Painting Fakes

Why would Yahweh, the God of Gods, choose to reveal himself to the Israelites, a tiny oppressed people group on the fringes of Middle Eastern society?  Why not to the Egyptians, the cultural and political leaders of the Bronze Age?  Why not the Babylonians, that magnificent, lordly civilisation at the heart of the fertile Mesopotamian plain?  There were so many options which had a better chance of success. And then, in the midst of the Roman Empire, when he chose to send his greatest Message by the hand of his only son, not only did he bypass the Romans for his previously favoured Jews, but he steered clear of the temple complex in Jerusalem, of the priests and civic leaders, and instead arrived in Galilee among the poor peasants and craftsmen.  How much harder could he make it for himself? Marshall McLuhan famously said 'the medium is the message'.  That is to say, the form and method of delivery shapes and determines the content.  A message delivered ...

In her brief stint as the Independent Member for Wentworth, Dr Kerryn Phelps bequeathed the nation a gift, which has become known as the Medevac legislation.  A short explanation of this legislation is that when asylum seekers imprisoned on Manus Island and Nauru are sick in ways that cannot be treated there, the decision to evacuate them to Australia for treatment is made by a panel of doctors, not by Border Force officers with no medical training. Doesn't seem that controversial, does it?  They are not granted Australian residency.  They are not even released from detention.  They are simply moved from detention on a distant island to detention in Australia, close to the medical resources needed to treat their illness.  It's humane in a strictly limited, basically inhumane kind of way.  I think Phelps would have liked to do more, but this is the best she could get through with the help of Labor and her friends on the cross-benches.  Even then the L...

So, I finally got a reply to my previous letters to the Prime Minister (you can read them here and here ).  At least, I got a letter from the Prime Minister which was apparently prompted by my letters.  It's essentially a piece of spin, assuring me what a great job the government is doing on climate change.  If only that were true! Of course I didn't have high expectations and I have decided to discipline myself to be persistent in this correspondence, so unlike the PM's staff, who ignored everything I said and just spun their own lines, I decided to reply point by point.  Here it is for your enjoyment! Dear Prime Minister Thank you for your letter of 13 November in response to my letters to you on climate change. It is heartening to me that you have not followed the lead of some of your colleagues and tried to cast shade on the science of climate change – it’s a relief not to have that discussion. It’s possible I would have been more reassured by ...

I've been writing about human rights, in the light of Australia's debate about religious freedom and the Government's proposed Religious Freedom Bill.  In the first post I had a look at the controversy over Israel Folau's infamous meme.  In the second I provide a beginners guide to the international covenants which provide the basis for human rights legislation and the question of what happens when rights collide.  In the third I provided a quick analysis of  the proposed Australian legislation.  To conclude I'd like to share some thoughts on how Christians should approach human rights. Christians often make the claim that the idea of human rights is founded in a Christian understanding of humanity.  The Centre for Public Christianity's documentary For the Love of God provides a good example .  Christians adopted the Jewish idea that humans are made in the image of God, and this was profoundly countercultural in the Roman Empire where human worth...

Extinction Rebellion has been making headlines around the world, including here in the centre of the universe (Brisbane, or course).  Their campaigns of nonviolent civil disobedience, aiming to create pressure to accelerate action on climate change, have disrupted daily life in major cities around the world.  Here in Brisbane, as elsewhere, they have blocked roads and other transport routes, gluing themselves to roads and locking themselves on to pieces of infrastructure to ensure long delays.  Plenty of people have been arrested, some multiple times, but this is part of their intention. Like many people who feel strongly about the need for action on climate change, I am torn about Extinction Rebellion.  Overall, I support them.  I agree with their message - that we need to urgently decarbonise and that we are a long way from taking climate change seriously either in Australia or globally.  I'm also not troubled by nonviolent civil disobedience, a time...

So, in Part 1 of this series I discussed the religious dimensions of the Israel Folau case, and in Part 2 I provided a summary of how international human rights treaties frame religious and other freedoms.  Now, onto the current Australian legislation.  The Commonwealth Attorney-General, Christian Porter, released the government's draft Religious Discrimination Bill at the end of August 2019, with a consultation period of a little over a month (ending October 2). The drive to legislate for religious freedom gained pace during the process of legalising same sex marriage, and is a kind of compensation to conservative religious people for losing that battle. In the wake of that process the government established a Religious Freedom Review led by former Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock.  This review found that there is no particular immediate threat to religious freedom in Australia. The Panel also heard that, as a whole, Australians generally enjoy religious freedo...

So, I never got an answer to my last Dear Scomo letter.  So instead of waiting forever, I wrote him another one. Dear Prime Minister Jon I am still awaiting your reply to my letter of 14 June, but I thought that I would write to you again given that events have moved on since then. Back in June I wrote asking you to lead your government into a more positive engagement with the issue of climate change.   I suggested you needed to move Australia towards more willing and enthusiastic participation in global mitigation efforts, planning for our economic transition to net zero emissions and getting serious about adaptation. While you have not replied to my letter the actions of your government since then have left me with little confidence you are getting to grips with this important issue, despite your reassuring words. You have repeatedly assured Australians that we are well on track to meeting our 2030 emissions reduction targets.   Yet official governm...