John Mackay, Creation Research, in Annabel Crabb ‘Creationist on a dinkum crusade’, Melbourne Sunday Age, 30 Apr. 2006:

… [I]f people came from monkeys via frogs and fish, then why does the fossil record not contain a ‘fronkey’?

[Cripes, John, I hope you looked in the mirror before you said that.]

Michael and Debi Pearl ‘How to train up a child: Attitude Training’, Good Report, Apr.-Jun. 2006, 4, 24:

It’s not going to harm your child to be falsely accused a few times (that’s life!) … If he is roughed up by his peers, rejoice; he is learning early about the real world. Don’t make a sissy out of him … When you demand that your child be treated fairly, you are protecting him from reality … If a child shows the least displeasure in response to a command or duty, you should treat it as disobedience … A wrong slant of the shoulders reveals a bad frame of mind. Consider this a sign to instruct, train or discipline. A cheerful, compliant spirit is the norm. Anything else is a sign of trouble.

[Hah! Creampuffs! What about the early morning ice-baths and the Abu Ghraib training videos? No wonder we're losing the culture wars.]

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Filed in: Their Own Mouths

(1) Anglicans

More than 100 leading Australian Anglicans have accused the previous Archbishop of Canterbury of disloyalty, as divisions over homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican church deepen. The Anglicans have written to Dr George Carey, the previous spiritual head of the church, accusing him of undermining his successor, Archbishop Rowan Williams, and offering himself as an alternative leader. Dr Carey recently confirmed 300 American evangelicals who do not accept their own bishops because they supported the election of an openly gay priest as Bishop of New Hampshire. The letter is signed by 120 Anglicans, including four Australian bishops … (Barney Zwartz ‘Anglicans furious at former archbishop’, Melbourne Age, 27 Apr. 2006)

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Filed in: General

It seems only yesterday that conservative Christians were telling us all about the ‘ABC’ method that was successfully reducing HIV AIDS infections in the African nation of Uganda. The ‘A’ stood for ‘abstinence’, as in total sexual abstinence for unmarried people. If you were married, however, you were covered by ‘B’, as in ‘be completely faithful’ to your spouse (or, in the picturesque Ugandan phrase, ‘zero grazing’). Now, as a person has to be either married or unmarried, ‘A’ and ‘B’ would seem to cover the field, so what about ‘C’? ‘C’ stood for ‘condom’ – ‘[F]or those who are foolish enough to not abstain or zero graze, then use condoms. But we hasten to say – condoms are NOT 100% safe.‘ (Dr Edward Muhima, African Enterprise Uganda, as quoted in Elizabeth Kendal ‘Christian morality key to Ugandan AIDS success’, New Life, 18 Apr. 2002, 7)

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Filed in: Catholicism, Sexuality

In 10 years, artificial sex partners could cater to every fantasy. ‘There is a possibility of developing erotic materials for yourself that would allow you to create a [virtual] partner of certain dimensions and qualities … (with) certain things happening’, said Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. A field dubbed ‘teledildonics’ already allows people at remote computers to manipulate electronic devices for sexual purposes. (Melbourne Age, 19 Apr. 2006)

So there you go, Senator Barnett! Filter that!!

Filed in: Sexuality

Recent research apparently shows that between 69 and 94 per cent of young American Christians ‘forsake their faith’ after leaving high school, while another study found that 88 per cent of youth leave the church in adulthood. (Christian Post as quoted in Australian Prayer Network International News, 17 Apr. 2006)

These figures reflect statistics circulated for several years by conservative pollster George Barna and cast strong doubt on assertions that the USA is a nation of churchgoers. The process of secularisation is extremely corrosive in its effect on religious observance in all developed countries, with America as the last, lingering holdout.

Filed in: Atheism

The Archbishop of Canterbury is not a big fan of The Da Vinci Code:

In a strongly worded Easter sermon, Dr Rowan Williams said there was a tendency to treat biblical texts ‘as if they were unconvincing press releases from some official source, whose intention is to conceal the real story’. (Melbourne Age, 17 Apr. 2006)

In fact, Rowan, that’s a very sensible way in which to treat all biblical texts. As Bible scholar Bart Ehrman (2005) points out:

Not only do we not have the original [biblical texts], we don’t have the first copies of the originals … What we have are copies made later – much later. In most instances, they are copies made many centuries later. And these copies all differ from one another, in many thousands of places … [T]here are more differences among our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament. (Misquoting Jesus, 10)

Pace Archbishop Williams, the ‘real story’ has certainly been concealed from us to some extent, although whether intentionally or unintentionally is often impossible to tell. As Ehrman concludes:

If one wants to insist that God inspired the very words of scripture, what would be the point if we don’t have the very words of scripture? … It’s a bit hard to know what the words of the Bible mean if we don’t even know what the words are! (ibid., 11)

Filed in: Biblical criticism

A common theme amongst religious Right groups in Australia is that the secular society that exists in Australia today is filled with evil and that society must change so that it more closely resembles a Bible-based worldview, whatever that may mean.

Now religious extremists are never shy when it comes to self-righteousness and moral superiority, but do their assertions stand up to scrutiny? The dreadful decline in American politics and society since it lurched to the right in recent years has given many writers cause to question the merits of faith-based politics, or indeed of a society built on so-called Christian faith.

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Filed in: Christian Right, Secularism

David Barnabas Zwartz BTh (ACT) Dip Journalism (Wellington), known to his pals as Barney, is the religion editor of the Melbourne Age. But he also hideth several gleaming lights of his under a bushel, such as his close association with the Australian Presbyterian magazine and a lectureship at the Presbyterian Theological College (‘Many stories of faith’, New Life, 22 Sept. 2005). Barney also confesses to have been pursuing a PhD at the University of Melbourne ‘since the early paleozoic period‘. (‘Just call me Doctor’, Age, 22 Sept, 2003) Murray Adamthwaite, an occasional contributor to Salt Shakers Journal, claims that while the editor of the Age ‘is about as humanist as they come, … its religious affairs editor is nevertheless a thoroughgoing Presbyterian evangelical‘. (www.evangelical-times.org/articles/mar04/mar04a17.htm)

Now, I don’t care whether Zwartz is a Presbyterian or a Calathumpian, but I expect to be told clearly and often by the Age where its religion editor stands in the theological spectrum. In other words, I’d like Zwartz to ‘declare his interest’ much more openly and frequently, not just in the backwaters of the Australian Presbyterian or the Evangelical Times.

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Filed in: Evangelicals, People

Salt Shakers are tearing their hair out over the Queensland doctors who can now legally prescribe the abortion drug RU486:

Even those of us who saw it coming did not think it would happen this fast – that it would take little over a month after the appallingly irresponsible vote in our parliament for the [Therapeutic Goods Administration] to officially give permission for RU486 to be used to kill babies!!! (Salt Shakers E-News, 13 Apr. 2006)

Hmm, ‘killing babies’? I translate this as follows: ‘Female sexuality is disgusting and pregnant women must be forced to go to term regardless of anyone’s interest including that of the foetus. This is the women’s punishment for being icky and not nice.’

Filed in: Abortion

The recent schism between the Australian and American branches of the creationist Answers in Genesis organisation must have been a lulu. The Aussie branch, now re-named Creation Ministries International (CMI), clearly got the rough end of the pineapple and has now issued the following distress call:

Mag Still Available in US – Many former subscribers to [Australian journals] ‘Creation’ mag and the ‘Journal of Creation’ … are unaware (and we don’t know who they are) that these two quality periodicals are still available in the USA …(CMI email, 3 Apr. 2006)

In other words the American mob are trying to grab the entire US market for themselves and freeze out their old Aussie mates. Oh to have been a fly on the wall at the break-up meeting.

Filed in: Creationism