Kameel Majdali's Road Ahead

So far we have looked at the heavy-handed approach by Australia’s state and territory governments in handling the Covid-19 pandemic. Their tactics have gained international attention and censure. Melbourne has been singled out for the most onerous (snap) lockdowns in the world. ‘Quarantine camps’ have sprung up in Northern Territory and Queensland, with more planned elsewhere. The visa cancellation of world tennis champion Novak Djokovic in Melbourne also brought renewed attention to the land ‘down under.’ Vaccine mandates have divided family, society, and even churches. It is no exaggeration to say that normal checks and balances of a parliamentary democracy have been challenged during this crisis. In Part 02 we looked at some of the reasons for Australia’s Covid-response, including progressivism, hunger for power by some, isolationism, culture war fallout, apathy, media, and irrationality, which has been shown elsewhere. In this third and final part, we ask a simple question: What ca...

  Be Strong in the Lord As this service has declared repeatedly, the year 2020 has been the most unusual, eventful, and downright crazy year in living memory (for most of us, at least). It will be hard to forget. Multiple challenges, like waves crashing against the rocks, have buffeted the world as a whole. Take Australia for example: it has had crippling drought, wide spread bush fires, Covid-19 lockdown, reprieve, and then Melbourne was hit with another major lockdown, with curfews and police knocking on the door. The United States has been hit with Covid-19, with the world’s highest death rate. Then there was lockdown, in various degrees according to which political party runs the state. Then there’s the ‘George Floyd riots,’ meant to protest police brutality. Yet, how does burning Bibles in Portland Oregon have anything to do with George Floyd, a struggling but professing Christian, or police brutality? The protests, much which emanate from the Left, have reproduced the...

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. — Psalm 42:11 One of the great challenges of our time is not external issues — the economy, geo-political challenges, or pandemics. It has to do with mental health. Whether one is young or old, male or female, Christian or non-Christian, mental health is one of the issues, even crises, of our day and it’s not going away soon. Today’s church needs to begin a conversation on this vital issue. This author claims no expertise whatsoever on this important subject, but after years of Bible teaching and pastoral ministry experience has some thoughts to offer. Mental health includes a fully operative cognitive skills, sense of understanding one’s gifting and limitations, an ability to cope with stress, living a productive and fruitful life that contributes to society. The opposite of mental health is ment...

It has become the most dramatic and defining situation in our lifetime. More radical, even, than a war or the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). That event is the Covid-19 Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020. While we can and should expect some return to normalcy, there is also the strong possibility that in some aspects the world that we once knew, even as late as December 2019, is gone for good. If one is a world-watcher, the fact that we have international crisis and change should not be surprising. It is a predictable part of the landscape. Yet, how do we navigate through these change-filled, crisis-riddled, and sometimes chaotic times? Especially when the experts, like the rest of us, have never been in this situation before? The answer, which is a question, is disarmingly simple: Is there a word from the Lord? The second question: What is that Word? First, let us examine God’s attitude of communicating with people on earth, which, says Genesis 1:27, are made in His ...

It is a familiar and eerie sight. People walking around in public with white gas masks, like they did during the Spanish flu pandemic in 1919 or the SARS outbreak in 2003. Traffic jams are non-existent because the streets are deserted. Many places of business are closed. The scene looks apocalyptic! Why the altered behaviour? Because out of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, perhaps from a poultry or livestock vendor ‘wet market,’ came a fast-spreading virus called Coronavirus, officially known as Covid-19. Several cities in China went into ‘lock-down’ to prevent spreading. Unfortunately, for various reasons, the virus in China spread rapidly around the world. Travel restrictions were slapped on stricken nations, ‘stay-at-home’ orders and ‘lock-downs’ have been placed around the world. The pandemic epicentre moved from China to Europe with Italy and Spain most affected. New York (city and state) has the most cases of any country - as of this writing, 188,694, with 9,385 deaths ...