Down-under round-up: 28 October 2015

Issue of the week

On freedom of speech, I must say I agree with the atheist and the feminist: opinions aren’t harmful! That article is Brendan O’Neill on efforts to ban Germaine Greer giving her opinion on transexualism on a British university campus.

Actually, I don’t agree entirely.

Opinions can be expressed in ways that are unhelpful. Proverbs teaches that the tongue can hurt and heal (Prov 12:18, 15:4), and Christians are clearly called to a much higher standard in their speech than merely to avoid inciting violence (e.g. Eph 4:29, 5:4).

But the cultural elites’ trend to censoring the expression of opinion they find distasteful or politically incorrect (as hate speech or hurtful discrimination, etc.) is disastrous for our living well together in a multi-cultural and diverse secular society. 

Making disciples of Jesus

 My old friend and colleague Lionel Windsor writes about the temptation to seek our security in the good opinion of others: ‘Praise from people or praise from God?’ He focuses on Romans 2:29, and concludes with some lovely pastoral application for us all.

Ray Galea challenges Christians, especially leaders, in his ‘Confessions of an Angry Pastor’: part 1 and part 2. And speaking personally, even if you are not the explosive type, I think you can still find much application for repentance if you can substitute the word ‘grumpy’ or ‘harsh’ for ‘angry’, as they are probably first cousins.

As a Protestant, RC Sproul challenges the simplistic idea that all sins are equal in this: ‘Are there degrees of sin?’

And here’s some very practical and accessible tips for anyone who wants to bless their church children with some puppetry. Stinky the puppet was born 10 years ago to my friend Marty at St Michael’s, and has since moved also to be loved in a parish a few suburbs away. Marty uses a format with Stinky that is effective and simple, requiring little equipment, people, or specialist skills. It’s just one puppet, one puppeteer, one leader, and no stage (just a large garbage bin—so the puppeteer probably needs to be on the compact side!).

Image of the week

Judging from this photo, the Melbourne Cup was apparently the “race that stops the nation” in Australia, even back in the 19^th century! This is an engraving of the finish line at the Melbourne Cup of 1881 (courtesy of Wikipedia).

Here’s a wonderfully subversive idea for engaging with horse-racing’s gambling culture that I learned from Matthias Media’s publishing director, Ian Carmichael: the reverse sweep!

The reverse sweep is where everyone pays a ticket price (say $10 a horse) and draws the name of a horse in the race out of the hat (there are 24 in the Melbourne Cup), just like a normal sweep.

But whoever gets the horse that wins the Cup controls which registered charity will receive the entire stake (every sweep entrant nominates their charity in advance). So if the sweep ticket price is $10, then you get to send $240 to your favourite charity.

If you win, I guess you can check with your accountant to see whether it’s a legit tax deduction! But that’s not the reason to do it. Instead, the reverse sweep engages with an occasion that so many Aussies get caught up in. But it does it in a way that completely subverts the greed of the gambling industry and puts generosity at the top. But it’s also fun, genuinely enjoyable to all people of good will. Why don’t you give it a go?