I don't know what god the author of the article is talking about. Surely it is not the god of the bible. That god tells a couple not to eat of a tree knowing they will eat of the tree. Significantly, it is the Tree of Knowledge. Obey that god to be kept ignorant.

He also causes a flood which wipes out almost all humans along with many animals and plants.

In the New Testament he subjects his loved son to great torture.

His beloved son tells people that only through belief in him can one enter the Kingdom. It doesn't matter how good a person you are or what kind of life you have led, you must believe in a certain entity to be granted access to the Kingdom.

In the Book of Joshua he orders the Israelites to commit genocide.

At times the god of the bible behaves decently. However, in general, the president of Indonesia is a more reasonable and loving entity than the despicable god of the bible. It is denigrating the Indonesian president to compare him with the biblical god.

The god of the bible is not a good guide for the nature of mercy.

We need "mercy" for all the victims of the drug runners that you seem to favor, getting rid of them will send a message to other potential drug runners "it is not a good idea" The current carry on that this pair of the worst kind of criminals should "get off" it is sickening that they have NO MERCY for anybody, innocent by standers are often killed in their "DRUG WARS", try to find something useful to do like rooting out the PAEDOPHILES in your church, removing the TAX BLUDGING accounts for the wealthy dishonest grubs that think only the "plebs" should pay tax.

Mercy is one of those words that you can adapt to many situations. When it is used religiously, it becomes even more infinitely adaptable.

So, Mr Jensen, could you advise where your God stands on drug dealers in general. What form of mercy is applied to their work, compared, say, to the work performed by the manager of a Sydney cafe, or the man who walks into that cafe and ends up killing people. Is that a different kind of mercy, perhaps?

Or what about the mercy your God deals out to those affected by the commerce undertaken by those drug dealers? Are they exempt from mercy, perhaps, or does the concept not apply at all? Or the mercy shown to parents grieving for their young daughter, who didn't survive a music concert because your God was busy being merciful elsewhere?

And what is this I see?

"Michael Jensen is the rector of St Mark's Anglican Church at Darling Point. He has a doctorate in Moral Theology"

"Moral Theology"? An inadvertent oxymoron, perhaps?

But at least it admits the existence of Immoral Theology, whose influence on the church I have long suspected.

Pretentious clap-trap all the way down!

David F , spot on

What a bunch of nitwits. The collective reasoning power and imagination of a z86 between the lot of you.