On Thursday Matt was interviewed on Radio Rhema by their breakfast host, Tim Sisarich, on the topic of ethics in journalism. This was in the wake of the media frenzy over the Israelis killed in the Christchurch earthquake and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key’s rebuttal to claims that they were spies. The Murdoch saga was [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Current Events'
Ethics in Journalism – Hear Matt’s Interview on Radio Rhema
July 23rd, 2011 6 Comments
Tags: Journalism Ethics · Radio Rhema · Tim Sisarich
Klingon Cloaking Devices Unmasked by Boat People
July 15th, 2011 15 Comments
It was inevitable. Sooner or later a boat filled with desperate people would set out from India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, whatever, for New Zealand. We have been “protected” to date only by an accident of geography–New Zealand’s relative distance. Australia has faced the problem for decades. A group of Sri Lankan poor (allegedly Tamils previously [...]
Tags: Human Rights · Rights and Freedoms · Sri Lankan Boat People
Macsyna King, Representative of the Coming Race
July 8th, 2011 13 Comments
We are simple souls, and so find ourselves “conflicted” (to use pop psych jargon) over the public vituperate venting about one Macsyna King. How we love a mob. All heat and no light. A dirty bomb. Macsyna is coming out of the closet via a book, Breaking Silence: The Kahui Case, written by Ian Wishart. The mob [...]
Tags: Chris and Cru Kahui · Due Process · Ian Wishart · Investigate Magazine · Macsyna King · Welfare
Aslan is Not a Tame Lion: The Christchurch Earthquake Beyond Our Questions
April 16th, 2011 14 Comments
In the aftermath of the second Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand, “official” Christian spokesmen were exercised to assure people that God, the Living God, had nothing to do with earthquakes. They defalcated. Their theodicy was that their god was absent. In the face of likely outrage, church officials revealed that they worship, in fact, the [...]
Tags: Aslan · Chris Trotter · Christchurch Earthquake · Problem of Evil
Hearing the Voice of God: Tragedy and its Aftershocks
February 28th, 2011 25 Comments
The “big one” has hit Christchurch. Few in the entire country will be untouched or unaffected, since we in New Zealand are a little village. To a man each will have relatives, friends, colleagues and mates in Christchurch. In that sense it is a national disaster. The meaning and significance of such disasters are always [...]
Tags: Christchurch Earthquake
Prayers for the victims of the Christchurch Earthquake
February 22nd, 2011 9 Comments
We are devastated for our countrymen who were struck by a very shallow, yet very destructive, 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand this afternoon. While it may have been smaller than September’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake, all reports show that this one was far worse in terms of its violence and impact. Today many people have [...]
Tags: Christchurch Earthquake
The Pretensions of Democracy and the Egypt Riots
February 9th, 2011 81 Comments
The secular west has a secular gospel. It is the good news of democracy. When problems assail a nation, all would be assuaged if not solved if it had more democracy. And so it has come to pass with respect to Egypt. The West is not unique in that it has its own version of [...]
Tags: Democracy · Egypt Riots · Islam · Political Philosophy
Waitangi’s Christian Heritage
February 6th, 2011 No Comments
It is Waitangi Day in New Zealand today; the day where we remember the signing of the treaty of Waitangi in 1840. This morning at church I had the privilege of hearing a very interesting talk from my Pastor, Rev. Dr Stuart Lange about the lead up to the Treaty signing. Stuart is a church [...]
Tags: Christian History · Laidlaw College · New Zealand Christian Network · Samuel Marsden · Stuart Lange · Treaty of Waitangi · Waitangi Day · William Wilberforce
Atheist Posters: University Intolerance is Suddenly News?
February 3rd, 2011 32 Comments
Last night I watched a section on TV3′s Campbell Live about the treatment of a campus atheist club at the University of Lincoln entitled “Atheist uni students’ posters torn down” (follow the link to view the video). This story went into detail about how the clubs posters have been regularly ripped down and defaced. The [...]
Tags: Atheist Club · Campbell Live · Natasha Utting · University of Lincoln
Easy Dupes: Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari “Gay Girl in Damascus”
July 3rd, 2011 7 Comments
Narratives are powerful. They control what we identify as significant data or facts, how we empirically apprehend the data, what interpretations and shades of significance we place upon the evidence, and the conclusions drawn. Absolute objectivity is impossible. Only relative neutrality and disinterestedness are possible. The cut of our jib determines the winds we catch [...]
Tags: Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari · Gay Girl in Damascus · Homosexual Conduct · Islam · Israel · Palestine · Paula Brooks · Syria · Tom MacMaster