Aliens or neighbours, terrorists or refugees?

Once more there is sharp public debate about refugee and asylum seeker policy as news arrives of more people who have died. The political response to this issue is the usual rock throwing combined with expressions of sympathy worded to suggest that it is the fault of the other Party.

What fascinates me is that while options are discussed there is almost no exploration of the assumptions and the way in which refugees and asylum seekers are to be seen and valued. It is a reflection of the sort of world we live in where there is no space for a conversation about what we value and what we seek for human life; there is only space for issues and for technical solutions.

It is not that there are no values or ideologies; it is simply that they get hidden and assumed to be beyond discussion. In Australia the framework is terrorism and border security. What will protect our space; how can the government fulfill its major task – the protection of citizens?

I am sitting at my desk trying to write Christmas sermons and reflections. I know we are not quite to that part of the story, but I am forced to think about Mary and Joseph and Jesus fleeing to Egypt in the face of a murderous dictator.

I wonder what would happen to them today were they forced to flee the illegal settlers and the army who harass people in Galilee? I guess if they flew to Australia on holiday visa and stayed on (with many thousands of others) they might have a chance – at least a chance to be heard in a more reasonable climate than if they came on the boat with a tiny number of others.

I wonder why few people mention the fact that Australia is supposed to be bound by international law to accept and properly process people seeking asylum, even if we then send the unsuccessful people back home. Why do so few people think it strange that we believe it is moral to shove refugees off-shore, forcing other countries – with a fair bit of arm twisting – to deal with issues that belong to us as a nation? What happens when we see people as neighbours and strangers to be cared for, people who are actually loved by God? Why does the fact that we live in an economically, politically, and environmentally global community seem so contrary to the obsession with border protection without compassion?

Does it not mean anything to Christians that Jesus was born outside the town, had to flee to another country, and was killed outside the walls of the city? Refugee and asylum seeker.

Is Constitutional Reform already in trouble?

One of the earliest commitments of the present federal Government was to explore ways to change the Australian Constitution so that it is more inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. For the last year a Panel has been consulting right around Australia through face-to-face meetings and submissions. Public meetings have been held in 84 locations, and over 3500 submission were received.

All this feed-back has been subjected to comprehensive, independent analysis to see what level of support there is for various options for reform. That analysis has been considered by the Panel, and advice has been received from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and constitutional law experts. Newspoll has conducted national polling and focus groups.

The Panel has consulted with the Government, Opposition, the Australian Greens and the Independents, each of whom has been constructive in their contribution.

The Panel will present its findings and recommendations to the Government in the week beginning 16 January 2012.

After all this work it is disappointing to see George Brandis, the shadow attorney-general publish an article in the Australian today which indicates what the Opposition will and will not accept, and speculating about what might be in the report.

What happens to the attempt to hear the voices of many ordinary Australians? To speculate adds to division not the reconciliation and justice needed in this country. It suggests an Opposition driven more by a pre-determined ideological position than a willingness to genuinely engage with the Australian community around this issue. Far better for them to let the process unfold and then to enter the debate in an informed manner, then this divisive sort of speculation.

A denial of fullness of life.

In John 10:10 Jesus says that he has come that people may have life, “and have it abundantly.” This has become for me a central beginning point for reflection on the shape of the Christian life. What does it mean to have abundant life or fullness of life? What does human well-being look like?

The Basis of Union of the Uniting Church affirms that “Jesus is head over all things, the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity. God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal that is the end in view for the whole creation” (paragraph 3).

Reconciliation, renewal and abundant life; these sit at the heart of the desire of God and the nature of the church.

Last night I went to see a documentary in a theatre in Newcastle. It was the only public showing of the film “Our Generation,’ a viewing sponsored by the Wollotuka Centre at Newcastle University. The film explores the impact of Government policy, and particularly the Intervention, on the Aboriginal people of Eastern Arnhem Land.

This is the story of the denial of human well-being. It is a story of thinly veiled racism, and the continuation of assimilation policies hidden under fancy words. It is about the denial of the ability of Aboriginal people to exercise control over their own lives, and to be Aboriginal people rather than black reflections of European society. It is about the denial of the rights of Aboriginal people to be treated as citizens, with the race discrimination Act being suspended to allow the Intervention. It is about an attempt to steal people’s land, and broken promises and blackmail – do what we tell you or there is no money for basic things like housing and education. It is about multiple breaches of the UN statements on Indigenous rights which the Australian government says it believes in. It is about the denial of language and culture, and inappropriate and imposed solutions. It is about the continuation of Government policy that spends money on white advisors and managers and almost nothing on the people.

Buy a copy for yourself for Christmas. Buy a copy for your local Federal member. Take some friends to see your local member and tell her/him to end the Intervention immediately and consult in a genuine way with Aboriginal people.

Running up against the edges

There are many moments in the Uniting Church’s sexuality debate that I remember with real clarity. Some I remember with humility and deep joy as I found myself pushed out of my old comfort zones, and others I remember with shame as I watched faithful followers of Jesus insulted and treated like crap.

There is one moment I remember as if it was few moments ago. I can still see the colour and tones, the voices and the people. It was in Melbourne. The Assembly was immersed in the debate about sexuality and leadership. The Congress leadership was deeply concerned that its voice was not being heard, and spoke of the need to respect the covenant that existed between Congress and the rest of the Church. They asked the Assembly not to do anything against the wishes of Congress members.

Somewhere in that ongoing debate I suggested that the primary covenant at stake was baptism and what it meant for membership and ministry. Any other covenant had to be shaped by that one.

It’s the next bit I remember so well. As we stood around at lunch time my Congress friends really gave me a hard time. They told me I understood almost nothing, and needed to go with the old people and be taught again about covenant. That was a painful time, a time of running up against the edges of my faith and commitments. I thought I had already worked out what baptism meant, but needed to learn some more.

I confess that I feel like I am in the same spot at the moment around the issue of marriage and gay and lesbian people. I feel like I am in a very uncomfortable, abrasive place. I keep thinking the issue is simple: marriage is by definition about a man and a woman. And yet I know that I have friends who are the equivalent of the ‘old people,’ who want to teach me something else about marriage and definitions. I keep feeling that I need to rub up against the edges of where I sit. I keep wondering why I sit where I do, and why on this issue I am in an odd place. Why are my edges where they are? I feel like I am betraying friends, and wonder why on this issue that is a risk. Why are some voices so hard to hear on this issue; why is tradition so strong?

Anyone else know?

Stories and stories.

It is truly amazing the sort of material that crosses my desk each day. I get updates about and from Palestine-Israel, news releases from the World Council of Churches about climate change, peace and disarmament, ecumenical co-operation, or cluster bombs, commentary about US foreign policy, or requests for support for various actions to make the world a better place.

And then I go home, and while eating dinner watch the news and see a multitude of personal and communal tragedies; and there is this very real temptation or desire to turn the whole thing off. We are buried under an avalanche of stories and events and perspectives (which I am adding to with this blog), and sometimes it is almost too much to bear.

So we sift and block out. We take an interest in some issues, and let others simply pass straight through our heads into another space. The only way to survive really.

One of my filters has to do with a desire to hear the stories of those on the margins. One of the most important things I ever learned was the need to trust the voice of those who are being oppressed, not those who are the oppressors. Too often we ask those who abuse, imprison or illegally occupy for clues to the way forward, when in reality they have no interest in a way forward. The present reality works well for them, and any change they agree to will work for their benefit.

The stories that people tell are crucial to our reflections as Christians. I have had a love affair with the works of Stanley Hauerwas for many years. I really appreciate what he says about narrative, character and virtue. But I think there is a real weakness in Hauerwas’ thought. One gets the impression that he thinks there just ‘is’ a Christian story waiting to be discovered, or that his reading is somehow a neutral reading. He does not deal with the way in which our readings are always socially interested and protect interests. Nor does he take seriously enough the way in which following Jesus demands a character and set of virtues that lead to care of the least and the search for justice for the marginalized.

I think this is because when he talks of narrative he has too narrow a view of what this means. I think ethics is about the character and practices which emerge from a genuine engagement between two stories – mine and the Bible – around the meaning of fullness of life. I think Hauerwas does not take seriously enough my story, and thus pretends a neutrality that is harmful to those who do not sit where he sits.

The stories keep pouring over us, and some of them engage us and our account of the Christian faith in ways that lead to new ways of being in the world.

Acknowledging that we live on Aboriginal land

Last night at our church we shared a meal and conversation with some Aboriginal people about the importance of the acknowledgement that people live on their land. It was interesting to hear people talk about the way such actions are really about a shift in the way we view the world, and are of deep symbolic value. Acknowledgement and, sometimes, arranging for a welcome to country, are respectful actions which honour Aboriginal people and their life and history.

I think it is also important for Christians to realize that acknowledgement is not ‘simply’ an act of justice, an attempt to build better relationships with First peoples. When Christians enact particular moral stances we are seeking to reflect our understanding of the nature and place of God in the world. We see this clearly, for example, in the way the Ten Commandments are delivered to the people of Israel. The beginning of this teaching or law is: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deut. 5:6). The laws that follow flow from that relationship, that sense of the activity and character of God.

To make this acknowledgement is to suggest something about the way we see God, our relationship to Jesus, and the shape of the Christian life. It is a way of imaginatively reconstructing the world and the way the church lives in invaded space.

The other thing that I found really uplifting in last night’s conversation was a new awareness of how hard people are working to reclaim their culture and language, including regaining skills to make some really important things like possum skin cloaks (which were worn across a large part of the eastern regions of Australia). And there is a wonderful dynamism to this as people now have to get pelts from New Zealand, and use the materials used to stitch saddles rather than sinews from kangaroos.

I am very grateful to Aboriginal people who are willing to share their life and stories with the rest of us. Thank you for you time and courage.

The importance of work

In his 1981 encyclical, Laborem exercens, Pope Paul II develops two helpful insights about work and capital that are worth recalling in the face of disputes at Qantas and the street protests around the world with their focus on Wall Street and the controlling power of big money.

First, work is important for self-formation and human life. Pope Paul says that part of what it means to be made in the image of God is to co-operate in the tending of the earth. This work is communal.

Sadly the Christian tradition was influenced by the view that what defined humanity was reason and rationality, and the way this tradition assigned workers and women to a subordinate place. This is still reflected in the way we value different kinds of work, and undervalue manual labour. What is particularly important is the Pope’s comment that because of the importance of work for human well-being, it is also work that makes people vulnerable to harm and distortion of their proper life. It implicitly highlights the destructiveness of unemployment and underemployment as both economic and personal issues.

It may seem like a slightly old-fashioned idea, but the second of the Pope’s insights is as important as the first: the central cause of dehumanization, oppression, alienation and war is the continuing conflict between labour (meaning people in all the broad forms of work) and capital (which is the result of the heritage of human labour), and that labour should have priority over capital. That is, the issue is not – as in Marx – who owns the capital, but whether it is used to serve labour, and whether those who labour are treated simply as units of production or human beings.

If we begin with the Pope’s insights then we approach a conflict like that at Qantas with a reading that takes seriously the claims of workers about the impact on their life, and the way Qantas serves their needs and not just those of the shareholders. It may allow us to understand that the point of strikes, which Qantas complaint about so loudly, is to force companies to negotiate.

Australia is not beset by strikes. Qantas was on the front page because it was unusual, and because it impacted on so many other parts of society – like tourism. It is not strikes that are hampering productivity improvements but under-investment in education, training and infrastructure, and an obsession with maximizing outputs rather than finding productivity improvements.

Christians need to enter the debate about workplace issues.  

Continuing Colonialism

It is a miracle that Aboriginal people survive. The colonial agenda never ends. It is bad enough that the Federal Government suspended the Race Discrimination Act to put in place what is commonly called the ‘intervention’ in the Northern Territory, or that this present Government ignores all the signs that things are worse for most people in regard to health and income security and care of children than they were before.

Then we had so-called consultation that rushed around communities with far too little time to hear what people said, that interpreted what people said in ways that supported a pre-established position, and now produces another report – Stronger Futures – that does not represent the real issues. At least that is the response of a group of Aboriginal leaders headed by Rev Dr Djiniyi Gondarra and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks have said.

And now we have another attempt to undermine Aboriginal language and culture.

If people are to survive culturally they need to learn their language and see their culture valued. One way this happens is through Indigenous community television networks which facilitate local language productions for communities.

There are now plans to change the arrangements regarding direct-to-home satellite delivery of digital TV. At present the Remote Indigenous Broadcasting Services have free-to-air access for three Indigenous television services (which can include local generated content), as well as four mainstream TV services. This gives people a reasonable balance of local and wider TV programs, language and culture.

However the current plans for digital TV mean that there will be 16 channels of mainstream, monolingual, monocultural English language TV; an onslaught of Western English language images and content. And no Indigenous services. Language, cultural pride, and the motivation to participate culturally will be further undermined. Big business wins at the expense of local communities. An ideology of freedom of choice wins over any proper concern for genuine choice and the value of what is local. 

The Olive trees

I am sure there are lots of things I don’t know about the conflict between Palestinian people and the state of Israel. I know I don’t feel the history, the pain, the impact of the holocaust and its deadly racism, and the feeling of being surrounded by people who don’t always want you to exist. Of course I also haven’t experience 60 years of exile and living in refugee camps, denial of statehood, abuse of human rights, or having my land stolen from me.

I don’t understand the denial and mythology, the pretence that the land was not occupied (a form of terra nullius). I don’t understand how an agreement by the UN can be honoured by the establishment of the State of Israel, but the promise of a Palestinian state can be denied year after year. I don’t understand the moral outrage against Iraq or other countries for breach of UN resolutions while settlements go on without condemnation and real action to stop them.

I don’t understand how people think they can have safe and secure borders and good relationships with their neighbours when thousands of people have lived in refugee camps for 60 years, ore when illegal settlements continue to encroach on other people’s land or state. How can you keep stealing people’s land and livelihood and expect them to make peace?

I do not understand how a people so harmed by racism can build a racist state where Palestinians are not equal citizens and, increasingly, where Palestinians are treated as less than fully human. I don’t understand the killing of the children, and the petty, bloody-mined and, at times, life-threatening road blocks and check points. I don’t understand how people can steal another’s community’s water, or pollute their water supply and expect to build a future. I don’t know how that sort of community claims to be a democracy, or claim to be interested in human rights.

Most of all, though, I don’t understand the Olive trees! I don’t understand how people can tear out and burn down ancient Olive trees; the wanton, callous destruction of people’s livelihood and the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the struggling Palestinian economy.

Somehow the Olive tress strike me as a symbol of it all – stolen land, illegal settlements, pointless and wanton destruction, disregard for ordinary human beings trying to live, and a state that has no respect for international law, genuine peacemaking, or the rights of all citizens, and which shows a willingness to turn a blind eye to the sort of racism that has harmed so many of its own citizens.

Can someone help me understand how a people with Amos and Micah in their holy book can do this?

Please remember if you respond. This is a critique of the policies and actions of the state of Israel. Don’t accuse me of anti-Semitism, because as a follower of the Jewish Jesus it is not true. Just help me understand how this terrible injustice continues and can be defended.

Eating with people of another faith

We have a Wednesday night worship gathering at our church – prayer and song, in-depth Bible study or engagement around a justice issue, and sometimes a meal. Last night we did something a little different. We invited a small group of Muslim people to share a potluck dinner with us, and to tell us of their experience of being a Muslim in Newcastle.

It was a great night – good food, animated conversation, some probing questions from both communities, and the first step in building friendships between people seeking to speak of God in a largely secular community.

Such conversations are a wonderful way to break down stereotypes – on both sides – and to appreciate the enormous social and religious diversity which exists within both religious communities.

The Muslim community has had trouble getting permission to build a new Mosque, and it is clear that some of the opposition grows out of fear, prejudice, and media stereotypes. Some churches have opposed the Mosque and people’s religious freedom, and others have been supportive. We shared our sense of how much the culture has changed in recent years, and how much less supportive the local Council was when we built our new building than it would have been in the past. Councils are trapped inside an economic world-view that has little space for the common good and social capital.

One of the things we recognized is that both communities are seeking to worship, share their faith, and live faithful lives in not just a secular society but one that increasingly says that being religious is distinctly ‘uncool.’ There is a growing atheist opposition to all religious communities.

We also recognized that we are both uncomfortable with the past ethos of our society that said that religion is a private and personal thing with no place in the public sphere, and that all people owe their absolute loyalty to the state. We believe that faith is a public thing that touches all of our life. We have a need to explain that we are loyal citizens, but there is a limit to that loyalty – when it contradicts our loyalty to God. The desires of the state and the plans of God are not necessarily the same.

Gaddafi and loving our enemies

One of the things which has amazed me over the last few weeks as civil war has broken out in Libya is the extraordinary hypocrisy of world leaders. Now that Muammar Gaddafi has been ousted everyone is quick to explain how evil he was, and what a great win for democracy has happened in Libya.

Yet these same leaders and countries have managed to put aside their repugnance over the last few years and sell millions of dollars worth of armaments. The EU has had no trouble in issuing export licences, which Italy, Great Britain, Malta had no trouble in taking advantage of, as did most other EU countries in smaller ways. And as the photos of the uprising showed, it was these weapons that were often used against the democratic movement.

Gaddafi still managed to be photographed just a year or so ago shaking the hand of the President of the United States. Various European countries still managed to deal with Libya in order to get a share of their oil. Even now there is a huge tussle to see who gets a share of Libyan oil as it slowly comes back on line.

The other thing that disturbed me was the celebrations over Gaddafi’s quite brutal death, even among world leaders. It seems that summary execution has become an accepted way of dealing with people, rather than keeping people alive to face international courts. Mind you, there have been other precedents for this.

Jesus said that rather than just loving our neighbours and hating our enemies, we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43). I think one of the confusions in this passage is that Christians sometimes think Jesus said that there are to be no enemies. But Jesus didn’t suggest that enemies will disappear, or that people will stop hating and persecuting, but that Christians are to do a very difficult thing – pray for and love enemies.

I’m not a Libyan, and did not suffer under Gaddafi. I don’t bear their rage and suffering. Had I been in that place I have no idea what I would do. But I do know that as I look on from the outside I cannot rejoice when people are killed, for they are children of God. All death and killing is a failure of human beings to find peace and justice, and even love for our enemies.

Walter Wink and community organising

A friend sent me this link to an article from Walter Wink on Jesus and the way he helped people to protest against injustice. It is not only a great piece of biblical interpretation, but helpful for those who wish to gain some leverage in the face of power.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1216-30.htm.

Aboriginal Incarceration

The European occupation of this land was founded in invasion and the racist assumptions of colonial powers that were expressed in terra nullius. One of the weapons of colonial powers and modern nation states is always imprisonment and over-policing.

Twenty years ago the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody sought to offer suggestions about ways to reduce the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in prison and dying in prison. The figures were a scandal, and many promises were made. Yet almost nothing has been done; if anything the situation is worse.

A few months ago the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs released the report ‘Doing Time – Time for Doing..’ The report found that Aboriginal juveniles and young adults were 28 times more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to be locked up in detention. In NSW 59% of the juvenile detention population is Aboriginal. In 1992 Indigenous peoples made up fourteen percent of the total prison population, and that had increased to twenty-one percent by 2004.

The causes of Aboriginal youth crime are well-documented: poor housing, poor health, mental illness, low participation in education and employment, substance abuse, cultural alienation and family dysfunction. Additionally there is some suggestion that police still target some parts of the community more than others. When Aboriginal people get to court they are often not provided with fair legal representation, cannot afford good support, and often receive harsher penalties than other members of the community.

There is a great need for government support for more support for Aboriginal Legal Aid, for substance abuse programs, for culture support programs, and for policing policies that shift from a focus on imprisonment to early intervention, diversion and community support.

As one small step we should encourage the NSW Government to change the Bail Act so that it is easier for children and young people to get bail, and less likely that they will be held in detention. Far too many young people are held in detention even though when they appear in court they will not get a custodial sentence.

As Christians we need to oppose the racist narrative that still accepts and justified this terrible destruction of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples.

Learning to speak about creation

I think that issues of justice and ethics are not simply about deciding what to do, or making choices between options. Making moral choices and engaging in action is first of all about learning the narrative that forms moral people and shapes the moral landscape. We need to know the central stories of the Christian tradition because it is they which both help us know when and why an issue really is an issue, and how to explore the meaning of the words and practices that are part of moral discourse. That is, we need to learn a way of seeing the world.

For example, when Christians enter into the conversations which happen right across our community about global warming or a carbon tax or the pros and cons of coal seam exploration, we need to be clear about our shaping story.

A lot of conversations are about the impact of humans on nature, or the need to protect the natural world. I don’t think there is a natural world for Christians. For Christians the world is always ‘creation.’ That is, there is no place that is simply natural or just earth, but the world is always a theological place because it is related to the action and purpose of God.

It is interesting that in the second account of creation in Genesis 2 the point is made that before God made the earth and heavens there were no plants of the fields or herbs. The reason for this is partly that God has not sent the rain, but also because there was no one to till the ground (Gen. 2:5). As it says in verse 15, human beings are to till and keep the earth. The earth cannot bring forth life without those who care for it and protect it.

This doesn’t make land simply real estate or a place where we can dig up minerals. The task is not simply to till the ground, but to till and keep it. It is to build those practices that sustain the land as creation, as God’s place.

Dawn Bessarab talks of the way that waterfalls dried up in the Dampier peninsula, and how the Aboriginal Elders understand this to be not simply an issue of rain,  but of people pushed from the land. “’Dat country is lonely, is people dey all gone, no one dere to look after it anymore, so dat country im lonely, im sad, dat why dat water bin dry up, ee missing ees people’.” (Dawn Bessarab, ‘Country is Lonely,’ in Sally Morgan, Tjalaminu Mia and Blake Kwaymullina (eds), Heartsick for Country: Stories of Love, Spirit and Creation. Freemantle Press, 2008, p. 46)

There are some actions which better express this guiding narrative than others, some that better enable human beings to both till and keep. That’s why I support alternative energy sources, reckon that a carbon tax is a good things, and am deeply skeptical about coal seam exploration.

Welcome to Chris Budden's new blog

I have a particular interest in Indigenous rights, peace and disarmament, sexuality, racism, human rights, feminism, and the way we are shaped by a consumerist culture. I have started this blog so I can reflect on current issues of justice and how I think about and respond to these issues as a Christian. I am a Minister of the Uniting Church in Australia, serving in the North Lake Macquarie congregation in NSW (near Newcastle). I have a long term interest in justice issues, and the relationship between faith, theology and the Christian life.
I am a researcher in the Public and Contextual Theology Research centre at Charles Sturt University, and adjunct faculty at United Theological College.
I have previously been General Secretary of the NSW.ACT Synod, parish Minister at Adamstown and lake Cargelligo, justice staff person for both the Northern Synod and the Assembly, and mission person for the Hunter presbytery.