Ross Richard Clifford AM (born 1951) is an Australian Baptist theologian, political commentator, radio personality and author. A former lawyer who later joined the ministry, Clifford became a campaigner on moral issues while a suburban Sydney pastor in the 1980s. He has served as head of several religious organisations and as an occasional media spokesperson. He unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council in 2003 for the Christian Democratic Party. Until mid-2010 he had a radio program on Sydney station 2CH.
Early life and education
Clifford was born and raised in the northern suburbs of Sydney and had a private school education. His conversion to Christian faith occurred at the 1959 Billy Graham crusade in Sydney. Clifford initially studied law and obtained a Diploma of Law from the Solicitors Admission Board of NSW. He worked as a solicitor in the inner Sydney suburb of Kings Cross and then served as a barrister specialising in family law in the Northern Territory and New South Wales.
Clifford decided to study for Christian ministry and completed a Bachelor of Theology degree at Morling Baptist Theological College in Sydney. He initially served as pastor at South Windsor Baptist Church and first became involved in public life in the 1980s when he became a campaigner for moral standards in advertising and publications while pastor of Gymea Baptist Church. He also contributed to church and public discourses concerning right-to-life issues and the proposed Australian Bill of Rights, which was debated and defeated during Bob Hawke's term as Prime Minister of Australia.
Career
In the early 1980s Clifford took a sabbatical from his preacher's post to study apologetics at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law in Anaheim, California. Clifford's writings place him within the school of thought known as evidentialist apologetics. His MA thesis examined the apologetics arguments of eight lawyers concerning the resurrection of Christ. The thesis, which was originally published in Russian in 1991 by Missionswerk Friedensstimme, was released in Australia under the title Leading Lawyers Look at the Resurrection (1991). It has been subsequently published in Arabic. On the strength of the Russian version of the book he was invited to speak in the Soviet Union where he met some of the personal staff of Mikhail Gorbachev, various members of the Soviet legal profession, and pastors of Baptist churches.
Clifford served as senior pastor at Gymea Baptist Church from mid-1985 until late 1991. He also became involved with the Sports and Leisure ministry in Australia and eventually co-wrote two books recounting the spiritual conversions of Australian and International sports-stars such as Nick Farr-Jones, Wes Hall and Bernhard Langer. During 1991 he co-founded with Philip Johnson a para-church ministry known as The Community of Hope, which began developing exhibitor's booths as a form of dialogue and witness in alternative spiritual festivals in Sydney. Their collaborative venture became the basis for the book Shooting for the Stars, which recreated encounters between the authors and new spirituality seekers in festivals. This dialogical and apologetic activity in New Age festivals spanned the years 1991–2003 and has been the subject of much discussion in most of his publications released between 2001 and 2004.
Clifford was invited to deliver the annual Leonard Buck lecture in Missions at the Bible College of Victoria in 1995 and chose as his topic The Mission of the Church and the New Age Movement. His apologetic work on alternate spirituality has continued in books concerning the Christian symbolism of tarot cards (Beyond Prediction) and contextual apologetics with new age (Jesus and the Gods of the New Age). He was one of several Australian contributors to the book Encountering New Religious Movements, which was awarded Christianity Today's Book of the Year 2005 award in the "missions" category of literature.
In 1992 Clifford became a lecturer in theology at Morling Baptist Theological College. He also enrolled at the University of Sydney and completed by coursework a Master of Theology degree. He later undertook doctoral studies through the Australian College of Theology and was awarded a Th.D. for his dissertation on the legal apologetic of John Warwick Montgomery. In 1997, Clifford was appointed the Principal of Morling College.