Dr Paul Allen

As a citizen of this country, I was shocked and profoundly disturbed by the  murder of two police officers and an innocent civilian  by the Trains in Wieambilla in December 2022. This was a heinous crime that should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. As a Christian theologian, I was also startled to hear the Queensland Police describe this crime as  “a religiously-motivated terrorist attack”  on the basis that Nathaniel, Gareth, and Stacey Train subscribed to “a broad Christian fundamentalist belief system, known as premillennialism.” Listening to last week’s  press conference conducted by Deputy Police Commissioner Tracy Linford , it was hard to resist the impression that she was struggling to understand the belief system she had been tasked with explaining. For instance, she stated that “premillennialism” is the belief: "that Christ will return to the earth for a thousand days and provide peace and prosperity, but it will be preceded by … a period of time of tribulat

Thousands gathered at a memorial service this morning to honour the lives of fallen Queensland Police constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, killed in a deadly siege in rural Queensland last week.  More than 8,000 people, including family members, political leaders and members of the police service, travelled from all over the country to attend the event. Among them was Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton and police commissioners from across Australia, who laid floral wreaths and paid their respects. Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll posthumously awarded the constables medals, including the Queensland Police Valour Medal — the highest bravery award the Commission of the Queensland Police Service can award. An impressive guard of honour formed outside the Brisbane Entertainment Centre after the service, where a sea of officers in blue stood side by side in a procession spanning more than 1km, complete with horses, police dogs, boat