Gravity

Hey daddy, isn't it funny that 'grabity' has the word 'grab' in it?

Yes, darling, it is funny, in many, many ways.

One for culture vultures

There's a discussion about what culture is and how significant it is for understanding the Bible, happening here.

Have at it, ye landlubbers, arr harr.

Oh, sorry, I'm still gettin' over International Talk Like a Pirate Day, ye scurvy dogs.

Men and women and criticism

I'm reading lots of marriage books lately, got a marriage weekend coming up and have to think of worthwhile ways to use people's time on the weekend, given that the husbands and wives coming could just as easily have gone away for a weekend with each other.

Lots of random thoughts keep popping into my head as a direct result.

Women are very sensitive to implied criticism, aren't they?

I'm now imagining a possibly female reader of this blog thinking 'I wonder if he means me?'

The answer is, no.

Although actually, if you thought the thought, maybe I do...

(the dreaded ellipsis!)

Nitschke, Jennings and euthanasia

Back in June, Caren Jenning was found guilty of the manslaughter of Graham Wylie, despite claims by euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke that this was not murder but assisted suicide.

Last Friday she committed suicide.

One of the creepy aspects to this is that Dr Nitschke now appears again:

Caren Jenning, 75, died alone on Thursday night, the euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke confirmed yesterday, calling her death "inevitable".

"It is not unexpected given the treatment and persecution she received at the hands of the legal system in the past few months," Dr Nitschke said.

Every time Nitschke materializes, he seems to come equipped with another story of how a particular death is inevitable and understandable—never tragic or avoidable. Even troubled teens may have reason for seeking a way out.

Meanwhile, the daughter of the murdered Graham Wylie offers her comment:

Prosecution was the only way to deal with death

Date: September 25 2008

Your article states that Caren Jenning failed to mention during her trial that she bought the drug Nembutal for herself, as well as to kill my father, Graeme Wylie ("Suicide accomplice, a modern whodunit", September 23). She did mention she had planned to do so on one trip to Mexico, but said she lost her nerve. Her dear friend Philip Nitschke has now admitted she bought a bottle for herself. Even on her deathbed the woman has been caught lying.

She mentioned being persecuted by the legal profession. But how is one supposed to treat someone who has imported illegal drugs on more than one occasion, been involved in the death of a person, fabricated evidence for the Supreme Court of NSW, and consistently denies any of it?

The police and the Director of Public Prosecutions had no choice but to take the matter to court. I had the right to know what happened to my father and I thank them for finding out some of the truth. At no time did I see them act inappropriately to Jenning.

This woman was given every opportunity to own up to her involvement in my father's death, yet she consistently denied it. I understand that in NSW no one has ever been sentenced for assisting a genuine suicide. Why didn't she stand up for her beliefs? What would be gained by consistent lying about having nothing to do with it?

I can only imagine she was hoping a doctor would provide another medical certificate to keep her out of jail. I eagerly await the autopsy result, as she told me on the night she was involved in the death of my father that she was cured of her cancer.

As the supportive co-ordinator of Exit NSW, she made a good pair with Nitschke. However, yet again he is left holding a news conference, with another dead body in his tracks.

Nicola Dumbrell, Spit Junction

From here.

Lance is back

Lance Armstrong is back and he's coming to Australia.

AFTER Lance Armstrong confirmed that Australia's Tour Down Under would be where he will launch his comeback to road racing, it was revealed the seven-time Tour de France champion intends to resume where he left off when he retired in 2005 - by winning.

Michael Kellahan has started a blog

Welcome to the world of blog-posting, Mike!

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Victorian abortion law

The Catholic hospitals in Victoria are threatening to disobey the proposed abortion law.

Report in the Age.

Beam me up, Scotty

Sky hooks are on the way (SMH).

JAPANESE scientists are attempting to build a lift that will take passengers into space, marking the realisation of a vision that has inspired science fiction writers for generations.

The lift's carriages, which will themselves require new feats of engineering, would move up and down 35,000 kilometre-long cables. Those cables would need to be stronger and lighter than any material ever woven.

They would be anchored to the ground and disappear into the sky, eventually reaching a satellite docking station orbiting above the Earth.

Carbon nanotubes to the rescue! Yeah!

Super choral concert coming up

I am singing with my choir in a couple of concerts at the Opera House on November 1 and 6.

We've started rehearsals and from the sound so far, this one is going to be fantastic. If you have never been to a choral concert before, and you have even vaguely thought you might go one day, this is one worth turning up for to find out what it's about. Here's the ad.

The Dies Irae from Mozart's Requiem was used for an ad a few years ago, might have been the Melbourne Grand Prix, might have been Firestone tires; you will recognize it even if you aren't a classical music buff. Spine-tingling. Here 'tis on YouTube.

I can get cheap tickets for you (15% off A res, B res or C res) if you let me know soon enough, just respond with a comment and mark it Not For Publication if you don't want it to appear on this blog.

Free Esther!

The ESV Study Bible notes on Esther were written by Barry Webb, lecturer in Old Testament at Moore College. I interviewed him for the Sola Panel here, and if you head on over you can download the complete Esther notes for free!

A current pet peeve of mine is people who want to insist that we be culturally savvy in our understanding of our own culture and the culture of the Bible, and that this needs to happen before we can really get the message from the text. It seems to me a subtle attempt to deaden and dull the immediacy of God's living word. So my ears always prick up when I get the hint that others see this as a problem too. In the interview, Barry says:

The Jewish people during the inter-testamental period even added a bit to the story of Esther, and this has been preserved in the Septuagint [the traditional Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament]. In these additions, whoever wrote them seems to have wanted to exonerate Esther from the charge of having broken the law and behaved immorally.

So one of the exciting and fascinating things for me was when I read the book of Esther, having questions about their behaviour, and then discovered that the Jews of the inter-testamental period had the same thoughts. It was a good example of a modern reader reading the same text, with my questions coming not out of my modernity or my Christianity; it was a real issue that arose for earlier readers too.

I am not sure at all that Barry shares my annoyance with scholarly attempts at authoritative cultural exegesis. But his observations about the continuity between BC culture and his questions—my questions too, when I read Esther—help us see why it is that the Bible speaks to day. It's God's inerrant, infallible and true word, applied by his Spirit to people who have been made in his image. It's an image that remains despite the passage of some two and a half thousand years between when God first addressed his hearers, to when he addresses us now.

Crucial?

I read this comment about the literary and historical context of some of the New Testament letters:

But the epistles themselves don't leave many explicit clues, and since a lot of scholarship discounts patristic testimony and limits itself to internal literary evidence, it is hard to be certain of a great deal in this crucial area.

But if the epistles themselves don't give clues, and internal literary evidence doesn't answer the question either, then how is it 'crucial'?

Answer? It's not.

Broughton Knox writes about his theology

I'm quoting from the unpublished manuscript by Broughton Knox entitled Robert Banks—a Reply, subtitled The "Apologia Pro Theologica Mea". The explanatory note underneath says it was "Written almost immediately after the publication of Banks' chapter in God who is Rich in Mercy, 27.2. 1990—not looked at since". It is a response to Banks' assessment of Broughton's theology in this book.

From page 4:

I hate having to justify myself but I am told I have an obligation to so as no one else is in a position to.

Robert Banks begins his criticism with the statement, "DBK seems to have developed his theological method too independently of the wider world of theological discussion".

Because he has had the slenderest personal contacts with me he has perforce to base this comment on my theological writings. He bases his comment on the fact that I am not constantly citing and footnoting references to contemporary scholars; but to assume that consequently I am unacquainted with modern theological scholarship is non sequitur, it doesn't follow logically. It is a question of what I am aiming to achieve, to accomplish by my theological writings.

By God's providence, from early youth, I have had very great opportunities of personal relationship and theological cross-fertilisation with scholars in the universities of England, Scotland, and America, and by their visits to Australia. And, of course, I have had access to the great libraries of England; the Bodley, Oxford, Cambridge, London, and the British Library, as well as the growing libraries of Tyndale House, Cambridge, and of Moore College, Sydney. I do not believe that I am unacquainted with the writings of modern scholarship.

If I do not normally constantly refer to them in the pages of what I write, it is due to my understanding of how theology should be written, or what the objective is. The objective is to make clear some aspect of "the whole counsel of God", and to then see how it applies to our life.

True theology is an explanation of God's revelation. Therefore there should be constant references to holy Scripture to assure the reader that what is being said is well grounded; but there is only need for an occasional reference to a writer in the last half-generation.

Most of Christian theology has been done in the past. A theologian should be very well acquainted with the pivotal thinkers of the past and of the present (of which there are one or two). Their thought will enter into his own thinking but, unless he is writing a history of theology, they will not be referred to by name.

A reason—and a most important one—that modern theological writers are not of much help—except to provide an interesting stimulus here and there, is that the presuppositions of their theological writings are so different from classical Christian theology that it makes much of their conclusions of little value. True theology must be based on, to quote our Lord, "What God has spoken to you". This is the Scripture as we have it in our hands. What God has spoken to us must of course be true, infallible and inerrant. Any other concept is unthinkable. Yet the members of the wider theological reading to which Banks believes I should be constantly referring reject this view of Scripture, which was the view of Jesus and his apostles and of all the theologians up to a generation or so ago. The "modern theological academy"

p.5...

has such a fundamentally different presupposition on which their theological thinking is based that an eclection that chooses this or that among their conclusions to include in the theological whole is likely to weaken rather than strengthen the result. This does not mean that a theologian should be unacquainted with modern writings, but it is more important to be acquainted with the older writings. My object and consequently style of writing does not quote either older or modern writers. But I am not criticised for not quoting the ancients, but only the moderns, and the deduction is drawn that I'm unaquainted with these latter!

Finishing Luke

Have you noticed the final words of Luke's gospel?

and were continually in the temple blessing God.

It is the description of what the disciples were doing when they discovered that the mysterious individual who had been appearing among them was, as some suspected, the Lord Jesus risen from the dead.

Remember at the beginning of Luke that the reason he writes is for Theophilus,

that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

By the time that Luke finishes his gospel, he thinks he has achieved his goal. The result? Those who have certainty are in the temple 'blessing God'.

The Christian life is characterized by thankfulness, focussed on and inspired by the mighty work of God.

Attacks against Christians in India

They continue, in the east and in the west.

Pray for them.

Go Penelope!

The government ought not to fiddle around with the Edmund Barton building.

Hands off you Philistines! Go Penelope!

Tomb

Ruby asked me what a 'tomb' was the other day. We'd been reading about how Jesus was buried in a tomb after he had been crucified.

What is a tomb?

A tomb is a room where they put dead people. Then you close the door, and they never come out.

A tomb is a room without a view.

You would not have put Jesus in a tomb if you were not very sure that he was dead.

That's pretty much what I said.

Violet age 5 and a 1/2

Oune I axudently frode my toy Charile up on one of the school roofs and at the end of school befor we went hame I tode my dad I axudently frode charile up on one of the school roofs and my dad tride to get charlie down but my dad cad ned get charlie down so my dad said he wode got Charile trmoroe and the next day my dad brang a stail and he went into athdelrey and got a char and I said what are you going to do? you well see then it didntd werck so my dad went bake to antterrcur and gave the char back and my dad got a ladre and theen he got charile down.

She speaks a little bit like this too.

Pakistan v Afghanistan

AN excellent article by Fraser Nelson in London's Spectator in July put it as succinctly as I have seen it: "At a recent dinner party in the British embassy in Kabul, one of the guests referred to 'the Afghan-Pakistan war'. The rest of the table fell silent. This is the truth that dare not speak its name.

Christopher Hitchens talks about it here.

Sex and ministry

Jen B makes a mighty fine attempt at eviscerating a common argument about sex and ministry, here.

From the post:

Sex within marriage is not for ministry. Sex within marriage is for the husband and wife of that marriage.

This is well said.

I did have a question, though, about whether sex is also for children, as in, the producing of them. And if so, I wonder if it affects the shape of the argument? Being fruitful and multiplying, after all, has as its aim the establishing of God's rule in his creation—Genesis 1:28. And once we introduce the idea that sex might not be solely for the husband and wife, but have some external purpose in view as well, we are back into the question of whether or not you might have sex (within marriage of course—that's assumed) for reasons other than that you simply enjoy it.

Another verse that comes to mind is Malachi 2:15

Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

I don't really know what this verse means. But the bit that I understand again seems to point to a view of sex that says it is about more than mutual enjoyment, as terrific as that is.

Now what Jen eviscerates, stays eviscerated so read what she said and feel the weight of it; feeling the weight will paradoxically result in a great burden of guilt being lifted from some, particularly wives of ministers. But there is more to be said; something Jen herself would likely acknowledge.

Immigration under Ruddock

I don't like the way detention centres were run under the previous government, and Phil Ruddock must carry a large part of the responsibility for that. They kept people imprisoned, including children, on the grounds that they had not yet shown that they were genuine refugees. A friend of mine spent more time in a detention centre than he would have in jail had he been found guilty of murder. Eventually his status as a refugee was recognized, and he was released into the community. His is not an isolated story.

However this has to be acknowledged:

Ruddock’s place in Australian political history will record that immigration grew every year after 1996, rising from 67,100 in 1997 to more than 142,000 in 2006. The fair-minded will call that a genuinely compassionate outcome.

From here.

Stem cells from cloned human embryos

Sickening news on the research front. The first licence has been issued for a company to attempt to produce cloned human embryos.

From the report:

The director of Australians for Ethical Stem Cell Research, David van Gend, criticised the issuing of the licence by the National Health and Medical Research Council. He said cloning research was no longer necessary because of recent advances in stem cell science.

"It is unspeakable that we should continue this project of creating living human embryos with the sole purpose of destroying them when the compelling justification for such experiments has gone."

Crabb on Turnbull

Funny as always:

Turnbull does additionally have something of a money problem. He's got too much of it; side by side yesterday, he and Julie Bishop looked like the Blake and Krystle Carrington of the Liberal Party.

It's an awkward fit for the present political culture, in which the hard-luck story is king, and any candidate unlucky enough to have enjoyed a happy and comfortable childhood in a stable family unit starts very much behind the eight ball.

Fortunately for Turnbull, he was abandoned at the age of nine by his mother, who probably had no idea all those decades ago just what a handy future political service she was rendering her son.

From the SMH.

Oikophobia

Learned a new word today: oikophobia.

From here.

On the support Greens give to terrorists.

Abortion funding faces review

Report in the SMH today.

A matter for prayer.

From the report:

Both anti-abortion and pro-abortion campaigners believe the inquiry will turn into a de facto investigation into the numbers and cost of abortions in Australia.

The pro-choice MPs fear the timing of the inquiry, which is happening as the Victorian Parliament debates whether to decriminalise abortion.

Nelson v Turnbull

It's on.

Not sure what this achieves from Nelson's end. An extra month or two?

Meanwhile Costello hasn't resigned. I don't think we will know the end of this story for at least 12 months, but instability in the party favours him over the long term.

UPDATE: For Nelson, it achieved early retirement from the job as leader. If Malcolm T performs well, that is not just the end of Nelson but certainly farewell for Costello, sooner or later.

Peter Jensen reviewed

Peter Jensen's book The Future of Jesus, was reviewed in The Australian over the weekend.

I have laboured these matters in rather simplistic political terms because I want to encourage secular Australians, especially those on the Left, to read Jensen's book.

(From the review by Roy Williams)

I don't know

I don't know who Mark Driscoll is

And it is possible that he hasn't heard of you either, but it is such a refreshing line that it is worth repeating.

From here.

Saddle sore

Weekend away with some families from school.

One of them had a spare mountain bike, so I went along for the ride. First time ever, easy for some but a bit terrifying for me.

Prayed for a chance to talk about Jesus, and ended up having a conversation with M, who told me about the Fourth Way, of which he's a member, and he sent me off to Wikipedia to find out more.

I thought Irenaeus did a pretty decent job of dealing with this sort of stuff in the second century, but it is the nature of hydras to return with extra heads.

The big question is why would there be a secret message hidden in the four gospels, when the obvious message is astonishing and salvific enough?

The girls had a lovely time.

Hey Mike I guess you saw this!

Hey Mike K, I added a comment to our discussion here and then read this letter in today's SMH:

Little chance of fair trials when so many articles imply guilt

Date: September 12 2008

Bouquets to the Herald for publishing Belinda Neal's staunch and quite proper defence of her right to silence over the Iguanas affair ("Media chip away at a cornerstone of our rights", September 11).

The right to silence is, and must continue to be, one of the linchpins of a civilised criminal justice system. It applies to all Australian citizens and does not disappear just because a person has been elected or appointed to some high office.

Brickbats to the Herald for describing, in the same issue, Dr Graeme Reeves using a pejorative phrase better suited to a member of Hitler's elite. This is, of course, a description used by nearly all media outlets of recent time. No doubt it sells papers, brings in viewers and thereby raises profits. It does not profit our society, however, when the use of such terminology makes it nigh on impossible for the accused to receive a fair trial. Apparently the presumption of innocence must make way for the right to pen an eye-catching headline.

I wonder if any editors take pause to contemplate, when deciding to run with any given story, whether the person named therein will have their right to a fair hearing irreversibly prejudiced.

It is simply not good enough to argue that trial judges can warn jurors to put such reports/descriptions out of their minds. Mud sticks.

I wrote in the Herald more than five years ago, when I was still a senior NSW crown prosecutor: "Perhaps the time has come for the federal government, as well as all states and territories, to legislate that there shall be no publication of any material which might identify an alleged perpetrator until such time as the relevant tribunal has made a finding of culpability."

Those words fell, and continue to fall, on deaf ears.

Nicolas Harrison Lismore

The media does seem to manage to find all sorts of ways around sub judice matters.

Criticizing Driscoll

I appreciated Mark Driscoll's visit to Sydney and have posted about him a couple of times already, while promising a bit more at some stage. That's going to have to wait for a bit as things are a bit tight just now, but in the meantime, I don't find a lot to disagree with here or here (both posted on the Sola Panel).