Social Justice
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What if love doesn’t look away?
Jacinda Ardern declared the Christchurch attacker nameless, embodying our desire to erase those who harm us. But if her compassionate “they are us” extends to victims, what happens when we apply that same lens to perpetrators? The question unsettles our moral categories profoundly.
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The ideology of “the land” and its quiet power over politics and culture
Land is more than physical territory. It holds emotion, memory, and meaning. Across cultures and histories, land becomes a source of identity, pride, and grief. Its importance transcends soil—it shapes who we are, where we belong, and how we understand others and ourselves.
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From Gaza to Heaven: One church
The Communion of Saints is not a tidy diagram of heavenly categories, but a living, breathing mystery. The boundaries are porous. Those struggling in war zones or poverty share something real with the canonised. All are caught up in one story of grace.
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Migrant mothers at Christmas
Seeing Jesus as a refugee reorients Christmas. His birth and life challenge us to resist dehumanisation, reject fear of the outsider, and embrace a theology of movement, mercy, reconciliation, and shared humanity. The Nativity becomes a call to justice, not just sentiment or celebration.
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Dehumanisation fuels violence
Once hatred is sanctified as duty, violence can masquerade as obedience to God rather than rebellion against compassion. Scholars have tried to suggest the text was hyperbolic. Yet, these verses reveal the deep mechanism by which fear and faith intertwine in acts of exclusion.
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Beyond statistics: poverty is personal
Poverty wears a human face. We see it in those we pass on the street and, at times, in ourselves. This reflection calls us to compassion and solidarity—to stand with and for the poor, and to rediscover the shared humanity that poverty obscures.
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When power writes the peace
The Gaza plan bears the handwriting of the powerful: America’s interests, Israel’s security, Gaza’s disarmament. Its language of goodwill hides the imbalance beneath. True peace will depend not on signatures, but on the justice that follows.
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The burden borne by poor women
Women, Leo points out, suffer disproportionately from poverty, violence, and exclusion. Quoting Pope Francis, he affirms their dignity and heroic witness. Yet, the exhortation raises questions about whether the church’s actions match its words on gender equality.
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Ritual exile — modern stigma
Who do we cast out today—those we fear, those we blame, those who differ from us? The ancient story still asks how far we go to preserve purity, and what kind of holiness demands exclusion.
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Absolutely Right
Two voices echo across time: one calling for battle, another for God’s kingdom on earth. Between them lies the clash of worldviews shaping our age, where populist leaders and faithful dreamers compete to write the story of tomorrow.
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