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