2 Simon Smart at Broughton Anglican College
18 Simon speaking at Nowra City Church
19 Simon at Arden Anglican School
21 Simon at Rouse Hill Anglican College
“Death creates an economy that makes life precious. One of the ways of naming that preciousness is friendship.”
Stanley Hauerwas
Stanley Hauerwas
WOULD JESUS BE THOUGHT UNAUSTRALIAN?
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4. Some non-Christian values are not Australian values
| Despite the awkward double-negative, this statement is important. There
are aspects of non-Christian value systems that most of us would call
un-Australian. For example, feeding a cow instead of a disabled child
is not in keeping with the way Australians value cattle or children.
There will certainly be some values held strongly in non-Christian
religious worldviews that are not compatible with broad Australian
values. This is an important aspect of the current values debate, and we can’t ignore it, so I mention it here. The values of all religions are not the same, and not all religions sit well with Australian law and culture. |
|
Different belief systems will produce some values that just aren’t shared by mainstream Australia. We’re going to have to work out, lovingly and wisely, what to do about that.
5. Some Australian values are common to many religious and secular faiths
Here is where most politicians and secular commentators wish to locate the national discussion about values. There are indeed plenty of values on which many religions agree; there is a lot of common ground. Maybe we should just focus on that.
But if we make this statement the leading statement in the values debate, we are ignoring the insights in our first four points. We may lose a lot of significant input from specific religious traditions, too, and find ourselves flailing about for a new kind of ‘religion without a creed, just values’. As one commentator has said, ‘A policy based only on values eventually becomes a crusade.’ Real, genuine values need to spring from people’s beliefs, not be imposed by an authority or a pledge.
If Jesus came to Australia today, would he be welcomed as one of us? A mate? I suspect the answer to that question depends not on your values, but on your beliefs about Jesus himself.
For if you have come to the conclusion that Jesus came into the world from God, took on human form so that we could know and understand God, and suffered death on the cross to make peace between us and God and then rose from the grave to conquer death and give hope to humanity … If you believe these things, then you would welcome Jesus with open arms. And you would not ask him to fit in with Australian values, rather you would be hoping to reform Australian values to be in keeping with his rightful authority over us.
For Christians, the challenge of the values debate is to live out Christian values (or better, Christian virtues and spiritual fruit) in our Australian context. If Christians were able to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—the nation would certainly be better off.
If you are not a follower of Jesus, I suspect you would find at least some of Jesus’ values at odds with your own, and want to reject him as a fellow Aussie. But I would encourage you to read what we know of Jesus and his values in the Gospels, to see where you stand.
Dr Greg Clarke
Director of the Centre for Public Christianity and Macquarie Christian Studies Institute
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