iDigress

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, Sunday 24 January 2010

9.00 am – Celebrating Australia Day 2010

With Australia Day fast approaching, I wonder what your plans are as you celebrate what’s great about being Australian.

For some, it’s just another public holiday – a chance to kick back, spend time with family and friends, and enjoy the best of what this country has to offer.  For others, it’s an opportunity to reflect on our place in the world, and how we can all work together to make things better.

For Indigenous Australians, or at least some of them, it’s a reminder of the coming of Europeans to this ancient continent, and the disruption and devastation their arrival brought to traditional culture, language and social order.  Europeans also introduced many good things, including new technologies, new ideas, and the story of Jesus.

On Australia Day we celebrate what makes us great, where we’ve come from, who we are now, and what future we want for those who follow in our wake.  I’m Rod Benson for nswchurches.com

12.00 pm – U.S. troops use guns bearing Bible verses

Like many, I was dismayed to learn this week that combat rifle sights used by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are inscribed with Bible verses highlighting the superiority of Christianity.

Some might think this a positive step, but there are a number of problems.

First, the United States is a secular country.  Why promote religious belief, or just one faith?  Should some guns be inscribed with texts from the Qur’an?

Second, it gives the impression that Americans are modern-day Christian crusaders fighting a religious war rather than defending the West from terrorism.

Third, it links the way of Jesus with the practice of violence, war and militarism.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Jesus taught us to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and seek to live at peace with everyone (e.g. Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:18).

But those words of Jesus won’t be inscribed on the barrels of American guns any time soon.  I’m Rod Benson for nswchurches.com
5.00 pm – Racism must go, says Peter Cosgrove

In his excellent Australia Day address, delivered this week, former Defence Force chief Peter Cosgrove reflected on what makes us great, and what occasionally diminishes us as a nation.

In particular, he praised “our sense of compassion, generosity, selflessness and equity when we encounter the suffering and need of our [regional] neighbours”; he spoke of our central role in helping East Timor achieve independence; and the way Australians brought assistance to Solomon Islands in 2003.

But he drew attention to “pockets of racism here in Australia,” noting the Cronulla riots and, more recently, attacks on Indian students, describing the violence as “a litany of criminality.”

Hateful attitudes and actions only diminish us as a just society, and must be addressed with wisdom and justice.

General Cosgrove remains confident that we are “a highly moral, inclusive and stable society,” and that “our challenges are not beyond us.”  I hope and pray that he is right.  I’m Rod Benson for nswchurches.com