Link Highlights | March 2018

Monday, 2 April 2018 | Ethos editor

Link highlights – March 2018

Below is a selection of links to online news and opinion pieces from March 2018. To keep up-to-date with our posts, ‘like’ us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter.

The articles below are selected by the editor, Armen Gakavian, at his discretion. Neither the editor nor Ethos necessarily endorse the views expressed in these articles.

Reviews

Jen Logan writes: In Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Chief Willoughby is God-like in his radical hospitality towards those who stand against him – even as he’s dying – in enabling their voices to be heard. Such is the excessive quirkiness of God’s gracious hospitality to us.

https://www.licc.org.uk/resources/traces-grace/

Glen O'Brien writes: In 'The Shape of Water', we are all monsters, we are all creatures, and artists are small ‘g’ gods with the power to create artificial worlds. But the difference between ‘gods and monsters’ is all too easily obscured.

https://letterboxd.com/gobrien/film/the-shape-of-water/

Given it's a Biblical story portraying eternal realities, the makers of 'Mary Magdalene' (helmed by Lion Director Garth Davis) had a tough job to do. Laura Bennett reviews the film

https://hope1032.com.au/stories/culture/movie-reviews/2018/mary-magdalene-reformed-harlot-or-apostle-hope-review/

Art & Culture

George Corbett writes: When music encounters religion, I see the result as being like the scriptural image of water and wine: the art can be transformed and come not to serve theology, but to be theology – or more exactly theoartistry, insofar as it may reveal God in a new way through artistry.

https://theconversation.com/classical-musics-divorce-from-god-has-been-one-of-the-great-failures-of-our-times-92241

Asylum seekers, refugees and migration

Andrew Hamilton writes: Critics are right to say the marches are ineffectual in the face of bipartisan and popular support for Australia's brutal behaviour. But the faces of those who take part - refugees and activists, older Australians and children, churchgoers and atheists - witness that the Australian community can wear a compassionate face.

https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54811

Child sexual abuse

The Catholic Church is much more than what has been revealed in the commission; and the Church, and the broader Australian community, is very different to what it was 30 years ago. Sheree Limbrick, CEO of Catholic Professional Standards Limited, speaks with Dwayne Jeffries.

https://hope1032.com.au/stories/open-house/2018/catholic-church-listens-royal-commission-acts-protect-children/

Mark Pearson writes: George Pell's current committal hearing engages the principle of 'open justice' and some of its most important exceptions.

https://theconversation.com/why-the-public-isnt-allowed-to-know-specifics-about-the-george-pell-case-93651

David Pilgrim writes: A damning inquiry has revealed the extent of the abuse suffered by British children sent abroad between 1920 and 1970. But it skirts around Aboriginal cultural genocide.

https://theconversation.com/the-lost-children-of-the-empire-and-the-attempted-aboriginal-genocide-93380

Cities & population

Fifty years after the publication of his controversial book The Population Bomb, biologist Paul Ehrlich warns overpopulation and overconsumption are driving us over the edge, with a shattering collapse of civilisation a “near certainty”. Interview by Damian Carrington.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/22/collapse-civilisation-near-certain-decades-population-bomb-paul-ehrlich

John Vidal writes: Projections suggest cities will swell at an astonishing pace – but whether that means our salvation or an eco-disaster is by no means certain.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/19/urban-explosion-kinshasa-el-alto-growth-mexico-city-bangalore-lagos

Civil society and discourse

Will Jones writes: Pete Mulherin and Simon Kennedy’s archipelago model can suggest some helpful lessons for what it means to be a free, diverse and tolerant society. But it cannot be the whole picture. We need to integrate the insights of the archipelago idea with what we might call the virtues of landmass.

https://faith-and-politics.com/2018/03/03/testing-the-limits-of-diversity/

Matthew Sharpe writes. Fuelled by this echoing and mirroring of our passionate beliefs, we readily jump to generalisations about whole groups, based only on whether we like or dislike some individuals. Today’s social media feeds upon these characteristics, fuelling tribalism and incivility.

https://theconversation.com/the-greatest-moral-challenge-of-our-time-its-how-we-think-about-morality-itself-92101

Alice Gallen writes: A new generation hooked on technology has given up on democracy and shut the door to civil discussion, instead choosing hate, defensiveness and extreme solutions.

www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=19604

Anne Schwenkenbecher writes: Individually rational actions can lead to collectively undesirable outcomes. Rethinking our individual moral obligations as forming part of a collective pattern of action can lead to positive change.

https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-rethink-our-moral-obligations-to-create-a-better-world-93286

Criminal justice

Punishment or redemption? What should we expect from the Australian jail system? Fergus Hayne argues the case for a compassionate approach.

https://hope1032.com.au/stories/open-house/2018/prison-system-working-concerned/

Youth detention seems to only attract attention when there's a crisis. What are we not confronting when it comes to young people who run into the law? How do we advocate for them in a hostile political and media environment? Fatima Measham talks to former Victorian children's commissioner Bernie Geary.

https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54824

Diversity

Chelsea Langston Bombino writes: Rather than wait for outside demands, faith-based organisations should proactively pursue representation as part of their mission.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/march-web-only/ministries-can-do-better-than-inclusion-rider-diversity.html

Duncan Ivison writes: Social and economic inequality is a serious threat to the sustainability of liberal democracy. It cannot be addressed by declaring that identity claims are democratically suspect.

https://theconversation.com/embracing-multicultural-voices-can-lead-to-a-more-democratic-future-91657

Domestic violence

Kate Farhall writes: Providing paid family violence leave means we’re not asking victims to choose between accessing necessary support and financial security.

https://theconversation.com/why-family-violence-leave-should-be-paid-94113

Easter

Robyn J. Whitaker writes: What would our church and society look like if we were confronted with the reality that the body hung on the cross was brown?

https://theconversation.com/jesus-wasnt-white-he-was-a-brown-skinned-middle-eastern-jew-heres-why-that-matters-91230

Peter Phillips writes: Like Jesus of Montreal, the Jesus of the canonical gospels doesn’t fit well into the European model of secular humanity. On the one hand, he is far too spiritual. But he is also infuriatingly political.

https://theconversation.com/would-jesus-have-done-better-in-politics-than-in-the-church-93924

Justine Toh writes: The film Mary Magdalene makes for awkward viewing in a time of #MeToo because its Jesus — associated, as he is today, with a church often considered the antithesis of all that is enlightened — treats women so well that he shames not only the highly patriarchal culture of his time but our own progressive, supposedly liberated era as well.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/mary-magdalene-reveals-jesus-is-ultimate-ally-in-battle-of-the-sexes-20180326-p4z6dl.html

This Easter we are reminded, in the words of Bishop Efraim Tendero, that 'the resurrection is the most significant and transforming event in all of human history'. Tendero, who is Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance, calls us to live in this resurrection power.

http://www.worldea.org/news/4853/easter-message-receive-the-power-of-the-resurrection

Michael Frost writes: In Christ Before Pilate, painted by Hungarian artist Mihály Munkácsy, only Christ and the woman rise above the fray in a room full of posturing, arrogant and self-interested men. And how fitting that it should be a woman’s voice, and a pagan Roman one at that, that declares Jesus righteous amidst the din of false accusations and hatred.

http://mikefrost.net/woman-give-evidence-trial-christ/

N. T. Wright talks about the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus, the development of Christianity that followed and the meaning of the Easter message: to go out and announce repentance and the forgiveness of sins. New beginnings are possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WjKdBWFl24

Sheriday Voysey writes: The trouble-making Jesus of Holy Week is a far cry from the soft-lit face in Holman Hunt’s painting, The Light of the World. But maybe there’s a link between the two.

https://hope1032.com.au/stories/faith/2018/day-jesus-messed-nice-guy-image/

Economics & inequality

Andrew Hamilton writes: At the heart of Pythagoras' contribution was wonder at a world in which human intelligence could understand and handle such different phenomena as music, architecture and the stars through mathematics. The cult of numbers in a cruder form remains characteristic of public life today. The most revered numbers are economic.

https://eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54779

Peter Martin writes: Tax concessions for the richest fifth of the population cost the budget $68 billion a year, a new analysis commissioned by Anglicare finds. Negative gearing, superannuation and capital gains tax, discretionary trusts and exemptions from the goods and services tax for private health and education.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tax-concessions-for-wealthy-reach-68-billion-analysis-finds-20180325-p4z65u.html

Ross Gittins writes: The Senate’s passing of the Orwellian Welfare ‘Reform’ Bill will, in its first year, add to homelessness by cutting off payments to more than 80,000 people.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/the-economy/we-have-a-bad-case-of-misdirected-compassion-20180325-p4z64c.html

End of life

Greg Donnelly writes: As the debate about euthanasia rages, end-of-life and palliative care is neglected, with both quality and availability lacking. And yet, that's what the majority of dying people need so they can die at home without pain.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=19620

Environment

Jacqui Remond writes: Dialogue plays a role in how we create meaning. When we have true dialogue we create a flow of meaning: between us, and between us and everything around us. Laudato Si' invites us to be mindful of the dialogue that's happening at a human level, at a cosmic level, and with the creator God.

https://eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54704

Greg Foyster writes: The complexity of environmental policy in South Australia echoes a broader trend in coverage of environment issues: climate change has monopolised the debate, squeezing out local conservation concerns. The upshot is a Left-leaning government can be progressive on clean energy, while holding a regressive stance on less prominent topics.

https://eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54804

Equality

Martyn Iles writes: The great tragedy of the postmodern world is that the call to character is rejected. People are exponents of their tribe and the only real way to improve your moral standing falls to the powerful to change their political beliefs and acknowledge the culpability of their tribe. This is infantilising. It denies the truth about human beings. It denies the possibility of real character. It denies the gospel.

www.acl.org.au/if_not_truth_then_what

Everyday living

Scott Higgins write: “Being biblical” does not mean replicating the life of the first Christians, but following the pattern of the Scriptures which is to allow the vision and values of the future reign of God, so vividly and profoundly incarnated in Christ, to shape the way I live in my place and time.

http://scottjhiggins.com/why-you-should-not-obey/

Foreign policy

Andrew Podger writes: Clive Hamilton’s book, 'Silent Invasion', is perhaps a useful reminder that we must not be naïve about our relationship with China, but his prescription is the wrong direction for tackling the genuine issues he raises.

https://theconversation.com/book-review-clive-hamiltons-silent-invasion-chinas-influence-in-australia-93650

Jon Piccini writes: Peter Dutton’s call for 'civilised nations' to rescue white South African farmers draws explicitly on a long history of equating civilisation with a global white identity.

https://theconversation.com/peter-duttons-fast-track-for-white-south-african-farmers-is-a-throwback-to-a-long-racist-history-93476?utm_medium=email

Gambling

Leo D'Angelo Fisher writes: Woolworths has vowed to act on reports that employees of its gaming and pubs division are collecting, sharing and using gamblers’ personal information to encourage great spending. But the question remains: why is Woolworths, the company represented by a wholesome green apple, involved in this pernicious business?

https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2018/03/03/woolworths-pokies-greed/

Gender

Hannah Reich writes: The relationships between men and boys, and toxic masculinity, are threads that run throughout much of Tim Winton's work. "I think in order to change, men need to let go, they need to surrender things, they need to accept and give up some privilege”, Winton says. “I think [with] any power relationship, whether it's slavery or patriarchy, the people that find it the hardest are those who have the most to lose." www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-27/tim-winton-reflects-on-masculinity-and-his-latest-novel/9587712

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-27/tim-winton-reflects-on-masculinity-and-his-latest-novel/9587712

Guns & gun control

Samara McPhedran writes: Whenever gun control enters public debate, the high emotions and moralising tend to take over rational, evidence-based debate.

https://theconversation.com/why-the-gun-debate-needs-to-move-away-from-simplistic-ideas-of-good-and-bad-92734

Zac Davis writes: Zac Davis A man took his own life Saturday, shooting himself outside the White House. The scene was cleared, the victim identified, and everyone moved on. In America, a 26-year-old firing multiple rounds into himself right outside the presidential residence is not an A1 story. It may not spark conversation or policy change - but it should.

https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54736

Heroes

Amy Peterson writes: Nelson Mandela. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Martin Luther King Jr. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. When we think of 20th-century political dissidents who were people of faith, these are the names that spring to mind. But now have a new name to add to the list: Lin Zhao, the only Chinese citizen known to have openly and steadfastly opposed communism under Mao Zedong.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/march/lian-xi-blood-letters.html

Homelessness & housing

Ross Gittins writes: The Senate’s passing of the Orwellian Welfare ‘Reform’ Bill will, in its first year, add to homelessness by cutting off payments to more than 80,000 people.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/the-economy/we-have-a-bad-case-of-misdirected-compassion-20180325-p4z64c.html

Indigenous affairs

Kylie Beach writes: It is not enough to give "charity, not justice, in return for the theft”, writes Laura Rademaker. And a number of Sydney Anglican leaders have called for First Nations people to be given a greater share of the profits from land granted to churches in colonial times.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/christians-call-to-share-land-profits-with-aboriginal-people/

Shireen Morris writes: The Uluru Statement from the Heart offers a way to resolve the fundamental moral problem at the heart of this nation. We must not squander this historic opportunity due to complacency.

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2018/03/07/4813237.htm

Bruce Pascoe writes: In a country of such gifts and intelligence, we have edited our country's history so that our children will never question our right to the soil and will learn to express surprise at the ingratitude of those we dispossessed. They will be astounded, confused and belligerent at the very mention of Aboriginal achievement. The rest of the world can see the donkey ears above our blinkers: it is only here we believe they are invisible.

https://griffithreview.com/articles/andrew-bolts-disappointment/

Anita Pisch writes: The Colony exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria pair colonial art with Indigenous responses, in an effort to create dialogue about Australia's history. But while the exhibitions educate, inform, reveal, agitate and engage, they do so from within a cultural frame of reference that seems doomed to reinforce division.

https://theconversation.com/ngvs-colony-is-a-bold-attempt-to-confront-australias-colonial-past-but-divisions-remain-93415

Celeste Liddle writes: Aboriginal women's lives matter. The sole purpose of bringing up Aboriginal women who are victims of abuse in political discussions is often to further oppress our populations. It's certainly not to give those women a voice, empower them to build solutions and ensure that these solutions are funded adequately.

https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54730

Kayley Payne writes: Almost a hundred Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian leaders, accompanied by non-Indigenous friends, met to pray and “reclaim” the site of Captain James Cook’s landing at Kurnell, on the southern shores of Botany Bay – the country of the Gweagal clan of the Dharawal nation.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/indigenous-prayer-vigil-held-at-site-of-first-contact

David Pilgrim writes: A damning inquiry has revealed the extent of the abuse suffered by British children sent abroad between 1920 and 1970. But it skirts around Aboriginal cultural genocide.

https://theconversation.com/the-lost-children-of-the-empire-and-the-attempted-aboriginal-genocide-93380

Law, human rights and free speech

The UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst reported to the UN’s Human Rights Council of a growing ‘attitude by the Government towards civil society that has oscillated from lukewarm to obstructive to hostile’. What are the implications of this for Christians?

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/human-rights-under-attack-in-australia-says-the-un/

www.acl.org.au/if_not_truth_then_what

Charges have been dismissed against three elderly men accused of protesting within abortion clinic exclusion zones in the ACT, with the magistrate agreeing that silent prayer is not protest.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/current/silent-prayer-not-protest-says-act-magistrate/

David Holdcroft writes: As Australia moves to a post-Christian state, there are numerous tendencies to see limits on the expression of religion as some kind of necessity. But religions remain legitimate voices in the political process and life of the community, and the space that permits the hearing of these voices is one of the marks of a healthy democracy.

https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54815

Morality

Tim Dean writes: It would be easy to conclude that there’s a deficit of morality in the world today. But when it comes to pinning down a single greatest moral challenge of our time, I’d argue that there’s not a lack of morality in the world; there’s too much.

https://theconversation.com/the-greatest-moral-challenge-of-our-time-its-how-we-think-about-morality-itself-92101

Persecution

Gray Sutanto writes: What are the Limits of Christian pluralism? The question for the Christian minority in Indonesia is how they can remain hospitable to a theocratic hegemony that is inhospitable toward them.

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2018/03/08/4813732.htm

Politics, society & ideology

Danielle Celermajer writes: It is not enough to reassure ourselves that we can still identify what is unethical, cynical and destructive; we also need to adopt practices that nourish forms of life that are ethical, authentic and creative.

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2018/02/23/4808092.htm

Peter Harrison writes: The fact that Pinker manages to get the Enlightenment so spectacularly wrong is not surprising given that most of the important Enlightenment thinkers receive little or no mention at all in his book.

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2018/02/20/4806696.htm

Sam Leith writes: On average, we’re healthier, wealthier and happier than ever before, says Stephen Pinker. We can and should believe in progress, but we shouldn’t be complacent. But, he says, in order to keep the trend going in the right direction we should keep taking the medicine that got us this far: ‘Enlightenment’.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/03/only-an-idiot-would-choose-to-live-at-any-other-time-than-the-present/

Where did the Enlightenment values of reason, science, humanism and progress come from? Jesus may be the unsung hero of humanist, progressive rationality. James Carlton speaks with Nick Spencer and Fatima Measham.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/godforbid/who-can-claim-credit-for-the-enlightenment/9552538

www.acl.org.au/if_not_truth_then_what

The evangelical desire for political power has badly affected America’s Christians, leading them to ignore Trump’s moral failings, says Michael Gerson. But, inside and outside the White House, evangelicals are beginning to drift from the president.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/world/cracks-in-trumps-christian-support-base/

Population growth

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/22/collapse-civilisation-near-certain-decades-population-bomb-paul-ehrlich

Prostitution

Helen Pringle writes: Much has been written about what J.S. Mill's position on prostitution would have been, given his defence of the liberty of persons. But there is no need to speculate: he framed prostitution not as a matter of individual freedom, but of sexual justice along the lines of his treatment of other relationships between men and women, including marriage.

www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2018/03/16/4817916.htm

Racism

Alana Lentin writes: The idea of racism as a purely individual and moral attitude, disconnected from racial-colonial regimes of rule, is to the detriment of a more political understanding of race as a complex of interlocking ideas and systems of governance.

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2018/02/27/4809171.htm

Jon Piccini writes: Peter Dutton’s call for 'civilised nations' to rescue white South African farmers draws explicitly on a long history of equating civilisation with a global white identity.

https://theconversation.com/peter-duttons-fast-track-for-white-south-african-farmers-is-a-throwback-to-a-long-racist-history-93476?utm_medium=email

Religion in Society

Chris Wright writes: With western civilisation in its 'terminal phase', we are called neither to abandon hope (for the future belongs to the kingdom of God), nor to desert our mission (for Christ still sends us into the world as the Father sent him). What then will following Jesus demand of us today?

http://langham.org/word-on-the-world-chris-wright/

Nick Spencer writes: ‘Just as the greatest good calculations of utilitarianism can outrage our sense of human dignity – of people being an end and never a means – so the combination of rationality and autonomy can outrage our sense of objective morality. Some things are not made OK just because people choose them. There are some ways of treating human beings that are simply wrong. Unfashionable as it is to say, this is a legacy of Christianity.’

https://www.smh.com.au/national/presidents-club-dinner-reveals-fatal-flaws-in-how-we-think-about-ethics-20180309-p4z3lq.html

Stephen McAlpine writes: The goal of the church is not to help the modern city to flourish. Well, not insofar as the modern city views flourishing. The goal of the church is to proclaim to the city: “Hey you think you know what flourishing is? It’s not. Here’s what it truly looks like”.

https://stephenmcalpine.com/2018/03/14/on-not-seeking-the-welfare-of-the-city/

Craig Greenfield writes: It's time we became wiser, deeper, kinder and more nuanced in our voting and our political action. It's time we considered the needs of EVERYONE in the community, not just ourselves. I believe that is the invitation of Jesus. As we do this, our thoughts and prayers will be welcomed again, because they will know we care deeply about everyone. They will know we're not limited to thoughts and prayers, but that we're willing to lay down our lives for our neighbours.

http://www.craiggreenfield.com/blog/2018/2/16/beyond-thoughts-and-prayers-how-to-get-political-without-being-a-jerk

Barney Zwartz writes: The four great secular faiths of the 19th century show that "faith" comes in many forms - which are by no means necessarily religious.

https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/faith-20180224-p4z1lx.html

Stephen McAlpine writes: If you could describe the secular malaise it is the desire for transcendence, but the presence of immanence. The experience of wanting something more, but being told that there is nothing more.

https://stephenmcalpine.com/2018/03/22/on-feeling-ripped-off/

Does American civil religion, a shared, generic faith based upon belief in America as an exceptional nation and marked by national symbols and rituals, have a future? According to scholars speaking at a recent Fordham University conference in New York, growing religious illiteracy as well as the more nationalistic policies and themes of the Trump administration spell its death knell.

http://www.religionwatch.com/tag/march-2018/

In a new study, researchers find that Republicans who view God as actively involved in the world tend to support more generous welfare policies, in opposition to their party’s platform.

http://www.religionwatch.com/current-research-march-2018/

In the Trump era of propaganda and violence and oppression toward anyone who is not a white heterosexual male, we would do well to return to the writings of Bonhoeffer — not just the wrongheaded spin of some who have written about Bonhoeffer, but his actual writings themselves.

Here are 5 stunning passages that shed light on our call to costly discipleship in the present age.

http://englewoodreview.org/dietrich-bonhoeffer-speaks-powerfully-to-the-trump-age/

Science

James Garth writes: In a recent lecture, Prof. Peter Harrison analysed the complex history behind the Galileo affair. Here are some brief takeaway points, and a link to the lecture:

https://medium.com/@jgarth22/clearing-the-air-about-the-galileo-affair-be7a6ae8b145

Secularism

https://stephenmcalpine.com/2018/03/22/on-feeling-ripped-off/

Sexism and #MeToo

Meagan Tyler writes: For all the men who have been asking what they can do in light of #MeToo, here's a place start: stop linking your sexual arousal to women's sexual subordination. Stop watching porn.

www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2018/03/06/4812497.htm

James Eglinton writes: How should liberal Western cultures reorder themselves to prevent the widespread sexual exploitation of women? Perhaps the Puritans might have something to teach our own society as it struggles to come to terms with the Heinrich Kramers found in its Hollywood hotel suites and Haitian aid depots.

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2018/03/02/4811225.htm

Eva Cox writes: Like most forms of protest, the #MeToo movement offers evidence of problems but fails to tackle the broader causes and how to fix them.

https://theconversation.com/metoo-is-not-enough-it-has-yet-to-shift-the-power-imbalances-that-would-bring-about-gender-equality-92108

Don Aitkin writes: Ordinarily, a person accused of some crime is presumed innocent until found otherwise by a duly constituted court. That has not been the case in any of the examples I have read in the #MeToo phenomenon.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=19616

Melissa Kang writes. The #MeToo movement has sparked discussions about appropriate sexual behaviour that teachers can build on in sexual education.

https://theconversation.com/how-metoo-can-guide-sex-education-in-schools-93268

Claire Moran writes: Not all women have the capacity, or freedom, to speak out about their experiences of sexual violence – be it in the workplace or at home.

https://theconversation.com/why-family-violence-leave-should-be-paid-94113

Sexual abuse

Kate Shellnutt writes: Andy Savage has resigned from his megachurch over past abuse after facing backlash over his standing ovation: “Apologies are important, but more is required.”

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/march/andy-savage-resigns-abuse-megachurch-standing-ovation.html

Sexuality

Farrah Tomazin writes: Gay conversion has been discredited as ineffective, damaging, even dangerous. But across Australia, organisations who believe that LGBTI people can or should change are hard at work.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/i-am-profoundly-unsettled-inside-the-hidden-world-of-gay-conversion-therapy-20180227-p4z1xn.html

Three former patients of Australia's controversial sex-change clinic say misdiagnosis and wrongful surgery destroyed their lives. Jill Stark reports.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-will-never-be-able-to-have-sex-again-ever-20090530-br41.html

Jeanna Bryner writes: People in denial about their own sexual orientation, perhaps a denial fostered by authoritarian and homophobic parents, may feel a threat from other gay and lesbian individuals. Lashing out may ultimately be an indicator of the person's own internal conflict with sexual orientation.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/homophobes-might-be-hidden-homosexuals/

Stephen McAlpine writes: If anything all that we’re seeing in this manic drive towards a post-Christian foundationalism is that, actually, there are no foundations left to drive towards. There’s just a chasm into which our culture will spiral further. This thing hasn’t bottomed out. All we’re left doing is wondering what it might look like when it does.

https://stephenmcalpine.com/2018/02/27/when-the-new-normal-is-abnormal/

Neil James Foster writes: The view of the Federal Court that a person’s sexual orientation is fixed and immutable was a sharp reminder that bureaucratic decisions must be based on evidence and not pre-conceived policy stances. The comments may have wider implications for arguments that are often unthinkingly presented about the possibility of someone changing their sexual orientation.

https://lawandreligionaustralia.blog/2018/03/14/irrational-and-illogical-to-believe-that-sexual-orientation-can-never-change-federal-judge/

Sexuality and same-sex marriage

Stephen McAlpine writes: In a world in which aesthetics is the new ethics and the more beautiful your campaign, the more convincing, the ABC promotion for the Mardis Gras event in Sydney knocks it out of the park. Not that long ago we might have called that grooming. Soon it will be a school excursion.

https://stephenmcalpine.com/2018/03/02/a-beautiful-apocalyptic-mardis-gras/

Akos Balogh writes: The Mardi Gras parade was on last week in Sydney. And the ABC showed their support by producing a number of videos - for children. Here is my open letter to the ABC, raising some of my concerns with the videos.

http://akosbalogh.com/2018/03/16/dear-abc-kids-television-re-mardi-gras-kids-videos/

Liam Elphick writes: Australia The government's review of religious freedom protections must ensure that any additional protection of religious freedom does not further undermine the right to non-discrimination.

https://theconversation.com/the-gay-wedding-cake-dilemma-when-religious-freedom-and-lgbti-rights-intersect-93070

Slavery

John Sandeman writes: There are an estimated 4000 people in Australia enduring slavery or slave-like conditions, and 48 million slaves around the world. That’s why a “Modern Slavery Bill” was introduced into the NSW Parliament by Christian Democrat Paul Green.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/good-news/4000-slaves-in-australia-mean-we-have-work-to-do/

Social media

https://theconversation.com/the-greatest-moral-challenge-of-our-time-its-how-we-think-about-morality-itself-92101

Spirituality

Philip Almond writes: The Vatican is training priests to recognise and deal with the demonically possessed. This re-emergence of the Devil in popular Western culture is part of a new engagement with an enchanted world.

https://theconversation.com/the-vatican-the-exorcists-and-the-return-of-the-devil-in-a-time-of-enchantment-92575

Marcia Pally writes: David P. Gushee’s Still Christian: Following Jesus out of American Evangelicalism follows Gushee’s fifty or so years in Catholicism, Evangelicalism and American politics. The book is a series of portraits that help explain how politics and religion now relate in America, showing how individual people have negotiated the culture wars that still divide us.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/you-can-go-home-again

Sport

Gillian Bouras writes: The idea of cheating at sport, of setting such a bad example to the young, was unthinkable then. Now this cricketing episode, I fear, is a disgrace from which Australian sport may never recover. Something ethical, almost spiritual, has gone, and I am left with an acute sense of loss.

https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54841

Andrew Hamilton writes: As with any activity that involves many people, cricket is shaped by multiple relationships. I would not expect that cricketers be able to articulate what is entailed in these relationships. But I was surprised that some dim awareness of their importance did not make the players responsible hesitate before launching on such a daft adventure.

https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54839

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking on God: ‘I believe the simplest explanation is, there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization that there probably is no heaven and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that, I am extremely grateful.’ Article by Lori Johnston.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/03/14/im-not-afraid-what-stephen-hawking-said-about-god-his-atheism-and-his-own-death

Alan Duffy and others write: Stephen Hawking inspired people with his work on black holes and other mysteries of the universe. There are few scientists who reach as far into popular culture as Stephen Hawking did. His research tackled the biggest of big questions – the nature of time, space and the universe we live in. Many were quick to pay tribute to the theoretical physicist who died today in the UK, aged 76.

https://theconversation.com/tributes-pour-in-for-stephen-hawking-the-famous-theoretical-physicist-who-died-at-age-76-93363

Binoy Kampmark writes: The rush to pay tribute to the cosmological colossus had an air of reflex about it. People paid respects, but many were not entirely sure why. He'd be missed, but in what way? Such is the way of celebrity, even those rare intellectual ones who burst the barrier of mass marketing. They become symbols in their time, ciphers of an age.

https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=54802

Jamie Ducharme writes: Stephen Hawking was an atheist. Here’s what he said about God, heaven and his own death.

http://time.com/5199149/stephen-hawking-death-god-atheist/

Technology

Matthew Beard writes: Australia Technology isn't value-neutral. Unless we understand the ethical assumptions behind our technology, we can't trust the solutions it offers.

https://theconversation.com/we-must-develop-techno-wisdom-to-prevent-technology-from-consuming-us-91656

US politics

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/world/cracks-in-trumps-christian-support-base/

http://www.religionwatch.com/tag/march-2018/

In a new study, researchers find that Republicans who view God as actively involved in the world tend to support more generous welfare policies, in opposition to their party’s platform.

http://www.religionwatch.com/current-research-march-2018/

Here are 5 stunning passages that shed light on our call to costly discipleship in the present age.

http://englewoodreview.org/dietrich-bonhoeffer-speaks-powerfully-to-the-trump-age/

Jim Wallis writes: Trump Evangelicals have so completely and uncritically offered their faithful allegiance to the man in the White House that they have compromised the gospel of Jesus Christ — whose values the president’s life has stood antithetically against. The result in the way the country now views evangelicals, and white Christians in general, has been devastating to the integrity of faith in America and caused great confusion around the world.

But there is hope. A new declaration called Reclaiming Jesus was released by a group of church elders on Palm Sunday, after a retreat together on Ash Wednesday for prayer, lament, and repentance.

https://sojo.net/articles/reclaiming-jesus-trump-evangelicals

Peter Leithart writes: Evangelicals need to thicken our theology of the Lord’s Supper, first by drawing more of the Bible into the discussion of the Supper, and second by drawing more of the Supper into discussion of the Supper.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/march-web-only/taste-and-see-lords-supper-maundy-thursday-eucharist.html

‘“It seems to me that only his faith can explain the madness of this sacrifice which is today the admiration of all.’ Policeman Arnaud Beltrame, a practicing Catholic, willingly traded places with a hostage held by a man claiming to be from Islamic State, who stormed the Super-U supermarket in the town of Trèbes in southern France. By John Sandeman.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/world/he-traded-places-with-a-hostage-and-was-killed/

War, peace & nonviolence

Tim Costello writes: Jesus was a master of non-violent resistance. He didn’t run away from oppression. He stood in its way and was eventually killed for it. When threatened, rather than fighting back he told his followers to put down their swords. We should all do the same.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/making-peace-not-profit-from-war/

Sarah Cunningham writes: The Christian case for Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-un: The President should go through with his talks — for the sake of three Americans and millions of North Koreans.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/march-web-only/trump-kim-jong-un-meeting-north-korea-prisoners.html

Women

Tess Delbridge writes: Amy Oxley Wilkinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dorothy Day and Corrie Ten Boom and more - here are a few women who positively influenced the course of Christian history that we think you should know about.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/good-news/6-women-who-influenced-christianity-for-the-better/

Dorothy Ann Lee writes: For centuries, Mary Magdalene was wrongly depicted as a repentant whore, diminishing her vital role as witness to the resurrection. A new film portraying her life does much to restore her character.

https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-who-was-mary-magdalene-debunking-the-myth-of-the-penitent-prostitute-92658

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/march/lian-xi-blood-letters.html

Tamie Davis writes: Feminism as it was known in the 1970s is not what it is today. Because of this, it is possible that a Christian response to feminism in 2018 will look very different to a Christian response to feminism in the 1970s. And so, as the Spirit of Jesus animates me, I embrace feminism as a useful tool for my pursuit His kingdom.

http://www.fixinghereyes.org/single-post/2018/03/09/Where-does-feminism-fit-in-Christian-discipleship-in-2018

www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2018/03/16/4817916.htm

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Link Highlights | March 2018

Monday, 2 April 2018 | Ethos editor

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