Don't give up on hope. In NRL sport, mainly from Sydney, but neither contender was based there. Queensland Cowboys faced off Melbourne Storm. Melbourne Storm had many players from Queensland. Queensland won handsomely, with Melbourne Storm scoring 34 to Cowboy's six. It was very one sided all match. Sydney never had a chance. But next year, Sydney teams will start equal. That is how sport works.
I posted a strongly worded missive regarding Father Bower from Gosford Anglican. He has all the charm, wit and balance of Westboro Baptist's former leader Fred Phelps. As do his defenders. Occasionally they refer to God (So, what is the occasion?) and a few have responded. Father Bower is a SSM advocate, but also advocates AGW hysteria and likes his refugees to be fleeced by people smugglers and face drowning, as opposed to being placed from a refugee camp.
=== Posting one
Christina McKercher Booth If you read the post that accompanies the sign (which you obviously haven't!!!) then you would know this has nothing to do with SSM. It is to do with refugees. And to refer to other Christians as the devil because they disagree with your stance is as bad as what you are falsely accusing For Rob of doing. Remove the log!!!
David Daniel Ball You have misread what I wrote.
"But Father Bower seems to want to drown migrants, after fleecing them through subjecting them to piracy. Bower calls that compassionate"
Christina McKercher Booth I read it. It still has nothing to do with SSM. And your understanding of the refugee situation is sadly misguided.
David Daniel Ball You feel it is God's plan to drown refugees and subject them to people smuggling?
Christina McKercher Booth David. Unless you are to actually genuinely find out the facts about this issue for yourself (I certainly don't have the room to educate you here) then please stop throwing out the rhetoric that you have been fed. This information is untrue.
Can you please tell us your source? Firstly, can I encourage you to ask what would Jesus do (or say) in this situation? If you think he would smile and suggest locking up innocents in a concentration camps where they are raped, molested, tortured and some murdered or die from the conditions they live in in order to stop people drowning at sea whilst escaping terror and persecution is the way to do things, then you will turn a lot of people away from Him. And that's what is happening. And that's a huge issue you should be very concerned about.
Or would He say love is first, love is the greatest of these, love is what we should offer? I think, if you genuinely are in a relationship with Christ you know exactly what He says in this situation. Love makes a way, not cruelty. He did't ask us to punish or judge these people, he wants us to help them. Which is what the chapter regarding the Sodomites is about. We need to start loving and sharing and helping or we will end up in the same situation as they did. We don't get to pick and choose who we share God's love with, He does, and that's everyone. If you still think that it's okay to lock people away without legal due course and to treat them as less than human then I have to ask you to revisit your relationship with God. Just as we all should do, constantly.
And by the way. The boats haven't stopped. They still arrive, the government has banned the reporting of it.
Being politically correct (in your situation, believing and spouting the rhetoric the government wants you to believe over God's plan) is not God correct.
I'm not asking you to jump onto Fr Rob's band wagon, I'm just asking you to consider Gods plan for us on this planet. That does not include discarding others and harming them.
=== Posting two
Donata Ferrante Sorry, but you sound absolutely demented. By definition, a CHRISTian is someone who follows the teachings of Christ. He advocated for the poor and the oppressed. He spread a message of love and compassion. He associated with prostitutes and others who most 'Christians' today would turn away from. Fr. Rod Bower is more Christ-like than you could ever hope to be. It seems to me that there are two types of Christians today: the ultra-conservative kind - prosletyse and use the OT teachings to push a hateful, punitive religion that is designed to maintain the status quo (patriarchy and plutocracy) and those who truly emulate Christ.
You sound seriously deranged (not a diagnosis, just a layperson's observation). You ramble and use hyperbole. There is no logic to what you have written. It is no wonder that many churches have trouble filling their pews. Decent, loving people are seeing the hypocrisy. Fr. Rod is a shining beacon in a sea of mediocrity (and worse). Rant as much as you want, you are surely only fooling those who are already of the same view as you.
David Daniel Ball So you disagree with me and don't understand me. That justifies what father Bower posted?
Donata Ferrante David Daniel Ball yes he was. Absolutely! From 'The Real Meaning of Sodomy' By Gier, Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho:
Jesus joins other ancient authorities in viewing the sins of the Sodomites as the abuse of strangers, neglecting the poor andneedy, and the stigmatizing of outsiders. For example, Ezekiel says that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah "had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and the needy" (16:49-50); and the Wisdom of Solomon says that they "refused to receive strangers when they came to them" (19.14). On the other hand, an early Christian book I Clement states that Lot was saved "because of his hospitality and piety" (11.11). It is significant that when Leviticus condemns "men who lie with men," it does not mention the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Dutton is a sodomite.
Donata Ferrante Jesus joins other ancient authorities in viewing the sins of the Sodomites as the abuse of strangers, neglecting the poor and needy, and the stigmatizing of outsiders. For example, Ezekiel says that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah "had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and the needy" (16:49-50); and the Wisdom of Solomon says that they "refused to receive strangers when they came to them" (19.14). On the other hand, an early Christian book I Clement states that Lot was saved "because of his hospitality and piety" (11.11). It is significant that when Leviticus condemns "men who lie with men," it does not mention the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Guerrilla, Professor Emeritus, university of Idaho).
Dutton IS a Sodomite - and Fr. Rod is justified.
David Daniel Ball Thank you for clarifying. I now see why you were confused.
Donata Ferrante Smug, condescending, and deluded aren't you? Have a good day. I hope that you find peace.
I wrote Bread of Life to address faith issues, and it addresses the condemnation of Donata and Christina, both of whom I blocked because they failed to argue substantively but through name calling. But even so, their arguments deserve to be addressed. Including the theological aspects.
Christina wants me to quote sources. But first we need to know where there is a dispute of fact. Australia, thanks to Rudd Gillard ending the Pacific Solution had about one boat arrival a day from Indonesia or Sri Lanka. An estimated 1% of boat people drowned on the journey. Generally, most people who pay people smugglers for transport pay from $10k Australian, although some have paid many times that. Now, thanks to Tony Abbott stopping the boats, years often pass without any boat arrivals. Some who arrive in Australia by boat have been linked to terrorism. Using a people smuggler to get to Australia means pushing a refugee aside who is waiting in a refugee camp. The result of the so called compassionate open border policy is a weakening of security and the drowning of many whom have also been subjected to piracy.
When boat people are processed, they are processed by the UN. Australia does not place them in concentration camps (image of Nazism) but in sheltered areas which are often better than refugee camps, which in fact they are. Terrible crimes are committed in these camps by those who may not be refugees but agents for people smugglers or terrorists. Sometimes, the media have promoted riots and self harm. It would be faster to process the refugees if they didn't burn their identity papers and lie about their birthplace.
Christina wrote she felt Jesus would drown people after stealing their only too. We disagree on that, but I'm just a humble, bible reading conservative Christian.
Donata claims that Bower associates with prostitutes I mostly rejected (did I read that right?).
Just before God condemned Sodom and Gomorrha in the Old Testament they had behaved much the same way ISIS do today. Which would be a good reason for preventing their followers free access. Because we know what God would do to a nation that copies them. And if you don't think God would repeat that, look at what is left of ISIS territory today.
And so here I am, a conservative Christian, preferring a New Testament answer to Donata's old testament solution.
https://conservativeweasel.blogspot.com/2021/10/1st-oct-review-of-historical-and.html
Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring
Snowin' and blowin' up bushels of fun
Now the jingle hop has begun
Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time
Dancin' and prancin' in Jingle Bell Square
In the frosty air
What a bright time, it's the right time
To rock the night away
Jingle bell time is a swell time
To go glidin' in a one-horse sleigh
Giddy-up jingle horse, pick up your feet
Jingle around the clock
Mix and a-mingle in the jinglin' feet
That's the jingle bell rock
Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bell chime in jingle bell time
Dancin' and prancin' in Jingle Bell Square
In the frosty air
What a bright time, it's the right time
To rock the night away
Jingle bell time is a swell time
To go glidin' in a one-horse sleigh
Giddy-up jingle horse, pick up your feet
Jingle around the clock
Mix and a-mingle in the jinglin' feet
That's the jingle bell
That's the jingle bell
That's the jingle...
David Daniel Ball calls himself the Conservative Voice.
I'm a teacher with three decades experience teaching math to high school kids.I also work with first graders and kids in between first grade and high school. I know the legends of why Hypatia's dad is remembered through his contribution to Math theory. And I know the legend of why followers of Godel had thought he had disproved God's existence.
I'm not a preacher, but I am a Christian who has written over 28 books all of which include some reference to my faith. Twelve blog books on world history and current affairs, detailing world events , births and marriages on each day of the year, organised by month. Twelve books on the background to and history of Bible Quotes. One Bible quote per day for a year. An intro to a science fiction series I'm planning, post apocalyptic cyber punk. An autobiography with short story collections.
I'm known in Australia for my failure as a whistleblower over the negligence death of a school boy. ...
In Tanami’s red sands where spinifex grows,
Where waterholes gleam ‘neath the sun’s golden glare,
Lived Yaparla, sweet maid, with a heart pure as snow,
Her kindness a light in the desert so bare.
Her father, a wise man, kept songs for the land,
To guard the soak’s waters where life held its sway.
But drought gripped the earth with a merciless hand,
And he sought a new spring to ease their dismay.
Deep in a gorge where the rocks hid the sky,
He found a clear pool with fish dancing free.
But a voice shook the stones with a thunderous cry,
“Who steals my sweet water without leave of me?”
Out slid the Wanyarra, half-man, half a snake,
His scales flashed like opals, his eyes cold with pain.
“For your kin’s life,” he hissed, “one price I must take—
Send Yaparla to me, or your land drinks no rain.”
The father returned, his heart heavy with woe,
And told his dear daughter the serpent’s demand.
“I’ll go,” said Yaparla, her voice soft and low,
“For my people, my country, I’ll walk that red sand.”
She came to the gorge with her digging stick strong,
Singing songs of her kin ‘neath ...
AI adapted
To adapt the story of Bambi to the Dreamtime of Warlpiri culture in the Tanami Desert, we’ll reimagine the tale with respect for Warlpiri storytelling traditions, cosmology, and the desert environment. The Dreamtime (Jukurrpa) is a sacred framework where ancestral beings shape the land, law, and life, so Bambi’s journey will reflect Warlpiri values like kinship, connection to country, and survival in harmony with nature. I’ll keep the essence of Bambi—a young creature’s growth amid loss and discovery—while grounding it in the Tanami’s ecology and Warlpiri worldview. Since Bambi is a specific narrative, I’ll translate its core themes rather than reproduce the original text verbatim, ensuring cultural sensitivity. The story will be concise yet vivid, as requested.
Bambi in the Jukurrpa of the Tanami
In the Jukurrpa, when the Tanami Desert glowed under the first stars, the ancestral beings shaped the land. From the spinifex and red sand, they formed Jampijinpa, a young red ...
Created with Grok, Pictory, And Topmediai
Content from listening to podcasters Hunley and Groubert of America's Untold Stories. They tell it better than me
Folk Song: "The Ballad of Lee Harvey Oswald"
Verse 1
Oh, Lee Harvey Oswald, a man they did frame,
The deep state and CIA, they tarnished his name.
They said he went to Mexico, a lie they did spin,
While he fought for his service, his honor within.
Chorus
Sing for Lee Oswald, innocent and bold,
Framed by the shadows, a story untold.
With courage he stood, though the truth they denied,
A patriot’s heart in a nation that lied.
Verse 2
On that dark day in Dallas, they said he shot Tippit,
Left a wallet behind, but the tale didn’t fit.
Arrested with his own in hand, the proof was right there,
But the deep state kept spinnin’ their web of despair.
Chorus
Sing for Lee Oswald, innocent and bold,
Framed by the shadows, a story untold.
With courage he stood, though the truth they denied,
A patriot’s heart in a nation that lied.
Verse 3
They trained him in Russian, sent him off to the East,
A ...
