Dr Paul Allen

Stephen O. Presley As the iron gate slammed behind me, I read the sign, “Inmates taking hostages will not be allowed beyond this point.” It was an ominous beginning to a life of teaching. After graduating with my divinity doctorate from the University of St. Andrews, I hoped to land a tenure-track teaching position. I imagined strolling the grounds of some seminary or university campus with my students, discussing the deep thoughts of Augustine or Calvin. Instead, in the Lord’s kindness, I got so much better.  I was hired to teach at a seminary extension site with a course load that included several classes in a newly formed prison seminary program. This initiative, launched by the Heart of Texas prison ministry, offered seminary training for convicted felons serving life in prison. Like raising Indigenous missionaries in a foreign country, these seminary graduates would remain incarcerated and help minister to the prison population.  For four years, spanning 2011-2015, I was ...

The Queensland Government of Australia has passed a law requiring pastors to violate and report any confession and report any instances of confessed child sex abuse or face up to three years in prison. The legislation arose as a result of recommendations from the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which recommended in 2017 that clergy and confession no longer be exempt from mandatory reporting. Similar laws have already been passed in the states of Victoria and South Australia as well as in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. Australian media reports that the legislation received bi-partisan political support but that one elected Queensland politician, Stephen Andrew an MP with the One Nation party, spoke out against the new law. “The bill poses a real danger for public trust and cohesion in our community,” Mr Andrew said. “Many priests and bishops have publicly stated that they will go to jail before obeying these laws,” he conti...