Link highlights - November 2016

Monday, 5 December 2016 | Ethos editor

Link highlights – November 2016

Below is a selection of links to online news and opinion pieces, posted on the Ethos Facebook and Twitter pages between 1^st and 30^th November 2016. 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.

You can also visit the ABC's Religion and Ethics page, Mick Pope’s environment blog, Neil Foster’s blog on religion and law, and blogs by Bruce Wearne and Mike Frost on a range of issues. We recommend Maelor Himbury’s daily news digest – subscribe via email at maelor@melbpc.org.au or via LinkedIn.

Asylum seekers, refugees and immigration

Five reasons to welcome US Manus deal, by Frank Brennan.

‘Many Australians are dismayed over the treatment of asylum seekers. So to what extent are we complicit?’, asks Rod Grant.

Turnbull’s refugee ban is ‘evidence perhaps that reasoned arguments and reference to the larger moral imperative can persuade people more effectively than point-scoring politics ever will’, writes Mark Kenny.

Bioethics

John Gray reviews Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus: a Brief History of Tomorrow. ‘Humankind’s next big project will be to upgrade Homo sapiens into Homo deus.’

What are the hazards, practical and ethical, of gene drive technology? Charles Robin explores the pros, cons and way forward.

Christmas

‘This Christmas, enjoy pondering how to do good and share generously’, writes Amanda Jackson, Executive Director, WEA Women's Commission.

As we approach Christmas, are brand boycotts the most effective way to protest? Depends who you talk to, writes Emma Vuletic.

Church exemptions

Defence of religious tax-free status is flawed, writes Max Wallace. ‘Australia is in principle a democracy not a theocracy’.

Civil society

‘...a society that doesn’t find ways for citizens to be active through organised structures is a vulnerable society’, writes Peter Lewis.

Culture & society

Without the power of kindness, our society will fall apart, writes George Monbiot.

Drugs

The global ‘war on drugs’ is one of the most tragic and abject failures in the history of public policy and has cost countless lives by treating people with a medical problem as criminals, argues The Age editorial.

End of Life

Andrew Hamilton responds to the Vatican's instruction on cremation, tracing the history of Christian burial and exploring the possibilities of cremation.

The Catholic Church’s updated version of Ars Moriendi (The Art of Dying), a 15^th Century manuscript, is a positive contribution to society’s communal wellbeing, writes Joanna Moorhead.

Palliative care patient Peter van Wensveen opens up and shares with us the many confronting facets of his terminal illness.

The Australian Christian Lobby has welcomed the narrow defeat of the latest attempt to legalise assisted suicide in South Australia.

More info about the defeat of the bill.

‘Invented by Granville Williams, the term “...sanctity of life” is not an authentically Christian concept’, writes Michael Cook.

Legislating assisted dying for people suffering from serious and incurable conditions is not necessary and will increase the pressure for some chronically ill patients to move on and stop being a burden, writes Ian Haines.

The AMA has released its position statement on euthanasia, stating that doctors ‘should not be involved in interventions that have as their primary intention the ending of a person’s life’.

The Australian Christian Lobby responds to the AMA‘s position statement.

Pro-euthanasia doctors have criticised the AMA's decision not to back assisted death laws.

Brian Morris explains why politicised religion is at odds with the public mood on euthanasia policy.

Environment

Faith communities are moving in the opposite direction to that of fellow believers in public office responsible for current climate policy.

Time is running out, and global warming is more important any other issue. ‘It will destroy the moral universe itself, so far as it exists on this planet’, writes Mark Silk.

This is the most dangerous time for our planet. We can’t go on ignoring inequality, because we have the means to destroy our world but not to escape it, writes Stephen Hawking.

Fidel Castro

‘As a first-generation Cuban American and a Christian, my response has come in the form of a question: “How do I respond to the death of a man whom I was taught to hate for so long?”’, asks Amanda Martinez Beck.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/fidel-castro-en/article117186483.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/27/fidel-castro-dead-revolutionary-history

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/fidel-castro-cuban-dictator-dies-at-90/2016/11/26/f37bf3bc-b399-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html

http://nypost.com/2016/11/27/inside-fidel-castros-life-of-luxury-and-ladies-while-country-starved/

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/11/cloneofcloneoffidel-castro-context-2014331257121-161126054211145.html

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Washington-Post-Rebukes-Fidel-While-It-Hailed-Pinochet-in-2006-20161127-0009.html

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/09/remembering-castros-crimes

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-fidel-castro

http://www.faithwire.com/2016/11/28/heres-a-handy-list-of-atrocities-for-everyone-glorifying-fidel-castro-today/

Hospitality

While divine hospitality is seen in different ways in Islam through the sensual images of heaven, in both Islam and Christianity God is never far from food, both the earthly and the heavenly, writes Mona Siddiqui.

Jesus wants an awkward thanksgiving dinner: why extending the table involves an uncomfortable hospitality, by D.L. Mayfield.

Jesus spent most of his time showing, receiving and teaching hospitality as an expression of his friendship, grace, inclusivity, valuing of creation and invitation to reconciliation, writes Alex Smith:

Part 1: https://reforminghell.com/2016/11/09/what-does-jesus-hospitality-tell-us-about-gods-character/

Part 2: https://reforminghell.com/2016/11/16/why-should-we-show-hospitality/

Part 3: https://reforminghell.com/2016/11/23/how-and-to-whom-do-we-show-hospitality/

Housing & homelessness

Housing is just as much a human right as education and health, writes John Falzon, CEO of the St Vincent Paul Society of Australia.

Reach out, raise money or remove: ‘what is the right response to begging?’, asks Ian Wylie.

Indigenous affairs

Quentin Dempster evaluates Noel Pearson’s attack on ‘racist ABC’.

Clive Hamilton responds to Noel Pearson.

Constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is vital if Australia’s Indigenous people are to flourish, says the head of the Anglican Church in Australia, Melbourne Archbishop Philip Freier.

‘I’m really tired of the story of us as the victim – as if we are always the people done unto and never the people doing.’ Stan Grant on Indigenous survivalism and changing the narrative.

The seventh report on Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage, released last week, continues to record mainly no changes or some increased deficits in wellbeing, writes Eva Cox.

‘The imperative of free and open public debate of sensitive and difficult topics must be robustly affirmed in an age when terms like “race” and “racism” have been weaponised as instruments of ideological warfare’, writes Peter Baldwin.

Islam

The left's confusion over radical lslam opens the door for racist extremists, writes Julie Szego.

Law, human rights and free speech

Section 18C needs refining, not scrapping. The respect for difference in Australia needs building, not dismantling. Complaints handling needs streamlining, not personal attacks – SMH editorial.

The original intent was to protect minorities by stopping offensive comments, but one of the dangers of Section 18C is its indefinability.

When offence trumps truth, reform suffers – The Australian editorial.

Neil Foster comments on the legal problems with Victoria’s new birth certificate gender laws.

Life and living

What liberals should learn from shepherds: suffering and failures are not blocks to having lived a good life, writes Stanley Hauerwas.

Nationalism and extremism

The left's confusion over radical lslam opens the door for racist extremists, writes Julie Szego.

Whether it's American nativism, European ethno-nationalism, or Middle Eastern Islamism, the thread that connects these disparate experiments is similar: the flailing search for a politics of meaning, writes Shadi Hamid.

What White nationalists want is not necessarily a purely white America; they want an America where White nationalists feel at home, and everyone else feels as if a tolerated guest, writes Khaled Abou El Fadl.

Other religions

Politics & ideology

The primary gist of Romans 13 isn’t to quell political dissent, but to promote godly living, writes Mike Frost.

The Challenge of Political Reconciliation: ‘Meaningful conflict transformation requires patience, persistence, creativity, risk, tolerance of conflict and substantial government backing over a long period of time’, writes Sarah Maddison. http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2016/11/24/4581198.htm

Christians believe in truth, so how should we respond to post-truth politics?, Asks Andy Walton.

Question your motives when appropriating minority voices, writes Neve Mahoney.

Pornography

We need better education and prevention strategies, and training of law enforcement personnel, to respond to pornography-related offenses, writes Terry Goldsworthy.

‘Why do Christians need to stop watching porn?’, asks Martin Saunders.

Religion in society

‘A pluralistic society must be built on an understanding of the importance of humility’, says Tim Wilson, former Human Rights Commissioner and current Liberal Party member.

France and ISIS have a special enmity, and it is compounded by the French form of secularism, known as laïcité, writes Charles Cameron.

Sexuality and same-sex marriage

On LGBT issues, how can Christians disagree in a loving way?, asks Jonathan Merritt.

To avoid the ‘Sex-Life Stasi’, we should scrap the Marriage Act altogether and create private marriage contracts for all, writes Kerry Cue.

Adam Webster explains the same-sex marriage plebiscite.

In this episode of Life & Faith, CPX explores gender dysphoria with Australian sexologist Dr Patricia Weerakoon and with ‘Joan’, a transgender woman.

Social justice

This may be particularly relevant as we approach Christmas: Are brand boycotts the most effective way to protest? Depends who you talk to, writes Emma Vuletic.

Law

Neil Foster comments on the legal problems with Victoria’s new birth certificate gender laws.

US elections

‘Maybe the right analogy for Trump isn’t Hitler or Mussolini, but Gabriele D’Annunzio ... a flamboyant, self-aggrandizing Italian writer and celebrity’, writes Brett Colasacco.

Trump took advantage of the economic marginalisation of many white working class people, turning their populist anger into hatred for 'the other', and economic resentment into racial resentment, writes Jim Wallis.

'When people are desperate and there’s a choice between more of the same, or something different, anything seems better', writes Melissa Weinberg.

Sheridan Voysey asks: What message does Trump's win send about truth and character?

Trump can no longer be dismissed as an aberration, a political side-show. By virtue of his electoral victory he is now the expression of the people, an instantiation of the national identity, writes Scott Stephens - with commentary by Barbara Keys, John Milbank and others.

A mood of nativist discontent and racial scapegoating, married to economic displacement among a broad cross section of American society, was easily captured by a demagogue like Trump, writes Luke Bretherton.

His values may seem to fly in the face of their religious standards, but American Christians voted for Trump for political reasons, not moral ones, writes Hollis Phelps.

Donald Trump won, not because half of the US population is misogynistic, racist or Islamophobes, but because they found in him a comprehensive rejection of the establishment political structure in Washington, writes Conal Hanna.

‘Yes, God is sovereign. That doesn't mean He chooses who runs America’, writes Mark Woods

Understanding Trump the businessman President, by David James.

Waking up in Trumpland: the new USA, by Binoy Kampmark.

Evan Hadkins asks: How do we respond to the Trump victory?

Donald Trump got elected because the liberal elite didn’t care enough about the gap between rich and poor, by Giles Fraser.

Why many Christians voted for Trump, by Jonathon Van Maren.

Hard work and love trump fear and hate, by David Suzuki.

Trump is not here to destroy democracy but to refresh it, by Ramesh Thakur.

President Elect Donald Trump; Deliverer or Huckster? By Andre van Eymeren.

‘Exit polls only tell us about the people who have voted.’ Four reasons why the majority of American evangelicals did not vote for Trump, by Joe Carter.

Thoughts on the Trump election: ‘What does it mean to tell the truth?’ By Petra Brown.

Responding to the reality of a Trump Presidency, by Nils von Kalm.

Donald Trump: Apostle of America's Civil Religion: ‘Trump gives voice, not only to American discontent, but to its political faith that it will be solved by 'booting the bums out'. The more he preaches, the more he taps into the national creed’, writes Marcia Pally.

On Election Day, more people were searching the Bible for topics involving the end times than for praying for government, writes Kate Shellnutt.

Following the election of Donald Trump, Christianity Today asked 20 mothers a range of questions. Here are their responses.

Why Trump and Brexit are Not Working-Class Revolts. By Frank Mols and Jolanda Jetten.

The ease with which so many men embraced Trump's celebration of sexual exploitation, and so many women were willing to excuse it, is evidence of the strength of patriarchal norms in the U.S., writes Robert Jensen.

‘Like Martin Luther King, Jr., we need a vision of a brotherhood of left and right, male and female, black and white, and, yes, of Trump supporters and Trump haters’, writes Martha C. Nussbaum.

Andrew Hamilton explores Richie Benaud's silent reproach to Trumpism.

'Now that the election is resolved, both the media and politicians have moved to “normalize” the president-elect', writes Jim Wallis. But 'eight of things Trump has done since his election ... should be screaming “not normal” at the media’.

After Trump, Should Evangelical Christians Part Ways? The 2016 election has revealed afresh a deep fissure - and a great opportunity, writes Mark Galli.

http://www.acl.org.au/what_flawed_trump_s_win_means_for_christian_values

https://murraycampbell.net/2016/11/10/evangelicals-have-harmed-evangelicalism/

https://stephenmcalpine.com/2016/11/10/evangelism-apologetics-and-avoiding-the-echo-chamber/

http://akosbalogh.com/2016/11/11/obamas-remarkable-words-about-trumps-unexpected-victory/

http://thinkingofgod.org/2016/11/evangelical-whats-evangelical

https://sojo.net/articles/next-generation-will-do-what-we-couldnt

https://sojo.net/articles/are-evangelicals-expecting-too-much-trump-presidency

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/november-web-only/trump-won-how-evangelical-leaders-feel.html

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/evangelicals.won.the.election.battle.but.they.may.have.lost.the.war/100410.htm

https://nurturingjustice.wordpress.com/2016/11/13/getting-off-the-us-presidential-barbed-wire-fence/

https://steemit.com/elections/@robsteady/a-little-election-reflection-from-shane-claiborne (originally appeared at https://www.facebook.com/ShaneClaiborne/photos/a.10150112918376371.279881.100500271370/10153784455421371/)

http://religionnews.com/2016/11/13/trump-religious-environment-climate-creation-care-epa/