Eternity - September 2017 - Issue 84

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Number 84, September 2017 ISSN 1837-8447

Brought to you by the Bible Society

Going postal Australia’s homeless - aiming for zero

Are we on the wrong side of history?

RICE Movement’s gospel growth

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NEWS

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Obadiah Slope

Offence “unavoidable” when preaching the gospel ANNE LIM

DOGGONE IT: A Facebook meme that could be popular this month.

WHY HE’S WORRIED ABOUT THE USA: “If you lose any sense of being part of anything bigger, then why should you care about your fellow man?” General James Mattis, Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense tells The New Yorker that the country is coming apart.

DOUBLED UP: As more and more MPs and senators are exposed as dual citizens, Obadiah is reminded that all Christians are dual citizens.

NOT US: Camp Obadiah between Taree and Port Macquarie on the Pacific Highway in NSW sounds great. It has its own lake and sits between a couple of national parks.

But it’s not named after this column.

A church from the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches was there last month.

SEPTEMBER 2017

A level of mutual offence between the followers of Islam and Christianity was the price of religious freedom, Barnabas Fund argued at the retrial of two street preachers at Bristol Crown Court in England.

“We are very thankful that at the retrial in June, with the help of our expert witness statement, the guilty verdicts against Michael Overd and Michael Stockwell were overturned,” Barnabas Fund CEO Hendrik Storm told Eternity.

Overd and Stockwell had been convicted of religiously aggravated harassment after angry shoppers in Bristol city centre, in July 2016, chanted “go home” when the preachers reportedly shouted: “All Muslims will burn in hell” and “You need to obey God.” At the February 2017 trial, the public prosecutor said that quoting parts of the King James Bible in the context of modern British society “must be considered to be abusive and is a criminal matter.”

At the retrial, Barnabas Fund explained that it is in the nature of Christian-Muslim relations that strong views will be expressed that are central to the beliefs of one faith but regarded as offensive by the other faith. For example, the explicit teaching of the Koran denying the divinity of Jesus and

his sacrificial death on the cross is offensive to many committed Christians. Equally, Christian claims that Jesus Christ is the only way to God and that the Koran is not the word of God, are offensive to many Muslims.

“Because the Bible and the Koran teach contradictory things, the acceptance of this level of mutual offence is, in effect, the price of freedom of religion,” Barnabas Fund stated.

In November Barnabas Fund plans to respond to the West’s

challenge to religious freedom by launching a campaign called “I am not ashamed.”

Jude Simion, Chief Operating Officer for Barnabas Fund Australia, said the campaign was part of an annual event to support and pray for the persecuted church “This year Barnabas Fund is also looking at the West and at how churches are potentially persecuted. Religious freedom is becoming questioned; you have controls over religious freedom and your conscience,” Simion said.

News 2-3 In Depth 5-7 The Vote 8-10 Opinion 11-16 Bible Society 13

Quotable

Court for comments JOHN SANDEMAN Presbyterian pastor Campbell Markham and street preacher David Gee have been hauled before Tasmania’s Anti-discrimination Commissioner following a complaint about their comments on same-sex marriage.

The comments were made back in 2011, at a time of intense debate in Hobart.

“Back then, Hobart was a bit of a hotspot on these issues,” says Markham. As the convener of the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania Social Justice Committee, he has

been expected to take a lead on controversial issues.

“I won’t be changing a word of what I wrote, unless someone can point out something unbiblical.”

David Gee works for Markham’s Cornerstone Church in Hobart, one day per week as an evangelist.

Gee works a further one and a half days funded by 513, a street preaching group.

Please read the whole story at eternitynews. com.au/australia/ pastor-street-preacherface-anti-discriminationcomplaint/

Michael Jensen “If you are like Christ, you will stand for purity and faithfulness, when the surrounding culture gives licence to unbridled desire.”

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NEWS

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Our Mob wins book of the year TESS HOLGATE

Our Mob, God’s Story features artwork by Max Conlon and other artists. eyes of Australia’s first Australians.

Published by Bible Society Australia, the book represents an “amazing journey” over five years for Bible Society’s Louise Sherman, who edited the book with South Australian author Christobel Mattingley.

Max Conlon, the well-known Aboriginal artist from the Kabi Kabi tribe in Cherbourg, Queensland, sees his biblical paintings as a tool to serve God and share Christ. “It’s really good because it engages people, unsaved people, and Christians

News brief

who are going through struggles in life and it builds them up,” said Conlon earlier this year, one of 66 Indigenous artists who have contributed to Our Mob, God’s Story.

Artist Glendora Naden says of her painting So Loved, which appears in the book, “This painting is based on the verse John 3 verse 16, a favourite verse from Sunday school days on the mission. God loved the world so much that he gave his son to die that we might have life. The groups on the side of the painting represent the people of the world showing all different countries. The top of the painting is the heavenly realm where God is, and a much anticipated place for all believers.”

The awards are organised by SparkLit (formerly SPCKA), which supports Christian publishing in the majority world.

Catholics back Indigenous Bibles ANNE LIM Catholic bishops have offered full and enthusiastic endorsement of Bible Society Australia’s Indigenous translation projects and urged churches to support them.

In a letter to clergy this month, Catholic Archbishop Christopher Prowse of Canberra and Goulburn Archdiocese expressed his “hearty

approval” of Bible Society’s Remote and Indigenous Ministry, particularly the translation of Scripture into Indigenous languages such as Murrinhpatha and Modern Tiwi.

“As we know, our Aboriginal people are a profoundly spiritual people,” Archbishop Prowse wrote.

“I believe this project will bring this to another level altogether, by

Source: NCLS

Our Mob, God’s Story has taken out the prize for the 37th Annual Australian Christian Book of the Year at a ceremony in Melbourne. The judges called the book “beautiful, confident and irresistible.”

“Sixty-six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from the city and the bush tell the story of the wonderful things God has done for their people. They paint in a dazzling variety of styles and write with uncommon wisdom and generosity. These artists share their vision of Jesus in order to bring us together as brothers and sisters,” said the judges.

Christobel Mattingley, who coedited the book with Bible Society’s Louise Sherman, honoured the traditional owners of the land in Melbourne’s east, and said, “I’ve been fortunate to work with Aboriginal people since 1975, and I knew many Aboriginal artists … I want to thank all the artists who’ve given their work freely for use in this book.”

Sherman said, “we have many unique voices in this country, particularly Indigenous voices, that this world needs to hear.”

Bible Society CEO Greg Clarke said, “thanks so much to SparkLit for this award. It’s a truly wonderful way to mark the work of these people. It has brought the Bible alive for Australians.”

Our Mob, God’s Story takes you on a biblical journey through the

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using all their gifts to bring about a flourishing of the word of God for Australia in our day.”

He said the translation projects into Murrinhpatha, Modern Twi, Eastern Arrernte and Kriol Indigenous Scriptures would “give wonderful access to Aboriginal Australians in remote homelands of Australia. An access that has not hitherto been available.”

GOOD AND BAD (BUT NOT UGLY): Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) founder John Dickson is the keynote speaker for this year’s national prayer breakfast in Canberra on Monday October 16.

He will be presenting an update on For the Love of God: How the church is better and worse than you ever imagined, a documentary to be released in early 2018.

ETERNITY IN SONG: Colin Buchanan, has penned a song about Mr Eternity, Arthur Stace and the one -word sermon he wrote on the streets of Sydney. Bible Society’s Acorn Press is publishing his biography and Buchanan will perform at the launch.

BOMBED: Jaden Duong, who attempted suicide, and succeeded in blasting the bottom floors of the Australian Christian Lobby HQ in Canberra, had worked as a gay activist and had recently done internet searches on gay marriage, the ACL and plastic explosives.

He has been charged with arson, having loaded a rented van with gas bottles and lighting them. He has pleaded not guilty due to mental impairment.

REDEEMING HIS TIME: The Canadian pastor recently freed from imprisonment in North Korea, has shared how he “prayed without ceasing” and memorised over 700 Bible verses during his two-anda-half years in a labour camp. Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim was imprisoned

by Pyongyang in January 2015 for carrying out “subversive activities.”

SEPTEMBER 2017

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IN DEPTH

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Bringing the good news to wherever you are

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Brian Rosner on the books that are in the Bible

Isaac Cheng

Steve Chong at a Sydney RICE Rally, one of various events and groups where he speaks with people about giving their life to Jesus.

BEN MCEACHEN In different places every week, across Australia and the world, Steve Chong asks people to join Team Jesus. That’s his specialised job. For the past three years, the founder of youth-focused ministry RICE Movement, Chong has been “released” to be an evangelist. The vibrant speaker spends his time as an “impact player” whose sole task is to provide a fresh approach to what Christian communities already are on about: inviting others to get on side with Jesus.

“I know I’m not the main player; I think the main game is the local church, week to week, what they are doing,” explains Chong, who led a Presbyterian church in Sydney’s south for seven years before turning to itinerant work.

“I come in and even though it’s not rocket science, I simply say this: ‘Here it is, guys – Jesus loves you. He’s died for your sins. He’s risen from the dead. You need to give your life to him, and I’ll tell you when you need to give your life to him … Now. Why would you do it tomorrow?’ What happens is

people respond because you put it on the table.”

Something of a human dynamo who seems to not lack for energy, Chong feels like he picks “the low-hanging fruit” cultivated by the Christian groups he visits.

Whether it’s a small youth group of 10 kids or a bigger conference in Melbourne or Taiwan, Chong plays the same “impact” role wherever he goes.

The risk of pride in such a position is obvious and Chong has worked at keeping his ego in check. “There are a few ways you

can stay humble,” says Chong. “One of them is to remember, with fear, who you are serving. That any glory taken away from Jesus is a really, really bad thing to do … and defeats the main aim of the person I am proclaiming.” Chong also surrounds himself with a board of older, trusted Christian men who lovingly pull him down a peg or two if his “head starts to blow up.”

Under the “Believe” banner of RICE Movement, the sort of itinerant “evangelist” that Chong is seems quaint in 2017. Almost 60 years on from the nation-shaking

Billy Graham Crusades of 1959 and decades after it was popular to start up para-church ministries, Chong would like to see more people like him.

“I don’t think there are many doing what I am doing and I think that’s a shame. We don’t need a whole room full of ‘impact’ players, otherwise we would have no one on the field. But we do need more to shake things up a bit.”

Trained in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney by renowned evangelist John Chapman, Chong speculates continued page 6

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Good news

same thing, over and over.

He could switch on autopilot and robotically call people to give their lives to Jesus. Chong just can’t conceive of that happening, though, given he is tasked with steadily sharing “the most exciting news in the world.”

“I’m a pretty passionate guy but it’s not purely because of my personality. It’s because I’m really passionate about what I do. I really believe there is nothing more important than for people to move out of death and into life as they understand Jesus.

“The moment I get a little bit bored about seeing the response, I think I should quit. But, for me, you don’t get bored of your

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first love. It’s like, ‘do I get bored of being married?’ I hope not.

Sure, you have tough times but [my wife] Naomi is the love of my life, humanly speaking. And that’s trumped by Jesus, who is the deepest love of my life. And I’m not going to get bored telling people about him.”

Contact or support Steve Chong at www. ricemovement. org/believe

Tom Fewchuk

From page 5 that “in an era gone by, the upfront evangelist … was seen as much more of a needed and acceptable role.” Stressing he is not an expert, Chong only has theories about why itinerant preaching appears to have diminished.

He speculates that the list of roles outlined in Ephesians 4 (“And [Jesus] personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.” Eph 4:11) might have suffered from some being emphasised over others. In the conservative evangelical circles in

which Chong’s faith and skills have grown, he has observed “the pin-up gift and ministry pathway to get to is someone who can theologically handle well the Scriptures” on a weekly basis, in a local church.

Such encouragement into a congregation or parish setting might be at the cost of other ministry roles, such as evangelism. “What I’m trying to say is that evangelism hasn’t been championed as a really soughtafter and looked-to gift.”

Perhaps another reason that being a roaming evangelist isn’t more prominent is because, well, people fear it could get boring.

Chong agrees: the potential for boredom is real when you do the

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IN DEPTH

SEPTEMBER 2017

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The books that are in the Bible BRIAN ROSNER What you find on someone’s book shelf can be quite revealing. It certainly is in God’s case. The metaphor of God’s books in heaven runs throughout the Bible and tells us much about his dealings with us human beings on earth. According to the Bible, there are three types of books in God’s library.

THE BOOK OF LIFE

THE BOOKS In Revelation 20, having your name in the book of life is decisive as to whether someone is saved or not. But other volumes are also mentioned: And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

The lake of fire is the second death.

Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev 20:12-15; cf. 3:5; 17:8; 21:27).

What is referred to simply as the “books” (Rev 20:12) are presumably the records of the lives of those whose names are not found written in the book of life, which form the basis of their judgment and condemnation.

The book of life being decisive for our acquittal at the Last Judgment

underscores the grace and mercy of God towards those whose names are therein written. The existence of the books, on the other hand, carries a more sobering message.

THE BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE If God records the lives of those who do not put their trust in him to hold them to account, there is another book that he writes of the lives of those who trust in Christ; but it exists for a very different purpose.

Malachi 3:13-15 reports that some of God’s people are saying that there is no point in serving God, obeying his commands or in fasting and repenting. Worse still, those who turn their backs on God seem to be getting away with it: You have said, “It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.”

Those who do seek the Lord are understandably discouraged by this

state of affairs. Doesn’t God notice when people flout his authority? Is there no difference between those who are faithful to him and those who are not? The issue strikes at the heart of their identity as the people of God. Are they special to him?

Does he notice their efforts to live in faith and obedience?

Their first response is to talk things over: “Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other” (v. 16a). Whatever the exact nature of their discussion, “the LORD listened and heard.” Moreover, “a book of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured his name” (v. 16).

The best background against which to understand this “book of remembrance” is in terms of God as the divine King surrounded by his heavenly servants instructing a scribe to record an event in the royal archives. Esther 2:23 notes a “recording in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.” In Esther 6:1 “the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign” is ordered for the king. And in Ezra 5:17 a search of the “royal archives” takes place. The book of remembrance is not the same

as the book of life, that heavenly register of the faithful. Nor is it the record of the deeds of the unrighteous from which God will mete out justice (cf. Dan 7:10; Rev 20:12). Rather, it is an ongoing account of the words and deeds of the God-fearers. Those who sought to honour God’s name needed reassurance that God knew of their plight and was taking notice. The same sentiment is present in Psalm 56 where the psalmist, faced with “enemies in hot pursuit” (v. 1), asks God to “record my misery; list my tears on your scroll – are they not in your record?” (Ps 56:8).

Whereas the knowledge of God might sometimes seem ethereal and removed from our daily lives, the fact that we are known by God even in our darkest days is a great comfort. The book of remembrance confirms that God knows the struggles of our lives.

Dr Brian Rosner is the Principal of Ridley College, Melbourne. This article is adapted from Known

by God: A Biblical Theology of Personal Identity, with permission from Zondervan. On September 12-14 he will deliver the New College Lectures on personal identity. Visit newcollege.unsw.edu.au/lectures

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The first and perhaps bestknown is a list of names. In both testaments of the Bible, an eternal ledger of the names of those who belong to God is mentioned, most often termed “the book of life.”

The existence of such a book ties in with the Bible’s consistent interest in genealogies, family lists and national registers in Israel. In biblical thought, names matter, especially those of people known

by God. An early reference concerns God’s wrath in response to the idolatry of the golden calf in Exodus 32: So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin – but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book” (vv. 31-33).

The book that God has written seems to contain the names of those whose sins God has forgiven.

The rest of the references in the Bible to this book are remarkably consistent on this point.

References in Daniel 12 and Psalm 69 reinforce the idea that those whose names are in the book are destined for salvation and those whose names are not will face judgment: At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise.

There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people – everyone whose name is found written in the book – will be delivered” (Dan 12:1).

The New Testament understands the book of life along similar lines.

Those whose names are recorded in the book of life are told to rejoice (Luke 10:20) and the church of the firstborn are described as those “whose names are written in heaven” (Heb 12:23).

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SEPTEMBER 2017

THE VOTE

Reasons for ‘No’

LYLE SHELTON on a vote for freedom If Australian Christians who hold to the Bible’s view of marriage and family do not participate during this people’s vote, future generations will ask “why not?”

There are three reasons to vote “no.”

The first is because as Christians, we are called to be a voice for the voiceless.

Redefining marriage in law redefines families because the right to marry is a compound right which includes the right to form a family.

Same-sex marriage activists are pushing for Australia’s ban on commercial surrogacy to be lifted, and their lobbying has reached the ears of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). In a 2015 report, the AHRC canvassed the need to legalise commercial surrogacy so two men can enjoy full “marriage equality.”

It is the responsibility of Christians to stand with and for those who do not have the backing of the AHRC, including the vulnerable women who will be enticed to sell their eggs, rent their wombs and then hand over their babies. Christians must also speak up for those children who will be raised without a mother or father as a result of the creation of a public policy which says that’s okay.

Yes, it is true that same-sex couples are raising children now, but it is not all rainbows.

Lesbian-raised Millie Fontana is a friend of mine. She is not a Christian but has spoken at ACL events, thanking Christians for being the only ones in this debate to stand up for the rights of people like her.

She says there’s another side to the rainbow. Sadly, her voice is

unwelcome in this debate.

The second reason to vote “no” is for freedom. The same-sex marriage movement will concede only narrow religious freedom protections for professional clergy only. And even that is through gritted teeth.

Some, like Shelley Argent of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), want even the protections for professional clergy abolished. Chris Pycroft, Co-convener of the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, told the Senate that if religious freedom exemptions are to be granted, they should be reviewed in two years.

It is naive to think that a movement which likens opposition to same-sex marriage to racism and hate speech will allow any exceptions to stand.

In Australia, Archbishop Julian Porteous was taken to the Tasmanian anti-discrimination tribunal for distributing Christian teaching on marriage.

The most prominent leader of Australia’s same-sex marriage movement, Rodney Croome, said Archbishop Porteous was distributing hate and prejudice.

This is what the leaders of the same-sex marriage movement think of the Bible.

The third reason to vote “no” is to uphold the truth about gender.

Justine Greening, the UK Minister for Women and Equalities, recently said men being able to identify as women with the stroke of a pen was the next “step forward” since same-sex marriage was legalised in 2013. In London a Jewish school has failed education authority inspections and is in danger of closing because it refuses to teach children that their gender is fluid.

In Ontario, Canada, a Greek Orthodox father, Steve Tourloukis, lost his bid in the Supreme Court to have his children exempted from radical LGBTIQ sex education.

The consequences for all Australians are real, and we have a responsibility to be informed.

If we are silent about basic issues of justice for children, future generations will condemn us.

Lyle Shelton is Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby and a Director of the Coalition for Marriage.

Most of these opinion pieces have been edited for length. Read the full text at eternitynews.com.au

We’ll lose friends

CAMPBELL MARKHAM counts the cost of voting ‘No’ My heart aches. Friendships everywhere are shattering.

• One dear friend described how his parents confronted him over the marriage issue. They had read one of my articles and asked: “Is this what you believe?”

• Another said that her sister in Brazil, and a long-time friend in Mexico, are angry for her Christian beliefs about marriage: “LGBTIQ people are born that way, but you choose to be a Christian!”

• My daughter described a group chat where friends rage against Christians for their convictions about LGBTIQ issues. It is excruciating for her.

• A lady in my church told me how angry her husband is about these things, and she can no longer talk about her faith at home.

• A man in our church community thinks of leaving us. He is loved, but has a different view about marriage and feels that he can’t stay.

These are five drops in an ocean of broken relationships, and every drop is bitter. It doesn’t matter how often we say that we don’t hate anyone, and that we can disagree without hating. It doesn’t matter how often we show by our actions that we love and don’t hate.

Australia has made up its mind: if you won’t accept the LGBT programme, you are hateful and you deserve to be put in your place.

And so the words of Jesus, that we have heard 200 times, now emerge into deeply disturbing reality.

“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown

before my father in heaven. Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to turn, ‘a man against his father, and daughter against her mother, a daughter-inlaw against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household’” (Matt 10:32-36). Jesus said that he would divide humanity, and now we live that.

Jesus’ total plan for sex and marriage and family is distinct and unambiguous: “A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matt 19:5-6).

LGBTIQ sex, marriage, and family ethics flatly contradict Jesus’ plan. To be a Christian, therefore, is necessarily to stand distinctly against LGBTIQ ethics.

We are at heart dividing over Jesus, and this means dividing over two distinct worldviews and a constellation of differences.

Don’t trade Jesus’ truth for friendship. The greatest need for people in our lives is not our friendship but Christ. The greatest need is not peaceful and quiet relationships but Jesus’ saving death. Yes, fight hard to keep your relationships, but never at the expense of truth, or by keeping the kind of silence that communicates ambivalence about the truth.

Accept with sorrowful hearts that many of your relationships will break. Jesus promised it. It is a sign that his truth is being heard and wrestled with. And though we should weep for lost friends, we should never despair.

Our friendships may one day be restored, bringing about something far better.

If loving Christ and submitting to his teaching means shattered relationships, then we must not be surprised, but weep and pray and leave it in the hands of him who knows best.

And he will do Wonders.

Campbell Markham is a Presbyterian pastor in Hobart, who is the subject of a complaint before the Tasmanian Antidiscrimination Commissioner

Churchgo to same s Not opposed to SSM Unsure

13% 13.7%

Opposed to SSM

73.2%

All Churches

76%

Anglican

Source: 2011 NCLS Attender Survey // Attitudes to

Please

BRIAN HOUSTON says Christian convictions are essential to form a free society

Why I won’t tell my church how to vote disagree with us.

The Christianity we see in the New Testament assumes a society and moral order that is fundamentally different in outlook to the way of being in the world produced by the gospel.

I believe the best version of a liberal, secular democracy is pluralistic. If I want my definition of marriage recognised by law, and it comes from what God says a good and flourishing life looks like, then I should be prepared (because of the Golden Rule) to make space for others to have their definition of marriage recognised by law.

I believe that religious freedom is a big part of pluralism, and that all people are worshippers, whether they worship God, or something like sex and marriage; that worship is about our primary

2 3 Why NATHAN CAMPBELL will not be voting

1

The Golden Rule (“treat others as you would have them treat you”) is an important command for Christians to pursue as we live together with neighbours who

4

love and our vision of the good or flourishing life.

Romans 1 seems to make a connection between what we choose to worship – creator or created things – and how we live in the world.

I believe the plebiscite is a bad idea (and poorly executed); that democracy is not about populism and “majority rules” but about balancing competing and different visions of the good life, and making space at the table for all views to be protected and represented in our life together. I think Christians should be particularly concerned about how minority groups in our society are treated.

I’d much rather encourage people in my congregation to love their neighbours, regardless of their religion or sexuality,

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6

because it’s in our Christ-shaped love for those who are different (our following of the Golden Rule), that the message of the gospel as the ultimate account of human flourishing actually has sense. I don’t want to fight for Christian morals apart from the gospel, because seeing the world God’s way and living in it as those being transformed into the image of Jesus actually requires his Spirit (Romans 8).

I believe that our current public posture (as the “institution” of the church in Australia, or the political arm of Christendom) is damaging the gospel by, among other things, failing to take points 1 to 6 into account.

I have big problems with any “Christian” activity that feels coercive or manipulative. I don’t

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think coercion is consistent with the gospel of the crucified king who ultimately renounced human power and influence.

I don’t want to talk to my gay friends and neighbours about why the church doesn’t want them to enjoy what they understand as a basic human right in the context of telling people how to vote in the plebiscite. I want to talk to them about the goodness of Jesus, and the (I believe objectively) better life that is produced if we worship the God who is love, and created us to love, rather than what’s wrong with their “worship.”

I don’t want to bind people’s consciences to follow my lead, or my vote.

Nathan Campbell is campus pastor at a Presbyterian church in Brisbane’s South Bank.

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SEPTEMBER 2017

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Don’t shift

oers opposed sex marriage 91%

88%

85%

The first question LUCY GICHUHI was asked as a new Senator was on redefining marriage

75% 64%

56%

Baptist Catholic Pentecostal & CofC Lutheran Uniting

those who are gay and dismiss their desire to pursue happiness.

As a Christian pastor, I will always teach and preach according to Scripture and my personal convictions, but I cannot make other people’s choices for them.

God created humanity with a free will and I care about all people including those who believe differently to me.

In less than a month, Australians will receive the ballot papers which give us all the ability to cast a vote on the issue of same-sex marriage.

Hillsong Church already functions well and without impediment in other parts of the world where same-sex marriage is legal, and as long as we are not forced through

legislation to compromise our biblical convictions, we can quite comfortably continue to function whatever the outcome of this plebiscite.

However, it must be emphasised that for Christians to obtain an outcome consistent with their beliefs, they must vote. I believe that many Australians who are often referred to as the “silent majority” feel strongly on this subject but allow louder and often more aggressive voices to control the public dialogue.

This plebiscite provides us all with an equal voice and we should not waste this opportunity.

Brian Houston is Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church.

I want to ask people to take time to stop and think, “Exactly what are we asking for?” Should we change the wording of the Marriage Act? Or should we give recognition in another way, showing respect, while upholding the dignity of the traditional marriage and family unit without weakening the visions our founding fathers had when they wrote the solid rock on which we stand – the Australian Constitution of 1901?

Why have we begun to humiliate people simply because they stand up for one view of marriage and sexuality and not another? It is un-Australian to attack someone because they hold or express themselves differently.

Unregulated change could happen so quickly that science and technology are left behind in order to press forward with social agendas. The moral compass could be altered like never before.

Let us not remove or disturb the ancient stones our founding fathers laid. We are not just trying to fit in. We are trying to show the rest of the world how to preserve a country for generations to come by preserving the fundamental civil unit – the family. There is a better way to negotiate than through intimidation and domination. As the great G.K. Chesterton said, “We should never tear down a fence unless we know why it was put up in the first place.”

Lucy Gichuhi is an independant Senator from South Australia.

a dysfunction of identity – a failing of personhood that needs to be confessed and overcome. It follows that allowing same-sex couples to marry will only legitimise a dysfunction God never intended.

My experience says otherwise.

Through more than three decades of pastoral ministry, I have sat with countless men and women for whom their sexuality is most naturally expressed with persons of the same sex. Indeed, this expression of sexuality is as instinctive to them as left- or right-handedness, as given as the colour of their skin. Sadly, I have witnessed the denial of sexual identity lead people to dark places of despair, isolation, self-loathing and, sometimes, even death.

In much commentary of recent days, church leaders are at pains

to underline their love and respect for LGBTIQ people, claiming that their aversion to same-sex marriage does not equate with their denial of the integrity of same-sex-attracted persons or the worth of their families.

The availability of civil unions, they say, is an expression of this; never have the rights of the LGBTIQ community been more protected, they argue, and rightly so, but marriage is surely a step too far. The uncomfortable fact is, however, the churches these people represent have fought developments in LGBTIQ rights at every turn, and, despite the current tenor of conversation, the underlying belief has not changed: homosexuality is a dysfunction of personhood. Indeed, the entire argument against samesex marriage rests on it. To claim

otherwise is not only misleading; it is dishonest.

If homosexuality is not a dysfunction of personhood but an expression of one’s being and identity in God, then withholding from the LGBTIQ community the most commonly accepted expression of loving, covenant relationship is wrong. We Christians fight for the sanctity of marriage precisely because we believe it is more than a legal contract between two people. It is a sacred and public bond through which two people promise fidelity to each other, to the family they form, and in the presence of the community that surrounds them.

So, it’s a “yes” from me.

Simon Carey Holt is the Minister at Collins Street Baptist Church, Melbourne.

Other

same-sex marriage

take this seriously I urge all Christians to be a part of the upcoming postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage. Whatever your view on this issue, it is undeniably one that is important to the fabric of our social structure.

Changing the definition of marriage has wide-reaching ramifications and should not be taken lightly by any society.

All Australians should be a part of this process, not just a select few.

For Christians, the issue is also a matter of faith and biblical teaching, something that should never be mocked or downplayed by those with opposing views.

I believe God’s word is clear that marriage is between a man and a woman. The writings of the apostle

Paul in Scripture on the subject of homosexuality are also clear, as I have mentioned in previous public statements.

Throughout this entire debate, some on both sides of the argument have failed to understand and respect the views of others. Some of those advocating for change to the definition of marriage have confused faith convictions with bigotry.

However, they must understand that Christian and other religious beliefs are extremely important to those who hold them and, in fact, are vital to a tolerant and free society.

Sadly, some also use Christianity to alienate and even condemn

Getting to ‘Yes’

SIMON CAREY HOLT says he knows he is in a minority I am a Christian, a person deeply formed by the church and its gospel.

Even more, I am a Baptist minister.

For the past 35 years I have given my life to understanding, living and

proclaiming the message of Jesus.

It is because of this, not in spite of it, that I’ll be voting “yes” in the upcoming plebiscite on same-sex marriage.

It is certainly true that for the majority of people, sexual identity is most naturally expressed in heterosexual unions. For a small number, however, it is in same-sex relationships that they find who they are as relational beings. The truth is, those of us who are gay or lesbian are wired differently from those of us who are not.

Homosexual longing is as natural to some as heterosexual longing is to others.

Of course, this is not the view of all Christians. Indeed, the majority of those within my own tradition disagree with me. Their perspective is that homosexuality is

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THE VOTE

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SEPTEMBER 2017

A real danger to religious freedom

NEIL FOSTER says key issues need to be addressed Religious freedom is an important value in Western culture. But protecting religious freedom is about more than going to church.

Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), article 18 provides for a person’s “freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his [or her] religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.”

Section 116 of our Federal Constitution also forbids the Commonwealth Parliament from making a law “for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion” (although the scope of this provision is limited, not extending to state laws).

Religious freedom is about more than the right to hold certain opinions internally; it is about a right to “free exercise” of religion, which will mean that a person will live out their religious beliefs

in everyday life. All of us are grateful when people with deep religious beliefs live out those beliefs in caring for the poor and marginalised, in generous giving to worthy causes, and in looking after people in their local communities.

Religious freedom is much more than “a right to worship.”

Yet, like every other “right,” the right to religious freedom is not absolute, and needs to be balanced with other rights. We don’t allow the sacrifice of humans on the top of pyramids. Article 18(3) of the ICCPR says that Australia can limit the free exercise of religion in a narrowly defined set of circumstances, including by passing a law that is “necessary to protect … the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.” Generally, the right to not be discriminated against on irrelevant grounds is regarded as one of those “fundamental” freedoms.

But the fact that some limits on religious freedom are justified, does not mean that all possible limits are right. The rights of believers to live in accordance with their deeply held convictions about what God requires of them, is an important feature of our democratic heritage.

At the moment in Australia there is almost no difference at all between the statutory rights and benefits available to same-sex couples, and those available to those who are formally married.

Both as a matter of logic and experience, introduction of formal recognition of same-sex marriage leads to serious challenges to the rights of believers to live in

accordance with their fundamental religious commitments. Many religious groups have clear doctrines that provide that an essential feature of marriage is that it be between a man and a woman.

There are, then, a number of religious freedom issues presented for religious groups and individual believers by proposals to fundamentally transform a social institution in which religious beliefs have played a key part for millennia.

These issues include: • whether religious celebrants will be required to solemnise SSMs; • whether other celebrants, not formally associated with a religious group, will be so required; • whether religious groups will be required to host same-sex weddings on their premises; • whether public servants who are employed in registry offices will be allowed to decline to solemnise such marriages; • whether small business owners in the “wedding industries” (such as cake makers, florists, photographers) will be permitted to decline to use their artistic talents.

These, however, are specific issues with the “ceremony” for SSM. A number of broader issues arise once SSM is authorised.

• Will there still be robust freedom of speech protection for believers to express their views, based on their deep religious convictions, that SSM is not a good idea? Or would such views be regarded as “hate speech”?

• Will religious schools be able to continue to teach children, who are sent to them by parents who want their child to have a religious

education, what those views are?

• Will educational institutions operating on religious principles find their students unable to work in the wider culture unless they affirm the validity of SSM? • Whether financial support currently offered to religious organisations that provide important services to the community will be conditioned on support for SSM? • Will employees be sacked for holding the “wrong” views?

These are not theoretical, academic questions. There are clear examples of actual court decisions overseas imposing damages awards of a large amount on small business owners who politely declined to make their artistic talents available to celebrate a sexual relationship they see as sinful. There are documented examples of employees who have been disciplined, and students suspended, simply for expressing their belief in classical marriage. In Tasmania a Catholic bishop was sued for presenting Catholic teaching on the matter to Catholic school students.

I have to disagree, then, with the Attorney-General, who recently said that these matters can be resolved in Parliament after the decision is made whether or not to allow same-sex relationships to be recognised as marriage. The impact of the change on religious freedom is an important reason, even if not the only one, why there should be no such change.

Neil Foster is an evangelical Christian, an Associate Professor in law, a father and a grandfather.

One recent Facebook post from a very conservative Christian took me by surprise: “I don’t support same-sex marriage, but I oppose it with reluctance. I feel a degree of antipathy to some of my allies, counterbalanced by a horror of ending up like some of the SSM lobbyists.”

He neatly captured the dilemma for Christians who support traditional marriage of seeking to be forthright and generous at the same time.

From the other side of the divide The Guardian’s Lenore Taylor said, “If there was a reasonable argument to say ‘no’, we’d certainly discuss it. I just haven’t heard it yet.”

Some might argue Eternity could copy that comment, only changing her “yes” to a “no”. We could also adopt the tactics of ad agencies, other media and even councils who only allow the “yes” case to be put. Yes, we want to give room for Christians to raise their voices in support for traditional marriage.

But we also want to express generosity towards the side that most Eternity readers will oppose.

(The 2011 NCLS recorded 74% of churchgoers opposing SSM.) So we made room for a “no” case.

Some of you will think that we could have chosen a different way to express it, but will agree that generosity is called for. In coming days, the degree to which this majority of Christians have respected their opponents will affect the environment in which Christian ministry takes place long after the vote is over.

John Sandeman

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SEPTEMBER 2017

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OPINION

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Tim Costello on how life is changed by coming back from death

Is perception reality? Media and people who are homeless

Graeme Cole on our view of housing issues You can mark it by the barometer every year: as soon as the temperature drops, the media and public suddenly become interested in people who are homeless. It’s a winter occurrence as regular as warnings about impending bushfires in spring and shark sightings in summer.

The media works itself into a lather about the “plight of the homeless” and the sad facts about “life on the streets.” Celebrities make “real-life documentaries” and

CEOs sleep out in cardboard boxes.

It all makes great footage for the evening news.

People who are homeless do need our compassion and care, but the reality is that homeless people are with us throughout the year and the overwhelming majority do not live rough. Of Australia’s 105,000 homeless people, fewer than one in ten live on the streets. It’s still a disgrace that anyone should be left with such an option, but most people are couch-surfing, sleeping on the lounge-room floor of a family member or friend, in a garage, caravan or boarding house. Some would not even call themselves homeless because they have a roof over their heads.

In a radio interview several years ago, I was asked why the township of Port Stephens on the NSW north coast had a higher concentration of homeless people than central Newcastle. The answer: Port Stephens is a tourist centre with camping areas for caravans and tents. Public toilets and showers are nearby as well as take-away food that can feed a family. It is

also safer than the inner streets of a major regional city.

Our perceptions of people who are homeless can also be attributed to media stereotypes. People sleeping in doorways and parks are

highly visible, especially to young journalists who live within a few kilometres of our city centres and major media newsrooms.

Genres and icons are historical, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s

when TV crews rode side-saddle on charity vans documenting “the homeless” as they were rescued, fed and clothed on “struggle street.”

In many respects, this genre has continued page 12

United approach to problem JOHN SANDEMAN

“An important part of the Zero Project, is the concept of the ‘by“We can end street homelessness name list,’ says Sandeman. “It will in Adelaide,” says Peter Sandeman, ensure people sleeping rough in CEO of AnglicareSA. His the city are known by name and organisation has signed up as part individual needs and aspirations of a coalition of organisations who are identified. This personal aim to achieve “functional zero” approach will see relationship homelessness in Adelaide. built with the right combination of Three north American cities service providers.” have achieved “functional zero” The project starts with knowing homelessness (where the number the names of all people sleeping of people who are homeless rough on any given night and in a city on any given night is reporting publicly on the number no greater than the housing of people sleeping rough – with the placement availability for that aim of making the systems work night). At present, on any given to match supply to need. In a citynight, there are up to 120 people wide effort, Christian Agencies sleeping rough in Adelaide’s CBD. such as AnglicareSA, Uniting

Communities and Baptistcare have joined with the universities, government (led by the Don Dunstan Foundation) and the Bendigo Bank.

“AnglicareSA has long advocated for a combined approach to homelessness and invested significantly in the development of an alcohol management program in the CBD – a place where people living on the streets and in the parklands can transition out of chronic homelessness.”

“We can’t do it alone. As with the fundamental philosophy of the Zero Project, a solution will only come from all agencies and sectors working together.”

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OPINION

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Peace in a storm

Tim Costello on why resurrection makes sense of life In all our lives there are the special moments of clarity: encounters and events that cause us to reflect deeply on our humanness.

I was recently asked to speak at a reunion of past students at my old school, Carey Baptist Grammar.

At lunch, shortly before that talk, a much-loved Carey old boy at the back of the room collapsed with a heart attack and died.

Soon after, the organisers of the event asked me to speak. I gave a prayer for the man, his family and friends and talked of the desperate fragility of being human and what it means to live by courage and faith – our old school motto.

I asked the question: Death, where is thy sting?

In the face of tragedy, there was still hope. Our departed friend had loved his school community.

He spent his final moments surrounded by former schoolmates he had known and cherished for decades. There was something beautiful in that.

Death is hereditary; a democratic occurrence with a 100 per cent success rate on this planet. So the question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.

The death of those close to us is one of the greatest challenges and reveals much about our inner fears and hopes. Depending where we pay our spiritual dues, we will see life as a tragedy or a love story, or something in between.

Jesus rising from the dead offers hope and a new way to live.

Wikimedia / Nheyob

And what we believe about an afterlife will deeply affect the way we live.

It should give us an infinite horizon to view our lives here, so we can experience real joy while acknowledging that time is a gift and that its inevitable passing is beyond our control.

My belief in resurrection allows me to try and live generously, courageously and take risks. My faith teaches this is not the only life, so sacrifice and courage is possible because of faith.

Jesus’ main legacy to his followers was a promise of inner peace in a storm. Not a magical formula, but an imperishable gift – the peace that passes all human understanding.

We cannot control this world but we each have the capacity to respond to life as we choose. That’s the real utopia.

We still have tears in the present.

We still die.

Suffering is not eliminated

by Jesus’ resurrection, but transformed by it. The resurrection destroys even the power of death, and promises that God will wipe away every tear on that final day.

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Homeless From page 11 not evolved to reflect the diverse experiences of 2017.

When Wesley Mission conducted research on homeless people residing in innercity shelters, it found that almost threequarters came from the suburbs or regional areas – not the inner city.

The perception that the only truly homeless people are those who sleep rough or in emergency shelters is dangerous for several reasons: it perpetuates the myth that only people living on the streets are deserving of our support and ignores the fact that more than 90,000 homeless Australians live in unstable and unsuitable accommodation with little or no possibility of cracking the private rental market or social housing.

We also begin ascribing social and cultural characteristics to “the homeless” that eventually guide our responses to the problem. It can calibrate public opinion, what resources are used and what policy settings are made.

When Wesley Mission released one of its many reports on homelessness, a young man who had moved into stable accommodation and turned his life around shared his story at a news conference. He was available to be filmed in places he once frequented and his new accommodation.

The TV news networks ignored his journey but instead headed to an inner-city location where people were sleeping rough – they were iconic media symbols of homelessness but not the defining reality of its population. Reporters were under instruction not to return to the newsroom without “the real stuff ” or the story would

not be run.

A few years ago, an Australian Council of Social Service conference for media people from the community services sector met in Sydney. A panel discussion with leading mainstream media lights discussed how the sector could pitch stories. A prominent radio commentator pronounced: “Give me mum, dad and two kids living in a car in Penrith – that’s homelessness.” You can see the concept being Exhibit A at morning news conferences and sold to applauding acolytes.

The experience of homeless people is far more complex than the cultural stereotypes. While high rents and inadequate social housing provide the underlying current in our nation, domestic violence, substance abuse and mental health are the constant flotsam carried on the surface.

Sole-parent families fleeing domestic violence make up the growing cohort in our homeless population. A safe space where a door can be locked was the number-one need identified in a Wesley Mission study by people experiencing homelessness. Food and shelter were given great marks, but safety and other wrap-around services that create well-being rated higher on the need scale.

Studies of media coverage in

Australia and overseas show that photographs of a single male person living on the streets overwhelmingly dominate news libraries and files.

Given the newsroom revolution and multiple deadlines across several platforms the desire to take short cuts and to fall back on old yardsticks will only increase.

Much has been done to reform the reporting of suicide and mental health in Australia by the pioneering work of the Hunter Institute. Photographic stereotypes, media discourse and language now have workable and practical guidelines. Inroads are being made on media treatment of older Australians and people dealing with dementia. Much more needs to be done.

As Christians we demand that the truth remains paramount. We know what it is like to be loved and truly known by God in both heart and mind. If we have this truth, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that truth is evident in how we treat and portray others. We can all cut corners for the sake of partiality, brevity and deadline but by doing so we can diminish a person made in the image of God. Graeme Cole is Public Affairs Manager, Wesley Mission, and the 2016 ARPA winner of the Gutenberg Award for religious journalism.

Is homelessness too big to tackle?

JOHN SANDEMAN “We fight homelessness, hunger and poverty,” says Martin Beckett, CEO of Christ Mission Possible in Sydney’s far west. “Working with a group called Hands and Feet, we take food into the streets and Martin Place on Friday nights.”

“We provide food relief to 18,000 people a week through what we call ‘assertive outreach,’ using free food shops.

“Ten per cent of our customers

are homeless, with the others at risk of it.” CMP provides overnight crisis accommodation for 72 people a night, referred to them by Housing NSW. For people seeking a permanent solution, CMP taps into the private rental market, housing about 300 people a year – guaranteeing local landlords that the clients will be good payers.

“The government needs to do a lot more for sure, but what I ask is: ‘What are the churches and general community doing?’” says Beckett.

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BIBLE @ WORK

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Taking the Bible to Asia’s outback wikimedia / Mark Fischer

“

Mongolian Union Bible Society wants a vehicle to cross rugged terrain to reach nomadic people who meet in gers like this one.

ANNE LIM Imagine a place where temperatures routinely drop to minus 40C during the long, bitter winters and soar to a scorching 40C in the brief summer. In November and March, the mercury stays well below freezing point, while in spring people have to contend with dust storms that travel hundreds of kilometres.

Outside of the cities, 90 per cent of roads are unsealed – sometimes little more than dirt tracks.

These climatic extremes explain why the Mongolian Union Bible Society is seeking urgent help to buy a sturdy vehicle so that it can take advantage of the best season for travelling across the vast and difficult terrain of the Steppe.

The Bible Society wants to distribute 10,000 Bibles to

churches across the Steppe this year and the months of September and October are a critical window of opportunity to achieve this goal before winter closes in and cuts off access to far-flung provinces.

Christianity is not new to this vast country between Russia and China. The Mongol ruler Genghis Khan and his grandson Kublai Khan had Nestorian Christians among their wives and were said to embrace religious freedom.

However, because of Communist influence during the 70 years that Mongolia was part of the Soviet Union, the church is considered young and growing.

Radio broadcaster Batjargal Tuvshintengel, known as “Bat,” was one of the original 20 Christians in the first modern church, which was established in 1991, one year after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

In order to distribute the Bibles, we need a quality vehicle which can cross distances – a jeep or a van.”

He reports that Christianity in Mongolia is growing apace, with an average of 680 people turning to Christ every month since 2000. While Bible Society estimates there are about 50,000 Christians in Mongolia, Christian radio station FEBC Mongolia puts the number at 100,000 – about 3.6 per cent of the three million population Bat, who is director of FEBC

Mongolia, told Eternity during a recent visit to Australia that there are now 600 churches spread across this sparsely populated land, which is about one-fifth the size of Australia.

While about 40 per cent of Mongolians live in cities such as the capital, Ulaanbaatar, or Darkhan, one-third live nomadic lives as herdsmen on the Steppe, which makes ministry outside of urban areas difficult.

On the Steppe, some of the churches meet in gers – more commonly known as yurts. These are portable, round tents covered with skins or felt that are used as dwellings by nomads. Outside the urban centres, families pack up their ger and follow their livestock from one pasture land to another. Churches that meet in gers have to cope with serving a people on the move.

Both the churches and Bible

Society are planning to establish a presence in more outlying provinces and townships to serve the growing Christian population.

“In order to distribute the Bibles, we need a quality vehicle which can cross distances – a jeep or a van,” says Bible Society Executive Director, Bayarmagnai Bayardalai, who is known as Magnai.

“Our mission is to provide a Bible to every family. We are also cooperating with three to four prison ministries.”

Your gift can help the Mongolian Union Bible Society to buy and operate a vehicle, and distribute 10,000 Bibles across Mongolia this year.

+ If you would like more details, visit biblesociety.org.au/steppe or call 1300 Bibles-1300 242 537

Reach the church on the Steppe with Bibles.

$40

helps buy and operate a vehicle to take 10,000 Bibles across Mongolia’s vast distances.

Photo: Elizabeth Benn

Call 1300 BIBLES (1300 242 537) or visit biblesociety.org.au/mongoliaep

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CHARITY FEATURE

14

SEPTEMBER 2017

Turning obstacles into opportunity TANYA PINTO You shall eat the fruit of the labour of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Psalm 128:2 It is harvest time, and the lush fertile land of Bosnia-Herzegovina stretches into the distance to the mountains – a picture postcard of peace and serenity. Beneath the surface of this beautiful country however, the reality is often one of hate, division and missed opportunities. Much of the perfect land lies untilled and unharvested while children and families across the country go to bed hungry.

Richard, an experienced farmer, has volunteered in partnership with a local church and Mission Without Borders for the past three years, to teach families to work the land and grow their own crops.

“The country is stuck in a cycle of hopelessness,” Richard says, leaning over a hand-held tractor with sweat on his brow. “When we came here we felt that hopelessness strongly. The potential for agriculture here, however, is huge.”

Mission Without Borders (MWB) is working with hundreds of families in Eastern Europe to try and break the poverty cycle in their lives and to help them become selfsufficient. Each spring, families are provided with boxes of seeds and taught how to plant and to begin developing their land.

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Impoverished families in Eastern Europe are being practically helped with farming skills and seeds.

“Richard always tells the women and families who work in the field about the biblical story of Ruth,” Dalibor Kojic, MWB’s Field Country Manager in BosniaHerzegovina, says.

“It speaks to them about this project and the situation in our country today in a simple and powerful way. Ruth lived at a time of great struggle in Israel, and families were on the move everywhere, leaving their homes

in search of food and a better life.

But Ruth stayed with Naomi, she was loyal to her family, she worked hard, and as a result she produced enough food for herself and others.”

The Seeds of Hope project is now in its sixth year and because of it many families are becoming self-sufficient. MWB supports over 60 struggling families in the poorest areas of Mostar, BosniaHerzegovina alone, and 135 across the country as a whole.

Last year families and volunteers across the country produced over 20,000kg of potatoes, 700kg of onions, 3000kg of cabbage and 2170kg of raspberries. The food was used to feed families on MWB’s Family to Family programme, Families in Crisis, and the elderly and children at the Community Centres.

Oleh and his family (pictured above) are another testimony of how a box of seeds can bring so

much hope. Oleh, his wife and five children live in Ukraine, a country and society currently in a deep struggle against war, economic collapse and unemployment.

“This family literally had nothing,” Mission Without Borders coordinator, Olexandr says.

“I was full of hesitation and uncertainty back then. The future seemed so hazy. We were struggling, but we had some land, and my friend told me that it would be possible to provide for my family by working it. I have learnt that it is very hard, but possible.”

Today, Oleh cultivates one hectare of land growing wheat and potatoes and he also keeps cows, pigs, poultry, rabbits and has beehives. He also does some carpentry work and now has a tractor which greatly increases the crops he can produce.

“Knowing that I will grow and harvest vegetables from my own garden lightens my burdens so much. I cannot wait for harvest time. I feel like we are starting a journey, and I can’t thank MWB enough. It was their support that gave me this start.”

You can help to provide a box of seeds to a needy family. It gives them hope, purpose and a chance at sustainability.

To donate or find out more information on how you can support families to become selfsufficient, visit www.mwb.org.au

Each month, Eternity will highlight a charity from the group bringing you this special page.

MISSIONWITHOUT WITHOUTBORDERS BORDERS MISSION

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anglicanaid.org.au | (02) 9284 1406

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Photo taken by Anglican Aid on location in refugee crisis in Uganda.

Christian not just in name but in practice Experienced, Christian and Professional Psychologists and Counsellors for Individuals, Couples, Children and Adolescents Face to face counselling in Hoppers Crossing, Melbourne Skype counselling available www.sovereigntypsychology.com.au 03 8742 4468 admin@sovereigntypsychology.com.au

OPINION

SEPTEMBER 2017

15

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Are we on the wrong side of history?

Michael Jensen on where we think we are going One of the most fascinating things you can do on Google is to go to a thing called Google “N-Gram.”

Google N-Gram lets you search for words and phrases in pretty much every text ever published. And it spits out a graph telling you how often that phrase has been used in different eras.

Put in the phrase “the wrong side of history” and you’ll discover that almost no one said it before the 1950s. Things got going in the ’90s, and really took off around about the time US President Obama was elected in 2008. Everyone then was “on the wrong side of history” or “on the right side of history.”

Obama himself used the phrase 15 times in his speeches, saying things like: “My fellow Americans, I am confident we will succeed in this mission because we are on the right side of history.”

The terrorists, by contrast, are on the wrong side of history. Like some massive, rolling boulder, “history” will just keep coming in the same direction and crush everything. And you’ve really got no choice but to go with it, right?

The idea that human history is progressing from stage to stage – the “right” side – is obviously one we find very attractive. It’s a great story – a heroic and triumphant epic of human progress from darkness to enlightenment. After all, I would much rather live today than a century ago. A trip to the cemetery makes me think of that, because you see tombs with so many small children in them – and then you realise that infant mortality is not an ordinary experience anymore, at least in urban Australia. So much has changed for the better.

And won’t that continue?

In a book I’ve recently read, Homo Deus (literally “Divine Man”), author Yuval Noah Harari argues that human beings are just

at the start of an age of rapid progress that will see us even conquer death. We will, through our technology, banish suffering, hunger, disease, and live … well, on and on. And if that’s the case, and history seems to be moving in a certain direction, who are we to get in its way?

And that’s often said about the followers of Jesus Christ. We have dated morals. We have a worldview that seems embarrassing.

We believe in miracles.

The church seems to represent a dangerously outmoded vision for human life that would be quaint if it weren’t so dangerous. If there’s a right side to history, it’s hard to see Jesus Christ and his followers have much of a future in it. So, hadn’t we better get out of the way – or quietly accept our irrelevance?

However, it’s worth saying that, even though the “right side of history” story is popular, there are many reasons to doubt it.

Is that story really true for the millions who live in grinding poverty and at risk of disease? Can we really be optimistic when a trillion-tonne hunk of ice has just broken away from Antarctica? Can we look at North Korea’s nuclear programme and talk about our confidence for a better world? Hasn’t the development of the internet, coupled with liberal sexual ethics, led to an epidemic of porn addiction with the devastating effects already visible among us?

This gives us a reason to think cautiously when Harari trumpets the triumph of human progress.

One thing does not progress: the problematic character of human beings.

There’s more than a few cracks in the story of progress. There’s one scene from the Book of Revelation that I’ve been thinking about lately.

It’s John’s encounter with the risen and glorious Jesus Christ, in all his majesty, in chapter one. Jesus says to John, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive for ever and ever; and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”

“

We will succeed in this mission because we are on the right side of history.”

Barack Obama

wikimedia / The White House by Ekabhishek

It’s a pretty impressive CV! He says: “I am the first and the last.”

Which reminds us of the way God is called the Alpha and the Omega.

You cannot get to a point prior to him, nor see to a point beyond him.

And he’s the living one. “I was dead, see, and now I am alive for ever and ever.” He is so full of life even though he once was dead. So supremely victorious over death that he was able even to experience death and now stand alive. And this is not alive to die once again – this is living of the eternal kind.

And more than that – he has the keys to death and Hades. He has the power over death and Hades, the place of the dead. Not only because he has risen from the dead but because he now brings new life to those who follow him.

What you can see when you look at the followers of Jesus isn’t the full reality. So, what can we see?

We are sometimes few in number. In some places, we are being hunted to death. Closer to home, it feels like history is passing us by. We are broken, and in many

respects we’ve failed. We’re divided when we should be united. We neglect the poor and vulnerable.

But when you lift the curtain and look behind it, Jesus Christ is there in the centre of it.

This is no grounds for smug selfsatisfaction. In fact, as John will discover, it is a fearsome thing to be in the presence of the risen and holy Jesus Christ. His churches need to be humble and change.

Where we haven’t been loving or represented him with grace and kindness, we should be ashamed.

But there’s also this powerful sense of confidence: that if we stand with Jesus Christ, we will be standing in the awesome presence of the one who has the keys to death and Hades. If we are beset with disaster and threatened with extinction, it’s no reason to despair.

Jesus was once on the wrong side of history, of course. He was simply steamrollered by Pontius Pilate – cast aside as an irrelevance and a nuisance. He was scorned by his countrymen and mocked by his executioners. But that’s not where

it ended. He’s transformed human history and reversed its verdict.

The risen Jesus calls on us to be faithful witnesses to him, come what may. Our job is not to get with the times; it is to listen to him. We aren’t to look fashionable: we are to be faithful.

If you are like Christ, you will stand for purity and faithfulness, when the surrounding culture gives licence to unbridled desire. If you are like Christ, you will stand for forgiveness, not vengeance. If you stand with the risen Jesus, you will be a peacemaker not a warmonger. If you are Christian, your task is to look like Christ first and foremost, knowing that he is Lord of history, and that to follow him is to follow the one who is the first and the last. And if you don’t yet know him, maybe the cracks in the theory of progress will send you for another look at the man who who holds the key to all things.

Michael Jensen is the rector of St Mark’s Anglican Church in Darling Point, Sydney, and the author of several books.

CHRISTIAN SERVICES FOR THE BLIND AND HEARING IMPAIRED*

Making a

difference in their world . . .

• Audio books via VAILS for the blind • Closed captioning of online and DVD media • Weekly Auslan-signed worship service live—and live-streamed—New Hope Church, Sydney • Deaf Camp, Rathmines, NSW, November 24–27, featuring Deaf speaker, Pastor Jeff Jordan

If you or someone you know could benefit from these FREE services, contact us at CSFBHI: Phone +61 2 9847 2296 Email CSFBHI@adventistmedia.org.au Web hop.ec/CSFBHI *CSFBHI is a registered charity for the purpose of tax-deductibility.

“Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped . . .” (Isaiah 35:5)

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WATCH Auslan-signed worship* at

findjesus.tv OR JOIN US Saturday mornings at 11am at New Hope live, UWS Nirimba Campus, Eastern Rd, Quakers Hill (NSW). *Some signed programming on FTA TV weekly, on GEM, Sunday, 7am (EST)

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OPINION

16

SEPTEMBER 2017

The World really is not enough

“

Bond’s world is one where the rich get richer, and the poor help them get there.”

Greg Clarke has half a bromance with James Bond The announcement of the 25th James Bond film has caused a fuss, even though it won’t be released until 2019. There’s something about Bond that, like Star Wars or Mad Max, continues to tap into the modern psyche as the franchise rolls on. And James Bond himself is a real mirror of the times, negotiating the pitfalls of political correctness and the new morality.

I happen to own a few first editions of James Bond novels. I know this may not be cool to the generation who grew up only on the films. Perhaps you didn’t even know that before the films, those stories were, in fact, books. It’s hard to stay across all your popular culture facts. But in the case of

Flickr / TNS Sofres

Bond, it’s important.

I enjoyed them as books, where the British wit shines and the preposterous story-lines are fun to imagine. In the books, Bond is a more humane character than the arrogant womaniser who has made the films so popular. When the stories came to screen, Bond became a caricature designed to shock and delight the audience, with little of the hand-wringing over morality and loneliness that we see in the books.

In the books, Bond can be a thoughtless cad, but that is seen as a problem. In the movies, we

see him glory in it. The problem with James Bond has become more and more obvious as the franchise has powered its way into the 21st century (the films have earned collectively over $7 billion at the box office!)

To start with, Bond is clearly about the most sexist man you could find. He uses women relentlessly, albeit with humour to cover up the incredible misogyny taking place. It is clear in film after film that he views them as less valuable than he should. He admires them as lovely possessions and decorations, but there’s

nothing resembling love. And he is a warning to women who are seduced by money and power; this guy really doesn’t have your best interests at heart. In fact, you are just plaything number #147 for the duration of the story and no longer.

Run in the opposite direction, ladies!

Furthermore, Bond is an elitist, conscious of class and used to privilege. He wants the best of the best for himself, and anyone else is a servant or expendable. Compared with the beautiful statusshattering acceptance of Christ, Bond’s world is one where the rich

get richer, and the poor help them get there.

It might be said that Bond’s redeeming feature is that he is out to secure justice, to make sure the bad guys get caught and the great empire of Christian England remains secure (at least in the books!) The films are less concerned with that moralistic British goal and more concerned with sheer power and authority, the protection of the “good guys” from the rest. But even here, the ends certainly don’t justify the means. Justice at any cost is not the Christian way, unless the cost is one that is borne by the suffering servant, without harm to others.

One author has suggested that the James Bond books are written to proclaim a particularly British kind of morality – that the only unforgivable sin is the one of sloth, of not putting in the utmost, stiff upper lip, it’s-only-a-flesh-wound effort. Protestant work ethic and all that. But Bond misses the mark on this one, too, because Bible readers know that it isn’t our works that save us, but Christ’s works.

No amount of supposed civility or Cool Britannia can cover over the sins Bond commits. Not even Daniel Craig can cool his way into the kingdom.

Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia.

Bible Stat 401,356,200 Scripture portions were distributed by Bible Societies in 2016.

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