Australia day reflections

Today is Australia Day, the public holiday that marks the arrival of the British in 1788. As a Christian, here are two resources that I found particularly helpful and challenging.

Preaching on Australia Day? by Peter Adam
This article contains a prayer that I will be reading at church today.

What This Aboriginal Christian Wants to Tell the Church About the Australia Fires

My favourites from 2019

Belated best wishes for the New Year!

Here are a few things that I particularly enjoyed in 2019.

Favourite Movies
Green Book
The Two Popes

Favourite TV series
Occupied
Young Sheldon

Favourite novel
The Day of the Lie

Favourite books
Sociology through the eyes of faith
Why Nations Fail

Favourite football game
Liverpool 4 Barcelona 0

Farewell to Facebook

I have had a facebook account for about ten years and have decided to delete it. There are many reasons for this. First, I rarely use it. When I do login and look at my ``friends'' posts there is some interesting content, but there are also things I don't enjoy or find edifying. On the other hand, I have so many other concerns that far outweigh the marginal benefits. My concerns include the following, in no particular order. All of them have been said before. [A more articulate and informed perspective is Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Accounts Right Now.]

Facebook is not good for the mental health of many. People may project a false ''perfect'' image of themselves that in turn leads to their ``friends'' feeling inadequate.

Facebook is not good for politics and democracy. It is not conducive to civil and informed dialogue. It promotes rather than restrains fake news. It promotes ``echo chambers'' where people's views and prejudices are reinforced rather than questioned or critically reflected on.

Facebook is not good for personal relationships. People say things they might never say to a person's face. The nuance associated with tone of voice or body language is absent.

Cybersecurity. It is not clear how much personal data is being collected, sold, and stolen by companies but also possibly to repressive governments.

Facebook is a greedy unethical company with little sense of social responsibility.

I realise this is a complicated issue. Many good things do happen on Facebook. In the current world one cannot abandon all social media and communication tools. I am not naive or self-righteous. For example, I will continue to use WhatsApp (which is owned by Facebook) as it has end-to-end encryption and does not have some of the problems above.