Here’s a few good ones from the Age today. The first one, from Rikk Watts, is particularly worthwhile:
Why is it wrong to teach decency?
Date: February 26 2008
THE Federal Government is deeply concerned about faith-based schools ("Faith school boom creates division”, The Age, 25/2). And why? Because they do not believe in evolution.
Dear me, how could their students ever become good citizens, responsible parents, capable doctors and helpful shop assistants, or design homes, plan their budgets, get their children to school and write computer programs?
The very idea that life might have a purpose and humans are not merely accidents wandering towards extinction is obviously a profound threat to our collective social cohesion and self-image.
It gets worse: they actually believe (as have, and do, large sections of humanity for millenniums) that in the long run it’s healthier for a marriage not to engage in premarital sex.
One could add to this frightful list that these schools often have lower levels of violence, better classroom control, more parent input, and also teach such patently divisive attitudes as showing respect for those with whom you disagree, and loving your neighbour and even your enemy.
Normally, as an expatriate teaching overseas, I’m proud to be Australian. But this is a deeply embarrassing throwback to the Big Brother, Orwellian mentality of the old dyed-in-the-wool, lock-step leftists.
Welcome to the new, improved, non-faith-based Inquisition.
Rikk Watts, Vancouver, Canada
Cherished values
THE idea that Christian schools are divisive is misguided, if not downright offensive.
Christian schools teach children to love their neighbour, to act towards others as they would have others act towards them, to love justice and act mercifully, to value peace and be agents for reconciliation.
The most cherished of our democratic values have been inherited from the Christian faith, and it is these principles that we teach when preparing young Australians to be leading citizens.
Stephen O’Doherty, chief executive officer, Christian Schools Australia
Yet here we all are …
MICHAEL Bachelard confuses the issue when he refers to some Christian schools asserting that God is the creator. I’d expect that of all religious schools.
This is not the same as creationism, which is a dogmatic mantra that opposes the spirit of scientific investigation.
It promotes long-dead ideas such as dinosaurs coexisting with modern man, and fully formed chickens (etc) appearing in a flash of magic.
Only a minority of religious people insist on this idea, frightened that they are under attack by science. Those more secure in their faith feel no need for such a defence.
Evolution does not say anything about God. Neither does stamp collecting.
LAST week it was reported that the national schools chaplaincy program, announced in October 2006, had stalled. It was further reported that there is a skills shortage. This is news to ACCESS ministries, the largest provider of chaplains in Victoria. By the middle of this year, we will have 209 new chaplaincies across the state. ACCESS has provided chaplains to government schools since 1955. Before the federal funding, we had 80 statewide. By the end of this year, that number will be almost 300.
Interviews are ongoing and there is no lack of high-quality, experienced applicants. All our chaplains are first-class professionals. It must be remembered that more than 2600 school principals have applied for funding of a chaplain. This is clearly a reflection that they see a chaplain as an integral member of the school community.
There is no doubting the positive role chaplains have played, and will continue to play, as they provide support to our young people. Equally, there is no doubt that schools will continue to demand to have them and that we will continue to meet the demand.
I’m with Adele Horin (Sorry, wrong number: get with the times and try again, Herald, March 1). There’s something truly amiss in the inclusion of only one woman as co-chair in the Prime Minister’s 2020 summit. I too regret someone has to do the counting and that that someone has to be us. And I too reject affirmative action for numbers’ sake, and not for merit. It is an insult to women.
But I don’t agree that more women should have been included simply because we have a right to be there. I think more women should have been included because women are different to men. Even at the level of biology, our experiences, fears and aspirations are different. But beyond that, we think differently. We communicate differently. Women add something that men can’t. If we can only hold together equality and difference then women might be recognised for all we were created to be.
Claire Smith, Chatswood
Among those calling for more women at the 2020 summit I take seriously only those who are clamouring for a good number of full-time wives and mothers. With five children and a husband my wife has had very little paid employment over the past 36 years, but she has had plenty of experience as a cook, housekeeper, counsellor, nurse, educator, handiworker, helper of neighbours, politician, arbitrator, logician and much more at home and away. I am sure she has achieved more in real terms than many men and women who have climbed corporate ladders, kicked glass ceilings and used the money earned mainly to establish an extravagant lifestyle.
Mike, I hate to tell you this, but I noticed your letter ;-)
Henders hits a home run…
Refuge from the regrettable
Good on the doctors who organise pro bono medical care for asylum seekers ("Doctors rally to offer free care for refugees”, March 3). Asylum seekers on a Bridging Visa E are forced into destitution because they are denied work rights, Centrelink assistance and Medicare. The Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, recently spoke of the “many regrettable immigration matters left unresolved by the Howard government”. The bridging visa, introduced in 1997, is not only regrettable, it is senseless and unsustainable. It is salutary that pro bono professionals, asylum seeker support networks, community groups, churches and individuals are filling the gaps by helping bridging visa holders with food and other basic necessities.
During a trip to Newcastle [for my mother’s funeral, I think] I saw an article by a Uniting Church minister in Newcastle which referred to David Morrison’s letter in the SMH about the earliness of Easter this year, and went on to say that Easter is about more than chocolate and enjoying ourselves.
The article went on to discuss a Happiness conference in Sydney which featured the Dalai Lama and other worthies.
But the last speaker told them all that instead of asking about how to be happy, we should be asking about how can we make a contribution that will make a difference for others in our community.
The author said that if life is about being happy, we should all go and get drunk and stay drunk.
[Sounds a bit like Canned Heat’s Going Up the Country.]
MICHELLE Coleman’s description of her father’s death is tragic, but it ignores the sinister side of the euthanasia debate.
Allowing doctors to kill patients would immediately create a class of vulnerable people who would be marked for death for quality of life reasons, rather than because they were suffering symptoms of a terminal illness.
I wonder whether Ms Coleman would feel the same way if good quality palliative care had been provided in her father’s final days.
EUTHANASIA proponents are systematic of this culture’s alarm at anything painful. We have successfully institutionalised many aspects of pain and death.
Now, when it comes close to home, we demand the government save us from painful damnation. Colin Gibbs (Letters, 11/3) fails on several levels to recognise the gravity of the euthanasia debate. Firstly, one’s free will is not automatically a right to do whatever you choose.
Politicians are duly cautious because, for the first time in history, nations are altering the medical profession’s fundamental purpose, to care for life.
I encourage Gibbs and others to study the horrific cases taking place in euthanasia-friendly countries such as the Netherlands, where vulnerable people are being killed without consent because a doctor or family member thinks their quality of life is not up to scratch.
We should be thankful for wonderful advances in palliative care that mean most of us avoid the natural, normal suffering associated with our last days.
It is always wrong to advance a greater evil (state sanctioned assisted-suicide) to reduce a lesser evil (temporary pain and suffering).
It’s a sad indictment of the Herald that your main concern about people being killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan is that the cricket is cancelled ("Bombs halt cricket tour”, March 12).
Scott Donnellan, Port Macquarie
Scott is a Presbyterian minister at Port Macquarie.
Following Mike Doyle’s outstanding piece of serious commentary, I thought I’d mention this submission I made that appeared in Joe Hildebrand’s Saturday column in Gordon’s rag of choice, The Daily Telegraph:
Derek C from Merrylands is the clear winner of this week’s Deborah Cameron song-a-thon with this standout composition:
Whatever happened to me?
I can’t believe it myself.
Somehow I’m still on seven-o-two
They could’ve got somebody else.
Believe it or not Deb Cameron’s on air
I never thought it could still be me
Trying away on a wing and a prayer
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it’s still me
The rest of you can now resume talking about insignificant & trivial issues like life and death.
The people of Tibet are hoping that the rest of the world will do something to stop their destruction. What have we done so far? Nothing. As long as the West values it’s relationship with China in terms of trade then nothing will continue to be done. The response is defined by our previous prime minister’s response: he recognised, he said, China’s sovereignty over Tibet. He went on to say that it was not in our national interest in to interfere in Tibet. If such gutless and mercenary responses were typical the world would be in worse shape than it is now. They also allow China to take a tighter grip on Nepal. What if, like Japan once did, they desire a wider power over South East Asia? Will we appease them further?
If ever there was a country in need of regime change China is it. Their practices both in Tibet and Nepal, and inside China itself, are similar to the totalitarian regime of Stalin. However, since China has a financial whip hand over the USA, dramatically increased by President Bush’s massive borrowings for his illegal war, nothing will be done. The Iraq war also poses a problem for the West, since it ignored the rule of law and provides an eloquent excuse for China to ignore any protests.
The expression “thirty pieces of silver” comes to mind.
David Ashton
And what the SMH printed....
The people of Tibet are hoping the rest of the world will do something to stop their destruction. But as long as the West values its trading relationship with China, nothing will be done. The response is defined by our previous prime minister: he recognised China’s sovereignty over Tibet and said it was not in our national interest to interfere.
If ever there was a country in need of regime change, China is it. However, since China has the financial whip hand over the US, dramatically increased by President Bush’s borrowings for the Iraq war, nothing will be done. That war also poses a problem for the West, since it ignored the rule of law and provided an eloquent excuse for China to ignore any protests.
Whatever church or belief system it is associated with, Mercy Ministries is an affront to the Gospel I believe ("They sought mercy, but got exorcism and Bible studies”, March 17). That women in need of assistance were thus treated makes me ashamed and appalled that Christianity is associated with such horrendous practices. And Gloria Jeans, you can be assured my business is being taken elsewhere.
Ian Holder, Bossley Park
The Church of England produces accounts every year. Why is Hillsong “not required to produce accounts” ("The ties that bind”, March 17)?
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