Explorations

Rejoining the Stream

Far from being a cruisy introduction back into the swing of university life, the past week consisted of a sudden bursting back upon the world, or a bursting of the world back upon me. Transferring faculties was a little daunting, but I am now a proud Education student, happy to be studying a degree that will actually get me a job. The ever-loyal arts student in me was, however, immensely gratified when an old friend of mine, who is now focussing on the Arts segment of a combined degree admitted that even though she would be spending far fewer hours in formal classes this year, she found that she was spending “every second reading”. I only wish that this debunking of the infamous “bachelor of attendance” myth had come from a former commerce/law/science student, seeing as engineering is probably the only faculty that has as many taunts thrown in their direction.

In terms of the class-time/ independent study balance my new course seems to be situated on the Arts end of the spectrum, with 8 hours of classes and a three-day week of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. As well as starting back studying teaching, I also started actually teaching at church. Sunday the 19th was my first day teaching primary Sunday school for the 5pm church service. Apparently the children behaved better for my presence, which was an encouraging change from high school scripture teaching, but I wonder how long it will take the new-scary-teacher novelty to wear off. Its sooo hard to find the right balance with kids…you know on the one hand I’m scared of them and want them to like me, and on the other hand I can comfortably slip into my scary persona and frighten the living daylights out of them. Highlights so far have included discovering that John the Baptist actually wore a novelty glasses and moustache set, and shocking a child into silence by rousing at them in Japanese. I’ve also started teaching English language classes at Church on Tuesday mornings. Its such important work, helping these people out of the isolation caused by the language barrier. They’ve assigned me to work one-on-one with one of the women there, who speaks so little English that she can’t even be integrated into a beginner’s class. However, we soon discovered, much to our mutual relief, that she and I both speak French. Tomorrow I’ll have to be more discipline and use as much English as possible.


Having Mondays off gives one more freedom to enjoy the weekend without the pressure of needing to recover or study in preparation for the coming week. I’m thinking about going in to uni on Fridays, however, since it will give me more opportunity to either use the computers, library and gym, or hang out with my friends (depending on how disciplined I’m being). The last two Mondays have been spent doing chores, running errands and writing blogs etc. This Friday was much more interesting. In the morning I went to see my specialist in Sydney and despite taking ample materials with me I managed to do almost no study during the entire round trip. The first leg of the journey was spent chatting to the elderly lady in the seat next to me. She was rather loquacious, confiding to me that her daughter is always telling her she talks to people too much, so we had something in common. It turned out that she was quite an inspirational woman, having managed to raise twin daughters and work as a professional accountant in the days before women’s liberation. I suggested that she should get involved in helping and counselling younger women, but she told me that no one was interested in what she had to say. I guess it just goes to show what the ageist miss out on.
On Friday evening at FOCUS (Fellowship of Overseas Christian University Students) we had a pot-luck international dinner to celebrate the first week back of uni and the beginning of the Introducing God course. I rang up a friend in the group and suggested that, if she was cooking, rather than going all the way home, I could go round to her place and we could cook together. She wasn’t, but she said I could come anyway. However, I ended up feeling quite terrible, because here I was basically taking over and messing up a strange kitchen for my own purposes. I made a carrot salad according to our family recipe, and spaghetti bolognaise. The evening went well but there was plenty of my food left over, so I gave it to my friend’s housemates as a kind of ‘kitchen-rental’.

If it doesn’t sound like I did much actual study this week, that’s because I didn’t. I attended classes, but the rest of my time was spent doing all those beginning of semester chores like fee-paying, paper-sorting, book-buying etc., and, of course, catching up with friends whom I hadn’t seen for a while. On Wednesday I went shopping with my sister, whose wedding photos won her a handsome gift voucher for the jewelry shop she purchased her accessories from. I quite considerately insisted that she should not be allowed to spend so much money all by herself, and my selfless offer to be her shopping partner earned me some lovely presents for my imminent 21st birthday. On Thursday I had lunch with Helen from China, who gave me the most gorgeous present (embarrassing seeing as my present was pretty cheap) and Apeksha from India, a fellow Bollywood fan.

Of course I am aware that I haven’t been keeping up with my distant/online friends (especially Nicole, Karen, Lisa, Claude, Uncle Colin and Marlean) Apologies, Hugs and Kisses guys. I will EVENTUALLY get up to date with my emailing. In the mean time, I do try and keep my blog up to date so we have some sort of communication going.

posted by Foodfairy @ 11:53 PM 0 comments

Equally Sublime. Equally Ridiculous: Discrimination and Inequality Part 3

So, in the third instalment of this increasingly long-winded epic, we come to this wonderfully beauteous and radical understanding of what it means to be human, an understanding which, I believe, needs to stand at the core of any Christian position to these issues. A Christian approach, we have established, must dispense with all the half-baked, selfish emotive preconceptions that surround most attitudes to discrimination/inequality, and cannot afford misuse nor misinterpretation of scripture. It will therefore require an informed use of both biblical theology and systematic theology.

Systematic theology means fitting all the things the bible says together to build up a coherent picture of God’s will. If you will allow me a little Foucauldian indulgence, whilst biblical theology is diachronic, systematic theology is synchronic. Fortunately, the puzzle of systematic theology has been given to us with the central piece, around which all the others must be made to fit, already in place. The command to love God with our whole being. Everyone (well most people) know now to love someone: by respecting/admiring/adoring them, and by doing stuff to make them happy. This is why we are told that glorifying God and obeying his commands is the WHOLE duty of man. It is the purpose for which we were born and which supersedes all other desires and loyalties.
Its pretty easy to see what an explosive idea this could be in the wrong hands. September the 11th, and various tragedies of history like the Crusades, have often been cited as proof that such thinking is an evil and dangerous threat to civilization. If the God to which you are loyal is glorified or pleased by discrimination, inequality and cruelty, then it most certainly is.

What is God pleased by anyway? How do we show love for him? I mean its not like the owner of the universe is going to be impressed by a dozen red roses and a diamond ring (see Psalm 50:8-12.) Well God made humanity in his image and when you love and admire someone you adore their image and their work, hence the boy band posters and CD’s that linger in the back of many a cupboard as embarrassing reminders of adolescence. So here’s the big amazing, humungous coolness….GOD MADE HUMANITY IN HIS
IMAGE. That makes us amazing and beautiful creatures, the sublime and glorious pinnacle of creation…we rock! There’s something in that Olympic slogan “celebrate humanity”. Loving and serving others is one of the highest possible callings there could be (high enough for God to die for it), and causing them unnecessary harm is a very grave thing indeed, because humans REFLECT god’s image and glory (James), Because they are MADE BY God, because they are LOVED by God, and most importantly, because loving other humans is the one central COMMAND that our God has given us for life (See Mark 12:28-34, John 15:12.) So not only is every human being innately worthy of respect because they carry the image of the Lord of the Universe (see Genesis 9:6), but by valuing them we are giving tangible form to our love for God, to whom we have pledged absolute devotion (1 John 4:19-21).

Now what we must realise is that this is true EQUALLY of EVERYONE PURELY BY VIRTUE OF THEIR HUMANNESS. They apply to both sexes since “in the image of God he created himg; male and female he created them.” They apply to all races since “he made from one man eveyr nation of mankind” (and remember that people in Bible times had contact people of all colours form India to Ethiopia). They apply to all ages, for Jesus said “let the little children to come to me...for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” and “honour your father and your mother.”, to all places “…”and to all classes, since “Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker”. This last quote is quite clear…if you disrespect another member of the human race, you insult its creator. People of all colours, classes, genders, ages and abilities demonstrate some facet of the nature of God. Even if we don’t see it, we need to search for it and celebrate it.How arrogant could we possibly be to trample upon God’s reflection?

And yet we do. That’s because nobody’s perfect, No one has given God that absolute devotion he requires (See Romans 3:23). The bible tells us we’ve all failed, both as individuals, and as a collective species, to live up to our calling as his creatures and as his sublime image-bearers. This explains why humans, often look more like lazy, war-mongering, cruel angry screw-ups than sublime beautiful beings. The Bible teaches us that once the image of God is marred even the slightest bit, its no longer up to scratch, it doesn’t matter how much, it is still marred (See Romans 3:23). This is true for other beautiful things, like a set of antiques…once one part of the set is lost, it doesn’t matter how beautiful the rest is, its lost most of its resale value. We’re all part of a massive failure to live out our purpose, and the bible therefore describes us as “dead” (See Ephesians 2:1-10).

Its more than ridiculous its tragic. But once again it’s equally tragic for everyone. The bible is quite clear that NO ONE CAN BOAST (See Ephesians 1 Corinthians 1:28-31; Ephesians 2:10) because we are all alike fallen from grace, we are dead, and in death all are equal. This is one reason why the Bible tells us not to judge…because we will be judged by the same measure, and we will fail (Matthew 7:1-4; Romans 2:1). The other reason is that we are simply not omniscient. Jesus tells a story about a man whose field was sown with weeds by an enemy. The man couldn’t pull up the weeds until harvest time (the next life) for fear of pulling up the good plants (Matthew 15:24-30). These three points together form the most radical part, I think, of a basic Christian approach to discrimination. For they mean that there can be no devaluing of other human beings based on our judgements of real/imagined moral inferiority. If their part of the image of God is marred so is yours, if you have potential to change, so do they. Your pitiful good works are not enough to distinguish you from them, and for all you know you could end up spending eternity with them. This excludes any disrespect for other humans on the basis of creed/sexuality etc., whatever our moral position.

Basically, our value lies in our humanness, no more no less, and since we share that with every other homo sapien on the planet, I see no grounds so far for inequality or discrimination…in fact, I would call it criminal, judgemental, and even irreverent.

posted by Foodfairy @ 11:17 PM 7 comments

Yee Hah...

The last week was spent savouring the delights of the New England region in the company of my octogenarian grandmother. My paternal line is firmly rooted in Tamworth, located about 8 hours train ride north of my current home, and best known for the Australian Country Music Festival that takes place there each January. However, although I do consider the Golden Guitar to be one of the few “big” landmarks in Australia that has a right to exist, for me visits to Tamworth will always be about family. I disembarked at the same station where my father used to watch trains as a boy, drove past my grandmother’s old high school, attended the church where she married my grandfather, and saw where my grandfather lived in when he was one of the first students of the University of New England. It turns out that even his grandparents were residents of Australia’s “country music capital”. Having such long-term connections with the place, I did feel justified in buying a cheesy country-music-festival cap.

Outside of the festival season, however, the area is far from lively and exciting, so I spent a lot of time reading & watching films. Apart from introducing my grandmother to the delights of my favourite trashy nineties movies (I will be forever grateful to the post-modernist movement for enabling me to argue convincingly that such films are a valid and interesting form of cultural expression), I also continued to pursue my interest in films from other cultures. Together my grandmother and I watched
- Khabi Kushi Khabi Gham, a frighteningly cheesy Bollywood love story, that still gives some interesting insights into Indian self-perceptions and values despite its complete lack of realism
- Kandahar, an Iranian film about Afghani women that’s worth watching for the excellent cinematography, albeit rather depressing. It feels that much more legitimate when I consider that it is a non-Western film made prior to 9/11
- Whale Rider, having studied South Pacific literature I was particularly eager to see this film, which is based on a novel by a famous and pioneering Maori writer. It really is well acted and beautiful. Colour is used very well and the exploration of Maori culture and life is far from naïve or essentialist
- Keeping Mum- Well, not exactly foreign. It was thoroughly British, but judging by my mother the implacable determination to solve every problem by the consumption of tea appears to be a colonial cultural trait as well.

Now, of course, I am running around that unpleasant place in between holidays and return to normalcy. This is the section of the space-time continuum reserved for the storage and processing of all the things which you were too busy to do during the year, and put off for the holidays, during which you procrastinated and found much more enjoyable ways to employ your time. (L)uni returns on Monday, but by a lucky twist of fate I won’t be returning till Tuesday. For those of you who don’t know, I’ll be studying for a Graduate Diploma of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at the University of Wollongong. Since most post-graduate students are good hard-working citizens with jobs, all my classes this semester are on during the late afternoon/evening. This means that there won’t be much incentive to exchange my common-nocturnal-species-otherwise-known-as-university-student-on-holidays body clock for that of an ordinary human being any time soon.The real test of my resolution to keep my blog up-to-date will come with the return of everyday stress and clutter to my life...but I’ll do my best.

posted by Foodfairy @ 2:54 AM 2 comments

With All My Heart: Discrimination & Prejudice part II

I am well aware that my last post on this subject ended in floating in the air in a somewhat preachy place above the middle of nowhere. When I first set out to write on this topic I didn't realise that the post would be so long or that the writing of it would be quite so difficult and time-consuming...

Why the Groundwork was So Important:

In Part 1 I tried to show, very briefly, how many people's approach to the vital issue of discrimination is often contaminated by a mixture of inconsistent ad-hoc ideologies, individual and societal self-interested, and poor biblical interpretation. For this reason, I suggested that, discovering a truly Christian understanding of this vital issue of discrimination and prejudice would require us to take a Cartesian approach. Since we are assuming a Christian worldview, our point of departure is slightly less abstract than the famous "Cogito ergo sum". It is the word of God, which itself commands us to renew our minds. We also know that all of the commands in the bible hinge on two fundamental ones: Love God and Love your neighbour.

Twisting the truth to suit our own interests and preconceptions is a practice so old and entrenched that it probably predates time itself, as is the problem of people who fail to see the forest for the trees, forgetting these fundamental principles for the sake of keeping the lesser ones. That is why I have emphasized this aspect so strongly...because it is absolutely vital that we build everything with these two commands in mind.

Down to Business
Get over yourself:
So....finally what these actually mean for discrimination and prejudice. Well, firstly, loving God with all our hearts means a radical and absolute abandonment of "prejudice" in the literal sense- ie of "pre judgement". If we really love God with our whole hearts, then when we enter his presence we will leave our preconceptions, customs, desires etc, at the door. Whatever we were taught to do & think, whatever we WANT to do or think, is irrelevant-serving, obeying and doing the will of God is the alpha and the omega, it is the whole purpose of the Christian life (see Mark 2:21-22, Ecclesiastes 12:13, Galatians 2:20, 1 John 5:3 ) This excludes any favouritism based solely on self-interest or self-justifying loyalties.

For example, whilst I don't believe that we should eradicate all patriotic feelings or actions, (this is impossible mainly for pragmatic reasons) the kind of patriotism that says "my country right or wrong" has caused a lot of damage in this world. It has allowed superpowers to shamelessly pursue their own interests at the expense of thousands of lives, and, closer to home, was the rationale our foreign minister gave for stealing oil from a fourth-world country, and motivated youths to rage about Cronulla beaches dressed in flags. Here is a discrimination against people purely on the basis of their skin colour, culture or the place in which they happen to be born, based on a loyalty, not to God, but to an abstract entity that only really emerged as a result of the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago. There are many other examples of prejudice and inequality that results from a failure to submit ourselves to God. If people started really submitting to a higher power than their desires. or traditions, or the capitalist-rationalist-liberal-Western worldview we've grown up with with a lot of the world's problems would be greatly ameliorated.

There are two other important aspects of loving God with our whole heart that have a radical and potentially world-transforming impact on ideas of inequality and discrimination...to my mind these are some of the most beautiful and liberating aspects of Christian doctrine...but unfortunately its almost midnight and I've been waffling on again.

Since I want to do these beautiful truths justice I'll have to finish up and make you wait until part three...where I explain how all human beings are...