Link Highlights | March 2019
Monday, 18 March 2019
| Ethos editor
Link highlights – March 2019
Below is a selection of links to online news and opinion pieces from March 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
Eddie Synot writes: Instead of paying lip service to promoting Indigenous Australians' rights as First Nations, the next federal government should be guided by the Uluru Statement from the Heart to make real progress.
https://theconversation.com/the-uluru-statement-showed-how-to-give-first-nations-people-a-real-voice-now-its-time-for-action-110707
Abortion
The first pro-life campaigner convicted under Queensland’s new abortion laws has been schooled by a magistrate for protesting inside an abortion clinic “safe access zone”. The magistrate told him he was “another man telling women what to do with their bodies”.
http://cathnews.com/cathnews/34472-judge-reprimands-pro-life-activist
"Find me a politician who will insert the medication to end a baby’s life. Which politician will look into the woman’s eyes while she consents to this procedure? Tell me who’s going to dispose of life in the bin?"
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/my-job-now-includes-the-taking-of-a-babys-life/
Asylum seekers, refugees and migration
Scott Buchanan writes: there exists a causal connection between Australian government policy and the behaviour of asylum seekers – a connection that can produce fatal results. Some asylum seekers know very little about their intended destination, but many asylum seekers are very much aware and quite sensitive to changes in the government’s border protection policies.
https://scottlbuchanan.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/3860/
Tim Costello writes: We need effective policies that protect our borders and national security. But surely there are broader and deeper questions about our attitude to and concern for vulnerable and suffering people.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/beyond-borders-with-asylum-seekers/
Doug Hynd writes: Those involved in supporting refugees and asylum seekers face a spiritual struggle to remain faithful to our calling as disciples to love our neighbour who may be a stranger against the grain of a government policy that encourages us to be fearful and angry that asylum seekers dare disturb us in our comfort and safety.
www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/27895
Chaplaincy
Paul Karp writes: The Victorian government has conceded that school chaplains can be of “any faith or no faith” as part of a settlement to a landmark legal challenge that could open the way to secular or atheist chaplains.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/27/victoria-opens-the-way-for-secular-or-atheist-school-chaplains
Charity and giving
Pieter van der Horst writes: Greco-Roman gods had no interest in the poor nor was organised charity a religious duty. How was Christianity different?
https://aeon.co/essays/the-poor-might-have-always-been-with-us-but-charity-has-not
Craig Greenfield writes: Whenever, I say, “Blessed are the poor,” there’s an almost knee-jerk reaction in certain churches to add the words, “…in spirit,” in a defiant whisper. And in doing so, we marginalize those who live in poverty all over again.
https://www.craiggreenfield.com/blog/blessedarethepoor
John Falzon writes: The work of charities, including the generous work of volunteers, should not be a means of letting governments off the hook. People do not want to have to rely on charity; they want to be able to count on justice. And charity is never a substitute for justice. But it becomes so when governments abrogate their responsibilities.
https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/charity-is-no-substitute-for-justice
Child sexual abuse
Douglas Murray asks: "Should geniuses be exempted from the moral codes that guide the rest of society?"
https://unherd.com/2019/03/how-artistic-greatness-warps-our-judgement/
Siobhan Hegarty writes: Is art separate from the artist who makes it? What if the allegations aren’t yet proven? ABC Religion and Ethics and ABC Life speak to philosophers and cultural experts about ethical issues in pop culture.
https://www.abc.net.au/life/ethics-for-dealing-with-artists-like-michael-jackson-r-kelly/10921262
Children
Louise Gosbell writes: Infanticide and exposure were common practices in the Graeco-Roman world. The early church responded by openly condemning the practices because they deemed all life to possesses inherent value. How might this inform Christians' response to contemporary advocates of infanticide?
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/early-christianitys-resistance-to-infanticide-and-exposure/10898016
Craig Greenfield writes: For the sake of vulnerable children everywhere, from the womb to the border, from Mexico to Manus Island, I beg you to examine yourself and prayerfully ask whether there is any blindspot in your thinking towards vulnerable children. Ask what it means to be consistently pro-life. And consider what it means to take the teachings of Jesus seriously, no matter what your political affiliation.
https://www.craiggreenfield.com/blog/childprotectionprolife
Christchurch Mosque Shooting
Michael F. Bird writes: "beware of those who twist the words of Jesus for their own dark ends, or try to use Jesus to give a veil of legitimacy to their own dark and twisted prejudices".
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/fraser-anning-dont-drag-jesus-into-your-hatred/
Rod Dreher writes: "if we are going to figure out how to stop these things, we have to take seriously the roots of it — this, in the same way we have to recognize the roots of Al-Qaeda and ISIS in specific experiences of Arab Muslims in late modernity."
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/radicalization-degeneration-brenton-tarrant-white-supremacist/
Greg Barton writes: There is deep sadness in the Christchurch attacks, but little shock. We need to address the permissive political environment that allows such hateful extremism to be promulgated so openly.
https://theconversation.com/christchurch-attacks-are-a-stark-warning-of-toxic-political-environment-that-allows-hate-to-flourish-113662
Stuart M. Bender writes: Until social platforms improve filtering of extremist content, we all have a role to play in ensuring our online activities don't contribute to a spectacle society that rewards terrorists with clicks.
https://theconversation.com/social-media-create-a-spectacle-society-that-makes-it-easier-for-terrorists-to-achieve-notoriety-113715
Joe Burton writes: Globally, Muslims have been by far the most victimised group by terrorism in the post-9/11 era.
https://theconversation.com/four-lessons-we-must-take-away-from-the-christchurch-terror-attack-113716
Jayson Casper writes: "Given recent attacks on Christians in their places of worship, including many in Muslim nations, Christianity Today invited evangelical leaders to weigh in: How should Christians respond to Christchurch?"
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/march/new-zealand-mosque-shooting-christchurch-christians-muslims.html
Tamana Daqiq writes: As the Australian Muslim community reels from the craven hate crime that has claimed, thus far, the lives of 50 and injured another 50 in Christchurch on Friday, many of us cannot help but wonder: What if that were us? What if that will be us?
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/after-christchurch-the-price-we-pay-for-your-freedom-to-hate/10909984
Akos Balogh writes: "I'm still processing the event, as I move from a state of shock to wondering what it all means. Thankfully as God's people we're not left in the dark. We have insight that our modern secular world does not. And we have a Hope that our world desperately needs."
http://akosbalogh.com/2019/03/18/making-sense-of-the-horrific-christchurch-terror-attack/
Kuranda Seyit writes: The war in Syria, the war in Burma, the war in Gaza, has been brought to our very doorstep. This was not a random lone wolf attack. It was an organized terror cell.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20212
Paul Spoonley writes: Most New Zealanders see immigration as beneficial for their country, but extreme nationalist politics have been part of communities for a long time.
https://theconversation.com/christchurch-mosque-shootings-must-end-new-zealands-innocence-about-right-wing-terrorism-113655
Rebecca Abbott writes: Australian Christian leaders joined many thousands across the world who visited mosques over the weekend to express their solidarity with the Muslim community after last Friday’s terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. But this reaction comes too late, according to Brad Chilcott.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/world/aussie-church-leaders-respond-to-christchurch-massacre/
Anne Lim writes: A Christchurch-based minister has urged people not to read the manifesto of the gunman responsible for yesterday’s massacre at two mosques in the New Zealand city.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/world/dont-give-nz-terrorist-what-he-wants/
Lyle Shelton writes: ‘As a Christian who vehemently disagrees with Islam, I did not at all like Anning’s misrepresentation of Jesus’ words. … The New Zealand mosque-goers were non-combatants. The Bible Anning quotes teaches that it is never okay to respond to violence “in kind”.’
https://www.spectator.com.au/2019/03/why-this-conservative-believes-fraser-anning-couldnt-be-more-wrong/
Cynthia G. Lindner writes: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s presence and words were the epitome of aroha, tenderly naming her people’s losses and holding space for their mourning, while at the same time promising investigation, accountability, and action.
https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/manaakitanga-and-power-silence
Stephen McAlpine writes: 'And since no god is god, except the unspoken god of the secular state, then the secular state is extremely confident that such a call can go out over the airwaves because all it is doing is expressing one opinion among many, rather than any particular public fact that must be adhered to.'
https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-are-we-to-make-of-the-muslim-call-to-prayer-going-out-over-the-new-zealand-airwaves/
Ilana Akresh writes: As we piece ourselves together after the New Zealand tragedy, the question on everyone's mind is how to minimize or, more specifically, eliminate such horrific acts of violence.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20215
Binoy Kampmark writes: Removing the manifesto does a disservice to any arguments that might be mounted against him, but having a debate is not what this is generally about.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20216
Jake Lynch writes: Researchers should be able to furnish us with evidence about where Islamophobia 'comes from'; what it consists of; how it is promulgated and spread, by whom and for what ends.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20214
Jake Lynch writes: Researchers should be able to furnish us with evidence about where Islamophobia 'comes from'; what it consists of; how it is promulgated and spread, by whom and for what ends.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20214
Mohamad Abdalla writes: At a time when we could expect anger, vengeance and resentment to take hold in a community so demolished by violence, Professor Mohamad Abdalla visited victims and found compassion and forgiveness.
https://theconversation.com/finding-dignity-and-grace-in-the-aftermath-of-the-christchurch-attack-114072
Mehmet Ozalp writes: The vast resources and funds allocated to countering violent extremism should be made available to preventing the rise of far-right groups and individuals plagued with the radical red-pill ideology.
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/radical-red-pill-ideology-of-brenton-tarrant/10918016
Jeremy Sammut writes: The response to the Christchurch atrocity has brought out the best and worst qualities of our public life. The bi-partisan condemnation of terrorism of all kinds has affirmed Australia’s commitment to basic liberal democratic principles.
https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/response-to-christchurch-brings-out-best-and-worst/
Michael McVeigh writes: In the wake of the Christchurch attacks, I’m not interested in learning how the person who killed those people was radicalised. It’s the oldest story in the world. It’s what happens when you decide the humanity of a group of people no longer matters. I’m tired of that story. I need a new one.
https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/-people-as-things---a-new-story-after-christchurch
Agnes Wilson writes: "I pray more brothers and sisters in Christ will choose to act with kindness; that their actions will reflect God’s love so profoundly displayed in Jesus."
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/christchurch-made-me-do-something-i-have-never-done/
Mark Durie writes: Brenton Tarrant weighed individuals' lives as of no account against tribal fealty and group identity. We need to understand this ideology, not to give it a platform, but to learn and to equip ourselves to stand against such hatred.
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/opinion-post/the-anti-humanist-ideology-of-the-christchurch-killer/
Civil society and discourse
Adrian Pabst writes: our age of anger has its origins in the moral bankruptcy afflicting economic liberalism, and the rapid cultural change brought about by social liberalism. Establishment parties seem to be struggling to understand this.
https://unherd.com/2019/04/can-we-tame-democracys-demons/
Death and Dying
Daniel Fleming writes: Compassion is a virtue ― a stable, consistent and morally praiseworthy character disposition. But according to what narrative is Voluntary Assisted an expression of the virtue of compassion?
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/compassionate-state-voluntary-assisted-dying-neoliberalism-and/10937504
Dignity
Disability
Justin Glyn writes: Last month, Parliament mandated a royal commission into the treatment of people with disabilities. Now we hear it will not proceed before hearing from all states and territories. People with disabilities are most in need of strong centralised protections. Meanwhile the federal government, while giving with one hand, has been busily taking with the other.
www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57574
In Crippled Grace, Theologian Shane Clifton rethinks virtue ethics from his wheelchair. Reviewed by Jason Micheli.
https://www.christiancentury.org/review/books/disability-and-good-life
Rebecca Abbott writes: Disability advocate Marni Walkerden says that, as in the community at large, some churches still have a way to go in changing their culture.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/thinking-outside-the-chair-how-one-woman-started-a-revolution/
Discrimination
Mark Fowler writes: Of the five main equality rights recognised in the international law to which Australia is a signatory – being race, age, disability, sex (including sexual orientation) and religion – only religion fails to receive dedicated protection in Commonwealth law.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/religious-protections-are-the-missing-piece/
Diversity
Anna Halafoff, Andrew Singleton, Gary D Bouma and Mary Lou Rasmussen write: Australian society is made up of people from different backgrounds and faiths. Teaching school children about religious diversity and traditions makes them more tolerant of religious minorities.
https://theconversation.com/want-a-safer-world-for-your-children-teach-them-about-diverse-religions-and-worldviews-113025
In the 2019 Richard Johnson Lecture, Tim Dixon offers a vision for how we might reunite increasingly fragmented societies.
https://www.publicchristianity.org/crossing-the-great-divide-building-bridges-in-an-age-of-tribalism-audio/
Grace Lung writes: "Asian Australians may feel like strangers or foreigners … stuck participating from the fringes. Yet in our gospel tradition, through Christ, we are not stuck on the fringes. Instead, we are invited to actively participate at the centre. As those grafted in, we experience the full riches and blessings of belonging."
https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/not-tradition-lunar-new-year-gospel-traditions/
Easter and Lent
William Johnston writes: The day that begins the Lenten season is called Ash Wednesday. Here are four things to know about it.
https://theconversation.com/4-things-to-know-about-ash-wednesday-112120
Economics, finance & inequality
John Falzon writes: The work of charities, including the generous work of volunteers, should not be a means of letting governments off the hook. People do not want to have to rely on charity; they want to be able to count on justice. And charity is never a substitute for justice. But it becomes so when governments abrogate their responsibilities.
https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/charity-is-no-substitute-for-justice
Darren McGarvey writes: "In the past year, I’ve been given a taste of how the other half live, as the material circumstances of my life changed dramatically. While I still feel like the same person, I feel that my claim to being working-class grows more tenuous by the day."
https://unherd.com/2019/04/my-social-mobility-shame/
Election 2019
Andrew Hamilton writes: It looks certain that over the next three months before the federal election fear will dominate Australian public conversation. This time includes Lent, a time traditionally dedicated to prayer and penance. So we can hardly complain if politicians add to the penitential mood of the season. Even if we deplore the appeal to fear, though, it is worth reflecting on why politicians indulge in it, under what conditions it is successful, and how it is best responded to.
www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57554
Michael Frost writes: "There’s a national election due in Australia soon, and the options for a pro-life, pro-peace, pro-planet, pro-religious freedom, pro-refugee, pro-Aboriginal reconciliation, pro-poor, kind of Christian voter like me are extremely limited."
https://mikefrost.net/how-do-i-vote-pro-life-and-pro-planet-pro-poor-pro-peace-pro-refugee/
Environment and Nature
Grace Hammond writes: The Church of England recognises “the escalating threat to God’s creation from global warming” and is to step up its efforts to combat climate change.
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/church-of-england-vows-to-act-on-climate-change-1-9612294
Blanche Verlie writes: Facing up to the horror of climate change can help us work towards a more sustainable culture. Young people are leading the way.
https://theconversation.com/the-terror-of-climate-change-is-transforming-young-peoples-identity-113355
Eternity News writes: Jess McCrindle and Alison Wright, Year 12 students at Pacific Hills Christian School in Sydney’s Hills district, say their Christian faith compels them to raise their voices and take part in today’s climate strikes across the world.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/world/climate-strikes-to-the-heart
William Schweiker writes: "Signs of this defiant hope are also seen in communities banding together to confront grief and in those who tend to suffering. The global act of school children is also a challenge that strikes at the core of our humanity where hope “perches in the soul.”
https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/defiant-hope
Michael Bowling and Kyle Meyaard-Schaap write: Building a clean energy economy is the pro-life conviction you've probably never heard of, but our commitment to a healthy environment is as unwavering as our faith.
www.journalgazette.net/opinion/columns/20190327/the-moral-choice
Everyday living
Michael Jensen writes: Jesus does not undermine the grace of God in the Sermon on the Mount. Rather, he brings us into it. He makes us want it.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/is-following-jesus-possible/
Michael Frost writes: It’s in the tension between both of these statements – ‘Follow me’ and ‘You cannot follow me’ - that we find something intriguing and important about Christian discipleship. We live in the world between Follow Me and You Cannot Follow Me.
https://mikefrost.net/follow-me-you-cannot-follow-me/
Joel B. Green writes: The best biblical scholars read the Bible as disciples who look to scripture to shape their lives.
https://academic.logos.com/joel-b-green-on-what-makes-a-good-biblical-scholar/
Greg Carey explores three kinds of responses to Joel B. Green's blog, and asks: why not tease out questions rather than render a categorical judgment?
https://www.christiancentury.org/blog-post/guest-post/do-best-biblical-scholars-love-jesus
Novelist Marilynne Robinson and theologian Rowan Williams discuss faith, imagination and the glory of ordinary life.
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/interview/faith-imagination-and-glory-ordinary-life
Foreign policy
Kathryn Joyce writes: The Trump administration, particularly when it comes to foreign policy under the deeply religious supervision of Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence, continually pitches itself to the Christian Right.
https://newrepublic.com/article/153387/christianization-us-foreign-policy
George Pell, Cardinal
Massimo Faggioli writes: The conviction of George Pell is a calamitous event for the Catholic Church ― not just in Australia, but globally. It is the first time a cardinal has been found guilty of sexual abuse against minors by a secular tribunal. This is uncharted territory for Church and State alike.
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/church-and-state-after-the-conviction-of-cardinal-george-pell/10853280
Michael Jensen writes: ‘Institutional Christianity - the "organised" part of "organised religion" - will only survive if it realises that it isn't in itself the true church but the servant of the true church’.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/only-hope-for-institutional-christianity-lies-in-truth-20190304-p5
John Sandeman writes: Catholics are standing at a fork in the road, and with their credibility largely gone, according to David Ranson, Administrator of the Broken Bay diocese (region) North of Sydney. Yet perhaps the most considered response from any Catholic worldwide comes from an Australian.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/after-pell-what-the-catholics-are-saying/
Peter Bowden writes: Cardinal George Pell has been found guilty. Frank Brennan, a Jesuit priest, has raised the question of whether the jury reached the correct verdict.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20186
Patrick Parkinson writes: In the chorus of criticism about the conviction of Cardinal Pell, there is an echo again of those voices of denial by senior religious leaders, which has led the Catholic Church to the crisis it finds itself in today.
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/the-cardinal-and-mr-anonymous/10874492
Megan Powell du Toit writes: "When we promote the “mission” or the “institution” of the Church above a willingness to listen to the hard words of the critic, the marginalised, the vulnerable – this is when the Church becomes abusive."
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/questioning-power-after-peterson-graham-and-pell/
Barney Zwartz writes: If the ex-seminarian’s claims are included, there are nine known allegations about sexual misconduct against Pell, ranging from exposure to assault, although only two – his sexual abuse of the choirboys – have been upheld by a court.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/church-knew-pell-was-at-centre-of-decades-old-lurid-sex-claims-20190307-p512ci.html
Scott Higgins writes: "A recognition that people who can do good in some relationships and areas of their life but do evil things in others enables us to respond appropriately to their evil. We must not allow our experience of their goodness to blind us to their evil."
https://scottjhiggins.com/the-dividing-line-between-good-and-evil-a-response-to-the-conviction-of-george-pell/
Anna Krohn writes: Many Catholics are sensing the real danger that the sheer volume of anger poured out after the news of the conviction of Cardinal Pell will open up historical wounds and reignite brooding prejudices.
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/being-catholic-after-the-conviction-of-cardinal-pell/10884160
Catherine Marshall writes: Instead of seeking to understand how victims internalise, process and describe their experience (factors which were comprehensively explained in an open letter to Andrew Bolt by Clare Linane, wife of abuse survivor Peter Blenkiron), critics have instead used the victim's reported memory of events to prove that they couldn't possibly have happened.
www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57633
John Warhurst writes: A conservative within a conservative church, he was a divisive figure, not just because of his orthodox views but because of the unbending and assertive style with which he promulgated them. Something died in Australian Catholicism with this verdict and Australian Catholics will have to live with that whatever the future turns out to be.
www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57633
An abuse survivor writes: Apparently there are committees deep within Church institutions that secretly work on tightening up, amending and making standards for their schools and churches to follow. I can guarantee there wouldn't be one abuse survivor on any of these committees.
www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=57589
Amanda Vanstone writes: “What is particularly worrying is the suggestion that because he has now been convicted I should not speak as I found him.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-will-you-feel-if-pell-s-appeal-is-successful-20190301-p51171.html
Gerard Henderson writes: It’s not uncommon for jury verdicts to be questioned.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/its-not-uncommon-for-jury-verdicts-to-be-questioned/news-story/a1f8d9bc23c5feb09a960374d7601ea9?fbclid=IwAR2FxpSpTjjvkt004ltgk2Us7gRLvkNit9h37j2h7mdPE3pnqaeunXM-40E
Rachael Sharman writes: The feeling of pain when something contradicts long-held beliefs is called cognitive dissonance. It helps to explain why some people refuse to accept the court's conviction of George Pell for child sex abuse against two choirboys.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-13/george-pell-michael-jackson-cognitive-dissonance/10892948
Louise Milligan writes: It is hard to over-estimate the fall from grace that this represents for a man, who, from his very teens, had been marked out for greatness since he was at secondary school, an Oxford graduate, a Vatican treasurer, a man for all seasons.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-13/george-pell-sentencing-inside-the-court/10896292
Cheryl McGrath writes: "Instead of retreating into defensiveness or denial, it’s a time where Christians need the grace and commitment to face truth. It’s a time for love victims better than we have."
http://twentysixletters.org/george-pell-christian-response-disgraced/
Peter Bowden asks: The Catholic defence is perhaps understandable. But a bigger issue to this writer is why are all the conservatives supporting Pell?
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20202
Binoy Kampmark writes: The Pell conviction is an example of defenders running to barricades in the name of protection, hoping that faith prevails over evidence.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20196
Ian Waters writes: The Catholic Church has previously expelled perpetrators of child sexual abuse from the priesthood following internal investigations – known as canonical trials.
https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-is-investigating-george-pells-case-what-does-that-mean-113187
Neil James Foster asks: How should we think about the George Pell in light of the Bible’s teaching?
https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/conviction-cardinal-pell/
Senator Anning quoting the words of Jesus misses the context, misdiagnoses the problem and misjudges the moment.
https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/bad-words-bad-timing/
John Warhurst writes: "Not only am I not leaving the Catholic church, but I am redoubling my efforts to join with others in making the case for much needed reforms."
https://johnmenadue.com/john-warhurst-why-i-am-not-leaving-the-catholic-church/
Francis Sullivan writes: "The abuse scandal has rocked my confidence in the clericalist management of the Church but not my sense of the collective journey I walk with other Catholics."
https://johnmenadue.com/francis-sullivan-why-stay/
Marilyn Hatton writes: "I’m staying because I do not want our Church, with all its potential for good in the world to be reduced to a small exclusive celibate male sect."
https://johnmenadue.com/marilyn-hatton-why-im-not-leaving-the-catholic-church-despite-everything/
Happiness
Neil Frankland writes: "Perhaps most troubling for the Morrison government, facing a federal election in May, was the finding that the unhappiness of citizens directly translates into voting intentions."
https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/wellbeing/2019/03/21/world-happiness-australia
Identity
Akos Balogh writes: While there are many streams flowing into the river of modern identity, one stream is quite old: Gnosticism.
http://akosbalogh.com/2019/03/10/the-ancient-heresy-driving-modern-identity/
Islam
Stephen McAlpine writes: "Let’s pray that Christians respond with grief, compassion and love. Many are already. And when my beard is due for a trim next week I will go in and talk with my Muslim barbers from the Palestinian territories and Iraq, and mourn with them that an incident we in the West find reprehensible, is an almost daily occurrence in their homelands."
https://stephenmcalpine.com/no-people-this-is-not-what-you-get-for-mixing-islam-with-the-west/
Stephen McAlpine writes: 'And since no god is god, except the unspoken god of the secular state, then the secular state is extremely confident that such a call can go out over the airwaves because all it is doing is expressing one opinion among many, rather than any particular public fact that must be adhered to.'
https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-are-we-to-make-of-the-muslim-call-to-prayer-going-out-over-the-new-zealand-airwaves/
John Smith
John Smith, founder of the God’s Squad motor cycle ministry, evangelist, author died last night. By chance or providence Eternity published an essay by him in our 100th edition this month: ‘For the church, as for cancer, the key question is not how fast you are growing but what you are growing. Whatever the size of your church, is it reflecting Jesus and what he taught?’
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/in-depth/john-smith-prophet-teacher-evangelist-and-biker-takes-his-final-ride/
When the skinheads attacked the Hell’s Angels, God's Squad stepped in - in an unusual way. Adapted for John by Coral Chamberlain.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/john-smith-i-asked-god-to-raise-up-a-minister-to-the-bikers-and-he-told-me-to-do-it
In this Open House interview from 2007, Sheridan Voysey talks to John Smith, the once buttoned-up youth who became a leather-clad preacher of peace.
https://sheridanvoysey.com/john-smith-interview
David Adams writes: "Smithy" was remembered by those who gathered as a man who had ministered to the marginalised, as a pioneer of counter-cultural mission and as a John Wesley of his age with the impact of his ministry for the cause of Christ felt across the nation and beyond.
https://www.sightmagazine.com.au/features/11791-john-smith-bikies-turn-out-in-their-hundreds-to-farewell-minister-to-the-marginalised
Jordan Peterson
Megan Powel du Toit writes: "When we promote the “mission” or the “institution” of the Church above a willingness to listen to the hard words of the critic, the marginalised, the vulnerable – this is when the Church becomes abusive."
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/questioning-power-after-peterson-graham-and-pell/
Warren Mills writes: The growing antagonism, apathy and irrelevancy toward the role of Christianity in the public square has made way for abstract doctrines of total diversity, chaos, nihilism and despair. A day-long conference in Melbourne on 30th of March will explore the Peterson phenomenon and its implications for society and church.
www.ethos.org.au/online-resources/Engage-Mail/a-christian-perspective-on-jordan-peterson
Bernard Schiff writes: "I have no way of knowing whether Jordan is aware that he is playing out of the same authoritarian demagogue handbook that he himself has described. If he is unaware, then his ironic failure, unwillingness, or inability to see in himself what he attributes to them is very disconcerting."
https://www.thestar.com/amp/opinion/2018/05/25/i-was-jordan-petersons-strongest-supporter-now-i-think-hes-dangerous.html
Binoy Kampmark writes: It should be very clear that meaningless terms such as diversity and inclusiveness do very little to the content of actual intellectual conversation.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20221
Douglas Murray writes: Cambridge University's shabby treatment of the psychology professor smacks of intellectual cowardice.
https://unherd.com/2019/03/how-cambridge-flunked-the-peterson-test/
Justice
John Falzon writes: The work of charities, including the generous work of volunteers, should not be a means of letting governments off the hook. People do not want to have to rely on charity; they want to be able to count on justice. And charity is never a substitute for justice. But it becomes so when governments abrogate their responsibilities.
https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/charity-is-no-substitute-for-justice
Law, human rights and free speech
The first pro-life campaigner convicted under Queensland’s new abortion laws has been schooled by a magistrate for protesting inside an abortion clinic “safe access zone”. The magistrate told him he was “another man telling women what to do with their bodies”.
http://cathnews.com/cathnews/34472-judge-reprimands-pro-life-activist
Monica Wilkie writes: "Our response to hate speech needs to be carefully considered because hate speech laws need to be able to protect the public without unduly infringing on free speech."
https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/free-speech-vs-hate-speech/
Ilana Akresh writes: As we piece ourselves together after the New Zealand tragedy, the question on everyone's mind is how to minimize or, more specifically, eliminate such horrific acts of violence.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20215
Binoy Kampmark writes: Removing the manifesto does a disservice to any arguments that might be mounted against him, but having a debate is not what this is generally about.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20216
Jake Lynch writes: Researchers should be able to furnish us with evidence about where Islamophobia 'comes from'; what it consists of; how it is promulgated and spread, by whom and for what ends.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20214
Simon Cowan writes: The Christchurch massacre is providing further impetus to a move that has been underway for a while to dramatically increase social media companies’ obligations for the content they host.
https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/dont-regulate-social-media-out-of-existence/
Philippa Smith writes: As countries are calling for laws to control extremism online, it is becoming clear that defining the line between hate speech and free speech is a complex challenge.
https://theconversation.com/the-challenge-of-drawing-a-line-between-objectionable-material-and-freedom-of-expression-online-108764
Mark Fowler writes: Of the five main equality rights recognised in the international law to which Australia is a signatory – being race, age, disability, sex (including sexual orientation) and religion – only religion fails to receive dedicated protection in Commonwealth law.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/religious-protections-are-the-missing-piece/
Media
Greg Clarke asks: Is it too ambitious to think that Christian media could be the ‘fourth estate of the Fourth Estate’?
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/mustard-seeds-in-the-newsroom/
Moral philosophy
Jamie Freestone writes: The self-help books are full of advice on how to get meaning in life, but it helps to understand what meaning actually is. Science may be able to provide some answers.
https://theconversation.com/what-do-we-mean-by-meaning-science-can-help-with-that-113269
Douglas Murray asks: "Should geniuses be exempted from the moral codes that guide the rest of society?"
https://unherd.com/2019/03/how-artistic-greatness-warps-our-judgement/
Politics, society & ideology
Nick Haslam, Melanie J. McGrath and Melissa A. Wheeler write: An analysis of billions of words in the Google Books database shows the way society has valued moral principles such as compassion, respect for authority, community values and fairness over time.
https://theconversation.com/changing-morals-were-more-compassionate-than-100-years-ago-but-more-judgmental-too-112504
Akos Balogh writes: While there are many streams flowing into the river of modern identity, one stream is quite old: Gnosticism.
http://akosbalogh.com/2019/03/10/the-ancient-heresy-driving-modern-identity/
Paul Mendes-Flohr writes: In all spheres of his intellectual and political life, Buber remained an outsider and had the courage to stand his ground as one. If it is the task of outsiders to challenge what they regard as mistaken beliefs and policies that govern society, Buber would point out that is precisely what characterised the biblical prophets.
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/martin-buber-as-outsider-and-prophet/10873250
David Brooks writes: "The problem with today’s left-wing and right-wing ideas is that they are both based on … the fantasy that the other half of America can be conquered, and when it disappears we can get everything we want”. But “there are four affections that bind our society, and moderates could champion a policy agenda for each”.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/opinion/moderate-politics.html
New international research suggests the vast majority of voters don’t see black and white but many shades of grey, and don’t want false choices. Andrew West speaks to Tim Dixon who runs the New York-based organisation More in Common. He is in Australia to deliver the Centre for Public Christianity's Richard Johnson Lecture.
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/tim-dixon/10896658
David Brooks writes: "This culture war is more Albert Schweitzer and Dorothy Day than Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham; more Salvation Army than Moral Majority. It’s doing purposefully in public what social conservatives already do in private."
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/opinion/david-brooks-the-next-culture-war.html
Anne Lim writes: The forces that we’ve always assumed hold us together as societies are all weakening, says Tim Dixon.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/culture/how-forgiveness-and-grace-can-help-heal-the-divisions-in-society/
In the 2019 Richard Johnson Lecture, Tim Dixon offers a vision for how we might reunite increasingly fragmented societies.
https://www.publicchristianity.org/crossing-the-great-divide-building-bridges-in-an-age-of-tribalism-audio/
Neil Frankland writes: "Perhaps most troubling for the Morrison government, facing a federal election in May, was the finding that the unhappiness of citizens directly translates into voting intentions."
https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/wellbeing/2019/03/21/world-happiness-australia
Andrew Hamilton writes: The slimy words are those that convict their targets of simulating virtue. They include the old favourite 'bleeding hearts', the perennial 'political correctness' and the most recently minted 'virtue signalling'. They are slimy because they purport to be counters in rational argument but dismiss opposed arguments without engaging with them.
https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/-virtue-signalling--and-other-slimy-words
The Bible is a very political book, writes Craig Greenfield. And the scriptures have a LOT to say about how we should organize ourselves as a society.
https://www.craiggreenfield.com/blog/jesuspolitics
Michael Bird writes: "One might hope that there is a better way beyond the identity politics of right-wing populism and the progressive left. If so, what might it look like?"
https://www.spectator.com.au/2019/03/identity-politics-will-eat-itself/
Are evangelicals a kind of tribe, or are they to be found in every “tribe and nation”? Author Robert J. Joustra reviews this topic and discusses Amy Chua's controversial new book, Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations, addressing American identity and political tribes.
https://cpjustice.org/index.php/public/page/content/pjr_vol09_no2_article_joustra
Chris Uhlmann writes: The story of the last decade in Australia is one of a loss of faith in many of the institutions that anchored our society. And it is part of a greater story written across the Western world.
https://www.smh.com.au/nsw-election-2019/every-one-knows-something-is-broken-but-no-one-knows-how-to-fix-it-20190326-p517le.html
Douglas Murray writes: The fact that Norwegian mass-murderer and terrorist Anders Breivik used the term ‘cultural Marxism’ makes the use of the term more problematic. But does it make it impossible to use? Or does it prove that no such thing has ever existed?
https://unherd.com/2019/03/is-cultural-marxism-a-myth/
Ryan P. Burge writes: Almost every American is pulled in multiple directions when they enter the voting booth. Hardly anyone holds consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions.
https://religioninpublic.blog/2019/03/18/can-you-be-gay-and-be-an-evangelical/
Adrian Pabst writes: Our age of anger has its origins in the moral bankruptcy afflicting economic liberalism, and the rapid cultural change brought about by social liberalism. Establishment parties seem to be struggling to understand this.
https://unherd.com/2019/04/can-we-tame-democracys-demons/
Race and racism
Caitlin Curtis writes: Estimating our ancestry is hard – because our backgrounds are much more mixed up than we thought. So don't take your DNA ancestry test results literally: they're just a prediction.
https://theconversation.com/how-dna-ancestry-testing-can-change-our-ideas-of-who-we-are-114428
Grace Lung writes: "Asian Australians may feel like strangers or foreigners … stuck participating from the fringes. Yet in our gospel tradition, through Christ, we are not stuck on the fringes. Instead, we are invited to actively participate at the centre. As those grafted in, we experience the full riches and blessings of belonging."
https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/not-tradition-lunar-new-year-gospel-traditions/
Religion in Politics
Kathryn Joyce writes: The Trump administration, particularly when it comes to foreign policy under the deeply religious supervision of Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence, continually pitches itself to the Christian Right.
https://newrepublic.com/article/153387/christianization-us-foreign-policy
Anne Lim writes: Sydney student Justin Miller has closely studied the policies of all political parties to see how they align with biblical principles.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/a-millennial-perspective-on-voting-christianly/
Religion in Politics - Scott Morrison
In response to Stephen Fogarty, James Boyce writes: "To be asking questions about the teachings of the religion that defines Scott Morrison's values and shaped his life is not to conduct an inquisition; it is to participate in democracy."
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/australians-have-a-right-to-know-what-our-prime-minister-believ/10878742
John Sandeman discusses responses by Ben Myers and Ethos' Paul Tyson to The Monthly magazine’s article 'The Devil and Scott Morrison', by James Boyce.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/scott-morrison-pentecostalism-and-pragmatism/
Religion in Society
Michael Jensen writes: "Institutional Christianity - the "organised" part of "organised religion" - will only survive if it realises that it isn't in itself the true church but the servant of the true church."
https://www.smh.com.au/national/only-hope-for-institutional-christianity-lies-in-truth-20190304-p5
Camilla Nelson writes: Australia Margaret Atwood's classic novel imagined a society where women had almost no power. Hundreds of people gathered in Sydney yesterday to hear Atwood speak about dystopias – fictional and otherwise.
https://theconversation.com/margaret-atwood-the-handmaids-tale-feels-real-in-2019-but-the-solution-wont-come-from-novels-112854
Megan Powell du Toit writes: "When we promote the “mission” or the “institution” of the Church above a willingness to listen to the hard words of the critic, the marginalised, the vulnerable – this is when the Church becomes abusive."
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/questioning-power-after-peterson-graham-and-pell/
Beatrice Alba writes: "The church’s exclusion of women from the priesthood and the sexist notions embedded in religious dogma violate our 21st century principles of equality and social justice. Yet the marginalisation of women in religion has come under surprisingly little scrutiny."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/06/if-we-reject-gender-discrimination-in-every-other-arena-why-do-we-accept-it-in-religion
Neil MacGregor writes: Fifty years ago, religion was on the retreat as science advanced. Now it is centre stage of global politics. What does it offer the modern world?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/05/belief-is-back-societies-worldwide-faith-religion
Greg Clarke asks: Is it too ambitious to think that Christian media could be the ‘fourth estate of the Fourth Estate’?
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/mustard-seeds-in-the-newsroom/
Scot McKnight asks: How does one do “biblical” theology on ethnicity or race or abortion or euthanasia or capitalism? David G. Horrell's The Making of Christian Morality: Reading Paul in Ancient and Modern Contexts opens up this conversation in informed ways.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2019/04/01/ecojustice-ecoethics-and-the-nt/
Religious Freedom
Mark Fowler writes: Of the five main equality rights recognised in the international law to which Australia is a signatory – being race, age, disability, sex (including sexual orientation) and religion – only religion fails to receive dedicated protection in Commonwealth law.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/opinion/religious-protections-are-the-missing-piece/
Sanctity of life
Louise Gosbell writes: Infanticide and exposure were common practices in the Graeco-Roman world. The early church responded by openly condemning the practices because they deemed all life to possesses inherent value. How might this inform Christians' response to contemporary advocates of infanticide?
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/early-christianitys-resistance-to-infanticide-and-exposure/10898016
Science
Jamie Freestone writes: The self-help books are full of advice on how to get meaning in life, but it helps to understand what meaning actually is. Science may be able to provide some answers.
https://theconversation.com/what-do-we-mean-by-meaning-science-can-help-with-that-113269
Sexual abuse and #MeToo
Siobhan Hegarty writes: Is art separate from the artist who makes it? What if the allegations aren’t yet proven? ABC Religion and Ethics and ABC Life speak to philosophers and cultural experts about ethical issues in pop culture.
https://www.abc.net.au/life/ethics-for-dealing-with-artists-like-michael-jackson-r-kelly/10921262
Sexuality
Will Jones writes: Certainly there are many horror stories, particularly from early 20th century psychiatric practice – lobotomies, electric shock therapy and the like. But the proposed law is more far-reaching than you might imagine. https://www.julesgomes.com/single-post/Banning-Cconversion-therapy-is-more-dangerous-than-you-think
Spirituality
Martin E. Marty writes: In Seven Types of Atheism, John Gray argues that the “New Atheists” have Judaism and Christianity all wrong. When “science” undercut Scriptural truths, he contends, religious leaders proposed “various allegorical readings in an attempt to salvage something from the rubble”.
https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/varieties-unbelief
Terrorism
Stephen McAlpine writes: "Let’s pray that Christians respond with grief, compassion and love. Many are already. And when my beard is due for a trim next week I will go in and talk with my Muslim barbers from the Palestinian territories and Iraq, and mourn with them that an incident we in the West find reprehensible, is an almost daily occurrence in their homelands."
https://stephenmcalpine.com/no-people-this-is-not-what-you-get-for-mixing-islam-with-the-west/
US politics
Kathryn Joyce writes: The Trump administration, particularly when it comes to foreign policy under the deeply religious supervision of Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence, continually pitches itself to the Christian Right.
https://newrepublic.com/article/153387/christianization-us-foreign-policy
War, peace & nonviolence
Craig Greenfield writes: From the earliest writings of Christians we know how they responded to a world where violence was the norm. So why are we Christians no longer a strong voice for peace and non-violence in the world?
https://www.craiggreenfield.com/blog/nonviolence
Women
Beatrice Alba writes: "The church’s exclusion of women from the priesthood and the sexist notions embedded in religious dogma violate our 21st century principles of equality and social justice. Yet the marginalisation of women in religion has come under surprisingly little scrutiny."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/06/if-we-reject-gender-discrimination-in-every-other-arena-why-do-we-accept-it-in-religion
Jo Pride writes: As we commemorate International Women’s Day today, Fatana’s story is a confronting reminder of the deeply entrenched inequality that women continue to face around the world.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/world/creating-golden-endings-for-victims-of-trauma-and-abuse/