Eternity - April 2015 - Issue 57

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GA LLI P OLI SP EC I AL

Salute to the brave

and their Bibles

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Bible Society “From my time in the services, there are many, many men and women who reached for the Bible in times of trial.”

NSW Governor David Hurley, patron of Bible Society Australia, at the launch of Their Sacrifice.

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presents stories of fait h from t he front line

See the Exhibition at a Westfield near you*

As Australia commemorates 100 years since the Gallipoli campaign, Bible Society invites you to discover remarkable stories of courage, camaraderie and faith in times of conflict, and to rediscover the book that’s carried many of our defence force through the darkest of times: the Bible.

Their Sacrifice is a multimedia campaign pointing to God’s presence through conflict, whether on the front line or in our personal trials. The campaign aims to inspire young and old with the life stories of ten men who held to their faith in conflicts from the Boer War, through Gallipoli to Afghanistan.

Their Sacrifice comprises a year-long national touring exhibition, a website and daily emails, two publications, a documentary as well as educational resources for children in Sunday schools and Scripture classes. Full details and downloads are available at theirsacrifice.com The overarching theme is the bravery of those who’ve fought for our freedom, and the strength they’ve drawn from the Bibles taken with them into battle. God’s word has offered them the comfort of his presence when enduring the horrors of war.

The inspiring stories are brought to life in an immersive video and multimedia presentation at the Their Sacrifice exhibition, which tours the country beginning April 20.

At the exhibition you’ll also get a close-up look at the ten battle-scarred Bibles belonging to the brave.

In addition, Bible Society has produced two books – a commemorative Centenary Bible and a book that tells the full, moving stories of the brave and their Bibles. A documentary tracing the story of digger Elvas Jenkins and his Bible with a bullet in it will also be available on DVD at the touring exhibition.

Finally, travel with us to Gallipoli throughout April with 30 days of daily Bible readings, looking at some of the Bible verses that sustained our brave during battle. Sign up for the Bible readings at biblesociety.org.au/dailybible

WESTFIELD SYDNEY APRIL 20 - MAY 3 450 George St, Sydney, NSW

WESTFIELD MIRANDA MAY 4 - 17 600 Kingsway, Miranda, NSW WESTFIELD WARRINGAH MALL MAY 18 - 31 Condamine St & Old Pittwater Rd, Brookvale, NSW WESTFIELD KOTARA JUNE 1 - 14 Northcott Dr & Park Ave, Kotara, Newcastle NSW WESTFIELD BELCONNEN JUNE 22 - JULY 5 Benjamin Way, Belconnen, ACT *Interstate dates to be added at a later time. See theirsacrifice.com for more.

Interactive displays offer a sense of what it’s like at the front line

Helmet of salvation

‘The Lord will keep you from all harm – he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.’ Psalm 121: 7

Acting Major Joe Mullins received a wake-up call to what really matters during the dying days of World War II when he survived a David-and-Goliath-style battle against Japanese fighters in Burma.

His miraculous escape from death is one of ten dramatic stories at the core of Their Sacrifice.

British-born Joe Mullins became a Christian at an Easter youth camp at the age of 17. But he let his Christian habits slide after war broke out as he concentrated on rising through the ranks in the Queen’s Royal Regiment. By age 23, he was in command of B Company in the 33rd Brigade in the Arakan (now Bangladesh).

In 1944 his men were flown to Assam where they confronted a large Japanese force advancing through the Naga Hills. In April 1945 they advanced through Burma to cut off Japanese forces seeking to escape to Thailand. Burdened by monsoonal rains, the men had to slosh through paddy fields, beset by foot rot and attacked by leeches by day and hungry mosquitoes by night.

With numbers badly depleted by malaria and dysentery, B Company made its final attack after occupying the village of Letpanthonbyn. They attacked an unknown number of desperate Japanese fighters with fixed bayonets, suffering many casualties under heavy weapon fire. At the end his company was down to just four men who were running low on ammunition and waiting to encircle the Japanese from another angle, when they heard a great commotion — the sound of the enemy retreating.

“We lost 25 men in that battle, 25 of our friends,” recalls Mullins, who is now 94.

Amazingly, when he took off his steel helmet he saw gaping holes and a bullet that had just broken the skin and drawn a little blood on the top of his head. Mullins has lent the damaged helmet that saved his life for display at the exhibition.

“As I gazed at the helmet it seemed that God was talking to me, ‘Joe, you have no right to be alive. Your only right to live is to give yourself back to me.’ ” While spending two months in hospital recovering from septic mosquito bites, Mullins reflected on the direction his life had taken, and how far he had fallen away in his spiritual life. He decided to dedicate his life to telling others the good news about Jesus, and went on to become ordained as a minister in London and then returned to India as a missionary.

“I think the great lesson I learnt was that you mix with all sorts of people and I was commanding a platoon of 20 or 30 fellows, and later on commanding a company, and what one learnt about human nature was a great help to me when I became a pastor or a minister later on,” says Mullins, who is now based in Canberra.

“I had a very good model in the man who was the commander of the company that I was in first, and I saw how much he cared for every single one under his command. Also when you’re leading a group, you have to keep in mind not only the frontrunners but also those at the back.

“We are all made differently and you have to be patient with people and encourage people; encouragement is one of the greatest things that we need.”

Bible takes a bullet for a digger Elvas’ Bible will return to Gallipoli for the official centenary celebrations

‘Greater love has no man than this ...’ John 15:13

Read the stories and get campaign details at theirsacrifice.com

Elvas Jenkins was a high-spirited young lieutenant who demonstrated how the Bible can be a shield against the enemy, both physically as well as spiritually.

Born in 1888 In Ararat in Victoria, the eldest of seven children, Jenkins was a popular lad, who was described as high-spirited, full of fun and mischief but unselfish and reliable. He was an enthusiastic member of his Methodist church and became a local preacher. After working as an apprentice in a printing firm, he decided at age 22 to train for the ministry.

But after war broke out between Britain and Germany in 1914, Jenkins volunteered for military service, and joined the 2nd Field Company of Australian Engineers as a Sapper (Private). He was in the first convoy that left Melbourne for Egypt, where Australian and New Zealand forces were preparing for active service. After three months’ training, he was promoted to lance corporal.

Before leaving Alexandria, Jenkins obtained a French New Testament and Psalms, which he carried in his shirt pocket as he landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.

On May 7, as the Anzacs came under heavy fire from the Turkish army, Jenkins was struck directly over his heart by a shrapnel bullet from a 75mm field gun. It should have killed him, but his Bible acted as his shield. The bullet passed all the way through Revelation, the letters and Acts and stopped when it reached the gospels. The lead bullet is still there today and can be seen at

Bible Society’s Their Sacrifice touring exhibition.

This near-fatal experience did not discourage Jenkins, who was promoted to corporal and then sergeant, and when the Anzac evacuation was eventually ordered in December 1915, Jenkins was one of the last to leave.

He went on to display exceptional courage as a member of the frontline engineers, 1st Pioneer Battalion, which fought in France on the Somme with the British Expeditionary Force.

The Battalion was charged with preparing the way for the main attacking force by going ahead and reconnoitring enemy positions. A week ahead of the scheduled attack on Pozieres, the new Lieutenant Jenkins led a group that established positions very close to German lines. On July 19, he led a party determining the location of German trenches. Knowing they were in extreme danger, he briefly led his men in prayer, unaware that he was within the sights of a German sniper. He was shot and wounded in the neck and chest. He died a day later.

Lieutenant Colonel E.J.H. Nicholson wrote in a letter to Jenkins’ father: “Your son was the bravest, finest lad that could be found.” Elvas Jenkins was the first Anzac to die on the Western Front. His story is the subject of a documentary, which is available to buy on DVD at the exhibitions. His Bible – with the bullet in it – will be taken by the Defence Force to Gallipoli as part of official centennial celebrations in April.

at your

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Number 57, APRIL 2015 ISSN 1837-8447

Brought to you by the Bible Society

Being t he rock of C hrist at t he coalface

ANNE LIM

When a troubled highway patrol officer saw police chaplain Geoff Deutscher at the station one lunch time, he tapped him on the shoulder and asked if they could have a chat.

So they went into a private room where the police officer opened his heart to the only clergyman he knew, revealing that he was in a dark place in his relationship with his wife and he didn’t know how to resolve the conflict.

“He said the profound words, ‘I’ve never told anybody this before,’” recalls Deutscher.

“Immediately you are on incredibly sacred territory, because the level of trust at that moment is sky high.”

After talking for a while, Deutscher suggested that the officer’s wife needed to be part of the conversation, and at 4pm that day he was at their place, listening to their story.

“What’s beautiful is that I was in a café one day and I saw him and his wife holding hands, walking up the street. I could have jumped out of my chair for joy! I said, ‘Thank you, God. I may not have saved someone

but I’ve helped a couple get through a rough patch.’”

The police deal with unique challenges in their work, Deutscher notes. They have to attend suicides, car crashes where “bodies are smashed into a million pieces” and domestic violence incidents, not to mention being spat on by drunk people. “They do an extraordinary job and because of that they carry huge emotional pain, but not all of them realise it.”

Not all police survive the job, with US statistics showing that 53 police officers die in the line of duty each year while 484 commit suicide. In NSW, 192 police officers died between 1990 and May 2005.

Of those, 103 were referred to the coroner, including 35 suicides, representing 20 per cent of deaths.

“That’s a jumbo jet load of people not surviving the job,” Deutscher observes. “And the key reason is when a police officer puts on his uniform and comes to work, his brain functions at a higher level. A phone call will come that will take them to a destination where they’re not sure what will confront them. They might have a knife pulled on them, they might have to deal with a domestic,

‘You never ever know, when put t ing a Bible in a person’s hand, what t hat is going to do.’

or a cot death, or a child having a fit at a preschool centre. Police don’t trust anybody – and it’s right that they don’t because they want to go home at night.”

As police chaplain first at Ulladulla NSW and now at Castle Hill in Sydney, Deutscher is seen as part of the police family but one step removed. He tends to ask simple “Are you OK?” kind of questions, building trust by being “as Christ”, loving, kind and encouraging.

“It’s particularly hard for senior officers, who are charged with looking after the troops under them but don’t get a lot of support from above, from officers who may be in another station somewhere.”

“In Ulladulla, the highest ranking officer said, ‘In all my time I never had anybody like you to talk to. You were my rock.’ I was blown away because all I did was ask how he was going, and took an interest in his family.”

At Ulladulla, Deutscher was able to give every single officer a copy of the Bible Society Police Bible. “That was quite a powerful thing. Whether people read them or not, I don’t know, but they were very warmly received. You never ever know, when

putting a Bible in a person’s hand, what that is going to do.”

Deutscher is just one of scores of chaplains who work tirelessly with those on the front line to offer the hope and word of God in times of need. In the year that we observe Gallipoli’s centenary, we’re reminded that every frontline chaplain is doing battle against ‘the enemy’ in their own way, every day of the year.

In police and emergency services, prisons, juvenile justice centres, hospitals, seafarer missions and more, chaplains engage people with the Bible and help them find comfort in God’s word.

The Bible helps so many chaplains like Geoff Deutscher make a difference in the lives of the distressed, the hurting and the isolated. But this vital means of spreading God’s word could not happen without the generosity of supporters. On average, it costs $11 to provide a Bible, and Bible Society urgently needs to raise funds so it can supply 62,000 Bibles and Scripture materials this year to chaplains on the front line.

Please donate by calling 1300 Bibles (1300 242 537) or online at biblesociety.org.au/grantsep

Feminism and what the church can learn from it

The surprising thing about Easter Greg Clarke writes

SPECIAL: DOMESTIC ABUSE

‘Running the gauntlet of well meaning people’ Living with CFS

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Infographic: vhot country Christians split on hot topics How passionate are you City about these topics - church leaders by city / rural location

Source: World Vision Church Communities Australia Report - McCrindle (c) 2014 100%

71%

52%

59%

70%

52%

64%

39%

34%

69%

53%

75%

City Church Leaders

50% 25%

Rural Church Leaders

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Climate Change

al location

Decriminalising Drugs

Gay Marriage

Asylum Seekers

Body Image, Exercise & Health

Source: World Vision Church Communities Australia Report - McCrindle (c) 2014 100%

34%

ylum Seekers

69%

53%

Not a “lifestyle choice”: Christian groups say don’t close Aboriginal communities 75%

City Church Leaders

50%

News page 2-3

25%

Rural Church Leaders

In Depth 5-8

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Religious leaders from several denominations have issued statements urging the federal and state governments to reconsider decisions to close 150 remote Aboriginal communities.

Speaking to ABC Radio in Kalgoorlie last week Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, “What we can’t do is endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices if those lifestyle choices are not conducive to the kind of full participation in Australian society that everyone should have. It is not the job of the taxpayer to subsidise lifestyle choices. It is the job of the taxpayer to provide reasonable services in a reasonable way.”

Chairman of the Catholic Bishops Commission for Relations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Bishop Christopher Saunders, asked, “Where is the lifestyle choice?”

“It is a basic human right to choose where you live but it seems that our government is giving people in Aboriginal communities the ‘choice’ to live in a community with only limited resources and services,” says Bishop Saunders.

“Communities are underserviced and patently there is insufficient listening to the voices of people in Aboriginal communities.

“After 200 years of colonisation and dispossession, surely out of fairness we owe something to Australia’s First Nations in the way of respect and recompense.

Like other Australians, they have the right to access basic municipal services.”

Chairman of the West Australian Branch of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress and member of the Whadjuk and Ballardong Nyoongar people, Sealin Garlett, said, “[This

Body Image, Exercise & Health

Books Liftout Opinion 11-16

Obadiah Slope THE LAST SHOULD BE FIRST: Obadiah’s local Catholic diocese has announced it is setting up a new high school for people with moderate intellectual difficulties.

A stone’s throw away is a famous selective high school. Obadiah likes the idea that a school founded in the name of Jesus serves the vulnerable while the state school serves the gifted. That’s the role Christian schools should have – but it is too often the other way around.

DEATH ROW, IT APPEARS, IS A GOOD PLACE TO MEET GOD. Theologian Jürgen Moltmann, who is an expert on hope, became penfriends with death row inmate Kelly Renee Gissendaner, in Georgia, USA, an abused woman convicted of murdering her husband. Moltmann, a former POW, talked with her about being a Christian in prison when he visited last year. She is still on death row as Eternity goes to press. Moltmann told the New York Times, “If the state of Georgia has no mercy, she has received already the mercy of heaven.”

WE ARE ALL GOD’S PUPPETS, SORT OF. If you never had a puppet tell you that you are a sinner then you have never watched a Quiz Worx show. A generous gift means that this kids’ ministry will double its touring around Australia this year.

So more people will hear the gospel from a dog or even a cow.

proposal is] devastating, not only to Aboriginal people, but also to the community as a whole.

“There’s been a lot of work put into the journey of reconciliation and a lot of bridges that have been built, and for me this is just another slap in the face of the existence of the first people of this nation. It is them being undermined for their connection to their land.

“The connection that Aboriginal people have to the land is much more than physical.

This is a spiritual generation, a spiritual connection that goes back generation after generation,” said Garlett.

“The real hurt is that very little communication has taken place with the first peoples of the land.

If [the government] would have come and talked to the people, come and brought ideas and walked this through, this would have been a tremendous step in the right direction.”

For now, Garlett says, “A decision is pending. What this calls for now is communication, listening, identifying and being able to connect with the peoples of the land.”

The CEO of Anglicare South Australia Peter Sandeman said, “The commonwealth government’s intention to withdraw the funding of municipal and essential services on remote and regional South Australian Aboriginal homelands represents a failure in its responsibility for the safety and future of Aboriginal peoples from outstations/homelands.”

In South Australia this withdrawal of funding could mean the closure of up to 60 remote communities and the dispossession of up to 4500 people.

Reverend Sandeman said, “We believe the intended withdrawal of funding appears to show a lack of

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In brief

A closely fought cricket contest between Catholics, Anglicans, and the C3 churches has been won by the team from Rome. The “Appeal for the Light” ten-over round robin was held in March on Sydney University’s main oval. “The contest exceeded expectations – especially in the quality of play,” said the Bible Society’s CEO Greg Clarke.

“I was thrilled to see these three denominations take to the pitch as opponents, but more importantly as partners in supporting Bible mission. It was a joy to be there.”

ON THE BIG SCREEN. A film about the Hillsong United band will hit US cinemas from May 29. The Australian launch date is yet to be confirmed. The movie called Hillsong: Let Hope Rise “chronicles the unlikely rise to prominence” (according to the distributor’s press release) of the worship band. hillsongmovie.com

Maybe having a bishop on their team won it for the Catholics: (L to R) C3’s coach Paul Bucknell, Greg Clarke, Bible Society CEO, Anglican coach Michael Jensen, and the Catholics’ Bishop Bosco Puthur

Welcomer of people with intellectual disability wins religion’s biggest prize JOHN SANDEMAN Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche, an international network of communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together as peers, has won the 2015 Templeton Prize.

The Templeton prize is effectively the “Nobel Prize for religion” and is worth $1.7 million.

Vanier, formerly an officer in the British Navy, was moved by his experience in visiting institutions when a long-term resident asked him simply, “Will you be my friend?” Vanier invited two men from an institution, Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, to live with him in a small house in Trosly-Breuil, a

village north of Paris, in 1964.

He named the house L’Arche (French for both “ark” and “arch”), to symbolise both Noah’s Ark, a “boat” to which he could invite people in pain, and an “arch” or bridge connecting heaven and earth.

Today there are 147 L’Arche residential communities operating in 35 countries. There are communities in Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart and Sydney, typically consisting of several linked households.

“At L’Arche, people with intellectual disabilities, and those who assist them, live together and are equally responsible for the life of their home and community,”

according to L’Arche Australia.

“The secret of L’Arche is to meet people,” Vanier said, according to the Church Times. “When those who are moving up to the top through education meet those who are at the bottom of society, something happens.

“People who came to do good discover that the people with disabilities are doing them good: they are becoming more human.”

To support the idea that truly meeting people comes before transformation, Vanier told a story of a L’Arche worker cradling a male prostitute dying of an overdose in a Sydney park who said, “You have always wanted to change me, but you have never met me.”

LANGUAGE OF GRACE. Marilynne Robinson has won the US National Book Critics Circle Award for her novel Lila. The New York Times reported that the judges called the novel, which centres on a homeless young woman who marries a minister, “another miraculous and momentous American portrait” and praised Robinson for her “glorious language shot through with light and grace.”

GOD’S WORD IN MADAGASCAR. Hevitenin’ny Baiboly is the name of the recently launched a Malgasy edition of the African Bible Commentary, which took four years to translate. Malagasy is the common language of the 18 tribes of Madagascar. In 2015 the 180th year of the Bible in Malagasy will be celebrated.

Jean Vanier

Templeton Prize / John Morrison

CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS? Evangelicals are planning to raise an army of activists, including standing 1000 pastors for public office, to try to ensure a Republican victory in the 2016 US elections. Right-wing Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the presidential candidate to declare, is seeking the white evangelical vote.

Aerial shot of Alice Springs: remote country is far from empty understanding of what the forced community closures will mean to the people whose social, mental, spiritual and physical lives will be directly impacted by the decision.”

As a social service provider, AnglicareSA is also concerned about how forced migration to regional and urban areas will hit the general provision of

South Australian social services.

AnglicareSA has called on the federal government to “discuss their intended withdrawal of funding with the South Australian government and seek alternative solutions that will enable Aboriginal communities to remain in their traditional areas and be sustained in the future.”

Quotable ‘Sadly, I have heard more from pulpits against feminism than I have against domestic violence.’

Michael Jensen – page 15

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An event sponsored by Christian Witness to Israel (Australia)

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Open Night

Monday 4 May 7:15 pm – 9:00 pm 15 King Street, Newtown

Open Week Monday 4 May – Friday 8 May

Come in and check out Moore, experience College life and get a taste of Moore’s in-depth theological training.

moore.edu.au/open openevents@moore.edu.au | 9577 9999

WAS THE APOSTLE PAUL GUILTY OF APOSTASY FROM JUDAISM? ANNUAL EDERSHEIM LECTURE 2015

MELBOURNE VENUE: SYDNEY VENUE: Thursday 7th May 2015, 7.30pm Saturday 16th May 2015, 2pm Ormond Anglican Church Sydney Missionary & Bible College 436 North Road, Ormond 43 Badminton Road, Croydon VIC 3204 NSW 2132 www.nechamahmelbourne.org 02-95992692 0430128928 0408 560314

Guest Speaker:

Rev. Dr. Brian Rosner Principal of Ridley College, Melbourne, author or editor of a dozen books, including Paul and the Law.

All welcome. Light Refreshments. Offering taken.

CWI is an interdenominational, international evangelistic mission committed to sharing the Good News of Jesus the Messiah with the Jewish People.

This Annual Edersheim Lecture with a guest speaker is a ministry of CWI Australia.

For further information:

www.cwi.org.au infocwiaustralia@gmail.com

APRIL 2015

IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD, INVEST IN THE NEXT GENERATION OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

APRIL 2015

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WESLEY HILL on being gay and Christian SOPHIE TIMOTHY speaks to sufferers of chronic fatigue

John Beckett addresses politicians and media about the need to finish what we started and achieve the Millennium Development Goals, at the Voices for Justice Conference, 2012

Anger filled with hope JOHN BECKETT The former National Director of Micah Challenge reflects on the results of a decade of campaigning.

In the week before Christmas last year the Abbott government announced the largest ever cuts to Australia’s aid program.

These cuts, on top of successive cuts in previous years by the Rudd and Gillard governments, will take Australian aid to its lowest ever recorded levels as a proportion of Australia’s national income.

A week after that announcement, the first phase of the Micah Challenge campaign came to a close and I finished my role as

National Director. For 10 years we have mobilised the church to call on our political leaders to increase Australia’s aid. I faced the hard reality that in that announcement the government was cutting our aid program to levels lower than when I started.

At a time when Australia’s economy is growing, when our debt is sixth lowest among all developed countries and when we are wealthier than ever, we are also less generous than we have ever been.

We currently spend just over 1 per cent of our federal government budget on aid. When you compare aid to our total national income, the percentages are even more striking.

These cuts will plunge our contribution to aid and development to about 21 cents in every $100 of national income or 0.21 per cent.

I need to acknowledge that managing a national budget is a difficult thing to do. Nonetheless, I am shocked at the lack of moral vision and leadership these decisions represent. I am appalled that our leaders can’t find the money to balance our books from new sources of revenue or from the 99 per cent of our budget that we spend on ourselves – instead opting to rip money out of the 1 per cent that we currently spend overseas to help some of the world’s most promising people forge better lives

for themselves and their families.

Decisions like this are not just about finances. They require us to ask deeper questions about our national identity. We claim to be (and aspire to be) a nation of the “fair go”, people who stand by those who are struggling. But there is a disconnect between who we say we are as Australians and what these decisions say about our priorities.

We aspire to be generous and selfless, but our actions demonstrate an underlying selfishness.

The political argument to justify cuts like this is that we must look after our own interests first before we can afford to help others, but I’m concerned for what effect that

message will have if it continues to be part of our national narrative.

I‘m concerned that when we need to tighten our purse strings, our first thought is to take from those who need it most.

I humbly suggest that if we don’t want that for our own communities and nation, then we shouldn’t act that way towards the poorest and most vulnerable people in our world.

Of course, this is not true of all Australians. Through my time at Micah Challenge, I’ve been privileged at times to see Australia and Australians at our best. I’ve seen mums offering to go without increases to maternity pay if it continued page 6

Moira Kelly, Nick McKenzie Dean Rompis, Jess Groszek, Nikki Capp Daniel Christiansz, Designers of Jacob & Esau

TRANSFORMING LEADERS, CHURCHES & NATIONS

The Immersion Conference is a considered conversation targeting the impact and influence of Australians on our culture, our consumption and the outworking of compassion in our world.

Enter code word Eternity to receive $5 off the conference entry price

Overseas Council Australia facilitates an international sponsorship program which recognises the value of sponsoring theological students who become the future leaders of the church in the developing world.

Each year ten thousand new leaders graduate from bible colleges supported by the Overseas Council network. By funding nationals to train in their own context, the church is provided with competent Christian leaders for sustained growth. By training locals you partner with not only an individual, but with the local church around the world. You can directly support a Christian leader who will invest their time and energy into ministry within their own culture and context for decades. The value to the kingdom is unparalleled.

For just $167 per month you can sponsor a future leader. Call OCA Sponsorship Program Coordinator, Linda Peterson, to discuss sponsoring a student who needs your support.

P 1300 889 593 E office@overseascouncil.com.au A 2/22 Pitt Street Parramatta NSW 2150 www.overseascouncil.com.au

OVERSEAS COUNCIL AUSTRALIA

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Wesley Hill, gay and Christian Dr Wesley Hill lectures at Trinity School for Ministry in the US, is a Christian and identifies as gay. He was interviewed by Dominic Steele of Village Church, Sydney.

I have not been dramatically delivered from being gay, says Wesley Hill the Christian life, he says, “Now you have been washed; now you have been justified.”

He says in Romans 8:22-23 that we believers who have the first fruits of the spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

In my current body I am filled with all kinds of desires, and temptation, so I am looking for the day when God will fully redeem.

There is a sense that, whoever I am,

I am not having perfect sex, I am not having the perfect life, and I am waiting for that wholeness.

I think it is a description of every Christian. It became poignant to me because samesex attraction is not something I have been dramatically delivered from. I am living chastely, so I am not living in gay promiscuity but I have not been delivered from being gay – if that means the feeling of attraction.

Anger filled with hope

from page 5 meant we could maintain our promises to the poor. I’ve seen people on low incomes offering to go without benefits, or to pay more taxes, if it meant we could support individuals in other nations getting basic healthcare and education.

I’ve had the opportunity in recent months to reflect more broadly on the Micah Challenge campaign. As I look at the broader picture, I leave confident and hopeful.

The source of my hope lies in the reality that we follow a God who has promised to make all things new. I see this hope on the ground in the many individuals who are committed to pursuing justice, mercy and humility, both outside the political arena and within it.

In particular, I’m filled with hope because of the way the church in this country has switched on to advocacy. I’m humbled that Micah Challenge has been able to be part

of that movement of God’s Spirit.

How do we evaluate the success of Micah Challenge’s campaigning over the last 10 years? It’s difficult to measure success in campaigning at the best of times.

In Australia, despite the cuts from both major parties, there has been approximately $11 billion extra directed to aid from our federal budget over the last decade than would have happened if the status quo was maintained. Yet Micah Challenge has always tried to help its supporters see that while policy is important, it’s just the surface.

Real change happens in deeper places like social structures and the hearts and minds of people.

Once you scratch the surface and look a little deeper, it becomes evident that the landscape has changed in a number of ways.

At a global level, the last decade has seen the most significant progress in the fight against

poverty. Compared with 20 years ago, the proportion of people living below the absolute poverty line of $1.25 a day has halved, the number of children dying before their fifth birthday from preventable diseases has halved and the number of women dying in pregnancy or childbirth has almost halved. The global picture is overwhelmingly positive. The capacity among communities and churches in the developing world to raise their own voices for change has grown.

In the political arena, Micah Challenge has been given significant opportunities to speak to political leadership, and influence party policies and the public conversation without compromising our Christian identity. A key vehicle for this is Micah Challenge’s national lobbying event, Voices for Justice, which is widely recognised as one of the premier advocacy events in the country.

of children and she would not have been able to do that if she was married. It was her celibacy that allowed her to live that life of love.

Is friendship between gay celibate Christians a glimpse of heaven?

Jesus tells us in Matthew 22 “they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven.” In Matthew 19, Jesus talks about “eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” Those eunuchs, those virgins, those celibate people now get to be a foretaste, a pointer to the new creation.

Many Christians want to take a soft line on homosexuality, to live in peace with neighbours. What do you say to them?

I would say biblical teaching about our sexuality isn’t just on the fringe of the New Testament: it is really at the heart of things.

When Jesus is asked about divorce, he doesn’t just give an off-the-cuff opinion. He goes back to Genesis and he says, “From the beginning God made them male and female.”

A lot of people in our culture would say, “Jesus does not mention homosexuality; it is not a big deal.”

But actually I think it’s pretty central to the gospel. Jesus is saying God does not discard what he says is good. God made male and female and he saw it was good. That is what Genesis 1 says.

We have seen a shift in the church in Australia to embrace justice as an integral expression of discipleship.

And Micah Challenge has enjoyed phenomenal buy-in from across the denominational spectrum, thereby creating a space where Christians can come together and speak together with a collective voice.

I’m thankful to God for these achievements and I leave Micah Challenge with hope for the future.

Policies and parties are constantly changing, yet Christians must be an unchanging voice for the poor and marginalised. The proper response to setbacks is not disillusionment but rather perseverance and courage. As followers of Jesus, we seek justice. Regardless of the results, we seek to be faithful.

On behalf of Micah Challenge I say thank you to the church in Australia for walking alongside us these past 10 years. I hope that we have pointed you to Jesus. I hope

that in following Jesus’ call to serve and stand alongside the poorest in our world, your own life and faith have been enriched.

For a decade, Micah Challenge has helped Christians and churches hold governments around the world to account for their promises to halve world poverty by 2015. In Australia, Micah Challenge has empowered Christians to advocate for a generous and effective aid program, as well as call for stronger action on climate change and multinational tax dodging, which have the greatest impact on the world’s poorest and more vulnerable communities.

Later this year Micah Challenge will re-launch as a new Christian advocacy coalition, with a refreshed vision, with the same central commitment of empowering Christians to advocate with and for the world’s poorest people. micahchallenge.org.au

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Love in a time of chronic fatigue SOPHIE TIMOTHY Leigh Hatcher describes going to church during his time with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) like running “a gauntlet of well-meaning people”.

Everyone was desperate to hear good news. “ ‘You look good!’ they would say, when in reality I felt crap.”

An estimated 0.2 to 2.6 per cent of people around the world have CFS or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).

Characterised by profound fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and impaired memory and concentration, CFS is a highly debilitating but mysterious illness.

For a long time there was a great deal of scepticism about CFS among the medical community. Unfortunately, misunderstanding still exists in some parts of the profession and society more generally, the Church notwithstanding.

Hatcher was a TV journalist with Channel 7 in 1998 when he found himself bedridden and suffering extreme fatigue following a bout of viral hepatitis. After the virus passed, he remained fatigued and unwell for two-and-a-half years.

One thing he noticed is that the fast-paced, skills-based life of most modern churches is at odds with the chronic fatigue sufferer. Their focus on pragmatism, growth and expansion drives a wedge which Leigh describes as the difference between loving people for what they can contribute to the “enterprise”

Halfpoint from iStock

Growing up you say you invested a lot of time keeping things secret.

That’s right. I was raised in a Christian family, so I knew that Christ had died for my sins and I had prayed to ask Jesus to be my saviour.

But at the same time I was really nervous about talking about my sexuality in church. When I went through puberty I realised I had a pretty exclusive attraction to men. I was not attracted to girls or women at all. And I was ashamed of that.

You are here to give talks with the title “Washed and waiting”. Tell us about the word “washed” first.

That word “washed” is from 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul is describing how the Corinthian believers were involved in all sorts of behaviours and identities and sins, and he says, “But you were washed, you were justified and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” We are washed. We don’t belong to our past any more. That does not define us.

The word ‘waiting’ is really a new reflection for me.

Well, when Paul starts describing

There would be lots and lots of heterosexual marriages where sex is not simple. I would say almost universally there is frustration about the amount or quality of sex.

And you realise in those moments sex is not just about the gratification of my desire. It is about committing to this larger story of God’s purposes for us.

In heterosexual marriage, sex is primarily about giving oneself to another. It is not about simply indulging. As a celibate person, I have to realise that sex is not something that God owes me as a right. It is something that I believe God has called me to live without.

You say there is a call to celibacy, but it’s not a call to no love.

When we hear that word “celibacy”, it is kind of an archaic word. We don’t use it all that often.

We talk about singleness instead. I sort of like using the word celibacy.

It is a rich Christian word.

There is a way you can love more broadly than someone loaded down with nappies and sports carnivals.

I belonged to a church in Minnesota for a while and there was a woman named Char who was in her eighties. She never married. But she would travel to visit missionaries, she would go round to different houses in the church and make meals for people, she was called “auntie” by dozens

IN DEPTH

APRIL 2015

(numbers, growth programmes) and loving people for who they are: a person made in God’s image.

“If usefulness is the benchmark, it’ll be hard for people with longterm illness to feel part of church.”

The difficult thing about chronic fatigue is that sufferers appear “normal”. There are no obvious visible signs of illness: they’ve got all their hair and limbs, they’re not in a wheelchair, there aren’t any bandages to be seen. For all intents

and purposes they look healthy, and so expectations can be high.

Danielle Martin is a talented flautist, who lives in Geelong with her husband Ben and their dog Wolfie. Her journey with CFS began when she unknowingly contracted glandular fever while in France as a 17-year-old. Studying full-time music at the Victorian College of the Arts High School she returned to start Year 12, but felt lethargic, heavy and depressed.

She pushed through her final year of school and began studying music performance at university, but soon contracted glandular fever for a second time, as well as bronchitis.

The feeling of having glandular fever has never left her. She has a persistent sore throat and feels like a wreck most of the time. Anxiety, OCD and bouts of depression have come and gone throughout her life and, more recently, insomnia. Since 2010 she’s been unable to work or

study full-time, and has been on a quest for wellness – spiritual, mental and physical.

Something as simple as meeting new people at church and trying to explain who she is can be stressful.

“People always ask ‘what do you do?’ … It can be really exhausting sharing my story with new people every week.”

Church culture is all about being friendly and welcoming, and so the question “How are you?” is stock standard, and totally innocuous … if you’re well.

“It’s such a hard environment to tell people how you actually are,” says Danielle. “No one wants to hear that your week was really hard again, for the fifth year in a row.

People feel like it should be over already.”

Emma Collins is a mid-20s theological student living in Melbourne. She first became aware something wasn’t right when she went from running nearly every day to not being able to stand up in PE class in Year 9. It took around two years to be diagnosed with CFS, but when she was, she just wanted to ignore it. “I didn’t want to stop, because I thought if I stopped, I wouldn’t be able to start again.”

Pushing through meant finishing high school and starting uni. But it came at a cost. Towards the end of her first year she had a mental breakdown and developed an anxiety disorder. Still, she kept continued page 8

OPEN NIGHT! Thursday 21 May 2015 @ 6:45pm Thinking about Bible & theological studies, teacher training, counselling, chaplaincy or taking a gap year after school? Come along to the Morling College Open Night and explore the different options!

Register online www.morlingcollege.com/events EQUIPPING THE WHOLE BELIEVER TO TAKE THE WHOLE GOSPEL TO THE WHOLE WORLD

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IN DEPTH

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Books

Love in a time of chronic fatigue from page 7 pushing on at uni, and even went on to do honours and then a master’s, all the while battling extreme fatigue and pain.

A highly academic and gifted person, Emma didn’t want to stop studying but was forced to in 2013 because she found she couldn’t walk outside the house and was in huge amounts of pain.

“I was incredibly angry with God,” she says. Worst of all, she started feeling her mind lose its ability to concentrate and remember things. “It was scary. I felt like someone with dementia.”

Emma, like Danielle and Leigh, has had mixed experiences at church. “The things people say can be really unhelpful, like, ‘You look so well,’ or ‘You’re too young to be sick,’ or ‘But you manage to do all these things – it can’t be that bad?’

“I am really lucky that I’m not housebound any more, but it just completely masks how much struggle is behind daily living.”

As Emma moves into her late 20s, she’s realising the gap between her peers and her is widening as people start to get married and have children.

“My friends’ biggest problem might be when they have kids, but for me I might not have the energy to even survive being married or having kids at all. It just makes you feel incredibly alienated because your life is so different.”

Emma has found it really helpful when people acknowledge the gap.

“You may not be able to accommodate their difference, but

just acknowledging it is enough.

Particularly at things like at birthdays, or graduations, just acknowledging that it could be a painful time for that person, and just being aware that not everyone is on the same trajectory, is really good.”

Christian CFS sufferers can find it hard to manage expectations around events. Danielle says people find it hard to understand when she’s at church, she’s using all her energy. When someone understands and says, “Thanks for catching up just now,” she feels relieved they’re not expecting more from her.

For Emma, Bible study is a lot worse than church because it’s so relationally draining. But she says, “Trying to explain that is hard, because they might see you at church.” Those who do understand are gold.

“I’ve been greatly encouraged by my prayer triplet. We don’t meet very often, but about a year ago they asked me if I still prayed that God would heal me. And I said I don’t any more. They said, ‘We still do.’ That was so encouraging, knowing that they still prayed and hoped for me.”

Sufferers of chronic illness can often feel they’re not being “useful” enough at church, something Emma says is an indictment on the body of Christ, particularly in the West.

“Western culture tends to judge people on their utility and what they do, and I think theologically the church can be in danger of this as well.

“So it’s important to have regular reminders that, if you turn up to church and do nothing, that is great. Just saying, ‘We’re glad you know Jesus’. The primary task of the Christian is to worship and anything after that is a bonus.”

The answer for the Church when it comes to chronic illness, says Leigh Hatcher, is love.

“They key to it is simple, yet significant – love – to see people as God sees them, made in the very image of God.” People want good news, and quick fi xes; they want to hear stories of progress, he says, not decline or stagnation, but that’s not love. It’s something Leigh has experienced again recently, as he’s been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“I remember when I had CFS, to my shame, I’d think, ‘If only I had cancer, people might respond better.’

“But even with ‘the big C’ we found a similar range of responses. I think in the rush and crush of our world people struggle to know how to respond if there’s no quick easy ‘solution’.”

“The great Philip Yancey, in his book Where is God when it hurts?, writes: ‘The answer to the question, How do I help those who hurt? is exactly the same as the answer to the question, How do I love? If you asked me for a Bible passage to teach you how to help suffering people, I would point to 1 Corinthians 13, and its eloquent depiction of love. This is what a suffering person needs.’ ”

Joshua Maule (L) and his friend Bryce McLellan (R) in Congo

Faith in the Congo JOSHUA MAULE Two Sydney Christians decided to make a documentary about Christians living in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Joshua Maule, former Eternity staffer, explains what took him and his friend, Bryce McLellan, to the country.

It was a simple idea that led me and my friend Bryce McLellan to make a documentary about the experiences of Christian people in this troubled nation. We wanted to ask them: What is God’s plan for Congo?

In the last two decades, DR Congo has faced one of the worst humanitarian crises the world has known. We wanted to speak with Congolese Christians who continued to believe God was not only alive but good.

One day we interviewed a pastor called Munobo who had been threatened at gunpoint just a few weeks before we arrived. Soldiers

from the national army showed up at his house in the middle of the night demanding money. After Munobo handed over everything, the soldiers told him they would return to kill him and his wife. We asked how he interpreted these events in the light of what he also believed about Jesus. He said, “As servants of God we face many trials in this life, and this is one. But we know the Lord is protective, so we don’t fear.”

Some of the most compelling answers did not sew up the philosophical loose ends. Instead, they were answers that involved the lives of faith people were living.

Many of those we met were living in a way that points to the God who knows why our world is so broken and who through his son has done something about it.

Jesus in Congo will be screened 7pm May 2, at Village Church, Annandale, in Sydney. Book tickets at www.jesusincongo.com

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“The body is not there. Clearly someone has taken it … But that raises questions.

“Why has someone taken this body? And, if you are stealing a body for who knows what purposes, why strip the linen off first?

How exactly does it make your job easy to ensure the body is naked prior to departure?

“Furthermore, if you’re stealing a dead body early on a Sunday morning, my guess is that you feel a little, well, sheepish about the whole exercise. Like you’re doing something a bit out of the ordinary – something on which society might frown. Something you wouldn’t tell your mum about. So, if you’re that guy (the ‘who cares what mum and society thinks – I’m getting me a dead naked body’ guy), how likely is it that you’re also a bit of a neat freak? That you’re someone who has been raised to leave places neater than you found them so that you neatly fold and separate the grave clothes before you leave?”

So begins Raised Forever by Rory Shiner, an accessible new book about the resurrection. It is not simply a book about the historicity and evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, nor simply a book about what happens to us when we die; the explicit purpose of the book is to explore the connection between these two events.

The book traverses the history and claims for the resurrection of Jesus, showing that there is good evidence to believe he was raised from the dead. But, Shiner says, there is “an argument so powerful that it could sweep away everything else, including all sorts of historical evidence: there is no God to do the resurrecting.”

The question of Jesus’ resurrection is actually a question about God. What kind of God is this God who would raise Jesus from the dead?

The answer to this question means that there is no simple assessment of the evidence that lets you continue on with your day as if you’ve just solved another problem: “To receive the testimony that Jesus was raised from the dead would involve you, and would involve changes in you. It’s not the sort of knowledge that can easily be accommodated into existing structures. It’s an intrusive sort of guest, one that starts rearranging the furniture – and eventually (if you’re not careful) you’ll wake up one day and find it doing major structural work on the whole house.”

The real heart of the book, and its strength, is the central chapter where Shiner devotes time to explaining the broken connection between Jesus’ resurrection and ours. “We, like them, are firm on the one and flaky on the other: ‘Jesus was raised from the dead.

Absolutely! And that means we will … um … hard to say, really.

It’s a bit of a grey area. Go to heaven when we die? Exist as eternal souls? Something about a ‘rupture’ or a ‘rapture’ or something?

Who knows?”.

The rest of the book is built around 1 Corinthians 15 and the certain hope we have of bodily resurrection as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, the first fruits of the age to come. It addresses the foolishness of not believing in human bodily resurrection, the coming transformation, the question of the location of heaven, our fears and worries about what happens to those who die while still waiting for Jesus to return, and the nature of resurrection hope.

And Shiner explores all these things while keeping both feet firmly on the ground. This is not a book of lofty thoughts disconnected from daily life. This is a book that will help you know the power of Jesus’ resurrection for everyday life. It’s good for a new believer, for an old believer, for a not-yet believer. I can’t think of anyone I wouldn’t want to give this book to.

This book made me laugh out loud. It made me think. It taught me new things. I pondered again what a gift God has given us in Jesus. It made me lift my eyes to the heavens, from whence my hope comes.

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Their Sacrifice is a collection of stories, prayers, hymns, poetry and psalms to help you reflect on the tragedy of war, the spirit of those who have served our country and the Book of books that went with them.

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From the proclamation of Australia as the Southland of the Holy Spirit in 1606 to Alfred Deakin, the coauthor of Australia’s Constitution, God’s hand has decisively shaped the destiny of our country.

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Have you ever wondered what happened to the apostles after Acts? Did Thomas visit India? Was Peter crucified upside-down? Have you ever heard a preacher say “according to church tradition” and wondered where to find these traditions? Bryan Litfin’s new book After Acts gives the answers. In his latest book Litfin reveals the ancient sources in which these various traditions can be found and then teaches the reader how to evaluate their historical credibility. There is no conspiracy theory or secret knowledge being divulged in this book. Rather, the primary sources are readily accessible online, and Litfin is a tour guide showing us where to look.

Affirming the value of church history, he writes: “Too often we imagine that God’s story came to a screeching halt at the end of the apostolic period, or maybe that it fizzled in the second generation. Certainly by the time of Emperor Constantine, it is understood to have met with great disaster. This common viewpoint has caused many Christians to function with a ‘big ditch’ view of church history: that between the good and noble period of the apostles and the Protestant Reformation is a vast wasteland. But is that true? No. God did not abandon his church in the second century, nor in the fourth, nor even in the fifteenth. All of church history belongs to the believer today – the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

In After Acts, Litfin explores the traditions and stories about the later life of each apostle as well as Mary the mother of Jesus. One by one Litfin considers where they might have travelled after Acts, how they might have died, and even where their bones might be buried. He then explains why some traditions are more credible than others. At the end of each chapter he includes a mock-up “school report card” rating the historical likelihood of each tradition on a scale of A (excellent) to F (not passing). For some traditions, it is simply unclear.

Bryan Litfin is a gifted writer who distils complex historical issues into simple, everyday language. This book deals directly with difficult topics such as the authorship of different canonical and apocryphal texts, or the relationship between the synoptic gospels and the Q source material. Litfin courageously introduces these concepts to the general reader and demonstrates their relevance in studying the lives of the apostles. This book makes a good introduction to early church history for the non-historian. The book may also serve as a model for how preachers and Bible teachers can make historical studies more accessible to their congregation.

On Easter Sunday we remind each other that Jesus is risen, and now lives in us. What does that look like? This selection of books explores the counter-cultural ways of thinking, living and speaking that are the direct consequence of serving Jesus, the risen living God. Counter Culture David Platt

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David Platt, author of the bestseller Radical, turns his attention to the controversial issues of today. This book helps Christians consider how best to speak and live counter-culturally.

The Mingling of Souls Matt Chandler

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Scripture says we’re to nurture our hearts above all else – yet we are inundated with songs, movies, and advice that contradict and cheapen God’s design for love and intimacy.

Matt Chandler, one of today’s top Christian voices, helps navigate these issues for both singles and marrieds.

In The Mingling of Souls, he reveals the process Solomon himself followed – attraction, courtship, marriage ... even arguing.

Chapters such as “Conflict Will Define Your Marriage” and “Sex Is Romantic, Gentle, Sensuous, Godly” will radically change how readers view – and approach – love.

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Think Christianly gives church leaders practical tools for helping their congregations thoughtfully engage today’s cultural questions.

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Australia is not short of deserts. But most of us don’t have the time or luxury to trek into them for prayer retreats or times of personal reflection.

When you read about the monks of early Christianity, and much Christian material on prayer today, the solution to prayerlessness seems to be having more time in the desert. Or, insert quiet-place-of-choice here. And there’s nothing wrong with that if you can find the space.

But Paul Miller’s book about “connecting with God in a distracting world” is worth reading because it will not make that suggestion. It is about praying in non-ideal settings, in other words, in everyday life.

Miller puts himself and his family into his teaching.

He tells stories of looking for his daughter’s lost contact lens, of another child who loved the world too much – as evidenced by her wistful love for the old family car – and of his daughter Kim, who has lived with lifelong disabilities.

And stories of his own anger and cynicism.

Miller talks about praying in all these kinds of situations but not just praying any old thing. Instead he aims at discovering where God is involved in the lives of others and beginning to line up prayers for them using parts of the Bible and an awareness of how God seems to be uniquely working on their character and life direction.

The book is based on content that Miller used to run prayer seminars in the US, where many were learning to pray for the first time.

I liked most his chapter on relying on God as a dependable father. This sort of focus gives a significance to even insignificant one-line prayers, such as: “God have mercy on us.”

An analysis of cynicism, and how it stops us praying and makes us critical and uninterested in God’s work in peoples’ lives, was very, very illuminating.

Finally his prayer card system which admittedly is a “prayer technique”, is logical and really pretty easy to apply.

When it comes to prayer, books are not sufficient because they cannot pray for us. Yet Paul Miller manages to speak to every Christian’s intention of leading a prayerful life without triteness or condemnation but with Christ-centred hope.

Joshua Maule is a former writer with Eternity and is currently studying full-time at Moore Theological College in Sydney.

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“You have a plan for the rest of your life. God has a plan for the rest of your life. Are they the same? You have expectations for how your life will play out, and you hope those plans will become realities. But what if God’s plan for your life is far different from what you had in mind? Giving in to God isn’t easy. It’s not for cowards. It’s the boldest, riskiest step you’ll ever take. This dangerous surrender can bring both joy and pain, both heartache and ecstasy, but it enables you to know God in a far deeper way than ever before. I had to make a conscious decision. Would I retreat to my comfortable life and to my settled plans? Or would I surrender to God’s call and let my heart engage with a cause such as AIDS that I was pretty sure would include buckets of pain and sorrow? I felt like I was standing on the edge of a giant precipice; I couldn’t go back, and yet the way forward looked like stepping into a void.” Kay Warren took that step, choosing to dangerously surrender to God. That decision transformed her life, marriage, and future. She invites you to do the same.

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Each study is broken into a few parts – so we tend to do one part a night. We have treasured this time with our kids and loved hearing their insights and thoughts on the passages we are looking at.

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Kon Kea (standing, right) and her Bible Society-run literacy class in rural Cambodia

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It’s late when we arrive in Dangkot.

The literacy class we’re visiting has been over for an hour. But the children have waited for us, eager to meet the (late) visitors from Australia. One of those children is Kon Kea. At 13, she’s one of the oldest in the class. She looks serious, too serious for her years.

But her eyes are kind.

Dangkot village is in Rotanak Mondol District, Battambang Province in north-western Cambodia. By road, it’s about six hours from the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. It’s dry season when we visit. The earth is red and dusty and the roads to visit Kon Kea’s literacy class are full of potholes. It takes us a lot longer than we hoped to arrive.

As we get out of the car, the children rush to their desks. A makeshift school has been created beneath a stilt house. The open area beneath the one-roomed house has fold-up tables and bright plastic red and blue chairs for the

children. Towards the back of the space hang hammocks where the residents of the house – including the literacy facilitator – sleep in the dry season. The open space beneath the house also serves as a shelter for livestock, part of the family’s kitchen and a workshop for the family’s motorbike, when it’s not being used for literacy classes.

The children are eager to show us what they’re learning. The literacy facilitator switches on the MP3 audio device that plays the lessons and the children start to read. Kon Kea, too, follows along in her literacy booklet, repeating out loud the sounds of the Khmer alphabet.

Children in Dangkot, as in most places in Cambodia, only go to school for three hours a day – either a morning or afternoon session.

How long a child can stay in school depends on the family’s situation.

With 20 per cent of Cambodians living below the poverty line ($US2 a day) and millions more living

only just above it ($US2.30 a day), children are regularly pulled out of school to help their families in their work. In rural Cambodia, most families are subsistence farmers – growing only enough food to feed themselves. The more hands, the better.

Kon Kea’s family are a farming family. She has two brothers and four sisters. She’s living with an older sister right now. Her mother is an alcoholic – a victim of a culture where alcoholism is increasingly common – and can’t take care of her.

Kon Kea likes spending time with her friends and tells me that it’s one of her favourite things about coming to the Bible Society’s literacy class – an extra hour where she can read and learn with her friends.

The literacy class we’re visiting today is just one of over 90 literacy classes throughout rural Cambodia run by Bible Society. The classes, run by volunteer facilitators, go for

about an hour, and run through a recorded programme on an MP3 device. The classes are Bible-based, telling stories from the Bible while teaching how to read and write.

Kon Kea says her favourite Bible story is the story of David.

“I liked hearing about his faith in God,” she says.

Learning about Jesus, says Kon Kea, is the other reason she loves the literacy classes.

Keo Chantho is the literacy facilitator in the class we’re visiting. She says the children in her class learn more in one hour with Bible Society’s lessons than they do at school. The Cambodian education system is struggling to employ trained teachers in public schools, and class sizes are so large that even those who complete a primary education have limited literacy skills when they graduate.

“I want the children in my class to have faith in God, and I want them to study. At school, they don’t learn much,” says Keo Chantho.

Kon Kea, she says, is a wonderful student – eager to learn to read and inquisitive about who God is and what he’s done for her. Kon Kea’s family, like many in her village, aren’t Christian.

But Keo Chantho is praying that the families of children in her class will see a difference in their lives as they learn about the gospel through the Bible Society materials.

“This is the first time most of these children will have heard the Bible stories. I want their parents to see the change that comes in their children from knowing Jesus.”

+ In 2015, Bible Society is encouraging churches and Christian groups to get together and fundraise for the work of the Bible in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. To find out more about how to get involved, or to donate, visit biblesociety.org.au/ gtwoSEA.

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THE BIG PICTURE

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APRIL 2015

APRIL 2015

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A glass slipper

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OPINION

SPECIAL: DOMESTIC ABUSE

MARK HADLEY

Cinderella, the classic Disney tale, returns to the cinemas 65 years after the Grimms’ fairy tale was first animated for the big screen.

Today’s 21st century live-action script has all the usual nods to 21st century morals we’ve come to expect. However, there’s also a very welcome piece of wisdom from 1st century Palestine.

Lily James, the new Cinderella, is backed by a galaxy of stars – Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother, Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother, Derek Jacobi as the King, Richard Madden as his eligible son … the list goes on. The story is very much by the book, with everything girls will love – dresses, dances, cute animal pets, spangly wands and dashing princes. More like the Grimms’ original, though, the ugliness of Blanchett’s evil stepmother and her two daughters is a largely internal thing. It’s their characters that really shame them, not their looks, and this is a welcome change from the more literal ugly-people-are-bad-people approach of recent times. But does the film have any updated views on how the world works?

The best piece of advice is actually something every Christian will be able to get behind. On her death bed, Ella’s mother gives her a piece of wisdom that will shape her every action, particularly during the

+

hard times: “I am going to tell you a secret that will see you through all trials: have courage and be kind. You have more kindness in your little finger than most people have in their whole lives – and it has power.” This might sound like wishful thinking to modern ears more used to hearing heroines who fight for their rights. However, this kindness with courage, this strength tempered by service will be more familiar to Bible readers.

In a word, it’s the quality Jesus

referred to as meekness. Meekness is strength in control. Our saviour sat on a hillside in Galilee and told his impoverished audience that no one would inherit the earth by fighting to get what was owed to them. Instead, those who faced the burdens God gave them with courage and put their power at his service would one day see that they were blessed. It was as hard to believe then as it is now.

As Cinderella discovers, it takes a great deal of strength to

face hardship with courage and kindness. Yet Jesus said those who do so in God’s name will discover our creator has a world of blessings set aside for his children.

Today meekness has become a synonym for weakness, but it would be good if Cinderella went a little way to helping our children rediscover the word. A nation of ‘Ellas’ who refused to use their strength to take revenge or advance themselves, but instead put their best into whatever they

+ For the full reviews of these new release films, visit biblesociety.org.au/eternitynews

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More importantly, if we can teach little girls to recognise and value meekness, there’s more hope they will recognise the greatest prince of all – whose meekness took him all the way to the cross in the service of those he loved.

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Natasha Moore on responding gently and well when Christians are criticised

It’s easy to think, “It would never happen to me.” But the research shows that the scourge of domestic violence is remarkably democratic, transcending boundaries of class, race, education – and religion.

There is a growing countrywide momentum on the issue of domestic violence. And as this shockingly commonplace reality (on average, a woman is murdered by her partner or ex-partner every week in Australia) is being dragged out of the shadows of our national life, it is right for the church to be doing its part in exposing and combating it.

The question of whether particular Christian teachings may be used to legitimise the abuse of women in the home has been the subject of recent discussion online

and in the mainstream media.

Debate has focused in particular on biblical ideas about male headship and female submission within marriage, and whether such ideas serve as an enabling mechanism for men who want to control and abuse their wives.

It’s a horrifying thought for believers. The knee-jerk reaction for many of us is to say that this kind of abuse is surely not common in the church and to defend the goodness and beauty of the Christian model for marriage, which properly understood stands as the antithesis of any form of violence or abuse. But there are good reasons for Christians, and for the church as a whole, to pause and carefully consider the criticisms – and to take seriously

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the responsibility to investigate their validity.

Indeed, there are excellent reasons for the church to respond to such charges, not with defensiveness but rather with grace, humility and a healthy realism.

First, naivete about human behaviour and relationships is hardly in keeping with robust Christian faith. As Christians, we are committed to the belief that human evil is not something “out there” – the preserve of a few very bad people – but that it lodges “in here”, in the hearts and lives of each of us, regardless of how respectable, educated, successful or church-going we may be.

Christian pastors, like those in more official counselling roles, are

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agonisingly familiar with the many and terrible ways in which human relationships malfunction.

The Bible’s realistic approach to human nature – its insistence that we are all broken, and that grave wrongdoing is an everyday reality – should mean that, although deeply grieved by such stories, we should not be surprised to discover incidences of domestic violence in church communities and in Christian marriages. Our congregations have certainly not proven immune to problems endemic in the wider community such as pornography addiction, alcoholism, or child sexual abuse.

Amelia Schwarze estimated in a 2012 article for Eternity that of a hundred church-going couples, continued page 12

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OPINION

12

APRIL 2015

A letter Telling my story got a big response made me think

10 years John Harrower

KATE BRADFORD

I minister and write as a chaplain.

Last night I had an interesting experience that highlighted for me an important difference between chaplaincy and parish ministry: chaplains know that a person is in some sort of crisis – whereas ministers may have no reason to suspect a problem.

Chaplains, like social workers, GPs, psychologists, counsellors and psychiatrists initially meet people at times of crisis, illness or trauma. We usually have no prior relationship or social connection with the people to whom we minister and people disclose things that they have not told their family or minister.

With these fragmentary clues to meaning, we hear of people’s faith and beliefs, but we also catch glimpses of their default “faith” settings, exposing the things that they really depend upon when everything else is in flux.

We also hear where they belong in their web of relationships − family, church, community, culture and society and whether they experience healthy relationships or alienation and isolation. We also look for clues as they express their desires and dreams, to see the role hope has in their thinking, with the aim of knowing how best to share Christ’s love and message of hope.

I was contacted by someone last night who has been abused by their spouse. They are a couple that I have known for a number of years and at one stage we were part of the same church community.

The abusive spouse has been involved in ministry in a number of congregations and is considered a leader in the ministries in which they are involved. I was shocked as I read the email, not comprehending what the letter was saying, until the abuser’s name was spelt out in print in the sentence. This was a most massive “aha” experience for me. As I read the letter again, I remembered particular incidents and instances that jarred but I had never put these things together. I always thought their family just did things differently from us, but as soon as I read the letter I knew that it was true.

I suddenly realised what it must be like for clergy who know people in their congregation, who are on ministry teams and seem to have happy, stable families and on the surface appear to be the “model” Christian couple or family.

My reflection on this is: as people ministering among our congregations, we sincerely think that we know people who are the model of a lively Christian faith in the parts of their life that we see.

We forgive their idiosyncrasies, because we know their good works and believe that they mean well.

The victim may act to keep the peace and might smooth things over for lots of reasons, including fear of shame or blame.

I have a new appreciation of the magnitude of the domestic violence problem and how difficult it is to identify and deal with in parish situations, and I can see the need for new strategies and culture in relationship to these issues.

Kate Bradford is a hospital chaplain. Stories on these pages have been cut for length. The full versions will be posted at biblesociety.org.au/eternitynews

SPECIAL: DOMESTIC ABUSE

warned churches about domestic abuse in this speech ten years ago. We did not have to change a word.

Last month, Isabella Young (not her real name) wrote a story of domestic abuse within her nowended Christian marriage for The Sydney Morning Herald. At the bottom of the article she left an email address.

Since then, she’s received 180 emails, 100 of them detailing cases of domestic abuse within Christian marriages, some of them current, many of them past, and about 6 per cent written by men.

It’s a huge response to an article that countered the idea that domestic violence in Christian marriages is rare.

In her article, Isabella wrote, “So what would I say to those who would minimise the extent of domestic violence occurring within church families and the inadequacy of the church’s response to the problem? You are wrong. Very wrong. You do not know what you are talking about.”

And the response to her article suggests she was right. She says the majority of emails detailing cases of abuse are from people involved in Anglican, Baptist and Presbyterian churches.

Most were from women with Anglo-Saxon sounding names, and were well-written. Isabella found it interesting most of the women were not from lower socio-economic backgrounds, dispelling the myth that domestic abuse is not a middleclass problem.

She says it’s been overwhelming trying to figure out how to respond to such personal, sensitive emails while working full-time.

“It’s very fatiguing … This kind

of stuff doesn’t shock me in that I expect it to be shocking. But there were a couple of emails that did shock me because of the extreme physical punishment or discipline the women endured. I found that pretty disgusting. I’ve probably got through one-tenth of the emails I’ve received. I’m triaging them.”

Without a publisher, Isabella is unsure how to proceed, although she has some ideas.

“I think there could be room for an anthology and maybe a smaller book with a more curated selection of longer stories to help people understand how these things happen, and just how predictable [domestic violence] is.”

She says it’s surprising how many common threads there are among the stories she’s been told.

“With most of the people who’ve written to me, there’s been explicit use of the Bible to keep them in that situation by their abusive spouse …

Not just submission passages; the idea that the woman only exists for the man – abusing helper kind of language. The other thing is your marriage vows. People use whatever material they’ve got on hand as a weapon.”

Another idea is to send a survey out to people who’ve emailed her to gather data that could provide a picture of the nature of abuse among Christians in Australia. But more than collating data, she’s keen for the Church in Australia to come up with strategies and practical solutions to the problem.

“Some of these people have been helped by churches, but some of them have been maintained in the situation by pastors. I think each church needs a strategy.”

I am more often in the media because of the issue of sexual abuse by clergy than I am for domestic violence. There are, however, some parallels between the two issues. I believe we can learn from some of the mistakes the church worldwide has made in responding to these issues in the past. Mistakes that led to more children being sexually abused – or in the case of domestic violence, more women and children suffering deep and long lasting damage. (Domestic violence includes physical abuse, psychological and emotional abuse, sexual manipulation and abuse, isolation, economical deprivation and stalking.)

The first response of the church worldwide to allegations of sexual abuse by clergy was “not to hear”, because the belief was “that good Christian men, who we knew, could not behave like that.” So the church’s first response was “not to hear” and its consequence “not to believe”. We face the same tendency when told of domestic violence.

Once the church did finally believe that this bad behaviour had occurred, the second mistaken response was to treat the abuse as any other one-off moral failure.

This underestimates the grip this behaviour has in people’s lives, and the layers and layers of selfdeception and control involved.

(Isn’t this another parallel to domestic violence?) Thus, in the early days, offenders of child sexual abuse were handled using timehonoured Christian strategies for dealing with moral failure. They confessed to their superiors in tears, promised never to do it again, and were sent off on spiritual retreats, etc., had absolution pronounced over them – and leaders felt that the perpetrators had truly repented, and reinstated them.

Unfortunately, they were reinstated to positions from which they could abuse others. A few may have stopped, but others re-offended, and more young lives were ruined.

Can you see the parallels with domestic violence? Are we also in danger in the area of domestic violence of simplistically applying great Christian principles? Of applying them in a way that colludes with the perpetrator about some watered-down version of reality? Some mistakes Christians have made: 1. We have fooled ourselves that domestic violence does not happen in good Christian homes – thus we have failed to hear and failed to believe.

My own experience is that when told of abuse by a man I know, I am inclined to disbelief: how can this be true? He is a Christian; I know him and have even ministered to and prayed with him. This discomfort inclines me/us not to hear or believe a victim. This leaves both the victims and the perpetrators in some “non-land” – where their experience is somehow not real. Their struggles are not real. What was happening to them, either as victim or perpetrator, was so far off the Christian radar screen that they were totally on their own, in a sort of terrifying non-land.

I am reminded that Jesus involved himself in the reality of life: including the “unclean”, “the damaged”, the “messed-up” and “the sinning”. We are to draw alongside those within our flock who are struggling with hidden alcoholism, domestic violence, incest, etc.

Like Jesus, we must be prepared to see what is actually happening and to act on this reality, no matter how messy and seemingly unbelievable it may be.

UNDER OUR ROOF from page 11 somewhere between two and eight of those couples will have a relationship that could be characterised as abusive. More and more stories from victims emerging in the wake of this story confirm her conclusion that, even if we don’t know its full extent, this is a real problem.

Second, the Bible’s picture of Christian marriage is not unique among Christian teachings in being open to abuse from violent and controlling people – even if those teachings are, under normal circumstances, beautiful and positive. The Bible’s exhortation to forgiveness, the sacredness of marriage, love of enemies, or even the practice of humility can be distorted or misused in relationships, but the power and beauty of these ideas are not simply invalidated by the ways in which they can be perverted or exploited.

It is important for church leaders to know when and how such teachings are being misheard

or corrupted. It’s also crucial for those in pastoral positions to be well informed and well trained on the issue, so that they know how to care for and advise women who find themselves in this situation.

Some evidence suggests that Christian women stay longer in these kinds of relationships – and there is certainly anecdotal evidence of pastors (no doubt with the best of intentions) encouraging women to persevere in abusive marriages rather than leave.

Third, criticisms like those of recent weeks have historically been of great benefit to the Church, illuminating areas that have become blind spots for those on the inside. The calls of environmentalists, for example, led Christians to go back to our Bibles and rediscover the mandate to care for God’s good earth. Similarly, the charge that mainstream denominations were too “whiteAnglo-middle-class” helped Australian churches in recent decades to return to one of the

most basic insights of Scripture: that God is the “God of all nations”.

And, of course, the child abuse scandal stands as a monumental, shameful example of how churches have been too slow to respond, or have responded with denials and an instinct to protect the institution rather than the victims.

Public perceptions of the Church have, understandably, suffered enormously as a result.

In all of these cases, Christians can partly thank those outside the Church for their insights, which have forced us to look in the mirror and observe how far we’ve departed from the way of Christ. On the issue of domestic violence, too, there is certainly room for self-scrutiny. The Centre for Public Christianity has been calling for churches to commission an independent study into the prevalence of domestic abuse in our congregations, and clergy responses to it, and there are positive signs of the church taking this proposal seriously.

It’s possible, of course, that such research may tell us that things aren’t as bad as we fear; there are certainly other areas where studies have linked regular church attendance to positive outcomes, such as lower rates of divorce and higher rates of civic participation.

But without undertaking an honest assessment of the situation, any progress we make on this issue is likely to be halting and partial.

Care for the vulnerable has been an imperative of Christian faith from its earliest beginnings and in this regard the Christian community continues to do great work every day and in every town and city. In response to domestic violence in our midst, may the Church not be slow to play its part, as a responsible member of the wider community, in bringing these abuses to light and creating a national culture where they are no longer tolerated.

Natasha Moore is a research fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity.

SOPHIE TIMOTHY

OPINION

APRIL 2015

13

on words still true

2. We have clutched at simplistic tools.

The discomfort and inadequacy we pastors feel when faced with this issue – our own discomfort – often rushes us into suggesting simplistic solutions to both victims and perpetrators. We often clutch at simplistic answers because of our own discomfort. We can suggest solutions like “forgiving others” or “God can forgive you” as a way of trying to bring people’s pain to an end – to jam the lid back on the box of suffering. Our forgiveness of others and God’s forgiveness of us are two huge, life-changing tools that God has given us to enable us to live in a fallen, messed-up world – but they are too important to use as some lid to quickly remove a mess from view.

We may believe that, because we have had “a word with the offender”, wrong behaviour will have stopped.

We may even follow up the victim, but she may have learned from the beatings that followed her last disclosure not to tell the clergy, so she lies and says it has all stopped.

Our fault was that we overestimated the power and influence of our “having a word with him”. Long-term violence is harder to shift than that.

3. The tools we have given perpetrators have often been inadequate.

If we have challenged the perpetrator, the tools we have given him may well have been

inadequate. In practice, we have assisted him or her to evade reality or the need to do the deep work of change. We have allowed him to weep about how sorry he is, and that he promises it will never happen again, and plead with us to pronounce God’s forgiveness over his “repentance”. We as pastors are utterly convinced that nothing is too hard for God to forgive, and that is true – but we have often short-changed on what repentance needs to look like – and that has left women’s and children’s lives in danger.

What sort of repentance did Jesus evoke? Remember Zacchaeus. He is an example of Jesus’ preparedness to deal with the reality of messedup lives. Zacchaeus met and responded to Jesus, and his repentance was more than weeping and saying how sorry he was, or promising never to do it again, or pleading with the victims to forgive him. He stood in front of Jesus and the community he had wronged and gave half of his possessions to the poor and paid back to those he had defrauded four times as much as he had wrongfully taken from them. (Luke 19:1-10) Let me quote you a story about a Christian minister who regularly sexually abused his daughter before he was jailed. After confessing his crime with tears to a minister in prison, he then held very firmly to the belief that it was now his daughter’s Christian duty to come

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to prison and pronounce that she forgave him. He sent her messages to that effect. By his five minutes of repentance, he believed he had done all the work required of him, and then he was firmly putting back all the responsibility for restoration on the victim.

There is a temptation for pastors to collude with offenders that their behaviour is nothing more than a matter of private morality. This is a temptation for pastors as we feel we have much to offer in the area of personal morality. Unfortunately, it is in the perpetrator’s interest to reduce his behaviour to “just a matter” of private morality. If the church colludes in this sleight of hand it can find itself, as it did in the matter of sexual abuse of children, ignoring the fact that these matters are criminal behaviours, and that they have very real long-term consequences for the victims.

4. The tools we have given victims have also often been simplistic.

We know the power that forgiving another has, so we can advocate forgiveness prematurely as a solution to a victim’s problems.

The Bible says forgive seventy times seven. But does this mean a victim should stay in a relationship and be beaten up seventy times seven?

Definitely not!

Let us try putting ourselves in a victim’s shoes. Imagine you are a victim coming to the church; your body battered, and your self-esteem battered, your boundaries breached

time and time again; your sense of personal self and even reality is somewhat shaky; your sense of what you are responsible for and what you are not responsible for has been sabotaged for years by a perpetrator who is an expert in power and control; you have been controlled and manipulated into blaming yourself for years.

And when you finally come to the church, your spiritual adviser then says to you, “The perpetrator has said sorry. Now your very first task and Christian duty is to forgive him.”! Tell me, is the very first issue this woman or child needs, a lesson in forgiving others?

Usually a victim of abuse needs help in starting a long journey. This includes gaining the confidence to know she matters, and that therefore any offence against her matters, long before she needs to tackle the forgiveness question.

Conclusion Our first step is to acknowledge that it can be our own discomfort as pastors that can help us collude with perpetrators into slick solutions, and pronouncing a rapid absolution. We also acknowledge that we need to insist that other professionals be called in so that, like Zacchaeus, the perpetrator gives legs to his sorry, by addressing what will help bring about change.

John Harrower is Anglican Bishop of Tasmania. He gave this talk on 29 April 2004.

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Where is safer KARL FAASE

Does the Bible’s teaching on families, as taught by many churches, lead to more domestic violence and does that teaching give permission for acts of violence?

Personal testimonies tell us there are cases of domestic violence in churches. I acknowledge it exists where there should be none. The only research that has come to light that directly relates to the question of churches and domestic violence is called “Race/Ethnicity, Religious Involvement and Domestic Violence” (Christopher G. Ellison, Jenny A. Trinitapoli, University of Texas at Austin, Kristin L. Anderson, Western Washington University, Byron R. Johnson).

The study showed that those who attended church most regularly experienced less domestic violence.

For women it was a 40 per cent reduction as victims of domestic violence and in men 72 per cent reduction in being a perpetrator.

I acknowledge that the study was done in a different cultural context.

Author and sociologist Rodney Stark has also written: “Not only is there no support for the claims that religious husbands, especially those of the evangelical Protestant variety, are more likely to abuse their wives, there is solid evidence that they are better, more loving husbands.”

Social commentator Karl Faase is CEO of Olive Tree Media.

Margaret, CCSS Volunteer

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OPINION

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Tim Costello Battle scars

You know that man who turned water into wine at that wedding? I wonder if he does Bar Mitzvahs, too? to shake their feet. As far as what will or won’t bring glory to God – even “the wrath of man will praise him.� My namesake will learn that one way or the other.

Stephen Fry, Hoppers Crossing, Vic

Sabbath covenant

I have enjoyed the discussion re: the Sabbath and law, but I would like to submit the following observation on the “covenantal aspect of the Sabbath�.

To my understanding, the observance of the weekly Sabbath by the Jew was to be a “sign� of the special relationship God had with the nation of Israel: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites, “You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.� (Exodus 31:12-13) I think it would be true to say that the Sabbath is fulfilled in

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Re: Dr Martin Luther King Jnr., I found it amazing that he was so close to Billy Graham and the US president who obviously had no idea of his evil private life. But then we look at King David’s strengths (godliness) and evil private conduct, plus being a man of blood (murderer) – (1 Chr 22:8, 28:3), and his son Solomon who wrote so much wisdom for us and behaved like a sexual lunatic (1 Kgs 11).

Peter Hobson, Crows Nest, NSW

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Michael Jensen on feminism If you are a Christian, is feminism the enemy?

At a recent marriage seminar I was leading, I asked a group of women (in front of their fiancÊs) what the hardest thing about being a woman in 21st century Australia was. They had plenty to say, starting at workplace inequality – not structural inequality as such, but the fact that as women they noticed that their opinions were overlooked. One woman had hidden the fact of her engagement from her employer, because of the expectation that she would rush off to have a baby and leave the company.

Others spoke of the pressure to conform to a social expectation of success in work, family and appearance. Even more disturbingly, they spoke of their vulnerability to harassment and violence.

These were educated, successful and relatively wealthy women, and yet even so they felt that there was a bias against them in the world.

I asked the men the same question. They couldn’t come up with anything.

Yet despite all this, many Christians think that feminism is fundamentally anti-Christian.

Professor Mary Kassian of Southern Baptist Seminary and the author of The Feminist Mistake argues Judeo-Christian ideas about gender, marriage and the family have all but disappeared. She writes that “during the feminist era, all of these ideas were challenged and deconstructed� – which means that now “women grow up thinking that the essence of womanhood is the exercise of personal power (including sexual power).�

Kassian is in no doubt as to the consequences of this cultural shift.

Under feminism, women, she says, have “been taught to be loud, brash,

sexual, aggressive, independent, and demanding. They have been trained to value education, highpowered careers, and earning potential – and to devalue the home, marriage, and children.�

This has led to the higher prevalence of marital breakdown, she claims, with more women initiating divorce than men.

For Kassian, feminism is a specific ideology, which directly challenges a “traditional� reading of womanhood in which women take particular roles in the family and in society. In her view, “we are all feminists now�: feminism has so deeply permeated Western culture that we unthinkingly subscribe to its un-Christian assumptions.

But I think there are a couple of flaws in this thinking. I should emphasise that I write as a social conservative with a belief that men and women are made differently and most happily realise their created natures in different ways in the context of family and society.

Saying that “feminism� represents “culture�, mostly in its worst aspects is simply wrong. If you read Collective Shout’s page often enough (collectiveshout.org), it becomes pretty obvious that, despite progress in some areas, we (still) live in a deeply misogynistic culture in which (just to name one example) it is apparently fine for a major shopping chain (Kmart) to sell a video game in which women are depicted as being raped and murdered (Grand Theft Auto V).

If feminist thinking has permeated our culture so

successfully, then why can feminist writers keep pointing to obvious social inequalities? Why is it still the case that something like one in six women will suffer physical abuse at the hands of a partner? Why do strong, confident women still report experiencing discrimination and disempowerment?

What Kassian further fails to see is that feminism is a very broad movement – or more accurately, a collection of movements – which addresses a range of issues from abortion rights to domestic violence issues to equal pay and more.

Feminists are in passionate disagreement with one another on many things. There is philosophical feminism and political feminism.

There’s liberal feminism, radical feminism and difference feminism.

There’s eco-feminism and conservative feminism.

But what they all have in common is quite clear. As feminist Gloria Steinem once said: “A feminist is anyone who recognises the equality and full humanity of women and men.� The differences arise from how that goal might be achieved.

And on this basic premise, a Christian point of view has more in common with feminism than not.

The profundity of the affirmation that male and female are created in the image of God is extended by the deep equality that male and female can share together in Christ Jesus.

We can see how the consequences of the fall have worked themselves out in gender relations, as prophesied in Genesis 3 – and we can share

with many feminists the concern that male power allowed to run unchecked has all too rarely resulted in the freedom and the flourishing of women in human history.

It is no surprise to learn that many of the early feminists were evangelical Christians. Of course they were! That is to say: feminism is a response to a deeper problem in human relations – not the problem itself. Attacking feminism as the problem while saying little about the (for example) prominence of hate speech against women or the growing acceptance of rape culture is a failure to attend carefully to what is really there in front of us.

It is a failure to analyse the depths of evil in a culture in a way that Christians should. It is killing the canary in the coalmine while still breathing the noxious air.

But sadly, I have heard more from pulpits against feminism than I have against domestic violence.

One woman in Christian ministry told me: “I guess I’m feminist because the things I want for my daughters are: to not have to fight for equal pay, I don’t want them to feel unsafe walking down the street, I don’t want them to be blamed for their rape, I don’t want their opinions to be considered less important than their male co-workers ... It’s just fighting to be treated as equals.�

That being said, there are forms of feminist thinking, or common feminist opinions on certain issues, that a Christian would be troubled in affirming.

There are forms of feminism that

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(in my view) sell women very short – to name one example, by claiming that pornography is not degrading of women. But there is enough internal debate between feminists that it would be wrong to generalise. There are plenty of feminists who would share with many Christians a pretty strongly negative view of the 1960s sexual liberation and its impact on women, for example.

In fact, if you make a sweeping generalisation about feminism – targeted at those feminisms which are openly hostile to Christianity – it may be heard instead as trivialising the real suffering and vulnerability of women.

The sad thing is, I think, that we’ve spent more time in church worrying about the cultural aspects of feminism and the debates about women’s ministry in the church, but said far too little about the grave evils that so many women face, even in a supposedly enlightened country such as our own.

This is not to say that debates about ordination and ministry are unimportant. It is important to say that churches that ordain women have not thereby ended their culture of sexism; and neither are churches that don’t ordain women necessarily sexist. That’s a furphy, it seems to me. But can we have a discussion about how as churches we can be truly countercultural – by standing against the vile and violent misogyny that is so prevalent in our culture? Can we see that our real captivity to culture lies as much with misogyny and patriarchy as it does with the feminism that opposes these things?

This poverty of cultural analysis has partly occurred because of lack of proper attention to the urgent task of reading Scripture in, against, and with, a nuanced understanding of human cultures.

Dismissing this activity as “trendy� is a terrible dereliction of duty.

It is the calling of preachers and theologians to read culture as the prophets did, not least so we can call it to repent, but to do so in such a way as we realise our own cultural embeddedness too.

We need to do this because Scripture tells us how dark and twisted our hearts are, and that we shouldn’t trust ourselves.

We need to check and balance ourselves as we read the Bible, because we are very good at seeing what we want to see.

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Christ and under the new covenant a believer “into� Christ Jesus is no longer obligated to keep the Mosaic covenantal sign.

To take the Sabbath and impose its keeping upon Christians today is to take the sign (seal) of the old covenant and add it to the sign (seal) of the new covenant.

Pastor Phil Littlejohn, Heathcote East, NSW

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15

Perhaps feminism isn’t the enemy

Letters Stephen Fry writes While it may be true that “during difficult times foolish people build walls and wise people build bridges� (“Muslims are people too�, Eternity, March) it is equally true that during difficult times wise people have had to build walls and reject the bridgebuilding proposal of fools.

See Nehemiah 6:1-3 as one example from history. We should all be concerned, as John Azumah is, for those lost in the Muslim world and he is right, “You can’t argue people into a relationship with God, you’ve got to win them.�

John spoke of the different faces of Islam, and though acknowledging their connectedness, he makes the statement that “Muslims can’t be lumped under one big heading of Islam�. I have a friend who was raised a Muslim and is now a Christian. He puts it this way: “If you want to bake a cake you follow the recipe. You can’t leave parts of the recipe out, eggs or butter, milk or sugar and still say you have the cake. Islam is the cake – the Koran is the recipe.�

While ever the ingredients are stated in the Koran there will be a potential threat to society that could emerge suddenly anywhere, anytime, no matter how many well-meaning people are not baking with the complete recipe.

In addition, while there is a time for every purpose under heaven, including “shaking the dust off your feet�, (Stephen Fry, Eternity, March) I’m sure there will be eternally grateful people in the Kingdom to come who will thank God for those who weren’t so quick

OPINION

APRIL 2015

Sergey Nivens from iStock

My grandfather returned from World War I scarred physically and psychologically. Like many of his generation he was horrified by the human consequences of war, but also convinced that a radical change of heart could save the world from more violence and suffering. Not previously very religious, he found solace and peace, and renewed zeal and purpose in a lively evangelical faith.

He came home to a society and a church both very different from today’s. In formal terms Christianity peaked just after that war, with 97 per cent of Australians stating themselves to be Christians in the 1921 census.

By 2011 that number was 61 per cent, the result of immigration, secularisation and a decline in social conformity.

Recently I saw some research results about Australians’ perceptions of the church today.

It revealed a startling disconnect between what church leaders, church attenders and the general public think about how churches support people in dealing with life’s challenges.

Across several dimensions of

wellbeing – from spirituality, relationships and mental health to physical health and even managing finance – churches know that being part of an active church community is highly beneficial.

Yet, startlingly, the research reveals that most Australians believe that participating in church does not benefit people at all.

This may represent people’s initial subjective response, and churches should pay close attention, but I think in other ways the church is very much integrated into community life.

Notably, Christian charities play an exceptionally large role in Australia – 23 out of our 25 largest charities are Christian ones, a much higher proportion than in more outwardly religious countries such as the US. The church in Australia is service-shaped – directly supporting people in need, and also giving voice to the call for compassion and justice. Some might perceive this as reflecting confusion about purpose, as if social justice and community service were incompatible with evangelism.

But to my mind these are all essential elements of what it means to be a church today. If the question is “Should the Church prioritise evangelism, social justice or service?� then the answer is yes.

Times change but some things are timeless. At Easter we rediscover in the resurrection the greatest story of hope that is possible. It is as an Easter people, awed by God’s unlimited gift of possibility, that today’s Church needs to offer unstinting hospitality, a spirit of welcome, and openness to all who are broken and seek healing.

APRIL 2015

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OPINION

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APRIL 2015

How Easter turns the world upside down Greg Clarke on the resurrection of Jesus this key aspect of Jewish history in light of his own imminent execution. There need have been no surprise to those with ears to hear and eyes to see.

But Easter turns out to be a startling surprise, a pivotal point in history where the world is turned upside down (Acts 17:1-9), a completely unexpected thing.

The surprise came in the resurrection of Jesus.

The idea of life beyond the grave is not itself a surprise to many of us. Most human beings in most cultures and most times in history have had a strong, if varied, belief in an afterlife. Our instincts incline towards “something more”, and we struggle even to imagine that death is simply the end for human beings.

It seems to mock all that we stand for. But the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth – that’s an unexpected

At Easter, we declare our hope – our only hope – that we will share in Christ’s resurrection. thing. His disciples plainly did not envisage his return from the dead.

They were despondent, confused, demoralised. Half of them didn’t believe the women returning from the tomb with the news that his body was no longer there. That he rose, appeared to many people, and opened up his true identity to those baffled travellers on the road to Emmaus, became the cornerstone of the message of these

first Christians to the world: he is risen from the dead, and he is Lord and King.

As we wait to die, so those of us who believe wait to be raised. At Easter, we declare our hope – our only hope – that we will share in Christ’s resurrection. He is the first fruits, the first signs of the bountiful future kingdom; we take comfort and strength in him. Just as we do not know when we shall

die, we do not know when, in the twinkling of an eye, we will be raised to life imperishable to inherit the kingdom of God. But now we expect it, because God has shown us that death is not the end by raising Jesus Christ.

Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia and author of the 2014 Australian Christian Book of the Year, The Great Bible Swindle.

Bible Stat 500 Bible Society translation projects across 116 countries. 59% of these are first translations

2015 NEW COLLEGE LECTURES 12-14 MAY | REV DR TREVOR HART The most basic of Christian claims about the world is that its Creator has himself taken flesh and dwelt among us. These lectures will trace resonances between this claim and the realities of our shared human condition as manifest in the arts.

Tues 12 May, 7:30pm Lecture 1 ~ ‘Clayey lodging’: being human and why matter matters Wed 13 May, 7:30pm Lecture 2 ~ Earthy epiphanies: the incarnation of meaning and the meaning of incarnation in the arts Thurs 14 May, 7:30pm Lecture 3 ~ Heavenly bodies: why Wagner was right about art and wrong about God

ADMISSION FREE Register online at www.newcollege.unsw.edu.au/events For more information phone +61 2 9381 1999 or email newcollege@unsw.edu.au Venue | New College, University of New South Wales

Taking Flesh: Christology, embodiment and the Arts

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The novelist Henry James had a long time to consider his death, as he became increasingly ill with pneumonia. His last words are recorded as, “So here it is at last, the expected thing.”

Waiting to die is a terrible, but expected, thing. We are all doing it, but some of us are more aware of it than others. Some are on their deathbeds, feeling the encroaching burden of illness and age. Some are simply in their beds, not knowing that this will be their last night. Some are sitting on an Indonesian island, uncertain of how soon the end will come.

Horrifically, some are descending in airplanes, knowing there are but moments left.

Death is not surprising, but its timing and nature might well be.

The death of Jesus, commemorated around the world every year during Easter, contains elements that are no surprise at all to people familiar with the religious context of the first-century Middle East.

Jesus was a threat to both Jewish religious stability and Roman peace. He didn’t step into line, and to crucify him was the method of the day to keep rebellion in check.

Furthermore, the timing of Jesus’ death should have been no surprise to his followers. Jesus had predicted it, their Hebrew Bibles had prophesied it, and at the Last Supper, Jesus had reinterpreted