When democracy and freedom are a sham

I highly recommend the movie Selma, based on the Selma to Montgomery marches that were key events in the USA civil rights movement, leading to passage of the Voting Rights Act, 50 years ago. It is moving, disturbing, and inspirational.



It seems hard to believe that only fifty years ago, it was virtually impossible for African-Americans to register to vote in southern states such as Alabama. Furthermore, peaceful protests were met with brutal violence. Yet that is true and so it is good to be confronted with it.

On the one hand, one can take comfort and encouragement from the fact that such blatant and systematic racial discrimination, intimidation, and violence no longer takes place. Furthermore, many African-Americans now hold political office, even President. On the other hand, it is very disturbing that there are still systematic/subtle attempts to stop certain social groups [mostly poor] from voting, through programs such as mandatory voter ID. And then there is police brutality, ....

Like any movie, based on historical events, the directors and writers have taken "creative" license to change some details, listed in great detail here.

The movie nicely captures how Martin Luther King Jr. was an inspirational figure, but human and struggling with fear, anxiety, relationships, and strategy. It also highlights the key role played by other leaders, such as Diane Lane, Andrew Young, John Lewis, and James Bevel.

Selma also highlights the dubious role played by the FBI who kept King and the movement under surveillance, including bugging their phones and sending intimidating letters and phone calls to King's wife.

The best quote in the movie: John Lewis says
‘I don’t see how President Johnson can send troops to Vietnam … and can’t send troops to Selma.” 

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.

Learning from past church history

Why do Christians believe what they do today? Where did current practices and institutions come from? How can we not repeat the mistakes of the past?

I am in a study group starting a short course on Early church history (up to about 600 AD), using a Moore College Correspondence course.

I thought this video was a nice introduction to the subject, both why the subject is important, and a few major events of the first century.



The second video in the series is here.

Biblical justice, reconciliation, and Majority world debt

My wife and I watched this excellent and challenging video. N.T. Wright first reviews the themes of justice in the Psalms and Jesus teaching on the Kingdom of God. Then he considers the case of Philemon and slavery. Finally, he makes a particularly insightful and poignant analysis of the problem of financial debt of the Majority world.

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.

A moving personal account from a former Muslim

I highly recommend the book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity by Nabeel Qureshi. In particular, I would recommend this book not just to people with Muslim and Christian backgrounds but also secularists and atheists. It may rattle your cage a little. It did mine.

The book is extremely well written and easy to read. It tells a fascinating and moving story. I read the whole book within two days because I just could not put it down. Besides the great story, the book has two significant strengths. First, it is quite educational. As he tells his story he gradually explains key aspects of Islam and Muslim practise and beliefs. I learnt an incredible amount. I was unsettled by my ignorance, but also challenged to learn more. Moreover, Qureshi does not just present facts but helps the reader see the world from the viewpoint of a Muslim, including what it feels like to be a Muslim, particularly living in the West. You are invited to walk in his shoes. The second strength is that Qureshi is warm and respectful of Muslims as people, while being (eventually) critical of the Qu'ran and Mohammed. Reading the book should be quite unsettling to Westerners who have a harsh and hostile attitude to Muslims. It also explains the diversity of Muslims and how many are greatly distressed by terrorist acts being committed in the name of Islam.

Qureshi grew up as a "third culture kid". His parents immigrated to the USA from Pakistan and are Ahmadiyya Muslims. His father served in the US Navy, including several years at a nuclear submarine base in Scotland. The family life centred around the local mosque and extended family. The family was warm, close knit, highly protective, and devout. Yet they were very isolated from the surrounding community. Although Qureshi attended secular schools, he had virtually non-Muslim friends, until he went to college. There he had a close Christian friend, who played a significant role in his life. This led to a long and painful re-examination of his religious beliefs. This should stimulate all of us to critically evaluate what we believe and why we believe it.

Qureshi highlights the incredible and tragic personal cost of leaving Islam, even for those living in the West. Some of the discussion of violence in the Qur'an and the life of Muhammad is unsettling.  The book makes clear following Jesus and following Muhammad are not the same thing. Also, a Muslim and a secular Westerner do not see the world in the same way.

Certain practices of Muslims were described that one could be easily critical of: weak apologetic arguments, appeal to authority, not going to source documents, social pressure to conform (role of shame), partisan factions, self righteousness, uncritical faith, special pleading to explain difficult verses in a holy text, double standards of reasoning, not really listening to others, ....
Yet, as a Christian I found this somewhat unsettling because I have sometimes seen somewhat similar practises in the Christian community!

So read the book and be unsettled.