaccountable leaders. 2. These ‘lords’ offer protection in return for subservience and […]