Eternity August 2013 Edition

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Michael Jensen goes to jail

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There I heard from a young man who had been in prison long enough already that I knew he had done something truly hideous. Was it murder? Could have been. I was afraid to ask. And yet there he was: praying with me, reading the Bible with me, a brother in Christ. Page 14

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NUMBER 39, AUGUST 2013 CIRCULATION 100,000 ISSN 1837-8447

michael mucci

RUDD, ABBOTT

IN GOD THEY TRUST? Author Roy Williams reveals what both leaders really think about Christianity

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AUGUST 2013

Obadiah Slope

Gnostic edition: Eternity is printed at four different print plants in Australia, all belonging to Fairfax. In a former life Obadiah used to groan when he saw the results of the Financial Review being printed around the country—when you put them all together the “blue” masthead varied from light blue to purple. Last month, he got a similar shock when the NSW print run of Eternity lost most of its quotes. (My spell check just made that sentence say “print ruin”. Accurate for once?) This left mysterious colour bars on most of the stories. We are sorry about the printing mistakes in NSW, and as soon as we have worked out the cause we will promise not to do it again. Thatcher again: What does Justin Welby, oil executive turned Archbishop of Canterbury, think of Margaret Thatcher? He told Charles Moore in the UK Telegraph: “Genuinely, I don’t know the answer. When I was in the oil industry in the 80s, I thought she was brilliant. When I was a clergyman in the North I had a different view. But I think she had a discontent with drift which is really important and an optimism about this country.” Husband app: “Legend Husband” is an app Baptist pastor Mark Reilly (Camden, NSW) assures us will give men an idea of what their wife really needs. “I joked I needed an app when we discovered that none of the men in the group knew their wife’s shoe or clothing size, much to their wives horror,” Reilly says. He adds, “Legend Husband makes you think about the most important person in your life”. That’s a good thing to do. Thinking of what to put in the app would be a great exercise. But Obadiah is still finding out stuff Mrs Slope wants him to know. It’s not her shoe size. Och Aye: Was anyone else relieved to learn from The Bible TV series that Noah had a Scottish accent? It made him seem such a reliable chap. And the Scots were good ship-builders.

He is in clear danger of arming you lot with stones while he shelters in a greenhouse.

Taking a risk: The relativelynew minister at Obadiah’s church is encouraging members to take part in a church crawl, encouraging his congregations to go to other churches for one week only. And the suggested churches are all 20 minutes drive away. Still it’s a good idea. We are to bring back ideas to make our place better. Sigh. A church I have long admired is only 10 minutes away. I may sneak there.

Glasshouse: Obadiah is one of a team slaving away to produce a “Guide to Christian thinking about the Election”. He has always felt unsatisfied with election guides from Christian groups, because they are either too narrow (focusing on “moral” issues or “social justice” ones) or simply aimed at getting you to vote for a particular party. So he is in clear danger of arming you lot with stones while he shelters in a greenhouse. This guide will try to cover a balanced range of topics. One topic stands out as the one just about every politician says should not be on this year’s election agenda—abortion. Which is why it should be there. (Note to Robyn Peebles, Christian Democrat senate candidate and the only politician to ask for Obadiah’s vote face-to-face: I know you think abortion should be an election issue.)

A transforming gospel gives voice to advocacy Keith Garner Keith Garner discusses how 2 Corinthians 5 provides a sound basis for Christian social advocacy. We see people differently when we start embracing what it means to belong to the family of God. In practical terms, this means refusing to judge people by our own cultural yardsticks. In a profound sense we see each person as someone for whom Christ has died. As we have a relationship with and a deep concern for the people we serve, it is appropriate to reach out beyond our immediate relationships and engage in advocacy for some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged sections of the community. Then we will see the world differently: “new life” transforms us through a personal spiritual experience to a new way of viewing and engaging with the world. Paul Barnett sees it as a transformation of the human will which is “entrenched in egocentricity”. C. S. Lewis reflects upon his own journey in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, but with a far broader application. He writes, “What mattered most of all was my deep-seated hatred of authority, my monstrous individualism and lawlessness. No word in my vocabulary expressed deeper hatred than the word ‘interference’. But Christianity placed at the centre what then seemed to me a transcendental interferer.” Some Christians see the world as beyond help, that there is no point working to make it better, while others believe that God only works through Christians. And so we make our voice heard even amongst those who do not share our convictions. Redemption, for us, is not limited to the personal sphere alone. It points to the new creation which God brings about in Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: The old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Many of those involved in Christian advocacy do so from a social justice aspect alone. “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” (Proverbs 31:8) Ronald Sider wrote the groundbreaking book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, which awoke many in the evangelical world to the plight of the world’s poorest. He wrote of the concern about “lopsided Christianity”, and controversially described most churches as “one-sided disasters”. He painted a picture of how some suburban churches had hundreds coming to Jesus Christ and praising God in brand new buildings, yet seldom learning that their new-found faith had anything to do with the wrenching, inner-city poverty just a few kilometres away. However, in other churches, members were forever writing to politicians, lobbying their local councillors’ office, but understanding little about the daily presence of the Holy Spirit. These two models of church remain: one which saves souls and the other which reforms structures. David Bosch in Transforming Mission described the

tension between evangelism and social action as “one of the thorniest areas in the theology and practice of mission”. I see it subtly present in so many areas of church life in the 21st century. But if God brings about a total change, there is no area of life which this change cannot impact or bring about inner-transformation. Similarly, there is no area of life for which we cannot feel a passion and engagement. The thought that “the old has gone, the new has come” says reconciliation with God brings about a radical change of allegiance. Our new life in Christ is now the overriding characteristic of all we are and all we do. Michael Green will be remembered for his work on New Testament mission. He gave a plenary address at the first Lausanne Conference in Switzerland in 1974 when he noted: “These Christians embraced all the colours, all the classes and all the untouchables of ancient society...Their caring for each other in need became proverbial in antiquity. When people saw how these Christians loved one another...they listened to the message of Jesus...Unless the fellowship in the Christian assembly is far superior to that which can be found anywhere else in society, then Christians can talk about the transforming love and power of Jesus until they are hoarse, but people are not going to listen to them.” In our advocacy, we remind ourselves that it is foolish to see either the left or right as holding the answer. The new life of Christ leads us to offer hope to the world. It brings us into a new relationship with him and into the rich tapestry of relationships within the body of Christ. Had the early Methodists in Australia chosen a much more passive approach than they did, things could have been very different today. Those who planted the seeds of a pioneering work in the early colony of Sydney were also advocates. Throughout our history, Christians have given voice to issues as diverse as slum clearance, child labour, the harmful impact of gambling, the abuse of alcohol, a meaningful use of Sunday, the White Australia policy and the Vietnam War. Evidence-based research helps to provide recommendations for government enquiries, white papers, committees and for policy formulation at Council of Australian Government meetings. However, advocacy is also about generating a public conversation about social issues to bring about tangible reform. We have sought to do that in relation to homelessness, suicide and the reform of the finance sector. Being at the table while conversations are taking place is important. Wesley Mission’s service delivery “on the ground” adds credibility to those conversations. Christians are called to bring about transformation by standing beside vulnerable people and giving them a voice in the midst of the challenges of pain and injustice in Australia. For us, reconciliation to God makes possible a dynamic commitment to the work of advocacy. We do that by being firmly fixed in the hope found in Jesus Christ. Rev Dr Keith Garner is Superintendent, Wesley Mission Full version of this article is at biblesociety.org.au

Tim Costello

Election is time for welcome

A lot of the conversation about “strangers” in Australia is about keeping them away, not welcoming them.

As we head towards a Federal Election, Jesus’ story of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 challenges us to consider our treatment of asylum seekers. Jesus says that those who enjoy salvation will include those who welcome the stranger. A lot of the conversation about “strangers” in Australia is about keeping them away, not welcoming them. As human rights expert, Rafendi Djamin, reminded us on the ABC’s Q&A programme recently, we are more concerned about border protection than we are about human protection. Being so narrowly focused, we put the spotlight on thousands of people heading to Australia but ignore the tens of millions of refugees and displaced people all over the world. We also ignore the forces that cause people to leave their homes in the first place. The words of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel represent the definitive teaching of what God expects of his disciples. He makes a point of saying his words are directed to “all the nations”. Jesus says that our first priority needs to be to care for those who need care, not for those who we judge to be “deserving”. This is a critical difference between Christ-like thinking and the everyday thinking of the world. Our welcome to the stranger is to be openly shared in abundance. A few weeks ago I met a Lebanese Christian in Beirut called Milat. He had taken in a Syrian Sunni woman and her two sons who had no place to call home. He explained that he supported President Assad as most Christians in the region do but the woman and her sons were praying fervently for the rebels’ victory. Genuinely surprised, I asked how he could live with such political tension and provide food and shelter for them with no end to the conflict in sight. He shrugged and said they are fellow humans. I was moved and wondered how many Australians would respond like that. It stunned me to think that with an estimated 550,000 Syrian refugees now in Lebanon, a country of just 4.3 million people, that thousands of Lebanese like Milat have taken these refugees into their homes without question. It gave me hope and perspective. If only our leaders could meet Milat: a man who lives out the compassion of Jesus by welcoming the stranger.

A guide to Christian thinking about the Election: biblesociety.org.au

AUGUST 2013

NEWS

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Religion and Politics

The Bible on TV

Kaley Payne

Kaley Payne

The impact of Christianity on Australia’s Prime Ministers has been downplayed by historians and commentators, according to a new book launched by Bible Society Australia. Titled In God They Trust? and written by Roy Williams, the book has been launched in what Bible Society CEO Greg Clarke calls “a strategic time as we head to a federal election, and when the leaders of both major parties are outspoken Christians”. “The role of religion in politics has never been so hotly disputed in our time,” says Clarke. “I think after launching this book, you could never run the argument that religion and politics don’t mix in Australian life.” In his book, author Roy Williams says “…to say that we have been uniquely blessed in human history is scarcely to exaggerate. For this state of affairs our Prime Ministers surely deserve some credit—perhaps a great deal—since under Australia’s Westminster system of government the Prime Minister has always wielded huge influence. In today’s era of concentrated executive power, his or her personal belief-system matters more than ever”. And, says Williams, almost all our Prime Ministers have “thought long and hard about God. But in general, our Prime Ministers have been much more spiritually minded than the people they lead”. biblesociety.org.au/pm. Read an extract from Williams’ chapter on Kevin Rudd, and a bonus profile on Tony Abbott on page 5.

Bible Society Australia has gotten behind The Bible TV miniseries showing on Channel 9 in July and August. It joins a number of other Christian organisations, including Christian Media Australia and Christian film distributors Heritage HM, in encouraging Christians across the country to watch and discuss the series. Bible Society CEO Greg Clarke says the TV series presents an opportunity to debate, discuss and explore the “Book of Books” with family, friends, church groups and colleagues. “This is a moment when the Bible goes ‘public’ in Australia, occupying the senses and the minds of many Australians for several weeks of viewing. I’d encourage everyone to view this series. It vividly brings to life the incredible narratives of Scripture, raising all the profound issues of human behaviour—courageous, wicked, faithful, faithless, admirable, despicable—that can be found in the Bible’s pages. It challenges us to lift our eyes from our own lives to history, to eternal matters, and to God himself.” While Clarke acknowledges the “tall order” of cramming “1600 years or so of action and 2000 world-changing pages into 10 hours of TV”, he says his prayer is that “the eyes and ears of Aussies will be overwhelmed by the living Word of God in the weeks to come”. Bible Society Australia and Centre for Public Christianity are producing short video discussions on each week of The Bible TV series. Want to watch? Visit biblesociety.org.au/BibleTV

N.T. Wright speaking at a Ridley Melbourne event.

Ridley Melbourne

N.T. Wright’s Australian visit

Sophie Timothy

Theologian N.T. Wright has unveiled the contents of his enormous new book, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, in events run by Ridley Melbourne and the Uniting Centre for Theology and Ministry in Melbourne. Wright has been in Australia for the Society for New Testament Studies conference in Perth. Wright is seen by some evangelical Christians as a polarising figure because of his non-traditional take on Paul’s theology, specifically the doctrine of justification by faith and the place of the law in light of Jewish beliefs at the time of Christ. There were a number of lenses which N.T. Wright offered during his visit, and which sum up his ‘perspective’. • “We need to find 21st century answers to 1st century questions, not 19th century answers to 16th century questions.” For too long we have read Paul’s

letters as if he were addressing the same issues which the Reformers were dealing with in the 1500s. • Christianity is more than just a game of how to get to heaven when you die. Wright argues we have shrunk the gospel down to an individual’s salvation, and that it is actually about God fulfilling his promises to Abraham in Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord – the Messiah. • “Paul had a Jewish message for the pagan world”. Wright argues the story Paul was telling was “an Israel-shaped narrative with the Messiah at the centre”. It was not about a radical new way of salvation, totally disjointed from the history of Israel. • Paul, Wright says, takes up three areas of Jewish theology in his letters: monotheism (that there’s one God), election (who are the people of God) and eschatology (the end times), and rethinks them around Jesus as Messiah.

Wright argues we have shrunk the gospel down

Dates for your Diary Open Night Monday 26 August 7.45 pm – 9.15 pm

Speaker: Dr Bill Salier, Vice Principal of Moore Theological College

Check out the College and have your questions answered.

Open Week

Understanding the whole Bible’s teaching on the ‘world’ as the context for faithful Christian living

Monday 26 August – Friday 30 August

Thursday 15 August (n.b. amended date) Evening lecture, 8.00pm

Come and visit our Newtown campus, sample a lecture and meet faculty and students.

Monday 19 – Friday 23 August Morning lectures | Mon: 10.00am, Tues – Fri: 9.00am

Open Day

Knox Lecture Theatre | 15 King Street Newtown

Saturday 28 September 9.30 am – 2.30 pm

02 9577 9999 moore.edu.au

The day will include a sample lecture, a campus tour and a BBQ lunch.

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AUGUST 2013

SPONSORED PAGE miSSiON AviAtiON fEllOwShiP

MAF at the forefront of International Emergency Aid in Timor-Leste As dawn mists swirl in from the sea and drift lazily through the nation’s capital, the Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport only five kilometres from Dili is a hive of activity. MAF pilot Jonathan Lowe prepares for a new day conscious of his critical role in rebuilding a nation. Currently, 30 international aid organisations including Oxfam and World Vision are concentrating their efforts on the people of Timor-Leste’s remote villages. Teams of aid workers regularly leave the capital for rebuilding assignments, assisting hundreds of thousands of people whose only concern is still their basic survival.

Following the departure of the UN peacekeepers and the Australian Defence Force from the country in 2012, MAF’s plane is the only aircraft available to all the aid agencies helping rebuild Timor-Leste. Jonathan is familiar with all the country’s tiny landing strips. In a country dominated by mountainous terrain there are just six runways outside of Dili. Over a third of his flights are medevacs – medical evacuations due to accidents, disease, deadly epidemics and complications during childbirth. Through MAF, he’s directly helping to save lives!

...when a MAF plane flies over the villagers, they know that someone actually cares....

Often, the frequent rains and rock slides destroy what is left of muddied roads. A typical six hour journey by four wheel drive on treacherous mountain passes between Dili and the key communities in Timor-Leste is not always an option. Especially not for a woman and her unborn child, whose lives are at stake. With Mission Aviation Fellowship however, these journeys could take as little as 20 minutes and two jerrycans of fuel. For missions and aid agencies, the time saved is crucial to delivering programs efficiently and effectively. Their staff are no longer at the mercy of roads blocked or completely washed out. Timor-Leste, still heavily reliant on subsistence farming, is described as having three seasons: The Wet Season, The Dry Season and The Hungry Season. With the world’s highest rate of babies born malnourished improving access to nutritious food year round is critical*. So MAF fly in agricultural experts to train farmers in grain storage, improving crop yields and sustainable farming techniques. Decades of trauma have taken their toll on a peaceful people group. Now MAF is making a difference by taking part in the rebuilding of a nation. They fly in counsellors from the Canossa Foundation whose role is to train community representatives in conflict resolution techniques and trauma counselling. There are the teams of medical staff from the Royal Australasian College of

*Timor-Leste, The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 2013

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Their friend was dying. The nearest hospital was three days on foot. He would certainly die.

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Believing God could save him, they cut branches to make a stretcher and carried their friend for hours to a jungle airstrip.

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His flight took eleven minutes. A jerrycan of fuel saved the life of the man on the sapling stretcher.

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A Second Plane for Timor-Leste With 30 aid agencies responding to the dire need in Timor-Leste, MAF must also respond. That’s why we’ve taken the bold decision to purchase another GA8 Airvan to double the capacity of MAF’s lifesaving work for our nearest neighbours. This second plane still needs to be fitted out for medical and cargo purposes before it can be utilised in the fight against poverty. The plane is on standby and we are faithful that God will provide the necessary funds to enable us to complete the purchase. It’s a great commitment but the needs of our third world neighbours are far greater.

Surgeons who volunteer their time in clinics and training sessions of local staff. They regularly travel to Timor-Leste to save lives and – like the other agencies – to empower the Timorese to be able to do such activities themselves in the future. Jonathan delivers them to the remote communities whose medical clinics are just so grateful to hear his plane land. For when a MAF plane flies over the villagers, they know that someone actually cares... That tiny MAF plane represents more than just medical assistance, counsellors, resources and aid. It represents the generous support of Aussie donors to all those 30 aid agencies reaching out to a neighbour in need, all delivered by a humble MAF pilot. MAF the enabler and servant to all.

AUGUST 2013

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In God they trust?

An extract from a new book by Roy Williams, published by Bible Society on Australian Prime Ministers’ beliefs - PLUS a special profile on Tony Abbott.

WHICH OF OUR PRIME MINISTERS BELIEVED IN GOD?

most of australia’s leaders since federation believed in god. some were serious Christians and very few were indifferent towards religion.

in this timely and original book, Roy Williams examines the spiritual life of each of our Prime ministers from Edmund barton to Julia gillard. He explores the ways in which – for good and ill – their beliefs (or agnosticism) shaped the history and development of the nation. featuring extensive interviews with John Howard and Kevin Rudd, and pulling no punches, IN GOD THEY TRUST? will appeal to voters across party lines and excite plenty of debate among believers and non-believers alike.

ROY WILLIAMS won the sydney University medal in law in 1986 and practised as a litigator for almost 20 years at one of the country’s leading firms. He now writes full-time. His first book, God, Actually, a rational defence of Christianity, was a best-seller in australia and has since been published in britain and North america.

. . .

“i thought that God, Actually was one of the best statements of reasoned faith that i have read. i loved it.” Tim CosTEllo

“Williams has not only done a lot of hard thinking and reading, he has the literary skills to do justice to his views.” fioNa CaPP, The Age (Melbourne)

. . .

BSA032-In God They Trusted-Cov-ART.indd 1-3

iN goD THEy TRUsT? Roy Williams

Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott are very different kinds of men, but both are sincere believers in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Indeed, not since December 1931, when Labor Prime Minister James Scullin faced off against the United Australia Party’s Joseph Lyons, have Australia’s two major political parties been led into an election by Christians so conspicuously serious about their faith. Both are products of their childhood and their experiences as young men. Kevin Rudd Rudd attends church weekly and has done so for most of his life. In his home town of Brisbane he has worshipped for many years at St John the Baptist Anglican church in Bulimba. In Canberra he usually goes to St John the Baptist’s in Reid. During his diplomatic postings in Sweden (1981–84) and China (1984–87) he took the trouble to involve himself actively in local congregations. In China he was a lay preacher. Rudd’s knowledge of Christian doctrine and history is extensive, and his everyday speech is littered with religious phraseology. When I interviewed him at his office in Parliament House in November 2012 he told me he had just embarked on a project to study Luke’s Gospel in the original Greek, so as better to understand the nuances of the Gospel writer’s message. I take him at his word that he exults in Mozart’s Requiem at Easter; that his favourite novel is Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov; and that his favourite painters are the pre-Raphaelites, because their work is imbued with Christian overtones. He was born on September 21, 1957, in Eumundi, a small town in Queensland about 20 kilometres south-west of Noosa in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. His father, Albert (Bert) Rudd, eked out a modest living as a sharefarmer on 400 acres (about 160 hectares) of land owned by a prosperous local businessman. There were five mouths to feed aside from himself: those of his

wife Marge (nee De Vere), youngest son Kevin and three other children: Malcolm, Loree and Greg. Bert and Marge had a “mixed” marriage. Marge was a strict Catholic – righteous, teetotal and thrifty, but not sectarian. Her favourite book was The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas, a popular 1940s novel about the crucifixion and its aftermath told through Roman eyes. She voted without fail for the DLP. Many years later, Rudd described his mother’s worldview as “old-style Queensland Catholic Country Women’s Association”. Need more be said? Bert Rudd was of Protestant stock. Although much less religiously observant than his wife, he did not convert to Catholicism. Indeed, “he wanted no part of it”. He was a member of the local Masonic Lodge and politically conservative, maintaining inactive membership of the Country Party. When I asked Rudd about his father’s faith, he said the following: “He died before I was really able to have anything approaching adult conversation with him so I really don’t know. What I do know is that as he was dying in hospital he had a quite deep spiritual experience and was supported in that by a hospital chaplain. And so what his lifelong beliefs were, the extent to which he reflected those beliefs in the way he lived, I couldn’t really comment; I was too much of a kid.” It was Marge’s way that prevailed in the Rudd home. She and Bert were married in a Catholic Church (St Joseph’s at Nambour), and their children raised as Catholics. Indeed, the children were instilled with “a deep sense of the importance of faith”. They attended mass with their mother every Sunday at Eumundi. Rudd described to me “a tiny wooden country Catholic church— you’ve seen a thousand of them in Australia—and … all four of us sitting in line next to Mother in descending order”. There was also catechism classes every second Saturday. On Sunday nights they said the rosary. (To be continued on P6)

He said: “All physical objects, all human works are quite insubstantial in the parade of eternity—only God endures. In all ages progressive thinkers have announced the death of God.”

tonyabbott.com.au

Roy Williams

Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer

When I interviewed him he told me he had just embarked on a project to study Luke’s Gospel in the original Greek, so as to better understand the nuances of the Gospel writer’s message.

“Williams is considering statesmanship at its most complex but perhaps deepest source.” Kim Beazley

GOD iN

THEy TRUsT? THE REligioUs bEliEfs o f a U s T R a l i a’ s P R i m E m i N i s T E R s 1901-2013

Roy William s

In God They Trust? by Roy Williams is avaialble from biblesociety.org.au/ pm and Christian and secular bookstores.

15/05/13 2:30 PM

Tony Abbott Tony Abbott’s faith is robust and deep-seated. For many years he attended Mass daily at churches in Sydney and Canberra, and although no longer so assiduous, he is still a committed practising Catholic. Like Rudd, he has also been a prolific writer about religion and politics. One of Abbott’s recent biographers, David Marr, has suggested that there are two distinct sides to his character. On the one hand, there is the unscrupulous “political animal”. On the other is the passionate believer in muscular Christianity, who has always been on an “essentially religious mission in a secular world”. This Abbott rejects the notion that politics is a managerial exercise. Rather, it should be “a way of giving glory to God”. Abbott’s political conservatism is, in Marr’s nice phrase, “coloured a clerical purple”. It seems fair to say that theology per se has never been Abbott’s prime interest. His pronouncements about metaphysics tend to be bold and general. For example, in his President’s address to new students at Sydney University in Orientation Week 1979—an unlikely occasion, indeed, for earnest Christian evangelism!—he said: “All physical objects, all human works are quite insubstantial in the parade of eternity—only God endures. In all ages progressive thinkers have announced the death of God.” In his 2008 book Battlelines, he laid out his conception of the greatest Christian truths: “[They are] to love God with your whole heart and to love your neighbour as you love yourself. This second commandment is rightly the whole basis of human ethics. “‘What would you want if the boot was on the other foot?’ provides the best answer to so many moral dilemmas.” Yet as another biographer has observed, Abbott “has also made a point of denying ever having made a political decision on religious grounds, and says

he never will.” I suspect this is knee-jerk defensiveness on his part, a response to those who dub him “the Mad Monk” or “Captain Catholic”. In any event I do not believe him and do not want to believe him. If the genuinely Christian side of Abbott holds sway he has the capacity to be a fine leader. Abbott would be an unlikely Liberal Party Prime Minister in several ways. His Catholicism is unique in and of itself, but so is his disinterested attitude to money and professional prestige. He never practised as a lawyer. He was once a trade unionist and a hands-on manager of a concrete-batching plant. There is a joke in big-business circles that Abbott will be Australia’s first DLP Prime Minister—but it is a joke told uneasily. Apart from his upbringing (both his parents were practising Catholics) and the “softening” effects of marriage and fatherhood (he and his wife Margie have three daughters), a number of factors have shaped Abbott’s Christian worldview. One was his schooling: it was exclusively in the private system. He attended a trio of excellent Catholic institutions on the north shore of Sydney: Holy Family Convent, in Lindfield; St Aloysius’ College in Milsons Point; and St Ignatius’ College, Riverview, on the Lane Cove River. St Ignatius—known popularly as “Riverview”—is perhaps the best and most prestigious Catholic boys’ school in Australia. It is an all-male institution run by the Jesuits, members of the Society of Jesus, the religious order founded in Spain by St Ignatius of Loyola in the mid-sixteenth century. Jesuits are known colloquially as “God’s Soldiers” and have a duty to evangelise. They swear a special vow of obedience to the Pope. Perhaps the best advice that Abbott received at Riverview was “to read with voracious appetite”. My impression is that he has read widely down the years, (To be continued on P7)

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AUGUST 2013

election special

He was known at Burgmann as a wowser, “the opposite of bohemian.” He belonged to a group of evangelicals called the Navigators. It was at Burgmann College that he first read the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. into this whole world you know nothing about.” That world encompassed compulsory attendance at mass three mornings a week and regular prayers in the classroom. The school’s emphasis was on sport and its motto was viriliter age (act manfully). For an academic boy such as

STATE CONFERENCES 17 AUG 7 SEPT 13-14 SEPT 20-22 SEPT 19 OCT

WA 9am - 4pm SA 1pm - 5pm NSW two day event QLD three day event VIC 9am - 9pm

In 2013, OMF International are holding five exciting State Conferences around the country. Come along to hear from Missionaries, participate in workshops, learn about missions and meet like-minded people who have a heart for East Asian countries.

www.au.omf.org

Rudd the atmosphere must have been uncongenial. He told journalist Julia Baird in 2006 that “it was tough, harsh, unforgiving, institutional Catholicism of the old school”. The family’s move to Nambour in mid-1971 was another turning point in Rudd’s life. Nambour was a proud, upright town. Biographer Robert Macklin called it “the very buckle of the provincial Queensland Bible belt”. Marge Rudd was a tough cookie and she expected a lot of her children. One’s God-given talents ought not to be wasted, and one’s duties ought not to be shirked, she believed. To do so was sinful. Her favourite biblical passage was from Christ’s exhortation to the disciples at the Last Supper: “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” (John 15:2) Marge Rudd understood the critical importance of education. The Marist Brothers experiment had failed. In Nambour Kevin was sent to the state high school, and immediately his scholastic performance improved. And it kept improving, exponentially. Moreover, his behaviour was impeccable. “He was,” reminisced a fellow student, “the one with the halo”. By 1974, his final year, Kevin Rudd was the school’s star student. He had pushed himself extremely hard and it had brought forth much fruit. On the other hand, Nambour High had killed his faith, ostensibly at least. Journalist David Marr has suggested that by 1974 Rudd was “a swaggering atheist”. I put this to Rudd; he smiled and said that he was “something close … an agnostic”. Certainly he had rejected notions of Papal infallibility, priestly authority and other formal strictures of Catholicism, but in all the circumstances of his life to that point this was scarcely surprising. Indeed it was almost certainly a blessing in disguise, God’s grace in action. Unlike most Catholic (or Protestant) teenagers who abandon their slender childhood faith, never to return to Christianity at all, Rudd soon rethought his entire theological position. He took a gap year in 1975 and knocked around doing various odd jobs, at first in Brisbane and later in Sydney. While in Sydney, he attended services at various Protestant churches including a Church of Christ congregation in Earlwood, Wesley Mission and Scots Church in the city. Although he did not formally renounce his childhood Ca-

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Kevin Rudd Everything changed for the Rudd family on the night of December 14, 1968. Driving home from a social event in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, 100 kilometres to Eumundi’s south, Bert crashed his car into a telegraph pole at about 2am. He died eight weeks later of peritonitis at Royal Brisbane Hospital. Not long afterwards the surviving Rudds were forced to vacate their Eumundi home. Bert had left little money and his modest life insurance was slow in coming. Initially Marge Rudd had no choice but to accept Christian charity from her family and a few neighbours in Eumundi. But there were limits to any such arrangements. Marge soon accepted that she would have to earn a dignified living to support herself and her children. She had trained as a nurse during World War II and decided to resume that vocation. Unquestionably during this period, Marge Rudd’s robust, practical faith served her well. This made a huge impression on her younger son. Later in life he recalled his mother as “exceptionally stoic”. In the meantime Kevin needed to get on with his education. For Marge this was critical: Kevin was an intelligent, knowledge-thirsty boy. In mid-1969, in deference to Marge’s financial predicament and her devout Catholicism, the powers-that-be at Marist College, Ashgrove (in Brisbane), agreed to waive their fees and to accept Kevin as a boarder. To put it mildly, Kevin did not enjoy his two years with the Brothers. He once admitted that he preferred not to remember those days. “It’s not that the school was in any sense a bad school,” he told me. “I was just an unhappy kid. … [B]ecause my father had died I felt quite lonely, vulnerable. I was 11 years old. And then suddenly you’re thrown

tholicism—indeed he never has—Rudd came to the belief that “denominationalism” was much less important to him than the basics of the Gospels. By late 1975 he had chosen a broadly ecumenical path. He was bound for the Australian National University in 1976, and he chose not to apply to the (then) male-only Catholic college on campus, John XXIII. Instead he obtained a place at the Protestant co-ed college, Burgmann. On his application form for Burgmann he described his religion as simply “Christian”. At ANU Rudd was uninvolved in campus politics—they were of no interest to him. Mostly he concentrated on his coursework, and in 1979 he graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Asian Studies. His extra-curricular activities were based around the Student Christian Movement. He was known at Burgmann as a wowser, “the opposite of bohemian.” He belonged to a group of evangelicals called the Navigators. It was at Burgmann College that he first read the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, starting with Letters and Papers from Prison. It was also at Burgmann, on the first day of Orientation Week 1976, that he met Therese Rein, his future wife. They “fought like Kilkenny cats for the [first] year or two … in debates and discussions on the meaning of life and all the rest of it”. She was as earnest a Christian as he. At Burgmann she was asked by the Master of the college to establish “a series of solid Bible studies on Christianity and sexuality”. Therese held similar views to Kevin on matters denominational. She too had been raised in a “mixed” household, but a tolerant one. She told Robert Macklin that her mother “thought of Anglicanism and Catholicism and Methodism or whatever as basically Christian, as did my father, so she was prepared to get married in a Catholic church”. But the priests objected, explaining that her mother would have to be rebaptised and reconfirmed and her father “was really deeply offended”. They married in an Anglican church. Kevin and Therese were married on November 14, 1981 at the beautiful St John the Baptist Anglican church in the Canberra suburb of Reid. It was Therese’s church rather than Kevin’s; he had been worshipping at the Uniting Church in O’Connor. In opting for St John’s for his wedding and the Anglican Church thereafter, Rudd took the view that “families that pray together, stay together”.

AUGUST 2013

to biographer Michael Duffy, “she was a Catholic and had known [Abbott] for years, but could not remember one instance when he had talked about religion or his spirituality”. It appears that the religious side of Abbott’s nature emerged fully only once he had left Australia. At all events, in February 1984, Abbott commenced his studies at St Patrick’s Seminary in Manly. To say the least, he did not thrive there. From the beginning he felt like a “fish out of water”. On March 27, 1987, after enduring just over three years of misery and disappointment, he quit in frustration. A few months later he wrote a candid account of his experiences for The Bulletin magazine, an article entitled “Why I Left the Priesthood”. It was published over five pages in the issue of August 18, 1987, and is another mustread for anyone wanting to understand our prospective Prime Minister. Reading between the lines, I sense that the core problem was Abbott’s lack of fully-reasoned faith in the Vatican’s traditional teachings, the teachings he was supposed to believe in and defend against all comers. It unnerved him to have those beliefs questioned by liberal theologians at the seminary. Tellingly, Abbott has recently admitted that “the living Jesus of Christian faith was [i.e., in 1984–87] only a second-hand presence in my life”. If that is so, it puts in perspective all of his other complaints about the seminary: the requirement of celibacy, for instance, and the allegedly “homosexual culture” there. His secular critics have tended to focus on these. More generally, they have speculated about how Abbott’s Catholicism may impact on public policy if he becomes Prime Minister. Abbott has deprecated the notion of “Vatican diktat”. Yet he has also referred approvingly to the Catholic belief that

My personal view is that radical secularists the Pope is “no less than the Vicar ... have of Christ”. The most comprehensive, recent statements of his views about Calittle to are to be found in two pieces fear from tholicism he wrote in July 2008 on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Australia Abbott. for World Youth Day. He proffered some

2013 Computing and Technology Camp Years 7 - 12

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Tony Abbott but that he has not read the scriptures as often or as closely as he should have. Nonetheless, his respect for God’s Word is patent: he recently remarked that “Western civilisation is inconceivable without the Bible”. No doubt the Jesuits at Riverview hammered this theme. Another formative experience of Abbott’s life—religiously and otherwise— was his time at Sydney University. In the “gap” summer of 1975–76, he had attended a month-long camp run by B. A. Santamaria’s National Civic Council, and was inspired by the message. When he arrived on campus in early 1976 he began to board at St John’s (Catholic) College and joined the Democratic Club. Soon he was running the show. He met Santamaria himself while in Melbourne at a bi-annual national conference of delegates of the various Democratic Clubs throughout Australia. The effect was life-changing. Above all, Abbott imbibed the message that politics is, or should be, a calling or vocation. He remained in contact with Santamaria—his mentor—for another two decades, seeing him several times a year until his death in 1998. A third important phase in the shaping of Abbott’s consciousness was his time at Oxford University from 1980– 83. In his last year at Sydney he had won a Rhodes scholarship and this was the springboard for what was, perhaps, the defining experience of his life. Importantly, it was at Oxford that he met and befriended Paul Mankowski, an American Jesuit of Polish-Irish descent. Abbott wrote in Battlelines: “I doubt that I have ever met a finer man”. When Abbott returned to Sydney in mid-1983 he announced to family and friends that he had decided to become a priest. Many people were surprised by the decision. His closest female friend at that time, Megan Kenny, was one person especially “puzzled”. According

fond but not uncritical musings about his church. My personal view is that radical secu-

larists—and, to the extent they still exist in Australia, anti-Catholic Protestants— have little to fear from Abbott. As regards at least three momentous recent matters of public policy—the Iraq War, refugees, and neo-liberal economics in the wake of the GFC—Abbott has adopted positions squarely at odds with the Vatican’s. And Abbott’s personal opposition to abortion is just that: he has stressed repeatedly that he would never enforce recriminalisation. Same sex marriage This is one genuine point of difference between Abbott and Kevin Rudd. Abbott remains opposed and has declined to grant federal Coalition MPs a conscience vote on the issue. Rudd, on the other hand, has recently reversed his opposition. He set out his reasons in a 2,000 word article posted on his website on 20 May 2013, about a month before his reinstatement as Prime Minister (but two weeks after my book In God They Trust? went to press!). While upholding the right of Christian churches and other religious bodies to continue to define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman, Rudd argued that “the secular Australian state should be able to recognise same sex marriage”. “Many Christians will disagree with the reasoning I have put forward,” he acknowledged. “I respect their views as those of good and considered conscience. I trust they respect mine as being of the same. In my case, they are the product of extensive reflection on Christian teaching.” Same sex marriage is a divisive issue. It splits families, and Rudd’s and Abbott’s are no exception. One of Abbott’s sisters, Christine Forster, is a lesbian who supports same sex marriage. Rudd’s sister, Loree, who once trained as a nun, is an implacable opponent. She resigned her ALP membership over the issue.

Equipping the whole believer to take the whole gospel to the whole world

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AUGUST 2013

MISSION

‘We had seven new families at church’ Chris Gray and Matt Gorton Quiz Worx is a team of people and puppets who travel throughout Australia sharing Jesus with kids. At Tregear Presbyterian church (in western Sydney), this year’s kids mission theme was ‘God’s team’. The kids were reminded, among other things, that God’s team is “the best team, the greatest team, the team that lasts forever�, because its captain and coach is Jesus (who is powerful and who cares, and who is the winner because he rose victorious from death!). The church at Tregear sent the team a great thank you letter: We had a real sense of God working last week. Lots of details came together that wouldn’t have without His intervention, and the 70 kids each day (about half of whom we hadn’t met before and many of whom are living in very sad or unstable situations) were very settled, engaged and responsive. In their small groups, many of the kids indicated that they had decided to trust Jesus. We were thrilled to have seven new families come to church on Sunday! We pray that they will keep coming! Although we don’t always know the long-term impact, I wanted to share one

The kids at Barraba Public School meet the Quiz W story with you. I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a mum who started coming to church last Christmas. We’ve known her for about five years, having first met her through ESL classes at church, and we first met her son (now 13) at a holiday kids club where he heard about Jesus from Quiz Worx. He came to a couple more holiday kids clubs after that, occasionally came to weekly kids club, and although he now comes to youth group and church each week, he’s quite cool and reserved so it’s been hard to know how he’s thinking. His mum is still uncertain about Christianity for herself, but told me with

Values for Life school seminars

Values for Life is a school incursion program that encourages students to think about the bigger questions of life. We speak to over 20,000 students in more than 100 schools each year, covering topics such as: cyber bullying, binge drinking, mental health, leadership, resilience and much more. To invite us into your school or nd out more:

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AUGUST 2013

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Quiz Worx

Worx puppets tears in her eyes that she appreciates the impact on her son, who is a “good boy”, and who still treasures all the pieces of paper and books he’s brought home from church over the years. She told me he has a printed prayer (or Bible verse?) that someone gave him stuck on the wall beside his bed, and noticed recently that he’d written something at the bottom. She looked closer, thinking it was probably his girlfriend’s name just like he’s written it on lots of other things, and saw that it said “I love you Jesus”. Quiz Worx spends a lot of time visiting country towns across Australia

helping churches reach kids. As part of an eight-day tour of New England, Quiz Worx visited Barraba Public School. It was one of those shows that reminds you of the great joy of sharing God’s word with people. It’s so easy to let the focus slip towards it all being about us ministering to them. But the kids at Barraba reminded us that God’s in control and he ministers to both us and the kids as we share the gospel. In his mercy, he gave us a group of kids who were so excited and seemed to genuinely engage with us throughout the show. www.quizworx.com

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AUGUST 2013

Hollywood has only three stories—and even they’re stolen

Even Twilight’s movie script with blood-drinking vampires follows a set Hollywood story structure, says Mark Hadley. Mark Hadley “Three … you’re kidding, right?” That was my response when my friend Clifford first suggested to me that Hollywood had a very limited repertoire of stories to offer. He nodded with all the assurance of one of Australia’s most experienced producers. “Star Wars?” I hazarded. “Type One,” he said. “Jaws?” “Type Two.” “Oh, like The Godfather?” “No, that’s a Type Three masquerading as a Type Two.” “I’m confused…” And you might be too, but it’s not hard once someone lays it out for you. Hollywood has been re-working the same three structures for longer than cinemas have sold popcorn. 1. The Quest The first, and possibly oldest archetype is ‘the quest’. In it our ever-present hero is driven by one simple desire: to get something. It might be the hand of a pretty girl like Heath Ledger’s beau in 10 Things I Hate About You, or the pretty boy who is Julia Robert’s target in My Best Friend’s Wedding. But it doesn’t have to be a person. It could be

simple, like freedom in The Great Escape or as obscure as lost memories in Memento. Whatever the goal, the hero doesn’t have it and his quest involves doing everything he can to get it. The most important part of ‘the quest’, though, is not the hero’s goal but his motivation. What is it that drives the one we’re rooting for, and do we approve it? Love drives Wall∙E to rescue Eve’s plant. But Lightning McQueen gives up his chance at a Piston Cup because he realises that ambition shouldn’t rate over friendship. 2. The Chess Game The second plot granddaddy is ‘the chess game’, a story that organises itself around the battle between an evenly or overmatched hero and his nemesis. It’s a case of move and counter-move, with each side attempting to anticipate the other until the winner finally emerges. This is the natural home of Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty, Batman and the Joker, Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. But the hero’s opponent doesn’t have to be a person. It could be a virus as in Contagion or an entire weather system as in The Perfect Storm. The key, of course, is not the opponent’s identity but the threat they bring

to bear. The villain is the measure of the hero. We wouldn’t think much of Sarah Connors if the Terminator could be stopped with a magnet. The greater the villain, the greater the hero’s victory. 3. The Life Lesson The story that will undoubtedly stay with us the longest is ‘the life lesson’: “Hard work will win out”, “No man is an island”, “All that glitters is not gold”. For millennia stories have been the favourite method for teaching moral truths. The Shawshank Redemption teaches us to ‘get busy living or get busy dying.’ Schindlers’ List tells us that all evil needs to triumph is for a good man to turn his back. The Lord Of The Rings reminds us in half a dozen ways that enduring commitment can topple the darkest empire. It actually doesn’t matter if the hero wins or loses; the success of ‘the life lesson’ story is measured by its ring of truth. Too vague—‘it’s good to be good like Noddy’—and the audience will just nod as they nod off. Too bizarre—‘Love justifies anything, including drinking blood’—and they’ll wonder what Twilight’s writer was drinking. The sweet spot is something that we’d struggle to articulate but everyone knows to be true.

“The history of humanity is the original quest story with the Christian storyteller C. S. Lewis wrote motivator that, “History is a story written by God,” and I believe our most attractive scripts being the are exactly that because they reflect His search for greater work. The history of humanity is the original quest story with the motivator something being the search for something that will that will last. The writer of Ecclesiastes observes that, “God has set Eternity in the heart last.” of man,” and everywhere I look I see 1

people with immortality on their mind.2 But as a race we find ourselves in the greatest chess game of all. Death has won at every turn, defeating rulers, scientists and warriors alike. But God entered His own story in the form of Jesus to teach us the most undeniable life lesson of all: we cannot do it on our own. Sin is so rampant we cry out for an all-powerful judge, and our failings so dark we long for a sympathetic saviour. The problem with our recognising this ultimate story, though, is that humans have never been fond of scripts where we’re not offered the leading role. 1. C. S. Lewis, Historicism, Christian Reflections, 1967. 2. Ecclesiastes 3:1-14, NIV,www.biblegateway.compassage/?search=Ecclesiastes%20 3:11-14&version=NIV

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AUGUST 2013

SPONSORED PAGE eagle edge solutions

Giving hope and dreams to young people Wayne & Jane Dillon of Eagle Edge Solutions are passionate people serving the Lord diligently in outback QLD and beyond. The Dillon’s have been hard at it for around 13 years and have developed a good rapport with the locals. They run various Youth support programs to change the mentality from hand-outs and welfare to self-sufficiency.

Big toys for big boys Nobody gets much in this world without a reasonable attitude and hard work. One of the rewards we give them, are some laps in a 4 stroke @ 55kmh. If they go the extra mile and help with the fabrication and maintenance they earn the right to drive a 2 stroke full race kart @ 120kmh. This kart drives best sideways and is bordering on crazy. Only a rare few have earned the right to play with this!

Wayne says; “We provide them with the tools they need to move forward so they can be all they were created to be! We have a heart to see their emotional and spiritual wellbeing fed and nurtured.” “Give a man a fish and he will have food for a day. Inspire, encourage and teach them, when they are young, to catch fish and they will learn to extend themselves, get a job, learn a trade, help feed a town and above all, give their own children hope.” “It is very evident that the only way these young people are going to get anywhere in life, is through developing a work ethic that is grounded on self-respect and a knowledge of their own sacredness to God.”

What do opal fossicking, aviation, canoeing, watching a grand final and monster trucks have in common? As the young people work hard at fundraising, (making gidgee soap, car washes etc...) and increase their effort regarding school attendance, respect for themselves and others, and in doing quality work, they earn rewards for effort. We take the concept of teaching young

Eddie is learning how to cut opal. It’s fantastic to see a young bloke gaining the skills to bring the colour out of the rock. It looks like rubbish rock but the beauty that is trapped inside is God’s gift.

people ‘to fish’ very seriously as we seek to free this generation and future generations from the learned helplessness engendered by the cycle of welfare handouts. Peter Davies sent his 15 year old son Ben on a mission trip and to train with Professional Flight Training Services. Pete says “I am amazed at how much you have achieved. I was hoping that at the end of two weeks Ben would have his RA Restricted Certificate and maybe a NAV or two. You have achieved far more than that, probably more than anyone else could achieve regardless of age. God bless and God speed.”

Luke was part of our furniture for a few years and was busting to learn to Scuba dive. He helped in the work shop cleaning gear, filling Scuba tanks, building a go kart etc. We took him through his PADI Open Water Scuba Cert and Junior Advanced Open Water Scuba Cert. Now he is busting to dive with a real looking shark, not just a Wobbegong! Luke wanted to go to Downlands College in Toowoomba and we helped his parents get him a scholarship there. He is completing his 3rd year now and doing well. We can’t wait to see what he does with the rest of his life.

Wayne is a commercial pilot with 30 years experience mostly in commercial operations. He uses a Tecnam Bravo Light Sports Aircraft with a cruising speed 208km/h. “Our hope is that this will help train pilots for the outback and perhaps for mission aviation.”

Autumn - winter - spring

outback queensland is the place to be

“We believe the work of Eagle EDGE Solutions is a critical part of God’s plan for young indigenous people in Outback Australia. 88% of the young people in the P-12 State School are Indigenous. Our solution is to love and nurture the children, teach them about this amazing man called Jesus who died for their sins, rose from the grave and is alive and busting to be their friend. We exist to help them catch the wind of the Spirit of God so they will be his people and his witnesses to the ends of the earth.” “Poverty to me is a child going to school hungry because there is nothing to eat. It’s not the kid’s fault that the money didn’t make it to the grocery shop. A car does not go far on an empty tank and nor do children learn well with empty bellies.” “We help them to dream about a future with great jobs, the skills and courage to venture out for work; further education and spreading the Good News of the gospel.”

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“We are empowering the people with courage, skills and determination to move forward to a future they own. Not handouts but leg up is the answer.”

“The eagle at the right time stirs up the nest and the young go over the side. She then swoops down to rescue them and places them back in the safety of the nest teaching them to fly; to soar on the thermals. We walk with the young people into some very difficult situations and places until they feel safe in different surrounds.” “We will know we are getting somewhere when the young people have ownership and they are busting a gasket to get the order out the door and not us! There are a number of cottage industry’s that could see many young people with a bright future on earth and leading many to eternity with God.” Wayne says; “For this vital ministry of “Empowering Young People For Life” to go to the next level, we need your help in prayer and resources.” Check them out at www.eagleEDGEsolutions.com and drop them a line.

people for LIFE.

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12

AUGUST 2013

“ My life before was like a wasteland, without direction.” Bernard De Guzman

Bernard De Guzman found purpose in life when he received a Bible and started learning important principles that guide and direct him.

Sparking a Filipino revolution There are those in the Philippines who believe the Bible has the potential to change the nation, especially after experiencing change themselves. Bernard De Guzman used to gamble, smoke and drink, and went from day to day without any real sense of purpose. “I thought my life was like a wasteland because there wasn’t any direction at all. I was always searching for true happiness, but I realise now my vices only gave me temporary satisfaction. “That was before I received my very own Bible, and found purpose in life.” Bernard is one of 880,000 people and homes who have benefited from a Bible distribution programme in the country. It’s a joint project of the Bible Societies in Australia and the Philippines, working with the Episcopal Commission for the Biblical Apostolate (ECBA) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). The programme started in 2009, at a time when two-thirds of the largely Catholic population neither owned a Bible nor engaged regularly with it.

Filipino churches united under the nationwide campaign, aiming to distribute five million low-cost Bibles to poor families. Coupled with local discipleship programmes, it began a gradual but distinct spiritual revolution. “Our vision was nothing short of moral and social transformation for the Philippines”, says Philippines Bible Society General Secretary Nora Lucero. Filipino Education Minister Armin Luistro is fully supportive. “The most powerful weapon that can change the country is one that can change hearts. The Bible can change the Philippines!” Bernard certainly agrees. In the scriptures he found important values and guiding principles that helped him develop a close walk with God. “I now serve as a youth leader in my church, and I’ve witnessed many young lives transformed by a constant reading and living out of the word.” Womanising, drinking and gambling were part of Jose Morilla’s troubled past, even as a churchgoer. Things changed when he was given a Bible at

his local parish. Reading the Bible for himself convicted Jose about his way of life, and he was gradually able to give up his habits by the strength of the Holy Spirit. Peace began to reign in his life. There are many more like Jose and Bernard who are experiencing this life change, all across the nation. Bernard says, “I’m grateful to those who’ve made Bibles available for people without the means to buy their own.” The Philippines is a country saddled with a large national debt. The World Bank estimates that corruption in the nation is the worst among East Asia’s leading economies. Sadly, the poor and the vulnerable pay the price, with nearly one in three Filipinos living below the poverty line. In the face of crippling poverty, buying a Bible comes low on the list of family priorities. That’s why the Bible Society of the Philippines is working hard to make Bibles more affordable, selling them at a highly-subsidised price of 50 Filipino pesos (about AUD$1.30). One million Bibles are also earmarked to be given

free to the poorest of the poor. While close to a million Bibles have been distributed, it’s far short of the targeted five million given before the end of 2014, and more funding is needed to help reach the goal. Donations from Christians who are able to give remains critical to bridging this gap so that even the poorest Filipino can engage with God’s word. There is tremendous need for the scriptures in the Philippines and an unprecedented demand for it. Bible Society has learned that in some parts of the country, people are even copying Bible portions by hand so they can have something of the Scriptures. In actual numbers, there are more than 50 million people who cannot pick up a Bible at home and read it for themselves. Bible Society Australia is keen to support Bible distribution work in the Philippines, and encourages generous giving to the campaign. You can help place a Bible within more Filipino homes. Please donate at biblesociety.org.au/philippines

Chona Miranda freely admits that she used to be a gossip. Her juicy stories about her neighbours stirred up conflict in the village. When she received a Bible she read 1 Cor 13, and started to reflect on how “love rejoices in the truth” and that “love never fails.” Her favourite pastime soon turned from gossiping to Bible study and sharing the Scriptures. Chona hopes the Bible distribution programme will spread, as she fully believes in the change the Bible can bring, as it did for her.

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13

Sponsoring a child ain’t what it used to be Sophie Timothy

“There is a need for all of us to take on the issue of transparency A child benefiting from the community development model of World Vision very from, if people themselves get hope and ate an environment for communities seriously.” life and change and they will change where some children are singled out

World Vision

Worldwide, it’s estimated around nine million children are sponsored through various charities, which demonstrates just how appealing it is for people looking to make a difference. So it’s important to know that for the most part, child sponsorship isn’t done the way you might think it is. Many agencies have moved away from sponsoring individual children to channelling the money raised into community development projects. Under this model all members of the community benefit, while ‘sponsor children’ become community ambassadors and are used to monitor the effectiveness of the programmes. In this sense, the photos and stories of children are to a large extent, a tool to engage the public. For those agencies which still direct funds from sponsors to individual children, there are many questions raised in the development sector about the ethics of singling out particular children for support and leaving out others. Many donors lack knowledge about the programmes they support, which makes asking the questions even more important. These questions have resurfaced following a recent study into the effectiveness of child sponsorship published in the Journal of Political Economy. Authored by scholars at the University of San Francisco, the research looked at the long-term outcomes for children who had been sponsored through Compassion, a worldwide Christian NGO. Compassion was chosen to be the focus of the study because of their particular emphasis on child development (as opposed to community development). Under their model, money goes directly from a sponsor to an individual child via the local church. The study showed children who participated in Compassion’s child sponsorship programme achieved much better outcomes than their unsponsored peers. As you can imagine, the study is now the backbone of Compassion’s message: “Compassion child sponsorship. IT WORKS.” Compassion’s CEO, Tim Hanna says they focus on the child, with the hope that the child will go on to influence their community. “Compassion’s model [is based on] the understanding that if you change enough children, you will change a community,” he says. “I guess the other way to look at it is you change a community and you hope people will change. We approach it

their communities. So I wouldn’t want to compare and say one is better than the other, but they’re all valid.” Tim points to two graduates from its child sponsorship programmes who have taken up roles in the political life of their countries (Haiti and Uganda) to show how their work can have impact and influence beyond the child. “What we do really well is child development; we don’t claim to do other things really well. There’s no magic bullet when it comes to alleviating poverty, and there’s no shortcuts. You’ve just got to keep doing the bit that you do well, and we do holistic child development really well. I guess the research tells that story.” However, a growing number of agencies like World Vision, Baptist World Aid and Plan are using communitybased funding models, where money given through child sponsorship is distributed to projects which benefit whole communities. In a way, the children who are sponsored become the face of their people. Sarah Knop is Senior Product Manager for World Vision’s Child Sponsorship programme. She says World Vision transitioned to a community-based approach in the mid-80s and has tried to reduce any exclusivity or jealousy in communities where children are sponsored. “We obviously don’t want to cre-

as being treated better than others or given extra special benefits. We want the whole community to benefit, and that’s really what we’re about at World Vision—we’re about seeing the community thrive.” Not all charities employ child sponsorship to fund their work. Neither

Oxfam nor UNICEF offer it as a giving mechanism; the same goes for the Australian arm of TEAR. Former Director of TEAR Australia, and lecturer at Tabor College in Victoria, Steve Bradbury says while he was in the top job, TEAR didn’t consider child sponsorship as a fundraising tool, because of the cost of doing it and the complexity of explaining how it works to donors. “It’s very labour intensive, just in terms of tracking the children, selecting the children, photographing them, getting the letters and doing what’s necessary to create some kind of connectivity to the sponsor as well as monitoring them on the ground,” he says. Steve argues the focus in child sponsorship and development more broadly should be on transparency and best practice, with the consumer needing to ensure they are aware of where their money is going. But he says, at the end of the day, if it makes people engaged with poverty and development, then child sponsorship is worthwhile. “I think what I would want to say is that there is a need for all of us to take on the issue of transparency very seriously and be as vigilant and diligent about it as we can,” he says. “But nothing has been as successful as child sponsorship as a way of hooking people into development programmes …the last thing I would ever want to do is discourage someone from doing it. “I think it’s better that they do it than not do anything at all.”

14

AUGUST 2013

OPINION

Is it really free? Michael Jensen

decides that he will hire some other fellows to help out. So he goes back to the marketplace where the as-yet unhired workers are standing around, and he calls them in, telling them somewhat vaguely he will pay them “whatever is right”. He does this at 9 am, at noon, at 3 pm; and then, with the shadows of the day lengthening, at 5 pm. That’s five different groups of workers, some of whom have worked a gruelling 12 hour day by the time it is all finished. Then, when it comes time to settle up the payroll, the landowner hands out exactly the same pay to each worker. It’s a disastrous piece of workplace relations, isn’t it? You can easily imagine how the first group of workers felt when they saw what was going on. It is massively, blatantly and completely unfair. They have worked the whole sweaty day. The last group only chipped in at the end for an hour. And yet, the same reward is given to all. No wonder someone speaks up and says “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat”. I hope you can see his point and feel something of his pain. We have an acute sense of fairness, don’t we? It is taught to us in pre-school and probably even before, and it lasts for our whole lives. We don’t like that there is an unfairness, especially when it is biased against us. I saw an experiment recently on YouTube, where two caged Capuchin monkeys were rewarded for giving the scientist a stone. The first monkey was given a grape for each stone. The second monkey was given a piece of cucumber.

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“The old mental habit of ungrace is stubbornly persistent.” abcdz2000

The thing that people find hardest to believe about the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that it involves a man rising from the dead; it is not that it involves believing in a personal deity who made the world with a word; it is not even that a good God could allow a world where there is suffering. Far more difficult to believe is that God’s grace, which means forgiveness of sins, is really free. We have such a deeply ingrained expectation that it isn’t like that, that we have trouble hearing it and understanding it. We are so used to living in the world of ungrace that we cannot bring ourselves to really understand what the world of grace might actually look like. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Money doesn’t grow on trees. The world doesn’t owe you a living. There is no gain without pain. These are the principles of the world of ungrace. It’s a world where you get what you deserve. It’s a world in which you look with pride on your achievements and hide with shame all your failures. It’s a world in which you are constantly judged, marked, critiqued and evaluated. It’s a world in which you take any advantage you can because only the fittest, or smartest, or prettiest, survive. Karma, where (to quote Savage Garden) “what you get is what you give returned”, seems so much more logical

and just. Even though I know about grace, and I have experienced grace, the old mental habit of ungrace is stubbornly persistent. I work to bolster my list of achievements because it makes me feel like someone of whom I can be proud. I judge others for their failures, and carry my grievances with me like a handbag. I am forever comparing myself to others. I am an oldest son, after all. When it comes to our standing before God, we fall into one of two errors of ungrace. We either presume on God’s favour, subconsciously believing that God’s free gift to us in Christ comes to us actually because we are really rather loveable and deserving; or we think that we could never be acceptable to God because we are really rather unacceptable to everyone else. Strangely, sometimes the same person can hold to these two thoughts at the same time. This idea of God’s grace is the beating heart of Jesus’s teaching. Now, he never mentions the word ‘grace’. But he teaches about it constantly. There’s the parable of the lost son welcomed home by the father, despite everything. There’s the one about the banquet which is thrown open to those who by rights have no expectation of an invitation. But the parable which causes us the greatest degree of bewilderment is the parable of the workers in the vineyard from Matthew 20. The outline of the story is simple. The owner of the vineyard has some work he needs doing. So, first thing in the morning, he finds some workers and agrees to pay them a full day’s wage. But the work isn’t getting done, and he

AUGUST 2013

“That kind of person is not the sort of person who you’d want to have in your church. They don’t deserve to be there.” The monkey who was given the cucumber was happy at first with his reward. But when he saw that the other monkey was being given sweet luscious grapes, he started to become angry, and he threw the cucumber back at the scientist. Who wants a cucumber when a grape is on offer? This video was used in a TED Talk as evidence of moral behaviour in animals. And it was, after a fashion. Though perhaps it better illustrated the reverse: that what we call ‘moral’ behaviour is really no such thing, but just what monkeys would do in the same situation. Let’s be frank: Jesus’s vineyard owner has been quite unfair. And I’ll bet it made employing workers the next day a bit more difficult, too. But he defends himself by saying: “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” He has a point: he has not been dishonest and he has not dishonoured any contracts or agreements. The workers knew what they were getting when they started, and worked happily for that. It was only when they saw what others were getting that it became an issue for them. What is the grounds for their complaint, really? No injustice has been done, no promise has been broken. But it still feels uncomfortable, doesn’t it? Especially when Jesus says that this is what the kingdom of heaven is like—where the last will be first, and the first will be last. We don’t like things being so out of kilter, or so unexpected. We are used to the economy of exchange: where equal work gets equal pay; where debts accrue, and interest is earned, and taxes are inevitable; where everything has a price. But here, in the kingdom of heaven, the human way of ordering things is overturned. We are dealing with an economy of grace. And what does that look like? How does that operate? The kingdom of heaven contains people I wouldn’t choose, that’s for sure. It contains people who haven’t served all their lives as decent, honourable

citizens. It contains people who have committed all manner of crimes. It admits people despite everything and not because of anything. But it operates that way because of whose kingdom it is. It belongs to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, from the beginning, made the world not from necessity but out of the wealth of his freedom and out of the pure generosity of his character. And his economy is the economy of the gift. Not, I hasten to add, the sort of manipulative gifts we give—the bottle of wine to the client, the gift given to one who loves us, or whose love we want to purchase. The giving of the divine gift springs entirely from his freedom to give. And the pattern of his giving is extraordinary: he gives not because he is impressed, but because he can. He gives to those who least deserve it because it shows to us that what comes from God is not a wage that we have earned but a gift out of the overflow of his heart. He doesn’t have to give: he wants to. I recently went to jail to visit a friend of mine who is a prison chaplain. To be honest, I was going to see if the gospel of God’s grace was true. Could it really work for people in jail? Let’s not be romantic about it: people are in jail because they have done some pretty bad stuff. We don’t put people with traffic fines in prison. These are the rightly unacceptable people. The answer came in the form of the violent offenders’ Bible study. There I heard from a young man who had been in prison long enough already that I knew he had done something truly hideous. Was it murder? Could have been. I was afraid to ask. And yet there he was: praying with me, reading the Bible with me, a brother in Christ. It’s an outrage, really. That kind of person is not the sort of person who you’d want to have in your church. They don’t deserve to be there. But the God of Jesus Christ is the God of such outrages. And here’s the question that the parable is asking you: can you live with these divine outrages? Can you live with a God who doesn’t recognize the pecking order? Can you live with a God who reverses the normal order of things? Because I am sorry, but you don’t have an alternative.

15

Letters

Speaking of tatts

In reference to the article “Fighting Poverty, One Stitch at a Time” (July 2013) by Sophie Timothy on page 9, I would congratulate her subject, Jake Dolesschal on his unflinching commitment to the poor here in Australia and everywhere. It was not, however, deserving of the double-barrelled cheap shots in her introduction aimed at people who came from a different time period. “Far from trying to imitate the kitschy lifestyle of a ‘50s housewife like so many crafty types these days…”

These double barrelled cheap shots are aimed at the image of the stayat-home housewife caricature of the suburbs of the 1950s, and those many women today who indulge in craft of many types. The two insults are not worthy of a Christian publication article lauding a young man committed to fighting poverty. Since 1980, Western university history departments, notably Australian, have promoted a sneering-jeering view of the stay-at-home upper middle class suburban housewife committed to keeping her house tidy using the latest modern conveniences and cooking good food for her hard-working hubby who will be home soon. Apparently, being a ‘50s baby boomer, raised by a mother who stayed at home, who now enjoys the many aspects of craft in her middle age and retirement, is something to be at least amusingly and hopelessly out-of-date or at worst, shunned and vilified. Further, it is obvious that an increasing number of the female adherents joining craft activities today are from the 30-50 age groups. Are they also uncool? None of us can help being who we are. Made in the image of God, we come in all sorts of sizes, colours, ages and accents. 1950s baby boomers are the leaders and financial backbones of Australian churches today. It is insulting and unfair to demean and dismiss them as unfashionable, backward and out-ofdate simply because they came from a distant decade far from the 2010s. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. Joe Clark, Parramatta Baptist, NSW

Now fair warning to Eternity readers: October is Bible reading month and for our September edition we’ll be asking a selection of Aussie Christians about how they read the Bible. Do you read it daily—does the quiet time live on in your house? Do you set aside a

special time each day to read the Bible and pray? Pastors, do you suggest that your pew-or-chair sitters do this? We’re looking forward to finding out, with a suspicion that this is one old-fashioned idea that needs a comeback. John Sandeman

Rob Elder had some good things to say about tattoos (July issue), but I speak from experience. One day during the war my mate Hughie and I lined up on pay day outside the tent of an amateur tattooist. Each of us intended to have the RAAF insignia on one arm; I was planning to have the name of a current girlfriend on the other. As one customer came out we examined the handiwork and asked about the process. He likened it to having a lighted cigarette butt being dragged over the skin. Hughie and I took one look at each other and left. As Tojo’s Rising Sun set slowly over the Pacific, so did my romance. Because my girl’s name consisted of eight letters it would have raised future problems: my first wife’s name had five letters and my present wife’s name has three. Even now I sometimes wonder what might have happened had the ink flowed into my flesh. At least the RAAF badge would have gained in lustre as the years passed by. Donald Howard, Elderslie, NSW

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The televised Bible The Bible miniseries has taken Australian TV screens by storm. If you haven’t heard about it, perhaps you have been hibernating for the winter. It is airing on Channel 9 on Tuesday nights (at least, at the time of writing it is!), and becoming a ratings winner for the station. Let’s hope it marks a turning point for TV programmers, who have for too long forgotten that Aussies really are quite interested in history, religion and all that, especially when it is told in a powerful, blockbuster style such as The Bible series. I’ve encountered a wide range of reactions to the series, from glowing praise to sharp criticism. Personally, I’m more down the praise end. I think the producers have succeeded in their goal of ‘adapting’ the Bible to a 10-episode TV format, while remaining faithful to the spirit of the text. They have taken some liberties in constructing Bible stories, adding connecting material where there is little, and developing fresh perspectives on how the viewer receives information (for example, Noah telling the Creation narratives in the first episode). In my view, most of these adaptations work to enhance our understanding of the Bible’s unfolding story. It’s hard to summarise the value of this miniseries, especially when most of it hasn’t yet aired to you, dear readers and viewers, but here are three takehome points that in my opinion make the broadcast of The Bible one of the highlights of Aussie TV in recent years. First, this format is fantastic for

Greg Clarke helping us to understand why the Good Book is full of bad stuff. The episodes about Israel’s early history, of the way people deceived each other, are gripping in their awfulness. From scenes of torture and rape to the death of thousands of Israel’s enemies, the Old Testament comes alive in all of its graphic and disturbing drama. For the past decade, noisy atheists have been cherry-picking parts of the Bible to complain about its morality. This series demonstrates that the immorality depicted in the Bible is that of flawed human beings, and that, in contrast, God is faithful, just and kind. Even Israel’s wonderful leaders— Moses, King David—were tragically compromised, and dependent on the mercy of God for their victories. The human horrors of scripture reveal to us our need for a merciful and loving God. Second, there is a ‘through-line’ in the Bible that gives you an understanding of the ‘Big Story’ of what God is doing in the world. This is sometimes offensive to contemporary Westerners, who think they are writing their own story and no one else can tell them what the Story is or where they fit into it. But this is plain hubris, blindness to history and to one’s own tiny role in it. You are part of something bigger; better find out what that ‘something’ is!

The miniseries does a good job of conveying what the scholars call ‘biblical theology’, the threads that hold together the books of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Threads such as God’s faithfulness to his promises, the need for a Messiah, and the quest for mercy and justice combined. Roma Downey, one of the series producers and the actor who plays Mary, Jesus’ mother, wrote that the biggest discovery for her in making the show was that “the Bible is a love story” (bibleseriesresources. com/q-a). That’s biblical theology! Third, if you don’t know the Bible, you don’t know who you are. In Australia, every person has to some extent or another been shaped by the teachings of the Book of Books. It is so ingrained in the worldview of the nation (notwithstanding other influences), that to

truly understand who you are as a 21st century Australian, you need to know this great, old Story. To grapple with the issues of today—from how we treat refugees, to the nature of our tax laws, to the shape of our storytelling, to the kind of family lives we encourage—you need to know the Bible. Without it, you are like the child born without family records, with no sense of where you came from or why you think and feel the way you do. Now’s the chance to catch up on your family history! The screening of The Bible gives Aussies a chance to look at Israel’s history, and to ponder their own history, steeped as it is in biblical tradition and culture. My hope is that in doing so, Australia’s late-night TV viewers will also discover and fall in love with the God of the Bible.

“Without the Bible you are like the child born without family records.”

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