Life & Faith

As editor of the ABC’s Religion & Ethics website, Scott Stephens spends his days trawling through the best of contemporary theological and ethical thinking. But the story of his life, as lived so far, proves just as intriguing as the material he daily immerses himself in—featuring a brilliant but paranoid Republican father, a peacenik mother who exposed Scott to a love of art and literature, and a sojourn in the Solomon Islands as a teen that brought him to Sydney and set Scott on his current course in life. It’s a fascinating tale told in two parts.

As editor of the ABC’s Religion & Ethics website, Scott Stephens spends his days trawling through the best of contemporary theological and ethical thinking. But the story of his life, as lived so far, proves just as intriguing as the material he daily immerses himself in—featuring a brilliant but paranoid Republican father, a peacenik mother who exposed Scott to a love of art and literature, and a sojourn in the Solomon Islands as a teen that brought him to Sydney and set Scott on his current course in life. It’s a fascinating tale told in two parts.

Pope Francis says there are more martyrs today for the Christian faith than at any other time in history. It’s estimated that Christians are the victims of 4 in 5 religiously motivated attacks around the world. Hear Mike Goor of Open Doors Australia talk about the organisation’s work to support beleaguered people of faith.

Westerners take religious freedom for granted but as a teenager growing up in Eastern Ukraine in the 1970s, Victor Akhterov’s Christian faith was challenged by the Soviet state’s hostility to religious commitment. Along with sharing stories from his past, Victor gives us an insider’s take on religious freedom in Russia today, and some of the country’s social issues that particularly affect its next generation.

In the year 2000 The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) laid out a bold vision for the ways the developing world could assist the poorest countries out of poverty and to find ways to foster better environments for the most vulnerable people and communities on the planet. The aim was to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

How did it go?

The Rev Dr Joel Edwards is the International Director of Micah challenge – a coalition of Christian organisations that aimed to hold governments to account for their pledges made at the turn of the century.

He was in Australia with TEAR international and we caught up with him to discuss the progress of the MDGs – what has gone well, and where there is still a lot of work to do.

Ross Piper has had an eclectic career working for a major bank and some mining companies. He’s also had two stints overseas working for World Vision in AID and development. Firstly as country Director for World Vision in Montenegro - running programs to assist refugees from Kosovo and the war in Bosnia

More recently Ross and his family spent four years living in Cyprus running the operations for World Vision in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

CPX spoke to Ross about the good and the bad of the NGO sector and the place of his Faith in both motivating him for development work, and also processing the many confronting aspects of the job.

Cameron Watt got the shock of his life when he was sent to gaol for two and a half years after being convicted of a white collar crime. In this two-part episode of Life & Faith he tells his story and, amazingly enough, explains why he’s grateful for the experience of life on the inside.

Cameron Watt got the shock of his life when he was sent to gaol for two and a half years after being convicted of a white collar crime. In this two-part episode of Life & Faith he tells his story and, amazingly enough, explains why he’s grateful for the experience of life on the inside.

Living alongside people from different cultures to our own is a fact of life in multicultural societies but it’s less clear how we can do this well. David Smith discusses what it means to learn from – and even love – the stranger.