Barack Obama has apparently referred to energy efficiency as “the cheapest, cleanest, fastest energy source”, and along similar lines there is now a saying in the industry that “the cleanest energy is the energy never used.” Claire Dawson gives us practical suggestions for reducing our energy usage.

The debate on safe injecting facilities is an interesting example of a debate between two groups of Christians about a secular service within a secular environment. It also well illustrates David Hume’s famous maxim, “Reason is the slave of the emotions.”

The lack of clarity about the numbers of people who are refugees and the different categories of refugee enables us, as Australians debating the issues, to avoid facing some important questions.

The minority Labor government in Australia has announced the details of a long-awaited scheme to put a price on carbon.

The gulf between the rich and the poor is not simply an economical one. While the poor do not have moral superiority over the rich, and at least in theory our material affluence should not adversely affect our ability to understand the Bible, is our wealth a hindrance that stops us from fully understanding the plight of the poor and the Scripture?

Victorian lawmakers are looking to crack down on 'bad language' in public. Bill James encourages us to cultivate a Christian perspective that 'keeps perspective'. (This is an abridgement of a forthcoming article in Zadok Perspectives.)

A critical look at the "huge culture of leadership", its supporting "(bogus) theology" and the "pervasive industry of training, resourcing and writing"... and a call to more genuine forms of leadership.

"I broke the law. I was caught breaking the law. I got a fine. Open and shut case. I accept this and I will pay my fine. But from a Christian angle, what is going on here? Have I not only got a fine, but have I sinned against God? Or conversely, could the fact that this question even occurs to me indicate that I have internalized a rather toxic religiously framed morality of legalistic pedantry?"

"Secular society sometimes shares a certain reasoning with narrow-minded religion. The logic says: we are able to love only those whose lives we endorse. This can take you in two directions. The religious version reduces the number of people it loves, to match the lifestyles of which it approves. The secular version increases the number of lifestyles it endorses, and derides those who don’t do the same. In both cases the assumption is the same: we are able to love only those whose lives we agree with." (An earlier version of this article appeared on the ABC's 'The Drum' website.)

In the midst of controversies of teaching religion in state schools, Peter Corney reflects on the cultural influence of the King James Bible. Is removing the Bible from schools a form of secularist 'book burning'?