Category: Present

Many books have been about postmodernity and the generational differences between Builders and Boomers and Busters (Gen Xers) and Gen Y. I have purchased and read a lot of them. The problem with such books is that they try to treat large numbers of quite disparate people as if they were a homogeneous group. Looking at a person as the average of a set of statistical values does not really help you connect with that person.

The Holy Spirit works to create changes in people in the strangest of situations, sometimes even in uninspiring declining churches. However, the Holy Spirit is far more likely to bring about changes within a person’s life within the context of a dynamic community of passionately devoted followers of Jesus. The good news will only appear real to listeners if the environment in which the good news is communicated is consistent with the message.

It isn’t difficult for an outsider to be inspired by the radical teachings of Jesus about caring for the poor, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being peacemakers, turning the other cheek when someone hurts you, loving your enemies, giving generously to the needy, and being non-judgmental, but if the outsider perceives a credibility gap between the message and the actions of the community which preaches the message, the outsider is not likely to want to join.

Newspapers yesterday reported that the Burj Dubai which is under construction has already become the world’s tallest building. Avid Bible readers will recall that the Tower of Babel was the tallest building of its time, erected as a monument to humankind’s independence from God. The direct result was a scattering of people over the face of the earth and a confusion of languages. Pride leads to separation from God and separation from other people.

To celebrate the new world’s tallest building, let’s take a look at how we’re faring some thousands of years after the Tower of Babel. Some of the loudest voices we hear in the media are those of atheist philosophers who proclaim that God is unnecessary to explain the world, so therefore he doesn’t exist. Hmm, interesting logic – the world somehow blasted itself into existence out of nothing, and that can all be explained away by rational science.

Let’s see how we’re faring on the language front. There are 35 languages each of which is spoken as a first language by more than 30 million people. No language is spoken as a first language by more than 15% of people. Even English is spoken as a first language by less than 5% of people. It really seems as if we haven’t made very much progress since the Tower of Babel in respect of either prideful boasts against God or communicating with each other.

The magic words “War on Terror” seem to justify the abrogation of centuries of hard-won rights – the rights of citizens not to be tortured by the government, the right to a fair trial, the right of an accused person to know the evidence against him or her, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and the right of an accused person not to be imprisoned without being charged with an offence.

It is a disgraceful day for a supposedly civilised country when the government deliberately mistreats a person for political ends. Dr Haneef was arrested about two weeks ago, and held for 12 days without being charged with an offence. It now appears that he has been charged with recklessly aiding a terrorist organisation because he gave a relative a mobile phone SIM card with unexpired credits. For this act, he is threatened with 25 years in jail.

The magistrate yesterday granted Dr Haneef bail, but the government immediately revoked his visa and sent him to an immigration detention centre on the ground that he is illegally remaining in Australia – although against his will! How unjust is that? How can we claim to be the good guys if we are acting like the bad guys? Is it any wonder that the government’s chances of re-election later this year are minimal?

We’ve just had the Live Earth concerts to raise awareness of climate change, but some people are claiming that there is an element of hypocrisy in those who are leading the charge. Madonna has apparently invested in some environmentally-unfriendly companies. Sting has advertised Jaguar sports cars. Al Gore lives in a 20-room eight-bathroom home which consumes well above the average amount of power.

Almost everyone agrees that the overuse of energy is a bad thing, and many people are happy to demand that the government do something about it, but very few people are willing to start with themselves. We’re happy to attend a concert and make a bit of public noise on the subject, and then we sit back and congratulate ourselves on having done something.

We seem to have fallen into the delusion that by feeling sympathetic towards the environment we are actually doing something useful. It’s like thinking that you are helping to make poverty history simply by attending one of Bono’s concerts. If you want to make a difference in the world you have to actually do something yourself. Install a solar hot water service and solar electricity panels. Reduce your use of air conditioning and heating. It costs money and requires sacrifices, but if you’re not doing anything which requires sacrifices then you’re not doing anything at all.

Election fever is soon to hit us in Australia again. Who should you vote for? The traditional Christian approach seems to be to vote for the party which most reflects Christian moral positions on such issues as abortion. But is this the right approach?

A problem with politics is that when you vote you’re not just voting for one issue. You’re voting for a political party which has particular stances on a large range of different issues. You have to look at them all if you’re going to make a sensible decision. It’s almost an impossible task, because how do you weigh up completely different factors and trade them off against each other?

You can take the football team approach. You can pick one party and decide that it’s your team, and you can vote for it and stay loyal to it regardless of policies, competence, performance, or trustworthiness. In some countries this results in institutionalised bad government. People keep voting for Policitian X, because he happens to belong to their tribe. They refuse to consider the obvious facts that Politician X is corrupt, selfish, and incompetent.