Kylie, you wrote:' Get a few facts before you condemn me personally'.
I guess the major fact that I was relying on was the fact that you were
condemning me personally ... you did not say 'the church in Australia' (if
you had I would have agreed to some extent) you said 'Christians in
Australia' and to me that is typical of the exact forms of stereotyping
that you say you are condemning i.e. generalising from a part of a group to
the whole group on the strength of a premise that may or may not be
correct.
Also I was not condemning you, I was inviting you to think beyond what I
see as a pretty simplistic model of who is right / wrong. I suspect that
such simplistic overgeneralisations (if that is not a tautology) are
extremely dangerous, I believe that many members of the churches, and many
parts of the church as an institution are certainly guilty of that.
However I also believe that attacking the church and people who identify as
Christians in the same way only perpetuates the practice and prejudice
which you say you are condemning.
There are many things that sections of the church, and indeed people who
consider themselves Christians (ministers, lay people, archbishops,
missionaries and Popes), say and do that make me very angry. I have no
issue with condemning those things out of hand, and do so publicly and
privately. However I am not about to condemn all Christians and
christianity as a whole, any more than I would Buddhism, Islam, Aboriginal
religious culture and their adherents.
And the church is vocal on many things - government policies that are
having appalling effects on the poor, including a casino led recovery (what
recovery???), the rights of people to live without oppression, practical
ways to work for peace from the interpersonal to global, even women's right
to choose, recognition of indigenous people's rights - parts of the church
certainly, but I think at least as much as is working for bigotry.
Unfortunately they don't get as much media.
Again, I am inviting consideration, engagement. Give a few of those extra
brain cells a go!
Libby
