Faith: April 2019 Archives
Folau case puts religious debate in danger, says bishop -- The Australian
"'If a rugby player can be sacked by doing nothing more than posting on his social media page what is essentially a summary of the Bible then it's a signal to the rest of us that we better keep our mouths shut,' Anglican Bishop Michael Stead, who leads the south Sydney diocese, told The Australian yesterday.
"The Sydney Catholic Archdiocese was also critical of RA's decision to terminate [Israel] Folau's contract, accusing the sport's governing body of bowing to pressure from corporate sponsors to adopt certain positions on social issues.
"'It not only highlights the influence a major corporate sponsor can have on the decisions of sporting codes, but shows the pressure on businesses to take social and moral positions unrelated to their core business,' said Monica Doumit, director of public affairs at the Archdiocese of Sydney.
"Former Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Keysar Trad said the Folau matter showed Australia has 'lost the art of respectful debate'.
"'They've kicked Folau off the rugby team and stopped him from doing something he loves based on something that has nothing to do with his professional ability,' Mr Trad said.
"'It was always known he was a religious person. Are they asking him to rip out the pages of the Bible they believe aren't politically correct just so he can continue to play the sport?'"
On Religion - Ten years of reporting on a fault line - Columns
Terry Mattingly, writing in 1998:
"Back in the 1980s, I began to experience deja vu while covering event after event on the religion beat in Charlotte, Denver and then at the national level.
"I kept seeing a fascinating cast of characters at events centering on faith, politics and morality. A pro-life rally, for example, would feature a Baptist, a Catholic priest, an Orthodox rabbi and a cluster of conservative Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Lutherans. Then, the pro-choice counter-rally would feature a "moderate" Baptist, a Catholic activist or two, a Reform rabbi and mainline Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Lutherans.
"Similar line-ups would appear at many rallies linked to gay rights, sex-education programs and controversies in media, the arts and even science. Along with other journalists, I kept reporting that today's social issues were creating bizarre coalitions that defied historic and doctrinal boundaries. After several years of writing about 'strange bedfellows,' it became obvious that what was once unique was now commonplace....
"The old dividing lines centered on issues such as the person of Jesus Christ, church tradition and the Protestant Reformation. But these new interfaith coalitions were fighting about something even more basic - the nature of truth and moral authority.Two years later, [James Davison] Hunter began writing 'Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America,' in which he declared that America now contains two basic world views, which he called 'orthodox' and 'progressive.' The orthodox believe it's possible to follow transcendent, revealed truths. Progressives disagree and put their trust in personal experience, even if that requires them to 'resymbolize historic faiths according to the prevailing assumptions of contemporary life.'"
J. Gresham Machen identified this fault line within Protestantism in his 1923 book Christianity and Liberalism. Even then, orthodox Protestants who agreed on fundamentals of the faith -- the inerrancy of Scripture, the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, bodily death and resurrection, the reality of miracles -- were linking arms across denominational divisions while religious liberals were creating ecumenical initiatives of their own, gradually expanding them into interfaith organizations. What's changed, starting in the 1970s, is the development of the broader conservative coalition that Mattingly describes above, reaching beyond Protestantism and beyond the boundaries of Christianity.
Sexular Colonialism - Stephen McAlpine
Stephen McAlpine on the recent persecution of Christian professional rugby players who are of Pacific Islander heritage. He sees a pattern -- white progressives imposing their morality on brown and black believers, whether Fijian Christians, Pakistani Muslims, or indigenous Australians. You could add the recent Methodist conclave as another example.
"The progressive narrative has created, and is the process of enforcing, a new colonialism and, in a great irony, is enforcing it upon those it once championed. For so long the progressive side of politics accused the historical nations of the West of colonising ethnic minorities, but suddenly they've signed up to the agenda.
"And it's all come down to sex. The progressives have their own version of cultural assimilation - let's call it Sexular Colonialism....
"For Billy [Vinupola], for Israel [Folau], and for a host of other players in the spotlight, they've come to realise that their deep ethno-religious frameworks upon which they have built their lives have to bow down the idol of sexual identity. There is no option if they wish to continue in their employ.
"These other markers - ethno-religious -, for so long championed by the Left, are now being viewed as barriers to progress. And we know how the Left treats barriers to progress. There is a pecking order when it comes to identity, and race and religion sit squarely below sex. It must be quashed.
"Sexular Colonialism right there.
"Still not convinced? So a friend working in the public service in our home state tells me that after a long intense PD day on how to promote sexual diversity in his workplace, he approached the organisers and said that many people within the Australian indigenous community would have a problem with this. The response? 'Well they will just have to get on board.'
"Get on board. The bulk of the indigenous community who hold to traditional values in terms of marriage, will have to get on board the whitefella's agenda. Since when did that become anything but colonialism? If they don't get on board, they're gonna get run over."
