On 25 August, 2019 Martyn Iles visited St Thomas' 5pm service. After the service we had dinner together as a church community in the church hall and Martyn addressed us on the topic of religious liberty. This week we are listening to the talk he gave and then next week we will be listening to the question & answer session. You can find video of this week's address here.

Martyn Iles is the Director of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Albert Mohler discusses a speech on religious liberty by the United States Attorney General. In the second part of our program he comments on the recent Sydney Anglican synod and Bishop Glenn Davies' stand for biblical truth. He calls it 'a model of convictional courage'.

Dr. Albert Mohler is the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is one of the most influential evangelical leaders in the United States. He runs a daily program called The Briefing that gives cultural analysis from a Christian worldview. You can visit Albert Mohler's website here and subscribe to The Briefing by searching for it in your podcast app. We are thankful for his team granting permission to republish his commentary here.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Simon Manchester joins us to discuss how to talk helpfully about religious liberty and take opportunities to get to the gospel. 

If you visit our website you can find more resources on religious liberty in conversation, including a blog post by Akos Balogh on how to get from Israel Folau to the gospel. You can find a video of this interview here.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week we are looking at religious liberty in the workplace. We are listening to two resources from the Australian Christian Lobby. The first is an interview between Martyn Iles and John Steenhof, who is the Director of the Human Rights Law Alliance. And the second is a section of Martyn Iles’ podcast called The Truth of It. Folau’s case is demonstrative of what can happen to other people of faith in Australia who fall foul of codes of conduct that exist in many professional contracts. Steenhof and Iles show why Folau’s is an important test case and provide an argument for why Folau (and other Australian workers) should be free to share their faith without fear of recrimination from their employers. You may have noticed we’ve used a lot from Martyn Iles recently and that is because he has been speaking so helpfully on religious liberty in Australia in the past year or so. We are thankful to the Australian Christian Lobby for giving us permission to republish this podcast. You can find out more about them at acl.org.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week we continue looking at religious liberty and education. In this podcast we hear from Neil Foster. Neil Foster is uniquely placed to speak to the topic of religious liberty. He has trained in law and is an Associate Professor in the law school at the University of Newcastle. He has also studied at Moore Theological College in Sydney. He writes a blog called Law and Religion in Australia. This podcast is a lecture that Associate Professor Foster gave at the Anglican Education Commission’s Governor’s Symposium in late 2018. In it he discusses the impact of the Ruddock Report on religious schools. The Ruddock report had not yet been released, but enough had been leaked for Associate Professor Foster to comment helpfully, and his commentary is still relevant in light of the recently-released draft religious freedom bill. We are thankful to the Anglican Education Commission for giving us permission to republish this article. You can find out more about them at www.edcomm.org.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week are looking at religious liberty and education. In this podcast we listen to an interview with a Canadian father named Steven Tourloukis. When his children were four and six years old, he requested that their school  notify him when they were teaching them about sensitive topics such as homosexuality, abortion and gender identity. The school refused and Tourloukis took them to court. The court ruled that, although the school’s decision violated the Canadian Charter of Rights, ‘the violation was “reasonable” given the competing Charter “values” of “inclusivity, equality and multiculturalism,” and public school boards’ statutory obligations to support equity and create an inclusive school environment.’ This case is now seven years old and this interview is from 2012. But Canada is probably around a decade ahead of Australia in this drift away from Christianity and cases like these could start emerging in Australia. We think this interview shows a very reasonable response from a religious father to a difficult situation and we can learn from him. We are thankful to Radio Teopoli for allowing us to republish this interview.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week we continue to look at evangelism and how it relates to religious liberty. We are listening to a lecture titled 'The Intolerance of Tolerance' by Greg Koukl from a ministry called Stand to Reason in the United States. In this lecture, he shows how the post-modern view turns tolerance on its head. He discusses a common tactic used against Christians of calling them names and exposes the contradictions in this way thinking. Koukl is concerned about the impact of the new tolerance on our culture and how it prevents reasonable, fair tolerant discussions about the things that really matter (including evangelism). He calls us to resist name-calling and to address the issues, consider the facts, weigh the evidence and reflect on the reasons. We are thankful for Greg Koukl’s ministry called Stand to Reason for allowing us to republish this lecture and we encourage you to check out their website at str.org.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week we are considering the topic of evangelism and how it relates to religious liberty. We are listening to two segments from Martyn Iles' podcast The Truth of It that have to do with the case of Israel Folau. Iles looks at the difference between speech and discrimination and the strategies being used against Folau to pressure him into silence. We are grateful to the Australian Christian Lobby for allowing us to re-publish this podcast. You can find our more about the ACL at acl.org.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week’s podcast is actually a last-minute insertion. We were planning on looking at some case studies in religious liberty to do with evangelism (we'll do this next week), but the draft religious freedom bill was released by the government a bit over a week ago. Once again, Martyn Iles has produced some excellent commentary on it and so we are republishing his podcast on it, which also includes further comments on the abortion debate in New South Wales. We are grateful to the Australian Christian Lobby for allowing us to re-publish this podcast. You can find our more about the ACL at acl.org.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. There was a resource on last week's webpage on the Australian Scene that we thought was so good we should re-publish it in the podcast. Tony Payne is joined by Anglican bishop Michael Stead ‘to discuss why the cause of religious freedom is worth fighting for in our democracy, what the Australian government’s proposed “religious discrimination” legislation is likely to deliver (and not deliver), and what the implications of all this are for Christian individuals and organisations.’ We are grateful to Tony Payne and the Centre for Christian Living for allowing us to re-publish this interview. You can find more excellent resources from CCL at ccl.moore.edu.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.