Eternity - March 2018 - Issue 89

at your FREE church or bookshop

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W: eternitynews.com.au F: eternitynews T: @eternitynews

Wanted: good men says #metoo movement

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Number 89, March 2018 ISSN 1837-8447

Wanted: crowd for evangelistic rallies

Brought to you by the Bible Society

Wanted: religious freedom reform

NEWS

Obadiah Slope MEDIA WITCH: Watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on the 7flix channnel, Obadiah was startled to see that the next movie was going to be 50 Shades of Grey. What a jarring reminder that we live in an ever weirder world. What would be worse – a TV programmer messing with our minds, or a random selection of movies? Hard to know.

BRANDED: Here’s an example of “Eternity” being used commercially that Obadiah is definitely in favour of. Eternity is the new name of the cafe at Town Hall Station in Sydney, which opens to a sunken courtyard where “Eternity” in Arthur Stace’s handwriting is preserved.

BRANDED 2: Obadiah is at heart a puritan skinflint, so another “Eternity” branded venture has him worried. Starting at $179, you can obtain a 24 karet gold-dipped natural rose from eternityrose.com. au – I wonder if they do aphids?

A BIT OF BIBLE HISTORY: A builder’s trailer that has had a very full life, in Gympie, Queensland, as a farm vehicle, and on Elcho Island transporting material to support a Bible translator, has now been lovingly restored. This “almost antique” is being sold by the Gympie branch of the Bible Society.

Col Towner 0428 712 575 (who towed the trailer to Elcho Island) would love to receive any offers.

The battle for freedom JOHN SANDEMAN

Submissions received by the Federal Government’s Religious Freedom panel led by Phillip Ruddock push in different directions: some argue for greater freedom and some for less. The panel will report back at the end of this month on “the intersections between the enjoyment of the freedom of religion and other human rights.”

Jane Caro, a feminist media commentator, asked a key question about schools in The Saturday Paper. “It might be reasonable to seek to apply religious selection criteria to those who will be giving religious instruction, but why would a mathematics or physics teacher, or a rowing master, or a cleaner or groundskeeper need to be selected on such a basis?”

The answer given by many Christians will run something like this: “If Christian welfare organisations and health and aged-care providers [and schools] are not permitted to make adherence to the faith a selection requirement at any level of the organisation, they will quickly lose their character as faith-based organisations” – which comes from the Freedom for Faith (FFF) submission backed by a significant number of churches.

FFF argues for religious freedom to become a “positive right,” replacing a variety of “exemptions” in anti-discrimination law. They call for the appointment of a Religious Freedom Commissioner to keep the issue alive in public debate. FFF, a Christian legal

think tank, has produced a substantial submission, authored

by Sydney University law professor Patrick Parkinson. Eternity has a summary of its 110-page paper on page 15.

But there is pushback. Lots.

Australian Marriage Equality and Australians 4 Equality tell the Ruddock panel in a joint paper: “We submit that prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexuality, gender identity or intersex status, is a reasonable and proportionate limitation on religious freedom.” They want employment (and other) exemptions for religious organisations drastically cut back.

Sydney’s Catholic Archdiocese calls for photographers, bakers and florists to be able to refuse to service gay weddings in its submission.

Religious schools should also be able to require transgender students to wear the uniform and use the toilets of their birth gender.

Conservative

campaigners Family Voice Australia’s submission recommends a wide-ranging strengthening of exemptions. “That exemptions in anti-discrimination laws be strengthened to provide for persons, natural or corporate, whose conscientious beliefs do not allow them to comply with particular provisions of an Act.” A group of Anglican deans (ministers at cathedrals) from the progressive wing of that denomination argue in the opposite direction in their submission: “No religiously-based view on marriage, gender or sexuality should be treated with special favour or given special privileges under the law.”

Christians Schools Australia and Adventist Schools Australia, in a joint submission have called for schools to have “the right to select students” which would also include a right to eject them. They also call for schools to have “the right to choose all staff based on their belief in, and adherence to, the beliefs, tenets and doctrines of the religion concerned.”

Christians should be praying for the Ruddock panel, which contains highly experienced politicians and lawyers, some with a history of considering this issue.

Phillip Ruddock heads the Religious Freedom panel.

Movement on the right

JOHN SANDEMAN

February has been the month for politically prominent Christians to switch horses Lucy Gichuhi announced that having sat as an independent, she was going to join the Liberals.

She unexpectedly inherited Family First’s SA Senate seat from Bob Day, who was ruled ineligible for the Senate because he rented his office to the government – one of the first dominoes to fall as the High Court’s black letter interpretation of Section 44 of the Constitution caused many politicians to fall, mostly on dual citizenship grounds.

“Over the last nine months,

I have been a student of our parliament, the parties, and the cross bench,” Gichuhi wrote. “I have witnessed the contributions, strengths and weaknesses of each and every political entity.

The process has led me to the conclusion that the Liberal Party is the closest in its core foundational values and principles to those that I aspire to in my own life.”

Gichuhi is a passionate Christian with a well-developed prayer life.

Last May she told Eternity of her resolve “to tithe her time.” She writes about her switch on page 14.

Some Eternity readers responded with concern following our online report on Gichuhi’s switch.

Please help Iraqi Christians return home!

Across Iraq’s ancient Nineveh Plains, thousands upon thousands of Christians are making their long-awaited return to their beloved towns and villages.

ISIS militants had so comprehensively expelled Christians from the region, that barely a year ago it was almost impossible to imagine what we are seeing now - families bundling their belongings into cars and returning home.

A miracle is in the making. Within just eight months, more than over than 6,700 families - more than 30,000 people - have already gone back. And yet, there is still so much to do. With so many families returning, it is difficult to keep pace with the demand for vital repairs to homes and churches ransacked and burnt by ISIS. Without their faith, they would not have the courage to return.

Help our brothers and sisters today with a heartfelt donation.

The comfort cross, handcrafted in Bethlehem, it is an ideal spiritual companion for easing fears, comforting worAid to the Church in Need is an international charity supporting ries and focusing on prayer.

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MARCH 2018

“Lucy, I’m so sorry you joined the Libs rather than the Conservatives.

I just don’t understand how you can support a party that’s now clearly so determined to undermine real, foundational family values,” read one comment.

But the vote for conservatives in SA has dipped, Bob Day only just scraped home in 2016. That is partly because Nick Xenophon Hoovers up the vote of those disillusioned with the major parties in that state.

The day after the Gichuhi announcement, Lyle Shelton tweeted that he was leaving his position as MD of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL). “After ten years at ACL, five as MD, I have

News 2-3 Charity Feature 4 In Depth 5-9 Bible Society 10 Opinion 11-16

Quotable

Justine Toh “What women are saying is that what the culture considers ‘normal’ is not working for us.”

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decided to pursue a new path ...

A further announcement about my next step is coming. Please stay tuned.” We did. And the news came from Toowoomba, Queensland, that Shelton is joining the Australian Conservatives as National Media Director.

Finally, it was revealed that Queensland has scored a hat trick with the third maroon becoming head of ACL. Martyn Iles will lead the campaigning group into a postpostal vote future. Maybe Iles gave something away when he told us he was not surprised by Shelton’s resignation: “I’ve seen his peculiar gifts and talents and [they] have always made me think he’d be a great politician.”

Aid to the Church in Need Australia

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NEWS

MARCH 2018

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The final phase of a dramatic, multi-voice audio version of the Pitjantjatjara (an Aboriginal language of Australia’s Central Desert) New Testament is almost finished. The mammoth task, which has involved more than 40 Pitjantjatjara speakers and close to 600 recording hours, is set to be completed by mid-year.

The recording is being done in partnership with Bible Society Australia, the Pitjantjatjara Bible Translation Project and Faith Comes

By Hearing.

Deborah Burton, Nurina Burton and Bible Society Australia’s Paul Eckert (left) are shown checking accuracy during the recording process. Of this New Testament audio version, Paul says: “[It will] help people to really understand the Scriptures, particularly those who don’t read very well, who prefer to hear and listen.”

Mass evangelism returns JOHN SANDEMAN As the world mourns Billy Graham (for more, see pages 8-9), planning has started for a possible Australian campaign by his son, Franklin Graham.

Churches and leaders have been sounded out about a possible evangelism programme or campaign for February 2019.

A series of “invitation only” lunches and dinners for church leaders have been held in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin and Brisbane. Franklin Graham is the son of evangelist Billy Graham, and father of Will Graham, who has conducted a number of regional Australia rallies in the last few years.

“Next year, Lord willing, we will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of Dr Billy Graham’s historical 1959 Australian Crusade, and his 100th birthday,” read the invitation from Viktor Hamm, Vice-President Crusade Ministries of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

“Franklin Graham’s heart has in recent times been increasingly focused on Australia, not only because of the upcoming anniversary but because of the urgency of the gospel.

“Franklin’s already very active.

Gospel worldwide ministry in

recent years has grown even more urgent as he senses the leading of the Lord to reach out to millions around the world who have not yet found the hope that can only be found in the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ.

“The same foundational principles that were used 60 years ago in Billy Graham Crusades are used today in Franklin Graham’s evangelistic ministry: prayer, training, proclamation and extensive follow-up, directing people to participating local churches.”

However, a “Festival of Hope” led by Franklin Graham in Vancouver last year, which was supported by 300 local churches, drew controversy not only from Liberal Christians but from some evangelicals for Graham’s perceived closeness to President Donald Trump. (Graham prayed at the Trump inauguration, and described Trump as a “changed person” on CNN in January, explaining that Trump’s affairs occurred before he was elected, in comparison with President Clinton.) Organisers claimed an “overwhelming response to the gospel” after the Vancouver event.

Melbourne’s 53,000-seat Etihad Stadium is the venue for another campaign called Awakening Australia, in November 16–18 this

Jesus the Game Changer TESS DELBRIDGE

in Perth have almost doubled their life groups (Bible studies) as A new short course is seeing Bible they begin their Jesus the Game study numbers double and people Changer series. Mark Edwards, coming to Jesus. pastor of the church said, “We Over 200 churches joined to have a number of people who are kick off Jesus the Game Changer, part of our church community around Australia leading up to but not followers of Jesus who Easter. The video series, produced have signed up. It’s very exciting.”

by Olive Tree Media, explores On Sydney’s northern beaches, how the life and teaching of Jesus Manly Life Church’s pastor, Tim changed history. It has been picked Giovanelli, reported, “We started up by Christian TV networks this morning and had a bunch of around the world. people pray to follow Jesus. An Olive Tree Media’s CEO Karl exciting start!”

Faase, who also presents the Churches from every state series, said: “We are pleased that and territory are running the series is being taken up by Game Changer, from many broadcasters but our ultimate denominations. “I was expecting goal is that local churches use the the small to middle-sized series, like they would Alpha, to churches to get on board but we influence their family, friends and are very encouraged to see some local community with the message of the largest churches in NSW, of Jesus.”

Qld, Victoria and South Australia Inglewood Community Church have signed up,” said Faase. year. The director of Awakening, Ben Fitzgerald, is a pastor at Bethel Church in Redding, California, but is originally from Australia.

He met Jesus in an encounter that deeply changed him late in 2002 while he was dealing drugs. He will

be joined by Bethel’s Pastor, Bill Johnson. Awakening is supported by a list of mostly Pentecostal churches including ACC Victoria, several C3 churches, Victory Life Centre in Perth, Dayspring in Sydney and YWAM.

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News brief IN EVERY STATE: Adelaide is the latest link in the chain of Alphacrucis College campuses around the country. The new Melrose Park campus in the inner south of Adelaide is led by Dean O’Keefe, who has been sent from the Parramatta headquarters to set up Adelaide. Its start-up courses will include theology and leadership. The South Australian venture means AC now has campuses in every state.

Melbourne’s Harvest College joined the network late last year.

CULTURE WAR 2: A report on whether the Uniting Church should perform same-sex marriages is expected from its Assembly Standing Committee this month.

This will begin a debate that will lead up to the UCA National Assembly in July. An open letter from Rod James, a conservative minister from SA, is circulating in the church. He warns, “to change the church’s doctrine of marriage to include same-gender couples would mean the end of the Uniting Church as we know it.”

FIERY ORDEAL: Pastor Jeewer Joeswa wasn’t sure what to think when a massive, chanting Hindu throng in northern India brought the corpse of a Christian woman to his church site – then set the building on fire. Seema Devi, 23, had put her faith in Christ several months before, after the pastor had offered up healing prayer for her.

Pastor Joeswa was surrounded by a Hindu crowd.

“A mob of men and women, at least 1000 in number shouting, ‘Jai Sri Ram, Jai Sri Ram [Hail Lord Ram],’ brought Seema’s body to the church,” Pastor Joeswa told Morning Star News.

FROM SONG TO MOVIE: I Can Only Imagine by the band MercyMe has become a movie – and is likely to be a major release in a year with lots of Christian flicks showing.

It stars Dennis Quaid and tells a complicated father-son story based on the life of MercyMe lead singer Bart Millard.

SCRIPTURE RAISES STANDARDS: A new taskforce has been set up to keep the teaching standards of Special Religious Education (SRE) or “Scripture” in NSW schools up-to-date. From this year, all 107 providers of SRE across the state will be certified under a new programme developed by a joint committee of all faith providers in conjunction with the NSW Department of Education.

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CHARITY FEATURE

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MARCH 2018

1,600,000 Bible students and counting KYLIE BEACH In 1998, when most of us were getting our first email account, Rev. Denis Plant was exploring how to run a Bible college on the internet.

Not how to advertise a Bible college or get the mailing details of potential Bible college students so as to send them a prospectus through the post.

Instead, as Rev. Plant got on a plane to return home from missionary work in Papua New Guinea, he felt the Holy Spirit speak to him. And by the time he landed in Australia, he had a clear vision to run a Bible college completely on the internet.

As a local church pastor and a missionary, Rev. Plant had no idea how to make that vision become a reality. Yet within a short time, he’d raised the money required. A year later, he’d connected with people who had the skills to build the online platform for the college and it was ready to go – he just needed some content to teach!

Enter Ken Chant, a Pentecostal pastor who was passionate about making solid Bible teaching available to ordinary individuals. Chant had started Vision International College, a “Bible correspondence school,” in Tasmania in 1974. He’d then

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moved to the US in 1981 and established Vision International University, with Dr Stan DeKoven, a psychologist who wanted to equip Christian leaders with strong counselling skills. Between them, they had ample Bible college content for Plant’s “Bible college on the internet” and the three men joined forces.

Twenty years later, their partnership remains strong.

Internet Bible College functions

as the official website for Vision International College, Vision Christian College and an extension of Vision International University. They have graduated approximately 1.6 million students, with 150,000 students enrolled at any given time For Rev. Denis Plant, the vision God had given him in the earliest days of the internet remains unchanged today: it has always been about removing the obstacles

that prevent Christians from biblical study.

As a result, Internet Bible College students can not only access their studies online, but also have flexibility with subject choices and the pace at which they complete them.

Consequently, the college can’t really describe its “typical” student. Instead, it has a student body whose location, health, work or family commitments make

traditional Bible college study impossible.

“Stuff happens. Life happens,” Rev. Plant explains. “And if an adult has to study a certain subject, rather than chooses to, then their head’s just not there.”

The students obviously agree, numbering several thousand students from 156 countries around the world, the oldest of whom is a 94-year-old Foursquare Church pastor in the US, with over 60 years of ministry experience.

As technology has developed, the college has adapted.

“We used to send boxes of workbooks to a missionary, but then sometimes they would disappear, so we started sending a single CD with all the material.

Now, of course, it is all sent electronically.”

Yet throughout all, the needs of local church pastors have been paramount, and today they provide material for pastors to teach Bible studies, or even run their own Bible colleges – with the bonus that Vision Internet College takes care of all the marking!

Again, Rev. Plant’s approach is marked by its flexibility. “I refuse to take the position of telling another church local pastor what he or she should be doing.” As always, the question he asks is simply, “How can we make this a possibility?”

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MARCH 2018

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When God became weak John Dickson page 7

Chaplain Rochelle Wainwright, left, sings 10,000 Reasons with 14-year-old Elizabeth during Kids Church at Allowah Presbyterian Hospital

God’s messengers

Anne Lim meets chaplains who take Jesus to hospital and school ROCHELLE WAINWRIGHT LOVES BEING ABLE TO GIVE OUT BIBLES Rochelle Wainwright likes to think of herself as one of the invisible people. As a hospital chaplain, she says her job is to point away from herself and towards God. In her two days a week at the Children’s Hospital Westmead and three days at Allowah Presbyterian Hospital, in Sydney, she finds that she can’t always be there for families that need her, but she knows that God can.

“I can’t have families putting their hope in me and my visit because I’m human and I can’t be there every day. My role is to point them to God, who will always be there.”

In this issue of Eternity, the work of chaplains in two contrasting roles is being featured, as part of Bible Society’s celebrations for its 201st anniversary (see page 6 for the profile of school chaplain Edwina Soh).

Rochelle is grateful for the Bibles she receives from Bible Society because she relies on the power of God’s word to be effective in her chaplaincy. “My words are human; my words are imperfect. You’ve

never seen how reading from a particular psalm to a mum will bring them to tears because they’re hearing from God. I’ve got my words, but God’s words are totally different. If a family can feel like God is speaking to them, God who created the world is speaking to them in their suffering, that is the best that we can bring to families – God and his word, not ourselves.”

Rochelle loves being able to give out the Bibles that Bible Society donates so that God’s voice can be with suffering families when she can’t. “I can underline the passages so that in the middle of the night when they can’t sleep they can hold on to that psalm and they can find comfort in their anxiety … I can’t be there in the middle of the night, but God can, and through the Bible they can hold on to his promises.”

From Westmead, she gives the example of a young single mum whose baby had just had surgery; Rochelle happened to have a little Bible with her that she could give away.

“She wasn’t connected with a church at the time, so I was able to point her to some key passages and pray with her and that was really important for her. As a young single mum, she was feeling really isolated and so my prayer is that after that maybe she did connect with a church.”

Rochelle believes that to be an effective chaplain she has to ensure

“

My role is to point them to God, who will always be there.”

she remains connected with God “because how can you bring him to people if you’re not walking with him well? You can’t,” she says.

“So as much as I’m reminding families of who God is, I need to remind myself every single day of who God is because I am just his servant. He is God; I am not God; he will work in their hearts; I cannot change their hearts – that’s not my job; my job is just to be there and to listen and to share.”

She always prays before she goes into a ward that God will direct her steps and guide her in every conversation. In one instance, knowing she was to meet a family whose child had just been diagnosed with cancer, she felt God was giving her a particular verse – Joshua 1:9: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

“I walked into the room and they were seeming a little bit cautious

because they’d been through a lot and I mentioned that I had been praying for them before I came in, and that God had placed this verse on my heart. So I shared Joshua 1:9 with the family, at which point the father picked up his phone and said, ‘Do you know what? I had someone from my home town contact me to give me this exact verse today.’

“So for that family it was confirmation God was with them and that is what the families want.

Often they cannot change the outcome; however, they just want to know that God is with them; and for that family that particular verse was of comfort.”

A former nurse, Rochelle says she went into hospital chaplaincy because she wanted to be able to sit with families and remind them to hold onto God in their suffering, without having to watch the clock.

At Allowah, a hospital for children with complex medical conditions or disabilities, she sees her role as “journeying” with the children, their

PAGE 6 Edwina Soh wants to reach kids who don’t know Jesus.

families and the staff.

“Here at Allowah, it’s about engaging with kids and with parents. I like to grab any opportunity to have a chat with parents, because having a child with complex medical needs and disabilities is really hard,” she says.

“Being the chaplain at Allowah means that I get to be a person who asks, ‘How are you going?’

I have the opportunity to sit down and pray with parents if that’s what they’re wanting. It’s about knowing what the spiritual need is and being there for families in that.

“I have the great opportunity to journey with families – you get to build that relationship and rapport, and to be there for them in the different challenges they face in life generally but also with their child if their child becomes particularly unwell.”

The reality is that children at Allowah have life-limiting conditions, so a key aspect of her role is supporting parents and staff when a child

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God’s messengers

EDWINA SOH SEES OPPORTUNITIES IN SCHOOL

Edwina Soh leads Bible study at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Sydney From page 5 dies.“Sadly in my first year at Allowah we had three children pass away, so it was important to support the parents and staff during this time of grief.”

She points out that it can come as a shock to staff who have nursed children for many years when they become really unwell because they forget the challenges the children have and see them as the beautiful, happy children that they usually are. “So it is important to support staff as they grieve and as they continue to love the kids that are still here because loving, knowing that you will possibly lose them one day, takes great courage.”

She loves working for Allowah because as a church hospital she is able to work with churches in the area to put on Kids Church three times a month.

“We want the children at Allowah to have the opportunity to be involved in Sunday school.

It’s difficult for children in hospital to get out to a Sunday school, so at Allowah we want Sunday school to come to them. We are so very thankful for the link churches that give up their time to bring Sunday school to the kids.

“The challenge for children or anyone who has a complex medical condition is that they can be left out, or they can miss out on experiences that other people their age have. So our goal here at Allowah is to make sure that the kids, as much as they are able, are participating in activities that other kids their age get to do,” says Rochelle.

“So we like to give the children at Allowah the opportunity to participate in music, which they do with tambourines, drums or by having little bells on their wrists.

You can see it in the children’s eyes and their smile that they love participating in music and it brings joy to their lives.”

Edwina Soh turned her back on a high-flying IT career in banking to go into school chaplaincy because she could see the eternal worth of working in a mission field where many children do not know Jesus.

Edwina says that while she was considering going back to work after having her first child, God remoulded her heart to build her identity in Jesus rather than in her work achievements.

Now working as part of a team of five chaplains at Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Sydney, Edwina finds the work attractive because there is so much to be done.

“There are a lot of kids who don’t know Jesus. What an opportunity!

You have a captive audience – a lot of them don’t like being a captive audience – but you’ve got a Godgiven opportunity, so what am I going to do with it?” she says.

As well as teaching Christian studies and being the year 10 chaplain, Edwina has “rebooted” the school’s co-curricular Christian group for years 7-12, called Fuel.

Over the past three years numbers have grown from fewer than ten to about 80, thanks to initiatives such as Grace Week when the girls prepare gifts to give out to the whole school.

“I spent the first two years really putting Fuel out there as a group that was active and real with real students who weren’t quirky and

MARCH 2018

wearing weird cardigans and sacrificing chickens ... but are real people among your community who love people, love God, who want to serve God.” She is motivated by testimonies such as a girl who came to the group in Year 9 but wasn’t going to church. Edwina encouraged her to find a church and the student encouraged her non-Christian mother and brother to go to church too. She has now left school, but she and her mum are still going to church and the student is looking at starting a Christian group at the Conservatorium of Music.

“The things we did here really stretched her and encouraged her to take those steps forward. So ... it’s about persevering and not underestimating what God’s going to do in the lives of individual girls ... God will not waste any opportunity or any word.”

Edwina also runs a weekly year 12 devotion, where her focus is helping the students look beyond their all-consuming study lives to see the bigger picture in the journey of life.

“It’s learning how to have perspective for the rest of your life and it starts now at a critical moment like this – probably one of the biggest challenges you’ll get as a starting point in life,” she says.

“So it means gathering and taking time in God’s word, and to pray … and how do I share my life in a moment when it’s all about me? So it’s challenging them beyond just getting a good result and getting their assessment done, what kind of Christian are you

going to be? What kind of person are you going to be?

“That’s my goal for them and my prayer for them; it’s about equipping them as human beings.”

Edwina has recently taken on the challenge of building a community beyond the school in partnership with Scot’s College, a boys’ school in Sydney.

They are launching a ministry for ex-students called Refuel, which will be led by ex-students and will meet once or twice a year.

“One of the concerns I have is a lot of our girls who come to the school aren’t from churched families or don’t go to youth group, so for them church is school – Fuel becomes their Christian input for the week,” says Edwina.

“So the big thing is when they leave PLC where do they go? How do they continue to pursue the questions they started with, with the faith they wanted to have?”

Edwina says she likes working in a girls’ school because girls are relationally driven and ministry is all about relationships.

“It’s about having the kind of Christian woman who loves you and treasures you and wants to walk alongside you, even if you’re broken and hurt. And I’ve been so broken in the past in personal things that I think it enhances what I do here.

“To be able to walk alongside students, I think, is a privilege and it’s not one I take lightly because this is eternal. Your purpose is to see these students in heaven and know that you have been part of their journey there.”

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IN DEPTH

MARCH 2018

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Why God became weak JOHN DICKSON MEETS A BUNCH OF DOUBTERS AT UNI

A pastor’s word to Barnaby DOMINIC STEELE WANTS A PRIVATE CHAT John Sandeman wrote in Eternity online that while everyone else has been talking about Barnaby Joyce’s woes, church leaders have been silent. I have tried to imagine what I might say to Barnaby if he were to ring me as a pastor and ask to meet? With marriage breakdown so common, it wasn’t too hard to work out what to say.

Protecting children is not just a matter for adults, according to Neil Milton.

Hi, Barnaby, thanks for coming to see me. It’s a bit weird meeting each other for the first time, in such circumstances.

I think it’s best for this conversation if, as much as is possible, we put aside the politics and just think of you as a child of God, a man, husband and father.

Because even though it might be hard to see this in the middle of the political cyclone that you are in at the moment, that’s actually what’s important. Your relationship with God and with your family are what’s going to matter in twenty, thirty years’ time.

I saw your media conference this week saying, “I would not wish on friend nor foe, the hurt, the scrutiny, the intense intrusion in your lives that I have gone through in this process.” I have been feeling, hurting and praying for you in this.

I only have the tiniest glimpse of the world of pain and confusion that you are in. Today I prayed for you and Natalie, as well as your daughters, Vicky and your unborn son.

Like you I was married in 1993, and if things broke down between me and Catherine, I just know that I would not be thinking clearly. I just can’t imagine how you have held it together over the last 12 months, with your marriage going south and the by-election. If it was me, my world would be imploding.

But let’s start with the breakdown of your marriage. No matter whether the sex with Vikki Campion started before or after your formal split with Natalie, whether it happened when Vikki was a member of your staff or not, either way you have broken the promise that you made to Natalie.

The promise to love her above all others, for richer, poorer, better or worse.

There are two issues, the vertical and the horizontal.

First, there’s fi xing it vertically with God, then there’s fi xing it with your wife and then your daughters. Then there will be conversations with Vikki and eventually much later your unborn son. They are the priorities.

All of those come before the short-term political relationships.

Let’s think about God first.

When people marry in a church they marry before God. So to break a marriage vow (which you have done), is not just a horizontal problem, it’s a vertical one as well.

How do we fix this relationship?

Jesus says, through his Apostle John, in 1 John 1:8: “If we say, ‘We have no sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

Picture posed by a model

For the rest of this conversation go to eternity.news/barnaby

wikimedia / Toby Hudson

I once gave a talk at the University of Western Sydney on the theme of the divinity of Christ. I focused on the crucifixion narrative and underlined for the audience the striking nature of historic Christianity’s claim that the Creator of the universe would condescend to take on flesh and suffer at the hands, and for the sake, of his creatures.

After the talk, the chairperson opened the floor for questions. A man in his mid-thirties stood up and proceeded to tell the audience how preposterous was the idea that the King of the universe could be subservient to the forces of his own creation. God is all-powerful and all-knowing, he declared: How could the Almighty experience frailty and suffering?

It turned out that the man was a Muslim leader at the university and an academic. His monologue was probably the longest five minutes of my speaking career.

He was very civil but was adamant that what I had said was illogical: the Creator and Sustainer of all things could not possibly be

dependent on earthly sustenance.

In his mind, Jesus’ need for earthly food was a knockdown argument against his divinity.

More seriously, he insisted that what I had said was blasphemy because I had associated infinite majesty with human weakness and servitude. Only later did I realise these were traditional Islamic arguments against the Christian understanding of Jesus.

They come straight out of the Qur’an itself: They do blaspheme who say, “God is Christ, the son of Mary.” If they desist not from their word of blasphemy, verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers. Christ the son of Mary was no more than an apostle. His mother was a woman of truth. They both had to eat their daily food. See how God makes his signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded. (Q AlMaidah 5:72–75) When the chairperson invited me to respond, I did my best to address his main concerns. But it soon became obvious there would be no “winner” in this debate.

Our premises were miles apart.

His vision of a majestic God excluded, by definition, any notion of weakness and servanthood.

My vision of God’s majesty consisted precisely in the Creator’s willingness to serve his creation.

Jesus as a baby, depicted in a window at St John’s Ashfield, NSW. I ended simply by thanking my Muslim friend for drawing to the audience’s attention a profound difference between Islam and Christianity.

What is blasphemous to the Muslim is glorious for the

Christian: God entered his creation to serve his creatures.

Taken from A Doubter’s Guide to Jesus by John Dickson. Copyright © 2018 by Zondervan, used by permission of Zondervan. www. zondervan.com

Let’s take child protection seriously NEIL MILTON IS VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT CHILD SAFETY

does not take a youth home with them in their car unless there are two youth leaders in the car.”

The highly trained ChildSafe team will visit each state and territory throughout 2018, ranging from Darwin, to Perth, to Hobart and most major centres down the east coast.

This roadshow will include low-cost public information sessions, in each of the almost 35 locations, intended for local organisations to bring their questions about what they can be doing to improve their safeguards against harm to children.

Many regional centres also feature as the team travel to Alice Springs, Ballarat, Tamworth, Batemans Bay, Katherine and Cairns, among many others.

The first stop on this national roadshow is Canberra, ACT, on March 19 and the tour will conclude in Katherine, NT on October 29.

Visit childsafe.org. au for more.

Information about the national

roadshow is at childsafe.org.au/ events The Royal Commission recommendations are at childabuseroyalcommission.gov. au/recommendations.

John Sandeman

pixabay /vborodinova

“I was groomed as a kid,” Neil Milton tells Eternity. “And the child that groomed me is only a couple of years older than me.

“My abuse happened for a few years. And it happened because I was one of those kids without a lot of relationships or connections.

“This person really groomed me, connected with me and then the abuse began. It took me 20 years to realise I was abused. The Royal Commission found similarly that it takes people 20 years before someone realises the abuse.”

Milton is alive to some of the hardest issues regarding child abuse: the young predator that defies the stereotype of older paedophiles, the vulnerability of the loner kid, and how long it can take to come to terms with abuse.

Today he is the spokesperson and Business Development Leader for ChildSafe, a national child harm prevention charity birthed out of Scripture Union.

Established for 12 years, it has more than 100 organisations using its training, policy and child-safe policy development and culture forming skills. ChildSafe is touring Australia this year to enable organisations, businesses, charities and churches to improve their child safety systems, in light of the recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

“The recently issued recommendations from the Royal Commission have highlighted

several key gaps in how we approach child safety, and every organisation needs to sit up and take notice to ensure we learn from mistakes of others,” says Milton.

“A big thing that a lot of organisations miss is that their policies and procedures and code of conduct need to be child friendly. That means that a child needs to be able to read them.”

Milton makes it clear that child protection is not just a matter for adults. It is not just risk management, as important as that is. “They need to have the child in mind, and it needs to be in ‘child language.’” It’s about relationships of trust – and children need to know what to expect. He underlines to Eternity that this is one of the messages from the Royal Commission.

“Another thing the Royal Commission asks for is transparency – transparency with the local community. They need to actually advertise their policies and code of conduct to the local community so that parents can bring their children knowing that these things are in place and be free to ask the right questions.”

Asked to suggest some practical steps that might have helped a child like him today, Milton says “often grooming begins with social media – often on Facebook, especially for kids seeking some kind of connection.

“So my encouragement is to have a mutual Facebook page, where interactions can happen and have a policy in place that the youth pastor or youth leaders are not friends on Facebook with the youth. “This means everyone can see what each one is doing.

“Another is that a youth leader

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Billy Graham, evangelist Vividly remembered by a generation of Aussies KALEY PAYNE, JOSH MAULE

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Billy Graham, who criss-crossed the globe with the gospel, has died aged 99. He preached to some 215 million people who attended one of his more than 400 Crusades, simulcasts and evangelistic rallies in more than 185 countries and territories, according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Billy Graham died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, USA at 7.46 local time (11.46 at night in eastern Australia) on February 21.

“I have one message: that Jesus Christ came, he died on a cross, he rose again, and he asked us to repent of our sins and receive him by faith as Lord and Saviour, and if we do, we have forgiveness of all of our sins,” said Graham at his final Crusade in June 2005 in New York.

Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of the 1959 “Crusades” in Sydney and Melbourne during which an estimated 50 per cent of the Australian population heard the evangelist’s message (Graham’s preaching was broadcast around Australia via ‘landlines’ into churches and other public spaces) While Graham also prominently preached in Australian cities during 1968, 1969 and 1979, the 1959 rallies remain his most famous visit to Australia.

At the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a crowd of 143,000 came to hear Graham; there were 150,000 at the Sydney Showground and Cricket Ground.

According to the Australian Evangelical Alliance, who invited Graham to speak in Australia in 1959, more than 130,000 people made a commitment to Christ during his tour. That’s almost 2 per cent of the Australian population at that time.

Although it was more than half a century ago, Geoff Warren can still picture the week Billy Graham came to Melbourne. It was March 1959, he was 14, and he found himself attending several of the rallies, including the rally in the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“That’s the biggest crowd that’s

ever been at the MCG,” says Warren. “It was an unbelievable experience.” As choirs sang How Great Thou Art and Just As I Am, and Graham pounded the air using his trademark phrase “the Bible says”, Warren says “the Lord really challenged me.”

But when the evangelist made a call for those who wanted to convert to make their way to the front, Warren stayed put. “I was sitting with my parents, who were both non-Christians. When I told them I wanted to go down the front they basically told me I was an idiot – that I couldn’t take part in that. So two years later I made a public decision at my own church and I got baptised.”

However, a quiet change was birthed in Warren’s life that night when he got home and began reading the Bible by his own initiative. He saw similar changes through Melbourne’s community.

“It was a revival,” he says. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Two decades later when Graham was in Australia again, 23-yearold Nick Cole, who worked in the Air Force, was there. As an altar call was made, Cole went forward to support a friend - but found a counsellor leading him through the “sinner’s prayer”. “I felt like I was a bit hoodwinked,” Cole says.

The crusade organisers spoke with an Air Force chaplain, who made contact with Cole the following day. The chaplain said, “What wonderful news that someone was willing to share that salvation message with you. What a great thing God has done to send his own Son into the world.”

Though he was “fired up” that someone would convert him when he already believed himself to be a Christian, Cole found himself agreeing with the chaplain’s words.

“Had it not been for the crusade, perhaps I wouldn’t have been as receptive to the chaplain,” he says.

While there were no ‘penny drop’ moments, Cole dedicated his life to Christ not long after and now works for Bible Society Australia’s community relations team.

Geoff Warren was Cole’s boss at Bible Society Australia. He believes the effect of the Crusades is still felt today. “The Sydney Anglican Diocese, which is huge now,” says Warren, “really came to life after Billy Graham.” When he was General Manager of Bible Society Sydney, Warren found three quarters of Sydney Anglican donors were converted during the Billy Graham Crusades.

One prominent Sydney Anglican who was converted at a 1959 crusade is former Sydney Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen. He told ABC’s Compass programme, “You know, whenever I go to our local churches ... I always ask: [is there] anyone here [who] came to know Christ at the Billy Graham Crusades in the 20th century? And so far there’s always been people sitting in the congregation who came to know Jesus at that time.”

Australian historian Stuart Piggin concluded in “ Spirit, Word and World” that the Graham crusades of 1959 were a genuine revival. They had been preceded by “extraordinary prayer”, churches were revitalised, large numbers were converted and sinful practices in the community were reduced the marks of revival.

Peter Jensen: He ch TESS DELBRIDGE American evangelist Billy Graham visited Sydney and Melbourne in 1959, and it’s estimated that half of Australia’s population heard him preach at the many major rallies he led (which were broadcast around the nation via ‘landline’).

Many people point to the ’59 Billy Graham Crusades as the moment they decided to follow Jesus.

One of them is Peter Jensen, the former Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney (2001-2013).

Why did you go to the Billy Graham Crusades?

I was 15 years old and I had been going to church, where my parents had sent me and my two brothers.

I had basically heard that the Bible was the word of God but I didn’t have a personal faith in Jesus.

We were seated on the grass of the arena, and I didn’t quite know what to expect. We had never seen anything like it before – the great crowds of people at a Christian meeting, the choir made up of people from all the churches, and

then eventually, Mr Graham.

What was it like?

From a distance, what struck me was that all the technology worked perfectly. It was the first time I’d ever been in church where the technology worked perfectly! The sound was excellent. Mr Graham was, of course, good looking, enthusiastic, and obviously a man of great personal authority.

The thing that struck me was that he held the Bible in his hand and he preached the Bible. I already believed that the Bible was the word of God, so when he preached the Bible – and he preached that day from Noah and the Ark in Genesis – it seemed an inevitable thing to do to follow his invitation to come down the front, as a way of indicating that you wished to commit your life to Jesus Christ. It seemed inevitable to me that one would do that.

So I stood from among my friends and I went down the front.

[My brother] Phillip followed me.

He always says that he thought only alcoholics and criminals went

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forward, and he saw me going forward – so he thought he would as well. I remember looking back and thinking he was too young to make this decision; after all, I was 15, but he was only 13. But he went down the front and we were counselled there by a Dutch migrant, if I remember correctly.

It was a very powerful moment; it was life transforming. I then went back 17 extra times for the evenings and the Sundays to hear Mr Graham. My parents were beside themselves at this.

One of those times [Billy Graham] said we need people to go into the ministry, so then I decided to go into the ministry as well.

What was your impression of Billy Graham?

I once read a report about him that described him as “arrogantly humble.” He had immense power of his convictions. He was deeply centred on Christ and the need to make Christ known in what I would regard as a winsome way. But I regarded him as also strangely self-effacing.

What was the atmosphere like during those Billy Graham rallies in 1959?

People sometimes think that it was all manipulation and mind magic and that sort of stuff. I didn’t think so, I have to say. We were in the open air, sometimes it poured with rain. It was usually in the evenings. The thing that struck me was the coming together of all the churches. Virtually all the Protestant churches got together and produced that choir, and got the people to counsel people down the front and all that sort of thing.

There was a unity in the gospel.

Do you think the world will see someone like Billy Graham again?

I tend to think that whether the technology will carry the message differently, it will still be a message carried by specially gifted and appointed people who stand and proclaim and there will be some.

Every few decades, perhaps, there will be someone who speaks with extraordinary power and effect under the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

Fairfax Syndication

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

hanged my life

Billy Graham in Sydney, 1959.

Billy in quote marks

‘ ’ ’ ’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ’ ’ ‘ ‘ ’ ‘ ’ ’ ‘ When my decision for Christ was made…the direction of my life was changed. I’m not going to Heaven because I’ve read the Bible, nor because I’ve preached to a lot of people. I’m going to Heaven because of what Christ did.

great danger. If God should take His hand off me, I would have no more spiritual power. The whole secret of the success of our meetings is spiritual — it’s God answering prayer. I cannot take credit for any of it.

I am not a great preacher, and I don’t claim to be a great preacher. I’ve heard great preaching many times and wished I was one of these great preachers.

I’m an ordinary preacher, just communicating the gospel in the best way I know how.

There comes a moment when we all must realise that life is short, and in the end the only thing that really counts is not how others see us, but how God sees us.

So many people think that somehow I carry a revival around in a suitcase, and they just announce [my name] and something happens — but that’s not true. This is the work of God, and the Bible warns that God will not share His glory with another. All the publicity that we receive sometimes frightens me because I feel that therein lies a

I have been asked hundreds of times in my life why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I really do not know the answer totally, even to my own satisfaction. I have to accept, by faith, that God is sovereign, and He’s a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of suffering.

Jesus was not a white man; He was not a black man. He came

“ A heavy burden has been lifted from my life and I am grateful that Jesus gave me a new path...”

–GERSHON FROM ZAMBIA

Donate

from that part of the world that touches Africa and Asia and Europe. Christianity is not a white man’s religion, and don’t let anybody ever tell you that it’s white or black. Christ belongs to all people; He belongs to the whole world.

I am convinced the greatest act of love we can ever perform for people is to tell them about God’s love for them in Christ.

All that I have been able to do, I owe to Jesus Christ. When you honour me, you are really honouring Him. Any honours I have received, I accept with a sense of inadequacy and humility, and I will reserve the right to hand all of these someday to Christ, when I see Him face-to-face.

More quotes from Billy, the official biography and tributes at billygraham.org

With a bottle of poison in his hand and on his way to the bush, Gershon saw the end of his hopeless life near.

But the power of the Gospel captured his heart through the Jesus film, an African Enterprise outreach that turned his fatal day into his redemption day!

Jesus says: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” –Matthew 9:37 Help us reach more people like Gershon with the Gospel of Jesus.

To donate to our Evangelistic Mission work in Africa and to read Gershon’s full story visit our website below.

africanenterprise.com.au/Redeem

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BIBLE @ WORK

Releasing women from illiteracy

“

The Literacy for Women in Africa project was launched in Malawi and is being expanded to three neighbouring countries.

ANNE LIM Other villagers teased Elisabeth about her age when she joined a literacy class in her village in Malawi. She didn’t let it bother her, though; she shot back: “I’m learning now and one day I will help you to learn!”

Elisabeth’s comment underscores the long-term effects of giving women access to education – it starts a chain reaction in the society. A literate woman makes sure that her children gain an education. And families are proud of the woman’s achievements, which give her a voice in her community and a chance to participate in decisions that affect her life.

Equally, girls who are taught

to read can influence their parents. For example, in Kenya, where female circumcision and child marriage (even at age 12) is common among the Maasai, education is encouraging girls to fight for the right to make their own life choices.

“When a girl is taught how to read, she learns more about her rights, and will say no to female circumcision,” comments a Bible Society staff member in Kenya. “She then influences her parents, who don’t proceed with the circumcision.” (Female circumcision is illegal in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.)

UNICEF estimates that two-fifths of all African girls are married before the age of 18. Education gives them the

Help us build 20,000 women of faith, confidence and influence through Bible-based literacy.

confidence to speak up for the right to continue their studies and, eventually, even to decide how many children to have. It also improves women’s health knowledge and employment prospects.

These are some of the reasons why Bible Societies in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa are focusing their literacy efforts on women, believing that this is the fastest way to eradicate illiteracy.

The Literacy for Women in Africa project was launched last year with a pilot programme with 179 women in the Yao community in Malawi. It was spearheaded by the Finnish Bible Society to ensure a new translation of the Bible into Yao could be read.

The project is now being

Give $40 or more to start the first classes soon in Malawi, followed by three other East African nations.

Visit biblesociety.org.au/buildep or call 1300 BIBLES (1300 242 537)

I’m learning now and one day I will help you to learn!” expanded to include 16 minority languages and covers three neighbouring countries – Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania – as well as Malawi. The 16 minority languages selected have all recently had New Testaments published in their languages – so this project enables them to read God’s word in their mother tongue.

Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the fastest-growing Christian

populations in the world, where they are relatively young and have more children than Christians elsewhere. By 2060, more than four in ten Christians will call sub-Saharan Africa home, up from 26 per cent in 2015, according to a new analysis of demographic data

by Pew Research Center.

The goals are to equip 20,000 women with functional literacy by the end of 2020 and to build the capacity of the four Bible Societies to effectively run these projects in the future.

The Bible Societies say that for $40 they can help teach a person to read and give them access to God’s word in their own language.

+ If you would like more details, visit biblesociety.org.au/buildep

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Looking for a good masculinity Tess Delbridge Page 12

Transmission Films

Mary Magdalene and #MeToo

Justine Toh in the #MeToo age, it’s time to consider Mary The global takedown of powerful men accused of sexual assault and/ or the serialised sexual harassment of women began with Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, before proceeding through Louis C.K., Matt Lauer and, closer to home, Don Burke and Craig McLachlan.

But then there was Aziz Ansari: self-declared feminist, guru on the trials of modern love, as explored

through his Netflix comedy Master of None, and proud ally of #timesup: the war the women of Hollywood have declared on sexual harassment in the industry.

Even Ansari has been swept up in scandal; accused of insistently pressuring his 23-year-old date into having sex despite her “clear verbal and non-verbal” signals that she wasn’t into it. She eventually complied, a little, before Uber-ing home in tears. The next day, Ansari texted: “It was fun meeting you last night.” Her response was a punch line not even the comedian saw coming: “Last night might have been fun for you, but it wasn’t for me.”

The internet exploded: women ruefully related, men cried foul.

One New York Times op-ed despaired that “young feminists” were prepared to “torch men” for “bad sex” when they could have walked out. Others worried that #MeToo was getting a little carried away by demonising otherwise decent men. But feminist journalist Jessica Valenti summed up the mood in a widely shared tweet: “A lot of men will read that post about Aziz Ansari and see an everyday, reasonable sexual interaction. But part of what women are saying right now is that

what the culture considers ‘normal’ sexual encounters are not working for us, and oftentimes harmful.”

Every new story of men using their power and influence to bully, intimidate, harass, or pressure women into sex (and yes, this includes even nice feminist guys like Ansari) has exposed something rotten about the state of sex today – experienced by ordinary people as well as the rich and famous.

Every new story is the same old story. Maybe even an ancient one.

••• “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

Anyone familiar with the biblical creation story may recall God’s fateful words to Eve as punishment for her share, along with Adam, in disobeying God. This is part of the episode known as “the fall”: a name that will prove not only descriptive, but also predictive since their act of transgression will cause them to fall far short of the relationship of love, trust, intimacy and partnership that they were otherwise destined to enjoy.

Moreover, the breakdown of this relationship, between the proverbial Man and Woman, will corrupt the sexual and romantic

affairs of the rest of the species.

There will be chronic enmity between men and women, and men will, typically, have the upper hand. In relation to sex, men will be disposed to prey on women and reduce them to sexual objects. And women, conditioned by powerful social norms that train them to be compliant, and to ignore their own desires, will, at times, allow themselves to be used as one. They may even come to accept “bad sex” as, simply, sex.

It was not meant to be this way.

Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body spells out God’s intended relationship between the sexes: that each see and love the other as God sees and loves them, with all the perfection and glory that that implies. Having recognised the other in all their beauty and significance, existing as an end in themselves and not for another’s instrumental use or gratification, one man and one woman were meant to give themselves to each other, fully aware of the responsibility and magnitude of that gift. According to this vision, sexual embrace is to act as a sign, pointing beyond itself to the selfgiving, other-honouring, eternally faithful love of God. Today, this description seems

hopelessly idealistic, and the Fall an essentialist apologetic for structural injustice – since there’s no point resisting an ingrained, fallen human nature. But if the Pope’s reading is right, then contemporary sexual culture witnesses to the fact that men and women have fallen from soaring heights. And right at the bottom getting trampled on are the women – even in these times of so-called sexual liberation.

••• Mary Magdalene, in cinemas March 22, cannot help but speak into #MeToo. The film wishes to redeem the reputation of Mary of Magdala, perhaps the most tainted woman (next to Eve) in Christian history. We’re told that Pope Gregory labelled her a prostitute in 591; that slur would prove hard to shake for nearly 1400 years, until the Vatican quietly cleared her name in 1969.

Mary Magdalene doesn’t veer into Dan Brown-style flights of fancy that suggest that Jesus married Mary. In fact, the depiction of their relationship is all the more startling because it falls outside the standard framework of Hollywood heterosexual romance.

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We are looking for a good masculinity Tess Delbridge Jordan Peterson and Michael Jensen weigh in on a new vision of manhood

“I’ve never encountered an idea better than that, ’cause it’s not naïve; it’s the opposite of naïve.

There’s terrible evil and suffering, it’s bottomless, but the human spirit is capable of voluntarily taking that on as a challenge.”

Jensen believes that Peterson is on the right track when he identifies that a common failure of men, in general, is that they avoid taking responsibility. But he doesn’t believe that the answer is to pull yourself up by your moral bootstraps.

“Where I live, a 40-year-old bloke is shoving coke up their nose; they’re just after toys, and they’re in their 40s and 50s wanting to play the field and sleep with as many women as possible. They’re not adults, they’re just boys.

They’re powerful boys, but they’re dangerous.”

And it’s not just 40 and 50-yearold men who aren’t taking responsibility. Jensen says that in the age of the internet, there is nothing compelling younger men to engage with society because they can just sit at home in track pants, eating Doritos and accessing everything they need via Wi-Fi. Jensen says Peterson “is both massively appealing and interesting and also potentially dangerous for Christians because he doesn’t really understand grace.

“He’s after self improvement, and so his book (12 Rules for Life), appealing and inspiring though it is, asks you to pull yourself up by your moral bootstraps.

It says, ‘Wake up, get over it, be

disciplined.’ And that is Pelagianism, it’s what Pelagius was doing in Christian Rome. It was appealing then because it was a period of moral chaos, and in a period of moral chaos and disorder someone who comes in and says, ‘Be disciplined, man up, woman up, grow up’ – that is very appealing.

“The trouble is, what we know as Christians is that in order to improve yourself, you can’t start with determining to improve yourself, you must start with grace.

You must start with your own helplessness and your own sins.”

It’s possible to see glimpses of Christianity in Peterson’s work because he is reading the Bible (including the accounts of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Joseph, and the resurrection of Jesus) as part of his research. And while he is not blankly optimistic about what humans can do, his references to Christianity are removed from their historical contexts.

“So [in Peterson’s teachings] you’re never going to get the true Jesus,” says Jensen. “You’ll get Jesus as a good teacher. But we have to take seriously that Jesus is a good teacher!”

But Jesus is more than just a good teacher, and that will never come through in Peterson’s work.

“The thing I think Peterson misses out on is that actually Jesus Christ is the better story. He’s a better story for all human beings,” says Jensen.

“It’s interesting that Jesus Christ is not just the image of masculinity, but he is a man, he is a sublime man, and yet he displays power in vulnerability, he speaks the truth though it’s difficult; he is courageous even when he’s afraid; he is humble even when he has reason for arrogance.

“Jesus is the model for modern men,” says Jensen. “The truly masculine is actually the one who loves through sacrifice to glorify the other.

The true taking of responsibility is to make yourself small.”

From page 11 figure, accused of demon possession for her independence of spirit. Yet Jesus sees her clearly and takes her seriously. He listens to her and values her presence.

He honours her spiritual agency, and affirms that women have the right and responsibility to follow God – even in defiance of social convention or the say-so of husbands and fathers. Women are seen and heard by Jesus, treated as full human beings with needs and voices of their own—the very opposite of what it means to be objectified.

In a time increasingly aware of the systemic abuse of women by powerful men, it is incredibly affirming to see Mary Magdalene’s Jesus (but not just the film’s Jesus; the Jesus of the Bible as well) treat marginalised women with such honour and respect. It’s a depiction that allows even the sceptical viewer to entertain the possibility that following Jesus might actually be liberating for women. Not for nothing, then, is Jesus called the “new Adam” by the Apostle Paul: he ushers in a new order, one that brings life out of death and perhaps, in relation to relationships, a new start between men and women where each can embrace the other as beloved equals.

Mary Magdalene is not without problems: it invites criticism from orthodox believers who will take issue with its apocryphal account that elevates Mary above all the other disciples, especially Peter – a none-too-subtle dig at the institutional church that he will come to signify. But the most pointed statement the film can make in a time of #MeToo is that the one with every reason to lord it over others – he is the Son of God, after all, as claimed in the Bible – chooses instead to lift them up.

Jesus treats women so well that it’s not just the people of his own highly patriarchal society who could take their cues from him.

If the roar of aggrieved women echoing around the web is any indication, we yearn for such a renewed vision of relationships today.

Dr Justine Toh is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity. For more print, video and audio material, go to www.publicchristianity.org

pixabay / MatanVizel

Men are in crisis. Or at least, that’s what Jordan Peterson believes.

If you haven’t heard of him, Peterson is a psychology professor from Canada who has become internationally known for being outspoken about the crisis of masculinity in the West, and what should be done about it.

“The West has lost faith in the idea of masculinity,” said Peterson in an interview with Rebel Wisdom in January. “[But] I like the masculine spirit. It’s necessary and not fundamentally carnage and pillaging, it’s not fundamentally rape culture, it’s not fundamentally world destroying – all of those aspersions have been cast upon it … Those are reasonable challenges to be set before men, but not reasonable accusations to swallow without criticism.”

Peterson is pushing back on a current stream of thought that blames patriarchy for all the ills of the world. Striking a chord with young men, in particular, Peterson will be in Australia during March on a speaking tour (so you’re likely to be hearing more about him).

He first hit the headlines in 2016 after refusing to use genderneutral pronouns at the Canadian university where he taught, even though new legislation compelled him to do so. He indicated at the time that he might choose to use the preferred gender pronoun of a particular person if they asked him to. Protests followed, along with serious efforts to remove him from his position, but they all failed.

Since then, the previously little-known professor of psychology at the University of Toronto has garnered almost 40 million views on YouTube, thanks to his willingness to take a stand, politely but firmly.

While Christian leaders around the world have been among those to take notice of his opinions, Peterson himself is not a Christian. In an interview with Canadian Christian news site LifeSiteNews.com in February, Peterson said he was not ready to declare whether or not he believes in the historical resurrection of Jesus. “I need to think about that for about three more years before I would even venture an answer beyond what I’ve already given,”

Peterson said.

Michael Jensen, an Anglican minister, author and regular contributor to public debate in Australia, believes Peterson is so popular because he is calmly and intelligently challenging the dominant politically correct, left-leaning view of the world.

Jensen describes this view as antihierarchical and highly supportive of a select group of minorities and their rights.

Also, Peterson is saying something to men as men, says Jensen.

“A lot of that left-leaning discourse, with its influences from cultural Marxism and postmodernism, actually is very alienating to men; it actually is very emasculating,” Jensen tells Eternity.

“It leaves them not able to say anything. It’s continually saying that the patriarchy is to blame for everything, men are to blame for all the ills in the world, and it doesn’t give them an adventure to go on that might actually remedy the problem.

“I find that silencing of men at that point is very, very unhelpful and it’s a mistake by certain types of feminists to do that because if you don’t appeal to the better natures of men you find that they just act in a monstrous way anyway. They are powerful, and they will just do what they will do. They won’t contribute to the conversation, they’ll just do what they do.”

Both Jensen and Peterson agree that we need a vision of a better masculinity that appeals to men, but they disagree how to get there.

Peterson says a masculinity that men can aspire to is fundamentally centred around taking responsibility.

“We know what happens if people act poorly, if men act badly.

We know that the world turns into something that’s as close to hell that the difference is trivial.

That’s the story of the 20th century,” Peterson told Rebel Wisdom.

“We should learn that lesson, and that lesson is ‘pick up world on your shoulders and walk forward.’ Pick up the world with all trouble, suffering and evil, and walk forward with it. In bearing that burden, learn you are the kind of creature who can bear that burden and therefore are deserving of respect.

#MeToo and Mary

OPINION

MARCH 2018

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The spirituality of the sovereignty of God

Michael Jensen on wrestling with the agony of grief

called according to his purpose,” we are told by the New Testament.

And yet this arguably makes our suffering more intense, because what makes no sense to us should make sense. But how? How is the breakdown of a marriage an event that “works together for the good” of a person earnestly desiring to serve God? What possible purpose, however good, justifies the utterly helpless experience of parenting a child with cancer? We simply cannot imagine the “tapestry of grace” that could ever be woven from these terrible threads.

And, what’s more: if God is really sovereign – which means that he is master of the events of human experience – then how can it be that evil runs so rampant? How can the darkness be so prominent?

How can the world of our experience be so filled with people determined to make a wreckage of the world?

It’s not a logical so much as a moral question. If God is supremely powerful, and also supremely good, then why are things not better arranged? In which case, we start to doubt either his power or his intentions. Maybe God is not as sovereign as all that, and he’s wrestling with evil just as we are. Evil has appeared unbidden by him and while it will finally be defeated by him, there is a space in which it runs rampant.

Or maybe God is indeed not just in control but controlling, such that there is nothing that happens that is not planned by him. But if we stare at that thought for a while, it is hard not to conclude that God directly wills cruelty. Is the devil, then, just God in disguise? Saying “God is in control” may not be

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“

Imagine God like a weaver combining threads together to make a cohesive and beautiful picture.”

comfort, but rather a frightening prospect.

Perhaps the metaphor of the “tapestry of grace” is illuminating here.

We are supposed to imagine God like a weaver combining threads together to make a cohesive and beautiful picture. As we see her at work, we don’t see the picture that she has planned. She picks up colours and shapes that seem to clash. Some of the threads she picks up to put in her picture are stained, frayed, and dull. It seems chaotic and unplanned, even improvised. How could anything come from this?

But we are only seeing a tiny part of the whole. Only slowly does an image emerge from the weaving. In fact, we looking on may not be able to see it while we are watching.

But we know the artist: she is a skilful weaver who knows what she is doing. So, what looks random and unformed isn’t anything of the kind.

This metaphor helps us to understand the wider context of God’s rule over all things. We can’t see what he sees. It looks to us as

pixabay / annca

There’s a couple of lines from a 2011 hymn by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty called The Perfect Wisdom of our God that make me well up with tears every time we sing them: “Each strand of sorrow has a place, Within this tapestry of grace.”

To be sure, this world has many strands of sorrow. A little over twelve months ago, my cousin’s beautiful sixteen-year old son died of cancer. He had a strong faith. He wanted to serve God. That strand of sorrow seemed more like a cable, to be honest.

If you have not known the agony of grief, you will. If you have not known the urge to cry unto heaven “why?” or “just do something!!” then you must live in a very secluded and safe place, or be emotionally stunted.

This experience is the human experience. But if you believe in a God who is sovereign, it presses you with particular force.

I read recently the atheist novelist Julian Barnes’ Levels of Life, a memoir he wrote reflecting on the death of his wife from brain cancer. Throughout the book, as he wrestles with his grief, he keeps reminding himself “it’s just the universe doing its thing.”

He resists the impulse to think of it as a meaningful event in some way. Her death was not part of some grand purpose, however comforting it might have been to think of it like that.

For the Bible, though, God the creator is that God who works out his purposes “as year succeeds to year.” He is revealed to us as the kind and merciful God, whose pity for the plight of human beings is well known. The events of human history have their meaning which we cannot see immediately. But “all things work together for the good of those who love him, who are

if the death of child (for example) can have no possible place in a “tapestry of grace.” It’s true that we can’t see how. But just because we can’t see it, and we can’t make sense of it, doesn’t mean that it has no meaning ultimately.

But there’s more to say. Because the world as we experience it is not a world in which there is only one actor. The Father of the Lord Jesus Christ has created a world in which there are many actors. There are many wills in his world. Creatures who he has made have a degree of independence. Though they are made by him, according to his will, they have their own intentions.

That means that the sovereign rule of God includes and incorporates the independent intentions and actions of his creatures.

It’s a risky strategy, we might say.

Doesn’t this allow for pain, horror, suffering, and mayhem? Isn’t he giving us something we can’t handle – a bit like giving a toddler a handgun?

At this point it is important for me not to give an answer, because only God can give one. I could say, “he takes the risk because the outcome is far greater.” I trust that it is; but I am simply not in a position to imagine what outcome would overturn the reality of evil in this world.

Certainly, by allowing a degree of human independence of will, he makes possible a universe in which there is love. Love cannot be given by a robot.

Still: sometimes it is really important to be silent in the face of real suffering, and sit with the other person in the dust, and just weep. We know that God is good.

We know that he hates evil. He is in control. Yet evil is what occurs.

But a further insight is given to us in the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. You remember that moment when Joseph meets his brothers, who sold him into slavery years before. Joseph says to them, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good …”

God works his purposes out through the back and forth of human events, as much as over them. The genius of his sovereignty is that he is able to weave in even human malign intentions, and produce something extraordinary from them.

Nowhere do we see this more than on the cross of Christ Jesus, where the Son of God was tortured to death. It was the intention of those who killed him to damn him to hell. But it was in the complete darkness of this event that God worked his greatest good. Like a sailor using the wind to go in a different direction than the wind, God makes use of the dark plans we make and does what he intends. We find ourselves doing his bidding.

But that’s not all. I was reminded recently of the classic poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, the 19th-century Jesuit priest, Carrion Comfort. The poet is in the grip of despair, which is his ‘‘carrion comfort” – that is, a comfort that is like decaying flesh. It’s a harrowing poem about how bleak life can sometimes be. He wrestles and agonises over it. Only in the last line does he have the realisation that he “lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.” He refers to the words of Jesus on the cross, and the story of Jacob wrestling the angel all at once here.

And here’s the point he’s making: all the while we find ourselves crying out to the silent sky in sheer pain “why?” in Jesus Christ God is with us. In Christ’s cry of abandonment we find the most masterful act of God’s sovereign plan: that the God who made and rules the universe has shared our experience of despair and pain.

God’s first answer to our cries is “I know.” Like Jesus beside the tomb of Lazarus his friend, the sovereign God knows what it is to weep tears.

Sovereign tears.

So through the trials I choose to say: “Your perfect will in your perfect way.”

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

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OPINION

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MARCH 2018

War profiteering

The Federal Government’s plan to turn Australia into an arms trading powerhouse raises some troubling ethical questions.

How can we profit from bloodshed, for the sake of creating a few jobs, when more people

wikimedia / U.S. Navy

Tim Costello on the arms trade and making peace

are being displaced by war and persecution than ever before?

Why would we pursue this trade in weapons when war has clearly outlived its usefulness?

At the start of World War I, when patriotism was at its peak, the slogan “the war to end all wars” was a common catchphrase.

British leader David Lloyd George sensed the bitter irony in the statement. “This war, like the next war,” he cynically remarked, “is another war to end all war.” And the next war. And the ones after that. A century after World War I, which left 20 million dead, putting an end to global conflict is still a distant dream.

The early Christians did not believe in war. Tertullian, a thirdcentury Christian scholar, echoed the common view: “When Christ disarmed Peter in the garden (after he cut off the ear of a Roman

Australian company Austal builds a “Littoral combat” ship for the US navy. soldier sent to arrest Jesus), he disarmed all Christians.”

Origen, a theologian of the same period, said Christians could no longer “take up sword against nation, nor do we learn war any more, for we have become the children of peace.”

Jesus’s call for his followers to be peacemakers was not optional, he said. Many early Christians were pacifists who set themselves apart from the world. But gradually, other Christians developed a more

flexible attitude towards the world and politics.

In the fourth century, Augustine of Hippo developed what became known as the “Just War” theory. It supposed that war was OK under strict guidelines – that it be a last resort; that the cause is just; that the war is waged with the right intention (not to exact vengeance or confiscate territory); that war is declared by the proper authority and with a reasonable hope of success. The problem with the

concept of just war is always the adjective.

Nearly all wars are due to the desperate grasping of an ideology, a fight for resources or for power.

Can we ever hope for world peace?

Jesus was a master of nonviolent resistance. He didn’t run away from oppression. He stood in its way and was eventually killed for it. When threatened, rather than fighting back he told his followers to put down their swords.

We should all do the same.

Why I joined the Liberal Party

Lucy Gichuhi makes new friends “Independence is good but interdependence can be much better.”

Early last year, it was determined by the High Court of Australia that I was eligible to replace Bob Day as the senator for South Australia.

I had run as former Senator Day’s number two in the election of 2016 in the Family First party.

Once it was proven that I was the

lawful replacement for the vacancy, the next challenge was within the party I had run in. Very soon after receiving High Court approval, Family First merged with the former Liberal senator, now turned independent, Cory Bernardi to form a new party called Australian Conservatives. I was invited to join but since I did not know the new leader or the new party, I needed time to understand.

Unfortunately, the time to get a better understanding was not available and it was clear that my best option was to become part of the cross bench as an independent senator. This is a choice that became very important to whom I was to become as a new senator.

At the end of 2017, I realised I had a choice to make. Two options were presented to me. The first was that I could remain as an independent senator. The second was that I join a party. I had been approached by various political

parties ever since I had joined the cross bench. One party stood out to me more than the others. This was the Liberal party.

At the start of this year, I officially joined the Liberal party.

I now had a political home. It was quite clear to me that the Liberal Party had very similar core foundations, values and principles that I aspire to in my own life.

As a Christian, I discovered that the party was most aligned to these elements that are also part of my faith. That is not to say it is perfect – but neither am I. What I recognised is that I was a natural fit because of the foundational similarities we both shared. I believe that I can do better in my role as a senator by being part of something larger than just myself.

I reflect on Esther in the Bible and how she influenced even the most powerful king of her time. She was a nobody until she followed the call of her faith to

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speak out against injustice. What she achieved was the salvation of her own people. She became a politician with a policy of significance to make known to the king. It was Haman’s legislation, unwittingly signed by the king, that almost destroyed the precious Jewish people – which would have also destroyed the lineage of our Lord and Saviour.

Esther is someone I admire and seek to be like in my own career. She was brave, wise and yet vulnerable at the same time.

This is what is needed with our own politicians. As a woman and a politician, Esther gives me the motivation to be the best senator I can be. Other biblical characters who became involved in the politics of their day were Joseph, Daniel and Nehemiah. Each of these faced death or imprisonment for what they believed. They could have even walked away from the place of influence and the service of

ruthless kings. In Australia, we are unlikely to die for our politics or faith but we must learn to sacrifice our personal interest for the sake of the national interest. Like Joseph, who was imprisoned but became the architect of the salvation of Egypt. Like Daniel, who risked death for his faith but gained the ear and admiration of a powerful king. Like Nehemiah, who was able to save and inspire the remnant of Israel and gain the support of a king by appealing to his earthly masters. All these biblical heroes found that the best way forward was to become dependent on God by truly becoming his friend and vessel at the table of influence.

My faith in God goes before me as I enter a new realm of politics. I will serve him as I take a position in the Liberal Party and as I serve the people of Australia. Can I appeal to you for your prayers?

Lucy Gichuhi is a Liberal Party senator for South Australia.

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OPINION

MARCH 2018

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Churches want freedom John Sandeman on Freedom For Faith’s Ruddock submission JOHN SANDEMAN A wide range of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christian churches across Australia have spoken with one voice to the Ruddock panel on religious freedom.

The Federal Government has set up an expert panel, led by Phillip Ruddock (formerly called the “Father of the House” for his long service as an MP and cabinet minister) to: • Consider the intersections between the enjoyment of the freedom of religion and other human rights, • Have regard to any previous or ongoing reviews or inquiries that it considers relevant, and • Consult as widely as it considers necessary.

Despite a tight deadline, Freedom for Faith (FFF) – a Christian legal think tank – has put together a substantial response, written by Patrick Parkinson, a Sydney University law professor. Perhaps even more impressively, FFF has drawn together a wide spectrum of churches.

The Freedom for Faith submission has been endorsed

by Australian Christian Churches (which includes Hillsong), the Baptists, the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney, the Barnabas Fund, the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the Uniting Church, the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia, Free Reformed Churches of Australia, EV Church, Church Communities

Australia and the Sydney Chinese Christian Churches Association.

FFF paints a dire picture concerning the lack of protection for Christianity and other religions in Australia.

Parkinson writes in the submission: “There is almost no legal protection for freedom of religion in Australia beyond a provision in the Constitution which applies only to Commonwealth law, a provision in the Tasmanian Constitution, and exceptions and exemptions in anti-discrimination laws.

There is also little protection for the inter-related civic freedoms of conscience, speech, assembly and association.”

FFF proposes a major reform – a Religious Freedom Act – which would “establish religious freedom as a right rather than a grudging concession.”

The new act would also provide clear limitations to religious freedom, including for public safety (preventing terrorism, for example) and the protection of children.

Religion would become a “protected attribute” rather than the subject of exemptions in the current anti-discrimination laws. However, religious schools, charities and other organisations should be free to select staff “who adhere to their faith and values.”

“The freedom to select is an existential issue for faith communities of all kinds,” FFF says. “If a Christian school cannot advertise for staff who hold Christian beliefs, then within a fairly short period, the staff profile will be indistinguishable from the state school next door.”

The FFF submission rejects the “inherent requirements test” used in some current antidiscrimination legislation as inadequate for protecting the religious character of schools and charities. In Victoria, for example, this has meant schools have had to seek permission to include religious criteria in a job ad.

Chapel is not enough: “There might be a more clearly defined Christian element to the curriculum in a Christian school – for example, by the inclusion of

a compulsory Christian studies class and chapel services from time to time, but these are relatively peripheral nods to the importance of faith.”

FFF has taken a strong line on employment which would give schools, for example, the right to select all their staff according to religious criteria.

A second key recommendation is the appointment of a National Religious Freedom Commissioner who will “bring the voices of neglected minorities into the national conversation” on diversity.

They would sit alongside the other members of the Australian Human Rights Commission (for example, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and the Children’s Commissioner).

FFF recommends that the law should be changed so workplaces would have a duty to provide “reasonable accommodation” for religious belief. For example, allowing the wearing of a hijab or turban, or there being reasonable requests in rostering, such as allowing observant Jews and

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Seventh Day Adventists to have their Sabbaths off. FFF wants laws to be enacted to protect individuals and organisations with traditional views on marriage from discrimination.

One issue left over from the same-sex marriage debate is the fate of marriage celebrants who are not “religious ministers” as defined by the act. Some pastors are in full-time secular employment and they may not hold a formal qualification. FFF suggests a simple fix to include “a person on a position of pastoral leadership a religious congregation, body or organisation” in an expanded definition of religious marriage celebrant.

One key “right” missing from the FFF submission is the “gay wedding cake” example, that would allow a commercial business to refuse to provide services to LGBT weddings. The FFF submission raises the issue of some chapels, for example in schools, not granted exemption in the bill.

Eternity understands that some other submissions to the Ruddock panel may cover the cake issue.

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OPINION

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MARCH 2018

The Vible told me so Greg Clarke The things you read in the Vible ain’t necessarily so The best book to read is the Vible, according to much of the population. But it’s not actually something you read. It’s something you feel, in your guts. It’s something you talk about with your friends at your local. It’s something you yell at the television when you are watching current affairs.

It’s the vibe, your honour, and its sacred book is the Vible.

The Vible is the summary of the moral teachings that people adhere to today. It’s a semi-organised, fairly contemporary, unwritten set of guidelines that allow you to feel like a decent human being. These teachings are not hard to follow; they often demand very little of us.

In fact, they tend to devolve to a

rather platitudinous level. Among the best-known commands of the Vible are: “Be nice to people, but online doesn’t count”, “Don’t judge people who are similar to you”, “Do judge people who disagree with you and the Vible”, “Give a small amount of money to charity and otherwise keep to yourself”, and most recently, “Love is love”.

The Vible’s teachings don’t require much humility, nor do they challenge your worldview. They don’t posit any sense of allegiance to a higher power or law; they assume that you already are that power. As one radio journalist said to me recently, “I tend to think capital-J Justice rests with us”.

That’s the confidence that the Vible provides.

In an era of postmodern attitudes to truth, one of the surprises has been how few people are nihilists. Having accepted a relativistic view of knowledge— summarised by Vaclav Havel as “Everything is possible and almost nothing is certain”—only a handful of people have responded, “Oh well, I guess nothing matters so I’m going to be a passion-driven monster”. In fact, most people have gone with something like, “I may not know what is true, but I know what I morally like.” It’s the vibe.

And we are the vibe-setters.

I suppose this could be endured, were it not for the fact that many

followers of the Vible actually think they are followers of the Bible, too. They think that the views they preach are what Christianity ought to be. “If Jesus were alive today, this is what he would think,” summarises the approach. It’s a bold call for people who often don’t know their alpha from their omega.

The Bible is a large book, and actually a library of books. It’s not a quick read; parts of it are not an easy read. It really is the only place to go to find out what Jesus taught. It rewards patient attention, and a willingness to put the various sections of it together in a meaningful way, rather than simply dip in for a casual visit. But Vible-bashers don’t even make casual visits. Instead, they assume they already get it.

I was once part of a Bible reading group at university. A lovely middle-aged woman joined the group because she had been asked to take a Scripture class in a local high school. She hadn’t read the Bible before, so she thought she ought to find out what was in it before she stood up to teach it (wise). In our first ten minutes, we read part of the Paul’s letter to the Romans, covering such subjects as God’s wrath, futility, idol worship, sexual sin, hating God and seeking immortality, all in the space of a page.

The shocked woman burst into

The Castle movie taught us about “the Vible”. tears and ran from the room.

When someone rushed out after her in concern, she turned in anger to her follower and said “That’s not the St Paul I know! That’s appalling!”. The girl who had gone to her very gently suggested that, if she hadn’t read it before, how could she have known what to expect of Paul? “I expected gentle, soft and religious!” the woman spat out through clenched teeth. She never returned to the group, which was an immense shame, since she had made the first, difficult step of opening herself up to God’s word.

I do hope she didn’t go on to teach Scripture in schools.

At the close of our bicentenary, the Bible Society is more aware than ever of the profound lack of understanding of the Bible in the general population and, sadly, within the church, too. We want to change this. We want to introduce people to the real Bible. We don’t want to leave people thinking that they know what God would say to them, even though they have never

sought to find out. We don’t want to leave them dependent on their inner feelings, their pub talk with their mates, or what television morning show presenters and comedians suggest is true and good.

We want to introduce them to the Bible, the historical record of the faith, the testimony to Jesus, and the intriguing deposit of divine wisdom that has shaped so much of the world for 3500 years. The real stuff.

It can be an uncomfortable experience, if you have already built up a vibe about what is between the covers. But better to reject the actual message, than domesticate Christianity until it fits your own image. As C.S. Lewis wrote, what is the point of “tranquil veneration when we ought to be burning with shame, or struck dumb with terror, or carried out of ourselves by ravishing hopes and adorations”?

Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia.

Bible Stat 312000 Bibles were sold through Koorong last year. Up 7 percent in a year.

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