Richard Bauckham on the Bible and Ecology

One of Richard Bauckhams latest books is the Bible and Ecology.
Bauckham is one of my favourite scholars, not least because he writes short books that nail every topic he writes on. So I look forward to his thoughts on ecology.
You can find a lecture given on the same topic .here

Peace on Earth

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

H/T Brian Gorman

A disection of the 'glory of God' slogans

This interesting chappy has a good stab at evangelical slogans about the 'glory of God'.

Wait and See

Wait and See
by Richard Bauckham



In the drab waiting-room
the failed travellers, resigned, sleep
on the hard benches, inured
to postponement and foul coffee.
Hope has given up on them.
There are also the impatient,
pacing platforms, and the driven,
purple with frustration, abusing
their mobiles, for the hardest part
of waiting is the not doing.
Truly to wait is pure dependence.
But waiting too long the heart
grows sclerotic. Will it still
be fit to leap when the time comes?
Prayer is waiting with desire.
Two aged lives incarnate
century on century
of waiting for God, their waiting-room
his temple, waiting on his presence,
marking time by practising
the cycle of the sacrifices,
ferial and festival,
circling onward, spiralling
towards a centre out ahead,
seasons of revolving hope.
Holding out for God who cannot
be given up for dead, holding
him to his promises - not now,
not just yet, but soon, surely,
eyes will see what hearts await

Am I a tritheist?

Having read and reflected on the Patristic Fathers over the past six months I have concluded that my imagination of God is tritheist. I have been brought up to believe that the Father and Son are two people (and the Spirit a third). Then conceive of these three as one. One being; three persons. But most of the conversation is about Jesus or the Father (or the Spirit) not about the one God. If I am brutally honest it is hard to understand what is meant by one being in three persons.

Reading Hillary who attempted to explain Greek terms to his Latin friends was helpful. Translation often has an ability to clarify. The terms that came to be settled were ousia for the one and hupostasis for the three. Hillary argued they were both words relating to existence because both speak of what a thing was permanently. Existence (ousia) particularly referred to a reality that is always. Substance (hupostasis), following Athanasius, refers to how the thing subsists in itself. (De Synodis, 12.) That is, the concrete reality of the thing. Basil explains the relationship between ousia and hupostasis as the common to the particular.

I have two reflections on this.
First, the three persons are really the same reality. They are the same being. Thus the term homoousia (same being). There is one God as the scriptures proclaim so loudly. There is no other God besides the one true God.

To my ears this sounds modalist. (And explaining this to a friend he gently told me so.) Modalism argues the persons are different manifestations of the one. There really is only one that appears different at different times. Responding to this Athanasius explains that orthodox doctrine is not modalist because the Father and Son are the same being. Confused? He argues that there are two persons who are the same being thus distinct. Calling the Father, 'Father' indicates the presence of a Son. And vice-versa. They are not the same subject but the same in what they are, God. Thus this is not modalist.

My second reflection concerns my imagination. I imagine God as a committee of three humans. Or a three person rugby team (like scrums in rugby sevens). But I don't think that is a correct imagination and tends towards individualism. I must learn to imagine that when I meet Jesus Christ I meet the Father. Likewise the Spirit's work in me is the work of God. Interestingly I use some of these triune expressions but somehow I forget that all three are working together in all things, God is working!

Actually Hillary argues that we ought to preach the story of the gospel first before preaching metaphysical truths about God's triunity. (De Synodis, 70). Similarly Bauckham argues that Christian authors of the New Testament cared more for who God was than metaphysical conceptions of deity. I believe that to revive the teaching about the trinity we need to explain the need for the trinity. God is trinity because that is who we meet in Jesus Christ, who God really is.

Imagination helps us hope and create in this world. Imagination about the true God and his relating will help us relate well. Obviously imagination involves an analogy to creation and will always be incomplete. I suspect we should stop explaining God as three and one or one and three as a logical equation. But explain that God is known in three. This is not a retreat into modalism but an adequate explanation that there are not three Gods, as many imagine (although all will confess that they are one being). Our pluralist society has no problem conceiving of three individuals. The problem is their unity in each other. We live in a world that simply does not believe that God is one. Why do we wonder that Christians living in that world struggle to image God as one. Simply put our problem is not modalism but tritheism.

So how do we explain the trinity to our children. What are some expressions and phrases that will rightly imagine God. Every reality is concretely expressed. The reality of God is known in the three persons. Each fully and equally God.

This is my attempt at grappling with the trinity. I don't think that we need to do away with the creeds. Rather we stand with Hilary attempting to explain concepts across language. Unlike Hilary there are traditions of language within our church. However possibly being, substance, person, individual, etc. don't mean what they meant when we transliterated them from Latin 4 centuries ago.

So friends, help me express God truly in this world.

Liberal and Plain reading of scripture

Liberal approaches to scripture and the claim to have a plain reading of scripture are very similar.

Both privilege their current time and cultural context as the key for interpreting scripture.

One attempts to understand the historical meaning of a text in order to dismiss it.

The other dismisses the historical meaning of a text by not attempting to understand it

Christians merrily skip naked

A friend of mine once said "All fashion makes the same statement; 'I am wearing this so that you will think something about me'". The fashion industry is not driven by our need to avoid physical nakedness, but by the need to avoid social nakedness. We need to tell people what to think of us. It is driven by the idea that we construct our own identities, that to a large extent we are 'self made men' or 'self made women'. Buying the right clothes will change who you are, will present a different story to the world. This is true whether you swallow popular fashion, or if you are part of a subversive subculture. Not that we should single out fashion in particular. Our whole consumerist culture is based on this social need. To be somebody, to be anybody, we must accrete the value of different objects onto the basically neutral and meaningless centre of our lives. You dont buy a giant plasma, or consume high culture, or buy a hybrid, because you really need to. You buy it because of the person you would like to be. "I purchase this so that you will think something about me" is a phrase we all say, not least to the mirror, so that we will think something of ourselves.

Unfortunately the churches have, for the most part, capitulated to this consumerist culture. Its crass forms, such as fish stickers for the car, perpetuate the idea that you can (and perhaps must) buy your way into a christian identity. But they also blind us to the more subtle ways we have incorporated the idea of 'self construction' into our churches. How many of us would really accept the christian who could remain faithful to Jesus simply by the regular nourishment of christian worship. For starters, in his efforts to construct his christian identity, he must take responsibility to choose a church with 'good teaching'. Surely he needs to be able to read the bible himself, perhaps in a few translations? And then he must join a bible study, and listen to some mp3 sermons. Perhaps if he really wanted to secure his christian identity he could do a ministry apprenticeship, or even theological college.

But this construction of identities, consumerist and christian, goes against a key biblical idea. That our true 'selves' are hidden with Christ in God. Rather than an empty, meaningless core, that must be made meaningful as it is enveloped in stuff, even christian stuff, the core of our identity is infinitely meaningful as it is united to Christ and enveloped in the being of our triune God. This identity is hidden, but real. It is most definitely not constructed by us, not even by our christian activity. It is simply given to us in Christ. Grasping this truth should make us sit lightly to the social need to 'construct ourselves'. (and indeed is part of why christians dress so daggily). We are not afraid to be ourselves as selves truly loved by God.

Through a world crushed by its own elaborate costumes and grotesque masks, christians merrily skip naked. The church must paint nudes. With all their blemishes and shame, vulnerability and boredom and yet in this, their beauty and allure. We must paint nudes so that others would find courage to break the crust of their self made sarcophagus and find themselves beautiful and alive in Christ.

The church does not need leaders from all walks of life

The church does not need leaders from all walks of life. It needs leaders IN all walks of life. We need christian economists, plumbers,mums, artists,politicians, hippies, farmers, philosophers and unemployed. They need to be gutsy, thelogically informed, Jesus loving,bible saturated, humble servants who lead those who follow them.
One way to achieve this would be to pull all the good leaders out of these contexts, and make them clergy. I guess the hope would be that each plumber will be able to speak to plumbers, economist to economists, hippies to hippies. But despite the desires of those who love the homogeneous unit principle, our churches simply aren't like this, they include a whole range of ages, ethnicity and walks of life.
Church leaders need a certain amount of imagination to equip people to be Christians in their different lives. The least imaginative option would be to say 'well you should become a church leader like me'. Not that there is anything wrong with full time gospel ministry. Only when it becomes a pyramid scheme. Then it stops doing the very thing it is meant to do, equip the saints for THEIR ministry. It becomes the absolute opposite of a belief that people are equal but different.
Of course, not everyone can be a clergyman, so the second least imaginative option would be to say,
'you can do clergy like things' even if you cant do it full time. So, on top of your job as a plumber, you can run a bible study. In fact, if it is a bible study on how to run bible studies, even better!
Again, don't hear me saying that running a bible study is a bad thing. But if we take no interest in how to be a christian plumber. In what it might mean to lead the plumbing industry into more godliness. In how the structures of a plumbing business might best give glory to God and serve the gospel and serve the world, we have failed as leaders of the church.

Which is partly why people in our churches give lukewarm responses to our calls for evangelism and action.
Our dreams are far too small.
We dream for the church, instead of dreaming for the world.
We dream for our local church to run smoothly, to evangelise, be taught and give money.
Maybe we dream for so much money to be given that we could employ someone else to do some teaching that might cajole us into doing some evangelism.
But God's dream is for the world. The world that all of us live in. God's dream is for peace and justice for our world. Not by abandoning the gospel. Not by turning into a government agency. But by living out the gospel in everything.
Our people live in a crying world that thirsts for love, and we want people to keep our system functioning.
Our people live in a desert of meaning, and we tell them their lives are pointless except for that hour of walk-up.
Our people are weighed down with guilt, because they are complicit in an abusive, destructive, shallow society, and we tell them that as long as that society keeps paying us to preach forgiveness everything is ok.

Well, everything is not ok.
Jesus is Lord of the entire earth, but while our churches are focussed on themselves, no-one will know. While our churches swallow up all possible leaders as clergy or pseudo-clergy, no one will know. While our churches ignore real evil in our society (and so ourselves), no one will know.

Richard Bauckham: unpublished essay: Mission as hermeneutic

check out Richard Bauckhams .Mission as hermeneutic Hot

Blogs to change your life

Perhaps you are one of the few people who read this blog who do not also read the Blogging Parson and Nothing New Under the Sun. I'd like to recommend them as important for your life.

Michael Jensen at the Blogging Parson has been posting about the history of Sydney Anglicanism, and challenging us to avoid views of 'escaping the earth' and avoiding social responsibility. He outlines a vision for Sydney christians to have a prophetic voice for the large issues we face as a society.

Byron at Nothing New Under the Sun is such a voice. He gives us a calm and considered christian perspective on the looming (and now here) ecological, economic and energy crises. Byron's blog is an excellent resource for keeping informed. But more importantly, he helps us to think and live as christians within a changing world. It is a blog that every western christian should read and engage with.

Three things to put on my study wall

The other day I was looking at the timetable of an assistant minister in an Anglican church. Yikes! those hours really do get filled up quickly.

So I though I would pop up on my study wall

1. What can someone else do?

2. What can I do with someone else?

3. What can I only do alone?

It seems to me that unless I am strict about it, I could spend doing lots of 1. and 2. alone, and never actually spend time with people

Some very very very preliminary thoughts on Hebrews 13

The Euphrates is one long river to find one wife.
Jacobs brother is scheming to kill him
and Esau gets all the action, I mean, how many wives does the man need?

And for the man with the bargain birthright, no children.
Not even a chance of possibly doing anything that might lead to children,
except trudge this long river to an unknown land.

Then one night as he lays in the dust
the light shines, the earth breaks open to God
who calls out
"Never will I leave you
Never will I forsake you"
What does Jacob have to fear from man? If God is his helper,
then the stone in the dust will found the house of God

'marriage should be honoured by all'


Israel stands on the banks of the Jordan.
Moses is finished. His speech and his life.
God has offered them everything. Blessed beasts and wombs and bread
Blessed comings and goings in city in country.
But will it be enough? Probably not.
This people cant help but want more. More idols.More land
The pull of wood and stone, silver and gold.
But first those mighty giants must be felled.

and God says
"Never will I leave you,
never will I forsake you
What have you to fear from men? If I am your helper?"

just seven years can pass before you give it all back,
and God will pick a place to meet again.

"keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have"


Which is easy to say if you are Solomon I guess.
Or maybe not, since Daddys plans are pretty grand.
Davids meticulous blueprint sits before him, and he is claiming divine inspiration.
Gee Dad, this temple scheme needs golden bowls and fork, silver lamps and stands. Not to mention rooms and courts and priests and priests and priests.
Who is going to pay for all this place for God to hang? Haven't you seen Grand Designs?
Will Kevin McCloud be smarmy as God and I fight over the budget?
Yet God was pleased to make David king over Israel.
and God says
"Never will I leave you,
never will I forsake you"
What is there to fear from men, if God is Solomons helper?
God will have his footstool. The people and officials will obey your command.

"Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith"

Jesus sits on a donkey overlooking Jerusalem. . Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The mount of olives trembles as the earth is broken open, and Jesus rides a ladder down into the city, and a light shines upon us. What does he have to fear from man, as the crowds sing Hosannas from the same tune? There's money in the temple, markets in the footstool. A scene, a trial, a cross,
And God calls out
"my God, my God, why have you forsaken me"
as Israel places his cornerstone in the dust.

Never is a long river.
When the scheme is to kill you
When you might just give up
When the price is high.
But it has been walked, and there is a bride, a blessing, a temple

What if we took Pul's description of headship seriously?

I'm just going to float a boat here. I'm not utterly committed to it, just a thought experiment. Play along.

What if, what if we took Paul's definition of 'head' at face value and ran it all the way through 1 Corinthians 11:2-16.

The head of every man is Christ, the head of every woman is man, the head of Christ is God.

1. Every man who prays with his head (Christ) covered, dishonours his head (Christ)
Understandable, Jesus is our mediator, wouldn't want to sideline him.

2. A woman who prays with her head (a man) uncovered, dishonours her head (the man).
She might as well be a baldy. Cover him up, he aint your mediator.

3. A man shouldn't cover his head (Christ) since Christ is the image and shininess of God.

4. Woman however is shininess of man

5. So women should have authority over their head (the man), because of the angels. (is this somehow related to Hebrews discussion of the place of humanity vis a vis the angels). Implicit here is an argument 'oh, so you are going to say JC isn't God because he is the ima,ge and shininess, I don't think so. So neither are women excluded from sharing in humanity,nor the kind of position humanity has over angels just because they are the shininess of men' let me remind you, that position was AUTHORITY'

6. But let me remind you that this sharing of humanity comes 'in the Lord'. One comes from, the other one through, but everything comes from God

7. Judge for yourselves, is it right for a woman to pray with her head (the man) uncovered?
As though he needed him to pray? As though he were the access point to God?

8. God's gift of a head (man) covering is the shininess of women.


hooo, a rather different reading to the normal one.

The clarity of scripture and the 'plain reading'

Maandiko yote Matakatifu yameandikwa kwa uongozi wa Mungu, na yanafaa katika kufundishia ukweli, kuonya, kusahihisha makosa, na kuwaongoza watu waishi maisha adili,

Clear as a bell, you had better obey this word. Dont come to me with your liberal hermeneutic that says you need someone to explain it. You are just being sinful and obedient.

So goes the argument for a 'plain reading' of scripture, that ignores the need for translation (or that sees translation as the atomistic replacement of words with no respect for culture).

Of course, the plain reading of scripture, without people explaining it to us, is that God does not give a stuff about speaking to us. Seriously, if that is all you had, and someone said, this is God's message to you, well, God wishes to not speak to you. (apologies to those who can read Swahili).

Our bibles are translated, and a good thing too. But this necesserily means that the words used in the original language mean slightly different things to our language and culture and practice.

Scripture is not clear because we can grasp it without any work. (especially historical and hermeneutical work). It is not clear because its meaning is obvious to whoever might pick it up. Scripture is certainly not clear because we access God's word unhindered and unmediated by any human contact. Scripture is clear because Jesus promises to speak through it. Or more precisely, throughout 'them', the apostolic witness, as it spreads through cultures and through time.

The temptation we always face is that the scriptures belong to us rather than to Jesus

Submission and Authority

Jesus is the one we are to submit to. He is Lord.
Slaves are to submit to their masters, not because of their oppressive authority, but out of reverence for Christ. In the same way, the masters had better submit to christ in relation to their slaves, especially as Christ is authoritatively in those slaves by the spirit. Each is the authoritative gift of God to the other, to be submitted to. Yes, thats right, you submit to the gift of God as you receive it with thanks.
Should wives accept their husbands as a gift of Christ? Should they submit? Damn straight
Likewise, should husbands accept their wives as a gift from Christ? Should they recognise the presence of Christ in their believing wives? Should they recognise that authority? Damn straight

The dissappearing gospels

Over the past year I have been meeting with two groups of people to read through a gospel. I've been reading Luke with a bunch of high school students and Matthew with some 20 somethings (a category that extends well into the 30's). Both groups have plodded along at a chapter a week. With both I wondered whether I should change it up a bit, do some old testament, or epistles.
Yet I've come to the conclusion that most Christians are woefully ignorant of the gospels (including me), and so are roughly ignorant of Jesus too. I've also come to think that unless we get some grip on the Jesus of the gospels (and until he grips us), the epistles aren't much help to us.
For example, we will read a passage like Hebrews 1, and nod our heads, about Christ being the perfect revelation of the Father, and yet spend so little time getting to know him through the gospels. our nods are theologically correct, but essentially meaningless.
Why do we privilege the somewhat abstract statements about Jesus in the epistles? This isn't to say that there is a theological gap between them. But I feel like most people read the gospels to mine them as examples of their reading of Paul.
We know God by reading a story. We need to just read the story more

Pirating Passages on Prayer

When you pray, don't prattle and rattle like hypocrites--
those prancing pious porkers, seeking praise in a pigsty.
Earthly praise is their full reward.

Matt 6:5 The Challenge

gather us in

Here in this place (gather us in)
Marty Haugen

1.
Here in this place, new light is streaming,
now is the darkness vanished away.
See, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in - the lost and forsaken,
gather us in - the blind and the lame.
Call to us now, and we shall awaken,
we shall arise at the sound of our name.

2.
We are the young - our lives are a mystery,
we are the old - who yearn for your face.
We have been sung throughout all of history,
called to be light to the whole human race.
Gather us in - the rich and the haughty,
gather us in - the proud and the strong.
Give us a heart so meek and so lowly,
give us the courage to enter the song.

3.
Here we will take the wine and the water,
here we will take the bread of new birth.
Here you shall call your sons and your daughters,
call us anew to be salt for the earth.
Give us to drink the wine of compassion,
give us to eat the bread that is you.
Nourish us well, and teach us to fashion
lives that are holy and hearts that are true.

4.
Not in the dark of buildings confining,
not in some heaven, light years away,
but here in this place, the new light is shining;
now is the Kingdom, now is the day.
Gather us in - and hold us forever,
gather us in - and make us your own.
Gather us in - all peoples together,
fire of love in our flesh and our bone.

The church as the goal or the instrument of mission?

In "Salvation to the Ends of the Earth", I can't figure out where Kostenberger and O'Brien stand.
On the one hand, they say this
"The apostle understood his ministry within the context of an Old Testament expectation in which the nations would on the final day partake in God's ultimate blessings to Israel. Paul knew that he was entrusted with God's 'mystery', the eschatological revelation that now Jews and Gentiles alike were gathered into one body, the church"
pp 258
On this reading, the church, and the churches seem to be a fairly important part of Paul's message. The new community is not simply incidental, but the goal of the preaching.

But then, after discussing evangelism they say
"But he also founded churches as a necessary element in his missionary task" pp259
It would be easy to misread K+O'B here and see the churches merely as instrumental to the mission to individuals. But it is clear here that Paul's task of calling the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith necessarily involves them in a new community. It is the new community that is paraded before the powers and authorities, it is the new community that is presented up to God as a pleasing sacrifice.
The church is not simply the instrument of mission, but its goal.

Trellis, vines, baptism and making disciples

"Jesus told his apostles to disciple all the nations. The way his words are often translated, “to make disciples of all nations”, allows for a misconception to arise. It is the nations that are to be discipled, baptized and taught, not merely individuals out of the nations. The gospel will heal the nations and in the book of Revelation the nations shall walk in the light of the glory of God and bring their treasures to the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev 21:24, 26; 22:2). This glorious result of the exaltation of the Messiah had been prophesied in the Old Testament (Isa 11:10, 12; 25:7; 49:6, 7; 52:15). All the nations, that is the peoples and their cultures, are to be Christianized by the knowledge of the triune God. Christ’s commission to his followers is to baptize the nations, to bring them under his leadership, as their Lord and their teacher."
D B Knox
“D.Broughton Knox Selected Works Volume II - Church and Ministry”; ed. K. Birkett; Matthias Media 2003; p277-282.

Knox isn't arguing against the practice of water baptism here, simply arguing against applying the commission to individuals, and hence their individual baptism. Though individual baptism, discipling and teaching may be good ways to achieve the 'baptism of the nations' the individuals are not the goal of the commission. Jesus' use of the terms 'baptize', 'disciple' and 'teach' is metaphorical.

Now, baptism isn't a huge issue for us in Sydney anymore, but 'disciple-making' is.

In a more recent Matthais release, Col Marshal and Tony Payne use the great commission to argue that the chief goal of the church is to 'make disciples'. By this they mean individual followers of Jesus, and put great emphasis on one-to-one Bible reading with personal application. Yet the great goal of the church is to bring the nations in line with Jesus their Lord, not just individuals. Tony and Col fall into the misunderstanding that Knox points out, interpreting the verse as 'make disciples from all the nations'. The only problem is that there is no 'from' in the verse. (neither is there a genitive 'of'). They have missed the metaphorical (or at least stretched) use of the words. Just as the nations wont be 'baptized' the way individuals are, they wont be 'discipled' in exactly the same way either. The original disciples were NOT commanded simply to repeat the experience they had had under Jesus.
What does this mean for Tony and Col's claim that all disciples are to be 'disciple makers'?
Well, if it means that all christians are to be part of bringing the knowledge of the Triune God to bear on every aspect of the world, to call it to faithfulness and praise of as Jesus the Lord, in personal and political and economical and social realms, in their homes, in their work, in their time with others, in their time alone, in their actions as well as their words, in their practice of accounting and maintenance, as part of their lives within those nations, as citizens or sojourners, as mechanics or orators, as homeless or as presidents, as large institutional organizations and as bare individuals, then, ok.
But if they mean that every christian should take on a quasi-pastoral role, should be speakers, should do one-on-one Bible study with someone. Well, I don't know. They are still good things...but...

The terrible irony in all this is that Tony and Col have a go at another bunch of people, Missionaries, for their use of this verse.
According to Payne and Marshall, the missionaries are wrong to use this verse to promote overseas mission.
Payne and Marshal note that the main verb of the sentence is not 'go' but 'make disciples'. The other three verb forms (go, baptize and teach) are participles.
So far, so good.
But Payne and Marshall then argue that this means that the best way to translate 'go' is 'when you go' or ' as you go..make disciples'. You might go, but you might not.
The only problem is, this isn't the best way to translate it.
The participle is an aorist, before an aorist imperative. It is a participle of attendant circumstance. This participle construction takes the mood of the main verb. Yes, the emphasis is on the main verb, but, as Dan Wallace says (in a second year greek text)
"there is no good grammatical ground for giving the participle a mere temporal idea...Virtually all instances in narrative literature of aorist participle+ aorist imperative involve attendant circumstance participle. In Matthew in particular, every other instance of the aorist participle of 'go' followed by a main verb..is clearly attendant circumstance."
D B Wallace 'Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics' 645
So, the missionaries were right, going is part of the command. Which is no surprise really, since the disciples are commanded to disciple all nations. It would be tricky to do that without a little travel.


I'm sure the rest of the book has some good ideas for evangelism and nurturing people. It may have some strategies that are helpful.
But it's use of the great commission is theologically and exegetically naive. Since this interpretation of the Great Commission forms the basis of the books claims about the true goal of everything the church should be doing, the whole book should be read with a grain of salt.

Can a Christian be a banker? Usury your imagination

The gospel of the Lordship of Jesus invites us into a world that we can't even imagine. We are so bound by our conception of 'how things must work' in the broken world around us, that God's kingdom is simply incomprehensible to us. This is why studying history is so worthwhile. At the very least it trains our minds to imagine the world differently.
And as we look back, the evil of past times, that seemed so necessary, so unavoidable, so world dominating, we see as passing, unecessary, and well, evil.
Who could have imagined that the British and American economy would survive without slave labour? or child labour? The notion seemed absurd when christians started questioning slavery. The christians that opposed it were extreme, unreasonable, unrealistic, did not understand the way the world worked, idealistic, unpatriotic and downright dangerous.

There has been a discussion in the Sydney Anglican magazine, Southern Cross, about housing and debt in Sydney. Post GFC, I guess everyone is talking about debt.

Who could have imagined that christians would one day be fine with usury? (usury is lending money for interest. In our system I guess it includes both 'lenders' and 'depositors' who make interest). Or more pointedly, what contemporary christian can actually imagine a world that is not dominated by debt and interest. I certainly can't.
Yet historically, christians have not tolerated it. The Bible is totally against it. In Ezekiel, usury is listed as one of the practices that leads to God's wrath and ultimately to death. It is right up there with eating at idol shrines, raping your neighbours wife, oppressing the poor and needy and robbery. Proverbs describes lending as making someone your slave.

Now, in the article, Andrew Cameron, quite rightly, says that we have to be very careful when trying to apply Old Testament laws to current situations. We are not Israelites, but followers of Jesus Christ.
the difficulty is, Jesus goes even further than the OT when it comes to lending. It is very difficult to charge interest when you expect NO PAYMENT WHATSOEVER!
Yet this is just what Jesus says about lending.
"Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back....and if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high; for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men" Luke 6
For Jesus, the motivation for giving someone money is the future reward from God. the expectation of reward before the resurrection of the righteous nullifies the futurereward. It is the 'bad stewardship' of Luke 16:10. You will either use your money to buy friends for yourself in the kingdom or you wont. Now, I don't think I will be giving a warm welcome to the shareholders of banks in the kingdom. The money they liberally spread around is not gift, but obligation and slavery. The whole system of debt is not about 'gaining friends' but getting their money. (the same is true when I deposit for interest too). We are literally wasting money when we lend it for interest. We are squandering our resurrection reward.

We have a giant edifice of debt which holds up the world as we know it. I can't imagine the world without it. Perhaps this is why we no longer pray 'release us from our debts, as we release those indebted to us'. But that does not mean it is right. Or that christians should oppose every last instance of usury. Or should start practically imagining other ways of living and giving and investing. I'm sure it will cost a great deal. but the reward will be great

EA review of trellis and vine

http://www.eauk.org/slipstream/resources/krish-kandiah-book-round-up.cfm

Prayer, Love and wasting time

"...For real absolute waste of time you have to go to prayer. I reckon that more than 80 percent of our reluctance to pray consists precisely in our dim recognition of this and our neurotic fear of wasting time, of spending part of our life in something that in the end gets you nowhere, something that is not merely non-productive, non-money-making, but is even non-creative, it doesn't even have the justification of art and poetry. It is an absolute waste of time, it is a sharing into the waste of time which is the interior life of the Godhead. God is not in himself productive or creative. Sure he takes time to throw off a creation, to make something, to achieve something, but the real interior life of the Godhead is not in creation, it is in the life of love which is in the Trinity, the procession of Son from Father and of the Spirit from this exchange. God is not first of all our creator or any kind of maker, he is love, and his life is not like the life of the worker or artist but of lovers wasting time with each other uselessly. It is into this worthless activity that we enter in prayer. This, in the end, is what makes sense of it..."

God Still Matters, by Herbert McCabe OP, p. 75.

H/T Prodigal Kiwi

Woolworths, the screw your neighbourhood people

Don't be fooled by the smiley faces and puny community grants. woolworths does not care about your community
Woolworths are one of the largest owners of pokies in Australia.
this week an Anglican bishop called on shareowners to dump their shares.
Shareholders have voiced their concerns before, but the dollar won.

But what about the rest of us, what can we do to protest?
Should we stop shopping at woolies? But we likke shopping!
There is a much more fun alternative. Next time you go to Woolworths, fill a trolley, then, just dont cash it in. Leave it. Walk away if enough people did it it would
a) cost woolies, and therefore the message would get through
and b) create more jobs for shelf stackers.

Lets go shopping!

Jack Black and Ephesians

I was reading Ephesians Again today and was struck by the overflowing repetition of Paul about God's gracious grace and glorious awesomenss.

It reminded me of Jack Black in Kung Fu Panda

"Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend"

I can just see Paul saying of Jesus
"he was so awesome, in fact, his enemies would go blind from over-exposure to sheer awesomeness!"

I would like Jack Black to do a reading of Ephesians

The Coffee Party

it seems there may be some hope for the political process in the USA
in the face of rich people trying to weaken government by tying to get dumb people elected (the Tea Party), some clever people have formed the Coffee Party.
The coffee party supports stong government and civil discussion and engagement.Wake up and smell the coffee.

If Byron is right about the prospect of societal collapse, we are going to have to get a lot better at encouraging discussion if we are to avoid craziness

Patience

'Patience with others is love, patience with self is hope, patience with God is faith'

Ben Myers at Faith and Theology has an interesting review of what looks like an interesting book. It argues the difference between christians and atheists is patience.

Take a look

wayne grudem: is this really someone you want to associate with?

i'm trying to come to grips with american conservative evangelicalism.

See, for example, Wayne Grudem's assesment of George Bush's presidency, six years in. He presneted it at the Evangelical Theology Society What planet does this guy live on? ...well, planet America. I find it hard to understand how he is revered by some evangelicals here.

Or look at his stuff on Christians and self defense. It is like his script is written by the NRA. On the basis of a massive misreading of one passage in Luke, he concludes that it is right and good for christians to not only own a gun but to use it on someone who threatens them. There is absolutley no discussion of Jesus, his mission or his kingdom. Can we really still call him a theologian?
Not only that, but in both discussions he promotes statistics and concepts that are at best, ill informed. (banning guns does not reduce gun crime? Really?!)


no wonder americans look at me strangely when I say I am an evangelical.
Thank God for the brits

licking up art

Growing up outside of Sydney gives you a different perspective on the arts.
I recently found out that Australias most respected and revered ceramic artist lived lived in my hometown. His pots are found in the national and state galleries and in collections around the world. His work has commanded the highest prices of any australian ceramic artist.
He somehow came up in a conversation with my Dad.
'oh Peter, yeah he lives out on shipley, he likes the japanese stuff. He gave us one of his bowls once...do you remember the dogs old food bowl?'

At first this might sound like a devaluing, or at least ignorance of art.
I can just see the aghast faces of some eastern suburbs socialite, as our mutt's tongue eagerly licks chum off priceless glaze.
So I looked the guy up, and as I read the wanky gallery brochures, turns out this artist was important in a movement called 'mingei', which saught beauty in everyday objects, that even thought they weren't perfected until well used.
I like the thought that my dog enjoyed this artwork more than the collectors viewing them in sterile white rooms.

Turns out the use of the bowl was the artists suggestion.

I wonder, if artists didn't need the money, whether they would choose for it to be shown the way it currently is.

licking up art

Growing up outside of Sydney gives you a different perspective on the arts.
I recently found out that Australia's most respected and revered ceramic artist lived in my hometown. His pots are found in the national and state galleries and in collections around the world. His work has commanded the highest prices of any australian ceramic artist.
He somehow came up in a conversation with my Dad.
'oh Peter, yeah he lives out on shipley, he likes the japanese stuff. He gave us one of his bowls once...do you remember the dog's old food bowl?'

At first this might sound like a devaluing, or at least ignorance of art.
I can just see the aghast face of some eastern suburbs socialite, as our mutt's tongue eagerly licks chum off priceless glaze.
So I looked the guy up, and as I read the wanky gallery brochures, turns out this artist was important in a movement called 'mingei', which sought beauty in everyday objects, that even thought they weren't perfected until well used.
I like the thought that my dog enjoyed this artwork more than the collectors viewing them in sterile white rooms.

Turns out the use of the bowl was the artists suggestion.

I wonder, if artists didn't need the money, whether they would choose for it to be shown the way it currently is.

Want to become humble?

Jack Bernard’s book How to Become a Saint is quite a treasure as far as books on the Christian life go. His thoughts on humility are particularly helpful:

The downfall of attempts to become humble is that they are usually driven by the desire to become superior. . . . If you set out to get rid of pride or to develop humility you are going to fall flat on your face. If you are fortunate, you will fail at it in such a way that you can see not only that you have failed, but that you have within yourself no potential to do otherwise! The key word here is “potential.” The standard trick of pride is to protect oneself from facing reality by always claiming unrealized potential. We say to ourselves, “I could do it if only . . .” Therefore actual failures at spiritual achievement are not accepted as a true reflection of self. Before we can actually live in reality and advance in the spiritual life, we must rid ourselves of the notion that we have potential. We do not. We are spiritually bankrupt. Only deliverance from outside of ourselves will keep us out of the pit. (p. 38, 39)


Halden summarises for us

Long story short: if you find yourself desiring to become humble, there’s a good chance you’re on the wrong track. What we should desire is simply the truth. Humility is simply recognizing and living in a manner that is consistent with what is true about us. Desiring to become humble in itself is usually a sign that we are still trying to shield ourselves from truth.

A call to worship from KIm Fabricious

A call to worship

by Kim on August 29, 2010

Why are we here?

We are not here to “do a bunk” from the world.
We are not here to “get in touch with our ‘inner selves’”.
We are not here to “recharge our batteries”.
And God help us if we are here to “make a deal” with God:
“Lord, if you do this for me, then I’ll do that for you.”

Why are we here?

We are here because the world is not right,
because we are not right,
and because we are angry about injustice,
sad about suffering,
and ashamed of ourselves.

Why are we here?

We are here because God so loves the world
that he is making it right,
turning it into a new creation;
and because God so loves us
that he is making us right.
turning us into a new people,
making us like Jesus:
faithful, truthful, peaceful, hopeful.
Paul writes: “For those who are in Christ, the whole universe is new”
(II Corinthians 5:17).

We are here because God, in his grace, has called us here.
What else could we do but come?
With gratitude and joy, in the Holy Spirit, let us worship God!

http://theconnexion.net/wp/?p=8293

A call to worship

by Kim on August 29, 2010

Why are we here?

We are not here to “do a bunk” from the world.
We are not here to “get in touch with our ‘inner selves’”.
We are not here to “recharge our batteries”.
And God help us if we are here to “make a deal” with God:
“Lord, if you do this for me, then I’ll do that for you.”

Why are we here?

We are here because the world is not right,
because we are not right,
and because we are angry about injustice,
sad about suffering,
and ashamed of ourselves.

Why are we here?

We are here because God so loves the world
that he is making it right,
turning it into a new creation;
and because God so loves us
that he is making us right.
turning us into a new people,
making us like Jesus:
faithful, truthful, peaceful, hopeful.
Paul writes: “For those who are in Christ, the whole universe is new”
(II Corinthians 5:17).

We are here because God, in his grace, has called us here.
What else could we do but come?
With gratitude and joy, in the Holy Spirit, let us worship God!

Free world class resources for the local church

Craig Blomberg, Bill Mounce, John Piper, Thielman

Free, degree(ish) level teaching for the building up of the faith of the church

Yes, free

here

Sickness and Christian ministry

How much do our discussions of christian leadership assume that our leaders will be constantly healthy, young and energetic for their entire working life?
Is this realistic?
And if it isn't, what place is there for the ill minister?

I've heard tales from both sides. Some where an ill minister has been a burden on the church, or at least a missing rudder. But in other cases an ill minister can be good for a church, letting him focus on the few important things, having to learn to deal with weakness.

Perhaps this is part of a wider discussion about capacity. But I feel like it is a particular issue in Sydney, which doesn't have a strong theology of 'calling'

Grace Communion interviews

Some of you Moore College students may have heard Archie mention the World wide Church of God as a denomination that quickly became evangelical. You might like to check out their history and their story.
Before being known as the WWG, they were known as the Radio Church of God. They have invested many years in using media to spread their message.

Now as an evangelical denomination 'Grace Communion Inrenational' , that deeply knows the value of orthodox, trinitarian theology, they continue to use that expertise, not least by providing excellent interviews with top scholars, which you can find here .

Interviewees include
Doug Campbell
Paul Molnar
George Husinger
Alan Torrance
Gordon Fee
Paul Metzger

Lying is ok if you a)do it as a group and b) can make a buck

We now live in a culture where corporate lying is seen as normal.

When a company attempts to manipulate it's public image, by say, spending a small amount on environmental projects, when the majority of it's business has extreme negative effects, they are lying.
McDonalds does not make health foods, nor promote healthy lifestyles for young people. They are liars.
BP is not a green lovin' company. They are liars.


I know we want to call it spin, good marketing, careful presentation. But it isn't any of these things, it is a public deception.
Now it may be that we have accepted that business, to work, must be done by deception and lying. That's fine. Just don't call yourself a christian.
As christians, we have to call this stuff what it is, and call people and corporations to account and to repentance.
If you work for a company that can't be honest about itself and it's practices, you need to call them to account. You need to call them liars and ask them to stop.

And for those of us who work for chuches. Well, at the very least can we stop saying that we need to work on our public image, to make people think we care about them. Just care about them

This Fathers Day

This Fathers Day, don't buy your Dad a damn thing. He has more than enough shit already.

This Fathers Day, don't make a long trip. If you really cared about family you wouldn't have moved so far in the first place, and those long, fuel hungry trips mean people are losing their Dads in cultures that actually do value family.

This Fathers day, don't eat meat. Which dumbass came up with the idea that eating meat was somehow more 'manly'? Maybe historically men ate more meat, because they had more physical work to do, and well, were just more important than the women. But these days men and women both eat lots of meat, because someone else does the physical work for us, and well, we are more important than the half the world that can't feed itself. Who cares how much farmable land we take up with our insatiable desire for flesh?

This Fathers day, pray with your Father to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would teach us to love mercy, live justly and walk humbly with our God

We must change how we live

We need to learn a new way to live.
Not because christianity gives us a definite form of life, somehow trying to recapture 1st Century palestine.
But because the western consumerist way of life is destroying the world.
As a church we have a choice.
We can be at the vanguard of thinking through how to live responsibly with this information.
Or we can trundle along with a destructive system.
We need to think about how our decisions today will affect the witness of the church in the future.
There will be a time of reckoning in the future. There may even be a backlash.
If we are tightly allied to the people and systems that are destroying the earth, we will be tainted in the future.

The church isn't really in a position to turn the western world around. It is too busy worshipping mammon. But we can think about how to live gracious and full lives in a new ecological and economic situation. We can offer a vision of community and even (what appears to be) asceticism and restraint in production and consumption. We can offer a vision of individuality and particularity that is given by the spirit, rather than by what style of products you buy.
The big question is whether we can do it without becoming a cult.

All theology is contextual theology

All true theology is contextual theology.
When we attempt to speak of God in the abstract, in a way that doesn't address the situation in front of us, that pretends to come from nowhere, whatever the content of our speech might be, we present a God who has nothing to say to these particular people, this particular situation. We pretend that our knowledge of him is divorced from our reception of him in the narrative of our lives and communities.
That aint the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This isn't to say that our theology must be driven by the questions and concerns of a particular culture. We may have a word of judgment, that says 'Look what you have missed, the real question which is most important!'. But even when we do that, we speak from a particular place and to a particular place.
We sell ourselves way short if all we focus on is what God has said, and not how it is God's word for today . This is an incredibly important thing to do. It is what we generally call 'Biblical Theology'. In our circles however 'Biblical Theology' isn't theology at all, but 'How do read the Bible well'. Incredibly important. But if that is all we do, then we haven't done theology.
For example, you may notice that part of God's promise to Abraham is that he would have a land, you may notice the connection back to the garden in Genesis 1, you may see that promise being played out in the Exodus and conquest, thwarted in the exile, even fulfilled and expanded in Jesus' ascension as Lord of all. But until you can go out into the backyard, pick up the dirt and say, this is God's earth, Jesus is Lord over it and will renew it in the new creation, well you haven't done theology. All you have done is an interesting literary study.
The point of theology is not that we would read the Bible better, but rather, having read the Bible better, we would learn to read the world and our place in it biblically. To do that we will need to pay attention to the world around us. We will need to pay attention to the other ways the world may be spoken of, that are presented as 'obvious' or 'inevitable' ( not least our obsession with economic growth). And then we will need to speak to that situation of our triune God.
I've been reading Augustine's 'City of God' recently. It is an amazing biblical theology. Yet the first half of the book is a detailed evaluation, history and critique of the situation Augustines current culture is in. It seems this is often ignored as people mine it for theological quotes.
If we are to address the joys and sorrows, the successes and failures of our own time and place, it will not be good enough simply to regurgitate Augustines theology, or Calvins, or anyone elses for that matter, but having learnt from them to search the scriptures and pay close attention to the world, we might speak God's word of life to it.

Grumblers Go to Hell

Been thinking about the Israelite wanderings in the desert. They grumble for a couple chapters on the way from Egypt to Sinai. At Sinai they grumble. Then when they leave Sinai they grumble up to where they send spies into the promised land, who advise them to grumble about entering.

What's so wrong with grumbling?

It denies God's past salvation and the promised future hope. Hebrews makes much of God swearing in anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.' The warning to Christians is to trust God's provision of a future, to persevere during this life, and to encourage each other against hard hearts.

Last night on the way home from church my wife and I yet again dissected and critiqued what happened. Particularly annoying are the teenagers who talk during prayer time. To our shame this can be a regularly frequent occurrence. If I'm honest I grumble about lots in my life not least my Christian leaders (compare Num 12 with Heb 13:7-17).

What's the antidote? Just trust more?

Actually I think a far more powerful way to respond is being thankful in prayer. "Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." (Phil 4:6) So last night we sat down and thanked God. About the people who annoyed us. About church and college that frustrate us. About the great work of God in our lives. About God's promise to renew, restore and resurrect by his Holy Spirit. And sure enough, those hard hearts were given peace. (Phil 4:7)

God promises to bring his people to perfection. Christ has authored that and will complete it. Life in this life involves HOPE.

Friends, if you find yourself grumbling about God, or his church, or Christian people, or ministries, or relationships, or our Christian leaders... today is the day to repent. And be thankful.

Never enough

generations squeezed into the soil
Aiding and abetting the cover up
the land still sucks it up
like petrol on a fire

tears soak into sheol
the sandy sponge aint full enough yet.
I have a drink of tea, some Tv, a cake, a sleep, a think, lunch and second lunch.
the belly certainly protrudes but
it is never enough
there is no new life.

The best possible ministry training?

Anglican Youthworks and Presbyterian Youth have joined forces to provide an exciting new form of ministry training called The Timothy Partnership.
The Timothy Partnership provides an online diploma in theology. It isn't just a correspondence course where you get dumped a bunch of notes. You get genuine interaction with a qualified lecturer and tutor online.
The course is three days a week and qualifies students to receive Austudy, so churches only need to raise a small amount for a ministry trainee to have a couple of days of ministry and a couple of days of training.
The partnership between Youthworks and the Presys is perfect. Youthworks prides itself on teaching anyone to do youth ministry, Presbyterian Youth prides itself on training young people to do any ministry. The combined effect is a program that can teach anyone to do any ministry.
The best part is that it resists the pressure to remove people from their local contexts to train them. (and they actually get a meaningful qualification at the end)
This has obvious benefits for rural churches, even overseas churches. But I think it even has benefits for city churches, as our current training models still tear people out of their contexts.
You could even use this training model for an evangelist reaching their own network, instead of removing them from that network to watch how you do (sometimes less effective) ministry currently.
This is a total win for the kingdom!

The gospel is God's summing up of ALL things into Christ their head, (for the sake of the church)

Some people found my post on the Phillipian jailers question a bit depressing.

Here is an antidote

Ephesians, life the universe and everything summed up in one talk.

If you don't like the speaker, I don't know, close your eyes and think of Carson or something

Fabulously meaningless

I've been thinking about unanswered prayer recently. I've been wondering what our current unanswered prayer will look like to us from the other side of the resurrection.

Most common christian piety answers that we will see that everything had a reason, or was necessary in some way for God's plan. I find this utterly unsatisfying, so I am going on a journey of complete speculation.

The teacher in Ecclesiastes says that everything is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Often as Christians we see this as a position of despair, and want to temper it by saying we know what finally has meaning.

In The Hunting of the Snark, Lewis Caroll says it a little differently, "The snark was a boojum after all". The object of the ridiculous absurdist chase turned out to be the thing that brings existential nothingness. The crazy prattle and ambition, identity and peculiar useless talents of each of the protagonists, existing simply to tell the silly tale of their desire for snark appears to come to nothing.
As does searching for some deep allegorical meaning in the story.
Yet does it come to nothing. Well, not quite. What is achieved is a funny absurd joke. None of it is necessary, and that is it's joy.

I wonder if this is how we will view the history of our lives and the universe from the viewpoint of the kingdom, as one joyous and unecessary joke. If the characters in Carolls poem had caught the snark it would be quite boring. It would affirm their silliness as worthwhile. I feel the same about unanswered prayer; perhaps we are chasing a snark, and from the position of the abundant goodness of God's kingdom, it is very funny that we dont find it.
To be freed from necessity, to be freed from some hefty, underlying meaning, the contingent, unecessary, even absurd universe we live in can be enjoyed for the joyful romp that it is.

hmm or not

What must I do to be saved?

How did the question of the phillipian jailer (what must I do to be saved?) become the only real question that the content of the gospel could answer?

In evangelical circles this question is often smugly paraded as the smackdown to all discussions of what the gospel is (yes yes.. but if a dying woman rang you up and asked 'what must I do to be saved, what would you say).
This is annoying for a number of reasons,
it reduces the possible situations the gospel might address to individual, deathbed conversions
it ends up with a gospel whose focus is on the individual rather than on Christ
it ignores Paul's own description of his gospel
it (often) ignores Paul's own answer 'believe on Christ', or imports a whole bunch of other things that of course Paul 'must' have meant when he said 'believe on Christ', usually a mechanism of penal substitutionary atonement
it ignores the content of the gospel proclaimation in acts, not least he first one by Peter, which was responding to the question 'are these guys pissed or what?'
and most most most most annoying is the simple fact that most people are NOT running up to me and asking 'what must I do to be saved?'. They have all sorts of questions though, that the genuine gospel can address, and yes their own salvation is part of that. But if we think the content of the gospel, at it's most purest is the simplest possible answer to the question 'what must I do to be saved', then we will try and manipulate people into asking this question, so that we can give them the answer.

It is just dumb. I cant believe this kind of dumb crap still gets bandied about. But hey, even our lecturers do it. Lets talk about Jesus, lets talk about his saving death, lets talk about the kingdom breaking in around his person an in his resurrection,lets talk about his ascension and rule and his return, and giving thanks to god and turning from idols and his fulfillment of Israels hopes and his penal , substituting death (two mentions just to be safe), and the gathering in of the gentiles and the pouring out of the spirit and the transformation of ourselves and the witness of the unified church, and his power for holiness and love and new life and his grace for sinners and his return from exile and his pilgrim people and their cruciform life and his new creation and his grace and love for you and me and his restoration of the failures, and his shaming of the powers and authorities and his intercession for us and his faithfulness to Abraham.
but who needs all that... that would just be gospel plus right
let me draw you six boxes

Jesus rose early, while it was still dark

Jesus rose early in the morning, while it was still dark.

I got up early this morning (4:30), for no reason, except that my body was ready to get up.
I pottered around the house a bit, the air was stuffy warm with a tinge of bloody freezing radiating off the windows. Made myself a cup of tea and took the opportunity to read some of Robert Jenson's Systematic Theology. I remembered that he is one of my favourite theologians. A lutheran, deeply influenced by the Cappodocians, who gets Thomas and loves Jonathan Edwards. And on top of that he keeps going back to the Bible and especially the resurrection. Beautiful. Today I was reading on God's relationship to time and space, as well as some stuff on sexuality and politics.

I felt particularly alive this morning. Every now and then I get these moments of clarity where I feel alive, normal, energetic. I've been pretty sick the last week or so, fuzzy head, no voice. And realistically, I've been pretty sick the last year or so. But every now and then, I snap out of it, the world seems, well, more real. I feel like a teenager again, I feel in the moment.
Often these moments come after sickness. I get a migraine that knocks me out for almost a day and I wake up feeling wonderful.
When they come, you realised how impoverished your perception of life is at other times.
I wonder if this is what the resurrection will feel like.
More aliveness. Like we have been sick the whole time and only now are well.

Jesus rose early while it was still dark.
True of the resurrection too.
It is still dark.
I have a funeral on Friday. An uncle died of cancer. He was a very lively man. He taught me how to make pizza.
I cant wait for the whole earth to wake up.

Is all 'reformed theology' this kooky?

I just read this article by Vern Poythress. It is about John Frame's multiperspectivalism. While I'm all up for a single truth with multiple perspectives, some of this article is just plain weird.
Weirdest is the way in which Frame and Poythress take a phenomenon or idea, break it up into three categories, and then say that this is somehow a 'trinitarian' structure, because the three categories relate to each other. I dont mind breaking things down into categories, that can be helpful, but claiming divine sanctioning for those ideas, because there are three, is weird.
Then they take this observation about their observations and claim that there is a trinitarian structure to all knowledge, because there is a trinitarian structure to all being!
All it takes to poke at this house of cards is adding another observation to their groups of threes.

My wife has a friend who sees the pattern of 48 everywhere, sounds somewhat similar

Tell me, you who are into this american reformed stuff, is it all this kooky?

Pastoral statistics

Do we do any better in Australia?


consider the conclusions found in the USA and published recently by The Fuller Institute, George Barna and Pastoral Care Inc., namely that:

* 90% of the pastors report working between 55 to 75 hours per week.
* 80% believe pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families. Many pastor’s children do not attend church now because of what the church has done to their parents.
* 95% of pastors do not regularly pray with their spouses.
* 33% state that being in the ministry is an outright hazard to their family.
* 75% report significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry.
* 90% feel they are inadequately trained to cope with the ministry demands.
* 80% of pastors and 84% of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged as role of pastors.
* 90% of pastors said the ministry was completely different than what they thought it would be like before they entered the ministry.
* 50% feel unable to meet the demands of the job.
* 70% of pastors constantly fight depression.
* 70% say they have a lower self-image now than when they first started.
* 70% do not have someone they consider a close friend.
* 40% report serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month.
* 33% confess having involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with someone in the church.
* 50% of pastors feel so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
* 70% of pastors feel grossly underpaid.
* 50% of the ministers starting out will not last 5 years.
* 10% of ministers will actually retire as a minister in some form.
* 94% of clergy families feel the pressures of the pastor’s ministry.
* 80% of spouses feel the pastor is overworked.
* 80% spouses feel left out and underappreciated by church members.
* 80% of pastors’ spouses wish their spouse would choose a different profession.
* 66% of church members expect a minister and family to live at a higher moral standard than themselves.
* The profession of ‘Pastor’ is near the bottom of a survey of the most-respected professions, just above ‘car salesman’.
* 4,000 new churches begin each year and 7,000 churches close.
* Over 1,700 pastors left the ministry every month last year.
* Over 1,300 pastors were terminated by the local church each month, many without cause.
* Over 3,500 people a day left the church last year.
* Many denominations report an “empty pulpit crisis”. They cannot find ministers willing to fill positions.

And the #1 reason listed in that survey for why pastors leave the ministry was that ‘Church people are not willing to go the same direction and goal of the pastor. Pastor’s believe God wants them to go in one direction but the people are not willing to follow or change’. Perhaps this reflects MacDonald’s statement above.

And Anne Jackson, in her recently published Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic (pp. 48–9), lists the following (sobering) figures on (US) clergy health:

* 71 percent of all ministers admitted to being overweight by an average of 32.1 pounds [14.59 kg]. One-third of all ministers were overweight by at least 25 pounds [11.36 kg], including 15 percent who were overweight by 50 pounds [22.73 kg] or more.
* Two-thirds of all pastors skip a meal at least one day a week, and 39 percent skip meals three or more days a week.
* 83 percent eat food once a week that they know they know they shouldn’t because it is unhealthy, including 41 percent who do this three or more days a week.
* 88 percent eat fast food at least one day a week, and 33 percent eat fast food three or more days a week.
* 50 percent get the recommended minimum amount of exercise (30 minutes per day, three times a week); 28 percent don’t exercise at all.
* Four out of ten ministers (approximately 39 percent) reported digestive problems once a week, with 14 percent having chronic digestive problems (three days per week).
* 87 percent don’t get enough sleep at least once a week, with almost half (47 percent) getting less sleep than they need at least three nights a week. Only 16 percent regularly get the recommendation of eight hours or more per night.
* 52 percent experience physical symptoms of stress at least once a week, and nearly one out of four experiences physical symptoms three or more times a week.



H/T Jason

Being a kinesthetic learner and thinker is tiring. I have to do laps and laps of parramatta park just to get one paper written. By the time I get back to my computer, I'm stuffed!
Anyone else out there have to move to think?
How do you get around it?

Plagues, Exodus, separation, eucharist

Peter Leithart, a reflection on the plagues, God seperating his people in the passover and the Eucharisthere

Consumerism is one big pagan orgy

There would not be a market for all the goods that are produced in an industrialized economy if consumers were content with the things they bought. Consumer desire must be constantly on the move. We must continually desire new things in order for consumption to keep pace with production...The shaving razor with one blade had to be surpassed by the double bladed razor, which was bested by three blades, then four, and now an absurd five blades on one razor. This is more than just a continuing attempt to make a product better; it is what the General Motors people called the organised creation of dissatisfaction" How can we be content with a mere two blades when the current standard is five? How can we be content with an ipod that downloads 200 songs when someone else has one that downloads a thousand? THe economy as it is currently structured would grind to a halt if we ever looked at our stuff and simply declared "It is enough, I am happy with what I have"
The truth is, however, that we do not tend to experience dissatisfaction as merely a negative. In consumer culture, dissatisfaction and satisfaction cease to be opposites, for pleasure is not so much in the possession of things as in their pursuit. There is a pleasure in the pursuit of novelty, and the pleasure resides not so much in having as in wanting. Once we have obtained an item, it brings desire to a temorary halt, and the item loses some of its appeal. Possession kills desire; familiarity breeds contempt. That is why shopping, not buying itself, is the heart of consumerism. The consumerist spirit is a restless spirit, typified by detachment, because desire must constantly be kept on the move.
Will Cavanaugh Being Consumed, 46-47

"So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and seperated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
Eph 4:17-19

Is that the way you came to know Christ? A rejection of this continual lust for more?
Do the people in your churches resemble the pagans or not?
What are your church leaders doing about it?
I cant count how many preachers I've heard say that consumerism is greedy idolatry, that shopping malls are the cathedral of our cultures Gods.
Well, you have a sledgehammer, go and bust the freakin thing up then!
Why do we allow people to prostitute themselves working in retail?
Or perhaps we are ok with a bit of synchretism in our churches, a bit of paganism never hurt the church did it?
I feel like the church has mostly remained silent and abandoned her people to sad lives of idolatry, as though challenging these really challenging these false gods ( in a real, tangible way) somehow compromises the gospel of grace.

What has 'stranger danger' achieved?

"Our society seems to be increasingly full of fearful, defensive, aggressive people anxiously clinging to their property and inclined to look at the surrounding world with suspicion, always expecting an enemy to suddenly appear, intrude, and do harm"

Henri Nouwen Reaching Out: the three movements of the spiritual life New York: Doubleday 1975. 73

Links to thoughts on impassibility

David Congdom for passibility, but not soppy co-suffering

Mark Thompson summarising Weinandy against passibility

Seamus on Weinandy

Leithart anti anti anthropomorphism

Thoughts on gender and authority in the church

only one man can lead the church. Jesus.

this has something to do with the order of creation, HE is the new adam

his bride should obey him by receiving his grace and gifts.

those gifts don't confer ontological status, but different gifts are given to the church through different people, and that is a good thing. That is, people, are equal, but different.

we complement each other, whether we are male or female

it is incredibly difficult to map current church practices onto 1st century practices, and so everybody has to do some hermeneutical wrangling when applying scripture today (there is no 'simple' reading, whatever anyone says, they are simply equivocating)

everybody is inconsistent at some point, you just have to figure it out in different contexts.

college lecturers who don't buy the 'equal but different (and we will tell you how you are different)' mantra should let rip a little more often on the people who push it, if only to get rid of crazy arguments from primogeniture and to expose unbiblical assumptions.

appeals to courage in the face of...(the nasty secularist world, or oppressive patriarchy) are attempts to bias a discussion by smearing anyone who disagrees with you. Your discussion is usually with other christians, not the world.
I believe we need to learn to love each other.

dead baby Jesus

I cant tell you that he died,
before you had a chance to know him,
before you even knew he lived.
I cant tell you if he even did
inside that empty mocking tomb,
or if, prepared and placed
and left and left he left that space
I cant tell you
Because you cant tell me
'he will rise'

never the bride

I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy for you. Wow, really! I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy for you. Congratulations! I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy fo ryou. I'ms ohappy for you. Ims ohap pyf ory oui mso hap pyf ory ouim soha ppyf oryo uimso happy

Prophecy, preaching and poo

Many christian leaders draw a distinction between prophecying and preaching. preaching is seen as the main teaching function of the leaders, which is to be accepted by the pewfodder. Prophecying is some other kind of speech which is weighed up and judged by various people.

Now I study at an institution that trains church leaders. Here's my problem, whenever one of my esteemed colleagues speaks on an issue, I reckon 30% of the student body thinks he is speaking utter bollocks. For theological students, this isn't really a problem, it is part of the fun. But us guys are going to be pastors over congregations pretty soon. What will we do with the parishoners who disagree? What kind of forum do they have to question our blindspots, other than walking away from their christian community? Why don't we have some kind of forum for weighing up what we say? Perhaps it might lead to greater transformation when we are right.

They will not change their ways

Over on the Sydney Anglicans site, Bishop Glen Davies has posted an article lamenting the weak disciplinary action of Archbishop Williams against the TEC.
I get his frustration, and certainly wish more was done.

Still, it seems Davies has given up on the possibility of repentance for the TEC. This is a bit theologically suspect. We don't boot people out of the church because we have given up hope for their repentance. we boot them out in the hope that it will lead to repentance.
Now, the TEC is unrepentant, so sure, call for their removal, but don't give in to the temptation to place them beyond the grace of God.

I advise you to ignore advice

I have a lingering hunch that people who offer advice on how to 'reach your culture' are full of it.
I wonder whether saying to people, 'What do you like?' 'How did you become a follower of Jesus?' 'what has helped you grow as a christian?'....now find people like you and do the same thing, might have far more profound results.

Why do we care about gay marriage?

Why do Christians get upset about the state recognising gay marriage?
If we really don't like it, then we could just stop being the states marriage celebrants and have our own ceremonies in the church.
What we call marriage and what the state thinks of marriage is pretty different anyway.
Please enlighten me

Building bridges

Byron had this video on his site, it is worth watching, especially for thinking about mission

No one sings statistics

I've given up asking God to give life. Month after month the blood flows. It's faithless, and those who rarely watch and pray can look down their nose. Not that he cant, or even that he wont. But I'm sick of watching him not.

Meanwhile the peaceful pray for peace, the strong for strength, survivors survive to sing songs of survival. No one sings statistics.

Johnny Cash: Look unto the East

The teacher of truth told tales of trouble times that would begin
And the cynical suer sowed the sorrowful seeds of seven sins
The people placed a prize upon the prince of perfect peace
And the one who wooed the world was wounded, look unto the East

The morning moved in mournfully with many moments smart
My brawny beast who beat the beauty, bound and bit and barred
They laid the lash upon him low, his lips moved not the least
Watch him come from where he did go, look unto the East

The devil threw his darts and the dearest dove came droppin’ down
But the spirit slips in soft and sweetly, unseen with no sound
The comforter, the counsellor with us till time is ceased
And the groom will return for his bride, look unto the East

SM Lockridge on evil

It’s Friday
Jesus is praying
Peter’s a sleeping
Judas is betraying
But Sunday’s comin’
It’s Friday
Pilate’s struggling
The council is conspiring
The crowd is vilifying
They don’t even know
That Sunday’s comin’
It’s Friday
The disciples are running
Like sheep without a shepherd
Mary’s crying
Peter is denying
But they don’t know
That Sunday’s a comin’
It’s Friday
The Romans beat my Jesus
They robe Him in scarlet
They crown him with thorns
But they don’t know
That Sunday’s comin’
It’s Friday
See Jesus walking to Calvary
His blood dripping
His body stumbling
And His spirit’s burdened
But you see, it’s only Friday
Sunday’s comin’
It’s Friday
The world’s winning
People are sinning
And evil’s grinning
It’s Friday
The soldiers nail my Savior’s hands
To the cross
They nail my Savior’s feet
To the cross
And then they raise Him up
Next to criminals
It’s Friday
But let me tell you something
Sunday’s comin’
It’s Friday
The disciples are questioning
What has happened to their King
And the Pharisees are celebrating
That their scheming
Has been achieved
But they don’t know
It’s only Friday
Sunday’s comin’
It’s Friday
He’s hanging on the cross
Feeling forsaken by His Father
Left alone and dying
Can nobody save Him?
Oh
It’s Friday
But Sunday’s comin’
It’s Friday
The earth trembles
The sky grows dark
My King yields His spirit
It’s Friday
Hope is lost
Death has won
Sin has conquered
and Satan’s just a laughing
It’s Friday
Jesus is buried
A soldier stands guard
And a rock is rolled into place
But it’s Friday
It is only Friday
Sunday is a comin’!

More Kissinger in Argentina

So, we have been part of a big peaceful system that we occasionally need to go to war to protect.
Here is some more Kissinger

"State Department documents obtained by the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act show that in October 1976, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and high ranking U.S. officials gave their full support to the Argentine military junta and urged them to hurry up and finish the "dirty war" before the U.S. Congress cut military aid. A post-junta truth commission found that the Argentine military had "disappeared" at least 10,000 Argentines in the so-called "dirty war" against "subversion" and "terrorists" between 1976 and 1983; human rights groups in Argentina put the number at closer to 30,000."

This isn't conspiracy theory stuff, it is from the documentshere







"The teaching and actions of Jesus nowhere show a concern for 'social justice'. The reason is that the call for social justice springs from envy rather than from compassion"
DB Knox

Sower divine, send forth thy word

This could make a good song/prayer before the Bible readings at church



SOWER divine, send forth Thy word
by Mrs. Hazel Dixon


1 SOWER divine, send forth Thy word,
Here let each heart the ground prepare;
Fulfil Thy glorious purpose, Lord,
And give Thy people ears to hear.

2 No wayside heart be here today,
Still barren, hard and unforgiven,
Lest Satan come and snatch away
The seed that bears the life of heaven.

3 Nor, as in dry and stony ground,
At once to spring, yet, by and by,
Rootless in trial's heat, be found
As swift to wither and to die.

4 Lord, from this world our hearts set free,
Its riches, cares and pleasures vain;
Lest growing strong, they prove to be
Like thorns that choke the precious grain.

5 But to Thy wise and gracious ways
Patient and meek we would be found;
Thy Spirit's streams, Thy love's warm rays,
Making that good and fruitful ground.

6 Then shall Thy word, the living seed,
Accomplish that for which it came,
Spring up a hundredfold indeed,
A harvest worthy of Thy Name.

Robert McNamara on the just and legal war

Mr. McNamara described the American firebombing of Japan's cities in World War II. He had played a supporting role in those attacks, running statistical analysis for Gen. Curtis E. LeMay of the Army's Air Forces.

"We burned to death 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo — men, women and children," Mr. McNamara recalled; some 900,000 Japanese civilians died in all. "LeMay said, 'If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals.' And I think he's right. He — and I'd say I — were behaving as war criminals."

"What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?" he asked. He found the question impossible to answer."
US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in the doco "Fog of War".



"The teaching and actions of Jesus nowhere show a concern for 'social justice'. The reason is that the call for social justice springs from envy rather than from compassion"
DB Knox

Double(bubble) glaze your house for a few bucks

So winter is rolling in properly now. I feel like a bit of a wuss saying that, it's not like we live in the mountains anymore, or live in Northern Europe.
But those guys are set up for the cold, they are ready for it, they have double glazed windows. It hardly seems worth it for our short, not so cold winter.

Well, this genius has figured out how to get cheap, easy, light, replaceable double glazing. Bubble wrap.
Working from the theory of pockets of non-moving air, our internet friend threw some bubble wrap up on some glass doors.
He reckons it has almost better insulating capacity that the double glaze.
Please follow the links, because it really doesn't look too bad.

Get rid of your fridge

The fridge is one of those modern, western conveniences that it is hard to imagine doing without, like flushing toilets or..well, flushing toilets.

But they sure do suck a lot of power.
So here is an interesting (partial) solution.

The basic idea (for those who can't be bothered chasing links) is to use a chest freezer with either a temperature kill switch or a timer.
Chest freezers
-don't lose as much cold air when opened
-have far more insulation
-use heaps less energy (90% less)

Not really practical in a 1 bedroom flat, but maybe next year....

connect...connect...connect Food

One of the joys of Moore College is the weekly fruit and veg co-op.
Every Friday a bunch of students, faculty and hangers on gather together to snap up some cheap fruit and veg, chat and relax. Just what we need.

I've often wondered whether the concept would work outside the hallowed halls of College.

Tonight I stumbled into Sydney Food Connect.
Their goals are
Healthy food that supports local sustainable farmers.

Fair: 40% return to farmers!
Healthy: Organic & chemical free
Local: Food miles ~250km
Direct: Purchased from farmers
Community : Over 16 local pickup points

According to one report, the weekly pick up of veg from the 'city cousins' collection points are a great reflection of triune love!

With all our clamour to connect with our neighbourhood, why dont SydAng churches take up the Food Connect concept.

To be a 'city cousin', you need a largish indoor covered space (most are people's living rooms, so a church hall would be more than ideal), you need to be passionate about good food and justice for farmers (I remember preaching about that once, and the practices of oil companies..heehee), and you need to be able to be available for a couple of hours on a friday. All pretty doable if you ask me. And an awesome way to have legitimate, regular contact with people in your neighbourhood.
Hooray for Food Connect

Henry Kissinger: winner of the 1973 Nobel peace Prize on East Timor

Hooray for truth and freedom and a just war

(From Christoper Hitchens book on Kissenger)





Henry Kissinger on a lecture tour for his book Diplomacy, August 11, 1995, Park Central Hotel in New York, questioned by investigative reporters Allan Nairn and Amy Goodman:
Allan Nairn: Mr Kissinger, my name is Allan Nairn. I'm a journalist in the United States. I'm one of the Americans who survived the massacre in East Timor on November 12, 1991, a massacre during which Indonesian troops armed with American M-16s gunned down at least 271 Timorese civilians in front of the Santa Cruz Catholic cemetery as they were gathered in the act of peaceful mourning and protest. Now you just said that in your meeting with Suharto on the afternoon of December 6, 1975, you did not discuss Timor, you did not discuss it until you came to the airport. Well, I have here the official State Department transcript of your and President Ford's conversation with General Suharto, the dictator of Indonesia. It was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. It has been edited under the Freedom of Information Act so the whole text isn't there. It's clear from the portion of the text that is here, that in fact you did discuss the impending invasion of Timor with Suharto, a fact which was confirmed to me by President Ford himself in an interview I had with him. President Ford told me that in fact you discussed the impending invasion of Timor with Suharto and that you gave the US . . .
Kissinger: Who? I or he?
Nairn: That you and President Ford together gave US approval for the invasion of East Timor. There is another internal State Department memo which is printed in an extensive excerpt here which I'll give to anyone in your audience that's interested. This is a memo of a December 18, 1975, meeting held at the State Department. This was held right after your return from that trip and you were berating your staff for having put on paper a finding by the State Department legal advisor Mr Leigh that the Indonesian invasion was illegal, that it not only violated international law, it violated a treaty with the US because US weapons were used and it's clear from this transcript which I invite anyone in the audience to peruse that you were angry at them first because you feared this memo would leak, and second because you were supporting the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, and you did not want it known that you were doing this contrary to the advice of your own people in the State Department. If one looks at the public actions, sixteen hours after you left that meeting with Suharto the Indonesian troops began parachuting over Dili, the capital of East Timor. They came ashore and began the massacres that culminated in a third of the Timorese population. You announced an immediate doubling of US military aid to Indonesia at the time, and in the meantime at the United Nations, the instruction given to Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan, as he wrote in his memoirs, was to, as he put it, see to it that the UN be highly ineffective in any actions it might undertake on East Timor . . .
[shouts from the audience] Kissinger: Look, I think we all got the point now . . .
Nairn: My question, Mr Kissinger, my question, Dr Kissinger, is twofold. First will you give a waiver under the Privacy Act to support full declassification of this memo so we can see exactly what you and President Ford said to Suharto? Secondly, would you support the convening of an international war crimes tribunal under UN supervision on the subject of East Timor and would you agree to abide by its verdict in regard to your own conduct?
Kissinger I mean, uh, really, this sort of comment is one of the reasons why the conduct of foreign policy is becoming nearly impossible under these conditions. Here is a fellow who's got one obsession, he's got one problem, he collects a bunch of documents, you don't know what is in these documents . ..
Nairn: I invite your audience to read them.
Kissinger: Well, read them. Uh, the fact is essentially as I described them [thumps podium]. Timor was not a significant American policy problem. If Suharto raised it, if Ford said something that sounded encouraging, it was not a significant American foreign policy problem. It seemed to us to be an anti-colonial problem in which the Indonesians were taking over Timor and we had absolutely no reason at that time to pay any huge attention to it.
Secondly you have to understand these things in the context of the period. Vietnam had just collapsed. Nobody yet knew what effect the domino theory would have. Indonesia was . . . is a country of a population of 160 million and the key, a key country in Southeast Asia. We were not looking for trouble with Indonesia and the reason I objected in the State Department to putting this thing on paper; it wasn't that it was put on paper. It was that it was circulated to embassies because it was guaranteed to leak out. It was guaranteed then to lead to some public confrontation and for better or worse our fundamental position on these human rights issues was always to try to see if we could discuss them first, quietly, before they turned into a public confrontation. This was our policy with respect to emigration from Russia, in which we turned out to be right, and this was the policy which we tried to pursue in respect to Indonesia and anybody can go and find some document and take out one sentence and try to prove something fundamental and now I think we've heard enough about Timor. Let's have some questions on some other subject. [applause from audience]
Amy Goodman: Dr Kissinger, you said that the United States has won everything it wanted in the Cold War up to this point. I wanted to go back to the issue of Indonesia and before there's a booing in the audience, just to say as you talk about China and India, Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world. And so I wanted to ask the question in a current way about East Timor. And that is, given what has happened in the twenty years, the 200,000 people who have been killed, according to Amnesty, according to Asia Watch, even according to the Indonesian military.... Do you see that as a success of the United States?
Kissinger: No, but I don't think it's an American policy. We cannot be, we're not responsible for everything that happens in every place in the world. [applause from audience]
Goodman: Except that 90 percent of the weapons used during the invasion were from the US and it continues to this day. So in that way we are intimately connected to Indonesia, unfortunately. Given that, I was wondering if you think it's a success and whether too, with you on the board of Freeport McMoRan, which has the largest gold-mining operation in the world in Indonesia, in Irian Jaya, are you putting pressure, since Freeport is such a major lobbyist in Congress on behalf of Indonesia, to change that policy and to support self-determination for the people of East Timor?
Kissinger: The, uh, the United States as a general proposition cannot fix every problem on the use of American weapons in purely civil conflicts. We should do our best to prevent this. As a private American corporation engaged in private business in an area far removed from Timor but in Indonesia, I do not believe it is their job to get itself involved in that issue because if they do, then no American private enterprise will be welcome there anymore.
Goodman: But they do every day, and lobby Congress.




"The teaching and actions of Jesus nowhere show a concern for 'social justice'. The reason is that the call for social justice springs from envy rather than from compassion"
DB Knox