Seeing the Forest… from the trees

Here is a great article from the Telegraph in the U.K. by Michael Nazir-Ali. It is a great reflection on the loss of a common story and the benefits of finding values in old places.

Read it here.

Here is a great interview from Sunrise on Tony Abbot’s comments that we ought to teach the Bible in schools.

Check it out here.

People are not inherently good, rather they are all in a state of active rebellion against God, this is what the Bible calls sin (Rom 3:23). While those who truly follow Jesus turn away from their rebellion and back to God sin still remains in the life of the believer (1 John 1:8-10).No Christian will perfectly submit themselves to God until God has finally judged the world and taken his people to live with him. One expression of human pride and rebellion are the divisions and broken relationships we experience today between people, nations, races and even churches.

If you were to ask different sorts of Christians what the core of their faith is you are likely to get some very different answers. For traditional Catholic belief it is following Jesus Christ by listening to the church and Jesus’ representative, the Pope. For Protestants it is generally the Bible that takes the centre of authority, for others it is the experience of God and the leading of his Spirit that is central. Broadly speaking, Christians tend to use four main sources to derive their core beliefs; tradition (Church structures, practices and customs), revelation (the Bible), experience (personal spiritual experiences) and human reason. All Christians will use all of these in varying measure. Different Christians will place greater emphasis on different sources; Catholics and some Anglicans emphasise tradition, Evangelicals emphasise revelation, Charismatic Christians emphasise experience and Liberal Christians emphasise reason. Today within each of the Christian denominations there will be a variety of these different viewpoints, and it is fair to ask the question, ‘why can’t they all just get along?’ The problem is that these differences are not merely side issues but do come down to the very core of Christian belief. Questions like, ‘how do I find out about God?’ will be answered differently depending on which source of beliefs you emphasise. One will answer, ‘listen to the Pope’ or ‘listen to the church’s teaching’, another will say, ‘read the Bible’, another will say ‘experience the Holy Spirit’, and another will say ‘look at the world and use your logic’. Many of the divisions between Christian organisations have a long history and are unlikely to resolve by ecumenical councils due to their fundamental nature of the issues at stake. The problem with religious institutions is that as much as they may try to enforce rules on the beliefs of individuals, which is never completely effective. Although the institutions are a necessity to function in the world they are never the whole picture and have both faithful Christians and false believers (Mat 13:24-30). Things like resolving disagreements and pursuing peace and love are certainly worth doing but it is worth asking what sort of unity should Christians pursue?

Christianity, if it is to be true to itself, ought to find its core in following Jesus Christ through his apostles teaching, which is found in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament. The New Testament does hold out the ideal that Christians will be unified (Eph 4:3) but the reality is that unity is found in Christ himself and not in human institutions.

One challenge to unity is false teaching, which is one of the major themes of the New Testament (Acts 20:29; Mark 13:22; 2Cor 11:13,26; Gal 2:4; Col 2:18; 1 Ti 1:3, 6:3; 2 Pe 2:1; 1Jn 4:1; Rev 2:2). Given that false teaching is such a part of the reality of the early church, Christians have no expectation of eradicating it without a supernatural work of God. Like all sin forgiveness and healing from God are the only solution we have to this problem. To see an end to the divisions Christians need to see that God is bringing all things toward unity in His Son.

Christianity is at its heart a grass-roots movement of believers following Jesus Christ rather than an institutional system of religion. The answer to the divisions in the churches today is not ignoring the differences but discovering the unity than can be found in following Jesus together. Unity is not found in the diversity of church practices but in the core belief of following Jesus Christ (Rom 15:5). Unity in Jesus Christ is also the position of mature Christians (Eph 4:1-15). This is not an institutional unity, but a deep unity of faith and knowledge of God which transcends denominations, backgrounds cultures and ages.

Here is an interesting article by Peter Costello in The Age about some of the currently proposed legislation:

Lawrence Leung has recently been on TV in his series ‘Choose your own adventure.’ Here is an article from The Age which reflects many current attitudes toward religion. Enjoy:

‘The teatowel was my Jedi robe’

Here is an opinion piece in the Age that attempts to give expression to the value of footy (AFL) in Melbourne:

Footy really is more than just a game.

What I find interesting is that John Harms finds the value not so much in the game itself but in what it symbolises. Here are a few lines:

‘Football is far more than a distraction and an escape. We have found far more meaning in footy than that. It is an affirmation of the realities — the joy and the suffering — of life. It is an affirmation of who we are and what we do. It is one of the ways this culture expresses the human truths.’

‘It is our call to community’

‘It is our call to cast aside the tyranny of self for the sake of the team, to deny the ego and find the soul.’

‘It provides us with our mythology of hope.’

This gives voice to a religion of sport, and an explanation of the devotion it inspires in many. It is one of the reasons, at least in Melbourne, that you may not know what religion your colleagues follow but you will know the footy team they follow.

The Christian Narrative that has very much shaped our culture is being replaced by another narrative (or many others), the struggle to win the AFL, God help us.

Here is an interesting article in The Age concerning Sydney Catholic Cardinal George Pell’s assessment of religious feedom in this country. 

Pell believes West is now scared of Islam

Part of the struggle we find in our society is wanting to say that religion is a personal and private things, yet at the same time trying to indicate that it has an important place in society. Part of the popular notion of tolerance seems to be avoiding any criticism of religion.

At the World youth day celebrations here in Sydney a man from the ‘No to Pope’ Coalition drove into the celebrations with a mock popemobile, with the pope talking on a gold mobile phone and the caption “broadband link to my invisible friend”. The police wanted to charge him but have struggled to find a way to charge him. You can read some of the details here.

Whether this was the appropriate time or place for such a protest is certainly debatable but it does highlight the thorny issue of when it is appropriate to protest against religious views.

I certainly believe that it is important for Christians to fight against false teaching within the Church but it is difficult to work out how this ought to work its way out in our multicultural society. My hunch is that silence is an all too convienient cop out but there are certainly times and places for such things.

Any thoughts?