Letters to the editor - November

AMS Staff | 29 October 2007

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Cover apology

Dear readers,
I have never received such a strong reaction to a magazine cover as I did for the October issue.
The decision to illustrate that politicians can sometimes act a little childishly toward one another was an attempt at satire that clearly failed and I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused – there was none intended.
This has reminded me that readers have high expectations of our paper and, given the pastoral sensitivities involved, I acknowledge that we did not use sufficient care or wisdom in this instance.
Allan Dowthwaite,
Managing Editor, SC

‘Disgusted’ at political bias

We wish to place on record our disappointment and disgust at the way your paper depicted Mr Howard on the front page (SC, Oct). It certainly does not encourage us to read your ‘5-page godly election guide’. Such reporting lowers Southern Cross to the standard of our commercial print media.
Don & Evelyn Harwin
Ken & Myrtle Ferguson
via e-mail

It is with deep disappointment that I write to protest the depiction of PM John Howard as an effigy of Satan on the cover.(SC, Oct). It is only after closer inspection that the reader becomes aware that the ‘devil’s horns’ are in fact the fingers of Kevin Rudd, the inference I assume being that the leaders of both parties are as bad as each other.
My observation during some 25 years of parish life is that the majority of us would never seek to inculcate our political views on members of our church family. Consequently I find it particularly distasteful that your publication, purporting to be ‘of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney’, should stoop to display such political bias at the time of an election. Surely if we are to be ‘salt’ and ‘light’ in our community, it is beholden upon God’s people to lead by example and avoid cheap political shots.
Margaret Fowler
Wallacia, NSW

We are appalled at the disrespect, crudity and non-biblical approach exhibited in your front page. The depiction of the Prime Minister poking out his tongue and the Opposition Leader sticking his fingers up over Mr Howard’s head is demeaning and totally unbecoming from a Christian-based newspaper. Where is the respect, where is the honour that 1 Peter 2:17 and Romans 13:6 require?
Your ‘5-page guide’ to the election rightly and properly addresses issues. But your crude front-page attempt to focus on personalities by using childish behavioural characteristics is immature and distressing.
Val & Ian Cartwright
Gymea, NSW

While I appreciated your election coverage, my heart sank at ‘He’s not the Messiah’. By devoting the entire first page to an episode in Kevin Rudd’s private life, and by choosing such a sarcastic headline, you damaged the credibility of the feature as a whole and indicated an anti-Labor bias. I do not understand why this incident deserves the prominence you give it, unless you plan to explore the moral standing of both leaders. If this is the case, then where was the detail of the Prime Minister’s moral lapses? You could have started with dissembling, misleading, failing to honour promises, and examples of questionable judgment which have had serious moral consequences for our nation. A little proportion and balance please.
Chris McGregor
Epping, NSW

I feel sorry for Kevin Rudd. From experience I know one can find oneself in these circumstances entirely innocently. Some years ago I was in Calcutta, India. Having no idea about local restaurants I invited an acquaintance to my hotel. To my increasing horror there was a strip show, which culminated in the revelation that the stripper was a female impersonator.
Ken Goodwin
Indooroopilly, QLD

One-sided on schools

Am I the only one who thinks church schools are a bad idea? Reading your 4 page education feature, it seems church schools are unquestionably wonderful and their expansion marvellous.
However, church schools take Christian teachers, students and parents out of the public system. No wonder 60 per cent of Australians do not know a Christian.
Parents often send their kids to church schools to get them an advantage over others – hardly loving your neighbour as you love yourself.
SC should work harder at encouraging balanced and reasoned debate about these issues rather than one sided advertorials.
Greg Pendlebury
Northmead,NSW

We are not the establishment!

It always ruins a joke when you try to explain it, so I’ll leave readers to decide if John Sandeman was right to call my satire ‘heavy-handed’ (SC, Oct). The original piece was called ‘A college of the yarts’. (Read online at http://www.thebriefing.com.au).
However, I was bemused by John’s characterisation of The Briefing as a Sydney ‘establishment’ ‘house journal’, somehow opposed to the younger, trendier, Driscoll-loving, church-planting crowd. This surprised me, I have to say – particularly since I was writing in response to an article in the official diocesan paper, written by my friend, Robert Forsyth, who is ex-REPA and now a bishop. I’m a little confused: who is meant to be ‘the establishment’?
I think John’s view of The Briefing would also surprise our many thousands of readers around the world, who enjoyed the positive articles we ran about Mark Driscoll earlier this year.
All the same, John’s column was thought-provoking. And it came as a warning and invitation to keep critiquing Sydney evangelicalism – and ourselves as part of it. We’ll keep doing our best!
Tony Payne
Editor, The Briefing

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