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While the media focuses on the price of petrol and interest rates, it hasn’t spent too much time investigating the comings and goings of the National Forum on Australia’s Christian Heritage sponsored by a number of our secularly elected politicians. This little discussed Forum has noted that its “desired outcomes” are “the free availability on the web of data on Australia’s Christian heritage …the promotion of this data within the curricula of Australian schools” and “having a positive influence on policy makers at all levels of government and community.”
Now, if I were a cynic, I might be forced to say, “Hey. Wait a minute. Doesn’t this sound like the type of thing we’re trying to stop the Muslim extremists from doing?” I mean, when we see little kids kitted out in religious costumes sitting in Madrasas, calling out their prayers aren’t we supposed to “tut tut” and think how bad it is that their parents let them be indoctrinated. “Why,” we say, “that’s not democracy but theocracy.”
Over the last couple of months we’ve had a debate over religious education in schools. Not general religious studies that examine the basis, claims and activities of the various religions, but Christian religious education. Now, if the Madrasas are supposedly the training ground for the so-called “Muslim extremists” what does that make the Sunday Schools that produced John Howard and Tony Blair?
The Madrasas are predominately in the poorer areas and are no different in many ways to the Catholic schools that still take in all comers who are poor. The idea being that it’s better to educate and provide a safe haven than allow the wretches to roam the streets and cause havoc. The few who go on to a life of crime are no different to the Christopher Skases, Rodney Adlers and Ray Williams of the world.
The National Forum on Australia’s Christian Heritage want to boast that, “Christianity provided the foundation for the capitalist economy, which now drives the entire world.” They go on to claim, “Christianity, has answers and solutions to all social, political, economic, scientific, cultural, legal and personal problems, not only with guiding principles, tested by observation and scientific study (in the Bible) but with practical experience and proven examples throughout history.”
Now if this is the case why is it that in my short almost 50 years there are more hungry poor now than there were when I was born, yet global food production has never been so high? Why does the Forum boast about a system that is designed to keep the poor poor while the rich get even richer? Why, if Christianity has the “answers and solutions to all social, political, economic, scientific, cultural, legal and personal problems” are the Christian leaders of the world so intent on allowing the needless deaths and murders of innocent people in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Israel? Why, if Christianity has the answers, do laws exist which make it illegal for people to peacefully protest their employment conditions and withdraw their labour? Why, if Christianity has the answers, do our governments fund science to be used to find more devious and cheaper ways to kill each other while across the corridor another scientist must work in under funded conditions on a way to keep premature babies alive?
If, after 2000 years, Christianity had the answers then I’m sure the world would be a much different place than it is now. The problem is the Christianity the men and women spruiking this Forum believe in is one that confirms their world view and excludes all others as evil.
Senator Guy Barnett, from my home state, declares that the forum would “highlight the contribution of our Christian heritage to our values and ethics as a nation”. If so, what about the appalling conditions under which many of our Indigenous brothers and sisters live? If the foundations of our ethics are to be found in “our” Christian heritage, why does John Howard - an avowed and openly “Christian” man - lie to us so often? If this Forum is so keen on educating us to the “valuable contribution Christianity” has made to our society, why does the agenda for their meeting not include a discussion of the flogging parson, Samuel Marsden?
I think a good example of why this group is to be feared even more than the supposed terrorists massing on our borders ready to kill us while we sleep, is the example of the elevation of Ian Harper to the position of head of the appropriately Orwellian titled Fair Pay Commission. Addressing the Australian Christian Lobby 12 months ago he said, “I'm a Christian. I believe in God and I believe that God's will is important to be done in the world. It means I hold very dear to the values of fairness, justice, honesty, integrity in the process that I'll use to be making a decision with my fellow commissioners (sic).” He went on to say, with apparently no sense of irony that, “I don't meet many low-paid people in my line of work, so I've got to find ways of getting to that constituency.”
So if the National Forum on Australia’s Christian Heritage is keen to explore “Australia’s Jesus and Australia’s Values” then I’m sure they will not be spending too much time in prayer but will be taking the Ian Harpers who will attend and lead them out into the shooting galleries of Canberra’s back streets to meet the junkies and then on the soup kitchens that feed the homeless and then on to the schools that provide free breakfasts to kids whose parents cant feed them at home and then, finally, on to the aged care nursing homes in which languish the severely disabled who are interred there because the policies of our governments do not adequately address their needs.
If “Australia’s Jesus and Australia’s Values” collide, who will win? I suggest that in the last 2000 years the reason Christianity has not provided any of the answers its proponents tell us it should, is because the words of the prophet have been twisted and turned and distorted and deformed in order to serve the “will of man” rather than “the will of God”.
If the National Forum on Australia’s Christian Heritage and Ian Harper hold dear the example of Jesus and “believe that God's will is important to be done in the world” then I’m sure that within the next 12 months, John Howard will be forced from office because he is a demonstrated liar. That Philip Ruddock and Amanda Vanstone will be hauled before the international courts for overseeing crimes against humanity. That Peter Costello will be sacked for imposing an iniquitous taxation system on us and that our leading economists and bankers will be interred for their usurious money making schemes called “bank loans”. Anything less that this will reveal the true intent of the National Forum on Australia’s Christian Heritage and that, I suggest, has nothing to do with justice, equity and a “fair go”.
The name of Jesus has been used in many ways over the last 2000 years in order to justify the most egregious acts of barbarity. The real values of the National Forum on Australia’s Christian Heritage will be exposed in the activities they engage in. In the meantime we must examine and expose the type of “Jesus Values” they hold. However, I’m fairly confident that the man himself would not recognise them at all.