The ABC tackled some hot button issues this week and three of our brothers spoke out.

1. Christianity, homosexuality and gay conversion was the subject of a segment on the ABC TV show, The Hungry Beast. Haydn, who blogs for sydneyanglicans.net made the courageous, and risky, decision to speak out. He was interviewed (along with two others who took the opposite view) and was given a reasonably fair hearing. He is certainly to be congratulated on his willingness to stand up for his Lord and we should pray God will use his testimony. The ABC gave a list of sites, but all were in favour of homosexual sex. If you are struggling with this issue, or know someone who is, I would recommend this site. By the way, the inside story is on Haydn’s personal blog. Also on the ABC this week, Brian Rosner from Moore College played a key part in a Compass special on Greed. The transcript is well worth a read. To round out the ABC trilogy, Bishop Glenn Davies was interviewed (again) on Mary McKillop. A clear presentation of all sides.

2. The ‘God Gap’ is the phrase that has been coined to convey the idea that western secularists lose the plot when they remove faith from their view of the world. In a Washington Post article headlined “‘God gap’ impedes U.S. foreign policy, task force says” there is a clear implication that American foreign relations are handicapped by a narrow, ill-informed and “uncompromising Western secularism”. As one official put it “It’s the elephant in the room. You’re taught not to talk about religion and politics, but the bummer is that it’s at the nexus of national security. The truth is the academy has been run by secular fundamentalists for a long time, people who believe religion is not a legitimate component of realpolitik.”

3. Health reporters and science magazines reported this week on a study which concludes that for patients diagnosed with clinical depression, belief in a caring God can improve response to medical treatment. The research is reported in the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Don’t misunderstand. It is NOT saying “Forget treatment, just trust in God and cheer up”. As anyone with any experience of depression knows, that is horrendous, ungodly and dangerous advice. But the study IS saying that among patients being treated, those with strong beliefs in a personal and concerned God were more likely to experience an improvement.

4. Two reports of note this week from the US website, the Christian Post. First, the new Anglican Province, ACNA, is on a church planting drive. (The US Episcopal Church, with it’s revisionism and ‘inclusiveness’ is busy shutting down churches at the rate of three a month.)  Also, the Southern Baptists are soul searching, but their conclusions are radically different to those reached by the Episcopal church.

5. Finally, a brief archeology snippet you might have missed because it didn’t get wide coverage - ‘Archaeologist sees proof for Bible in ancient wall’.

So there you have it, a bumper week for breaking news.