Eternity - August 2016 - Issue 72

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72

Number 72, August 2016 ISSN 1837-8447

Brought to you by the Bible Society

*Headline translated from Pitjantjatjara

Tili irnyani nganampa ngurangka Are Christians in exile?

The perils of Pauline Hanson

Cover Image: Wes Selwood

The light is shining on our homes*

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AUGUST 2016

Puppets in the Top End

Obadiah Slope

News 2-4

MATT GORTON of Quiz Worx

EQUAL BUT DIFFERENT: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” was Obadiah’s tongue-in-cheek response to the discovery of innercity posters that copy the chalked “Eternity” signs that Arthur Stace used as a one-word sermon. Of course, rather than flatter fans of Stace, the “Equality” signs – and it’s fair to assume they mean marriage equality – imply supplanting the old message with a new one. We like the message of Eternity.

POOR US: “Christianity was always a religion of the poor. But somehow in the last 100 years it became a religion of the rich,” mission leader Eddie Arthur told Obadiah at the Missions Interlink national conference. “Now it is shifting back again.” He cites the Philippines sending labourers, maids and taxi drivers to the Gulf, taking the gospel with them: “And we are hearing stories of Saudi families where the mothers and children are becoming believers.”

MORE EDDIE: “There are as many people in London as there are in the whole of Australia. There are far more missionaries from Australia [than] there are from London.”

Quiz Worx, a children’s ministry that began in inner Sydney, brings “pop-up” ministry to the Outback.

Here’s how one small town’s pastor responded: “This year we had 59 kids come along to our Kids’ Club in a town that only has a 140 kids.

That is a huge gospel opportunity and gives us access to about a third of the families in our community.

I think each year has been getting better.

“Some of the children who trusted Jesus this year have been coming since the first visit in 2014.

My wife is a school chaplain and she saw a boy in her school reading a Bible at lunchtime – that Bible was given to him 12 months ago when Quiz Worx visited in 2015.”

This month, I am boarding a small six-seater plane at Bankstown Airport with fellow Quiz Worx employee Jordan, pilot Ron, a puppet theatre, some puppets, and lots of props. As we take off we are setting our course for Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.

The places we are going to are: Katherine, Minyerri, Ngukurr, Numbulwar, Bickerton Island, Groote (Angurugu) and Darwin.

All up, we will travel more than 7000km in the small plane.

We have been asked to work alongside some of the local Indigenous churches in sharing Jesus with the children of their communities.

In preparation for this trip, I have been communicating with

In Depth 5,6,9-13 Bible Society 7 Opinion 15-20

In brief TOO MUCH MINGLING?: ChristianMingle, a dating site, must let LGBT singles use their site following a court case. A class action suit against Spark Networks, which owns ChristianMingle, JDate, and the Mormon site LDSSingles. com, means the site has to change its categories from “a man seeking a woman” or “a woman seeking a man.” (Source CBC)

Matt and Jordan from Quiz Worx with Cosec the puppet. the ministry development officer for the Anglican Church in the Northern Territory, Kate Beer.

This has been invaluable, and it has caused us to change our usual mode of operation. Rather than the “fly in, fly out” approach that Quiz Worx usually uses, we will spend two days in each community.

This will give us a chance to get to know the local church leaders, and share ideas for how to best communicate the good news of Jesus in a culturally sensitive way.

In fact, the plan is that the local church leaders will be involved in

helping perform some key parts of the show.

We are aware, of course, that two days in a community are not nearly long enough for a deep relationship. However, we are hoping and praying that God can use our weak and feeble efforts for his glory.

I’d love it if you could pray for us and for the people who we will be ministering to and alongside. We are looking forward to seeing what God may do through us, and also what God will do in us. www.quizworx.com

EVERYWHERE: Australian Christian Channel (ACCTV) is now available online, optimised for mobile devices, Smart TVs and popular Internetconnected devices. This includes iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Apple TV and Smart TVs. AHOY: The Ark Encounter, a $US100m replica in Kentucky, USA, opened in July. Ken Ham, the Australian founder of Answers in Genesis, developed the project.

BUSY: Billy Graham’s Rapid Response Team chaplains responded to crises including Nice (July), Dallas (July), Orlando (June), Brussels (March), San Bernardino (Dec 2015) and Paris (Nov 2015).

ANNUAL MOORE COLLEGE LECTURES

2016

Death and the Life Hereafter Friday 19 August Evening lecture, 8.00pm

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Come along to check out the College, be involved in classes and get a taste of Moore’s in-depth theological training.

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Monday 22 – Friday 26 August Morning lectures daily Mon: 10.00am, Tues – Fri: 9.00am

Monday 29 aug 7:15pm – 9:oopm

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NEWS

AUGUST 2016

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Activists spy on church sermons KALEY PAYNE

Christopher Yardin / Flickr

Churches that meet in public school halls in NSW on Sundays are under attack for the content of their sermons. Sermons found on the websites of Hunter Bible Church, Maitland Evangelical Church and The Lakes Evangelical Church (all part of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches) on the NSW mid-north coast were the subject of complaints by Dr Darrin Morgan, sent to the NSW Department of Education.

The Newcastle Herald and SBS report the content of some of the sermons, which relate to sexuality, including: “Homosexuality is one of the things that send people to hell.”

“Anything outside of that, whether it is homosexuality or adultery or pornography or sex before marriage; anything that doesn’t conform with what God created us into, is wrong.” “God’s good design for sex within marriage” is between “one man and a woman”. In an interview with SBS, Morgan said he didn’t believe public school facilities should be used to “promote beliefs which marginalise members of both the school and wider community.”

In a statement, the NSW Department of Education drew a clear distinction between teaching hours and how facilities are used outside of that time. “The Department does not allow any

group or church to use school grounds to preach homophobic messages,” reads the statement, while saying members of the community are encouraged to use school facilities for “appropriate purposes” when they are not required by the school.

Sydney Anglican minister and head of Centre For Public Christianity, John Dickson, warned on Facebook about the new tactics of these advocacy groups. “They search for references to same-sex relationships, package up the quotations in a manner that suits their cause, and then write formal complaints to the Department of Education about homophobic sermons being preached in school facilities. For example, they will take a preacher’s passing reference to the Leviticus death penalty, and cast it as the preacher’s own view that LGBTI folk today should be killed (any reformed evangelical who actually taught such a thing would be disciplined for heresy and probably sacked). This isn’t fair play,” he wrote.

Murray Campbell, a conservative Baptist minister in Victoria, says the Internet has made church activities much more easily accessible to the public. “Our sermons and websites are available to whoever is interested, including wacky atheists, angry secularists, and agenda-driven journalists.”

We’re going back to vote (most likely) but when?

Call to defer plebiscite JOHN SANDEMAN A senior Coalition source has told Eternity that Coalition backbenchers are fighting to ensure that the plebiscite on same-sex marriage is put back to 2017. A same-sex marriage plebiscite would have to be “very rushed” to make it through both Houses of Parliament for a poll this year.

The next sitting of parliament is only seven weeks long. The Government wants to deal with terrorism and some economic legislation as its first priorities. A Senate inquiry and the drafting of “yes” and “no” cases will occupy most of the time available.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Senator George Brandis and Senator Scott Ryan are key players who support same-sex marriage and who want to hold the plebiscite this year.

Conservative Coalition MPs are seeking more time for the “no” case to build up its campaign. Eternity understands that campaigning groups such as the Marriage Alliance support this push.

As Eternity goes to press, the Senate results for the mainland states and territories were a few days from finalisation. Despite being a double-dissolution election – halving the quota for election to the upper house, Christian values

parties (Family First, Christian Democrats, Australian Christians) were facing a wipe-out.

In Victoria, John Madigan, elected from the Democratic Labour Party in 2010, stood for a new group, the Manufacturing and Farming Party but scored only .15 of a quota.

In South Australia, Senator Bob Day of Family First was looking to Liberal Party preferences after his primary vote went backwards.

Doubling the Christian Democrat vote in NSW to 170,000 was not enough to break though. The Family First Party preferencing the Liberal Democrats’ David Leyonhjelm may have sealed its fate.

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Olympian ready to share Christ in Rio

JULY 2016

When I was a child I thought like a child and I played like a child.

When I became a man, I became a pokemon trainer.

TESS HOLGATE At 33 years old, Eloise Wellings is about to compete in her second Olympics as a middle-distance runner. But she has had a long road to the Rio Games, including three thwarted attempts to represent Australia at the Olympic Games.

Wellings was just 16 years old when she first qualified for the Olympics, in Sydney, but her Olympic dream was cut short when she suffered a stress fracture to her hip just three weeks after qualifying.

“I was devastated,” says Wellings.

“My whole world fell apart.

Running was who I was; without it I was a nobody.”

Back at school, a new girl introduced herself to Wellings, saying that she’d heard about the injury, and mentioning that she, along with some of her friends at church, had been praying for Wellings.

“I ended up going to church with my new friend, Lisa,” says Wellings. “And hearing about Jesus, hearing the gospel and hearing about his unconditional love and grace for me. I received Christ after a couple of weeks and have never looked back.”

But becoming a Christian did not make her Olympic dreams a reality. Wellings missed out

The love of Jesus has sustained Eloise Wellings through five Olympic bids. on both the Athens and Beijing Olympics, also due to injury.

“Life didn’t become suddenly super-rosy; it didn’t all of a sudden become super-easy after becoming a Christian,” says Wellings. “But I had a rock. No matter what happened I wasn’t shaken because I had Jesus.

“I had that truth as my foundation that no matter what happened in my running career or with what I did, I knew who I was in God, I knew who made me, and I knew that God had a good plan.

I’ve always believed that.”

As she heads to Rio to run the 10,000m and 5000m, Wellings says she thinks that she can use her experiences to support other athletes.

“I feel entrusted to encourage them around these things, and I want to be bold to share with them [my] faith. My heart is that people would come to know the Lord like I do, and that they would come to love him.

“Please pray for opportunities to speak grace into people’s lives, and pray for me to have boldness,” she says.

Not silly, just forgiven WES SELWOOD “People can view our beliefs as silly,” said Simon Smart from Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) to 300 high school students attending Bible Society’s first 2016 Masterclass in Queensland last week.

“Much more so in the world that you’re growing up in than the one I grew up in. This is because we are mixing more and more with people whose worldview is different than our own.”

Smart was making the point that the students could be confident that Christianity is far from silly.

With highly-regarded presenters such as Simon Smart and John

Dickson of CPX, sexologist Patricia Weerakoon, missiologist Mike Frost, and others, Masterclass aims to equip Christian high school students in years 10 and 11 with the tools and confidence to face everyday life in today’s society. Weerakoon’s frank and positive discussion on sex drew an enthusiastic reaction. Her testimony was that marriage was the best place for sex.

In Queensland, Richard Schumack discussed how he found himself at an Islamic outreach rally with 500 Muslim believers.

When asked the question, “Who here is not a Muslim?” he was one of ten who raised their hands. He

was the only one in the room who did not believe that Mohammad was not a prophet. Through his presentation on Truth, God & Islam, Richard went on to outline the similarities and differences between Christianity and the Islamic faith, offering a starting point for students facing an evergrowing pluralistic society.

“The vast majority of Muslims actually think that we’re the crazy ones!” he said to the group.

Masterclasses are being held in every State and the Northern Territory. They are open to students in year 10 and 11 and are held in Term 3 each year. biblesociety.org.au/masterclass

To ‘catch ’em all’, go to church KALEY PAYNE If you’re one of the millions using the new Pokémon GO app, chances are you’ll end up at church. Churches around the world have become training places for Pokémon as part of the new Nintendo and Niantic Lab game launched last month.

If you’ve seen people walking along the streets glued to their phones, or pointing their cameras from a distance as if they’re taking a clandestine picture of you, or grouped together in the middle of the pavement cheering at their screens, they’re probably on the hunt for Pokémon creatures (or have just captured one!).

The game is all about catching Pokémon through the app, which superimposes the imaginary creatures into the real world through the phone on your camera.

Using the phone’s inbuilt GPS, you can explore your environment and find creatures close to you.

Once you’ve scoured the streets catching Pokémon, you’ll want to put them to work. Catching is only half the game. The other half is pitting them against each other: a Pokémon battle. And Pokémon battles happen in “gyms” – usually located in real-world meeting places and “points of interest”, which are likely to include that church around the corner. Some churches in Australia have already started to make the most of their churches’ latest designations as

Pokémon Gyms, some offering to “lure” Pokémon to their locations (an action in the game to make the creatures come to you).

“GOTTA CATCH ’EM ALL!!!!,” reads a Facebook event hosted by the Young Adults group at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Castle Hill, in Sydney’s north. “We are hosting a huge meet up/catch fest plus a free BBQ this Sunday!!! There will be Lures galore and Pokémon by the truck load ... A great day to get out, catch some Pokémon, eat a sausage sanga and meet others who haven’t gone to sleep for a week because of this game!!”

Here are a few other examples we’ve spotted on social media:

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A new hope in the dust

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Karl Faase on Jesus the game changer.

Katrina (centre) watches the sunrise over Pukatja in Central Australia with two other Pitjantjatjara translators before a day of worship and thanksgiving on Easter Sunday.

KALEY PAYNE Katrina Tjitayi’s house is the last on an unnamed street on the outskirts of Pukatja (also known as Ernabella), in the Pitjantjatjara community on the APY Lands in the northwest of South Australia.

The Musgrave Ranges rise in the distance; the red earth glows

beneath the setting sun and the bray of feral donkeys echoes through the dusk. It’s been a long day. We were up at dawn for an Easter Sunday church service, where we made our way to the top of the hill behind the community which is topped with a giant white cross. From there we watched the sunrise and thanked God for a new

beginning, with prayers in the local Pitjantjatjara language, and in English.

The day also saw the launch of the Book of Daniel, the first book of the Old Testament to be published in Pitjantjatjara since a new project was started in 2011 to complete Australia’s first traditional Aboriginal language Bible.

The Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia have the New Testament in their own language, which was dedicated in 2002. In 2011, a new generation of Bible translators – mostly children of the Indigenous translators who worked for many years to complete the New Testament – came forward to finish the job.

Hear Revd Neville Naden Pastor of the Living Desert Aboriginal Church

“Indigenous Ministry through Indigenous Eyes” 2016 Spring Lunches Tuesday 6 September Glen Waverley Anglican Church Wednesday 7 September St John’s, Highton Anglican Church Thursday 8 September Berwick Anglican Church 12.30pm start. Finish by 2.00pm.

Children welcome. $20.00 per person (for lunch)

plus Sunset Snacks and Chat Tuesday 6 September St Luke’s Anglican Church South Melbourne From 5.30pm for 6pm start, finish by 7pm. $20.00 per person RSVP Thursday 1 September 2016 Phone: 03 9457 7556 Email: victoria@bushchurchaid.com.au

“I was thinking for a long time, we should have the whole Bible done,” Katrina tells me. “It was in my heart all the time.”

Katrina’s mother and father were Bible translators before her. Now, she is one of the leaders on the project. She’s gone to Bible college to study translation. So for her, the continued page 6

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Hope

from page 5 launch of the Book of Daniel at Easter was a big moment.

“The people were really happy about the Book of Daniel. And I’ve seen and heard a lot of people talking about it, who’ve read it for the first time,” she says.

The Book of Daniel translation was a collaborative effort from Pitjantjatjara people in Pukatja and Amata to the west, another of the six main Aboriginal communities on “The Lands”. The process of translation draws people together, which is one of the things Katrina loves most about the work she has committed her life to.

There are over 30 Pitjantjatjara translators working on the Old Testament project, with translation consultant Paul Eckert from Bible Society Australia working with them. Almost 15 more Pitjantjatjara people from Fregon, another community in “The Lands” expressed their interest earlier this year to learn more about how to become volunteer translators. The team is now working on translating Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Numbers, Joshua, Psalms, 1 and 2 Samuel, Joel and Job. “When the translators come together to talk and share about the stories we’re working on, it really helps us,” says Katrina. “It’s a good way for us to have a good relationship and work together to do the drafts. We go to the old people and look for words.

Sometimes we get stuck with how to translate a word. I often call my mother and say ‘I can’t translate

Paul Eckert (centre) says Bible translation in “The Lands” is a collaborative process that works like a Bible study.

Her theme: “You are special.”

“Sometimes kids here think that they are not wanted.”

For Katrina, that sentiment couldn’t be more wrong. Her heart is for children, like her grandson Errol (on the cover), to know they are loved by their creator. She shares that commitment with other community leaders, such as Yanyi, who tells me she is worried that not many children and young people in Pukatja are interested in Christianity.

“Only God will bring our kids back to him,” she says. She wants the Bible in Pitjantjatjara to teach the younger people in the community in their own language and show them how important it is.

Already, with years of work ahead on completing the Old Testament translation, Katrina is looking for ways to use the newly published books of the Bible, such as Daniel, to teach the Pitjantjatjara children.

“We can make more activities through those stories for kids and young people to learn the Bible,” she says. Some of the translation team is working on a comic book of the recently completed Book of Daniel. Deborah Burton, one of the translators in Pukatja, is drawing her drafts on canvas.

“This is a big job for us. Our parents and old people have been working for 20 or 30 years on this project. We all think that God will help us. That’s my future, on this project. There’s a lot of translation to do. When we finish the whole Bible, we’ll have all the activities for kids and young people to do the Bible study. That’s our future and we’re thinking ahead about what we’re going to do next.”

this word, can you help me?’

We’re always learning about our language through the older people and those around us.”

Paul Eckert, a Bible Society translation consultant who has been working with the Pitjantjatjara people for close to 30 years, says the depth of Bible knowledge in the Pitjantjatjara community has grown exponentially because of the translation work itself, let alone the final product that allows even more people to read it.

“In many ways, becoming a volunteer translator is like doing a Bible college course. The

Pitjantjatjara translators are really getting into the Word very deeply and understanding it really well.

They like to work together, and talk things through, so the discussion about God’s Word that happens within these communities is really exciting.

“It means that while we’re translating, there’s Bible study happening and people are leaving our translation sessions and talking to their relatives and friends about what they’ve just translated. The messages from each book we’re translating start filtering through the community before the words themselves are

even printed,” says Paul.

Katrina says the Bible translation work is a good way for young people to learn more about the Pitjantjatjara language too, something she is passionate about.

“They’re losing some words,” she says of the young people in her community. “They’re speaking in different ways. But we want them to be strong in reading and writing and for them to learn the language.”

“I have a heart for children,” she says. She and some other Christian women in the community helped run a camp and taught the stories about Joseph and his rainbow coat.

St Andrew’s Cathedral School Head of Middle School COMMENCING IN TERM 1, 2017

St Andrew’s is Sydney’s quintessential city school.

An independent Anglican school that is fully coeducational from K-12 with an inclusive admission policy, we have an innovative and globally focused approach to learning.

Closing date for applications: Sunday 21 August 2016

Following the appointment of Mr David Smith as Principal of Calrossy Anglican School from the beginning of 2017, an opportunity exists for a dynamic educator to continue to develop the Middle School (Years 7-9) culture for approximately 400 early to mid-teens at SACS. Critical attributes will include capacity to further the integration of Christian pastoral care and curriculum within the School’s strategic plan and learning framework.

Enquiries should be directed to:

This key senior position will interest an experienced Christian educator with a passion for the proactive pastoral welfare and management of students in Years 7-9.

The successful applicant will be an experienced educator, have a sound grasp of educational administration and a committed Christian faith.

The prospectus with a full role description and information on how to apply can be found at: http://www.sacs.nsw.edu.au/ contentpages/HeadMiddleSchool

Mr Philip Bryson Executive Assistant to Head of School Telephone: 02 9286 9585 Facsimile: 02 9286 9550 Email to pbryson@sacs.nsw.edu.au

This position requires the successful applicant to have a new Working with Children Check clearance in accordance with the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012, prior to employment at the School.

www.sacs.nsw.edu.au Sydney Square, Sydney

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AUGUST 2016

BIBLE @ WORK

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The Word comes to Warruwi Goulburn Island

A re-enactment of the arrival of the first missionaries on Goulburn Island 100 years ago. (Inset) Maung translator Sandra Makurlngu with the published Gospel of Mark.

KALEY PAYNE A century after the first missionary arrived on South Goulburn Island (also known as Warruwi), the first book of the Bible has been translated into the local language.

A hundred years ago, the first Methodist missionary set foot on South Goulburn Island, about 300 kilometres east of Darwin, off the coast of West Arnhem Land. Rev. James Watson arrived by bark canoe, having ridden on horseback to the mainland coast from Oenpelli (also known as Gunbalanya) in West Arnhem.

He established the first Methodist mission in northern Australia.

On June 22, 2016, exactly 100 years since Watson’s arrival, the people of the island again gathered to watch another minister – Rev. Lindsay Parkhill – re-enact that first coming. This time Lindsay arrived in an aluminium dinghy named “kupuny”, which means bark canoe.

Indigenous elders and missionaries old and new made their way to Goulburn Island for the centennial celebration, which not only celebrated 100 years of Christian witness but also a new arrival: the first translation of a book of the Bible into the local Maung language – the Gospel of Mark.

The translation was completed by local translators Rosemary Urabadi, Sandra Makurlngu and Nancy Ngalmindjalmag, with assistance from the Australian Society for Indigenous Languages (AuSIL), Coordinate, and published

by Bible Society Australia.

“As I was going, the whole thing helped me understand the words that Jesus was speaking,” said Sandra, speaking about her experience of translating the Bible with Coordinate, an agency of the Uniting Church’s Northern Synod that supports Indigenous translators.

“How he called his disciples and

how they listened and followed him. He told them to go out and tell his word. It is these same words that he is speaking to us and to this generation.”

There are about 1500-2000 speakers of the Maung language, says Lindsay, who is a ministry resource worker for the Uniting Church in West Arnhem Land. “It’s not a big language group, but it’s very strong.”

“There’s a great hunger for Scripture, and a great hunger for Scripture in their own language,” he says.

“All the work they do is run back through the community,” says Lindsay, who helped train the Indigenous translators in using the translation computer software provided by AuSIL. The Book of Mark translation has been in progress for the past five years.

Local translator Nancy Ngalmindjalmag says her family were translators throughout

history. “It runs in the family.”

But Nancy’s main concern is that the language continues to be strong in the community. “It’s why I wanted to be a Bible translator, so we can keep our language alive. I want to do this for my people, and the future of my children as well.”

Maung leader Johnny Namayiwa, who also served as a translation checker for the Book of Mark, says, “If we translate [the Bible] into Maung and somebody preached at the church in Maung, everybody will understand it better.”

The translation process is a very long and detailed one and takes years to reach publication stage. In 2016, Bible Society Australia has partnered with mission agencies such as Wycliffe Bible Translators and AuSIL to ensure that the hard work of the faithful Indigenous translators and support teams is not in vain, bringing the hope and light of the Word of God into the lives of Indigenous people

More than 20 Indigenous Scripture projects need your help.

It’ll only take a minute. biblesociety.org.au/vital or call 1300 BIBLES (1300 242 537)

such those living in the remote Goulburn Islands.

“As the publisher of these precious books of the Bible, Bible Society is committed to ensuring the works remain accessible and affordable,” says Bible Society Remote and Indigenous Ministries coordinator Paul Eckert.

Less than 20 per cent of Australia’s Indigenous peoples have the complete Bible in their heart language. There is still so much work to be done. Can you help Bible Society fund this important work? Go to biblesociety.org.au/vital “Jesus iminy, ‘makiny, anngurakanyi tuka pata jawirna nuwu anpanamin pu ta nungmalal mira ja Arrkingan iyamany nuwu la kurriwurlkpungkun ta nuwurri.’”

Mark 5:19 (Maung) “Jesus said, ‘Now, go home to your friends and tell them what wonderful things the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.’” Mark 5:19

DONATE NOW

Art Inspired by “Translation Process” by Seraphina Presley | Photo by Wes Selwood

AUGUST 2016

E CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP TOURS SPONSORED PAGE 8

An Aegean cruise with a difference!

GARY NELSON In April I headed down to Perth, a drive of nearly five hours, to board a flight bound for Dubai.

It was the first leg of a new adventure, an experience I was very much looking forward to – a cruise around the Greek isles and the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul. Yet this journey started quite a while before April 26, 2016; it began with a BCA coach tour organised

by Christian Fellowship Tours (CFT). I met up with the BCA tour in Geraldton to share with them some of the encouragements and challenges of ministering in North West Australia; our Anglican diocese covers about 80 per cent of Western Australia and visiting all the churches involves a drive of some 9000kms.

Out of this meeting CFT suggested a fundraising tour based around the footsteps of Paul through Turkey and Greece.

As our diocese is essentially a mission field centred on ministry in small, remote and isolated locations, it relies on support from Christians across Australia.

So the tour offered a good opportunity, not just to potentially raise additional funds but, more significantly, to introduce those on the tour to the nature of ministry in the North West and hopefully encourage prayer for us.

Just on 50 people from around Australia became the tour group with whom I would share a

Bishop Gary Nelson enjoying some sightseeing. memorable cruise. Before we set sail on the Aegean Odyssey we visited Athens and Corinth and standing on the hill overlooking the agora, listening to a well-read Acts 17:16-34, was an amazing moment. The ancient ruins casting their shadow of pagan religion on today’s world just reinforced

verses 30 and 31: “But now God commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all people by raising him from the dead.”

We boarded the ship at the port

Steps of Paul

C ruise Holiday

of Piraeus for a 12-day sea voyage – hoping there would be no re-enactment of Paul’s shipwreck experience. The cruise included the island of Patmos along with stops to traverse the streets and sites of Philippi, Thessaloniki and Berea. Usually each day began with singing, a Bible talk and

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prayer. It was a terrific privilege to teach the Bible from passages related to Paul’s missionary journeys throughout the region.

When visiting Patmos we delved into Revelation 4-5, before a quick trip around the key spots related to John’s time on the island. Morning tea meant sipping Greek coffee, tasting a sweet local cake, while sitting in a little café perched on a cliff’s edge, overlooking the island’s sparkling blue bay and sandy beaches.

What were the highlights for me? Certainly the shared times with the Christian people on the tour, along with others we met on the ship. But when it seemed most likely you were walking where Paul walked it was an exciting feeling and enhanced your reading of Paul’s letters.

For me that was particularly the case in both Corinth and Philippi.

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) I am thankful to God for this amazing opportunity and appreciative of CFT for their kind invitation. For those who shared the tour, I am grateful for the privilege of your fellowship and generosity.

If you are looking for an Aegean cruise with a difference, then following Paul’s footsteps with CFT is a terrific way to go!

Gary Nelson is Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of North West Australia.

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The untold story of the missions Stephen Atkinson, a Barngarla man who lives in Port Augusta writes on why he sees many missionaries as friends to the First Australians I get upset at the increasing belief that the missionaries are to blame for our lot in this world as Aboriginal people.

This is exactly what the government would have you believe. This is what I know and what I have discovered through historical studies: The untold story of the missions is that people like Rev. Green at Corranderk, Daniel Matthews at Maloga and Rev. John Gribble of Warangesda actually helped us survive to today rather than what is popular belief about Christian missionaries. If it weren’t for people like the three I’ve just named - and there are others who were humanitarians as much as they were Christians - who put themselves in the line of fire and went against the popular view of the day and out of their way and comfort zone to protect and to help educate our people back then we may not have survived.

It was a time when our people were being hunted and shot in the bush, our women used as brood mares to create a half caste work force for the stations and also used as sex slaves on the stations and unpaid prostitutes in the towns, not to mention the ever increasing drunkenness encouraged on our mobs by the white man to belittle and to get what they wanted out of our women, girls and boys.

Daniel Matthews is a great example and I attribute to him the survival, education and longevity of the Bangerang and Yorta Yorta peoples.

He and his wife Janet set aside 20 acres of land of their own selection that they paid for to create a safe haven for our mob.

The first residents of what became Maloga mission were two 14 year old girls who he saved from

A place of shelter. An etching of Warangesda from the Illustrated Sydney News, 1883.

Moira station, both girls had young babies of 12 and 15 months old when they were taken to Maloga.

Daniel Matthews recorded going to stations and breaking the chains that had our young women tied to beds as sex slaves and he was beaten and had shots fired over his head while doing so. He done this to save the girls, nothing else.

The people responded well to Matthews and his wife and started to flock to Maloga for safety, not forced on to the place. William Cooper is recorded as saying “there can’t be anywhere better than this place, I wish to stay here forever”.

This however wasn’t to be.

Maloga started in 1874 and by 1887 was a small community that looked like a township with a church, school and houses all with picket fences out front.

Daniel Matthews built much of it himself and as the place grew the men helped in the building of the

houses.

The school had a man by the name of Thomas Shadrach James who was a Mauritian born Tamil pharmacist who became the school teacher at Maloga.

James as a teacher taught the children so well that they excelled and the white farmers began sending their children to the school as they would get a better education there than the state schools in town.

In NSW the Aboriginal Protection Board was created in 1883. By 1885 because of the great work Matthews and Maloga had done for the people the government sent a manager to Maloga to manage the mission and the people.

The government enforced new rules and regulations on the people and on Matthews and by 1888 had pulled down all the buildings paid for and built by Matthews

Theology is for your life

www.stmarks.edu.au

Canberra

and relocated them upstream to a new reserve to be called Cummeroogunga or now spelt Cummeragunja.

The people hated the new management and it got increasingly worse for them that they walked off in 1939 because of the government and the treatment they received at the hands of the government appointed managers.

The Matthews were banned from ever going to see the people they had helped and who loved them.

It wasn’t the Christian missionaries in this case that tried to destroy the people but it was the government and their policies they enforced on the people through their government run Reserves.

Even where the government never fully took over the missions they still stifled the good work being done by enforcing the government policies upon the

missionaries and the missions.

It was government policy and the government that done the wrong in most cases not the missionaries.

All missions had to meet government requirements if they were to continue getting government rations and or funding. The missionaries hands were then forced to comply or they couldn’t feed the people they were trying to protect.

There is no doubt there were some bad missionaries who didn’t act Christian-like at all but if you look at history many of the first missionaries were humanitarians who had the best interests of the people at heart.

You will find as soon as the Protection Boards were created in each state the welfare of the people and the treatment of them went down considerably.

Blame the government and their policies not the missionaries.

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IN DEPTH

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AUGUST 2016

The best ideas come from Jesus KARL FAASE

istock / Tempura

One of the great thinkers of the 20th century was English mathematician and philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead.

Whitehead made a significant observation about how society debates ideas. Whitehead suggests we should not just debate the contentious ideas of any period of history but consider the underlying assumptions of the culture.

Whitehead says, “Such assumptions appear so obvious that people do not know what they are assuming because no other way of putting things has ever occurred to them.”

That’s a very interesting idea!

What Whitehead is helping people to grasp is that when our community debates ideas and values it does not carry out these debates in a vacuum. The debate occurs within agreed assumptions and those assumptions give our society its foundation.

Take the assumption that our society ought to care for those in need. If you were to conduct a survey across Australia or in any free Western democracy you would have the overwhelming majority of people believe this to be true.

How our community should deliver that help and who should pay for it might create much discussion, but the foundational assumption that we should help others is rarely challenged.

The question is, where did this

Where do some of our foundational assumptions come from? foundational assumption come from? Most people just assume it has always been part of human nature and the fabric of society.

But even the most cursory look at human history or even different countries around the world today will demonstrate that this is not the case.

Australian historian, E.A. Judge comments that classical philosophers regarded mercy and pity as pathological emotions, defects of character to be avoided by rational men. The philosophers of the Greco-Roman era did not believe that society ought to care for those in need but rather it was an impulse to be curbed.

Even today, in countries that are dominated by the Hindu philosophical worldview, care for the needy actually runs in opposition to the prevailing religious dogma. Hindus believe in karma and reincarnation – that your present life, whether one of wealth or poverty, is a direct result of how you lived in your past life.

If you are in a position of privilege and part of the upper castes of the community, there is no need to feel apologetic or defensive about your wealth and ease as you have earned these benefits in a past life.

If you are in poverty and distress this is also a direct result of your behaviour in a past life – you are

CENTENARY CONFERENCE

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now living out your karma. I am not saying that these societies are completely heartless and cruel but we need to understand that the majority do not feel any compulsion to help those in need because they would be “messing with people’s karma”. Instead they believe they just need to be patient and wait for a better life next time around.

The unconscious assumption of Australian society is that we are all equal, we are “our brother’s keeper” and we ought to help those in most need. It is helpful to ask where that value came from. It was not part of the Greco-Roman world, it did not come from the Greek philosophers of the period pre-Jesus and it is not part of many other nations today.

For our series, Jesus the Game Changer, we interviewed over 30 authors, researchers and Christian leaders from around the world.

One of those was Rodney Stark, a sociologist from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Stark has written over 40 books, many focused on the growth and influence of the Christian church. In Stark’s mind there is no question of the origin of the foundations of Western democracies. When we spoke with Stark about Western values such as caring for those in need and the equality of all people, he made this clear assertion: “Western civilisation would not exist, had not there been Jesus.

I did a book called How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the

Rise of Modernity. Basically … it’s rooted in the church. It’s rooted in Christianity. It’s rooted in Jesus.

These things didn’t happen in the rest of the world.”

If we look over the basic assumptions on which our society is built, many of these find their genesis in the life and teaching of Jesus. In a world that only honoured wealthy, privileged and educated men, Jesus gave all people worth and dignity. He taught that “whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.”

(Matt 25:40). He gave value to women, elevated the position of children and gave the foundational teaching that created universal educational and healthcare for every level of our community.

At a time where the inclusion of Christian faith in the public square of contemporary society is being questioned, it is essential to recapture our history and to understand the origins of the foundational assumptions of our community. Jesus, St Paul, St Augustine and the Early Church gave Western democracy its foundational assumptions.

These topics, and more, are discussed in the new DVD series, Jesus the Game Changer. To order your copy on DVD (with a separate Discussion Guide for Bible study groups), go to www. jesusthegamechanger.com Karl Faase is the CEO Olive Tree Media and host of Jesus the Game Changer.

IN DEPTH

AUGUST 2016

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Same-sex attracted Christians are called to a life of love and friendship, not just self-denial KALEY PAYNE Wesley Hill, from Trinity School for Ministry in Pennsylvania, describes himself as “celibate, gay and Christian”. Eternity’s Kaley Payne asked one of her friends who describes himself similarly to contribute to questions for her interview with Hill who is in Australia this month with Ridley College, talking to churches about a pastoral response to same-sex attraction.

When did you realise that you were same-sex attracted, and how did you decide to start telling people about it?

I was in my early teenage years and I remember speaking with friends of mine who were beginning to talk about developing feelings for the opposite sex, and I realised that what they were describing was not happening for me. I was, instead, beginning to feel attractions for my same-sex friends. And, at the time I was ashamed of that. I was confused by it. And so I decided not to tell anyone and hoped that it would go away.

It was only later – I went to a Christian university – and I was really wanting to grow in my faith in Christ and I realised that if I was hiding a big part of my myself, even from myself, then I probably wasn’t going to be growing very much, and I was going to be fearful and spending too much of my time and energy trying to keep myself hidden.

That was really the beginning of me coming out, realising that I wanted to be a healthy Christian.

I knew that if I was harbouring a secret of this sort of magnitude that it would be hard to be healthy.

It would be hard to be flourishing.

So I decided to come out to one of my trusted professors. And from there I came out to other pastors and to other friends in the church.

What was the reaction like?

Initially, I came out to only a small handful of people. It was people who were mentors and pastors and teachers. It took me a couple of years longer to be able to talk to peers.

I was afraid that the reaction would be, ‘Wes, this means that you’re disqualified from pursuing Christian ministry’, which is what I was feeling called to do. And I was afraid that it would mean that I was somehow a second-class Christian or something like that.

The reactions that I got were the opposite of that. They were quite beautiful.

I would describe my coming out experience as really blessed in a lot of ways. I was blessed to talk with people who knew a lot about suffering, who knew a lot about how the Christian life can be complex and it can include things that we wish weren’t true about ourselves, things that we find confusing. But that that didn’t mean that I was somehow doing something wrong in my life of faith.

Should Christians experiencing same-sex attraction be encouraged to ‘come out’ – to name or acknowledge their brokenness?

I think so. I think sometimes Christian communities can be unhealthy and judgmental and if someone were to come out in a community like that there could be

Wesley Hill says ministry that helps same-sex attracted people see a positive future for themselves in the church is the most valuable. quite a significant cost. I usually advise people to be cautious and to know their community before they come out and know that they can trust people. I wouldn’t want to advocate coming out in any and all places. I think you have to watch out for your own safety. But I think, in general, it is better to come out.

Part of the reason I say that is that I think that coming out actually allows you to love people more honestly and more freely.

Because when we’re staying in the closet and keeping our attractions hidden, we have to spend so much of our energy and effort trying to maintain that closeted-ness, to maintain our secrecy. And that makes us distance ourselves from people. It makes us hold people at arm’s length. It’s hard to love people when you’re doing that. And it’s hard to allow yourself to be loved when you’re holding people at arm’s length.

I think of verses like in the first letter of John where he describes the Christian life as “walking in the light”. I think that coming out can be one way of walking in the light and saying that I don’t want to be struggling with my questions and wrestling with my sexuality on my own. I want to do it in community and I want to do it with honesty and in company with other Christians.

Can homosexuality’s sexual or genital expression be separated from other expressions of homosexuality that might be redeemed or sanctified?

As I read Scripture, what Scripture focuses on as being outside the bounds of God’s will is genital sexual expression. So, whenever you find Scripture passages talking about homosexuality, I don’t think they’re talking about what we would refer to today as the whole package of sexual orientation. I think that Scripture is focusing on specific acts of sin, specific genital acts, and saying that if you’re in Christ those acts are out of bounds, they’re wrong for you.

But I think there is so much about being gay and so much of the experience of same-sex

“

People who are gay or lesbian can actually find that they are called to a positive way of loving and not just a form of selfdenial.” attraction that is about friendship and connection and intimacy with people of the same-sex. I think that so many of those things can be sanctified. I can offer myself as a sexual being for friendship. I can pursue intimate relationships with other men that are not sexually active but that are still very deep and meaningful. And I don’t stop being gay when I’m in those relationships. I don’t stop being a sexual creature when I’m in those relationships. And in so far as that’s true, there is a kind of way that my same-sex attraction can be, if you like, channelled or directed in a way that is life-giving.

Have you seen examples of how that might work in a Christian context, and also be welcomed?

One thing that is striking about church history is that there have been a lot of examples of friends who celebrated their love for one another in public ways. They wrote about their friendship or asked their pastors to pray a public blessing over their friendship.

So we have a lot of examples in church history of really rich, deep, intimate friendship that were not romantic, sexual relationships.

I think when we rediscover those models, they provide us some help as we think about what it would mean for someone like me to be in close relationships with other people.

In my own life, this has usually looked like living in community with other peer friends. Right now I share a house with a married

couple who are expecting their first child. And I think they view themselves as my family members in a real way and they want to see me live out a life of intimacy in a real way with them. In other words, they look at me and say “Wes, we know that you’re gay. We know that you’re pursuing a life of singleness, because that’s what you think God is calling you to, and we want to be people who draw you out into deeper friendship and commitment with us.” And I think that kind of thing is what I hope will happen more in the churches.

People who are gay or lesbian can actually find that they are called to a positive way of loving and not just a form of self-denial.

I think that gay and lesbian people probably especially hunger for friendship because the ones who are pursuing lives of chastity don’t have marriage and parenting open to them. But there are married people who’ll feel like they need friendship just as much as I do. And what I’m trying to do in promoting friendship and recovering friendship is relevant to a lot of people in a lot of life situations.

I think that friendship in the church – if we recover it and try to practice it – is something that can benefit all Christians, not just a subset of same-sex attracted Christians.

How do you think communities can ‘recover’ friendship?

I think one thing that I would encourage is for pastors to teach about it. In my context in the States, there are a lot of good sermons preached about the importance of marriage and family and parenting, and a lot fewer preached on the single life, the importance of intentional community and friendship. I encourage pastors to preach a sermon series on famous friendships in the Bible like David and Jonathan or Ruth and Naomi or Paul and Timothy. And just try to give people a vision for what their friendships could be, how they could be deeper and richer.

Another thing that people could do is look for ways to include each other in their meal times.

I think if we viewed meal times as opportunities for cultivating friendship, that would be one really practical way forward.

Some Christians believe that they have been truly saved from homosexuality. They might classify themselves as “ex-gay”.

What do you think about that?

Sexual desire is on a spectrum.

There are some people who are pretty much exclusively attracted to the opposite sex. There are some people who are pretty much exclusively attracted to the same-sex and there are a lot of people who are in-between.

And I think that some of the best research that’s coming out today would suggest that a lot of us do experience some fluidity in our sexual desire over the course of our lives. Some of us experience some degree of bi-sexuality.

I don’t want to disbelieve stories that my fellow Christians tell me when they say that they have experienced a decrease or diminishment in their same-sex attraction. I guess what I worry about is when those stories are the only stories we tell and we use those stories to set up an expectation that that would be the case for every gay Christian person who comes to faith – that this can be their experience as well.

I think of myself – I’ve been a Christian most of my life. I’ve been in counselling and I’ve prayed lots of prayers for God to change my sexuality and I haven’t experienced pretty much any change at all. And I think what I’ve come to believe is that that’s not a sign of my failure.

That’s not a sign that I’m doing something wrong, necessarily.

It’s simply part of the way the Christian faith goes for certain believers.

What types of ministry have been most helpful to you? And what would you recommend for others?

I would say that the main types of ministry that have been helpful to me are the ones that emphasise the need for me to find a positive sense of calling and vocation for my life. I think a lot of Christian ministry to same-sex attracted people lays a lot of emphasis on what we’re being called away from.

In other words, what we’re being called to deny ourselves and say no to. And I think that’s of course important. But to me the more urgent question has become, ‘What is the right way for me to live?’

How should I express my love for others? How should I receive love from others? And ministry that has helped me think through that question, in terms of community, friendship, commitment to a local church, involvement in rich and familial kinds of friendship – that’s what’s been most important to me in recent years. It’s ministry that casts a vision for what my future could be in the church.

There’s a book that a friend of mine has written called Gay and Catholic by Eve Tushnet. It’s not just for Catholics – there’s plenty in there for all Christians. But Eve talks in the book very powerfully about how every single gay or lesbian person who comes to Christ is called to a life of love. Yes, they are called to a life of self-sacrifice, but they are called to a life of rich, meaningful relationships as well.

And I would love to see that kind of ministry flourish more in the church.

God speaks in the languages of their heart.

Scripture for Indigenous Australians

Many Indigenous Christians find it hard to understand the Bible in English – often, it’s their second or third language.

Working with translation agencies, ministry partners and churches, Bible Society publishes translated Scripture for Indigenous communities across Australia. We also provide children’s literature, tracts and booklets, training material, DVDs, audio recordings and Bible engagement workshops.

Could you help with our 20+ projects this year?

Your tax-deductible donation of:

$30 can help us print God’s Story for the Outback for Adnyamathanha children.

$80 will help pay transport costs for 30 Indigenous

translators and Bible Society advisors as we work together on the Pitjantjatjara Old Testament.

$180 can help us record more of the Kriol Bible for those who cannot read.

Call 1300 BIBLES – 1300 242 537 or visit: biblesociety.org.au/vital

IN DEPTH

AUGUST 2016

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Cover girl meets the grand designer ANNE LIM Tracy Trinita is a quintessential exotic beauty, the child of an Indonesian mother and Brazilian father. But at school in Bali, she felt like an ugly duckling; other students laughed at her and called her “giraffe” because of her height.

When Tracy was 14 years old, her mother entered her into a modelling competition, thinking it might boost her confidence.

Over the next year, Tracy won three modelling competitions, culminating in 1995 when she became the first Indonesian model to win the Elite Model Look International competition, a coup that changed her life overnight.

Suddenly, she was no longer a figure of fun in the playground; everyone started pronouncing her name correctly and for the first time she felt happy and important.

She became Indonesia’s first supermodel, appearing in New York and Paris fashion weeks for top designers such as Yves Saint Laurent and Jean Paul Gautier.

“All of a sudden, I have become famous and have more money than ever before and for the first time I felt really happy,” Tracy says.

“So I built this wrong philosophy when I was 14. I established the fact that if you want to be happy in life you have to be rich and you have to be famous.”

Tracy says she became addicted to seeking more fame and more money, thinking that then she

Hear Indonesian supermodel Tracy Trinita give her testimony this month. would be happy. But after about five years, when she had more money than she needed, more fame than she could ask for, she experienced a crushing hollowness.

“The feeling of emptiness started to hurt my soul and my chest. It was such a heavy burden that I cannot erase, and I realise there should be something more to life than this,” she says.

Friends suggested she try drugs, but she didn’t want to ruin her life in that way. Another friend said, “Just live freely, don’t worry, don’t think deep stuff.” But she was afraid of the consequences for her reputation.

“Then my friend said ‘if you don’t want to live you just die.’ And that

hit me: where do I go if I die?”

Tracy realised that only religion could provide the answer to that question.

“I was thinking, ‘Wait a minute, maybe what I need is God. When I look around me people who have religion seem to be happy and content’ … But then my question was ‘but which religion?’ ” With Muslim and Christian grandparents and Hindu parents, Tracy was confused, so each night she prayed to God, asking him to reveal himself to her.

“Three months later my agent asked me if I want to move from New York to Paris and I said ‘yeah, sure,’ and that’s where God revealed himself through friendship.”

In Paris, a friend took a reluctant Tracy to church. When she looked around at the people in church she was amazed to see their faces were glowing and they seemed happy.

“And that made me realise there is something about Christian faith.”

Tracy had been told that all religions lead to the same god, but as soon as she examined what religions said about the destination of life, she was shocked to discover how different Christianity was.

“Only one says that from your part you cannot do anything because you’re a sinner, but because God so loved you and loved the world he gave his only Son to die for you, so if you believe in him you’re not going to die, you’re not going to perish but have eternal life with him,” she says.

“For me that is one of the main answers that really hit home and I said ‘Lord Jesus, thank you for the kind of love I never felt before. You want me, you want somebody who is not even worthy.’ That was the sweetest message I ever received, and it made me feel so loved by the one who made the universe.”

As a child, Tracy could not express herself well. But as soon as she became a believer, she wanted to share what Jesus had done in her life and she began giving her testimony to friends, in churches and in magazine interviews.

At one public event she shared a stage with a professor from Oxford University, who after hearing her speak, offered her a chance to

study theology at Oxford. So in 2006 she began a theology degree at the Oxford Christian Centre for Apologetics, an experience she describes as “three years of heart surgery where I not only studied theology but God worked in me as well … where God cleansed me again and again.”

In 2008, she asked God to show if he wanted her to go into fulltime ministry by sending a pastor to offer her a job.

“Deep down I was thinking there was no way someone would want to hire an ex-model to be a pastor in their church, and God in his powerful calling sent a missionary who lived in Jakarta to come to Oxford for summer school.

He asked me, ‘Why don’t you work for us in our church as pastor?’ ” After working as a pastor in Jakarta for four years, she joined Ravi Zacharias Ministries International three years ago as a speaker, evangelist and trainer. In this role, she will speak about the God she calls “the grand designer” during a tour this month of six Australian cities.

“He is the grand designer, he’s the one who authored everything to his perfection, for his beauty, and made an amazing design of my life,” she says.

“God healed me, my insecurities, and the same God that has healed me can heal anyone who believes and puts their trust in him.”

Details: citybibleforum.org/city/ activity/tracy-trinita

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CHARITY FEATURE

AUGUST 2016

A wake-up call for churchgoers: how much are we really giving away?

1 in 5 (20%)

KALEY PAYNE Churchgoers are three times more likely to give over $1000 annually to charity and give a far higher percentage of their income than the average Australian. That’s according to recent research from Dunham+Company, an Australian Christian fundraising and marketing company.

The research conducted by McCrindle, who surveyed over 1000 Australians, showed that churchgoers also give more often, with 79 per cent giving in the last month compared with only 52 per cent of irregular or non-attenders.

Churchgoers are also the most responsive to requests for charitable gifts both online and through the mail. In fact, churchgoers indicated they were more likely to increase their giving in 2016 and 52 per cent of those said they have set a yearly budget for doing so. Within those budgeters, 55 per cent indicated they would prioritise faith-based giving over other charities.

But it’s not all good news when you look at the percentage of income those in the church are actually giving away. Over 73 per cent of top income earning

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regular religious service attenders expect to give more to charities in 2016, while only;

10%

of irregular religious service attenders say they will give more.

15%

of regular attenders give over $1,000 annually compared to only 5% of those who don’t attend church.

Regular vs Irregular Religious Service Attenders

Source: 2016 Australian Charitable Giving Study (Dunham & Co)

churchgoers (earning over $158,000 per year) give less than 0.6 per cent of their income. The average churchgoer isn’t much better, giving only 0.7 per cent of their income.

According to the Australian Taxation Office, the average Australian taxpayer gave 0.32 per cent of their taxable income in tax-

deductible donations in 2012-2013.

“There is some good news for the church,” says Joshua Crowther from Dunham+Company. “We are putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to generosity, compared to the general population.”

But it’s not about making comparisons, suggests Crowther,

who thinks the church as a whole needs to reset its thinking when it comes to giving away our wealth.

“This hard truth may make some of us squirm as we assess our own patterns of giving. If our current levels of giving are an indicator, I think mammon – our love or worship of money – may have the upper hand right now,” said

Crowther. “Imagine if three million regular church attenders gave the baseline 10 per cent. On the back of a napkin, I worked out it would equate to more than $18 billion to fulfill the Great Commission and see the kingdom of God extend in this nation and beyond.”

For the full report, go to: www. dunhamandcompany.com.au

Each month Eternity will highlight a charity from a group that is bringing you this special page.

Promoting the well-being of children.

A practical program for avoidance of harm to children.

Childsafe.org.au

03 9037 6415

PROJECT

JOSEPH

FAMINE IN AFRICA SAVING CHRISTIAN LIVES

barnabasfund.org

AUGUST 2016

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OPINION

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Richard Shumack on the need for nuance

Politics is not really my thing – I prefer the footy any day – but even I’ve noticed the global trend towards “dumbed down” politics.

We see it in the USA, where it beggars belief that a completely unqualified populist like Donald Trump could be taken seriously as a presidential candidate. We see it in the UK, where the vote to exit the EU was explained by one MP, Michael Gove, as being largely because “people in this country have had enough of experts.”

We have just seen it in Australia too. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party swept back into prominence, gaining at least two seats in the Senate, and even 21 per cent of the primary vote in one Queensland seat. It did so on the back of policies like: a call for a Royal Commission

“to determine if Islam is a religion or political ideology”, a ban on the building of new mosques and a ban on further Muslim immigration or the intake of Muslim refugees.

At best these ideas are simplistic, crude and unworkable; at worst they are racist, cruel and dangerously divisive. For many commentators Hanson’s popularity hovers somewhere between laughable and scary, but it would be a mistake to ignore that there are some social and ethical issues to do with Islam that really do need to be taken seriously by governments.

While she is clearly ignorant on many crucial details, Hanson intuitively – and sensibly – gets that political Islam is a real local and global problem. So plainly: • Islamism really is an aggressive

political ideology, and often a totalitarian one at that.

• The religion itself really does have something to do with it.

Traditional Islam was a political faith, and the authoritative texts of Islam can legitimately be read as endorsing its violent enforcement.

• Many Australian Muslims do hold to – or at least have sympathies toward – an aggressive Islamist theology. Perhaps up to one quarter of all Muslims support the imposition of some form of Sharia law as an ideal.

• Jihadi Islamists often do arise from within resettled refugee populations and, on rare occasions, do strategically utilise the refugee highway to enter Western countries.

If this were all that could be said about Islam then you could

probably mount a case that One Nation’s policies seem to be at least broadly on track. The problem, of course, is that there is so much more that needs to be said. Islam, and the issues involved, is more complicated than Hanson makes out. So it is also plain that: • The vast majority of Australian Muslims live ordinary lives and want nothing at all to do with political Islamism.

• Political Islamism, while perhaps legitimate, is a disputed position in Muslim theology, and takes many different forms – very few of which endorse offensive military jihad.

• Most of the support given to Australian intelligence services is provided by Muslim communities continued page 16

Mark /Flickr

With all our minds?

David Starling writes from exile Michael Jensen on singing

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AUGUST 2016

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Our minds

Why is education such a political football?

JIM TWELVES Sixty years ago, Milton Friedman (1955) questioned the role of governments in education. But as a Nobel Prize-winning American economist he accepted that governments have responsibilities to ensure education produces responsible citizens in a peaceful, prosperous society where everyone has an equal opportunity.

Fast forward to today and our education systems depend on which party is in power. Politicians seek to buy our vote with the promise of greater investment in our public schools. But adding dollars does not necessarily add value. It simply focuses the mind and heart on the purchase of new facilities and hi-tech gadgets; consumerism and selfishness rather than the nurture and development of great leaders with high moral values.

Moreover, entrants into teachertraining courses are now required to have three Band 5s or higher in their HSC, or equivalent. I don’t argue against the need to have numerate and literate teachers but I do question whether setting a high academic bar necessarily means that our colleges and universities will now be training brilliant teachers. There are far more telling signs that someone has the gift and calling to teach: their passion for teaching and their

St Andrew’s Cathedral School School Chaplain COMMENCING IN TERM 1, 2017

nikolayhg/ pixabay

from page 15 who are seeking to eradicate radicalism from within their own communities.

• Most importantly, nearly all Muslim refugees are ordinary people who have suffered horribly (and unimaginably to most Aussies) and are genuinely in desperate need.

In the case of Islam, dumbed down public policies aren’t going to cut it. Islam is a millenniumold comprehensive belief system followed, in myriad forms, by almost two billion people from all races, cultures and continents. It has a range of highly-developed theologies, societies and political models. To engage Islam, what’s required is a rich ethic that doesn’t shy away from complex theological, social and political issues.

Fortunately, Christianity provides just such a rich ethic.

Followers of Jesus have no excuse for holding “dumbed down” ethics.

Instead, Jesus sets his followers an extraordinarily high ethical bar: they are to wrestle with loving both justice and mercy at the same time; they are to struggle with both resisting evil and loving their enemy; they are to be both good, faithful citizens of Australia and subversive, transformative citizens of heaven. This call, combined with two thousand years of deep reflection, means Christian ethics has a deep well of nuanced wisdom that can be brought to bear on the engagement with Islam.

Moreover, the Christian ethic has important things to say about theology, society and politics.

As theists, we understand a theological worldview – including how someone could be motivated to give up their life for the sake of an eternal kingdom – and we are uniquely placed to speak to Muslims of a truer vision of God and his interaction with the world.

As those who understand everyone to be made in the image of a God who would stand in our place when we were his enemies, we have a compelling model for responding to every single Muslim (enemy or refugee) with compassion. As those who recognise objective moral law as inbuilt to the universe, we have the reason and framework to both pursue social justice for the oppressed and to bring oppressors to justice.

It is no surprise, then, that we find Australia has some of the leading Christian thinkers and practitioners wrestling in each of these areas of engagement. Many have voices that are heard in high places. I admire these thought leaders so much precisely because I have sympathy for “dumbed down” political thinking. It is easy to retreat into the simplistic us/them ethics of One Nation. It is easy to be fearful. But Jesus doesn’t offer us the simple road. Instead, he calls us to love him with all our minds, and we will need to take a real crack at doing that if we are to come up with the sort of nuanced, wise and creative public policies that will help us live fruitfully in a broken and messy world.

Dr Richard Shumack is a research fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) and also Director of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Other Faiths at Melbourne School of Theology.

Adding dollars to education does not necessarily mean adding value. love for children. This is another example of governments seeking too much control over education.

But there is an alternative.

When parents are blessed with the birth of their children, their instinct is to nurture and train their children. Speaking to parents, the Bible says “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). I believe that the responsibility for education is with the parents. In fact when I trained to be a teacher, the big deal at the time was that as a teacher I would be in loco parentis (standing in the place of the parents). So many parents abdicate their responsibility, perhaps feeling belittled or disenfranchised by the complexity of school that is so different to the school they

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liberty.sydney/identity The St Andrew’s Cathedral School (SACS) Chaplain heads up the Chaplaincy Team that includes another ordained minister and three lay ministers. The Assistant Chaplain is the Head of Christian Development (CD), currently the Rev Sam Hwang.

are vital. The Chaplain is the school’s ‘resident theologian’, as well as a pastoral presence.

The capacity to teach a secondary subject is desirable, as a way of broadening the Chaplain’s engagement with the school beyond his primary role.

St Andrew’s Cathedral School is a K-12 school. The Chaplain is responsible for (but does not necessarily conduct) three Chapel services per week for Junior, Middle and Senior School.

The Chaplain is employed on the same terms as a Rector in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, and licensed as an Assistant Minister to the Dean of Sydney. As such, it is desirable that the Chaplain (and his family) will join the Cathedral congregation.

The Chaplain teaches 29 lessons of CD per fortnight. SACS has introduced a Teaching Christianly framework to integrate Christian perspectives into the whole curriculum.

The Chaplain is one of the team of Teaching Christianly Integrators who work with teaching staff. Training would be provided for the new Chaplain to orient them to this important aspect of SACS expression of its mission.

It is expected that interviews will be conducted from mid-August to early September.

For a full role description and information on how to apply please go to http://www.sacs. nsw.edu.au/contentpages/School-Chaplain

The Chaplain has a role in deepening the biblical and theological understanding of staff for example, through voluntary PTC courses.

The Chaplain is involved in student CRU groups.

This position requires the successful applicant to have a new Working with Children Check clearance in accordance with the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012, prior to employment at the School.

The Chaplain must relate well across the School community but especially to students (most of whom are not Christian). Ability as an apologist as well as an exegete and evangelist

www.sacs.nsw.edu.au Sydney Square, Sydney

remember themselves.

Secondly, teachers are the educators that understand the needs of the children better than anyone, with the exception of their parents. Ministers of education are not generally educators.

They see education through their ideological lens or through a dollardriven political agenda. Let’s give education back to the educated educators!

So what can be done? I urge everyone to write to their local member, federal and state, and encourage them to take education off the political football pitch. And then, whenever you meet a teacher, encourage them, support them and honour them, especially when your own children are watching.

Jim Twelves is the Dean of Education at Alphacrucis College.

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OPINION

AUGUST 2016

17

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Are Christians in exile?

DAVID STARLING

wikipedia/ Dcoetzee

In the lead-up to the recent federal election, the Director of Ministries in the denomination I belong to sent out a letter to the pastors of the denomination that commenced with a pointed parallel between the political and religious circumstances of our day and those of the Israelites addressed in Jeremiah 29, “in exile within an alien and ungodly land”.

He was not alone in drawing a comparison of that sort. A few months earlier, the Nexus16 conference (hosted by a Sydney Anglican church and live-streamed to various locations around the country) adopted as its theme “Ministry in Exile”. And in a recent and widely-read blog post, the Western Australian writer, Steve McAlpine, urged readers to brace themselves for the transition into “Exile Stage Two” – a new level of cultural estrangement, in which it begins to dawn on us that we are living not in Athens (as social oddities on the margins of public life, trying to find an entrée into the cultural conversation) but in Babylon (as the objects of scorn and derision, periodically dragged into the town square to be flayed and humiliated).

Exile, it seems, is the flavour of the year. So are Christians really in exile? Is there a valid biblical basis for the recent flurry of “exile” language? And if there is, what are the implications for life and ministry? If the question is asked at a literal level, the answer (for the great majority of us in twenty-first century Australia, at any rate) is of course a straightforward “no”.

Most of us, truth be told, live pretty comfortable, settled, suburban lives, in the country that we were born in or chose to adopt as our own. The circumstances of our daily lives could hardly be more different from those endured by people who have been forcibly displaced from homeland and family.

But if we are readers of the New Testament then we will know that exile language can be used metaphorically as well as literally.

Occasionally, within the pages of the New Testament, we meet examples of men and women who are exiles in the literal sense of the word – John on the island of Patmos, for example (Rev 1:9), or Priscilla and Aquila in Corinth (Acts 18:2). But in the vast majority of instances where the language

Nicolas Poussin’s painting Landscape with Saint John on Patmos in 1640 or the idea of exile is used within the New Testament, the intended meaning is metaphorical, not literal, and the range of possible meanings that can be carried by the metaphor is quite broad.

If the question about twentyfirst-century Australian Christians is asked with that broader, metaphorical range of meanings in mind, then the answer could variously be “No longer,” “For a little while more,” and “Probably somewhat more than we’re used to.”

“No longer” Because the Babylonian exile endured by the people of Judah in the Old Testament was a fate that came upon them as a punishment for their sins (in fulfilment of the curses of the law and the warnings of the prophets), the image of exile is frequently used in the New Testament as a picture of alienation and estrangement from God. For Gentile believers, the situation of the Babylonian exiles, “far away” from home and from God, is a powerful metaphor for life before they came to know Jesus. “Once,”

Paul reminds the Ephesians, “you were far away” but now you have been “brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:13; note also the echo of Isa 57:19 in Eph 2:17).

“For a little while more” But that is not the whole story: the homecoming accomplished through the saving work of Jesus is one that we experience both now and not yet. Repeatedly, within the pages of the New Testament, believers are encouraged to see themselves as members of a community whose true home is not in this age but in the age to come, citizens of a heavenly city (e.g., Gal 4:25–26; Phil 3:20; Heb 11:13–16; 12:22–24). In this sense of the metaphor, the time of exile is not our past but our present, and the years of this lifetime are the “little while” that we must endure before the time of our true homecoming (cf. 1 Pet 1:17; 5:10). In this sense of the metaphor, Christians are always exiles, whether they realise it or not (and the frequent reminders of this in the New Testament suggest that even in the

first century it was not an easy or obvious image to keep in mind).

“Probably somewhat more than we’re used to” Still more needs to be said, however. Frequently, within the New Testament, the imagery of exile can be used to refer not only to the time the readers live in (waiting for a city that is to come) but also for the circumstances in which they find themselves as they wait. When exile imagery is used with this sense in view, it generally points to the overlapping realities of the readers’ social circumstances, within a culture whose lifestyle and values are alien to the ways that believers have learned in Christ (e.g., 1 Pet 1:17–18; 4:3–4), and their religio-political circumstances, under the rule of an idolatrous and persecuting empire (e.g., 1 Pet 5:13).

If the “exile” question is asked with this sense of the metaphor in mind, then the answer must necessarily be a complex one. The cultures and political structures of Christendom have never been

a perfect manifestation of the Kingdom of God – far from it!

But as the residue of Christendom slowly leaches out of our own cultural values and political arrangements, the chances are that we will increasingly find ourselves learning to live as exiles in this third, social and religio-political sense.

Living as Exiles If that is the case, then the chances are that in the years ahead we will find ourselves more and more frequently noticing the resonances between the circumstances of the New Testament’s original readers and those in which we live today.

It is striking that the letter in which that sense of the metaphor is most prominent is also one of the places in the New Testament in which the readers are most vigorously and repeatedly warned against withdrawal and disengagement from the communities they live in. Like the exiles addressed in Jeremiah 29 (and the similarities can hardly be accidental) the readers of the letter are to “do good … seek peace and pursue it” (1 Pet 3:11). They are to live “such good lives among the pagans” that the slanders of their enemies are silenced and their neighbours are drawn to worship God (2:12, 15). The “good deeds” that they are repeatedly urged to perform include not only the abstention from evil desires that ought to characterise their private morality (2:11) but also, for those with means to perform them, the kind of public acts of benefaction that might conceivably meet with the governor’s commendation (2:14). Most of all, they are to testify to Jesus, by what they do, what they suffer, and what they say (3:13–17).

Whatever the outcome of the current political upheavals, the chances are that the changing circumstances we are entering into will require us to learn new levels of resolve, resistance, generosity and evangelistic courage. In all likelihood, the years ahead will be years of exile to a greater extent than most of us have been familiar with. The good news is that we’ve been there before, and in the pages of the New Testament (and the Old!) we will find rich resources to equip us for such a time.

David Starling lectures in New Testament at Morling College in Sydney. His doctoral studies were on the use of Old Testament exile imagery in Paul’s letters.

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OPINION

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AUGUST 2016

Letters The left is not free of sins either

The US presidential conventions have come and gone and I am struggling to come to terms with some of the more bizarre implications.

On the final night of the Republican convention, victorious presidential nominee Donald Trump thanked the Christian evangelicals – a powerful voting bloc – for their support. He added, perhaps with a touch of uncharacteristic humility, that he might not deserve it.

Even Trump, the thrice-married reality TV star and casino and real estate mogul, seemed surprised that he had so easily won over the leadership of the religious right.

He’s not alone there.

The evangelicals’ embrace of Trump caused some other Christian leaders to react with disbelief, astonishment and despair.

I wrote my new book, Faith, to explain to secular Australians that the values that count come from faith in Christ, not from some

Gage Skidmore / wikipedia

Tim Costello on Trump and the God card

Donald Trump – now leading in the polls. pragmatic political agenda to gain worldly influence.

It is faith that not only shapes the values that address my personal need for salvation but also the bigger public issues.

That same faith also shapes my political instincts and preferences.

But I notice as a Christian that some other Christians have a different take – such as those who have tried to simultaneously play both the Trump card and the God card, and the 78 per cent of American evangelicals who now endorse the Republican nominee.

How, I wonder, have they been so easily swayed by someone whose values, lifestyle and candidacy most evangelicals loudly opposed just a year earlier?

Once, the evangelicals politically opposed Communism and advanced the idea of a strong America and freedom of religion so the gospel could be preached around the world. That motivation could have been applauded if it

meant freedom for all to practice faith.

But the religious right – attempting to morph their political goals into Christian ‘principles’ – have gone further with a chestbeating tribalism that embraces sanctimonious nationalism, wants to close borders, is pro-guns, hates Muslims, Mexicans, Obama and Hillary and attacks health care for the poor.

Where is the scriptural mandate for this political programme?

And why do I think a Jewish atheist, Bernie Sanders, was closer to scriptural truth in his Democratic convention address with his passion for America’s poor than my evangelical brothers and sisters supporting Trump? Have I got this faith wrong?

Have I misread the question posed in the Book of James: “Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?”

No wonder secular observers are confused.

It is right to recognise the sins in our Christian leaders of the past.

But this does not mean other things they said are to be dismissed.

Or put it the other way around.

Oliver Cromwell, who allowed Jews to settle in England in 1656, is not thereby exonerated from over-reaction in putting down the rebellion in Ireland, even if it is argued that he followed the rules of war at the time.

In judging those of the past we must reckon with the political and religious complexities and prejudices of their age. It took time for the centuries-old relation of church and state to be realigned.

Nor was the hold of Aristotelian philosophy on biblical interpretation and science easily removed.

Copernicus’ work was not seen as valid by most until the 18th century.

Nor should we suppose, as Dr Bunyan (Letters, July) seems to think, that the left wing of the Reformation – Socinians, Unitarians, Quakers etc. – was free of serious inconsistencies and sins too. If we take Scripture seriously we cannot regard Unitarian or Socinian beliefs as of little account if only people’s lives seem “Christlike”. These views need to be opposed, but only with the spiritual means Christ has authorised.

Tolerance took time coming.

King John Sigismund of Hungary (d. 1570) was a Unitarian only in the last year or so of his life. In

his territory no one of the three confessions – Roman, Lutheran or Calvinist – formed a majority. He was also dependent on the Muslim Ottoman rulers. A striking early example of religious tolerance is in the Union of Utrecht (1579) and the forming of the Dutch Republic, and this despite the majority of the population being Calvinistic.

Rowland S. Ward Wantirna, Vic

Creation truth What Michael Bird says (Eternity July) is true. Scripture supports and interprets Scripture. There are no contradictions.

So where in the Scriptures do people find support for the theory that Genesis 1 “is not literal but literary”, and that the story of creation is “a symbolic story to teach us theological and moral truth”? If this is so then the rest of the Bible does not make sense.

The theory that Genesis 1 is an “allegory” undermines the authority of Scripture. “God said”. Are mere mortals contradicting the mighty creator God – implying that God did not do what he said? Are they omniscient?

As God challenged Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?” God’s own son, Jesus and the Apostles believed Genesis 1 to be true history.

Roda Home, Salisbury, SA

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OPINION

AUGUST 2016

19

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Reformation in song Michael Jensen is in full voice freemell /pixabay

You would, in the twenty-first century, think of congregational singing as one of the hallmarks of a Christian gathering.

I have had the occasional friend suggest that it would be perfectly possible to have a church meeting without singing. The really essential components of the gathering of believers are the prayerful opening of the Word of God and the breaking of bread together.

And yet: we sing.

It wasn’t always like this. Music has pretty much always been a part of Christian services, but the idea of singing together was largely forgotten in the centuries before the Reformation in the 1500s.

We do of course hear about the disciples and Jesus singing together before Jesus’s arrest (Matt 26:30) and Paul and Silas singing together in prison (Acts 16:25); and the sharing of a hymn is part of the congregational setting that Paul describes in 1 Cor 14:26.

Something of the purpose of singing together is expressed in two very similar verses, Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 – it is a means by which the gospel itself can inhabit our common life. Listen to Paul in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” What we miss in the English translation is that the “you” in this verse is really “yous”, or “y’all”, as the Americans would say. The gospel of Jesus Christ lives in us as we sing to one another, and to God, with thankfulness.

Singing has that power. Words that we sing become living words.

We don’t simply recite them, we express them. We identify with

Thank God that we don’t need a priest to sing to him on our behalf. them. They start to shape us. We more easily remember them.

The power of congregational singing was something that the leaders of the Reformation actively harnessed. They wanted their congregations to hear the preaching of the gospel in their own languages, to believe it and to respond to it. And they thought that here was such unbelievably good news that it was certainly worth singing about.

Martin Luther, who wrote a number of hymns including the famous A Safe Stronghold Our God is Still, once said: “God has made our hearts and spirits happy through His ideal Son, whom He has delivered up that we might be redeemed from sin, death, and the devil. He who believes this sincerely and earnestly cannot help but be happy; he must cheerfully sing and talk about this, that others might hear it and come to Christ.”

While it is not true, as is commonly said, that Luther adapted drinking songs, it is true that he took musical inspiration from folk music, Gregorian chant, and other musical forms. The key for him was singability: it had to be enjoyable. He introduced partsinging, writing that: “These songs were arranged in four parts to give the young – who should at any rate be trained in music and other fine arts – something to wean them away from love ballads and carnal songs and to teach them something of value in their place, thus combining the

good with the pleasing, as is proper for youth.”

Luther wasn’t simply conceding to the popular style. He was advocating a move away from sentimentality and debasement in the music that captivates the young to something finer, but no less enjoyable.

In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli, who was a very skilful musician and played several instruments, was much more cautious. He actually had music-less services, because he was afraid that music would distract from the Word of God and lead to emotionalism.

Indeed, he had the organ in the People’s Church in Zurich destroyed.

Nevertheless, he wrote several hymns, and wasn’t opposed to the use of music as a vehicle for teaching the Word of God. Chiefly, he was opposed to the chanting and priestly droning of the medieval church.

John Calvin in Geneva was not as enthusiastic as Martin Luther about singing in multiple parts (“polyphony”), but still saw congregational singing as vital to Christian gatherings. Calvin wanted the singing of God’s people to be of God’s Word itself, and so he saw a special place for the singing of the Psalms. He saw singing as a form of corporate prayer.

He wrote: “There is scarcely in the world anything which is more able to turn or bend this way and that the morals of men ... And in fact, we find by experience that it has

a sacred and almost incredible power to move hearts in one way or another. Therefore we ought to be even more diligent in regulating it in such a way that it shall be useful to us and in no way pernicious.’’

So, music is a powerful instrument for good, but it needs to be used carefully because of its potential to move our hearts.

As the Reformation spread around Europe, it produced many collections of hymns, enabled (as always) by the power of the printing press. One of these was the Hymnbook of the Bohemian Brethren, the first German language hymnbook.

The woman who wrote the preface to this hymnbook when it was republished in Strasbourg was one of the Reformation’s most interesting characters – Katharina Schütz Zell. Schütz Zell was married to a priest in 1523 – itself a radical act at the time. She was from the start a prominent voice advocating for the Reformation in the city, publishing a defence of her marriage in the face of stern criticism. She was hospitable to refugees and wrote powerful letters to other Protestant women encouraging them to stay true to the gospel.

By publishing the hymnbook, Schütz Zell hoped to do exactly what Colossians 3:16 urges – to make the Word of Christ dwell in the people of God richly. She wrote in her preface: “I found such an understanding of the works of God in this songbook that I want all people to understand it. Indeed, I ought much rather to call it a teaching, prayer, and praise book than a songbook, although the little word ‘song’ is well and properly spoken, for the greatest praise of God is expressed in song.”

Like the other Reformers, she saw in Christian singing an antidote to the way in which other songs embed in people the wrong kinds of loves. I just have to share her brilliant words: “Since, however, so many scandalous songs are now sung by men and women and also children throughout the world, songs in which all slander, coquetry, and other scandalous things are spread through the world by young and old (and the world likes to have things sung), it seems to me that a very good and useful thing to do … is to convey the whole business of Christ and our salvation in

song, so that the people may thus enthusiastically and with clear voices be exhorted regarding their salvation, and the devil with his songs may not have any place in them.”

She goes on: “Therefore, dear Christian, whoever you are, since you have until now allowed your children and relatives to sing false scandalous songs at the country dances and elsewhere … so now (in response to this clear call which God makes to the world) encourage your children and relatives to sing godly songs in which they are exhorted to seek knowledge of their salvation.

“And teach them to know that they do not serve human beings but God, when they faithfully (in faith) keep house, obey, cook, wash dishes, wipe up, tend children, and similar work that serves human life, and that (while doing this very work) they can also turn to God with the voice of song. And teach them that in doing this, they please God much better than any priest, monk, or nun with their incomprehensible song in the choir … a poor mother would so gladly sleep, but at midnight she must rock the wailing baby and sing it a song about godly things. That is called, and indeed it is, the right lullaby.”

This is an inspiring vision of the role of song in the Christian life. It can accompany the ordinary things of life, and bless these chores. You do not need a priest to sing to God on your behalf. You, the ordinary Christian, can turn your voice in praise and thanksgiving to him, and thus find your heart turned.

You can be filled with the holy desire to love God, and the things of God. Think of the way in which the world today uses music. It is then as now: music inflames lust, and sells things. Advertising jingles speak to the longings of our hearts about products that are for sale.

But what if we had a different song to sing – a song not about consumer goods, but about the God who is love who freely gives of grace?

More than ever before, we need the ministry of song, because the people of God need their hearts, and not simply their minds, tuned to the Word of God. Michael Jensen is the rector of St Mark’s Anglican Church in Sydney and the author of several books.

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OPINION

20

AUGUST 2016

Left, right and ridiculous Greg Clarke reads left to right There’s a cheeky meme doing the rounds at the moment that suggests the Bible is against lefthanders. Its argument is that, since the Bible supposedly states 25 times that southpaws are sinful, it is obviously a ridiculous book and so what it says about matters of history, ethics and sexuality must be equally ridiculous.

Frankly, the whole effort is itself ridiculous.

The Bible is no more against lefthanders than it is against blondes.

For the claimed 25 mentions that might be interpreted (by deranged orcs) as anti-lefthandedness, I can find just as many that might be considered positive or completely neutral on the topic.

Here’s an allegedly negative verse: “He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.”

(Matthew 25:33,NIV). OK, the

left side does seem to receive those under God’s judgment, but can this really be stretched to suggest that lefthandedness is itself wicked?

Other verses are interpreted as preferring righties: “Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power” (Exodus 15:6). In the Bible, the right hand is definitely used as a symbol of authority and strength.

It’s hardly surprising, since 85-90 per cent of us are right-handed, and thus our right hands are our strongest.

So, here’s a different biblical take on lefties: the hero of Israel in Judges 3 is Ehud, who used his lefthandedness to surprise the wicked King of Moab and bring victory to his people. He did it with an unexpected left-handed sword thrust to the belly.

But this is still silly: Ehud’s lefthandedness gave him an advantage, but it had nothing to do with his spiritual state. The fact that we are even talking about it shows how ridiculous religious discussion has become.

Be sure of this: lefties aren’t singled out for special treatment.

They are just as sinful as the rest of us.

This kind of “flat-earth” Bible reading is a staple of the antiChristian brigade. Where they may require exacting standards in a field such as genetics or geology,

“

I was born a sinner too. My sin is mentioned in the Bible 25 times.

I tried to change, but couldn’t ...Luckily society learned to accept us left-handed people.”

- Nicholas Ferroni, educator and activist

those who feel angry at religion seem to be willing to throw their brains out the window when it comes to interpreting the Bible.

Huffington Post describes the man to whom the quote in the cheeky meme is attributed, Nicholas Ferroni, as “a revered educator and historian”. He may well be those things, just with a gaping hole in the area of Bible interpretation.

The level of discussion about religion in our times has got to improve. It has to move beyond the point-scoring meme to genuine engagement with each other, with the texts and practices of religion, and with experts who can guide the discussion. Experts really will help us more than the current suite of comedians, actors and internet trolls.

Religion is the most important

factor in world affairs. History bears this out, as do the news headlines most days. The line of contempt and ridicule that Richard Dawkins and others have encouraged in our times has bred a generation of ignorant loudmouths with keyboards. Grace must return, along with informed discussion.

In fact, the level of basic public understanding of the Bible and the Christian faith simply has to improve. I am fed up with hearing people criticise something they call “Christianity” which bears no resemblance to the teachings of Christ.

Of course, we Christians are also to blame and, as Jesus taught us, we are to take the log out of our own eye before worrying about the specks blurring the vision of others.

We have often given onlookers what might be described as a “free hit”.

Maybe we could start by gaining a clearer grasp of the Bible ourselves. Intelligent, informed Bible reading is about the best social service we can give. It grows in us an understanding of ourselves, our neighbours, our environment and our God, and that can only bring about good.

Raise your hand and promise to get on with this: right hand or left, either will do just fine.

Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia.

Bible Stat There are 13 New Testaments in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, with 2 more to be published later this year.

BUILDING

BRIDGES 2016 Preaching Conference presented

by Morling College FEBC changes 1000 lives for Christ every 15 minutes we’re on air.

Big impact. Small donation.

$15

Fund fifteen minutes of radio programs, heard by thousands.

$30 Give a solar or wind-up radio which is

shared and used by up to 25 people.

$45

Give a radio and fund fifteen mintues of radio programs.

THE PREACHER AS A BRIDGE BUILDER BETWEEN THE BIBLICAL WORLD AND THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

12-13 September 2016 This interactive, two-day conference features two guest speakers and includes practical workshops valuable for beginning and seasoned Bible teachers alike.

Full Registration: $180 INTERNATIONAL GUEST SPEAKER Ajith Fernando Award-winning author and arguably Asia's leading evangelist GUEST SPEAKER David Rietveld Senior Pastor for New Peninsula Baptist Church and gifted speaker

www.morlingcollege.com/events 122 Herring Road, Macquarie Park NSW 2113 | (02) 9878 0201 enquiries@morling.edu.au