What is a university for?

Universities have changed dramatically over the course of my lifetime—a lifetime which has included 9 years as a student and 32 years as an academic, across 6 universities in Australia and the USA. Australian universities are receiving increasing media attention due to failures in management and governance, including a recent ABC Four Corners documentary.  Numerous books by academics lament the state of Australian universities.  They appear to be all about four M's: money, marketing, management, and metrics. Learning, understanding, and discovery for its own sake seems alien and marginalised. Questions that need more attention include What is a university for? and What values should a university embody? In the New College Lectures for 2025 Peter Harrison went much deeper than the public debates and considered the role of secularisation, values, and virtues. 

This is the beginning of an article I wrote What is a university for? A Christian Vision for the Modern Secular University 

CASE subscribers can read a nicely formatted, illustrated, and hyperlinked article here.

My best blog posts from 2025?

Best wishes for the New Year!

Here is a list of the posts that I wrote last year that I hope get the most interest.

 My articles on theology and science. I put together links to all the articles I have written over the last 25 years.

Participating in the greatest story ever told. This is review of Eat this Book, by Eugene Peterson.

A heartfelt reckoning with Australia's history of colonialism, racism, and Whiteness. This year was the beginning of my engagement with Stan Grant.

Living and Dying for your Country. This was a review of Patriot by Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader.

Science, Humanity, and Jesus. This is a talk I gave at Theology on Tap in Brisbane.

Genesis, Science, and Jesus. A short talk by John Dickson that was part of an episode of his podcast, Undeceptions.

In Praise of Papua New Guinea

Happy 50th Birthday Papua New Guinea!

 Fifty years ago, Papua New Guinea became an independent nation after years of colonial rule by Australia.

There is much to celebrate!

Here are a few sample postings.

Ten Things I will be Celebrating, by my son Luke.

In Praise of Papua New Guinea, by myself.

Comparing ourselves to 100+-year-old countries is unfair, by Kingtau Mambon.

A heartfelt reckoning with Australia's history of colonialism, racism, and Whiteness

Life experiences shape us, for better or for worse. They can be rich, meaningful, and beautiful. They can be awful and scar us for life. Much of our experience is shaped/determined by the family, culture, and moment we were born into. 

Both Stan Grant and I were born in Australia in the early 1960s and went to high school in the Canberra suburb of Belconnen. Besides, living many years outside Australia, perhaps that is the sum total of our common life experience. He has been successful as a journalist, both internationally and in Australia.

Stan Grant is a Wiradjuri man. His grandparents' home was bulldozed by the Police with the authority of the British crown. His family was dirt poor, always lived on the fringes of towns, and moved continually as his father sought itinerant work. He never stayed in one school for more than a year. No one in his family finished high school, let alone attended university. He says his family was characterised by love. His grandfather fought for Australia in World War II, but when he returned, he was not allowed to go to the local pub to share a drink with his mates. Other returned soldiers were entitled to housing. His grandfather was not. Family members were often harassed by the police. One was put in prison for speaking his native language. Until his family moved to Canberra when he was a teenager, most of his peers were indigenous.

In contrast, I spent the first 22 years of my middle-class life in the same house, my father had the same job that whole time,  both my parents had a Ph.D., and the schools I attended were "lily white".

Literature can be powerful because it can create empathy. It can help us see and feel the world through the eyes and experiences of another person. Incidentally, this is one argument for the importance of the humanities and a liberal arts education. 

Grant is a gifted writer, and his book, The Queen is Dead gave me a glimpse into a world so different to my own, even though it is spatially close and overlapping. The emotions I experienced included sadness, confusion, shock, anger, embarrassment, powerlessness, despair, frustration, and guilt. I guess that my emotional responses are tame and transient compared to the raw emotions that Grant lives with, day in and day out.

Most chapters begin with the refrain. "The White Queen is dead."  The book is prompted by the death of the British monarch in 2023. It is not about her as a person. "The White Queen is a metaphor". (page 9). The book is a personal reckoning with the legacy of colonialism and racism in Australia.

"How do we live with the weight of history? How do we not fall prey to soul-destroying vengeance and resentment, yet never relent in our righteous demand for justice?" (page 5).

Reflecting on his and others' response to the death of the White Queen, he states:

"And in my anger I am confronted again by the two consuming questions of my life: what is Whiteness? And what is it to live with catastrophe?" (page 54)

While in primary school, a white student asked Stan, "Why are you so Black?" (page 84). This incident has tormented him his whole life, and he keeps coming back to it in the book.

Grant reflects painfully on public events over the past quarter of a century that have attracted media attention and have a racist dimension. This includes the significance of the Sydney Olympics in 2000 for Australian identity, Cathy Freeman's gold medal in the 400 metres at that Olympics, the abuse of footballer Adam Goodes, the sponsorship of the Australian women's netball team by Hancock Prospecting, Hawthorn Football Club's treatment of indigenous players, and  Grant's experience working for and eventual departure from the public broadcaster ABC News. He helped me see these events in a raw and painful way.

Grant provides a helpful critique of modernity and the Enlightenment. White men "invented modernity as a place of endless possibility." (page 19). The freedom promised often degenerated into tyranny. Modernity provided an intellectual framework and justification for racism and colonialism. 

"Identities can nourish us. They can give us community. Identities can give us voice. That notion of identity is a conceit of the West - identity as freedom. But identity can also - and far more often than not, in fact - be a pathway to tyranny." (page 23).

"Modernity has supplanted god with its own faith in progress and reason. The liberalism that emerged out of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Enlightenment imagines that we can wash ourselves clean of the past. But there can be no redemption without atonement." (page 214)

We discussed the book this month in the theology reading group. At first glance, the book might not appear to have much theology, particularly if you read the publisher's blurb

Grant dedicates the book :

To Baiame, my creator

To Jesus Christ, my saviour

To Yindyamarra, the Spirit

"Vindicate me, O God. And plead my cause against an ungodly nation" (Psalm 43:1)"

Theological allusions are scattered through the book. Two short sections (pages 207-211 and 272-278) focus on theology. He engages with Simone Weil, the mystic who had a strong solidarity with the oppressed, and Miroslav Volf.

The first section reflects on his experience of church while growing up. A similar reflection is in a beautiful and powerful article, “This is the way healing begins”: Recovering the language of lament in a disenchanted age 

"For me, Easter is not a time of resurrection. I don’t rush to Easter Sunday but dwell in the darkness of Holy Saturday — the day after the crucifixion, when those closest to the crucified Christ shivered in fear. On that day there is no promise of tomorrow. There is no hope. It is the day when faith itself feels destitute.

It was the darkness of Holy Saturday that I felt — deep in my bones — when I was a little boy. I felt it in the church on the mission on the outskirts of Griffith in New South Wales that was a home, spiritually and physically, to my family. It could have been any of the missions scattered across our country. The places to which we were banished, and yet managed to find refuge.

There was a tiny wooden church on the mission. I remember cramming into the pews, with my best Sunday clothes on and my hair spit down.

My uncle was the pastor. He was an old-time fire-and-brimstone preacher. Not long into his sermon, his white shirt would be stained with sweat. He would constantly mop his brow with a handkerchief. He clutched a tattered black leather-bound copy of the King James Bible under one arm, yet never needed to read from it. He could recite the scripture from memory. With his other arm he would point. Each word landing — and I felt always landing on me.

My head would ache in that church. I would twitch and look out the window. I felt a heavy weight in that church. I have felt it in other black churches, places where our people come to worship. We pray differently. We sing differently. Our hymns are songs of sorrow...

Ours, you see, was the church of the forsaken.

Why, you may be wondering, am I talking about God, about the church, about Christianity? Is that not the religion of empire? Isn’t Christianity the legacy of colonisation? Certainly since the time of the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine, Christianity has been wielded as the divine right of kings. It has interwoven itself with power and tyranny.

Yes, those proclaiming the word of God came to this land with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. The doctrine of discovery, of terra nullius, was itself a sort of decree — that any land not belonging to a Christian monarch was free for the taking.

Yes, God sat astride empire. But that was not our God. That is Christendom, not Christianity. God did not arrive here with the first fleet. We knew God. We walked in God’s creation, in the land that God had given us. We told stories to God. We painted God on our rocks and on our bodies. We had our word for God: Baiame.

When we heard the stories of Jesus, we heard the story of a dark-skinned man in a land of empire. Oppressed and colonised. A tribal man. We heard the story of someone speaking back to power. We heard the words of an ancestor. And in the crucifixion. We felt the wounds. We felt the shame. We felt the abandonment."

This is how theology should be done: personal and contextual, rather than impersonal and abstract. 

Stan Grant writes some wonderful columns every fortnight for The Saturday Paper. There is also a beautiful episode, "Disenchanted Age" of the Undeceptions podcast, where he is interviewed by John Dickson.

In Praise of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is a beautiful and fascinating country. It has incredible biological, cultural, and linguistic diversity.

The island of New Guinea has more than 18,000 described plant species, an estimated 150,000 insect species, 740 species of birds, 276 species of mammals, 641 species of amphibians and reptiles, 600 species of coral and 3,000 species of reef fish. PNG is a magnet for research biologists. A glimpse of this beautiful diversity is captured in the book, New Guinea: Nature and Culture of Earth's Grandest Island by Bruce M. Beehler and Tim Laman.

I love this video about the mating ritual of one of the iconic birds of paradise.

New Guinea has around 840 living languages, making it the most linguistically diverse country in the world. This is more than ten per cent of the world's living languages. 

Papua New Guinea (PNG, the political entity that covers the eastern half of the island) and Australia have a long and intertwined history. Australia inherited it as a colony from Britain and ruled it until 1975 when it gained independence.

Port Moresby, the capital, is only a three-hour flight from Brisbane, where I live. But, it is a different world.

I have visited PNG five times to visit my son, who works there. Next month I will be there for his wedding! 

Recent experiences and reading have increased my appreciation of PNG and of the challenges that it faces. Unfortunately, there is a lot of negative media coverage in Australia. Most focuses on problems such as crime, tribal violence, corruption, and political instability. These are real problems but should be put in the context of positive achievements, the role of outside actors, and history.

Only one hundred years ago, most people in PNG lived in villages and had not even encountered white people, let alone have any awareness of Western culture, democracy, or economies. Since becoming independent of colonial rule, PNG has maintained a parliamentary democracy, free elections, a free and independent press, an independent judiciary, and the army has not interfered in politics. PNG has not suffered from a civil war, a military coup, or political repression. This is incredibly impressive, considering how after the end of Western colonial rule, so few countries in the world have avoided such failures.

Australian actors have played a significant role in some of the challenges that PNG faces. For example, the Australian branch of the bank UBS, charged the PNG government hundreds of millions of dollars to arrange a loan for a dubious investment that led to the PNG government losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

The closest thing to a civil war has been the conflict on Bougainville Island, which seeks to become independent of PNG, something the national government is not keen to allow. Unfortunately, Australian actors helped create this problem, as it all began with the establishment of the hugePanguna mineby the Australian company Conzinc Rio Tinto . The conflict ultimately led to the Sandline affair, where the PNG tried to hire mercenaries to "resolve" the conflict.

Like many Majority World countries, PNG is plagued by corruption. This occurs at multiple scales from the small to the large. An example of the small is a government bureaucrat taking a small bribe to speed up the processing of some paperwork. An example of the large is a politician diverting millions of dollars from a government bank account into their own personal bank account in Switzerland or Panama.

Large scale corruption would not be possible without Western enablers. On Britain, The Economist, stated, based on the book Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals.

"No other country offers a comparable array of enablers; from banks and lawyers to public-relations firms and other “reputation managers”."

The rapid change of PNG is beautifully captured in the autobiography of Albert Kiki Maori, Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime. It also describes how he experienced discrimination and racism by Australians, but was empowered to have a political vision for independence from his brief time studying in Fiji.

The Embarrassed Colonialist (2016) is a helpful and short book by Sean Dorney It does not gloss over PNG's problems but emphasises how there is much to celebrate and nationals should be proud of what they have achieved since independence. 

A helpful discussion of Australia's fraught relationships with its Pacific neighbours is discussed in a podcast by Gordon Peake, Statecraftiness. 

The power of saying sorry

Richard Flanagan is an esteemed Australian writer. My son recently gave our family a copy of Flanagan's recent book, Question 7. It is a personal memoir that masterfully weaves together a wide array of topics, from nuclear physics to the Tasmanian wilderness. The most striking part of the book was the following beautiful passage (page 140).

"Three Japanese women to see my father many years later. They came with gifts. They asked him to tell his story and they listened they said they were sorry.

There was a sense of strange ceremony, the awkwardness of ensuring something exquisitely fragile was not dropped before being given and received. There was a reserve on the part of both my father and the women, perhaps explicable as a nervousness about giving offence when none was intended.

They were part of a group of Japanese women committed to exposing Japanese war crimes. Two were middle-aged. One was elderly. They were brave and dignified. The eldest was their leader. She had survived the the Tokyo fire bombing. My father expressed his sorrow.

His children and his grandchildren were all there. We watched this with its strange weight of human dignity and goodness. I could not ever have believed that saying sorry might mean so much. None was the government. None bore responsibility. No one spoke for anyone other than themselves. Nothing said had had any national consequence. Yet in that strange communion lay liberation. What other answer can any of us make to the terrible question of history?"

An integrated perspective on life

Yesterday was a public holiday, known as Australia Day. January 26 marks the arrival of British settlers in 1788. It has been suggested that the day should be called Invasion Day. Since the British settlement, the indigenous people have suffered immensely from numerous atrocities. Unfortunately, much suffering continues today. With regard to health, poverty, education, substance abuse, incarceration, and discrimination, there are massive gaps between the indigenous and non-indigenous populations. For Christians, this suffering presents a significant challenge. We are to pursue reconciliation, justice, and mercy.

On the eve of January 26, my family attended an excellent (virtual) event, #ChangeTheHeart, organised by Common Grace. You can watch it here.

I want to note something that I found striking: the integrated perspective about life held by indigenous communities. My new awareness reflects (ashamedly) my ignorance. Different cultures have different values, traditions, and ways of thinking and doing. It is fascinating and helpful to have the privilege of having a window into other cultures. It can make us more self-aware of our own culture, including our own biases, prejudices, and assumptions. For those who follow Jesus, this is particularly important because the Kingdom of God transcends all cultures. Unfortunately, Christian institutions and individuals (including me) have a very checkered history of conflating their own culture with Christianity.

Over more than 65,000 years Aboriginal people developed a strong affinity for the land, sensitivity to the rhythms of nature, and a strong sense of history, extended family, community, and spirituality. In almost every sense these orientations go against the values of modern Western society which is oriented around capitalism, individualism, the future, rationalism, technology, and secularism.

Indigenous communities have an integrated view of life, that developed over hundreds of generations. They do not separate economics, politics, ethics, law, community, and the environment. This holistic perspective is something that the Western world is very slowly coming to awareness of. One concrete example is the push for ESG investing, where investments are not made solely on the basis of profit but bring Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance criteria into investment decisions. The covid-19 pandemic has accentuated a general awareness of the interconnectedness of things, such as public health, the economy, government, business, and education. Most essential workers are paid minimum wages! We are not completely isolated independent autonomous individuals who determine our own destiny. Our well being is very dependent on that of others.

I look forward to learning more and hope and pray that Australia will seek reconciliation with and justice for the original custodians of the land that we now call Australia.

Reflections on the coronavirus crisis. I

I am a wealthy Westerner who has a comfortable and orderly life. But now I am experiencing minor inconveniences, such as limited travel, canceled events (will Liverpool still get to win the Premier League?), working from home, and a drop in the current value of my financial assets.

Like most people, I have been surprised, anxious, confused, and stressed by what is happening to the world. Here are a few preliminary thoughts on the things I am learning. Many are interrelated.

Perhaps I should not be surprised at this unexpected event.

 Let's take a historical perspective. Consider the twentieth century in the Western world. We made amazing scientific, medical, and technological advances.
However, there were also two World Wars, the Spanish flu epidemic (which killed more people than World War I), multiple stock market crashes, the great depression, natural disasters, terrorism, AIDS epidemic, the cold war, ..
Now, consider the first two millennia. It is even worse: an endless story of wars, earthquakes, famines, epidemics, ...
And then there is life in the Majority World today: chaos, instability, scarcity, disease, corruption, civil wars, epidemics, poverty, starvation, violence, ...
My predictable stable life of the affluent Westerner is not normal. It is a historic and geographic anomaly.

We are not in control as much as we think we are and wish we were.

Normally we have the luxury of making plans and setting goals: social events, travel, holidays, work, retirement, a medical check-up, shopping, ...

We are more interconnected than we may realise.

In the modern Western world, we pride ourselves on individual identity and individual freedom. I am the master of my destiny. I am defined by my achievements. If I succeed that is because I worked hard and used my extraordinary abilities. I deserve to enjoy the fruits of my success, and not others. I should be able to do what I want. I can choose my friends, my family, my work, my hobbies... It is all about me!
The coronavirus pandemic brings home just how interconnected the globalised economy has become; from international air travel (rapidly spreading the virus) to industrial supply chains.
There are merits to individual freedom, meritocracies, and individual initiative. However, the coronavirus is a rude interruption that things are not quite that simple. We do depend on others, for better and for worse, far more than we may like to admit. Our health depends on the health of others. Our economic well being does too. I am not the master of my destiny.

One response: selfishness
Many of us have responses to the crisis such as the following. Will I get sick? Well, even if I do I am young and healthy so it will be just like the flu. Will I lose my job? Will I still graduate from college this year? How much money have I lost on the stock market? Can I get a refund on my travel bookings? Is the government going to save my company? What about my social life?
In Australia we have people hoarding toilet paper, even fighting other customers. We have people with minor colds abusing hospital staff who will not test them for the virus because of limited resources. Political and business leaders are doing cold calculations of how certain actions they take may hurt or benefit them personally. Adversity can bring out the worst in us. It reveals a dark side to our nature.

Another response: fear
This is scary. On many levels. The future is uncertain. Will things get worse? How much worse? This can lead to panic and over-reacting. This reflects itself in hoarding toilet paper, panic selling of shares, believing rumours, ...

Another response: denial 
It isn't really that bad. We can handle it. We have the best medical system in the world. It is no worse than regular flu. Things will soon blow over. Let's wait and see what happens and not take drastic measures.

Another response: love, concern, and sacrificial service
Adversity can also bring out the best in us. Thinking beyond ourselves. Caring for others. Doctors and nurses who work to exhaustion. Some get sick. Some die. All in order to save the lives of others.

The desires of our hearts are revealed
We often hide from others (and ourselves) our inner self; what we really value, want, and think. Calamities can reveal our priorities and values. What are we most upset or worried about? Is it health, the economy, individual freedoms, our stock portfolio, ..?

Who will suffer the most?
Wealthy Western countries are ill-equipped with the medical resources to deal with this epidemic. Majority World countries will particularly struggle due to their extremely limited medical resources. As usual, the poor, the marginalised, the sick, the weak, and the elderly, will suffer the most, both in the short term and the long term.

There are invisible realities.
It is pretty amazing. We cannot see the virus. We don't know if we have it or someone else does or if it is on a doorknob. [I know that you can see it with an electron microscope and that there are medical tests for it]. However, in everyday life the virus is invisible. But it is a reality; one that has serious implications for everything, not just our health, but even for our close relationships, for the global economy, and for politics.
In spite of all that scientists do know about viruses (which is pretty amazing!) we currently know little about key properties of this virus and the associated epidemic: exactly how it spreads, which individuals are more likely to carry it, incubation periods, who is most at risk, .... We do not have a vaccine.

All this ignorance should humble us and make us open to the possibility that there are many things we do not understand in our lives now. Further, we should be open to other realities that we may be oblivious to, poorly understand, or have important implications for our lives. The Bible claims that there are spiritual realities; we cannot see them directly. Nevertheless, the spiritual realm does exist and has important implications for every part of our lives.

A time for re-evaluation
Our worlds are being turned upside down. What will we learn from this experience, both individually and collectively? Will we change? Or will we go back to ``normal''?

In some future posts, I hope to look at how Jesus engages with some of these issues.

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

Weathering the storms of life in rural Australia

My daughter gave me a copy of the novel, The Dry by Jane Harper. It successfully achieves several things that one rarely sees in a novel: a captivating and clever murder mystery, wonderful prose, a story of people coming to terms with the trauma of their past, and a picture of life in a specific community: a small town in rural Australia suffering in a drought.
The novel was praised in a New York Times review.

When and why do institutions fail?

Living in stable and prosperous Western countries for decades I took institutions (governments, courts, banks, businesses, universities, churches, charities) for granted. However, over the past decade, I have spent more time in the Majority world, where many institutions struggle to be effective because of corruption or lack of resources. Unfortunately, in the West now many institutions are under siege, starting to fall apart, or doing significant damage. Thus, I have gained a new appreciation for just important institutions are for human flourishing. In November, I have been asked to give a talk to stimulate a discussion about this issue. Hence, I am thinking about the issue more. An article I found helpful and stimulating is this book review by Andy Crouch.

A question I have been thinking about is,
When and why do institutions fail to promote human flourishing?
I believe there are two primary reasons. Often they become intertwined. Both are associated with an inward focus rather than an outward focus.

People within the institution use (abuse) it for their own personal gain (money, power, sex).

Preserving the institution becomes a primary goal in decision making.

Australia has recently seen powerful and painful examples of both reasons.
The first example was documented in the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation_and Financial Services Industry
Banks created perverse incentive schemes that employees used to enrich themselves at the expense of customers.

The second was documented in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Churches (of many different denominations) covered up abuse for decades in order to protect the "reputation" of the institution.

Most institutions are started by people who have a vision of contributing to the  ``common good, '' whether it is providing a needed service, protecting the innocent, or providing a worthwhile product. However, the problems often begin in later generations when members of the institution are not so passionate or committed to that vision, and have more self-centred goals. Unfortunately, this is transition reflects some common features in the growth and evolution of large organisations.

The highs and lows of Christian history

A valid criticism of Christianity is that it has been used to justify, to condone and to ignore all kinds of evil: war, genocide, slavery, poverty, discrimination, oppression, abuse, ...
On the other hand, over the past two thousand years some Christians have sometimes played a leading role in many noble initiatives in health care, education, human rights, poverty alleviation, ....
A challenge in any public discussion is to present a balanced perspective of these lows and highs.

The Centre for Public Christianity in Australia has produced a new documentary that aims to present a balanced perspective on this mixed history.
It is now showing in Australia. Unfortunately, I won't get to see it for a while because I am overseas.

For the Love of God. Trailer from CPX on Vimeo.

Talk on mental health for Christian academics

Today I am giving a talk, "Mental health and well being for academics", at a Simeon Network conference in Canberra, for Christian faculty and Ph.D students.
Here are the slides.

I refer to a relevant talk by Santa Ono, President of UBC.

A helpful book from a Christian perspective is Understanding Depression and Finding Hope.

A simple book for men is Five Steps to Mens Mental Health.

The incredible power of symbols and rituals

They unite people. They divide people.

A national flag. A national anthem. A Confederate flag. A crucifix. A statue of Cecil Rhodes. A communion wafer.
Standing, kneeling, or sitting.

These symbols sometimes mean very different things to different people. That is when they divide communities.

I was in the USA for the last month and the recent controversy about what NFL plays do or do not do during the playing of the national anthem really brought these ideas home to me.
Some players have been sitting or kneeling or staying in the locker room during the national anthem. They are doing this to highlight issues about racism and particularly police violence against African Americans. On the orders of President Trump, Vice President Pence recently left an NFL game after the anthem in protest after two dozens players from one team did not stand. He said

“I left today’s Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem.”

It is interesting (and perhaps disturbing to some) how to Pence (and many Americans) respect for the military is conflated with standing for the national anthem. For context, it should also be pointed out that before 9/11, players always stayed in the locker room during playing of the national anthem. Back then, they were never accused of being unpatriotic. My dear wife, points out how she finds it confusing that to kneel is an act of disrespect, whereas Tim Tebow [a famous NFL player] became famous for his kneel. There is a fascinating article in the Washington Post [written by an Australian theologian!] Colin Kaepernick vs. Tim Tebow: A tale of two Christians on their knees.

Here I should clarify my mixed "allegiances" and limited qualifications to comment on the USA. I am not a US citizen. But, my wife and two children both hold US and Australian citizenship. I lived there from 1983 to 1994. Since then I have probably spent an average of about one month a year there, both for work and visiting family.
Australians have very different attitudes to nationhood, patriotism, national anthems, politicians, and authority... but that is another story. To illustrate, when the national anthem was changed a few decades ago, a folk song, Waltzing Matilda, was a serious contender. It is about an itinerant farm worker who steals a sheep and commits suicide to avoid capture by the police...
On the other hand, Anzac day, has become highly symbolic, including in ways that I find worrisome.

I also want to confess my own mis-adventures. I am embarrassed to tell this story. When I was first in the USA I was invited to a Fourth of July concert and fireworks by some American friends. I was young and naive (clueless?). When the National Anthem was played and sung with great gusto by everyone standing around me I remained seated. I thought, "I am not an American and I don't like President Reagan or US foreign policy, so why should I stand?" Afterwards, I felt awkward. Now I think it was rude, particularly to my friends and hosts.
Having said that, if I played in the NFL [laugh out loud!] and one of my African-American team-mates asked me to kneel with him in solidarity I would.

These issues are not unique to the USA. In India, last year following a government directive,

The Supreme Court has ruled that the national anthem should be played before the screening of films in cinema halls, and that all should “stand up in respect.” “...people should feel that they live in a nation and show respect to the national anthem and the national flag,” Justice Dipak Misra said in the ruling.

People who oppose such directives or are critical of other government policies, such as military action in Kashmir, are increasingly painted as "anti-national".

Why does all this matter?
It does raise important questions about the meaning of freedom in democratic societies and how to live in a pluralistic community with a diversity of values and perspectives.
It is particularly important that on both sides of these debates to try to understand the points of view of those with different views to yours.
The symbols really can mean quite different things to different people.
If we want to build community and respect the dignity of others we will consider how our actions may be interpreted.
There are also questions about how the powerful use these symbols to manipulate people to stay in power and/or to distract debate about arguably more substantial and concrete issues.

What about religious symbols?
To hard-core Protestants they are just idolatry.
Yet, communion [bread and wine] has important symbolic value in focussing thoughts on the death, resurrection, of Jesus and on the community of the church.
A cross is an incredibly powerful symbol of The Cross of Jesus [his suffering, death, and its atoning power for sin].

One of the most important biblical concepts and symbols is imageo dei. Humans are made in the image of God. There are many subtleties and debates about exactly what this means. But I think the following is one of the most important messages of Genesis One, which has nothing to do with biological science and history. If we disrespect the image we disrespect God. Thus, any action of disrespect to any human [whether abuse, exploitation, racism, ridicule, violence, ...] is actually dishonouring God.

A long journey of emotional resolution

My wife and I went to see the movie Lion. It recreates the true story of an Indian boy who is separated from his poor family and ends up getting adopted by an upper middle-class family in Australia.

I highly recommend it. Besides being a moving story it deals with several substantial issues:

the incredible emotional bond between children and parents, whether adopted or biological

the jarring disparity between the material poverty of much of India and the material wealth and comfort of upper middle-class Australia (something I am too familiar with),

the tragedy of street children.

This week in the New York Times

I think the New York Times is a benchmark for high-quality journalism. It is independent, thorough, thoughtful, and analytical. When in the USA in July and August I really enjoyed reading a hard copy every few days.
My wife and I do have an on-line subscription; both so we get access and because it is important to support high-quality journalism. Currently, in India, I am restricted to reading online.

Here are four articles from the past few days that I thought were particularly stimulating.

Buffett Calls Trump’s Bluff and Releases His Tax Data
Warren Buffett is one of the wealthiest people in the world. Yet, he has real integrity, generosity, a modest lifestyle, and a concern for social justice.

Flush and Dominant, Australia’s Banks Come Under Pressure
It is always interesting to see what it takes for Australia to make it into the New York Times. Unfortunately, it is often major failings of Australia, such as our shameful treatment of asylum seekers. I did not realise that the "big 4" banks are comparable in size to Goldman Sachs, and more profitable.

The Professor Wore a Hijab in Solidarity — Then Lost Her Job
This long Magazine article concerns a former Professor at Wheaton College. The article is striking for the detailed discussion of subtle and important theological issues.

Among Donald Trump’s Biggest U.S. Fans: Hindu Nationalists
This is an example of how the Times finds interesting and important stories that others don't even look for, let alone report.

Is this racist or just funny?

In Australia a new sit-com Here Come the Habibs just started on commercial television. It chronicles the interactions between a Lebanese immigrant family and their caucasian neighbours in a wealthy Sydney suburb. Some claim it is racist, others think it is built on stereotypes, and others think it is  just funny. It is bit in the genre of Upper Middle Bogan.
I actually really like it. I think it is quite funny and does a good job of making fun of the snobbery and latent racism of some Australians.

I am unimpressed by public debt scare mongering

"If we don't drastically cut public spending we will all end up like Greece or Detroit".
Conservatives in Australia are often claiming this.

Yesterday, The Daily Telegraph, one of Rupert Murdoch's mouthpieces, ran a front page story, about a recent "report" from the accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers, claiming Australia is heading for a one trillion $ debt.

John Quiggin has an excellent blog post, critiquing this.
The first criticism is that this "report" is not even available to the public. If you are going to make such grandiose claims, and if a newspaper is going to report them, you need to make the document available so others can see the basis for the claim.

But, my main concerns are twofold.
First, Australia has one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios in the world. It is not even close to Germany or the USA, let alone Greece.

Second, I find highlighting these debt concerns by conservatives is inconsistent, insincere and hollow. Suppose there is an an impending crisis. Then we need to solve it. That means we need to cut all spending, including defence, middle class "welfare", tax breaks to business, dubious anti-refugee schemes [almost $1 million per person], politicians pensions, ....
and we need to increase revenue [i.e. increase taxes and cut tax avoidance].
Yet, I don't see that passion or concrete proposals in that regard.

If you look at the last Federal Government budget, there were proposals to significantly cut spending on education and health care, but proposals to significantly increase spending on other areas such as defence, medical research, paid parental leave, infrastructure projects favourable to large multinational corporations ....

Highlighting debt is just scare-mongering to achieve a different political and ideological agenda.

A common mistake newly elected politicians make

Arrogance.
Thinking that people have given them a mandate for any policy or action they come up with.
This mistake is shared by conservatives and liberals, regardless of the political party.

In my home state of Queensland we just had an election which just saw a massive swing against the government. At the previous election they held 78 out of 89 seats in parliament, the largest majority in Queensland history. Normally, governments with such majorities can survive at least one or two more elections. But, they did not. The Premier, Campbell Newman lost his own seat, along with 44 other members of his government.

What went wrong?

A chronicle of many of the controversial actions of the Newman government is here.

One commentator said:

a one-term government that ambushed the electorate with radical, unpopular and frequently confusing decisions driven by an arrogant and out-of-touch leader who was unable even to explain his agenda, let alone convince the voters of its merits.

But what is really going on in most elections in the Western world which are dominated by two political parties?

Roughly 70-80 per cent of the voters always vote the same way, regardless of the policies or performance of their favoured party. Then there are the 20-30 per cent of the population that are "swing voters". I think their votes are often negative not positive. They are disappointed in the current government and so vote against it. It is not that they are inspired by the policies or practices of the politician that they do vote for. Even if they agree with some of their policies they do not agree with all of their policies. Furthermore, it is increasingly common for politicians and parties, particularly in Australia, to actually campaign with few or just vague policies. After they are elected they then start to announce specific policies.

Yet, it seems to me a common assumption of newly elected governments is that they have a mandate for any and every policy they try to implement.
This is just arrogance.

A great satire on Australian upper middle class pretensions

My family is really enjoying watching the Australian TV series Upper Middle Bogan. It is very funny, being quite the satire on upper middle class Australia and its pretensions and anxieties.
Much is sometimes made of the egalitarian nature of Australian society. Although, it is certainly much more egalitarian than most societies, both Western and Eastern, it still exhibits class distinctions. Furthermore, there are distinct sub-cultural differences, even within caucasians. The series highlights the clash of sub-cultures.

The importance and value of families, with all their faults, is nicely portrayed.