CultureWatch

Bill Muehlenberg's commentary on issues of the day...

IVF and Rights Gone Mad

Nov 15, 2001

We live in an age in which rights are being pushed on all fronts. Individuals and groups are clamoring for rights that until recently didn’t even exist. Much of the “rights industry” has developed around so-called social justice and discrimination

Continue reading...

Keep Fighting Against Drugs

Aug 10, 2001

The National Crime Authority has recently re-ignited the heroin debate by saying that we are losing the war against drugs. The NCA says that too many illicit drugs are entering the country, and that organised crime is spiralling out of

Continue reading...

The Importance of Fathers

Aug 9, 2001

Thirty years ago American Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a report called “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action”. In it he wrote these words: “The breakup of the black family is the single most important social fact of

Continue reading...

A review of PC, M.D. by Sally Satel.

Jul 6, 2001

Basic Books, 2000.

This book has a simple theme: Political Correctness has entered the medical profession. The politicisation and radicalisation of health professionals and workers has altered the nature of health care work, and has dangerous repercussions for patients and

Continue reading...

Mother Wars

Jul 3, 2001

The battle over motherhood continues unabated, with a recent controversy re-igniting a long standing debate. In the one corner are those who feel that government policies tend to penalise stay at home mums, while rewarding those who move into the

Continue reading...

Assessing Green Politics

Jul 2, 2001

In any number of social causes, extremism often enters the debate, with the result that truth and common sense get trampled on along the way. This can often be the case with Green activism. Now concern for the environment is

Continue reading...

The Need to Overhaul the OFCL

Jun 17, 2001

The recent debacle over the classification of Hannibal by the OFLC highlights yet again the need for a major shake-up of our chief censorship body.

After strong public outcry, the gruesome film Hannibal has been given an R rating. This

Continue reading...

When the Church Loses Its Way

Jun 1, 2001

The ink had just dried on a piece I wrote critical of a new book on homosexuality and the church by the Anglican Church doctrine committee, when the May 28 Australian ran an opinion piece that nearly made me unload

Continue reading...

The D&X Abortion Method

Feb 28, 2001

All methods of abortion stop the heart-beat of a living baby, but one method is especially gruesome. This method, known as the Dilation & Extraction method (D&X) is performed in many places in Australia. One Brisbane doctor has made a

Continue reading...

Truth-Speaking: Getting the Right Mix

Feb 26, 2001

Much of the Christian life involves getting the right balance. Heresies in the church usually arise when we over-emphasise a certain doctrine or teaching, resulting in imbalance. Those involved in teaching and leadership always need to get the right mix.

Continue reading...

The Crisis of Truth

Feb 24, 2001

The first line of Carl F. H. Henry’s six-volume, 3,000 page work, God, Revelation and Authority says this: “No fact of contemporary Western life is more evident than its growing distrust of final truth and its implacable questioning of any

Continue reading...