Down-under round-up: 2 September 2015

Sorry to have missed last week, I was overwhelmed by other prior responsibilities to my family and the church and denomination I serve.

Issue of the week

In NSW, a Sydney high school planned to require all students to attend a documentary about children raised under same-sex parenting. This was part of ‘Purple Day’, which encourages young people to be proud of whatever their sexuality is. Following parental protest at this being forced on all students, the Education Department stepped in to prevent the documentary showing during class time, to further counter-protests. Associate Professor of Law, Neil Foster, gives a summary of the events and policy issues.

Anglican Minister, and former high school English teacher, Michael Jensen nailed it in his response: ‘Whatever your thoughts on Gayby Baby, this wasn't about education’. Key quote:

One of the lessons that the churches have learnt down many bitter passages of history is that it is far better to persuade than enforce.
If you are to change someone's mind genuinely then you need to allow freedom to choose alternatives. This was the argument of the great Christian philosopher John Locke in his famous Letter Concerning Toleration.
Writing after a century of bitter religious strife in England and in Continental Europe, Locke saw that coercion is a blunt and ineffective instrument for changing people's minds. Because while they can force obedience through the law, governments cannot, by using the law, change people's beliefs.

Making disciples of Jesus

My twins are currently attending university open days as they consider what they’ll do after completing high school. In this great six-minute video, seminary professor Michael Kruger speaks on ‘How to survive World Religions 101’.

His advice applies more broadly to the intellectual challenges Christians face at university. Here’s my summary (but urge your youth to watch the whole thing!):

1. Make sure your expectations are straight as you go to college (university). Professors are as biased as anyone else and will reject the Bible in great numbers. This has no intrinsic connection to the Bible’s truth!
2. There are answers to the questions you hear raised. Just because you don’t know them doesn’t mean they doesn't exist, since most issues have been addressed by Christian thinkers many times over the centuries.
3. Don’t just see opposition as an obstacle: it’s an opportunity to go deeper into the faith.
4. Don’t face these challenges alone. Get involved in a good local church where the Word is preached, and in a Christian fellowship on campus.

I found Rod Dreher’s account, ‘Practicing resurrection’, of the final days of his father’s dying exceptionally moving, challenging and encouraging. More than once I have prayed at a bedside, “Father, take this person to be with you as soon as is best for them, but leave them as long as is best for their family”.

From Australia, I’m not normally interested in reading American Christian scandals about leaders I’ve never heard of. But an American friend said Trevin Wax’s article, ‘The Duggars and the evil outside’, was a must-read.

And it’s not really about them at all. Rather it raises critical points about the nature of sin, and strategies for shielding your children. Is the evil really outside?

Image of the week

‘If you’re not sure, don’t run it over’: more pictorial social commentary from a clever but valid angle by Adam Ford.