Roundup: Army chaplains, David Mills, politics, marriage, coal seam gas, crucifixion, Facebook and privacy

Afghanistan: Chaplains comfort troops

Some wars are fought in the name of God. Why ever and wherever Australians go to war, the men and women of God go, too.

Humble life that made a difference

David Mills attended Bardwell Park Uniting Church. His wife Jane Mills was a member of the Synod of New South Wales and the ACT Relations With Other Faiths Committee.

Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne

A conversation about politics.

Should equal marriage be rejected or celebrated by Christians?

The possibility of opening up marriage in Britain by law to same-sex couples has been criticised by some Christians but welcomed by others.

Pillaging The Pilliga

Alarm bells are sounding over further coal seam gas drilling in northern New South Wales’ vast Pilliga State Forest: dead animals and a toxic chain of ponds, along with the release this week of a damning ecological report.

So, what’s it like to be crucified?

It is not a practice that everyone agrees with — the Catholic Church has let it be known that it doesn’t approve of this form of devotion — but this hasn’t stopped the practice, nor the crowds that arrive each year to watch the spectacle.

Facebook, privacy, pluralism and belief

For pluralism to work there must be diversity. And for diversity to work we need privacy, that is a personal space in which we are allowed to hold beliefs, with or without reason, which differ from others and quite possibly the majority.