Straw Men in the Religious Discrimination debate
An article in the Sydney Morning Herald (“Religious discrimination bill gives Australians ‘right to be a bigot’”, J Ireland, SMH 30 Jan 2020) sets up a number of “straw man” arguments so that it can knock them down and claim that the proposed Religious Discrimination Bill is harmful. I disagree.
The first paragraph offers some examples of things that the Bill ‘could make it legal’ to say…”
– Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia looks at the arguments used in an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald. Is it actually “an argument against free speech, and for authoritarianism”?
Archbishop calls for prayer about coronavirus
“Churches have been urged to pray about the Coronavirus outbreak and to take sensible precautions as the World Health Organisation declares a public health emergency.
Archbishop Glenn Davies has written to clergy, asking churches to pray for victims, health care workers and authorities. …”
– Story from SydneyAnglicans.net.
New concerns over Victoria’s proposed banning of ‘conversion practices’
“As a Victorian, I have a moral obligation to report to authorities personal knowledge of alleged child abuse. As a pastor of a church, I have both a moral and legal duty to report knowledge of or suspicions of child abuse. Mandatory reporting is a social good. Even without the legal requirement, one’s natural concerns for a child’s wellbeing would automate contacting the police.
In Victoria, under new laws being proposed by the Andrews Government, I can be imprisoned for 12-18 months, for speaking up against the psychological and physical trauma inflicted upon children by gender warriors and dangerous medicos who work to change a child’s gender or sex. …”
– Murray Campbell in Melbourne warns of proposed legislation in Victoria.
A fresh translation of Ephesians
As a follow up to his helpful series on Ephesians, Lionel Windsor at Moore College has posted his own translation of the letter for your edification.
Submission on Second Draft of Religious Discrimination Bill
Associate Professor Neil Foster writes about the Second Draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill –
“In short, I think this legisation is an important step in improving protection of religious freedom in Australia, and the second draft is an improvement on the first. But I recommend some clarification or change of approach in the following areas:
- Defining Religious Belief – I recommend that the way that the courts should determine whether a claim to religious belief is justified should focus on sincerity rather than courts examining “reasonableness” ; I also think that the bar of “unlawfulness” determining what beliefs cannot be protected at all needs to be raised to mainly cover serious criminal offences;
- Who is protected by the Bill? – I suggest that the Bill ought to protect religious groups as well as individuals; in this context I think that the limits on protection based on the concept of “commercial activity” need to be removed, though I agree that the kind of organisations protected need to be limited in other ways;
- Who is bound by the Bill? – I agree that, as at present, both individuals and groups should be bound not to religiously discriminate; but I think the exemption given to government bodies from the provisions relating to religious free speech outside working hours should be rolled back;
- The limits of protection – I argue that cases where religious freedom can be over-ridden should be limited to those where it is “necessary” in protection of important fundamental rights, as spelled out in the ICCPR art 18(3);
- Protecting religious free speech – I argue that the good initiative protecting statements of religious belief in clause 42 should also be extended to “vilification” claims, so long as they do not contravene the limits set out in the clause itself and defined by the Commonwealth;
- Conscientious objection by health practitioners – I argue that the complicated provisions protecting conscientious objection to certain procedures by health practitioners need to be improved;
- The Religious Freedom Commissioner – I support this new position but argue that the person concerned should be clearly shown to understand the issues facing religious citizens;
- A note on charities – I support the current provision ensuring that advocacy of traditional views on the nature of marriage not disqualify a body from being recognised as a charity, and suggest a further change to make this even clearer.”
Pursuing Sanctification – God’s work or ours?
“John Owen says Christians need to ‘be killing sin, or it will be killing you.’
Yet from my experience most Christians aren’t employing everything they have at their disposal to kill sin or to pursue sanctification in any regard. The most I hear about this is the throwaway line, ‘I’m struggling with X sin’ but upon further questioning often those who say this aren’t struggling at all with a sin; they’ve often simply identified that they have a persistent sin, and yet do nothing about it.
Then when I reflect on my own fight with sin, I’m ashamed to realise I too often fall into the same trap of identifying sin without fighting it. I started to consider why this is the case for me. Why is it that I know about my sins, but I don’t fight them? And I have come to the conclusion that I (and I suspect many others) don’t fight sin because I don’t know what my role is in sanctification.
In order to figure it out I had to understand three things …”
– Daniel Bishop writes on what should be of vital interest to every Christian – at The Australian Church Record – Part 1 and Part 2.
Giving thanks for Richard Johnson
This Australia Day long weekend, pause to give thanks to the Lord for the Rev. Richard Johnson, Chaplain to the First Fleet and first Chaplain to the Colony of New South Wales.
232 years ago this weekend, the First Fleet arrived at Farm Cove. 232 years ago next weekend, Johnson preached at the first church service at Farm Cove.
Read about Richard Johnson and pray that the Lord will call many into the service of Christ’s gospel in our land.
Church Society responds to the C of E House of Bishops statement on civil partnerships
“Church Society welcomes the recent pastoral statement from the House of Bishops concerning civil partnerships.
Specifically, we are grateful to the House for reaffirming the traditional and orthodox view of marriage (see paragraphs 7 and 35), and for clarifying that “sexual relationships outside heterosexual marriage are regarded as falling short of God’s purposes for human beings” (paragraph 9).
The statement also helpfully points out some of the inherent ambiguity about the place of sexual relationships in civil partnerships …
However it is disappointing to see that once again the clear statement regarding sexual relationships outside heterosexual marriage is not followed through with respect to the sacraments and godly church discipline …”
– Read the full post from Church Society.
An Aboriginal Pastor’s message for Australia Day
“There’s a heartache still in this land,” says Pastor Michael Duckett of the Macarthur Indigenous Church as he shares a message for Australia Day, calling on non-indigenous Australians to remember the mixed feelings in the Aboriginal community about the day.
Speaking in a video titled The Ministry of Reconciliation, Australia Day 2020, Pastor Duckett gives a greeting in the indigenous Gumbayggirr language of the North Coast of New South Wales.
He said he hopes people will enjoy Australia Day but be sensitive to Aboriginal People…
– Read the full story, and watch the video, at SydneyAnglicans.net.
You could download the video to show in church on Sunday, Australia Day.
Reading Ephesians (Ephesians 6:21–24)
“Paul’s closing greeting in Ephesians is a good opportunity to summarise what the letter is all about and to remember why it’s worth reading and reflecting on it.”
– Our thanks to ACL Council member Lionel Windsor for a challenging and edifying series reflecting on the Letter to the Ephesians. Here is the last instalment.
How long, Lord, must we call for help?
“In light of the recent Australian bushfires, we perhaps cannot be blamed for asking, Why is God allowing such a thing to happen? How can God turn a blind eye to the devastation that has come as a result of these fires – the loss of property, animals, even human life? Why doesn’t God do something about it? Why does God allow so many to needlessly suffer?
It is these kinds of questions that the prophet Habakkuk also struggled with, roughly six hundred years before Christ. …”
– Ben George writes at The Australian Church Record.
Sporting brain snaps
“When you read this I will be winging my way to Melbourne for part of a holiday.
Why Melbourne? Well we don’t have the Australian Open Tennis in Armidale. We don’t have the rich celebrity temper tantrum, racket smashers from around the world in Armidale. We just have the normal temper tantrum racket smashers and club throwers of our local region. I think it will be interesting to see how the great ones of the sporting world do it. I am not planning to take any tips from them, however I might just be embarrassed and perversely entertained by them…”
– Diocese of Armidale’s Bishop Rick Lewers shares some challenges about anger.
Thank-you Fireys as Sydney prays
“Sustained applause greeted Rural Fire Service Senior Assistant Commissioner Bruce MacDonald as he was introduced at a Prayer service at Sydney’s St Andrew’s Cathedral on Sunday 19th January for those affected by the bushfires. …”
– Russell Powell has the story of Sunday’s service at the Cathedral for everyone affected by the bushfires. At SydneyAnglicans.net.
World Watch List 2020
Open Doors has released its World Watch List for 2020.
Fuel for prayer.
Spiritual Formation: the rise of a tradition
“Spiritual formation” seems to be an innocuous phrase, for Christians; a good thing to do, what we would want for ourselves and others. It is in use in general church circles, and in more formal literature. In particular, if one investigates developments concerning theological education, it is very clear that spiritual formation is what theological education should be about. …
“Spiritual formation” seems a reasonable thing for Christians to do, but what exactly does it mean, and why is it seen as the main purpose of theological education? …
– Church Society has published some excerpts from an article by Kirsty Birkett in the current issue of Churchman.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…