Eternity - May 2018 - Issue 91

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Brought to you by the Bible Society

Number 91, May 2018 ISSN 1837-8447

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CPX discovers the church is

Better Worse When sceptics meet Jesus

History you didn’t get in school

Call girl’s new life

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NEWS

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Obadiah Slope PUBLIC WITNESS: There’s probably nothing more public for a banking executive than a profile in the Australian Financial Review. So, Obadiah was pleased to read in a profile of NAB chief Andrew Thorburn: “On the personal front Thorburn says everyone needs a ‘platform.’ He says ‘I have a faith. I am a Christian. I have a view of the world that I believe.’”

MR ETERNITY: The biography of Arthur Stace, after whose one-word sermon chalked on the streets this paper is named, is getting further recognition. Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park in Matraville, Sydney, which houses his grave, will launch a bronze statue of Stace chalking “Eternity” on June 30, the 51st anniversary of his death.

DREAM SEQUENCE: Many of Obadiah’s readers will know the conversion story of John Wesley: the founder of Methodism having his “heart strangely warmed.” But Obadiah has only just come across hymn writer Charles Wesley’s story. His sleep was interrupted by someone saying, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise and believe.” The interrupter was a friend’s sister, who dreamed that Jesus had knocked on her door and told her to wake Wesley with those words.

MAY 2018

Tasmania leads on redress JOHN SANDEMAN Redress for survivors of sexual abuse by church leaders, not the sale of nearly half their church property, is the story Tasmanian Anglican leaders want Australians to hear.

“An estimated liability of around $8 million in new and additional payments to survivors, it will require decisive action and significant sacrifice for everyone across our diocese (region),” Richard Condie, the Bishop of Tasmania announced.

Eternity understands that 55 Tasmanian survivors have received payments from an existing local redress fund and these payments may need to be increased. In addition, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has identified more claimants. A national average payment of $78,000 with a cap of $150,000 is expected.

Condie’s announcement has come in advance of the Tasmanian government signing on to a national redress scheme.

Apart from the Catholic Church, no other denomination has fully committed itself to the redress scheme. While most have agreed in principle, several churches – for example, the Uniting Church – say they are waiting on the final negotiations with the states. At this stage, NSW and Victoria have signed up.

The Tasmania Diocese will propose to its synod (annual meeting of all local church representatives) in June that they sell more than 120 church

News 2-3 In Depth 5-8 Bible Society 9 Opinion 11-16

Quotable Bishop Richard Condie is taking the lead in funding redress payments. properties. A spokesperson for Sydney Diocese – the largest Anglican region in Australia – told Eternity it was unlikely they will need to sell property to make redress payments as provision has already been made.

A recent Fairfax survey of Catholic Church property holdings estimated Australia’s largest church owns more than $30 billion in real estate. A spokesperson for the Truth Justice Healing Council (TJHC) of the Catholic Church told Eternity there was an “absolute commitment that redress needs to be fully funded.” The TJHC is coordinating the Catholic response to the royal commission. A mix of sales of assets and insurance claims by congregations and

dioceses is expected to be the sources of funds, “just like the Anglicans.”

The Tasmanian Anglicans’ response is likely to be followed by other vulnerable parts of the Christian church. But, an alternative response to payments to survivors occurred in Adelaide where the Anglican Church took out a loan – coincidentally of $8m – to fund an earlier round of redress payments. The loan enabled that diocese to draw down funds to pay survivors without holding a fire sale of property – and enabled the focus to be kept on the church’s repentance. That loan has now been repaid in full, through donations and cutting back spending.

Lucy Gichuhi “The question that goes through my mind is, ‘Why did the men of God go to a prostitute’s house?”

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Koorong sells books that save lives KYLIE BEACH “You probably don’t remember me,” the young woman began.

“I most certainly do!” replied Warren Ward, manager of Koorong’s store in Penrith, western Sydney.

How could Warren forget the face of a woman who had entered the store in such distress?

Two years earlier, this woman had been on a train to the Blue Mountains with the intention of going into the bush and committing suicide.

But as she neared Penrith, she

saw the Koorong sign with its dove logo on the rear of the building. For some reason, she felt compelled to get out of the train and go into the store to find out a bit more about God and Koorong. At the store she met Warren and another staff member, who talked to her and prayed with her.

Warren gave her a copy of Brennan Manning’s Christian classic The Ragamuffin Gospel, which explains that no matter what we have done, who we are or what we do, God’s love for us never changes.

Before reluctantly letting her go,

Warren persuaded her to promise she would read the book and not harm herself.

And that was the last Warren had seen of her until she returned to the store, with a couple of young children in tow.

The woman thanked Warren and Koorong for the book, the prayers and the kindness she had experienced. She told him it had saved her life and helped her find a full and satisfying life in Jesus.

Now, as the Christian bookstore chain approaches the 40th anniversary, Warren says it is a “reminder about how what we do

does impact the Kingdom of God.” Koorong is the largest retailer of Christian books and media in Australia. The bookstore was established by Bruce Bootes – a retired vet – and his wife Olive.

Their son Paul Bootes, who was managing director from 1978-2017 recalls, “Dad always loved books and he was a part-time Reformed Baptist preacher. Around 1971 or 1972 Dad started getting books in from a couple of publishers … It was nothing more than a small church bookstall type of thing.

“But then a few more friends

said ‘get me this,’ ‘get me that.’ So in the period 1973-74 it became a business rather than a little hobby.”

Since that time, Koorong has relocated its Sydney flagship West Ryde store to larger premises in the same suburb (1995), taken over the three Church Army bookstores at Newcastle, Tamworth and Gosford in NSW (2005), and expanded interstate (1979) and online.

Koorong now operates 15 stores across Australia, including Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart, Canberra, Toowoomba and Launceston, and employs about 400 staff.

NEWS

MAY 2018

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2018: a year of local evangelism JOHN SANDEMAN 2018 has seen a wave of local churches banding together to get the good news out in towns and suburbs, and this “on the ground” approach is getting results.

“There is power and effectiveness when Christians are focused on spreading the gospel together in unity,” says Pastor Phil of Living Grace Church, Moorebank, who took part in a joint event in Liverpool Sydney.

“Jesus is ___,” which invited people in the Illawarra and Macarthur region of Sydney to fill in the blank in the slogan, has seen 450 people make a decision to follow Jesus (either a new decision or a re-commitment).

10,200 people attended a one-off “Jesus is ___” event (excluding school assemblies and regular church activities). It’s estimated there were more than 6000 “Jesus is ___” conversations across the region during the mission month.

6500 handouts were given out to commuters, and 100,000 homes were letter-boxed.

This was a major push by mostly 80 Anglican churches led by the senior minister of Wollongong Anglican cathedral, Sandy Grant.

Bigge Park in Liverpool, also in southwest Sydney, was the focus of “Love Your City” day in March which brought together 15 local churches. More than 1000 hot dogs were given out at the main event. Twelve conversions and ten healings were reported

The Gold Coast Bulletin reports the mayoral baptism.

Ben Thompson from Beachside Baptist with young people creating the world’s longest prayer chain. by street ministry teams. The campaign was organised by a community outreach group known as Liverpool City Transformation which was inspired by One Heart in Toowomba. One Heart, led by Ian Shelton, who has a track record in fostering unity in his home town, held a “national gathering event” last year to inspire local churches to plan joint outreaches.

The world’s largest prayer chain was a Commonwealth Games

record that did not make it to the sports pages. But it was at the heart of a joint campaign by Gold Coast Christians to spread the world at the games. 20,000 Gospels of Luke from Bible Society were at the heart of the street campaign, which was spearheaded

by YWAM. Ben Thompson, from Beachside Baptist, and a member of his church were brainstorming what they could do and came up with the idea of the world’s longest

prayer chain.

The chain consisted of wristbands with prayers written on them, joined together to form one long chain.

What began as a youth-led movement on the Gold Coast spread across the land with people far and wide sending in their prayers for months.

A combined church service “Easter United”, which launched the campaign, drew 3500 people and featured Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate’s baptism and his personal testimony. His open-air baptism made the front page of the Gold Coast Bulletin with the headline “The Lord’s Mayor.”

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News briefs FORTY-FIED: Two groups that have shaped Aussie Christianity turn 40 next month. Koorong, a Christian bookstore, now part of Bible Society, started in a garage in Koorong Street, Marsfield, near Sydney’s Macquarie Uni, and has spread to every state. Ministry Training Strategy is a “leadership farm” providing ministry apprenticeships for (mostly) young people who pursue discipleship and who “don’t hide in the church.” mts.com.au koorong.com ISRAEL LIGHT: Israel Folau’s comments on gays and hell were not offensive enough, according to comments on eternitynews. com.au “In some respects, he wasn’t offensive enough!” media commentator and minister Michael Jensen said after Folau’s meeting with Rugby Australia and the NSW Waratahs. “It’s unfortunate that he singled out one part of the community. He shouldn’t have. Gay people are not singled out by the judgment of God. They are not the only people who need to repent; we all do. People of whatever orientation are in need of the grace and mercy of God.” Eternitynews. com.au/folau MARTYRED: A Christian woman in Pakistan died on April 22 after a Muslim in the Sialkot area set her on fire for refusing to convert to Islam and marry him, relatives said.

Muhammad Rizwan Gujjar poured kerosene on 25-year-old Asma Yaqoob and set her on fire on April 17, resulting in burns on 80 per cent of her body, sources said.

MAY 2018

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Radio delivers good news to Russia “We want to be encouraged by good news out of Russia,” said the lead pastor of an Australian Slavic church. Whether it’s stories about Russian-sourced “disinformation” spread online1 or the expulsion of Russia ambassadors over UKex-spy nerve agent attack2, good news from Russia is not what we expect in our daily headlines. This month, FEBC’s Alexey Vlasikhin will challenge that.

The Programme Manager of FEBC Russia’s Radio TEOS station, Alexey will speak at public events in Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra, as well as at Connect 18 to hundreds of Australian Christian Community radio broadcasters. He will share how God is at work in Russia and how FEBC’s Russian teams are demonstrating Christ’s love with amazing impact.

Growth despite persecution In the past two years FEBC went through a huge transformation in Russia – from AM radio to online outreach. Russia’s evangelical laws meant FEBC’s licence to broadcast on AM radio in St. Petersburg and Moscow was not renewed.

Ironically, the news came as FEBC Russia was reviewing how to implement a gradual switch from AM to FM, online, mobile app and satellite broadcasting over the next three years.

The government shutdown forced a three-year transition to take place in one month. In some ways, this news simply sped up

“

Christianity is not as remote or as backward as I thought! Just the opposite is true.” the implementation of this plan.

Today, more than half the people who listen to radio in Russia listen online or by using mobile phone apps. Reports are showing that the switch to FM, online and mobile app has not only enabled FEBC Russia to retain its audience of 250,000 in St Petersburg but increase it throughout the country.

“Our listeners became closer to us, and they increased in number.

Every month we are now reaching more than a million people. And since it is so easy to respond on their phones and computers, they do in great number,” says Alexey.

“Every month we receive more than 30,000 responses. While many of them are simple thanks, or comments, thousands of people need help. The response has especially increased in the past six months, and we need more people, both FEBC counsellors and volunteers, to help them and lead them to Christ.”

This is what the listeners are saying:

FEBC Russia’s Radio TEOS broadcaster live on air.

• “I am raising my children by myself, and I was desperate, utterly without hope until I heard your programmes…”

• “I began listening to your programs, and I realised I have no idea what it is to be a believer, a Christian. Can I talk to someone?”

• “My son is in prison. I’ve never prayed before but am praying for him now. Please teach me how to pray properly.”

“These people need help, and we’ve discovered that it’s after one-on-one counselling that people give their lives to Christ,” says Alexey.

After one broadcast, which included three-month afterprogram counselling, more than 160 people gave their lives to Christ and began attending local evangelical churches.

FEBC’s key audiences in Russia are the unchurched, nominal Orthodox Christians, sceptics, and atheists. This month, Alexey will share stories from people like Alexander in Moscow who contacted FEBC to say: “Just recently I discovered FEBC radio. I never thought I’d be listening to Christian radio every day! Apparently, Christianity is

not as remote or as backward as I thought! Just the opposite is true: Christianity is about my everyday life, and how I should respond to God. I cannot even say that I am sceptical, even though I used to be extremely sceptical about religion, making fun of those who believe. I don’t know if it’s because I am over 30 now, or that your programmes are so good, or something else, but you are now a part of my life!”

Station on a hill Alexey explains how being close to FEBC’s intended audience also means inviting them into the radio studios. “We invite students from local universities into FEBC’s studios to read the Bible.

They are reading the Scriptures for the first time in their lives, discovering the richness of God’s book along with many listeners just like them.”

Or it means producing programmes speaking directly to community need, such as a programme for parents of children with additional needs and unique challenges. FEBC Russia’s Radio TEOS is also actively involved in community development, supporting foster care and adoption, as well as drug rehab centres.

See advert below to attend a public event with Alexey Vlasikhin and hear good news from Russia.

1. www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/04/15/russialaunches-cyber-war-uk-dirty-tricks-campaignboris-johnson/?li_source=LI&li_medium=lirecommendation-widget 2. www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-27/ donald-trump-orders-expulsion-of-60-russiandiplomats/9589922

Radio: Changing Lives, Bringing Hope in Russia Alexey Vlasikhin

FEBC Australia is hosting Alexey Vlasikhin, Program Manager of FEBC Russia’s Radio TEOS station this May. Learn how Alexey and the FEBC Russia team reach out through radio to display the love of Jesus in their community, including: + Supporting foster care and adoption of abandoned teens + On and off-air counseling to those in need + Outreach into drug rehabilitation centres Hear live from Alexey about how radio in Russia is feeding hearts, engaging communities, bringing hope, changing lives and inspiring people to follow Christ.

Events

Live In Australia

Sydney Sunday 6 May Sans Souci Anglican Church 325 Rocky Point Road, Sans Souci NSW 3.00pm Service

Canberra Thursday 10 May St Matthew’s Anglican Church 5 Laurens Street, Wanniassa ACT 7.00pm

Sydney Saturday 12 May Central Baptist Church Fellowship Hall 619 George Street, Sydney NSW 11.00am Service

View all Alexey’s speaking events and register at https://febc.org.au/alexey

MAY 2018

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Better & Worse

CPX launches a new documentary

The Good Samaritan Here’s John Dickson on the road to Jericho – famous as the setting for one of Jesus’ most influential parables, the story of the Good Samaritan. On a treacherous road, in the middle of nowhere, a man is attacked, robbed and left for dead. A couple of religious types come by – but don’t stop. It’s the Samaritan – a cultural and religious outsider – who has mercy on the man, takes him to safety, and pays for his recovery. John reflects on the outsize impact this story has had on our world, from the welfare efforts of the early church to the healthcare we take for granted today.

Dome of the Rock in Israel Does religion poison everything?

What has Christianity ever done for the world? How do we square some of the atrocities and failures of Christians throughout history with the teachings of Jesus?

For the Love of God: How the church is better and worse than you ever imagined, a documentary from the Centre for Public Christianity, is coming soon to a cinema near you! Visit betterandworse.film to book tickets or to set up your own screening.

www. betterandworse. film

The leper priest of Molokai It’s been quite a ride! Filming for the documentary has taken more than two years, across four continents and 11 countries. And behind the scenes, not everything has gone to plan … like the day the crew arrived on Molokai, one of the Hawaiian islands, to film a story about Father Damien, the 19th-century “leper priest.” But first, to reach the Kalaupapa Peninsula (which remains a leper colony to this day), we needed to descend some of the world’s steepest sea cliffs – by mule. And we nearly had to call the whole thing off when a tsunami warning came in and there was talk of evacuating the whole peninsula!

Eventually the warning was lifted – though the rain continued

Playing in tune

throughout the day’s filming – and Simon Smart, right, and the crew proceeded in the footsteps of Father Damien, who (despite being Belgian) is remembered as one of the greatest and most beloved Hawaiians of all time.

What do Bach’s Cello Suites have to do with the best and worst of Christian history? Why is John playing (correction: attempting to play) a cello? For the answer to that one, you’ll just have to come and see the documentary for yourself ... continued page 6

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MAY 2018

SCREENINGS:

Human rights at Harvard Christianity in the age of empire For centuries, the “Christian” nations of Europe competed with one another across the globe for resources and for domination.

What followed – here in Australia, as elsewhere – was the annihilation of entire communities due to disease, land grabs, and outright massacres. It’s a far cry from the way Jesus talked about how to

exercise power: humbly, selfsacrificially, and for the good of others. In For the Love of God, Justine Toh, above, looks at some of the flashpoints of Aboriginal-settler relations in the period following European settlement – and what it looked like when Christian people did insist that we are all made in the image of God.

We did more than 50 interviews with experts from around the globe – historians, sociologists, philosophers, theologians, and more. Here, Simon Smart speaks with Samuel Moyn, Professor of Law and History at Harvard at the time (now at Yale), who’s written extensively about the origins and development of human rights. Under Allan Dowthwaite’s direction, the interview took place in the Divinity Hall Chapel at Harvard – a venerable and

storied space, where in 1838 Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his famous Divinity School Address, “Acquaint Thyself at First Hand with Deity.” Professor Moyn offers a nuanced view of the contribution Christian thought has made to our understanding of the human person. “Christians did a lot to introduce the idea of the equality of all individuals,” he explains – but there’s a but: “they also did a lot to obstruct the progress of that idea.”

NSW Castle Hill May 9 * Chatswood May 14 * Warringah May 16 * Hurstville May 16 Miranda May 21 * Wollongong May 23 * Erina May 28 * Newcastle May 30 * Albury June 4 * Avoca Beach June 7 * WA Garden City, Perth June 6 * SA Goodwood, Adelaide August 27 * VIC Village Jam Factory, Melbourne June 18 * Doncaster June 20 * QLD Pacific Fair June 25 * Toowoomba June 25 * Chermside June 27 * Garden City June 27 Maroochydore June 27 * * Screening is followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. Check the website for the dates and times.

Can’t find a screening near you?

It’s super-easy to host your own!

Visit www.betterandworse.film to book tickets or to organise your own screening.

Australia’s history you never read in school A new book is offering an alternative history of Australia with the Bible as its central character.

Historian and author Meredith Lake’s book, The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History, was released in April. She says when she began the process of looking at how the Bible had been important in Australia’s history, she was very quickly hooked.

“Once I started to think about the Bible and what Australians have thought about it, how they’ve acted on it, how they’ve fought over it, argued with it and about it, I uncovered a really rich seam of stories that have great explanatory power. It really helped me make sense of the society I’m living in,” Lake told Eternity.

“People who’ve taken the Bible as God’s word have changed Australia. And the influence of the Bible in the hands of people who aren’t straightforwardly Christian is also fascinating.”

Even the Bra Boys, a gang based on surf culture notorious for its

role in the Cronulla race riots in 2005, have a Bible verse, “My brother’s keeper” tattooed on their chests.

“The Bible is everywhere, in very surprising places,” says Lake.

“And people make all kinds of interesting interpretations of it.

“Is Mabo an example of Indigenous people applying verses of Scripture to their context?”

Lake tells me the story of Father Dave Passi, one of the original plaintiffs in the historic Mabo court case that recognised native title as part of Australian common law.

“Passi was an ordained Anglican priest from the Torres Strait. He saw Jesus as the fulfilment of the traditional spirituality of his people. And he fought for the recognition of land rights in the Mabo case, on the basis of the Old Testament verse in Proverbs 22:28; ‘don’t move a boundary stone which your ancestors have set up.’

“That was their whole argument, really: this is our land, it belongs to our families, we can tell you which clans have which pieces of land, and that was not extinguished by the British. And that argument, which resonated with Father Passi’s understanding of the Old Testament, was what overturned Terra Nullius [the assumption that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had no concept of land ownership before the arrival of British colonisers in 1788.] I just think … really? Is Mabo an example of Indigenous people applying verses of Scripture to their context? To some extent, yes it is. But you’ll never learn that in high school.

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, over 6,700 families - more than 30,000 people - have already gone back. And yet, there is still 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. The comfort cross, handWithout their faith, they would not have the courage to return. crafted in Bethlehem, it is an Help our brothers and sisters today with a heartfelt donation. ideal spiritual companion for Aid to the Church in Need is an international charity supporting easing fears, comforting worChristians wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in ries and focusing on prayer.

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“Instead of editing that part of history out, we just need to get to know the stories.

“This book is an alternative history of the big things in our nation’s life: whether it’s Mabo, the Anzacs, women’s right to vote – whatever it might be, there’s an angle on all of those things where people have taken Scripture and tried to link it to the questions of their times. And they’ve had extraordinary results.”

Lake argues that an understanding of the Bible “is crucial to understanding the way those arguments were made.” Yet, she says, biblical literacy is at an all-time low.

“Instead of editing that part of history out, we just need to get to know the stories.”

Lake says her book isn’t a history of churches; nor is it a history of Christian social movements.

Rather, she has attempted to place the Bible at the centre and look at people’s interpretations of it to “get quite a different perspective of what kind of society Australians have been building.

“And also,” says Lake, “what are the options for building a good society now?”

In an age when Christians are a declining proportion of society, Lake says the Bible still offers a reservoir of thought, reflection and wisdom that’s worth staying in touch with – both within the pages of the book itself, and in the lives and actions of people influenced by its words.

“I think it would be foolish to shut ourselves off from a tradition that is as rich and as diverse as the biblical one. It’s not the only thing we should draw on – but it is one resource that we would do well to be attentive to in the face of the big challenges that continue to face our society.”

The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History is published by NewSouth Books and is available in all good bookstores.

Aid to the Church in Need Australia

PO Box 7246 Baulkham Hills BC NSW 2153 Freecall 1800 101 201 | www.aidtochurch.org

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Postmoderns need Jesus too SAM CHAN

pixabay

Although as Christians we affirm the existence of absolute objective truth, in our postmodern age we must also acknowledge the role of community perspectives and tradition in shaping our perception of truth. In light of this, I want to make several suggestions for how we can engage in fruitful evangelism in a 21st-century, postmodern world.

Authenticity The buzzword for postmoderns is authenticity. Unlike moderns, the first question is not, “Is it true?” but, “Is it real in our lives?” Are we living consistently – or better, coherently – with our beliefs? Do we walk the walk as well as we talk the talk? This should lead us to think about how we evangelise to our postmodern friends in a way that communicates authenticity.

While the gospel is something we speak, words that communicate God’s truth, there is also a sense in which we ourselves are a component of how the message is communicated. We speak the words of truth, but we speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15).

Hospitality Hospitality is another means of evangelism and if we carefully read the New Testament letters we find that hospitality is quite prominent.

Hospitality demonstrates that the gospel is real, authentic, believable, attractive and livable.

Hospitality provides the space in which gospel conversations can happen in a friendly and safe environment. Most people are uncomfortable sharing private matters of values and worldviews – things like politics and religion – in public places. But in the private spaces of our homes, around food, our friends are more likely to talk about matters related to religion, especially if we show them it is safe to do so.

Practising hospitality follows the model of Jesus, who ate with sinners and tax collectors.

When we practise hospitality, it demonstrates that there is a distinction between loving someone and agreeing with them.

For example, Jesus can eat with sinners, but that doesn’t mean he agrees with what they’re doing. It’s the same with Christians. We can welcome people into our homes without saying that we approve of their lifestyle.

Hospitality is also a powerful apologetic tool. Often we have to

defend questions such as, “Why are Christians so hypocritical?” or, “Why are Christians homophobic?”

We can give good explanations for why Christians are (or are not) hypocritical. And we can try to give good examples for why Christians are not homophobic. But more often than not, our friends aren’t listening to our answers because their minds are already made up.

But if we have them over to our homes to enjoy a meal with us, then it is hard for them to accuse Christians of being hypocritical.

Testimony Our testimony is another powerful proclamation of the reality of the gospel. Again, a postmodern person is less likely to be persuaded by our clever arguments – “Is it true?” – but they might be persuaded by our life story – “Is it real?”

A postmodern person is likely to accept our testimony as a valid source of knowledge. Our testimony demonstrates that the gospel works. And while our nonChristian friend can argue against a truth claim, there is no argument against our personal story.

Using stories In general, we should use more stories in our evangelism. Stories work well because they invite the hearer to see the world through our eyes.

When I make a truth claim, the hearer is being asked to believe it or reject it. But when I tell a story, the hearer has to suspend their disbelief and enter my world of presuppositions, construals and perspectives.

Engaging the creative arts If the age of modernity was the age of the scientist, then the age

of postmodernity is the age of the artist. In postmodernity, we should concentrate on the imagination and aesthetics, giving attention to beauty, stories, emotions and feelings.

When we present the gospel, it’s no longer a case of presenting propositional data about Jesus.

The story needs to be embodied in our own story. And tradition, aesthetics, form and beauty are also very much part of that story.

In the past, the church has often encouraged people with intellectual gifts – those who are doctors, engineers and lawyers – to participate in preaching, teaching and evangelism ministries. The underlying assumption is that we need intellectual people in ministry. But we also need creative people who are skilled with storytelling, imagination and aesthetics. Rather than automatically encouraging our gifted people to go to seminaries, maybe we need first to send them to an arts school.

Explore different metaphors When we share the gospel with moderns, we tend to privilege the metaphors of guilt and transgression for sin, and forgiveness and justification for salvation. But when we tell the gospel to postmoderns, we should explore the variety of other biblical metaphors for sin and salvation.

Better metaphors for sin to a postmodern person might be self-righteousness, shame and the idea of being owned by whatever we’re living for. For example, many of my postmodern friends have a high concern for social justice, but in doing so they can become quite self-righteous about their

acts of good works and judgmental against those who don’t share their concerns. Many of my postmodern friends are stressed with staging the perfect wedding or raising the perfect children to the point where these are idols in their lives that promise status, success and social standing; these are things that own them. Or now that postmoderns are less individualistic and looking for belonging in tribal groups, they are rediscovering the idea of shame. Thus when I explain to them that we have shamed the God who loves us, I find that many postmoderns readily accept this explanation of sin.

Better metaphors for salvation might include restoration, peace, freedom and adoption. We can see how these metaphors apply readily to a postmodern person who is concerned about social justice – the brokenness of this world – and longs for restoration.

Or the postmodern person who looks for social harmony might also be crying out for peace. Or the postmodern person who senses that they have been owned by whatever they are living for will now be longing for freedom. Or the postmodern person who is looking for belonging might also be looking for adoption.

Use wisdom as an entry point If the book of Proverbs is right, then Christians should have a way of life that works. The Bible isn’t just true: it also works. By being faithful spouses who don’t cheat, Christians have happy family lives.

By being peacemakers, they resolve conflicts. By being loyal, they have rich networks of friends. They are happier, more fulfilled, more trusted and more respected.

If this analysis is correct, then wisdom can be an entry point into the gospel. For example, I run seminars for non-Christians who work in large corporations. They invite me to talk about general themes like leadership, success and ethics, and I try to show that these generally work better if we use a Christian worldview. The aim of the talks is for the non-Christian to come away saying, “Wow, I can see how the Christian way is a better way.” My hope is that they will be more open to the claims of Christianity and consider whether they might be true.

Changing our pedagogy With moderns, we used to employ this logic: Truth, Belief, Praxis • This is true.

• If it’s true, then you must believe it.

• If you believe it, now you must live it.

But with postmoderns, I believe a better pedagogical sequence is: Praxis, Belief, Truth • The Christian life is livable.

• If it’s livable then it’s also believable.

• If it’s believable, then it’s also true.

Therefore, evangelism to postmoderns requires a lifestyle change. We need our Christian friends to become friends with our non-Christian friends. We need to be part of the same community.

And then our non-Christian friends can see how the Christian life works. Then they will discover it is livable. And if they see that, they will see that it’s believable.

And if they see that, they might also acknowledge that it’s true.

But this will happen only if we live with our non-Christian friends. Not just visit them. Not just go out with them. But live among them so that they are part of our closest network of friends, and we are part of their closest network of friends.

Adapted from Evangelism in a Skeptical World

by Sam Chan.

Copyright © 2018 by Sam Chan. Used by permission of Zondervan. www.koorong. com/search/ product/ evangelism-in-a-skeptical-worldhow-to-make/9780310534716. jhtml

How the church is BETTER + WORSE than you ever imagined

IN CINEMAS FROM MAY 9 GO TO BETTERANDWORSE.FILM

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MAY 2018

After years working on the streets, Kim found love ANNE LIM Today, Kim Den Hertog loves the Lord with all her heart.

But as a child, Kim didn’t know what love was. Adopted as a baby, she remembers only cruelty and indifference from her parents.

“I used to ask my father ‘why did you adopt me?’ and he would say to me ‘because you’re a girl and you’ve got blue eyes,’” says the petite brunette with striking aqua eyes.

When she asked if he loved her, he said “How could someone ever love something like you?”

“He never, ever told me that he loved me. I kind of felt like a commodity,” Kim tells Eternity by phone from her property on the Gold Coast.

One of her deepest early traumas came from being misunderstood and punished for things she had no control over.

One time when Kim soiled her training pants, her mother put the dirty pants over the little girl’s head. Another time, her mother dragged her outside and hosed her down as one of her father’s friends leeringly looked on.

“I was screaming, and this guy was just leaning on the car, smoking a cigarette and laughing at me as I was being hosed … I can picture his face and when I think of him it revolts me and I want to be sick .... It was just horrible. Just the shame and the embarrassment.

“That little girl felt so full of shame,” Kim recalls. “I lived out of that shame and just felt that there was something wrong with me.”

Kim’s father left home when she was eight and she was often left in the company of her older brother and his friends.

“When I was 13, the people I was hanging around started smoking pot, so I started smoking pot with them and then, of course, I started drinking alcohol too.”

Kim says her behaviour was driven by wanting to fit in with the crowd because “I always felt quite unlovable and dirty and ugly … like I didn’t fit anywhere.”

But when she had her first injection of heroin at age 15, the world changed. She experienced what she describes as a “warm rush all over my body” that “washed away all emotional connection.

“It was the most amazing feeling I’d ever experienced ... to the point of killing emotion. I vomited all night, but just not feeling anything was amazing – I loved that feeling.”

Kim explains that when she used heroin, her feelings of being unlovable, unaccepted, wrong and embarrassed didn’t matter, but as she “straightened out” they came rushing back.

From the age of 14 or 15, Kim started having sex with dealers as a way of paying for drugs. So when, years later, someone suggested she should work in a brothel, it seemed as obvious as getting a job at Woollies because she had been “selling her body for drugs” for ages. “It was like ‘Oh yeah, why didn’t I think of that?’”

Kim’s first night in a brothel was a turning point in the way she thought about herself.

“It was quite a high-class place, so you wore a really nice gown ... and I put on this beautiful black gown, it really was gorgeous ... I never saw myself as attractive or beautiful, but the girls that were

“

Kim Den Hertog with her horse, JJ – one of the blessings she says God has showered on her.

She never condemned me.

I knew that she was a Christian but she never Bible-bashed me ...” on and the guys who worked there went, ‘wow, you’re stunning.’”

When Kim took her first client into a room, she discovered a feeling of empowerment that became more addictive than the drugs themselves.

“I loved it. I hated the sex. It made me sick, but it was a means to an end. But the empowerment of it totally took over the actual act.”

Yet the more money Kim earned, the more heroin she bought, and before long her sense of empowerment was replaced with desperation to get money for her drug habit.

After working in various brothels on the Gold Coast and the Tweed Heads area, she ended up working at a bondage den doing things that she found disgusting.

“Some stuff that went on there was absolutely putrid – like, whipping the guys and beating them up and putting dog collars on them, really perverse stuff – but when I was doing it I loved it; I loved beating them up.”

Kim was enraged by her bondage clients. She hated them so much she could have easily killed one of them, such was her murderous intent.

“Looking back, I think I must have had a sense of revenge, but I thought ‘I’m taking it out on the wrong people.’”

Kim believes she reached such a

warped, aggressive way of thinking after the death of her partner, Marcus – the only man who had loved her and not abused her.

“As much as we lived a crazy life, he was such a beautiful man.

He treated me so well. He’d come home and just wrap me in his arms and sing love songs to me ... He always nurtured me and held me in high esteem – just beautiful.”

When Marcus died, Kim found herself wanting somebody to pay for his death.

“I had no understanding of consequential thinking,” she says.

“We lived this full-on life. We sold drugs up and down the coast; we were both addicts – it was highly likely that one of us was going to OD and die, but that wasn’t my thought process. I was the victim.

I was raging.”

After Marcus’ death, Kim went back to working on the streets.

She was diagnosed as suicidal but believes “it was more that I just had no hope. It wasn’t that I wanted to die, it was that I didn’t know how to live.”

In the area she was working, it was obvious to everyone what she was – a drug-addicted prostitute.

“At that time, I used to get spat on, I’d had rocks thrown at me, milkshakes thrown at me – I was like a stray dog in town. One guy came up to me in the street and spit in my face and said, ‘why don’t you do something with your life, you whore?’”

One day, while Kim was hanging out for heroin in a park, with a client with her, a woman called Debbie approached her, handed her an Easter egg and said, “Jesus loves you.” To Kim, it was an expression of love that changed her life and her heart. After that first encounter, Debbie would come and find her on the street and take her for coffee and chats.

“She never condemned me. I knew that she was a Christian

but she never Bible-bashed me or said ‘if you don’t give your heart to Jesus you’re going to hell’ – there was none of that; it was just full love. She just loved me where I was at and demonstrated the heart of Jesus. It was amazing.”

Debbie’s relentless, nonjudgmental, loving pursuit of Kim deposited seeds of hope that helped her reach a point of believing that maybe there could be more to life.

“And that’s when I went to rehab.

It was pretty full-on because I hadn’t been straight for years and years and years.”

Although Kim had detoxed before, nothing had changed in her heart and she had returned to drugs. This time, through psychotherapy and Bible study, Kim was able to heal from her early traumas.

“Once I’d started therapy, I had a full-on supernatural encounter where I totally forgave my mum and dad,” she says.

Kim even thought about a particular client from the bondage den and found herself crying with compassion, wondering what had happened to him that he had to endure such abuse to achieve sexual release.

“I know that it was an encounter with God and he did something to my heart,” she explains.

While in rehab, Kim finally began to understand the love of God, thanks to her relationship with Marcus.

“I remember thinking ‘what was the point of seeing Marcus have these full, amazing years and then dying?’ Years before, I’d done a Christian rehab, but I could not fathom, even understand, the love of God. I had nothing to relate it to.

Then it was like, ‘Oh, I get it!’”

As she reflected on the gentleness, nurturing and love of Jesus, she was able to relate it to the love Marcus had shown her.

“I know it’s nothing like the love

of God, but it gave me something to work with.”

Similarly, when reading Scripture one day, Numbers 23:19 jumped out at her.

God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.

Does he speak and then not act?

Does he promise and not fulfil?

“It was like this lightbulb went on in my head and I was like, ‘whoa, God’s not a man, God’s not human,’ and it was like ‘I can trust something that’s not human.’

“From there, God just showed me stuff that helped me trust him so that even when man lets me down – and they still do because that’s life – it doesn’t shatter me and leave me in this place of hopelessness.

“I know God’s real. I know that what he told me and promised me will come to pass because it has so far; he’s never let me down.”

When asked how becoming a Christian has changed her, Kim says: “God has changed my heart.

I would say it was a real softening of my heart and a perspective of getting off oneself, like stop being so self-focused ... to what can I give? Or what’s that person going through? How can I help them?

How can I respond to them? And it feels so much better to be able to help somebody in a circumstance than rather be right.”

In particular, Kim’s thoughts turned to the girls still working the streets.

“It broke my heart and I thought ‘I want to do something, I want to reach out to these girls.’”

A couple of years later, as Kim was listening to a preacher in church, she sat bolt upright and felt God speak to her heart.

“He said ‘next year you will start your ministry and there will be women’s conferences out of there.’

And I couldn’t deny that was God.” Within a week, Kim and Debbie had come up with a name – Flawless Women – and were planning the first event. Three months later, they held their first high tea on 13 February 2016.

“Everything just fell into place. It was miraculous ... We’ve had three high teas now and it never ceases to amaze me just how everything just falls into place.”

Kim and her team of four – three of whom are former prostitutes – also visit brothels and strip clubs.

“In the brothels we take in a home-cooked meal for the girls. We serve it up for them and sit with them and chat.

“We have formed relationships with a lot of the women. A couple of them now are in counselling because we have a counsellor on board.”

Kim and her team find it more difficult to form relationships with the workers in strip clubs because the girls are on the floor and working, but they go into the dressing room and set out platters of fruit and chocolates for them.

“A couple of weeks ago, one of the girls followed us out and was asking questions and I was able to share my testimony and it blew her mind. She started crying and said ‘I can relate to what you’re saying.’”

For Kim, that short conversation is what it’s all about.

“I believe that she’ll ring me. I’m just giving those little deposits of hope like what Deb did.”

MAY 2018

BIBLE @ WORK

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The lost boys of Syria Akram, aged 12, shows the scar from shrapnel that hit him as he was fleeing Syria four years ago.

ANDREW BOYD Twelve-year-old Akram sits on the floor of his tent, lost in thought. A shaft of sunlight streams in from a single window, dust dancing among the rays. Akram lets the brightness play across his fingers.

Perhaps his mother is doing the same, sitting on the floor of her cell, in Syria, where she stands accused of spying.

Akram is one of the lost boys of Syria, a generation stripped of their childhood and forced to exchange a normal education for schooling in the horrors of war.

Many who made it here to this Sunni Muslim camp have fled their war-torn homes in Syria – Akram’s brother and sister among them.

What’s left of their family live today in a refugee camp in northern Lebanon, which they share with 1100 others crammed into 350 tents.

There are at least 1.5 million registered refugees in Lebanon.

The steady influx of the

dispossessed from Syria has increased the population of this small country by as much as 50 per cent.

A cold wind from distant Mount Lebanon searches out cracks and flaps in the sturdy canvas. Beyond those snowy mountains lies Syria, and the city where Akram used to live, and where fierce fighting took place.

“My Dad, he died in Syria – they shot him,” says Akram. “My brother was fighting against the other soldiers, and they killed him too. He was 30.”

His brother’s death was Akram’s signal to leave. With his sister and younger brother, he managed to escape from Syria – but only just.

Troops took aim at their fleeing car. Shrapnel tore into Akram’s body, close to his right hip. He had to find treatment in a country where hospitals have become targets. It took doctors three hours to dig out the metal and clean the wound. He lifts his grey sweatshirt to show the scar. Those doctors did

a good job. Akram was impressed.

“I want to be a doctor,” he says.

“To help people.”

There’s just one problem. Akram is bright, but his schooling was cut short by war four years ago. He can neither read nor write.

There are schools outside the camp that will take the younger children. They line up with their green backpacks to catch the daily bus. But that bus departs without boys like Akram.

So, he joins the others of his lost generation, on wasteland overlooking the sea of tents. They chuck stones at bottles propped up on breeze blocks, and play war games. Bits of broken wood become Kalashnikovs. Captured boys are marched, hands on heads, to the stronghold, a pile of rocks.

A shepherd, oblivious, cajoles his sheep along a road.

Giving these troops their orders is Fares, who’s 17 and old enough to remember what drove him out of Syria.

“It was a big fight, yes, between

the Syrian army and the others.

And it was terrible.”

His friend, 15-year-old Abed, can remember many things no child should ever have seen. Look into these boys’ eyes and you see a reflection of what they have been forced to behold and what they cannot forget. And there is bitterness in their words.

Abed’s eyes flicker and narrow as he tells how his uncle was captured, tortured and killed.

“They made him suffer a lot. I saw a lot of people dead and suffering because of the war. It was hard for me to see all this.”

Abed’s T-shirt is black and red.

His eyes have hardened into an unflinching stare: “I am asking God to punish all those people who hurt us.”

There is nothing in this camp to dispel those terrible memories.

Yet somehow the glow of home has become detached from the nightmare. These boys want to go back to Syria, even though they know their houses will be nothing

but rubble. Abed’s home was blown apart by a tank.

Fares holds on to his hope – the hope of one day being able to return. “I hope that Syria will be like before – a land of peace.”

Until that day, it’s back to pelting rocks with stones and playing soldiers. And waiting for the world to change.

The Bible Societies of Lebanon and Australia are working together to give these children the chance of recovering some of their lost years of schooling. They’re drawing up plans to provide literacy training in a number of refugee camps.

Meanwhile, Akram sits in his tent, playing with the shaft of sunlight across his fingers. Four years have passed since he saw his mother. But Akram hasn’t given up on life. Although his expression often reverts to unutterable sadness, Akram is a little boy who would rather smile than cry.

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

Young Syrian refugees like Hayyan have seen incredible horror. But they face another crisis as they wait in Lebanese refugee camps.

These precious young people struggle with isolation, anxiety and desperation, but you can make life move forward again for them. Just $48 can teach Hayyan to read and learn about Christ in a Bible-based literacy class.

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

MAY 2018

E BARNABAS FUND SPONSORED PAGE 10

Fair Go Australia!

Reclaiming our religious freedom Religious freedom is under threat across the Western world, even here in Australia, the land of the fair go. Barnabas Fund Australia has launched a new campaign to reclaim religious freedom and is appealing to Christians across the nation to get involved.

Last year’s law on same-sex marriage drew attention to the issue of religious freedom, and the impact of an increasingly intolerant secular humanism in our land. The Expert Panel selected by the Federal Government to inquire into the status of religious freedom in Australia has been tasked with considering the intersection between the enjoyment of freedom of religion and human rights, allowing it to consult as widely as necessary for the purposes of the review. By 14 February it had received more than 16,000 submissions. Now is the time for Christians to make their voice heard on this vital issue.

Freedom of religion undermined in Australia There are many examples of how freedom of religion is being undermined in Australia.

In 2015 street preachers on the Gold Coast were arrested for mentioning a list of sins in the Bible, and the same happened earlier to Christians on the Sunshine Coast giving out Bible tracts. The prosecutions were

Will you pray for full and permanent protection of religious freedoms? dropped but we have yet to see what will happen to Pastor Campbell Markham in Hobart.

The freedom to preach and try to convince others of what you believe is a basic aspect of religious liberty – now under threat in Australia.

We have also seen NSW law courts ruling on what is or is not a Christian doctrine, and in Victoria there have been apparent attempts to use hate speech laws to muzzle Christians and prevent them from criticising other

religions.

Christians at university are finding themselves discriminated against, and one was suspended because he respectfully and lovingly expressed disagreement with LGBT ideological beliefs.

Even the basic freedom to choose or change your religion or belief is under threat. Former Muslims in Australia have suffered threats of violence, even death threats. Hizb ut-Tahrir has made clear its belief in executing those who leave Islam (which is in line

with sharia law) and has not been prosecuted for this or banned.

Our Constitution The 1900 Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act states: “The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.” (Section 116) This was effective for a century but now seems to be losing its power. State constitutions have no provisions on religious freedom, as the early settlers expected they would be protected by British laws that had developed over many centuries.

Seven basic aspects of freedom of religion Freedom of worship.

Freedom to read Scriptures in public.

Freedom to interpret the Scriptures without government interference.

Freedom to choose or change your faith or belief.

Freedom to preach and try to convince others of the truth of your beliefs.

Freedom to establish places of worship.

Freedom from being required to affirm a particular worldview or belief in order to hold a public

sector job (except where there is a genuine occupational requirement such as chaplaincy posts), stand for election, work in professions such as teaching and law, or study at university.

Please pray, sign and GET INVOLVED in Barnabas Fund’s campaign Barnabas Fund exists to support persecuted Christians worldwide and to protect religious liberty wherever it is under threat. Its Our Religious Liberty campaign has launched with a petition calling for full, permanent and adequate protections guaranteeing all seven of the key aspects of religious freedom which have developed over five centuries. These freedoms will apply to followers of all religions and none.

• Sign the petition today at: ourreligiousfreedom.org.au • Download a petition form and gather signatures at your church, workplace or among your friends and neighbours.

• Above all, pray.

For more information download our booklet Turn the Tide: Reclaiming Religious Freedom in Australia at ourreligiousfreedom. org.au/resources.html.

Free printed copies of the booklet and petition form are also available from Barnabas Fund’s Brisbane office 07 3806 1076 or 1300 365799 or write to bfaustralia@barnabasfund.org

Read Barnabas Fund’s Turn the Tide booklet which sets out the challenges and the reasons why protection of religious freedom is needed in Australia.

Sign our petition calling for full, permanent and adequate protections of religious freedoms which having been developed over time are now at risk.

Protect liberty of faith and conscience in Australia.

You can sign the petition online at: www.OurReligiousFreedon.org.au

Religious freedom is under threat across the Western world, even here in Australia, the land of the fair go. But you can help turn the tide.

You can order copies of the the Turn the Tide booklet and petition from Barnabas Fund: PO BOX 3527, LOGANHOLME, QLD 4129 (07) 3806 1076 or 1300 365 799 bfaustralia@barnabasfund.org

MAY 2018

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OPINION

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Before the fall: David Warner in a T20 match against New Zealand at the SCG earlier this year.

RICHARD SHUMACK Sandpaper: why do we care?

It’s been hard to know just what to do with the extraordinary way that Australian cricket’s recent ball tampering scandal captured the public imagination. On the one hand, it seems right to get upset about cheating: cheating’s unquestionably bad, right? But on the other, the sheer degree of upset seems crazily disproportionate to the importance of cricket in the big scheme of things.

A well-circulated meme put the problem like this: AUSTRALIA: Tampa: meh Children overboard: meh Offshore detention: meh Deaths in custody: meh Indigenous health gap: meh

Environmental destruction: meh Workers ripped off: meh Ball tampering in cricket: OMG WE HAVE LOST OUR WAY WHAT HAS BECOME OF US? The problem here appears obvious. Aussies’ reaction to the rubbing of a small leather ball with a piece of sandpaper shows we have our social ethics twisted.

It shows that we overvalue sport and undervalue social justice. It shows we reserve our righteous indignation for trivial types of cheating instead of pouring it out on important ones like cheating an immigrant worker out of fair pay.

It’s hard to argue with this.

Despite our obsession with sport, cricket is just a game. Nothing really serious has happened as a consequence of this ball tampering scandal. No one has lost a loved one, been sent to jail or suffered debilitating injuries.

So why the big deal? Why so many news articles, social media posts, media conferences and opinion pieces (like this one!)?

My personal hunch is that the extreme reaction comes in large part because the actions of our test cricketers have exposed one of the key Australian myths to be a lie.

Here’s the myth: the Australian cricket team represents us at our best. They represent a culture of honour (of the baggy green and those who went before), of self-sacrifice and humility (team first), and especially of tough but fair play. It is the myth that grew out of the infamous bodyline series where, when England

(dangerously) chose to descend to a win-at-all-costs mentality, we remained on the moral high ground. It is a myth personified in arguably our greatest captain, Richie Benaud. A paragon of fairness (he once suggested that “Golf is a great sport for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s the only game where you call a penalty on yourself”), he famously made a gentleman’s agreement with West Indian captain Frank Worrell to play entertaining cricket at the risk of losing. This led to the brilliant tied Test – perhaps the greatest cricket match in history.

Moreover, this is one of the very few myths of which Aussies feel they can be proud. We are historically cynical about and untrusting of our politicians.

We are generally ignorant of our scientific achievements and even our highest-achieving schools traditionally worship the 1st XI more than the musicians. Our reputation as tourists is very patchy (just think Kuta beach in Bali). Perhaps the only other field of endeavour in which we imagine ourselves excellent is on the battlefield. The Digger is the classic elite soldier triumphing, or sometimes not, over huge odds and incompetent foreign leadership.

For better or worse, in the story of our nation, Gallipoli and the Test team are when we were at our best on the world stage. It is no surprise that our two greatest national religious festivals are Anzac Day and the Boxing Day Ashes Test.

Deep down, of course, we know different. In our most honest moments we know that the myth is false. We squirmed when Trevor Chappell bowled underarm. We tried to shrug it off when Warney was banned. We looked the other way when the infamous “dressing room incident” involving Simon Katich and Michael Clarke revealed fractures in the team culture. We’ve ignored the niggling feeling that our Test team has been unlikable for years.

But this latest incident is one step too far. It was too calculated, too bullying, too dishonest, too sneaky, too ingrained, too leadership-culpable for us to pretend any more. Ball tampering is a huge thing because it confronts us with the inconvenient truth that our best is deeply flawed.

Now it’s a very great pity that it took cricket to expose the myth that Aussies normally play fair. It is to our great shame that we didn’t (all) come to that realisation via the children overboard or Manus Island abuse or myriad other stories. Nevertheless, we can at least be thankful that whatever it took, truth was outed in the end.

But just because this myth has been exposed doesn’t mean that national myths should be rejected out of hand. Myths are ways of passing on important truths to do with community identity that powerfully resonate with our imaginations. The crucial question is not whether we should entertain identity myths but which myths are worth retelling – that is,

which carry enough truth to open windows into who we really are.

C.S. Lewis famously observed that the Christian message operates as just this sort of myth.

He suggests “the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened: and one must be content to accept it in the same way, remembering that it is God’s myth where the others are men’s myths.”

Central to the narrative of God’s “myth” in the gospel is that we are so much more horribly “unfair” than we imagine. God’s “myth” tells us that we are all naturally cheats in so deeply spiritual a way that a mere change of “leadership culture” will have no hope of fully dealing with it. Our only hope is to turn to him.

My hope is that the falsifying of the “Aussies always play fair” identity myth might help Aussies see at least part of the truth of the gospel “myth.” How tragic, yet beautifully Aussie, would it be if God used a humble piece of yellow sandpaper on a cricket field to help us see our need for him.

Richard Shumack is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity and Director of the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology. The Centre for Public Christianity offers a Christian perspective on contemporary life. Browse its articles, videos, and podcasts at www. publicchristianity.org

Flickr / davidmolloyphotography

Hit for six: The myth of the Australian cricket team

We’re best as a minority Tim Costello Page 14

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Are Christians and the church on the nose?

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P E R C E P T I O N S

FAITHFUL

32%

HONEST HYPOCRITICAL

C H R I S T I A N S

CARING 41%

25%

KIND OLD FASHIONED 17%

18%

35%

LOVING JUDGMENTAL 35%

18%

extrapolated. Added to these predictions are also many ideas about how the church must redeem its position in the community to create a positive future. It is not surprising that much of this commentary comes from the usual sources in the mainstream media.

But is this view that the church is on the nose and thoroughly dismissed and discredited accurate? While there is no doubt that there are issues, research suggests it is not as bad as many make out.

In 2017, Olive Tree Media, in conjunction with several other ministry organisations and McCrindle Research, released the Faith and Belief Research on Christianity and the Church in Australia. Faith and Belief asked questions of a representative

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TRADITIONAL OPINIONATED

31%

group of people about Australians’ responses to Christianity and the church and the outcomes were not as negative as many assume.

First, when asked about religious affiliation, 45 per cent stated that they identified as a Christian. This is 6 per cent lower than the 2016 census but is still a remarkably high number. When the 2016 census figures were released much was made of the fact that Christianity had fallen to 51 per cent from 62 per cent in 2011 – well down on the over 90 per cent numbers of the 1940s and 1950s.

While it is true that the number has fallen, it is also true that when asked, half of the Australians polled identified themselves as Christian.

In the Faith and Belief Research, McCrindle wanted to clarify where

20%

those who were not Christians, by their own self-identification, sat on a modified Engels Scale.

This was from -1 (very close to belief) to -7 (as far from faith as you can imagine). When asked directly, 38 per cent stated that they were Christians. Many of you reading this article will suggest that they all are not Christians from a biblical perspective of the definition of a Christian and that would be a fair comment. But this was not a theological test – it was a question about perception of their personal belief.

Of the remaining 62 per cent, 24 per cent landed in the -1 to -3 category, meaning they were affirming of the Christian faith.

This means that 62 per cent of Australians either believe they are Christians or are positively

Making a difference HOLE WO EW R

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It’s common to read that the church is on the nose in Western culture and especially in Australia.

Commentators regularly reflect on the parlous state of the church and its poor reputation. This is referred to so often that it has become accepted as a valid and fair opinion. The question to ponder, though, is whether this is accurate.

There are plenty of reasons to believe this is true. The Christian church in Australia has been plagued over the last five to ten years by its involvement in two high-profile community discussions, the first of its own making, the second thrust upon church leaders. The Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is a serious “own goal” by the church.

While many denominations may feel they have been unfairly tarnished by the actions of other larger church institutions, the

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Karl Faase sees the glass at least half full

truth is that the Christian church as a whole has been damaged by this appalling lack of judgment (and criminal behaviour!) by many church leaders. In general, our community understands that actions by certain individuals do not reflect the values of the larger organisation. What people struggle to comprehend is when leadership of church institutions and denominations seem to have turned a blind eye to the behaviour of a few and the lives of children and their families have been devastated.

The second issue has been the community-wide discussion on same-sex marriage that culminated in the postal survey last December. This created an enormous amount of heat and vitriol towards anyone who dared to stand against the push by pro-activists. Name calling and derogatory articles were written against those who opposed the push. It was the Christian church and its leaders in various places that were the vocal and prominent opponents to this shift and bore the brunt of the backlash.

These two community debates, as well as the regular criticism that the church is out of date and “on the wrong side of history” (whatever you think that means!) have led many commentators to assert that the church is perceived negatively by the community at large. Once that assertion is made, all sorts of scenarios about the future of the institution are

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OPINION

MAY 2018

disposed to Christian faith and belief.

Something that you will hear the commentariat inside and outside the church say is that everyone believes Christians are judgmental and hypocritical but is that accurate? The Faith and Belief Research asked Australians if they know any Christians and 92 per cent said they did. This does leave 8 per cent or 1.5 million Australians who don’t know one Christian. Those who knew at least one Christian were asked to choose from a list of 20 words those that best described the Christians that they knew. On the list were positive words but so were the not-so-positive words such as “hypocrite” and “judgmental.”

The outcome was that the top five words used to describe Christians in Australia were all positive – “caring,” “loving,” “kind,” “honest” and “faithful.” Even number six was reasonable, that being “traditional.” “Hypocritical” was on the list but well down, coming in at number ten by just 17 per cent of the responses. The assertion that Australians believe Christians are hypocritical and judgmental and a menace to the community is simply not representative of the facts.

Even the local church received a positive response. This is to be taken with some caution because when asked what they knew about their local church, 56 per cent said they knew nothing to very little (this is a challenge to all church leaders!) but when asked about

the influence of their local church, 44 per cent said it was positive and only 9 per cent said their local church had a negative influence.

These figures are not commentary or opinion – these are responses from real Australians on what they actually think. There are two takeaways from these responses.

The first is the difference between the concrete and the abstract. These terms come from Nick Spencer from Theos ministry in the UK. He did similar research and noted that when people were asked about the church and Christians in general their response was often negative.

When asked about specific Christians they knew and specific local churches they were aware of, the response was positive. In the abstract, Christianity may have a negative response, but in the concrete, it changed to being significantly positive.

The second take-away from the research is to be careful not to accept what we read at face value.

There are many inside and outside the church whose positions are bolstered by peddling a negative view of the church. There are those inside the church community looking to create radical change in theology, values or practices in the church.

The best way to create this change is to manufacture the worst image possible of the church to garner support for radical change.

I believe change is needed. I believe the church must continue to

review and renew its practice and leadership, but I do not believe that the research reveals a position so dire that unsubstantiated claims for making big change are worth pursuing. This calls for caution and care. There are plenty in the commentariat outside the church who want nothing more than to close down the institution of the church and run every last Christian leader and voice out of the public square. The best way to achieve this is to create as negative as possible a picture of the church in the community so that every step can be taken to push the church to the margins. As many have written, the margins are not all bad. That was where the early church started and where God through his Spirit has created remarkable expansion of the church – the growth of the church in China being a relatively recent historical example.

While it is true that the margins are not to be feared, cowering from public engagement because we believe the rhetoric that the church is disliked and dismissed by the general populace is quite possibly unfounded. The church will not be a force in the future if we do not continue to challenge and reassess what we do. But let’s be sure we do that from accurate information, not just ideas pushed by people who are long on agenda and short on facts.

Karl Faase is CEO Olive Tree Media. Faith and Belief Research available for free at www. faithandbelief.org.au

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Forty years of Bible translation KALEY PAYNE Paul Eckert has spent almost 40 years overseeing the Pitjantjatjara Bible Project, translating the Bible into the Aboriginal language of Central Australia. He arrived in the APY Lands in the remote northwest of South Australia as a school teacher, but followed God’s call into Bible translation. In May, he hands over the reins of the project, as he retires.

After many years living and working with the Pitjantjatjara people in Pukatja (formerly known as Ernabella), Eckert is fluent in the local language and has formed lasting relationships. He says it will be hard to say goodbye.

As a young man in his 20s, Eckert first went to the APY Lands in 1973. He spent two years in Amata before he was asked to start a school in Pipalyatjara, then a very small community where most of the local people lived in whirlies (traditional huts) or tin sheds.

“I started up a school under a gum tree. I had my swag, made a windbreak with old car bonnets and slept there for two years.

“I loved living

in the outback and working with Aboriginal people.”

The Pitjantjatjara people in Ernabella were working slowly on translating the Bible. When Paul was approached by two members of the Ernabella community who were keen to kick-start the Pitjantjatjara Bible Project, he never looked back. The goal was to complete the first full Bible in a traditional Aboriginal language.

“I could see that having the word of God in their own language empowered that church to grow in the way it needed to grow, rather than being taught by outsiders.”

Paul and his wife, Ann, have dedicated their lives to the Bible project in Pitjantjatjara, working with Bible Society Australia. They have seen the publication of the full New Testament in Pitjantjatjara in 2002, and recently completed an audio recording of the NT, while the Old Testament translation is under way.

Paul says the best part of the job has always been working with the Pitjantjatjara people.

“There is great joy in working alongside other people and together growing in our love of God’s word.”

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OPINION

14

MAY 2018

Why we are best The wisdom of Rahab as a minority Lucy Gichuhi on the woman with a scarlet cord

Tim Costello sees strength in our weakness There are some in this nation who despair that Christianity has lost its ability to dominate or define the political and social landscape.

Increasingly loud voices from the Christian barricades are insisting that we must adopt the militant tactics of successful non-Christian lobby groups to fight an “erosion” of Christian values and gain more legislative and political power.

It is a philosophy that I believe is self-defeating.

There are those, from the Emperor Constantine on, who have celebrated religious faith as a legislative and social norm.

Yet, we know that the kingdom of God cannot be voted in or legalised into existence.

There are those – and I count myself among them – who believe we Christians are always at our best when we are in the minority.

When we are not fighting for dominance with the law and the power of the state.

Christianity’s explosive early growth occurred at its greatest period of vulnerability and political weakness. This minority group attracted followers because it was compassionately responding to basic, deeply felt human needs.

Christians have an off-kilter view of the world – love your enemies, turn the other cheek, live without anger or lust, be strong in the broken places.

We can actually celebrate being a faithful and discerning minority, not beholden to culture, legislators

or power brokers. As historian Arnold Toynbee said, the fate of a society always depends on its creative minorities. Of course, we never celebrate the loss of religious freedom, but the face of Christianity should not be the face of fear and militant resistance. If Christians are known primarily for defending their institutions or morality, we will become just another aggrieved minority.

Jesus’ revolution was marked by service to others, not with bombs, politics or legislation. He proved that social change could only occur when hearts were changed.

The integrity of the church is jeopardised when it bends to the will of the state or culture. We have created a workable system where church and state are separated to protect them from one another, not to diminish the role of either.

The church should not be neutral when it comes to social change.

We should sting the national conscience, speak truth to power and be a prophetic witness for biblical values and obedience to Christ.

But, as “resident aliens,” we should focus on developing Christian life and community rather than attempting to win the culture wars. Our quest is to live lives that model the love of Christ.

The Book of Joshua starts with the Israelites preparing to enter the Promised Land. Israel could not settle in the land without first conquering Jericho – the strongest city of the region. Joshua, guided

by God, sent two men to spy on Jericho’s defences. During their mission, they went to the house of Rahab, a prostitute.

Jericho’s king was informed and ordered Rahab to hand over the men of God. Capture would have meant certain death. Rahab, acting with wisdom that seems to have come from God, protected them by pointing the soldiers elsewhere.

Rahab is the story’s main character. According to the Gospel of Matthew, she is the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth – this is the beginning of the line of David.

The men of God are unnamed and faceless. God’s focus is on Rahab

and his plan is for her to become part of the lineage of Jesus.

She said to them, “I know that the LORD has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you” (Josh 2:9). She showed wisdom by recognising God’s plan. Rahab trusted in the sign of the scarlet cord through divine protection and guidance.

It was not the men of God who required saving. God was working to protect Rahab, who was important for the lineage of Jesus.

It is not your experience, skills, profession or status in life that matter. It is God’s divine purpose for your life that will prevail no matter what your circumstances.

The question that goes through my mind every time I read this is, “Why did the men of God go to a prostitute’s house?” It doesn’t seem to be the natural first port of call for men of God. But God trusted them with their character and skills to come up with an agreement that was free of worldly vices that compromise his plans.

Only people of God under his divine protection and inspiration could do this. Rahab’s business was to entertain men. God had prepared and equipped her for this moment – to recognise that these men were different.

Christians are instruments in God’s divine grand design plan.

He equips and positions us even if we can’t see it just yet. Christians

need to obey, trust and be prepared to be used by God every waking moment. The transformation that comes with a Christian lifestyle is part of his equipping and skilling us. All Rahab needed to do was recognise the moment and go with God’s flow. When God’s wisdom transforms our minds, he provides skills to carry out his will. He did it for Rahab. God’s strength equips us in challenging circumstances to advance his kingdom.

Many have asked me, “Why did you join the Liberal Party?”

It was a watershed moment.

From my experience, skills and God’s guidance, I could see a political party with a difference – just as Rahab could tell that the spies were “men with a difference that make the difference.”

Sometimes it feels as if we need many people, certain skills, positions, colour, creed, gender to bring about change. But Christians only need to obey and trust that right now, wherever or whoever you are, God has positioned you for the next part of his grand plan.

Just do it with focus, courage and a keen eye so you don’t miss your watershed moment.

Time after time we see God’s love, guidance and protection bring about real change through the willingness of just one very unlikely person, church, skill or experience. It is the “God factor” that makes our lives worth living.

Lucy Gichuhi is a Liberal senator for South Australia.

Letters No ground for condemnation The Sunday after the news concerning Barnaby Joyce broke we had a visiting preacher at our church. He, like so many others, in passing mentioned the case. It was irrelevant to his theme.

When we were saying goodbye I offered just one comment that maybe this news-breaking act would be the main subject mentioned in pulpits nationwide, adding that we are all human and dare anybody throw stones.

I must say that reading the last issue of your paper did blow my mind, as I did not expect your

monthly publication to run such an issue.

By the grace of God, I can say I have never fallen to such a temptation, but this is no ground for condemnation.

Instead, it has me on my knees, praying for all caught up and hurt, and even broken-hearted.

We once served in a parish where there was a married woman who prided herself on being a marriage breaker.

Thank you for your publication, which offers me news of events overseas, and helps my spiritual

growth, for example, about people caught up in war zones in Africa and the fact that they say grace as they take back their meagre food rations to their tents, surrounded by dust, and I dare say flies.

Especially in the light of the fact (as I read yesterday in another church publication) that globally the anti-ageing market will be worth $300 billion by 2020. Add to that the global cost of caring for pets. Yet we have people dying of starvation.

Yours in Christ, Brian Harding (Rev’d)

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OPINION

MAY 2018

15

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Why animals?

Michael Jensen Our fellow creatures did not come by chance I share my study, for most of the day, with a cocker spaniel called Maggie.

It is extraordinary to me that we have what can only be called a relationship. She is quite a character, and she is truly part of the family. Mind you, it goes without saying that she is not a part of the family in the sense that my daughter is. I would pay far more for medical treatment for my daughter, for one.

As I contemplate her dozing (she snores), I catch myself wondering “Why are there animals?”

From an atheistic evolutionary perspective, that is a nonsensical question, of course. There is no “why.” Or at least, the only answer to the question of “why” is a “how”: there are animals because by the laws of physics, there had to be.

But for a person who believes in a creator God, the question is very different. To believe in a Creator is to believe in the meaning and purpose of all things. Things aren’t put together by chance, but they have particular order and place.

They do not belong to themselves but have been fashioned by the one who made them, and who gives them their particular qualities.

That’s how Genesis 1 depicts the Creator at his work: creating the creatures to fill the earth, sea and sky, and creating them each “according to its kind.”

Then he creates, finally, humankind, not according to its kind, but according to his kind: “in his image.” And to this creature, more kin with himself than with the animals, he gives dominion over the others, to rule and to keep.

In Genesis 2, it is man who is invited by God to name the animals. And this says something about the peculiar gift that human beings have, which is that they are

Alexas_Fotos

question of existence itself. To be, or not to be? – that is a uniquely human question.

What dog ever pondered its mortality?

Part of this gift is the gift of words.

Gorillas and chimps can be taught a basic language. But it consists mostly of items. It is nothing like the sentences you are reading now. They do not write poetry, or rap, or describe the taste of wine like sunsets. We can speak, and we can think in words.

The speechlessness of animals shows us just how incredible this ability is.

And we are made this way because we are made for a special relationship with our Creator. He rules over all his creatures, but it is the human creature whom he has crowned with glory and honour, and with whom he seeks to unite himself. He speaks with us, and invites us to speak with him. More than that: it is as a human being that he enters into our world.

Though many other religions have had their gods take the form of an animal, the God of the Bible is incarnate as a human being.

The second thing that the animals give to us, in biblical terms, is a sense of the creativity and power of God. The animals show his genius. Psalm 104, which is a magnificent hymn to the Creator, describes the greatness and majesty of God by noting how he makes and sustains the natural world: How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number – living things both large and small. (Psalm 104:24-25) One of my favourite passages in the entire Bible is in the book of Job. It’s when God finally answers Job out of the whirlwind. And instead of defending himself, what God does is point to his extraordinary works in the creation and say (to paraphrase) “tell me if you could do any of these things” – which of course Job can’t.

Among other creatures he lists the ostrich, the wild donkey, the mountain goat, the lion, the horse,

able to see the things in the world and describe them. A giraffe does not know that it is a giraffe, in the sense that it is an even-toed ungulate mammal – but we do.

That gives us the ability to find the deep order and connection in things as well, as we observe the similarities and differences in things. Our words are not powerful like God’s words, which create things from nothing. But they do have a power to describe the things that are.

But animals don’t exactly have a starring role in the Bible. The animals around the Christ child’s manger are mostly the products of artistic licence (sorry, but it’s true). In the Old Testament, animal life is taken for sacrifice.

Animals are important to the largely agricultural society that ancient Israel was, certainly. They are valuable, and their lifeblood is close enough to ours for us to get the symbolism of sacrifice. It’s their blood instead of ours.

In the New Testament, however, which is not set in the farms and the fields but chiefly in the cities of the Roman Empire, there seems to be hardly any reflection on animal life at all.

So what are we to make of our fellow creatures, then?

The first thing is that the biblical authors seem to use animals to remind us of our place in the order of things – as Psalm 8 says “a little lower than the angels.” We are made of the dust of the earth like the animals. We have bodies, as they do, which need water and food; and we reproduce via male and female, like them. We understand from them what it is to be a creature, because we can see the same bodily functions in them that we see in ourselves. Should we be tempted to think ourselves divine, we see animals eat and excrete and remember that we do exactly the same.

And yet: we are not like them.

We have a peculiar gift which makes us unique amongst the animals. Of course, it doesn’t make us actually unique, because we share this capacity with our Creator. We are not just conscious: we are “self-conscious.” This means we have the ability to think about ourselves in the third person. We can imagine a future. We can consider our deaths – not just in the sense that an antelope knows that it would be unpleasant to be eaten by a lion, but in the sense that we can ask ourselves the

“

Many animals, particularly mammals, show signs of misery, depression, and despair.” and the hawk. Here’s a sample: Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?

Do you make it leap like a locust, striking terror with its proud snorting? (Job 39:19-20) Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread its wings towards the south?

Does the eagle soar at your command and build its nest on high? (Job 39:26-27) The animal world is of such extraordinary variety and beauty.

Could you have invented it? Did you have the power at your disposal to manufacture a creature such as the horse? The answer is, of course, “not in a million years.” But look at the animal kingdom and be amazed at what God can do. It reveals his power and his glory.

But the third thing that animals get us to see theologically speaking is our responsibility for them. The Creator cares for his creatures – and so should we, his ambassadors.

Jesus points to the way that God keeps his eye on the sparrow and feeds it (I am sure he had Psalm 104 in mind). We are not given dominion over the creatures of the world to oppress them and to exercise our cruelty over them.

They do not belong to us. Or at least: we receive them as a gift from the Creator, for his glory.

There’s no biblical objection to eating meat or using animal labour, but to treat animals as merely machines for our use is offensive to the idea of them being creatures made by the God we know.

The Noah story is instructive here, for in saving the corrupt world – corrupted by human behaviour, as only human beings can corrupt anything – God ensures that the animal creation is not destroyed. Noah is the saviour not only of his family but of the whole family of creatures.

The Old Testament law also shows God’s concern. The animals are to rest on the Sabbath day along with the human beings who own them. They are to be given part of the food their labour makes. They are not to be treated ruthlessly.

Along with us, animals feel pain. Many animals, particularly mammals, show signs of misery, depression and despair. Our treatment of them is surely a sign of how well we know our common Creator and how well we have listened to him.

But oh how dismally we fail at this! The reality is that we have become calloused to the plight of the many millions of animals that serve us. Surely, knowing that God cares for the creatures he has made, we should be horrified. It should show us, yet again, how poor we are at our assigned task, and how profoundly we need the Saviour.

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

16

MAY 2018

Centre stage in the stadium, the Cenotaph and the royal wedding

To say Australia has pushed the Christian faith to the margins is to speak too soon. There’s a tug-of-war on, but the Bible is still commanding centre stage. It is the only book that you find in the news most days, read aloud every week around the country, and featured in public events.

If we just consider a few examples of cultural ephemera from the past month or so, this becomes obvious. Rugby-playing Christian Israel Folau answers a comment on social media with a reference (however blunt and

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Greg Clarke finds elements of faith in an unbelieving nation

insensitive) to biblical teaching, and the internet explodes. Major Australian corporations were forced to take a stance in response to his public biblical utterances.

Our national airline was up in arms.

Meanwhile, the cricket drama over ball tampering was inciting a range of Bible-shaped responses.

“They need to genuinely repent”; “The punishment should fit the crime”; “It’s time to forgive”; “Those who haven’t sinned can cast the first stone.” All biblical sentiments, all true, all part of Aussie DNA. Anzac Day has just passed, echoing with the words of the Bible, notably the passage from John’s Gospel about a person displaying no greater love than when she lays down her life for her friend. It is no surprise, since Christian ministers shaped the original Anzac services and they have remained relatively unchanged for the past century.

In her incredible new book, The Bible in Australia: a Cultural History, Meredith Lake points out that “lest we forget” is originally a phrase from the Bible, too – from Moses’ warning to the Israelites that they mustn’t forget they were once slaves in Egypt before

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, like Prince William and Kate Middleton (pictured), will have a Christian wedding.

God rescued them (check out Deuteronomy 6:12).

And this month, in Australia and across the world, Christianity will again come into public view for several billion people as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle marry in an Anglican ceremony which is predominantly drawn from the Bible. Viewers will hear that the Christian idea of marriage is a reflection of Jesus’ love for his followers (“the church”), something that, in my view, was not at all communicated during the “debates” about same-sex marriage in Australia last year.

Assuming that the Archbishop of Canterbury follows church order, he will say to the couple these words: “They shall be united with one another in heart, body and mind, as Christ is united with his bride, the church.”

Those unfamiliar with the Christian faith may struggle to comprehend this, but it will mark

a public commitment by the couple to emulate the love of Jesus for humanity in the way they carry out their marriage. That means, as we were reminded on Anzac Day, laying down their lives, sacrificing themselves, other-person-centred love. Less fairytale romance than god-like faithfulness. I wish them well.

This moment will probably be one of the most public expressions of Christianity on a global scale that we will see this year. Without making a monarchist comment here, I am highlighting the fact that until these “Christian bones” are exhumed from the culture, the Bible will still be centre stage.

So if you have centre stage, what do you do with it?

I feel that an important part of the task for Christians is well described by Patrick White, our most eminent 20th-century novelist: “To give professed unbelievers glimpses of their own unprofessed faith.” I’m not sure

what White meant by this, but I’d like to appropriate it for 21stcentury Australians.

If society is increasingly professing unbelief, it is still doing so with an unprofessed faith. Faith in sacrifice, faith in forgiveness, faith in unconditional love. These things still matter to Australians, but they may not be high in the consciousness. And they have been disconnected from their source – the teachings of the Bible. Part of the task of Christian witness today must be to light up these “paleoChristian” parts of the Aussie brain, giving the brain-owner a chance to see what is really going on.

If the strong, warm light of understanding is shone on much of our deeply ingrained culture, we can bring Jesus out of the shadows, first as a fuzzy outline but then, with more effort and input, in glorious colour.

Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia.

Bible Stat A big goal: United Bible Societies and partners aim to have 95% of the world with a full Bible in their language by 2033.

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