A week of reading: an occascatch-uptch up
Mothers: Blogger Jessica Harvey took some stats I shared on motherhood this week, and built a celebration of mothering around them. She suggests that bringing children into the world and shaping them is so worthwhile that mothers should never doubt their contribution to the world.
She writes, “Whatever we say about motherhood, we cannot say that it is not a “meaningful contribution to the world”, for the world is made up of people, and motherhood is the work of raising those people.
“My concern is that when churches and ministers and well-meaning Christian influencers seek to increase the opportunities for mothers to serve in extra roles in the church, this ends up increasing the pressure and the expectation on mothers to serve in the church. And where there is competition between the visible service of ministry roles and the unseen labour of faithful motherhood, sadly the visible will often win out.
“So the 75% of Christian mothers who feel that they do not make meaningful contributions to the world on a regular basis don’t in fact need to be offered more opportunities to serve in the church, but to be taught that they already have those opportunities every day in their mothering role. And to not let them go to waste.”
To which a little gentle pushback. The years with young children can be a golden time of building relationships with other families. Harvey might be including this in the regular parenting role, probably is, but it is an opportunity young parents have that disappears later in life, in my experience at least. Don’t waste it.
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The US Christian right is wrong: David French examines the reluctance of US Christians to see the darkness in heroes like Donald Trump, Bill O Reilly and Tucker Carlson. In a column headed “Tucker Carlson’s Dark and Malign Influence Over the Christian Right,” the conservative columnist for The New York Times examines Carlson’s racism (the reason Fox News sacked him) and Trump and O’Reilly’s treatment of women as issues that should not be ignored.
“Within conservative circles, it has always been surprisingly difficult to tie a decline in Christian political virtue to the rise of Donald Trump. What seems obvious from a distance (wait a minute – didn’t Christians use to place a premium on the importance of character in politicians, especially during Bill Clinton’s scandals?) was less obvious up close. In countless personal conversations with Christians who are staunch Republicans, I heard some variation on the same plaintive question, ‘What do you want us to do? Hand an election to Hillary Clinton? Or to Joe Biden?’
“For Democratic readers, that’s an easy choice. There’s no sacrifice in voting for Clinton or for Biden. But let’s turn the question around: Under what circumstances would you actually vote for your polar political opposite? How corrupt would a Democratic politician have to be to keep you home, make you vote third party or perhaps even cast a vote for a Republican who wants to ban most abortions and nominate Federalist Society lawyers to judgeships? Honestly exploring that question can perhaps help you sympathize with Republican Trump voters. When character conflicts with policy, voting choices can be hard.”
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A model of repentance: There is one positive outcome of a dreadful scandal in the Church of England where a priest sexually assaulted a teenager and saw a ten-year campaign by the victim protesting against church leaders ignoring his disclosure of the abuse. The positive is a statement by a bishop acknowledging his fault in not taking the victim’s disclosure of the abuse seriously. We rarely see such a frank admission of guilt – so this one is striking.
“Like all bishops, I have had to deal with instances of sexual abuse by clergy, church officers and volunteers. Each one is distressing to deal with. I have always sought to ensure that allegations are followed up, and that complainants and respondents are properly supported, but I know that on this occasion I didn’t get everything right and I could have done more to support the survivor.”
It could be more detailed admission of failure, certainly. That would be better. But still.
This apology comes from Stephen Croft, the Bishop of Oxford, who is on the progressive side of the divide in the Church of England. On sexuality questions, I sympathise with the evangelicals in his diocese who strongly differ from his point of view. But credit where credit is due; it is good to see a church leader admit wrongdoing. Unfortunately there is not enough of it.
(O, the other hand, Croft’s Archbishop at the time of the disclosures, John Sentamu, denies he did anything wrong in not acting on the victim’s revelation of the abuse when the victim also complained to him.)
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Tectonic plates shift in the Libs: At the other end of the political spectrum Senator Alex Antic, a conservative Christian from SA, was primed by journalist and talk-back host David Penberthy in The Australian. He reports, “The ideological chasm that now exists in the party was underscored this week when it emerged that at the same time many Christians are flocking to the party to join the right, a group of moderates is hatching plans to create a dedicated LGBTIQ sub-branch to give transgender people a welcoming place inside the SA Liberal Party.”
This means the same dynamic is playing out in SA as in Victoria, where Conservative Christian Moira Deeming has been expelled from the party room, and her ally Renee Heath has lost the job of party room secretary.
Christians have as much right to join a political party as everyone else. (There are Christians in the Greens, One Nation and Labor as well.) If this were the US, terms like the “party base” would be used for Christians for the Republicans.
Are Christians the base of the Liberal Party? According to National Church Life Survey research, churchgoers vote for the coalition more than any other party. But unlike the Republicans in the US, conservative Christians don’t have the numbers to define themselves in the voting base of the coalition. The 25.4% of the population of the US who describe themselves as “evangelical” are a solid voting block for their right-of-centre party. (“Evangelical” is in inverted commas because research consistently shows many of the people who call themselves “evangelical” in the US are not theologically Orthodox.)
The moderates and the conservatives in the Liberal party are wrestling to control branches, suburb by suburb. The catchcry of the conservatives is that the defeated Liberals in SA and Vic were too “Labor lite.” The moderates point to losing seats to the Teals in the Federal election.
There are enough conservative Christians in the Liberals to select Moira Deeming and maybe push Alex Antic to the number one senate position in SA. But a total party takeover is probably beyond them. This means we should all get the popcorn out and watch the right-of-centre parties (Teal, Liberal, Nationals, and maybe One Nation) form themselves into a new configuration. The winner right now is Labor.
On this story, The Saturday Paper and The Australian have the best reporting. Read both.
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“I find that the people who teach me the most about the nature of God are rarely those in power in the church.” Nils von Kalm posts on lessons learned. “Once, I was at a Christian conference, and I saw a guy with an intellectual disability sitting on his own. Wanting to do the Christlike thing, I sat next to him, glad that I was able to be Christ to this man. He looked at me with a smile, put his arm around me and sat his head on my shoulders. Trying not to show how emotional this made me, I suddenly realised that he was showing Jesus to me.”
Image by Kristin Baldeschwiler from Pixabay