Make a Difference
Members of the Australian Defence Forces are currently deployed in the Solomon Islands, East Timor, Afghanistan, Israel and the Sinai, Sudan and Iraq, as well as in border protection around Australia.
Some 3800 Australian service men and women will be spending Christmas away from their families.
Thanks. And may God bless you and keep you safe, along with those you love.
Why do atheists insist on imposing their religious views on the rest of us?
Atheists are a tiny proportion of the population in Australia.
Seventy percent of Australians are Christians, or have some affiliation with a Christian church. Many of the rest are Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, or members of a myriad of smaller groups.
By all means let’s hear what the atheists have to say. But why should there be outrage from them when anyone else has a point of view on a matter of public policy?
On the flight from Adelaide I read bits of the Adelaide Advertiser over the shoulder of the man in the seat next to me.
There was an article by a woman I had never heard of and whose name I cannot remember, bemoaning the influence of Christianity in public life.
As examples of this nefarious influence, she pointed to the defeat of the voluntary euthanasia bill, and exemptions for religious groups from aspects of anti-discrimination legislation.
These exemptions provide, for example, that a muslim social welfare group does not have to employ a man who lives in a sexual relationship with another man, that a Jewish school does not have to employ someone who believes Jews are descended from pigs and monkeys, or that a catholic parish does not have to employ someone who thinks the pope is the anti-christ.
In other words, these exemptions are about protecting the feelings and beliefs of others, even when when we disagree with them. Even atheists. And I agree with the writer to the extent of acknowledging that this is indeed Chrstian influence at work.
Take two minutes to do a simple thought experiment.
Consider countries where there has been a long history of Christian influence in public life.
Now think of countries under Islamic or atheist regimes.
Where are you more likely to find justice and democracy? Where are you going to be safer if you are lesbian or homosexual? Where are women’s voices more likely to be heard? Where is there a higher level of wealth, of quality education and health services?
In which direction do refugees and immigration flow? Where would you rather live?
The writer of the Adelaide Advertiser article decries the fact the Tony Abbott has called for compulsory Bible classes. She says she is happy for the Bible to be taught in schools, with other fiction.
I am not sure Tony Abbott has called for compulsory Bible classes.
What he said was that it was impossible to understand Western culture; law, music art and literature, without a knowledge of the Bible. He is right.
One of the consequences of the influence of the Bible, and of Christianity in general, is that people like the woman who wrote the Advertiser article can parrot their ill-informed and poorly thought-out opinions and expect them to be taken seriously.
And thank God for that.
It was like being back on Ansett.
On Tuesday Kathy and I travelled from American River to Geraldton.
it was a long day. Drive from American River to Penneshaw. Ferry to Cape Jervis. Drive to Adelaide. Fly to Perth. That was with Qantas, and it was OK. One of the lunch choices was chicken korma. That might have been a mistake. It was a bit smelly, in a stinky sort of way. And the elderly lady behind me kept swearing at her husband. But otherwise the flight was fine. Check-in staff were helpful, cabin staff were polite.
The flight from Perth to Geraldton was a different matter.
The young woman at the check-in counter looked and sounded as if she had several better things to do than check in passengers.
She barely spoke, other than to ask for ID, which we already had open for her.
She did manage ‘There you go’ as she dropped the boarding passes on the counter.
I asked which gate we were boarding from. ‘Just look at the screen’ she advised.
‘OK. Thanks. And where do we go from here?’ I said, not being familiar with the airport.
‘Just go through security.’
‘And which way is that?’
This was met with a deep sigh, as if passengers who did not know the airport were an appalling trial which no staff member should be expected to tolerate.
‘To your left. Look. Just go through security.’
Going through the gate, the staff who boarded guests were more interested in talking to one another than assisting passengers. You could have strolled onto the plane with a dozen sticks of dynamite wrapped around your head and the conversation would still have been about what Gerald and Tiffany did on their date last night.
We found our way across the tarmac to the plane, through a labyrinth of barricades and an occasional staff member staring into space.
The first thing that struck me when I got on the plane was the smell of urine. The toilet was near the door and smelled as if it had not been emptied any time in 2009.
I showed the stewardess my boarding pass. She looked at it as if it was a used tampon. ‘H8’ she said. Was this the standard greeting on Sky West? Or had she mistaken me for a member of some secret society like the Seven Dials?
Actually, I didn’t wonder either of those things. I had looked at my boarding pass when I was trying to work out which gate I needed to go to.
I knew H8 was my seat number. I didn’t need anyone to glare disdainfully and growl it back to me. Perhaps a ‘Good afternoon, welcome to Sky West’ or even ‘Hi, two thirds of the way down on the left’ would have been appropriate.
Then dinner arrived. There was no choice, but hey, it was food. Well, sort of.
It looked like Chicken Caesar salad. ‘Looked like’ was as close it got.
The chicken was a gluey concoction, apparently made of gristle mixed with chicken flavouring, and a streak of brown paint to make it looked as if the glue and gristle had been grilled.
There were soggy croutons, and wilted lettuce, and ‘Caesar Dressing’ in a little plastic pouch. And a stale bread roll.
I rarely drink on flights, but consoled myself with a mid strength beer.
There was a 1 inch by a half inch bar of Cadbury chocolate in the dinner box.
That was nice.
And our bags arrived in Geraldton at the same time we did. So I guess it wasn’t all bad.
© 2024 Qohel