Eternity Newspaper - December 2018

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Number 98, December 2018 ISSN 1837-8447

Brought to you by the Bible Society

Amazing Steve Grace The bad guys of Christmas

From atheist to Bible worker

Who should teach in our schools?

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NEWS

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Obadiah Slope WALKING AWAY: Richard Fidler (Conversations on ABC radio): “Was there an incident that made you pull away from the church? Did it just sort of peter out?”

David Marr: “I was faltering, I was really faltering in my faith. It was first year at university. I had fallen deeply in love with several of the young men at St Paul’s College.

Said nothing. Did nothing.

“Anyway in Philosophy they said ‘I am not giving you a lecture today.

Instead I am giving you a test.’

And they handed out papers and they said ‘You have half an hour.

Write an answer to this question: “How can God be all good and all knowing?”’ And of course there is no answer to that. No answer to that in the light of the world. And I walked out of the philosophy room and that was it.”

Obadiah thinks David Marr needs some help with his answer.

Volunteers?

HEADLINING: “New breed of fundies tap into activism to make their mark.” Financial Review November 16. Sadly it’s not about a new wave of church planting but fund managers tapping wealthy philanthropists in share floats.

ONE BILLBOARD: Spotted outside St Louis ... a billboard with a pic of Donald Trump and the words “the Word became flesh,” sponsored by a group that wants to “make the gospel great again.” (Hat Tip to Diana Butler Bass, who tweeted “I don’t like using the word ‘heresy’ but I think I will make an exception in this case.”)

FREUDIAN NON-SLIP: In the middle of a discussion between C.S. Lewis and Freud they were rudely interrupted. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported, actor Nicholas Papademetriou (playing Freud) in the play Freud’s Last Session alongside Yannick Lawry (playing C.S. Lewis) shouted “Get off your phone!” to a woman texting in the front row. The only improvement Obadiah can make to the story is wishing C.S. Lewis/ Yannick Lawry was the one to expose the mobile phone abuser.

DECEMBER 2018

Marvel stadium crowd ‘be free to share Jesus’ love’

News 2 In Depth 3,5 Bible Society 4 Opinion 6-10, 16 Charity 11-15

A gospel Christmas REBECCA ABBOTT

Thousands of people flooded the streets of Melbourne to tell people about Jesus, as part of Awakening Australia.

KALEY PAYNE Thousands of people flooded the streets of Melbourne last month to “love on people” and share about Jesus. Attendees of the three-day Awakening Australia event held at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium were encouraged to leave the venue on the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday to put into practice what they had heard from the podium.

Estimates from security guards suggest there were about 15,000 people at each day of Awakening Australia, and hundreds of people responded to calls from the front across two nights to make a commitment to Christ.

Attendees heard from speakers including C3 leader Phil Pringle, Life Without Limbs author Nick Vujicic, tennis champion Margaret Court, and Bill Johnson, the senior pastor of US megachurch Bethel.

Awakening Australia is the vision of two Aussie pastors, Ben Fitzgerald, director of Awakening Europe (and a former pastor at Bethel) and Daniel Hagen, pastor of Fire Church Ministries in Melbourne.

Awakening Europe has launched events in Latvia, Czech Republic, Sweden and Germany since its inception. But Fitzgerald, originally from Melbourne, said he felt called to come back to Australia with an event he believed

would “win 100,000 souls in 2018.

“There are people who are hungry for more of God,” Fitzgerald said on Friday night at the event. “I sense the Lord wanting to raise up people who want to become missionaries to their own nation.”

More than 60,000 tickets to Awakening Australia were given away in a massive outreach in the week before the stadium events.

Connor O’Neill was one of the thousands of Awakening attendees who went out onto the streets of Melbourne during the weekend.

“A core part of the event was centred around how to break free of the fear of the opinions of others to share the love of Jesus,” Connor told Eternity.

Connor, who travelled from Sydney, teamed up with a few friends and headed over to the Mind Body Spirit Festival held at the Melbourne Convention Centre, close to the Awakening event.

“The idea was to ‘love on people’ – so not just tell people about Jesus but show them the love of Jesus by buying them lunch or offering prayer,” Connor said.

After limited success in striking up conversation with stallholders, the group moved on to some of the attendees sitting having lunch.

“We just sat down and started to talk to people, telling them what we were doing in the city. We all

had the opportunity to pray for people.”

Connor noticed a young woman run past him crying and felt drawn to ask her what was wrong. When she told him she hadn’t been able to have the psychic reading she’d hoped to get at the festival, he offered to pray for her instead.

“I said that I could ask the Holy Spirit what he wanted to tell her.

We prayed for the peace of God on her life. And I felt led to tell her that he is the father that will not let you down. And she started to cry again,” said Connor.

He also prayed for the woman’s friend, and they both felt overwhelmed that a “random guy from Sydney” had approached them in the foyer of a new-age festival and offered them prayer.

“They both said they wanted to put their faith in Jesus, and we prayed right then and there.”

Connor says that when the group went back to the stadium after their street evangelism, they were bombarded with similar testimonies: prayer for strangers that led them to God. He said he’d come away from the weekend “pumped” and recommitted to being proactive in telling people about Jesus.

If you haven’t yet claimed your free copies of the kids’ Christmas book published by Bible Society Australia – The Really Good News of Christmas – For Me!– then you’d better act fast.

More than 300,000 copies of The Really Good News of Christmas – For Me! were printed this year, and churches and individuals are snapping up the free copies.

More than 1000 individuals have already claimed their three free copies, and more than 1300 churches, schools and organisations have secured up to 500 free copies made available to each of them. In November, an average of 350 little books were ordered every day.

Hillsong will be giving away copies at several campuses this year, after ordering 8000 copies.

“It’s very exciting to think of the number of Aussie children who will be hearing the Christmas message afresh this year,” said Bible Society CEO Greg Clarke.

“There seems to be a hunger for connecting the ancient story of Jesus’ birth with a new generation, many of whom may never have heard it before in words that they enjoy and understand.”

West Ryde Anglican also plans to give away the little books to kids who attend its Christmas events.

“It’s the best time of the year for reaching out to the community because people are so receptive,” says West Ryde Anglican’s Families Minister, Simon Keith.

Claim your copies at biblesociety. org.au/reallygood Request a video at biblesociety. org.au/goodchristmas

IN DEPTH

DECEMBER 2018

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From atheist to Bible worker ANNE LIM Just as he was building his first successful business, David Lepore developed a passion for espousing the atheist cause in public debates.

What fuelled David’s fervour was the lack of value Christians seemed to place on the Bible.

“One of my really strong debating points was you have this picture of this loving and caring God and yet there are millions and millions of people around the world who don’t even know the Bible exists or don’t even have access to it, so what kind of loving and caring God is that?

“From that I’d take it a step further and I would say ‘Christians who say they believe in this word and that they love it don’t really do anything to bring it to people.

They’d much rather support humanitarian things rather than what they claim to be spiritual, everlasting things. So do they really believe in that stuff because it doesn’t seem like it to me?’”

Having been kicked out of home at age 19 after an argument with his father, David started a marketing and consulting business in Melbourne that grew dramatically.

“I started a business when I was 19 and I went from just myself to a team of about 50 staff within a year, so I did really well out of it,” he tells Eternity.

While enjoying the lifestyle benefits of his wealth, which

David Lepore, with his wife Dianna, who helped turn his life around. extended to extravagant travel and luxurious gifts, David maintained the view that it was not possible to be an intelligent person and a Christian as well.

“Firstly, with Christians whenever I asked them ‘why do you believe what you believe?’ it would always be some crappy answer like ‘oh, I was born into it’ or ‘that’s just the way it is.’ I found there was never any evidence for their faith.

“Then looking at history and the damage that the church has done over a period of time, but more so, something that I found really difficult was the idea of a loving and caring creator. So

I was definitely an atheist, but then I thought if there is a God he certainly doesn’t care.”

But as he read books by authors such as popular atheist Richard Dawkins and Christian apologist John Lennox, David was most engaged by the arguments of Lennox – a maths professor at Oxford University. He came to believe that there was a creator, but he was not sure which one it was.

“So I read the Bible multiple times; I read the Koran multiple times. I read everything I could get my hands on. I visited every sort of leader, pastor, and eventually I became a Christian, mainly

Songs of Eternity KYLIE BEACH At 59 years of age veteran Aussie gospel artist Steve Grace isn’t showing any signs of quitting, releasing his 22nd album titled Eternity this month.

Debuting at No. 1 on the Christian/Gospel Charts and at No. 16 on the overall iTunes Album Charts in Australia, Eternity is a collection of songs filled with the promise of eternal life beyond the grave.

The album promises “songs of hope and heaven” and “timeless melodies and words written by people with fearless faith” who have “endured the tribulations of life’s journey and believed in the promise of eternal life beyond the grave.”

It’s a tall order, but within moments of listening, the album delivers its promise of songs of eternity. Lyrics such as “Ain’t no grave can hold my body down, when I hear that trumpet sound, I’m gonna rise right outta the ground” (from traditional American Gospel song attributed to Claude Ely of Virginia) and “I’m just going over Jordan, I’m just going over home” combine with Grace’s trademark, haunting vocal.

Eternity has the marks of an artist who’s comfortable in his own skin, and assured of his future.

Grace has become an iconic figure in the Australian Christian gospel music landscape since his debut album in 1986, Young Australian Man. He spent his early years on a Wycliffe Bible Translators mission station in New Guinea before moving to Wollongong in New South Wales for his teenage years.

At 14, he learned guitar and began writing songs and singing in local churches, but his songwriting style really developed when he was truck driving and began to write material that strongly relates to “the ordinary man on the street.”

“I used to write some really deep songs, until I found that people responded to the really simple ones that I thought were a bit corny,” he says.

“I began to see the effect that a simple song could have on the right audience, very much in line with the parables Jesus told.”

From humble beginnings, Grace has been voted International Artist of the Year by the Gospel Music Association of America (1996), and received two Australian radio industry Pater Awards for songwriting. He’s also been honoured by Australia’s biggest selling country music performer, Slim Dusty, who recorded Grace’s song, Port Augusta, on his 100th album Looking Forward, Looking Back. And those are just a few of the highlights from his 22-album career.

This year also marks 30 years since the release of his ARIA certified Gold album, Children of the Western World. That was Grace’s second album, which he worked on with the Little River Band’s Beeb Birtles. It was also the first Christian album by an Australian artist released on CD. Where does Grace get the energy to continue recording? The Aussie music veteran says he’s driven by “an unstoppable vision for reaching people with a message of hope in Australian country towns.”

because of the evidence around Jesus, his authenticity and his character.”

David explains that his wife, Dianna, who is a Christian, also inspired him to change his life.

“I was a pretty bad kid at school; I went to a really bad public school where there was alcohol in class, fights with teachers, drugs, bomb threats and violence. When I got to half way through year 11, the school figured out that I’d been wagging for about a year and then called my parents, who were furious because they never even noticed. Then they moved me to this tiny little Christian school on a hill and I met Dianna there. So she was my first girlfriend, I was her first boyfriend, and we grew up together.

“She’s the inspiration for everything, to be honest ... I would never have done what I did if it wasn’t for her, because I didn’t really have any motivation. My parents didn’t really work and, even when I met Dianna, I was like I don’t know if I ever want to work.

“Then my wife was very much like, ‘oh no, you have to work and contribute to society.’

“So I would say that was the moment when I became a different person when I started dating her and people couldn’t believe it.”

Some time after accepting Jesus as his Lord and Saviour, David realised he needed to switch focus from making money to following Jesus. “My mind said, ‘move from making the most amount of money

possible to thinking how can I serve this creator?’

“It was tough because when your lifestyle gets to a certain point and you try to go backwards, it’s a pretty difficult decision to make.

At the moment, I still make money [through investments] but it’s just my view of money is very different.

Now, to be honest, I see it more as a burden than anything else.

“In the Christian sphere it’s very hard because if you go to a church and ask ‘how can I serve?’ they say ‘give us money or just be a good little guy and sit in the back corner.’”

Feeling guilty about having bagged the Bible and Christians so hard during his atheistic debates, David decided that he wanted to get involved in Bible mission.

So he approached Bible Society and gained a position as church relations manager in Melbourne.

“I was an extremely arrogant personality back then because I was a young person who had led a large business, so during the interview I stressed how good I was and how much Bible Society needed me,” he says candidly.

He believes his work with Bible Society is key to reaching a generation of young people who don’t think the Bible is important.

“I wanted to be part of the people who were doing it on the ground, talking about the importance of Scripture and letting people know that there are people who don’t have it.”

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DECEMBER 2018

BIBLE @ WORK

Bible translation under the gum trees in Ti Tree April Campbell is a Bible translator from Ti Tree in Central Australia, working on translating God’s word into Anmatyerr.

KALEY PAYNE Ambrose first learned about Jesus through his grandmother. She couldn’t read but had a picture Bible from which she used to tell Ambrose the stories from the Old Testament through to Jesus’ time.

“I learned only through watching pictures,” Ambrose says.

Ambrose likes the story of Jesus and the tax collector best. “Jesus is looking for people, like poor people and all of them. Even tax collectors.

“Jesus said to them, ‘You come along with me.’ Jesus made him his follower.”

Ambrose is an Anmatyerr man from Ti Tree in the middle of the Northern Territory, about 200km north of Alice Springs.

Travellers driving along the Stuart Highway, the major road running

north to south through the heart of Australia, might see Ti Tree as just a roadhouse service station.

But more than 1000 people live in the town, the majority Anmatyerr people.

April Campbell is an Anmatyerr woman also living in Ti Tree, working as a school teacher in the local school. She is also a volunteer Bible translator, working with David Strickland from AuSIL Bible translators on a mini-Bible for Anmatyerr people.

Bible Society Australia has published Anmatyerr translations of the Gospel of John and a picture book called God’s Story for the Outback, similar to the one Ambrose’s grandmother might have used to tell him stories from the Bible when he was young.

April, who speaks five Indigenous languages as well as

English, says Bible translation work can be quite a challenge.

“Some of the words in the Bible are not our words. It’s really hard for us to understand,” she says.

April has worked with David for 12 years. Sitting under a gum tree in a camping chair, with yellowing grass coming up to her knees and red dirt under her feet, April says this is a special spot where pastors and volunteers have always sat with David to work on the Bible.

“They enjoy sitting under the tree and helping each other,” she says. “I enjoy the stories in the Bible and translating the words … hanging out with David, having a cup of tea,” she says.

“David will read the story and sometimes the sentences are not good, so I tell him to straighten ’em up … turn all the words around,” she says with a laugh.

April helped to translate the Gospel of John, and says she learned a lot about her faith in the process.

Here is John 3:16 as it appears in the Anmatyerr Gospel of John: “Altjerr kwenh tjerrtj ahelhareny mapeh nyerrkek, lakenheng rang lerekw kwerenh nyent renh ahelh-warn lanthek. Kwereng tjerrtj inarl ler kwerenh nakemeng, inang Altjerrel-ayel kwet iteth anetjenh.”

“The community is really happy to have [the words of the Bible] in their own language. It’s really important so people can understand.”

April is always looking for new ways to tell people in Ti Tree about Jesus. She loves to sing and has a particular interest in writing songs in language that tell gospel truths for children. She is also an

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Their way, their words. $40 helps us print more Scripture in the heart languages of Australia’s First Peoples. Will you help?

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

artist, painting the traditional dot paintings of Central Australia.

“We have a plan when we start writing songs, we gonna do song books with dot paintings, too.

So kids can tell stories by doing painting.”

Bible Society Australia is running a campaign to help our Indigenous brothers and sisters like Ambrose and April share the Bible their way, in their words – so they can pass it on to future generations through art, storytelling and in their lives every day. Will you help Indigenous Christians share the Bible their way, in their words? Please visit biblesociety.org.au/waysep for details.

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

IN DEPTH

DECEMBER 2018

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Summer reads, make me feel fine

Kaley Payne

Greg Clarke

Liturgy of the ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren I’ve spent a lot of time as a new mum thinking through the habits we form as a family, writing mundane to-do lists and wrangling my strong-willed toddler into routines that keep him, well, sleeping and eating. I’m hoping this book may help me find the “sacred in the ordinary,” as it promises.

Global Church by Graham Hill Christianity is truly a global faith, and every culture brings something to it and changes as a result of it.

The stories in this great book from Graham Hill are heartwarming.

Circe by Madeline Miller Inspired by Homer’s Odyssey (in which there has been renewed interest after the publication of the first English translation by a woman in late 2017), Madeline Miller takes the story of Circe, goddess of magic from Greek mythology, and reimagines the story from Circe’s perspective.

Baby Wren and the Great Gift

by Sally Lloyd-Jones Because I’ll be able to quote this book to you in its first week in our house … and so will my son. I’ve appreciated Sally Lloyd Jones’ gentle approach to biblical truth in other children’s books on our shelves.

Here, a tiny wren looks at the world and its creatures and asks: what can it do that is wonderful?

Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales Anchor of ABC’s 7.30, Leigh Sales investigates how ordinary people endure unthinkable tragedy.

Kaley is Deputy Editor of Eternity.

When China Rules the World

by Martin Jacques The future of religion in China: what a big question. This book is one of many that have helped me understand the wider context of China in the world.

A Writing Life: Helen Garner and her Work by Bernadette Brennan Helen Garner, like so many Australian novelists, always has the Bible near her elbow. This study of her work ends with a book club which is reading the Psalms!

True Devotion: In Search of Authentic Spirituality

by Allan Chapple This was the last book my father and mother gave me before Dad died this year. I’m so grateful that they have always cared about my spirit. How blessed I am.

Known by God: A Biblical Theology of Personal Identity

by Brian S. Rosner Brian Rosner provides an excellent Christian answer to the pressing question of our times: what is a human being?

Kate Harrison Brennan Pain and its Transformations: The Interface of Biology and Culture by Sarah Coakley and Kay Kaufman Shelemay (Eds.) Pain remains a deep mystery for sufferers, their physicians, and researchers. As neuroscientific research shows, even the immediate sensation of pain is shaped by psychological state and interpretation.

Holy Living: The Christian Tradition for Today

by Rowan Williams The former Archbishop of Canterbury writes with perception about the life of holiness to which we are called. Holiness is “completely undemonstrative and lacking any system of expertise. It can never be dissected and analysed.”

The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture by Scott Belsky A guide to navigating new ventures by the Chief Product Officer at Adobe.

The Secret Lives of Colour

by Kassia St Clair The 75 most fascinating shades, dyes and hues, where they come from and how they form part of human civilisation.

How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg Google used the slogan “Don’t be evil” and turned the workplace into a family. Here’s how they changed the world; you can decide about the “evil” bit.

Dare to Lead: Brave Work.

Tough Conversations.

Whole Hearts. by Brene Brown Leadership is not about titles, status and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognising the potential in people and ideas.

Greg is CEO of Bible Society Australia.

Kate is the CEO of Anglican Deaconess Ministries.

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Guy Mason Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley Last summer, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. I’m keen to read Huxley’s classic to see who was closer to the truth.

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson I had the privilege of hearing Bryan speak at the HTB Leadership Conference in London this year. It was one of the most inspiring talks I’ve ever heard about justice, mercy and beauty of all men and women made in the image of God. I’m keen to reflect more on the nature of God’s justice and seek his help in serving our world and heralding the good news of his kingdom.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy I often find myself drawn to art that explores the precious and painful emotions of life and love. This classic, recommended by a good friend, is considered by many to be the greatest work of literature ever written. I can’t wait!

A Severe Mercy

by Sheldon Vanauken Andrew Grills, my good friend and pastor of City on a Hill Geelong, gave me this book for my birthday. It is an autobiographical work, which explores the author’s relationship with his wife, their friendship with C.S. Lewis and conversion to faith in Christ.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley I have a surface level understanding of this famous story but am keen to go deeper. I’m particularly interested to see how the story engages our search for identity, acceptance and love.

Guy is the founding and lead pastor of City on a Hill.

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DECEMBER 2018

OPINION

Michael Jensen on a crisis

Flickr / SMBC

Friends of mine from a variety of theological education providers around the country have reported that there’s been a sharp downturn in enrolments in recent years.

And here’s the bottom line for what that means: not all Australian theological colleges are viable long-term. There are too many colleges serving too small a market. In addition, online and part-time options are putting a lot of pressure on smaller colleges.

Some colleges serve denominations that are too small, or represent theological positions that are too narrow and will not survive unless they can amalgamate or adapt.

Why has this downturn occurred? It’s a hard thing to measure, but in talking to a cross-section of people working in theological education as administrators and educators, several themes emerged.

The first is that we are seeing the end of the “Fee-Help” bubble.

About 15 years ago, the government introduced a very generous scheme of fee assistance for students in private sector education. You could access Fee-Help even if you had already done another higher education degree under HECS. Since most theological education is a second degree, this was a boon.

You could study very cheaply for your theological degree – and this attracted lots of people who perhaps wouldn’t have done one before.

Before Fee-Help, the denominational college I used to teach in would charge independent students a significant fee, while the denominational candidates were heavily subsidised by the Anglican Church. Under Fee-Help, this subsidy was not necessary. This meant changes in the Fee-Help arrangements would pull the rug out from under the college’s feet.

And those changes will come.

And this relates to a second theme that has emerged in my conversations. Denominational loyalty among younger evangelicals

Have we got too many Bible colleges?

SMBC is a Bible-centred, missions focussed, interdenominational and community based college in Sydney. is almost completely absent. They don’t see theological education as a path to a life-long calling in a single denomination. So they won’t be corralled into a particular college by compulsory ordination paths. On the contrary, if they can stay with their home church while studying, they will – particularly if it is a successful church with an attractive culture. This means they are seeking distance models of learning, including online degrees, rather than moving to an expensive large city to learn in community.

Third: rightly or wrongly, many churches are losing confidence that their seminaries are providing adequate training for the job as a ministry worker. More theological students are going to higher degrees (in fact, that sector seems to be booming), and fewer seem prepared by their colleges for the nitty-gritty task of shepherding God’s people. Some people say the colleges have drifted from ministry formation towards pure academia.

Tied to this is the fact that many of the colleges have faculty who have not worked in a ministry job and are not even suited to it. What kind of models are they for theological students?

Fourth, in their desire to get more students, the colleges have attempted to be all things to all people – and it hasn’t really worked. An example: in order to

make a part-time offering more flexible, colleges have timetabled subjects in blocks rather than in single hours on different days.

But they have not managed the pedagogical shift that this entails.

It is still a 1950s model of learning: a bloke (yes, definitely a bloke) up the front reading out information to students who are desperately trying to write it down. And the experience for full-time students is much diminished by this.

The reality is, the educational needs of (say) a woman in her 40s retraining for a part-time ministry role in her church are very different from those of a person in their 20s heading for an ordination role in a denomination. These are two very different though equally important markets for theological education.

But it is very hard to accommodate both in the same institution.

And this is the problem: as soon as you offer a more flexible path to enable more people to access your product, you will find students who should be studying full-time taking up the online or part-time offering.

Fifth, there’s the issue of women in theological education. Women are not encouraged that there are viable ministry jobs available for them at the end of their theological education. This is not just the case in complementarian circles. But certainly, for complementarians there’s been a vision of women in

ministry confined to ministry to women (and possibly children), which means the likelihood of attaining a full-time job at the end of a theological degree is not great.

On the other hand, older women are studying at diploma level in greater numbers than before.

And sixth, there’s the vexed issue of online education. This is a complicated issue. Australia is a large and busy place. Online education helps people overcome distance and time, and to engage in theological study while remaining in paid work or in the middle of busy family life. But online learning is not at all the same as the face-to-face experience.

Unless it is done very well, it is no substitute for other models. By making learning more accessible via online delivery, have students who would otherwise have come to a college not done so? How can spiritual formation be a part of an online degree?

What’s the way forward?

I think the first thing is for the churches in Australia to realise that this is a problem to which we all need to respond. Humanly speaking, the church will not grow with ill-educated leadership. If we cannot inspire a generation into theological education, our capacity to do mission will be diminished.

This is not just a problem for the colleges. If you are a Christian in

Australia reading this, then it is your problem. The first thing is to be on our knees in prayer about it.

For the denominations and the colleges, there is a need to tread a careful path between pragmatism and intellectualism. One great mistake would be to see theological education as unnecessary or no good (pragmatism). The other great mistake would be to make theological education an end in itself, rather than the servant of God’s church (intellectualism).

There are too many colleges that have watered down their requirements. Likewise, too many colleges have made their offering unreachably intellectualist.

What is needed, I believe, is a new vision for gospel ministry that does not see it as a vocation for Christians that is superior to secular work, but one that is compelling nonetheless. In the churches, we need to ensure that people who come forward for ministry training are as well looked after as they can be. The stories of the bad treatment of young men and women in ministry roles are too many, and do immense damage to the mission of the church in our nation.

Alongside this, there needs to be a new vision (which is not in fact new!) for theological education which sees it as a preparation for service of God’s people in his church. Theological education is an essentially spiritual business.

It cannot be done without the nurturing of the spiritual life.

Within this, there is room for a number of models: offering parttime and online modes alongside full-time residential. It may be hard for the same institution to offer both. What cannot be permitted is complacency in the classroom – lecturers who read in a monotone from prepared scripts to a somnolent class, who are probably facebooking their friends.

There’s far too much of that going on, I hate to say.

Let it not be so! There’s far too much at stake for our colleges to be wedded to ineffective practices of teaching and learning. And far too much at stake for us to be unconcerned about a lack of students – particularly the young – seeking training for ministry. Now is the time for our church leaders and theological colleges to engage in some Spirit-led and courageous investigation of how God’s mission may best be served into the future.

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

A TALE OF CHRIST

A celestial and earthly adventure across time, space and the invisible.

eternitynews.com.au

No other set of books, except the Bible, will prepare the reader for an abundant life NOW and for a glorious eternity LATER. These books can be reviewed and purchased at amazon.com.au.

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OPINION

DECEMBER 2018

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You’re a naughty one, Mr Herod

Natasha Moore on Christmas’s bad guys Before the Grinch, before Ebenezer Scrooge, the original and most nefarious villain of the Christmas story was Herod.

We all love the questing magi, the angels erupting into song over sleepy fields, the shepherds shellshocked but in awe. We marvel at the very young woman whose simple faith – “I am the Lord’s servant; let it be to me as you have said” – echoes down the ages.

But amid joy and wonderment, the written records of that first Christmas thread something darker. Much darker.

If the gospels, read from one angle, present as a sequence of differing responses to Jesus – yearning, defensiveness, fury, surrender – his polarising effect on people begins even before his birth.

The story of the magi arriving in Jerusalem to seek “the one who has been born king of the Jews;” of King Herod’s consternation and plotting; of the rage in which he orders the massacre of the infants of Bethlehem – is the story (to use a very contemporary word) of how the privileged respond to the news that the king has come to his kingdom.

Privilege has become a loaded term, an accusation we fling at each other: white privilege, male privilege, check your privilege. It’s a term that has a way of raising hackles.

For Herod, of course, the most powerful, the most privileged, the announcement is an existential threat. Herod had been named “King of the Jews” by the Roman Senate in 37 BC. This was his title.

His life-long friend, Mark Antony, had given it to him, and Octavian,

Before Scrooge or the Grinch, Herod was the arch-villain of Christmas. after becoming the Emperor Augustus, had confirmed it.

When our story begins, Herod has been King of the Jews for more than 30 years, but it’s been far from plain sailing. He’s built cities and fortresses; a great palace; he’s rebuilt the Temple entirely. He has been constantly currying favour.

He has been constantly jealous, constantly politicking. His physical and mental health deteriorated as he got older; he quarrelled with Judea’s neighbours; he had to suppress a revolt. He altered his will three times and eventually had several members of his own family killed, including his first-born son.

Herod is alert to threats to his rule above all else. He has never been secure. He is more than aware that the Jews he is supposedly king of have never really thought him Jewish enough – his father was an Edomite who converted to Judaism; his mother was Arab.

He knows he does not have the royal pedigree. So, when the magi come to town asking the question, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” … that question must especially rankle.

Herod’s problem is that he has so much to lose. This is a recurring theme, of course, throughout the gospels. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” the grown-up Jesus will say. “Blessed are those who mourn.” “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle

than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The privileged face extra impediments to receiving news of this kingdom rightly; Pharisees get it wrong where fishermen get it right.

And Herod, naturally, gets it wrong. When the magi arrive on their very public quest, he experiences the news of a king born to the harried, oppressed Jewish people not as a thrill of hope – reason for a weary world to rejoice – but as a fear clutching at the heart, the threat of displacement.

And he moves, in his power and his privilege, to extinguish the threat.

This is a man who would later have his own first-born child executed.

Why would he hesitate to massacre a village worth of other people’s babies and toddlers? He moves to preserve his position at all costs.

“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”

And part of the irony, of course, is that Herod is not gaining the whole world, by any stretch. His is a mid-size throne, in a client state of a grander empire. Herod’s ambitions, were they not so bloodthirsty, were their results less tragic, would be laughable. Even if he could succeed in thwarting the prophecy – in thwarting God himself – however well this pans out for Herod, he can’t keep what he has. The throne won’t be his forever; as it turns out, death is, for

Herod, just around the corner. In fact, the historian Josephus tells us that he attempted suicide not long after this.

Those of us who benefit from the status quo are more likely to await change, to await revolution, with fear rather than hope. The coming of the Messiah to topple rulers from their thrones and lift up the humble only sounds like good news if you’re the humble.

And really, surplus to requirements is precisely how our culture mostly thinks of this King Jesus. If you’re reading this, you very probably count as the privileged; and when we hear the news that the Messiah, God’s anointed king, has arrived, there’s a pull in us to respond with suspicion, to move to preserve control. We know it will cost us, in perhaps only dimly perceived ways, to abdicate the throne of our lives to make way for him; but we also know that he’s the one with the legitimate claim to that throne.

The wise men were unwise, probably, to burst in on a precarious kingdom with tidings of a newborn king, and expect most people – the current king, first of all – to accept that as good news.

And yet they’re our best model in Matthew’s narrative, the ones who are unhampered by their privilege.

“When they saw the star,” Matthew tells us, “they were overjoyed.” When they find him,

they lay their treasures, the best of what they have, at his feet.

Herod is the villain of the Christmas story, but he’s a cautionary tale, too. He’s a reminder that it’s lonely on the throne. That we should be careful what we wish for. He is remembered, as presumably he wished to be – but mostly as a petty, cruel, half-mad tyrant. And the title he coveted, the title he wanted to preserve at all costs – the King of the Jews – the next time we come upon that phrase in the Gospel of Matthew it’s more than 30 years later, and the baby who escaped Herod is standing before another ruler who answers to Rome. When Pilate asks him, “Are you the king of the Jews?,” Jesus answers only, “You have said so.” Soldiers mock and beat him, calling out, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And Pilate has the charge against him written on a sign that’s fastened over his head as he hangs on the cross: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

It’s hard for the privileged to abdicate the throne of their own lives. Jesus himself makes that clear, if the example of Herod isn’t enough. As the privileged (if we can accept the label), what do we fear to lose with Jesus as our king?

Our autonomy? Our pleasures or comforts, perhaps? Are we shaped more by what we have to lose than by what we gain in Christ? To put the challenge another way: am I more middle-class than I am Christian?

This season of advent – the season of awaiting the king – reminds us of the need to prepare him room in our hearts. Just as the original narrative contains darkness as well as light, Herods as well as magi, so the invitation to come and worship continues to be two-edged.

Jesus comes to save and heal, to comfort and restore. But he comes also to disrupt, to overthrow, to cast down and lift up. Those who over the centuries have found this king neither surplus to requirements, nor a mere ornamental addition to an already pretty good life, have joyfully proven over and over again the words of the missionary and martyr Jim Elliot: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Natasha Moore is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity. Visit www. publicchristianity.org

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER The Bush Church Aid Society of Australia With the election of The Revd Dr Mark Short as Bishop Elect of the Diocese of Canberra & Goulburn The Bush Church Aid Society of Australia is seeking God’s choice of his successor as Chief Executive Officer.

Candidates would need to be eligible to be licensed as a Presbyter in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.

Enquiries about the requirements of the role should be addressed in the first instance to the Chairman, Mr Fred Chilton at: fred.chilton@bushchurchaid.com.au or on 02 9267 9850.

Reaching Australia for Christ since 1919

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OPINION - EDUCATION SPECIAL

After Australia decided in favour of same-sex marriage, the momentum for LGBT rights was unlikely to stop at weddings. 2018 has turned out to be the year when that campaign has focused on churches and other Christian institutions. Mid-year the Uniting Church voted for “two equal and distinct” forms of marriage. More recently, the evangelical Anglican Diocese of Sydney has been the unlikely locus of the latest storm over religious freedom. The future of same-sex staff at Christian schools is now centre stage in what threatens to become a US-style culture war.

DECEMBER 2018

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The battle for Christian schools David Hastie on how the culture war went to school There is a broad and noisy public square in front of our churches: our schools.

We have invited Australians to gather in this place, and they have gathered willingly, in great numbers: Australia now has the fifth highest non-government schooling sector proportion in the world. Tony George, Head of The Kings School, observes that Christian schools effectively have asked the community “to belong, and then believe.” I would observe that this is pretty much the opposite business model of our churches: believe and then belong.

That millions have found belonging in a profound way is clear.

Some already did believe, and many find new belief. Many still, however, are quite content to mill about the open square and not enter the church door. And yet they remain in the warm light of its portico.

Many of these people are not Christians. Most are two generations removed from the church. But they have still gathered outside the church door for education, love and connection.

They gather in far greater numbers than in the shrinking congregations of the traditional Australian Church. In so far as they are invited to gather in this way, Christian schools cannot expect their populations to behave - or live - like de-facto church members, apart from the usual ethical expectations relating to orderly running of a school within cultural specifics. Jesus was also well aware of this balance in his first contact with non-believers.

Jesus first met people’s needs, physical, psychological and social.

Then he invited them to follow, and they came, saw, and believed, not because he insisted they change but because his reckless and unstoppable love made change irresistible.

For about 100 years, Australian society and civic Christianity – including Christian schoolingwere roughly aligned. In postChristendom, however, the huge Australian Christian schooling sector now unintentionally finds itself betwixt the Church and society at large, in a mediating space with no instruction manual.

The day-to-day work of Christian schools is always stretched between these two increasingly distant

groups. On the one hand there is the owner – the church or a Christian parent board, with a religious, missional agenda. On the other, the paying parent and (often) involuntary student audience, and a strange new hybrid of education, religion, capitalism and society.

This group utters the proto-sounds of the emerging language of 21stcentury Australian Christianity, for which a clear grammar does not yet exist, and which finds no precedent in history. At times – such as in the same-sex marriage debates and the current anti-anti-discrimination exemptions campaigns – Christian schools have had to become a kind of reluctant de-facto peacekeeping force between two, mutually unintelligible, parties.

The conflict between these parties has been spurred on by a third, much more clinical combatant, or some might say profiteer: hard secularism. Hard secularism is tweet-feeding the confusions about the role of the Christian school and its relationship to society at large, with a very specific goal: to drive religion out of the public sphere altogether.

The tactic is simple but ingenious: control the human resources pipeline.

It is not a new tactic. The Soviet church operated on a very straightforward principle: you can have your church, but we shall appoint your priests. If you control the staffing pipeline, you control the organisation. Simple and deadly.

Recent attempts by legislators and activists to remove the current exemptions to the antidiscrimination acts, relate directly to the employment and appointment of staff on religious grounds in religious schools and tertiary colleges. The exemptions are widely seen as archaic but, problematically, remain the only existing protection.

They have hardly ever been used in this country. As far as I have been able to find, no case of discrimination against a student or staff member on the ground of sexuality or gender has ever been tested through a judicial process, although trial by media has had an occasional go. Hard secularists have nonetheless deliberately and skilfully manipulated the issue through premeditated social media campaigns and a series of often wilfully misleading media articles, aligned to parliamentary action.

At the sittings of the 2018 federal parliament in late November, these have been a hot and highly divisive issue.

But beneath these shrill noises, something else has been happening. In the midst of these recent controversies, schools have discovered a genuinely frightened and hurt section of parents, students and alumni among their communities. People who have gathered in the open square.

Many of those who signed recent petitions were not hard secularists

but deeply concerned and confused alumni and families. Many were suddenly afraid they would be sacked, expelled or have their children expelled on the grounds of sexuality. When push comes to shove, Christian school principals and staff are not hard-nosed politicians. They are big society people, big hearted. Over the past few weeks many have attested to a common theme, both publicly and privately: they are deeply distressed by the hurt caused among their communities.

Most of those getting hurt are not activists. Most parents and alumni of non-government schools actually don’t want the college splashed across the front of the papers. They will seek to protect the reputation of the college, and pursue their grievance via direct contact and internal meetings. The public activists have been largely alumni, many clearly genuine and well-motivated, but many more thousands of other alumni are remaining silent on social media.

They have kept well clear.

On the flip side, many other Christian and conservative parents across the schools have indicated support for defending the exemptions but have not counter attacked in the social media campaigns, for fear of recriminations and pressure on their own children.

How did it come to this?

Having for many years pursued open enrolment policies, and for many fairly open staffing policies, the schools have found that their populations are actually a reasonable snapshot of the general population, albeit a rather wellheeled one. It should come as no surprise, then, that a similar spread of ideas should be found in the parent and student populations of Christian schools, alongside more conservative views.

Up to this point, there has been no flashpoint to bring the conversation to the fore. Christian schools have been inclusive of gay students, counselled and cared for students facing gender dysphoria, and walked alongside the often frantic families of both. I’m going out on a limb here and say that – almost without exception in recent times, across a massive industry with well over a million students – Christian schools have done this with exceptional success. Many students who were isolated and bullied in other schools for being unusual or different have found profound refuge in Christian schools.

Given these practical realities, Christian educators now know that their Christian mission should not be safeguarded simply by the peevish right to “discriminate.” That is why most are now advocating for a positive religious discrimination act, or even a type of religious bill of rights. Hard secularists would be understandably horrified by

this unintended outcome of all their clever manoeuvring. They would much prefer to classify in Orwellian categories: secularism “four legs good,” religion “two legs bad.” To give religion a positive legal protection – as in the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights – gives it human legitimacy in the nation state, a secularist’s worst nightmare. No wonder they are rushing the issue through the parliament.

Given these kinds of pressures, it is perfectly reasonable to expect that Christian schools’ capacity to appoint ethos-aligned staff should be protected. And those protections will come through necessary and clear-minded political action.

However, such rearguard action is not, and never will be, the beating heart of Christian education, nor guarantee its social licence. If the open arms and reckless grace of Christ walks among the big open square that is our schools, Christian schooling will not only survive the censor’s knife; it will flourish.

For when grace has thrived in community throughout history, it has been politically irrefutable, and its social benefits irresistible.

An explosion of delight will bring ultimate and enduring life to Christian schools, if we invite the population to first belong, to join a flourishing community in a great banquet of high-quality education and interconnection. In so doing we commend the Christian gospel, and people can make up their own minds. Whatever they decide to do, it remains a good, true and beautiful thing to do in the world.

Dr David Hastie is Associate Dean of Education at Alphacrucis College, and Research Director for the Alphacrucis Centre for the Future of Schooling. He was previously Education Strategist for the Anglican Schools Corporation, and taught across NSW urban and rural schools for 18 years.

Editorial

Eternity is an anti-war publication. The war we have a conscientious objection to is the culture war.

A polarised society with Christianity weaponised by one of a pair of brawling assailants is an unpleasant possibility.

It creates a gulf to gospel growth when one half of the body politic believes that to be Christian is to be a Coalition voter – or Green. There are Christians who read this paper who have strong political views in either direction. Others of us are a political mix. We love youse all. But we get disappointed when either side can’t see that people can be Christian and vote the other way.

Christians are logically attracted to positions that are both of the left and the right. Take a pro-life position, derived pretty directly from the Bible. This will entail opposition to abortion, but for many Christians also strong support for refugees – sometimes called a post-birth pro-life position. These ideas are sorted into left and right-wing boxes by our society but a Christian can logically hold all of them.

In the debate over school staffing and student enrolment for LGBTIQ persons, it has been clear that schools across the spectrum from low-fee to high-fee, have been clear that they don’t want to discriminate against gay students.

Some might think that that is due to political pragmatism but this writer sees a desire not to be squeezed into a culture war. Schools which signed the controversial Sydney letter have a record of serving gay students well (but imperfectly, of course). The more difficult area of staffing presents a greater challenge. Can we combine a desire to teach historic Christianity and a gentleness of spirit towards the wider community in this matter?

John Sandeman

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DECEMBER 2018

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OPINION- EDUCATION SPECIAL

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Gay teachers?

No Yes

Religious protections

Neil Foster on the options to protector Let me just sketch out the main options for protection of religious freedom which should receive further discussion. (a) Current regime- “exemptions” to discrimination laws?

Should we simply continue with current regime of “exemptions” to discrimination laws? No, I don’t think this is a good idea.

For one thing, as mentioned, the public tolerance for a “right to discriminate” seems almost non-existent these days. The word “discrimination” is now almost completely a negative one. Coupled with reference to religious freedom protections as “exemptions”, which seems to signal they should be limited and dispensed with as soon as possible, the current regime is highly unsatisfactory.

However, there is no doubt that whatever option is chosen, there will still be a need to be explicit about the interaction between discrimination laws and laws about religious freedom.

I recommend careful consideration be given to

introducing a new definition of “discrimination” which takes into account that it is not unlawful to exercise the human right to freedom of religion by selecting staff who agree with the ethos of the religious group. (b) A Religious Discrimination Act? We know that one thing the Ruddock Panel has recommended is a Religious Discrimination Act of some sort- see recommendation 15. This would enact the general principle that, just as persons should not be subjected to irrelevant detriments on the grounds of their race, age, disability, sex, or sexual orientation, neither should they be on the grounds of their religious belief.

There are three important limitations that I think ought to be applied to any such Act, balancing clauses to respect other rights.

They are: (a) To balance the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds, with other fundamental rights such as bodily integrity and free movement. It should not be unlawful to decline to employ someone who has advocated use of violence against unbelievers, even if their advocacy is religiously based. (b) To balance out the rights of different religions not to be required to support other religious worldviews.

A church, or a religious school, should be entitled to not employ someone as a pastor or youth worker who comes from a different religious background. (c) Finally, and importantly, to allow religious groups to control their own internal affairs. Under international law, for example, it is well established that a member of a

religious group cannot claim to be discriminated against by another member of the same group, because they differ on doctrine or practice.

The remedy for someone who does not like the way their own group is being run, is to leave that group.

With those qualifications, I think there would be benefit in such legislation. (c) A more general “Religious Freedom Act”?

Another option would be to seek to implement something a bit broader than merely a prohibition on discrimination, in the form of a positive right to religious freedom.

There are still debates to be had about whether this is a good idea- the Freedom for Faith paper recommends something like as a possibility.

From the leaked Ruddock Recommendations, it looks as if they rejected the suggestion. Once the Report is released, we will be in a better position to evaluate the arguments. (d) Some form of expanded “Human Rights Act”?

Perhaps the broadest type of change would be a wide-reaching piece of human rights protection at the Federal level.

I think there are some dangers here, but since we recently had a lengthy inquiry by Father Frank Brennan recommending just this, and it was rejected by all political parties, it may not be something we need to be concerned about as happening very soon.

Neil Foster is Associate Professor at the Newcastle University Law School. This is a section of a detailed paper.

That for the Anglican Education Commission can be found on his lawandreligionaustralia blog

ANNE LIM

ANNE LIM

Openly gay teachers are valued members of staff at some of Sydney’s leading Anglican schools, an outspoken head has acknowledged, in the backwash over a call to preserve exemptions in legislation that allow Christian schools to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

These high-fee church-based schools represent one side of a divide in the non-Catholic independent schools sector – they have a history of employing a broader range of staff than do those in the newer low-fee school movement.

The Sydney schools are at the conservative end of the high-fee sector. Their strong preference not to discriminate against gay staff is a clear indication of the staffing policy in church-based high-fee schools around Australia “If you speak with the heads of most of what you might call traditional, longstanding Anglican schools, that’s been part of their staffing for many, many years,” says Timothy Wright, Head of Shore Church of England School in North Sydney.

“Those people are very good teachers – often great contributors to the life of the school and no more likely, in my experience, to cause problems than heterosexual staff.” “I’m not saying [they’re] walking round with a rainbow flag tied round their head. But I’m saying [they’re] people who make no secret of who they are, and I’m well aware of that.”

Wright was one of 34 heads who signed an open letter calling on federal MPs to maintain the current “clumsy” exemptions in anti-discrimination legislation until such time as a general more positive right to religious freedom could be enacted.

He later branded the letter a public relations disaster. “When we look back on the original discussion, the original letter, probably we were a little bit babesin-the-wood-ish,” Wright said.

Many Christian schools want to maintain the right not to appoint gay teachers, according to Annette Pereira, executive officer of the Australian Association of Christian Schools, which represents about 114 schools across the nation.

These low-fee schools have been established by Protestant churches and groups of parents over the past 50 years to enable children to access an education delivered from a distinctive Christian worldview.

They are similar to the local lowfee parish Catholic schools.

“If a school holds the position that the proper pathway for sex is within a heterosexual marriage, for example, then the expectation would be that staff at the school agree with and live according to their beliefs in relation to that too,” Pereira told Eternity.

Mark Spencer, Executive Officer, National Policy, for Christian Schools Australia, believes the issue was hijacked when a subset of the recommendations from the expert panel were leaked to the media.

CSA represents schools founded by or affiliated with churches that attract enrolments from families wanting an education based on Christian beliefs and values.

“What our schools want is to be able to ensure they can employ staff who share their faith, values and beliefs. That’s not just giving lip service to them but actually clearly living out that faith and those values, Spencer said.

“Does it mean that we want to be poking into anyone’s bedroom, being bedroom police? No, no one wants to do that, but we do expect staff to – and many of our schools require staff to – annually affirm that they’re still involved in a church community and annually affirm they still uphold the faith values and beliefs of the school.”

Neither Spencer nor Pereira believes the fight to maintain these rights is lost.

“We think that there is goodwill and sensible heads in both the

In episode 5 of With All Due Respect, the Eternity podcast. Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen discuss the gay teacher issue. eternity.news/freedominschools “We thought the central point would be clear, but it has not been clear – and it’s just been a disastrous piece of poor communication.”

His regret was echoed by Phillip Heath, headmaster of Barker College and Megan Krimmer, headmistress of Abbotsleigh, both on Sydney’s north shore.

In a letter to the Barker school community, Heath acknowledged the hurt caused by the letter.

“I reiterate my position that no student or member of staff of Barker College will ever be removed from our community on the grounds of their gender, their sexuality or their beliefs.”

Heath joined Wright and John Collier, head of St Andrew’s Cathedral School in the Sydney CBD, in calling for the scrapping of exemptions in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 because they allowed the issue to be interpreted as about discriminating against gays, which, in Collier’s words, was “a caricature of the situation.”

government and the opposition that we can have a way forward that isn’t caught up in the political maelstrom,” Spencer said.

He acknowledged that the issue revolved around the employment of gay teachers.

“For us to have to employ teachers who don’t share our faith, values and beliefs really fundamentally means we’re not a Christian school, as we understand it, and that removes entirely a choice from parents.”

Pereira noted this was a significant departure from the position of high-fee schools.

“I think those are great schools – they’re doing a great job,” Pereira said.

“However, schools that have been set up by churches or parents or faith communities a few decades ago provide a different option to those other ones, and it’s part of their distinctive that it is a Christian school staffed by Christians who are believing and living in accordance with that faith.”

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OPINION

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DECEMBER 2018

Christmas lights What Queen Esther can teach the Liberal Party Tim Costello on light in the darkness All is not calm and all is not bright this Christmas. Twenty centuries or so after birth of the Christ child, the sounds of global discord seem louder than ever.

This Christmas, tens of millions of children around the world will sleep in the streets, where they will be exposed to all forms of abuse and exploitation. In the world’s trouble spots, widespread rape and killings continue amid the neverending lines of refugees and a background of poverty, starvation, disease and climate change.

So here we are, remembering the birth of the child who would become the Prince of Peace at a time when this world needs peace more than anything. It may seem that Darwin’s evolutionary theory of survival of the fittest is in action.

But is that really true?

Some will say this is just the way of the world and nothing can be done to change it. The alternative view is that the Christmas story is a gift of hope to humanity.

What are our hopes this Christmas? If we want a happy

Christmas do we feel a need to screen out the pain of our world because it might ruin our celebrations? Or can we recognise Christmas as an opportunity for hope and joy to triumph over despair?

We need to embrace Christmas – the real Christmas – more than ever this year as we stand at the junction of where pain and hope meet. There is no perfection in humanity but, as Christians, we can continue to trust in God’s providence and not walk in darkness.

We live in a world ravaged by pain and evil that is impossible to understand but also possessing the raw material of heaven.

Christmas speaks of joy, love, forgiveness and healing. The challenge is to see beyond the cynicism and garbage and sense the wonder of it all.

And then we can glimpse the joy that not even the terrible violence can totally destroy. For some, Christmas is always about the presents, the feasting rather than celebration of a great intellectual mystery – God’s coming to us to bring justice to the earth.

Would Jesus be impressed that Australians have spent about $1 billion just on Christmas decorations? Probably not. He demands more than a cursory acknowledgment. We must look at the state of world and consider which is more important – Christmas presents or God’s presence.

Surely there is no better time than Christmas to realise that a divine light always shines, even in the darkness.

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Lucy Gichuhi on the Book of Esther Public leadership, politics to be more precise, has become one of the most daunting terrains a Christian can choose to travel.

Yet, this is not the time to shy away from it. This is especially true for women. Currently, women represent 24 per cent of federal Liberal Party parliamentarians.

This number is strikingly similar to 20 years ago when John Howard first took office with 21 per cent female representation in his government.

The leaders we admire and celebrate are often unaware of the global impact they will continue to have centuries later. They, like many of us, were simply living their lives. One such leader is Esther.

Esther’s early life, on the surface, did not point to a future queen. She was a Jewish orphan being raised by her cousin, Mordecai.

The story of Esther is intertwined with the departure of Queen Vashti. I often ponder

what could have caused Vashti to disobey her husband and be deposed. However, this is when I am reminded that when God needs to move, God moves. Period!

I call it the “God-factor,” usually unforeseen and dramatic in nature.

Our task is to get on with the job at hand and be still and know God is God – no matter what.

Haman was the political power broker of his time. He used his position and political influence to pass a dangerous law, with authorisation from King Xerxes.

He was the king’s chief of staff.

My sympathy goes to King Xerxes – sometimes our politicians are used by other people, often those close to them, to pass laws or take actions that they may not know all the consequences of.

The impending threat could not be ignored. Mordecai persuaded Esther to go before the king and plead for her people. Esther was scared of the plan and with good reason; others had died trying to initiate a conversation with the king by going to the inner court without being called for.

Mordecai’s response to Esther’s fear activates a resolve in her to act. Mordecai is confident that God will save them but, if Esther does nothing, she and her future generation will be destroyed.

At the moment Esther stepped into the most dangerous position – the inner court – her husband was there. His mood was a longing and loving one – as a husband who has not seen his wife for 30 days.

Esther held her emotions and mental anguish in check. That allowed her to build a rapport with the king and his chief of staff, Haman – not once but twice.

This is what happens when God orders our steps; we find favour in the most unlikely places at the most unlikely time. When we step out of our comfort zones, God’s protection will show up, wisdom and courage will be topped up and faith will replace fear. The ultimate result of Esther’s courage was serving God’s will to protect the lineage of Jesus, so he could save us – humanity.

Could the Liberal Party and the nation be missing out on those golden-miraculous-God moments, by not supporting a policy that encourages women to pursue a career in politics? Since Federation in 1901, Australia has had 30 prime ministers; only one has been a woman – worth noting she was not a Liberal and she snatched the job from a bloke.

God entrusts both men and women with divine purpose that, when activated, the entire society is free and prosperous. If Esther had missed her destiny, the trajectory of her people would have been vastly different. It is time to take another look at our policies and ask the question: Are we getting the results we want? Diversity and inclusion is a must for a wellbalanced nation. Could we be missing out on God’s moment?

Lucy Gichuhi is a Liberal Party senator for South Australia.

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Happy birthday to the CMA Standards Council STEPHEN KERR

pixabay_TheVirtualDenise

The CMA Standards Council has now officially turned one, after launching in November 2017. We didn’t throw a big party, but we did quietly offer up a prayer of thanks for the opportunity to serve God’s people in our mission.

I would like to share two case studies of some very different organisations which have applied for accreditation, as examples of how we approach the accreditation process and how it can help on a practical level. For confidentiality reasons, we don’t reveal names!

Organisation A A is a relatively small organisation, with one part-time staff member and a number of volunteers. It has a real heart for honouring God by acting with transparency and accountability even though it is not a household name or turning over millions of dollars, so it applied for accreditation from the CMA Standards Council.

When A started filling in its questionnaire and getting together the information we were wanting to see, we both soon realised that while it was carrying out its mission faithfully and well, there is much more to governance of a healthy organisation than that.

We were able to help A understand some of the things that a wellfunctioning Board should be doing that it hadn’t even thought about.

We also worked with them to put in place some basic building blocks, such as how to prepare an Annual Report, what a conflict of interest is and how to deal with one, what risk management involves and how to prepare a risk matrix, setting up a complaints policy and process and some thoughts around the fundraising process.

A’s Board is now much more aware of what it takes to govern well, and is pleased to be able to show its stakeholders that it is governing well. Going through the accreditation process has been a real step up to a new level, putting A on a par with some of the best governed organisations in the Christian sector. A’s Chair said “We look forward in anticipation to the blessings that will flow though being a part of the CMA Standards Council, and thank the Lord for raising up the CMA Standards Council Team.”

Organisation B B is at the other end of the scale. It is a significantly larger organisation and well known to

the public. When it applied to the CMA Standards Council for accreditation we expected that it would already be doing much of what we require, and we were not disappointed. What we did find however was that there were some blind spots which had developed over several years which had not been on B’s radar and a few areas where B’s Board thought that they were doing well, but where they had in fact fallen off the pace. We were able to work sensitively with B and its Board to discuss these areas and explain why the blind spots were also important and give them a different perspective on some issues. We were also able to help with suggestions about how they could improve some of their policies.

B’s Board is very conscious of its responsibility to ensure B’s mission is carried out effectively, efficiently and for the long-term benefit of those it serves. As well as seeking to improve itself, B has graciously agreed to make available details of some of its procedures which are sector-leading best practice

to other applicants and partners of the CMA Standards Council, so as to lift the standards of the Christian sector generally. B’s Chair said “Once we spoke with you and it became clear that the Lord was in what the CMA Standards Council is doing, it was a no brainer for us to get involved.”

We have received applications from a wide variety of Christian organisations, including in the areas of aid and development, churches, colleges, radio and communications, training, camping venues, youth work, missionary, evangelism – the scope and variety is huge.

What connects our applicants however is a shared commitment to governing well and being accountable and transparent to their stakeholders. Some are concerned principally with upgrading to the next level to support a season of growth, some are wanting to benchmark their governance performance, some want to avoid complacency, some want to have independent evidence for their stakeholders that they are

behaving responsibly, some want to ensure they are meeting their legal obligations, and some want to set an example for and assist other Christian organisations to do better. For most, it is a combination of these reasons.

Whatever the reasons however, we are pleased to be able to help.

The mission of the CMA Standards Council is to build faith and trust in Christian organisations. To achieve this we have also becoming involved in some wider work, as well as accrediting responsibly governed organisations.

This year we have inaugurated an annual series of Ministry Governance seminars to train and update anyone involved in the governance of a Christian organisation, whether that be in a church, a charity, a school or otherwise. These are being run in each mainland state and go for a day. They involve some general plenary sessions, and then two streams of topics, one being “Governance 101” for those new to governance or who want

a refresher, and the other dealing with more advanced topics for those experienced in governance.

They are very affordable, and our dream is that every new member of the governing body of every Christian organisation in Australia will, in their first year, attend and go through our “Governance 101” topics to learn the basics of how to be a good contributor on that governing body.

So how does it feel to be a oneyear-old? It feels good that we are helping Christian organisations to be better governed, more transparent and more accountable.

It feels good that we are assisting the people involved in governance to do it better. But it feels best to be humbly serving our stakeholders by helping them become more effective in carrying out their various missions to build the kingdom.

Happy birthday! *If you would like more information about the CMA Standards Council please visit our website at www.cmasc.net.au or give us a call.

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DECEMBER 2018

The Bible is true and can be trusted!

Scientist, Dr Gary Baxter provides clear and compelling evidence, based on scientific, archaeological and textual studies, for the reliability and integrity of the Bible.

A Defence of the Bible is published in large-format paperback, consisting of 186 full color pages with 196 images and 584 footnotes.

Where to buy? RRP: $15 ► Koorong In store, or online at koorong.com.au ►Word Online at word.com.au

You can be kept informed on biblical apologetics by going to Gary's website: adefenceofthebible.com and subscribing to his fortnightly blog.

If you can’t afford to give to every Ministry appeal...

Choose from our accredited Partners, who have earned our tick of approval, for your Christmas gift list.

Look for our tick of approval to give confidently and give generously.

The CMA Standards Council reviews and publicly accredits organisations that put God first and meet high standards of governance, transparency and accountability. Our Partners, above, have demonstrated their commitment to trust and integrity by achieving accreditation.

For more information about Our Partners: see our directory at www.cmasc-generosity.net.au Accreditation: go to www.cmasc.net.au

CMA Standards Council is a ministry of CMA, www.cma.net.au CMA Standards Council PO Box 16210, Collins St West, Melbourne VIC 8007 | P 0417 316 932 | www.cmasc.net.au

DECEMBER 2018

BARNABAS FUND SPONSORED PAGE

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Rebuilding Christians’ homes and lives in earthquake-devastated Indonesia Barnabas Fund As the earthquake stuck, Florensi a young Indonesian Sunday School teacher, used her own body to hold up the wall and enable her young class to escape the collapsing building. Flo herself was crushed to death. Amongst the many others who lost their lives that day were 34 Christian students who had been attending a Bible camp; their bodies were found under a church buried by a mudslide.

On Friday 28 September a powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit the central region of the sprawling Indonesian island of Sulawesi, triggering a devastating tsunami. Waves up to 3m high swept through the capital, Palu, causing hundreds of thousands to flee amid widespread chaos and devastation.

Some 2,000 people died in the disaster that affected as many as 1.5 million people. Sulawesi’s Christian minority – around 17% of the population in the central region – were severely impacted.

There are significant Christian populations along the western coastal region and also near the city of Palu, one of the worst affected areas, where around 470,000 Christians live alongside more than 2 million Muslims.

Barnabas came to the aid of Christian survivors

Wilson, an Indonesian Bible School student, stands in front of his home in Sulawesi, Indonesia, which collapsed in the earthquake, killing his father.

As the region reeled, Barnabas’ partners on the ground, including churches and ministries across Indonesia, brought aid to Christian survivors despite difficult communications and travel. Barnabas sent emergency aid packages of food, toiletries, blankets and towels, getting urgent help to Christian communities.

We are continuing to support our partners as they bring hope and healing to children, using simple resources such as books, pencils, T-shirts and sports equipment alongside counselling to help them recover from the trauma they have experienced.

Countless homes, churches and schools levelled Tens of thousands of homes and at least 84 church buildings

HOMELESS AT CHRISTMAS Indonesia’s earthquake and tsunami destroyed the homes of thousands of Christian families Help Barnabas Fund rebuild their homes and lives You can donate online at: barnabasfund.org/christmas PO BOX 3527, LOGANHOLME, QLD 4129 (07) 3806 1076 or 1300 365 799 bfaustralia@barnabasfund.org

Barnabas Fund Australia Limited is a Charitable Institution but gifts are not Tax Deductible ABN 70 005 572 485

were damaged or destroyed.

“Thousands of houses, Christian schools [were washed] away and disappeared by tsunami and earthquake,” an Indonesian pastor told Barnabas Fund.

Another contact wrote, “Many churches were destroyed by the earthquakes and caused many pastors and church members suffered (sic).”

The Churches left standing in Palu were packed with worshippers on the Sunday following the deadly earthquake. A Christian teacher who travelled into Palu to worship said, “I’m here at this particular church because my own church is no more – it is levelled.”

Christian minority under pressure as tolerance fades

Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population. Until about two decades ago, Muslims and Christians lived peaceably as equals in accordance with a state-promoted philosophy of religious tolerance and national unity, “Pancaslia”. However, in many parts of the vast archipelago nation this no longer holds true and the Christian minority have been facing increasing discrimination, harassment and violence.

Across the country there has been a push towards Islamisation, with Muslims “transmigrated” by the government to live in some previously majority-Christian regions. In Aceh, where full sharia law is officially implemented, Muslim mobs have torched churches and following the 2004 tsunami Christians were refused aid unless they agreed to convert to Islam.

Remembering a Christmas past…

Nearly 14 years ago, when the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami laid waste the coastal regions of 14 countries in South and South-East Asia – taking some 200,000 lives – Barnabas Fund was there too.

Within a couple of days we had sent our first grant for emergency aid, and went on to help Christians in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and the Andaman Islands rebuild

homes, businesses and churches and supported over 5,000 children, including many orphans.

This Christmas help homeless Christian survivors rebuild Today, the Christian minority in central Sulawesi are traumatised and desperate, some recovering from injuries and many of them homeless. Some have made makeshift shelters as best they can from tarpaulins and whatever they could salvage but urgently need new homes before the rains arrive in February.

Recovery after disasters of this scale can be a long process and our brothers and sisters now need our help more than ever.

Barnabas Fund is providing new houses for Christians made homeless by the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami. Just $440 could pay for the building materials for a semi-permanent “core home”, measuring 6 x 4m, with a cement floor, wooden walls and a tin roof. We are also providing simple low-cost church buildings to replace some of the 84 that were destroyed by the earthquake; the cost of each is $19,600.

For more information, contact: Barnabas Fund PO Box 3527, LOGANHOLME, QLD 4129 (07) 3806 1078 bfaustralia@barnabasfund.org

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E FEBC SPONSORED PAGE 14

DECEMBER 2018

The best gift: the miracle and mission of the Word This Christmas, various media platforms will be used globally by FEBC to reach into the lives of millions who still have no idea of the miracle of Christmas.

These are the millions who are yet to know about the love of God expressed in the gift of Jesus.

They are in desperate need of the message He came to bring; a message of hope and peace, of truth and life.

Communication in today’s world is vital and the communication of truth is not something we can take for granted. FEBC is a mission that communicates to people hungry for truth, eager to know more about this Jesus, those who are longing to know they are loved, special and valued, and that they have been made in God’s image and for a purpose. People are longing to know that Jesus came that they may have life, and life to the full. FEBC is making that possible.

Throughout this Christmas period, FEBC will be broadcasting in over 100 languages, in more than 49 countries, penetrating physical, geographical, political and religious barriers with the Good News.

“The miracle of Christmas is that God came to earth in flesh to make Himself known, to speak into our needs and to communicate in ways we understood. The mission of Christmas was that Jesus came to do His Father’s will and to reunite us in relationship back to God through the giving of His life,”

“

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

- John 1:14:”

Christmas pageant at a church originally started by three listeners who met Christ thanks to FEBC radio. said Rev. Kevin Keegan, National Director, FEBC Australia. “FEBC does this every day as the Word goes out on our broadcasts and is followed up on the ground by our support teams. Our teams put ‘flesh’ on the Word that our listeners hear from our programs.”

God’s Word never returns empty. For example, last year the FEBC Thailand team participated in a Christmas pageant with a local church. The amazing blessing is that this church originally started because of three listeners to FEBC Thailand’s Heart Friend program. Three people who were moved and motivated by what they

heard on FEBC radio to accept Jesus, meet together in worship and plant a church. Then FEBC Thailand teams were able to return to this new, completed church to help carry out its first Christmas outreach.

“As this is a rural area, some young believers have moved to other areas for study and work, so the actual numbers of attending church members is not large; plus not all who attend have yet believed in Jesus. Yet FEBC Thailand staff consider it a wonderful partnership to provide a Christmas open air evangelism program with a Church that

began from our broadcasts,” said Rev. Keegan. “Last year songs, games, the Christmas story with dramatised soundtrack, and sharing from the Bible took place.

Over 20 people choose to follow Christ that evening. We pray for more hearts to know and meet Jesus this Christmas.”

It is humbling to think that a church like this began from three listeners, tuning into FEBC’s radio programs, via a $30 solar or windup radio. It is astounding that our heavenly father invites us into His mission to save all peoples of the world and have them reconciled back to Him.

In a Christmas article1 , Christian writer John Piper reflected on John 1:14. “Why was he called ‘the Word’?” and not the deed, the thought, the feeling - but the Word.

He concluded because Jesus came, “to put a high value on clarity and communication, and to be God’s communication to us.”

Communicating God’s Word today is vital, communicating the Good News to those around our world who are still to hear it for the very first time is critical. FEBC has been making that happen for over 70 years, and FEBC is doing that this Christmas.

Will you support the going forth of God’s Word? Consider giving the gift of a $30 FEBC radio to an unreached person across the globe. You can give either from yourself or on behalf of a friend or family member. You can also receive gift cards that explain how the gift of a radio delivers joy to the world this Christmas time. Contact FEBC (details in the advert below) to make your Christmas gift.

John Piper https://www.desiringgod.org/

messages/the-word-was-made-flesh

e l c a r i m s a m t s i r h C The rd being shared until all have hea

How a $30 radio

helps people in need Give a $30 FEBC radio. Give a friendly voice and reach the 2 billion people who have never heard about Jesus.

FEBC will be broadcasting in over 100 languages, in more than 49 countries, penetrating physical, geographical, political and religious barriers with the good news.

If projects are oversubscribed, gifts will be allocated where most needed

Give a radio and order your gift cards at febc.org.au or call 1300 720 017 FEBC Australia, ABN: 68 000 509 51 FEBC Relief, ABN: 87 617 872 287

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The crucible of leadership Are you a business or a charity?

GRAHAM PRATT

Flickr/ Dan Brown

Business v NFPs. Is there and should there be any differences between businesses and notfor-profit organisations in the approaches to leadership? Most definitely! In businesses, with profit as the prime purpose for an organisation, monetary rewards to employees are more available and more important. By contrast, a powerful values and client-based organisational vision and mission are likely to be more powerful drawcards for NFPs. While leaders in both categories need to ensure that workers are motivated, it is vital that workers in NFPs are inspired to contribute to the organisation, especially if they are volunteers.

Local research. Given that there were such limited opportunities to formally study leadership in any context during the 1960s and 1970s in Australia, how did senior leaders in Christian NFPs develop their leadership competencies? Several years ago, with support from Wesley Institute (now Excelsior College), I had the opportunity to interview 24 chief executives of Christian organisations. One important finding was that more than half of those interviewed developed strengths for leadership through challenging circumstances

experienced at an early age. Three women were individually forced to develop resilience from their early family situations. One was required to spend much time on her own caring for a younger, disabled sibling. Another was forced to spend some evenings alone at home when her single parent was working at night. A third felt friendless in a small town in her early teens. For

each, these challenges were growing experiences in resilience, resourcefulness and initiating.

For another 10 interviewees, their formative leadership development came via roles in institutions in their later teens or early 20s. Commonly mentioned were leadership roles at school as captain, vice-captain or high school Christian students’ youth leader.

For others it was as a leader at a

youth camp, early appointment as a deacon at the local church, election to local government, early promotion at work, appointment as a youth pastor, commissioning as a missionary builder to a developing country with wide supervisory responsibility and little mentor support or resources, becoming CEO of the family company at age 22, and unexpectedly being asked to manage an election campaign for a Christian friend.

One researcher and writer on leadership, Warren Bennis, argued in 2003 that “the crucible” is an essential element in becoming a leader. It is transformative for the individual in terms of character and leadership development and may herald a new direction in their life.

We may describe these in biblical terms as wilderness experiences.

Almost all the interviewees for this study could recount at least one such experience.

Several interviewees recalled having to spend many weeks or months bedridden while recovering from a serious accident or illness.

Others described difficulties and what seemed at the time to be failures or mistakes. In another case, the CEO of a Christian, self-supporting aid organisation in a foreign country was the only Westerner in the organisation that engaged more than 30 foreigners from neighbouring countries.

When the immigration policies of the host country changed, all the foreign staff were evacuated

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overnight. The interviewee concluded, “I can’t do anything as leader – it’s all God’s provision. I was forced to learn humility.”

One respondent spent several unhappy years working for a tyrant and bully. On reflection, this taught him the essence of servant leadership. Another had to leave a local church following conflict that arose in relation to uncompleted constitutional change that he was promoting. Yet several years later, as Australian CEO of a global Christian organisation, he was elected as International Chair of a task force to … review the organisation’s constitution!

Conclusions. God really does use failures and sufferings to help all Christ’s followers, especially leaders, to grow if we trust him (Rom 5:3-4; 2 Cor 1:3-11). “You have to come to terms with the fact that leadership is absolutely solitary,” one interviewee said. “You can’t delegate the responsibility.

You have to be able to live with insecurity, with things that you can’t reconcile or fix.” Another relates to a sense of responsibility and being prepared to put in extraordinary effort as a leader.

“Things sometimes become a little blurred in Christian leadership. We say we are saved by grace, but feel we have to earn it!”

Dr Graham Pratt is a retired Associate Professor in Management from University of Technology, Sydney. Christian leadership has been a long-term interest for him.

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OPINION

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Greg Clarke on knowing your own heart Driving innocently in Sydney recently, I was assaulted by a profound lie, up there on a billboard on the main road. “The best chocolate you’ll ever have,” it read. I’d had that chocolate.

It wasn’t the best. It was in the bottom half of my chocolate experiences, and I’ll never buy it again.

But it doesn’t seem to matter in advertising. You can get away with pretty much any kind of unsubstantiated claim. The rules of our otherwise data-driven, scientifically conscious, legally sensitive society don’t seem to apply when it comes to promotions.

Rhetorical flourishes abound, and chocolate lovers can find themselves sorely disappointed.

Billboard advertising is hardly the worst of it. This contentment with deception has leaked into much of the media. Television news, for example, gets away with turning their own channel’s new shows into news items: “And breaking news for you now, Channel X has released a new quiz show”. We know that’s not really news, but we just let it slip past, because what else can we do?

Turn to social media, and it feels like lying, exaggerating and deception dominate. No one gets pulled up for doing it; instead, it just generates more commentary and the platforms themselves seem to be happy with that. Even experienced journalists seem to slip into click-bait territory as they desperately try to be the first, the most fascinating and the most outrageous commentator on the issue of the day.

This can’t be healthy for any of us. The lie has to be the most antihuman act of all.

In her classic book, Lying, Harvard medical ethicist Sissela Bok offered a forensic study of all the many and various ways that human beings lie. Exaggerations, euphemisms, evasions, excuses: they are all lies in the end. Her conclusion was that telling the truth ultimately makes us happier because we are “doing unto others” as we would have done to us.

‘The best chocolate you’ll ever have.’

Familiar words.

St Augustine is the theologian most connected with the study of lying, and he was clear. Lying is all of the devil, he says, because your heart isn’t lining up with your words. Get those things aligned, and you will be living as God intended.

So you need to know your own heart and put yourself in your hearer’s shoes in order to be honest. How do you do that?

I think the solution may be prayerfulness. It’s not my solution, but Huckleberry Finn’s.

“You can’t pray a lie,” said Huck.

If more of our social interactions were like silent prayer, we might get somewhere.

Prayer is your internal pleading with God. There’s no point faking it. No one else is listening, and God can’t be tricked. It’s a great training ground for when you do open your mouth or tap your keyboard.

When we do that, we might use one of the old church youth group mnemonics to help us, such as “SPOTS” which kept me praying as a kid.

First, we express our Sorrow at the ways we have messed up.

Honest confession of error on

Pixabay / jill111

Whose lie is it anyway?

DECEMBER 2018

Twitter, not defending the indefensible. A posture of humble penitence. Let’s see it.

Next, we offer Praise, which is giving credit where credit is due. If your cultural or political opponent has said something worthwhile, praise it instead of spinning it wildly to try to win back a point. That’s got to be refreshing.

Third, we think of Others. An others-first approach to public discussion would be astonishing. It would break the conflict paradigm of journalism as proponents sought the good of each other.

Fourth, a spirit of Thankfulness should prevail. This actually works already in social media.

When people display their gratitude, it harvests an abundance of likes and retweets, as if we just needed permission to let out the feelings of joy we have in so many areas of life. Thanks for small blessings, thanks for the weather, thanks for friends,

thanks for recovery from illness, thanks for lives well lived. The very utterance of thankfulness seems to increase benevolence and peace. It’s like a wonder drug.

And finally, we offer up something of the Self. I was taught this was always the last thing to pray about, an excellent principle which goes against the deep structure of social media where it is your account, your opinions, your followers. Having said that, we do like self-revelation, we like knowing what’s happening in each other’s worlds. That’s the whole reason Facebook rules the world: it connects our selves. And that’s good. It should just come last in our priorities.

If our external selves were more like our praying selves, we might get somewhere in changing the culture of deception that dominates world communications at the moment. There’d be a lot less fake chocolate news, but is that a bad thing?

Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia.

Bible Stat 3350 languages have at least some translated portions of the Bible.

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