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Articles by Bronwyn Lea
5 Scriptures to Study to Be a Better Spouse
When it came to scripture passages to choose for our wedding, there were two passages that seemed to be the go-to choices: we could go broad with 1 Corinthians 13 and its exhortations to love in a humble, don’t-keep-score, love-covers-all kind of way, or go deep with Ephesians 5 and its marriage-as-a-model-of-Christ-and-the-Church vision of service and submission.
Australian poetry classics: Kenneth Slessor’s Five Bells gives Sydney Harbour back its darkness
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Australian poetry classics: Kenneth Slessor’s Five Bells gives Sydney Harbour back its darkness Original
In our new series, we explore influential Australian poems. Sydney Harbour is one of the most recognisable places in Australia. Today, it usually enters the imagination as spectacle: bridge, Opera House, ferries, fireworks, blue water, bright weather, moneyed views. It is a harbour endlessly reproduced: on postcards, in real-estate language, in tourist campaigns, and in the bright graphic shorthand of Ken Done. Kenneth Slessor’s Five Bells gives the harbour back its darkness.
Jeff Bezos says poetry without rhyming is easy – but it’s not that simple
When Jeff Bezos defended major layoffs at The Washington Post last week, he reached for poetry. Pressed on why he would not simply subsidise the paper, he argued payment was a “signal” of relevance: “If people won’t pay for our product, we’re not doing, it’s not a good enough product […] It would be like poetry without rhyming. It’s too easy.” The analogy was mocked almost immediately.
Jeff Bezos says poetry without rhyming is easy – but it’s not that simple
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Jeff Bezos says poetry without rhyming is easy – but it’s not that simple Original
When Jeff Bezos defended major layoffs at The Washington Post last week, he reached for poetry. Pressed on why he would not simply subsidise the paper, he argued payment was a “signal” of relevance: “If people won’t pay for our product, we’re not doing, it’s not a good enough product […] It would be like poetry without rhyming. It’s too easy.” The analogy was mocked almost immediately.
The Queensland government has interfered with the state’s literary awards – again
The Queensland government has announced the state’s literary awards will move from their current home at the State Library of Queensland to “an alternative provider” – along with the black&write! fellowships for emerging First Nations writers. The move has been framed in the language of safety and hate speech – and follows recent controversy over an award to a writer outspoken about Israel–Palestine.
Bronwyn Lea reviews ‘Fallen’ by Audrey Molloy
Audrey Molloy’s Fallen begins in the fallout of an affair, as the speaker steps back into public life and finds her position altered. ‘Wives are afraid of me now’, she observes early in the collection; they smile at her ‘the way people smile / at leopards through glass’. The poem summons the fellow fallen – Anna, Emma – only to refuse their scripted endings. Molloy’s protagonist is ‘fallen’ only in the sense that she has, as she puts it, ‘lost her footing’.
Bronwyn Lea reviews ‘Fallen’ by Audrey Molloy
Audrey Molloy’s Fallen begins in the fallout of an affair, as the speaker steps back into public life and finds her position altered. ‘Wives are afraid of me now’, she observes early in the collection; they smile at her ‘the way people smile / at leopards through glass’. The poem summons the fellow fallen – Anna, Emma – only to refuse their scripted endings. Molloy’s protagonist is ‘fallen’ only in the sense that she has, as she puts it, ‘lost her footing’.
Bronwyn Lea reviews ‘beautiful changelings’ by Maxine Beneba Clarke
Early in beautiful changelings, Maxine Beneba Clarke writes: ‘i would like a hysterectomy.’ It is a sentence with no lyrical ambition, arriving in the voice of a medical form or consent document. But in the space of a poem, it performs a different task; it returns medical language to the body that had to speak it. Clarke’s work proceeds from this logic. Her poems do not translate pain into metaphor; they record how pain enters systems: reproductive, racial, bureaucratic.
Bronwyn Lea reviews ‘beautiful changelings’ by Maxine Beneba Clarke
Early in beautiful changelings, Maxine Beneba Clarke writes: ‘i would like a hysterectomy.’ It is a sentence with no lyrical ambition, arriving in the voice of a medical form or consent document. But in the space of a poem, it performs a different task; it returns medical language to the body that had to speak it. Clarke’s work proceeds from this logic. Her poems do not translate pain into metaphor; they record how pain enters systems: reproductive, racial, bureaucratic.
The benefits of slow looking
Over 3 billion images are shared on social media every single day. If that's a lot of content vying for your attention and you're feeling overwhelmed, then perhaps "slow looking" is for you. The concept of slow looking began in art galleries as a way of encouraging visitors to engage more deeply with works of art. But there’s a lot to be gained by bringing it into our everyday lives. Guest: Sienna van Rossum - artist and PhD candidate, Queensland College of Art & Design
5 Scriptures to Study to Be a Better Spouse
By Bronwyn Lea, Crosswalk.com When it came to scripture passages to choose for our wedding, there were two passages that seemed to be the go-to choices: we could go broad with 1 Corinthians 13 and its exhortations to love in a humble, don’t-keep-score, love-covers-all kind of way, or go deep with Ephesians 5 and its marriage-as-a-model-of-Christ-and-the-Church vision of service and submission.
我在美国过的第一个万圣节
我三十岁那年，人生第一次穿上万圣节的装扮。 万圣节不是我在南非度过的童年里的一部分 — 我们从西方出产的情境喜剧中才知道它的存在。还记得我和姐妹们会假装在玩“不给糖，就捣蛋”，唱着从“天才老爹”（The Cosby Show）中学到的歌：“不给糖就捣蛋，让你闻我的臭脚丫，给我好吃的东西”（Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat）。 在我长大的地方，没有人会为了万圣节特别打扮，没有人雕刻南瓜灯，在我们的街道上玩“不给糖，就捣蛋” 也不够安全。另外，10 月底的南半球差不多是春天的尾巴，完全不是能装上秋收装饰及燃烧营火的季节。 搬到美国后，我已经 30 岁。怀着 8 个月的身孕，我计画著第一次的万圣节装扮。我把自己装扮成足球场，穿着绿色的衣服，孕肚则画成黑白相间的足球。这也是我第一次听到基督徒对于万圣节的辩论。几个常参加社交聚会的人碎念着我，说我不该穿成这样庆祝这个邪恶的、异教的节庆。...
我在美國過的第一個萬聖節
我三十歲那年，人生第一次穿上萬聖節的裝扮。 萬聖節不是我在南非度過的童年裡的一部分 — 我們從西方出產的情境喜劇中才知道它的存在。還記得我和姐妹們會假裝在玩“不給糖，就搗蛋”，唱著從“天才老爹”（The Cosby Show）中學到的歌：“不給糖就搗蛋，讓你聞我的臭腳丫，給我好吃的東西”（Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat）。 在我長大的地方，沒有人會為了萬聖節特別打扮，沒有人雕刻南瓜燈，在我們的街道上玩“不給糖，就搗蛋” 也不夠安全。另外，10 月底的南半球差不多是春天的尾巴，完全不是能裝上秋收裝飾及燃燒營火的季節。 搬到美國後，我已經 30 歲。懷著 8 個月的身孕，我計畫著第一次的萬聖節裝扮。我把自己裝扮成足球場，穿著綠色的衣服，孕肚則畫成黑白相間的足球。這也是我第一次聽到基督徒對於萬聖節的辯論。幾個常參加社交聚會的人碎念著我，說我不該穿成這樣慶祝這個邪惡的、異教的節慶。...
Why Bad Feelings Can Be Good for You
When one of our pastors asked how we were doing, I gave him the sanitized, Cliffnotes version: we were “busy,” we had some “situations,” there had been some “disappointments.” You know: life. After 30 years of ministry, he could read between the lines, and his response took my breath away: “I hope you’re listening to your anger,” he said. His words came as a shock.
OK, Let's Stop With All the Talk About 'Smokin' Hot' Wives
Four hundred years ago, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet and coined the phrases “star-crossed lovers” and “wild-goose chase.” The expressions stuck, and quickly grafted themselves into everyday English. In a somewhat different vein, 16 years ago Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby gave us the phrases “shake and bake” and, most famously, “smokin’ hot wife,” for whom Will Ferrell’s character was hilariously grateful to Baby Jesus.
Sex Scandals and the Evangelical Mind
How stories of misbehavior distort our vision of male-female friendship in the church
Sex Scandals and the Evangelical Mind
When news of Matt Chandler’s “inappropriate” online relationship popped up in my phone notifications last week, I was in the middle of a church staff retreat with my copastors, who are all male. I interrupted one of them to read the story aloud. The news landed like a lead balloon between us, and then we came together as a group and talked about how stories like this make us feel and whether our own ministry friendships might be “inappropriate.” The larger evangelical world was shaken too.
Learning to Love Our Neighbor’s Fears
The 10-minute commute from home to my office at church has always had risks. Driving carries its own inherent danger. Then I have to find parking (sometimes in the dark, and often as the first car there); navigate the security alarm; and if a male coworker arrives, consider the risk of being a woman alone in a building with a man.
Nine Things Everyone Should Do When Reading the Bible
Most of us will never spend three years in seminary, parsing Greek verbs or debating the finer points of hermeneutics. But we do want to understand the Bible more deeply—to read it in a way that actually shapes our hearts and our lives. The good news? You don’t need a graduate degree for that. What’s required isn’t more head knowledge, but more intention. The Bible is alive and layered—meant to be wrestled with, questioned, and ultimately, lived. The right posture matters more than perfect technique.
Christians, Don't Use 'Authenticity' as an Excuse to Be a Jerk
Half way into my story, I had a choice to make. How was I going to finish it? There were many details I could choose from, and not all of them were pretty. I told myself I was being “authentic” to tell the story as I did: highlighting the parts with all the drama and disappointment. In hindsight, I chose wrongly.
What Does it Mean to Be a Woman if You’re Not a Wife?
Bronwyn Lea Contributing Writer 2021 13 May Remember the song Que Sera, Sera where the little girl dreams of what her future will be? My girlhood was populated with visions of the future, and while they might have varied in location (Paris? Narnia? Or the little suburb I lived in?), one feature was consistent: there would be a wedding, and I would be a wife. If anything, marriage (and motherhood) were the clearest indicators that I would no longer be a girl, but a woman.
3 Things We Keep Getting Wrong about Modesty Original
In the dozens of messages about modesty I heard growing up at school, youth group, and camp; there was one unifying theme: Christian women better be modest, and the application of this message was consistently clear. ‘Modest’ meant women needed to cover up and eschew any revealing or tight-fitting clothing. As a woman, the responsibility for this was mine. And the reason for it was just as clear: to protect my Christian brothers from stumbling.
10 Things to Be Thankful for, even during COVID Original
Bronwyn Lea Contributing Writer 2020 19 Nov Some of the best sentences in the world have just three words. “I love you,” is certainly one of them. Or “today is Friday.” One of my favorites lies tucked into Colossians 3:15: “And be thankful." This year has needed that three-word reminder. And be thankful. Amidst the stressors of pandemics and politics, of risky togetherness and lonely separateness, of change in work and in worship… we have had to learn to lament and pray, even as we watch and wait.
How I Learned How to Treat My Privilege with Humility
Nothing made me feel more defensive and icky, though, than realizing I had to reckon with white privilege. It was my classmate's story, which triggered my come-to-Jesus moment on this. I was in first grade when I first saw posters for the upcoming election in Apartheid South Africa. The year was 1983, and I remember asking my Mom who she’d be voting for.
How I Learned How to Treat My Privilege with Humility
By Bronwyn Lea, Crosswalk.com I was in first grade when I first saw posters for the upcoming election in Apartheid South Africa. The year was 1983, and I remember asking my Mom who she’d be voting for. In the few minutes we had before school drop-off, she explained she’d be spoiling her vote in protest: it wasn’t right to only be able to vote for white people when the majority of the country didn’t have representation, she explained.
How I Learned How to Treat My Privilege with Humility
I was in first grade when I first saw posters for the upcoming election in Apartheid South Africa. The year was 1983, and I remember asking my Mom who she’d be voting for. In the few minutes we had before school drop-off, she explained she’d be spoiling her vote in protest: it wasn’t right to only be able to vote for white people when the majority of the country didn’t have representation, she explained. For a white kid in South Africa, I grew up with very liberal influences.
5 Scriptures to Study to Be a Better Spouse
By Bronwyn Lea, Crosswalk.com When it came to scripture passages to choose for our wedding, there were two passages that seemed to be the go-to choices: we could go broad with 1 Corinthians 13 and its exhortations to love in a humble, don’t-keep-score, love-covers-all kind of way, or go deep with Ephesians 5 and its marriage-as-a-model-of-Christ-and-the-Church vision of service and submission.
5 Scriptures to Study to Be a Better Spouse
5. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously.” --James 1:5 Slide 5 of 5 When faced with a practical challenge in our marriage, it is tempting to turn to friends or do a google search for advice before we turn to God himself. Yet God invites us to go straight to him when he have a “what should I do now?” question.
Netflix’s ‘Indian Matchmaking’ Offers Wisdom for Christians
Netflix’s popular reality show Indian Matchmaking follows the work of Sima Taparia, Mumbai’s top matchmaker, as she finds eligible prospects for wealthy and selective clients. But beyond the sheer entertainment value of awkward first dates and sumptuous homes, there might be another reason lying beneath the nationwide fascination with the show: a curiosity about having our own Sima Aunty, as clients call their esteemed matchmaker, in the complex world of dating.
Succulents of Hope - iBelieve Truth: A Devotional for Women - August 31
Succulents of Hope By Bronwyn Lea These past few months, I decided to try my hand at creating a succulent garden. "Oh, they're so easy to grow!" friends said, and I sighed. I have not found succulents easy. My feeble attempts at re-potting healthy-looking plants were rewarded with the leaves plummeting off the plants within a week of my handling them, even as others just turned yellow and sort of shriveled. I was deeply discouraged: was I overwatering them, or under watering them?
The California Fires Are Purifying My Priorities
For a week now, I’ve been tracking live online maps of Northern California. The blue dot representing our house is in the “fire watch” zone. We are not in immediate danger but close enough to know many people who are—and close enough that I’ve been fielding messages all week: “I saw the fires on TV. Are you safe?” A few weeks ago, I was starting a mental list of potential Christmas luxuries.
What Living Apart Has Taught Me About #StayAtHome Church
As I Was Saying is a forum for a variety of perspectives to foster faith-related conversations among our readers with the goal of mutual learning, even in disagreement. Apart from articles written by editorial staff, these perspectives do not necessarily reflect the views of The Banner. This particular column is a commentary from Religion News Service. (RNS) — My husband and I moved to the U.S. 16 years ago.
What living apart has taught me about #StayAtHome church
Musicians perform remotely during a Hillsong East Coast online service, Sunday, April 26, 2020. Video screengrab (RNS) — My husband and I moved to the U.S. 16 years ago. We didn’t know a soul in the college town where he would be starting graduate school, and with just six months of marriage under our belts, we barely knew one another either.
Why Married Women Need More Male Friends
If I’m being totally honest, I probably would not have written a book were it not for two friends, Dan and Stanford. After church one Sunday, Dan listened as I muddled through some thoughts for an upcoming retreat I was co-teaching with Stanford. “That would make a great book topic,” he said. I dismissed his encouragement with a laugh. But months later, when asked by a publisher if I had any book ideas, his words came back to me.
What Does it Mean to Be a Woman if You’re Not a Wife?
By Bronwyn Lea, Crosswalk.com Remember the song Que Sera, Sera where the little girl dreams of what her future will be? My girlhood was populated with visions of the future, and while they might have varied in location (Paris? Narnia? Or the little suburb I lived in?), one feature was consistent: there would be a wedding, and I would be a wife. If anything, marriage (and motherhood) were the clearest indicators that I would no longer be a girl, but a woman. How do you know when you’re an adult?
'Get the Girl to Do It'
The rush to sign kids up for summer camps is always intense, but this past summer, few filled up as quickly as the one targeted at girls interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). My family lives in a college town, home to one of the top-ranked science schools in the country, and getting my scientifically curious nine-year-old daughter into that camp felt like shooting for the stars. We didn’t even make the waiting list for the camp last summer.
Rachael Denhollander: Do Justice, Love Mercy, and Listen Well
“If you see something, say something” is a familiar motto that encourages vocal community engagement in combatting evils ranging from terrorism to human trafficking. But there’s a dangerous and false corollary to this belief: that if nothing was said, nothing probably happened. In her new book, What Is a Girl Worth?
Bronwyn Lea reviews 'Here Until August: Stories' by Josephine Rowe and 'This Taste for Silence: Stories' by Amanda O’Callaghan
The inciting incident in Josephine Rowe’s short story ‘Glisk’ (winner of the 2016 Jolley Prize) unpacks in an instant. A dog emerges from the scrub and a ute veers into oncoming traffic. A sedan carrying a mother and two kids swerves into the safety barrier, corroded by the salt air, and disappears over a sandstone bluff. Three-quarters of a family are erased. And it all happens ‘in a glisk’, Fynn, the driver of the ute, will say years later.
9 Things Everyone Should Do When Reading the Bible
Very few of us have the inclination or interest in diving into three years of seminary education in order to get a better handle on the Scriptures. However, every believer should long to get a better grip on the Bible. The good news is that it does not require a graduate education to do so.
Why Easter Joy Belongs to the Melancholy
Easter joy has been harder to come by this year. Between the growing ugliness of American politics and the acrimony within the church body, I’ve found it harder to anticipate looking up from the broken body of my Lord to rejoice this Sunday in the resurrected and ascended Christ. When I shared my struggle with a good friend, he suggested I revisit a collection of sermons that the 19th-century priest John Henry Newman preached in Oxford in response to the challenges of his own day.
‘Being Christian Without the Church’ Fails the Good Friday......
We Americans tend to be a sentimental people. This makes it difficult for us to look directly into the horror, shame, and degradation of a death by crucifixion. When Jesus says to Mary, “Woman, behold thy son” and to John “Behold thy Mother,” we often interpret this saying of our Lord as a sentimental invitation to take good care of your mother. I am a mother, and I definitely want to be taken care of! But this is not what the Fourth Evangelist, John, wants us to understand.
To the Ends of the Earth: Loving Vanuatu After Cyclone Pam
When Jesus exhorted his disciples to go to “the ends of the earth,” he may very well have been referring to Vanuatu, the South Pacific island chain that was recently struck by a massive cyclone. More than 1,000 miles east of Australia and 750 miles west of Fiji, Vanuatu is a tiny nation of 83 small islands, nine active volcanoes, and over a quarter million people, the majority of whom are Christian.
Scripture Says, ‘Sisters, I’m Talking to All Y’all’
As much as I try to be a good listener, it’s still amazing how much I don’t hear on any given day. Of the tens of thousands of words that float by my ears from speakers (both human and electronic), relatively few seem to cross the auditory abyss and register in my brain. My six-year-old was stunned to discover recently that I didn’t know what had happened to our hero in the storybook chapter we were reading—even though I was the one who had just read it aloud.
Bronwyn Lea reviews 'Islands' by Peggy Frew
According to the AFP, two Australians under the age of eighteen are reported missing every hour. Most are found alive, fairly quickly, but an unlucky few will progress to the category of long-term missing persons. From the Beaumont children of the 1960s to the more recent disappearance of toddler William Tyrrell, vanishing children have long troubled the Australian imagination. But the nightmare for their families is not one from which they can easily unsubscribe.
Death of a Salesman (Queensland Theatre)
Seventy years ago, on 10 February 1949, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman premièred on Broadway to rapturous acclaim. Miller’s intention in writing the play, he recalls in his autobiography, Timebends (1987), was not to put ‘a timebomb under capitalism’ – as one outraged woman accused on opening night – but rather to expose a ‘pseudo life that thought to touch the clouds by standing on top of a refrigerator, waving a paid-up mortgage at the moon’.
My First American Halloween
I was 30 years old the first time I dressed up for Halloween. Halloween was not a part of my childhood in South Africa—only something we knew from seasonal episodes of sitcoms exported from the West.
God Called Me to Quit My Job. But Did I Trust Him Without a Paycheck?
This past May, when I set out on a year-long trip to research singleness around the world, I was confident that I could keep financial disaster and worry at bay. I had modest savings, plans to keep my expenses lean, and hopes of finding freelance work to offset costs. I thought I wouldn’t need to ask that much of God. I thought I could trust him without really having to trust him. I thought I could follow him without leaving the boat.
What the Kavanaugh Saga Says About Our View of Sin
I’ve read the words “credibility” and “character” more in the past two weeks than in the last two years. The underlying question—whom can we trust?—sits at the heart of our (un)civil discourse and seems to be the salient concern behind the Kavanaugh-Ford conversation.
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