Thoughts & Comments Podcast

New Zealand is well below the threshold for population replacement.  The national fertility rate has plummeted to a historic low of 1.53 births per woman, compared to the minimal rate of 2.1 for maintaining our population.

What is causing this decline, and will it lead to our demise?

From changing social values and economic pressure to extreme life-ending laws, Andrew Urquhart and LifeNet's Brendan Malone discuss how we ended up on this downwards spiral; if we can reverse course to chart a path towards life; and where hope can be found.

Text 8168, keyword 'Comments' to share your thoughts.

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Tune into Thoughts & Comments from 10:00am - 2:00pm on the Rhema Media App.

For more from the show, visit the Thoughts & Comments page at rhema.co.nz.

Support Rhema: https://donate.rhemamedia.co.nz/?brand=rhema&utm_source=omnystudio&utm_medium=link

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Following a weekend of protests in the UK where anyone right of 'Left' has been slammed as 'far right', there's a suggestion that relativism and a breakdown in public discourse, fed by media bias, is leading to an increasingly polarised society.

Public theologian Dr Craig Heilmann discusses what's bubbling below surface issues like immigration policies, which is widening the sociopolitical rift between traditional 'left' and 'right' camps.

Text 8168, keyword 'Comments' to share your thoughts.

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Tune into Thoughts & Comments from 10:00am - 2:00pm on the Rhema Media App.

For more from the show, visit the Thoughts & Comments page at rhema.co.nz.

Support Rhema: https://donate.rhemamedia.co.nz/?brand=rhema&utm_source=omnystudio&utm_medium=link

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Civil liberties group PILLAR is warning against heavy-handed state control of the internet in New Zealand.

Arian Tashakkori updated Andrew Urquhart on developments in Parliament where a three-pronged approach to improving protection of minors online - including an under-16 social media ban and a Ministry of Education enquiry - seems to have formed a leaded bolus.

Text 8168, keyword 'Comments' to share your thoughts.

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Tune into Thoughts & Comments from 10:00am - 2:00pm on the Rhema Media App.

For more from the show, visit the Thoughts & Comments page at rhema.co.nz.

Support Rhema: https://donate.rhemamedia.co.nz/?brand=rhema&utm_source=omnystudio&utm_medium=link

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What does the Bible teach us about inviting strangers into our home?

Leadership mentor John Peachey reflects on the recent rival marches in the UK, where public opinion seems to be divided over high immigration levels - a debate that may also become an election issue in this part of the Commonwealth.  So John Peachey asks, Does 'love thy neighbour' mean first inviting a stranger to become one's neighbour?

Text 8168, keyword 'Comments' to share your thoughts.

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Tune into Thoughts & Comments from 10:00am - 2:00pm on the Rhema Media App.

For more from the show, visit the Thoughts & Comments page at rhema.co.nz.

Support Rhema: https://donate.rhemamedia.co.nz/?brand=rhema&utm_source=omnystudio&utm_medium=link

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Grand vision but light on details.  Political analyst Dr Bryce Edwards discusses Rt Hon. Winston Peters' strategic policy announcement to turn back time and reacquire or re-nationalise BNZ.  Andrew Urquhart and his guest also consider possible MMP combinations like a Labour-National coaltion.

Text 8168, keyword 'Comments' to share your thoughts.

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Tune into Thoughts & Comments from 10:00am - 2:00pm on the Rhema Media App.

For more from the show, visit the Thoughts & Comments page at rhema.co.nz.

Support Rhema: https://donate.rhemamedia.co.nz/?brand=rhema&utm_source=omnystudio&utm_medium=link

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"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." ~ Genesis 1:27-28 (KJV)

Are we exercising wise dominion over God's creation? Rev. Dr Stuart Lange reflects on the Biblical principles at the core of this week's Sacred Grounds gathering, unpacking how theology informs our relationship with the environment.

Text 8168, keyword 'Comments' to share your thoughts.

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Tune into Thoughts & Comments from 10:00am - 2:00pm on the Rhema Media App.

For more from the show, visit the Thoughts & Comments page at rhema.co.nz.

Support Rhema: https://donate.rhemamedia.co.nz/?brand=rhema&utm_source=omnystudio&utm_medium=link

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Get help, speak up - you can't keep quiet and hope someone else will pick up the fight. 

That's Stephen Franks' caution and exhortation to any worker, tradesman or professional facing systemic gaslighting - masked as misconduct reviews - simply for challenging an ideology.  The seasoned attorney and Free Speech Union council member tells Andrew Urquhart that he himself was attacked in the line of duty with an unjustified professional censure that he fought to overturn.  (www.fsu.nz)

Text 8168, keyword 'Comments' to share your thoughts.

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Tune into Thoughts & Comments from 10:00am - 2:00pm on the Rhema Media App.

For more from the show, visit the Thoughts & Comments page at rhema.co.nz.

Support Rhema: https://donate.rhemamedia.co.nz/?brand=rhema&utm_source=omnystudio&utm_medium=link

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A uniquely dual-lens view on the symbiotic relationship between the State and the 'Fourth Estate' of news and media.

Former MP Simon O'Connor observes that journalists seem to be brandishing the foils of ideology and investor biases, rather than traditional tenets of fairness, balance and accuracy.  He notes that if honest reporting has slipped into lunges for click-bait commentary, then the duelling partners of government and media will fail to hold each other in check.

Text 8168, keyword 'Comments' to share your views.

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Tune into Thoughts & Comments from 10:00am - 2:00pm on the Rhema Media App.

For more from the show, visit the Thoughts & Comments page at rhema.co.nz.

Support Rhema: https://donate.rhemamedia.co.nz/?brand=rhema&utm_source=omnystudio&utm_medium=link

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As Britain's Prime Minister faces the political guillotine amidst a hotbed of polarising issues, there's an observation that a kind of sociopolitical revolution is stirring in other parts of the Commonwealth.

Public theologian Dr Craig Heilmann compares UK Labour Party's defeat in local body elections with developments in Australia, which has just seen the resurrection of fundamentalist politician Pauline Hanson.  Is extremist ideology degrading social cohesion and causing voters to use the polling booth as a blunt instrument?

Text your thoughts to 8168, keyword 'Comments'. 
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Tune into Thoughts & Comments from 10:00am - 2:00pm on the Rhema Media App.

For more from the show, visit the Thoughts & Comments page at rhema.co.nz.

Support Rhema: https://donate.rhemamedia.co.nz/?brand=rhema&utm_source=omnystudio&utm_medium=link

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For the general New Zealand public, the further a piece of legislation is from the nexus of land ownership and resources, the harder it is to understand the relevance of - let alone apply - Treaty of Waitangi principles. 

Church and Treaty historian Dr Samuel Carpenter of Laidlaw College addresses some of the tension in the Government's review of laws involving Treaty obligations, acknowledging that while 'what' or 'which laws?' and 'how' are valid questions, many New Zealanders are still stuck at the 'why'. 

Text 8168 keyword 'Comments' to share your thoughts.
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Tune into Thoughts & Comments from 10:00am - 2:00pm on the Rhema Media App.

For more from the show, visit the Thoughts & Comments page at rhema.co.nz.

Support Rhema: https://donate.rhemamedia.co.nz/?brand=rhema&utm_source=omnystudio&utm_medium=link

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.