Link Highlights | February 2019

Monday, 4 March 2019 | Ethos editor

Link highlights – February 2019

Below is a selection of links to online news and opinion pieces from February 2019. 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.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Andrew Hamilton writes: It is hard to think of a more encouraging action by any government during the last 20 years than the national apology to the stolen generations. Much has been said about that apology. It is worth reflecting more generally on why apologies properly made are so gratifying, and what qualities they must have in order to be proper.

www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57487

Nicholas Biddle writes: Some targets seem easier to meet than others, while some are just plain unreliable. Here are four things we've learnt from the last decade of Closing the Gap policy.

https://theconversation.com/four-lessons-from-11-years-of-closing-the-gap-reports-111816

Angelina Hurley writes: The term 'political correctness' is often used to imply that those who resent racist comedy just lack a sense of humour. But First Nations people are using humour to speak back, especially on social media.

https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-its-not-funny-to-us-an-aboriginal-perspective-on-political-correctness-and-humour-111535

Celeste Liddle writes: If the rest of Australia was as brave as those four women who told their stories on national television, and confronted their fears regarding the full extent of what safety, autonomy and equality for Aboriginal women might truly look like — free from racism, sexism and a state which continues to benefit from our oppression — things could actually get better.

www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57533

Abortion

As states push for pro-choice protections, Christians have a growing obligation to defend the lives of babies born as 'burdens', writes Matthew Lee Anderson.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/february-web-only/infanticide-abortion-law-new-york-virginia-pro-life-future.html

Artificial Intelligence

In the future, robots could be mistaken for humans. So, might such a machine become a friend? A partner? A lover? And if that’s the case, will such a robot have a soul? James Carleton talks to Mary-Anne Williams, Toby Walsh and Mark Worthing.

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/godforbid/what-ai-tells-us-about-ourselves/10771076?j=899959

Asylum seekers, refugees and migration

Frank Brennan writes: We are all gearing up for the third election in a row when boat turnbacks and the punitive treatment of refugees and asylum seekers feature. Our government should be able to stop the boats safely, lawfully, and effectively, while treating everyone, especially the sick, humanely and decently.

www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57526

Scott Buchanan writes: The UN refugee agency’s chief, Thomas Vargas, has argued that turning back boatloads of asylum seekers at sea doesn’t work. But his views are a product of the rigid application of globalist logic to what, in many respects, is a national or inter-national problem.

https://scottlbuchanan.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/do-boat-turnbacks-work-well-it-depends-on-what-you-mean-by-work/

Matthew Kaemingk writes: Muslims (and other minorities) shouldn’t have to elevate national ideals above faith commitments before gaining a seat at the table of citizenship.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/february-web-only/making-america-hospitable-for-religious-outsiders.html

Kelley Nikondeha writes about two new books that consider the personal, practical and theological sides of welcoming the stranger.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/february-web-only/get-close-to-refugees-and-let-love-grow.html

Bible, The

Richard A. Rosengarten writes: Robert Alter’s The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary is at once a cultural accomplishment of a very high order, and an opportunity to think about the places and the spaces that ‘the Bible’ occupies in contemporary discourse.

https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/bible-asand-literature

Billy Graham

Two social factors helped Billy Graham’s incredible success in 1959: the Cold War and concern about declining morality. Times have changed, and Franklin Graham is vastly more controversial, writes Barney Zwartz.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/franklin-graham-walks-in-his-father-s-footsteps-and-trump-s-shadow-20190204-p50vj0.html

David Furse-Roberts writes: In an age of political correctness, moral equivalence and "post-truth," Franklin Graham's fearless proclamation of the historic Christian gospel is eminently refreshing.

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/franklin-graham-is-good-news-for-australia/10803990

Bioethics

Eugenics - the selective breeding of human populations (including forced sterilisations) to improve the gene-pool - is a disturbing skeleton in the secular closet. Like many a skeleton it’s a source of shame and regret, writes Akos Balogh.

http://akosbalogh.com/2019/02/12/what-this-disturbing-skeleton-in-the-secular-closet-teaches-us/

Janna Thompson writes: Imagine a future society where parents can choose the characteristics of their children. Does that turn babies into consumer products., and what choice does the child get?

https://theconversation.com/what-we-risk-as-humans-if-we-allow-gene-edited-babies-a-philosophers-view-110498

Body Image

If our bodies are a gift from God, doesn’t it matter how we talk about them? Cheryl McGrath writes.

http://twentysixletters.org/dear-christians-we-need-to-talk-about-body-image/

Child sexual abuse

The chief focus of attention remains the institution’s standing, rather than the well-being of individual victims, writes Catherine Pepinster. But just as hiding scandal eventually unravels, so do gestures that make victims of the innocent.

https://unherd.com/2019/02/the-churchs-disturbing-rush-to-judgment/

Civil disobedience

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's resistance to Nazism has provided inspiration for resistance movements worldwide. But, asks Michael DeJonge, what did Bonhoeffer actually say about political resistance?

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/dietrich-bonhoeffers-theology-of-resistance/10766546

Ajay Skaria writes: Liberal traditions usually think of freedom in terms of autonomy: the everyday sovereignty that rational beings exercise. By contrast, Gandhi articulated a politics organised around 'religion', which provided him with a different way of thinking about autonomy and equality.

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/gandhis-politics-of-self-surrender/10686408?j=899959

Drugs

Jennifer Power writes: People who use party drugs say it gives them energy to dance and socialise, reduces their inhibitions and enhances their feelings of connection to others.

https://theconversation.com/in-debates-about-drug-use-fun-is-important-110696

Economics, finance & inequality

Michelle Grattan writes: The banking royal commission report has claimed its first high-profile victims, with National Australia Bank’s chief executive officer Andrew Thorburn and chairman Ken Henry quitting their positions.

https://theconversation.com/nabs-andrew-thorburn-and-ken-henry-quit-after-royal-commission-lashing-111363

Is the declining rate of global poverty simply a neoliberal lie? What about China’s rapid development? Anis Rezae writes.

https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/progressives-reluctant-to-recognise-poverty-progress/

A culture of complacency and connivance that has prevailed for generations throughout the financial services sector has been decisively exposed by the Hayne Commission’s final report. Peter Kurti writes.

https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/banking-report-shows-it-was-more-than-bad-apples/

Education

Richard Holden writes: Research shows small financial incentives for doing maths homework can increase maths achievement. But this raises some tricky ethical questions.

https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-carefully-consider-paying-kids-to-learn-111624

Environment and Nature

The Church of England‘s investment fund took the lead as part of the powerful Climate Action 100+ group of wealthy global investors in pushing Glencore to cap its coal production at current levels.

http://cathnews.com/cathnews/34296-church-of-england-leads-push-on-big-miner

Everyday living

Since the release of the 2019 Netflix documentary Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, people across the globe have been inspired to take hold of each of their possessions and consider the simple but enigmatic question. “Does it spark joy?” Hannah Gould writes.

https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/kondo-and-kuyō-disposal-religious-experience

Cheryl McGrath writes: But when we’re so obsessed with building community, are we getting distracted from our actual mission? Is building Christian community meant to be our goal?

http://twentysixletters.org/are-we-overthinking-community/

Rebecca Abbott writes: We have been given the ultimate example of optimal earthly living in one who has “overcome this world”. Jesus’s countercultural, other-worldly wisdom teaches us (among other things) five lessons about how to cope with the overwhelming demands on our time.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/culture/escape-the-tyranny-of-the-to-do/

Forgiveness

“Liam is being honest about his past so that we might learn from it,” Ould writes. “Shame his detractors don’t get exactly that point.” By Anne Lim.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/culture/the-shame-of-liam-neeson-racism-controversy/

Gender

Ros Lewis writes: Gillette's video on toxic masculinity provoked an uproar among a surprising number of men. As a woman of the baby boomer generation, a survivor of intimate partner violence and of rape and attempted rape as a young woman, I have been waiting for a long time for the issues conveyed in the video to be a focus of conversation.

www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57542

George Pell, Cardinal

Kaley Payne writes: Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, has been found guilty of child sexual abuse.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/george-pell-convicted-of-child-sexual-abuse/

Barney Zwartz writes: How will the Australian bishops explain the fall of Pell to the faithful? Traditionally, they say the bare minimum – and this time it is hard to blame them. But they must say more.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/george-pell-has-fallen-but-the-cardinal-s-legacy-casts-a-long-shadow-20190226-p510ac.html

Frank Brennan writes: Was the verdict unreasonable? Can it be supported having regard to the evidence? Those are questions for the appeal court. Should the appeal fail, I hope and pray that Pell is not the unwitting victim of a wounded nation in search of a scapegoat. Should the appeal succeed, the Victoria Police should review the adequacy of the police investigation of these serious criminal charges.

www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57562

Andrew Singleton writes: Australian Catholics are drifting from the church, and research shows sexual abuse scandals are a main reason why.

http://theconversation.com/after-pell-the-catholic-church-must-undergo-genuine-reform-112511

As Cardinal George Pell’s conviction for child sexual abuse reverberates around the world, high-profile Australians have questioned the process and outcome.

https://www.9news.com.au/2019/02/27/08/39/george-pell-australians-defending-paedophile-cardinal

Amanda Meade writes: Andrew Bolt and Miranda Devine, amongst others, say Cardinal George Pell’s conviction was wrongful and ‘accusations are implausible’.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/27/news-corp-columnists-declare-cardinal-pell-innocent-and-a-scapegoat

For survivors of childhood sexual abuse, reading the details of the crimes can provoke a wide range of emotions, write Grace Jennings-Edquist and Sana Qadar.

https://www.abc.net.au/life/how-to-cope-with-reading-traumatic-triggering-news/10849940

Noel Debien writes: For many ordinary people, and ordinary Catholics in particular, the news is gobsmacking and hard to process. It is a calamity for them. Some are simply shattered that he was found guilty. Some just don't believe it. And they are saying it clearly on social media.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-27/pell-guilty-verdict-what-will-it-mean-for-australian-catholics/10853218

Thomas Reese writes: The existence of clergy sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention shows us that at least five explanations of the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church don’t hold up.

https://www.sightmagazine.com.au/11497-essay-what-catholics-and-southern-baptists-can-learn-from-each-other-about-the-sex-abuse-crisis

Stephen McAlpine writes: We should be very cautious not to dismiss what the court found to be a credible witness, especially in light of the fact that thousands of sexual abuse cases - across many churches and traditions - have been disbelieved or shunted to the side for the sake of convenience for so long.

https://stephenmcalpine.com/oj-simpsons-glove-and-cardinal-pells-robes/

David Hamer writes: George Pell's conviction has opened a rift in Australian society, with many people questioning the guilty verdict. Pell's lawyer has said he will appeal. On what grounds could he do that?

https://theconversation.com/how-an-appeal-could-uphold-or-overturn-george-pells-conviction-112620

Kim Felmingham writes: The media frenzy surrounding George Pell's conviction may force victims of child sexual abuse to relive their own trauma.

https://theconversation.com/triggering-past-trauma-how-to-take-care-of-yourself-if-youre-affected-by-the-pell-news-112608

Jordan Peterson

Jordan Peterson’s increasing popularity should be viewed as a chance for feminists to introspect on male identity, writes Jude Bernard.

https://topicalmag.com/jordan-peterson-feminists/

Henry George writes: While Peterson the psychologist and self-help motivator is an interesting thinker born of long experience and deep knowledge, Peterson the theologian is less convincing.

https://merionwest.com/2019/02/10/jordan-peterson-and-christianity-doctrine-and-truth-part-i/

There is more than just a touch of the bush preacher about Dr Jordan Peterson, who delivered a sold-out lecture in Melbourne on Wednesday night, writes David Schütz.

https://melbournecatholic.org.au/News/jordan-b-peterson-12-rules-for-life-tour

Martyn Iles writes: The fact that Jordan Peterson's message is literally taking the Western world by storm is testament to how hollowed out and emptied of substance we have become.

https://www.acl.org.au/dr_jordan_peterson_the_search_for_meaning

Jordan Peterson says that his work is an “attempt to put the great stories of the Judeo-Christian tradition back firmly underneath our great culture, to provide it once again with some honour, gravitas and profundity — and some necessary burden”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/lifes-never-just-about-happiness-its-about-meaning/news-story/b8f6d4beb93d1e2173114e40b7cca423

Akos Balogh writes: Overall, Peterson was interesting. He was thought-provoking. And I’m thankful for his thinking and speaking in this cultural moment. But his message of responsibility and personal change – as positive as it is – stopped short of addressing our deepest needs. Only the gospel can do that.

http://akosbalogh.com/2019/02/24/i-went-to-see-jordan-peterson-and-here-are-my-thoughts/

Mark Leach asks: What can what Christians can take away from Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life?

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/culture/7-things-jordan-peterson-taught-me-last-night/

Law, human rights and free speech

When Facebook posts lead to Federal Court proceedings, a parliamentary inquiry, and a bankruptcy, something has gone seriously wrong with Australia’s ‘hate speech’ laws, Monica Wilkie.

https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/section-18c/

Moral philosophy

How should our moral judgments of the present impact our judgments of what people did in the past? Neil Van Leeuwen writes.

https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/morally-condemning-past

Daniele Lorenzini writes: Iris Murdoch represented a striking departure from the two dominant forms of 20th century moral philosophy ― namely, Utilitarianism and Kantianism. But does she belong to the form of inquiry called 'Moral Perfectionism'?

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/iris-murdoch-and-moral-perfectionism/10834148

Persecution

Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid writes: If China is truly aiming to become a ‘great power’ in the emerging multipolar world order, and to exercise prestige and influence on a global scale, then it will have to start acting like one by recognizing and respecting the human rights of all of its citizens.

Save Uighur, Save China

28 February 2019

https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/save-uighur-save-china

Politics, society & ideology

Those who profess to believe there is no objective difference in effect debase the good and nourish the bad. Allen Greer writes.

www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20136

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/gandhis-politics-of-self-surrender/10686408?j=899959

https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-its-not-funny-to-us-an-aboriginal-perspective-on-political-correctness-and-humour-111535

Religion in Politics

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's resistance to Nazism has provided inspiration for resistance movements worldwide. But, asks Michael DeJonge, what did Bonhoeffer actually say about political resistance?

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/dietrich-bonhoeffers-theology-of-resistance/10766546

Religion in Politics - Scott Morrison

A recent essay in The Monthly presumed to determine whether Scott Morrison is fit to be PM on the basis of his religious beliefs. Stephen Fogarty examines the prejudices that still surround Pentecostalism. There is something profoundly intolerant about such a demand, and it undermines the principle of secular governance that has been central to Australia's flourishing.

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/pentecostal-pm-scott-morrison-in-the-hands-of-angry-secularists/10855540

Religion in Society

A recent study into Australian teens’ attitudes to religion made headlines for its negative findings. But these findings are exactly what one would expect, and not desperately negative for religion, writes Barney Zwartz.

https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/faith-generation-z-and-the-question-of-belief-20190202-p50v9o.html

Scott Morrison's irrepressible bounce is grounded in his faith that the cosmic cause is always larger than the earthly battle. But he has told the Australian public almost nothing about what his heartfelt beliefs actually are, writes James Boyce.

https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2019/february/1548939600/james-boyce/devil-and-scott-morrison

The Monthly Magazine got Scott Morrison’s Christianity disastrously wrong, writes John Sandeman, and some of its errors should have been obvious to the sub-editors.

https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/the-monthly-gets-scott-morrisons-christianity-badly-wrong/

https://www.theage.com.au/national/franklin-graham-walks-in-his-father-s-footsteps-and-trump-s-shadow-20190204-p50vj0.html

Louise Moana Kolff writes: Originally designed to display service times or bible quotations, church signs are becoming a site of political commentary, tackling everything from pill testing to refugee rights.

https://theconversation.com/from-refugees-to-social-media-to-pill-testing-church-signs-are-getting-political-103163

Cheryl McGrath writes: When we’re so obsessed with building community, are we getting distracted from our actual mission? Is building Christian community meant to be our goal?

http://twentysixletters.org/are-we-overthinking-community/

Elise Scott writes: Chaplains will be banned from Canberra's public schools from the end of the year in a move that goes beyond federal Labor policy to allow a choice of religious or secular workers.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-23/religious-chaplains-banned-in-act-government-schools/10842950

The Church of England‘s investment fund took the lead as part of the powerful Climate Action 100+ group of wealthy global investors in pushing Glencore to cap its coal production at current levels.

http://cathnews.com/cathnews/34296-church-of-england-leads-push-on-big-miner

James Alison asks: How is ‘dishonestly lived homosexuality’ creating a culture of mutual cover-up inside the headquarters of the Catholic Church?

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/frédéric-martel-and-the-structure-of-the-clerical-closet/1084367

Philip C. Almond writes: The notion of a "Judeo-Christian tradition" is a modern invention, and one we would do well to abandon. After all, it conceals the Western history of anti-Judaism, even when seeming to extol the virtue of Jewish identity.

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/is-there-really-a-judeo-christian-tradition/10810554

Stephen Fogarty writes: A recent essay in The Monthly presumes to determine whether Scott Morrison is fit to be Prime Minister on the basis of his religious beliefs. There is something profoundly intolerant about such a demand, and it undermines the principle of secular governance that has been central to Australia's flourishing.

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/pentecostal-pm-scott-morrison-in-the-hands-of-angry-secularists/10855540

Religious Freedom

Neil James Foster provides an update on where we are following the delivery of the Ruddock Report last year and the debates about amending the law on religious schools and sex discrimination.

https://lawandreligionaustralia.blog/2019/02/25/post-ruddock-report-developments/

Mark Fowler writes: Enfolding religious belief within the Commonwealth regime protecting equality will ensure that our religious diversity continues to be welcome within our unfolding national story.

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/australias-adoption-of-a-religious-discrimination-act-is-long/10829848

Sexuality

In Shameless: A Sexual Reformation, Bolz-Weber is out to set Christians free from the angst and humiliation churches have often foisted on them because of their sexual proclivities and behaviors. By Wesley Hill.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/february-web-only/nadia-bolz-weber-shameless-sexual-reformation.html

Will Jones writes: Bishop Andy John’s Episcopal Letter outlining a theological and scriptural justification for marrying same-sex couples provides a very fair and clear exposition of both the conservative position and his own affirming position. But his argument, while initially plausible perhaps, falls apart on closer examination.

https://faith-and-politics.com/2019/02/13/should-we-extend-the-boundaries-of-gospel-freedom-in-sexuality/

James Alison asks: How is ‘dishonestly lived homosexuality’ creating a culture of mutual cover-up inside the headquarters of the Catholic Church?

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/frédéric-martel-and-the-structure-of-the-clerical-closet/1084367

Technology

Email used to simplify crucial tasks. Now it’s strangling scholars’ ability to think, writes Cal Newport.

https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/is-email-making-professors-stupid

US politics

Americans of the center and left ought to feel liberated by the religious right’s embrace of Trump. It has broken a spell, writes Samuel G Freedman.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/10/in-revering-trump-the-religious-right-has-laid-bare-its-hypocrisy

War, peace & nonviolence

First of two articles on violence and war:

Andrew Judd writes: It is difficult to read Judges without addressing the objection that the God described is too violent to worship. Christians take several approaches to the violence of the Old Testament.

https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/thinking-old-testament-violence/

Second of two articles on violence and war:

For centuries, nations and leaders have used the religious concept of a so-called ‘just war’ to support military action. But in the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War, which failed to uncover weapons of mass destruction, can any war be called ‘just’? Religion and Ethics talks to Jessica Whyte.

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/jessica-whyte/10830504

Western civilisation

Those who profess to believe there is no objective difference in effect debase the good and nourish the bad. Allen Greer writes.

www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20136

The ethical values enunciated by a given civilisation may do little to explain why the states in that civilisation engage in violent activities, writes Gregory Melleuish.

www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20128

Wolfgang Kasper writes: Western civilisation, built on a foundation of individual freedom, rational, fact-based thinking and democracy, has been a major driver of progress around the world. Yet, the rules that constitute the basis of our civilisation are now under internal and external threat.

https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/does-western-civilisation-have-a-future/

Women

www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57533

Youth

https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/faith-generation-z-and-the-question-of-belief-20190202-p50v9o.html