With the sub-title, “How a
stamp-collecting, church-going, teetotal suburban solicitor became one of
the most controversial ministers we’ve ever had”, it attempts to explain how
this seemingly gentle and compassionate Christian man could preside over
what many (including myself) believe to be cruel and heartless policies
towards refugees.
It is not just that the policies
themselves—locking children in detention centres for years, refusing to
allow refugees in leaky boats fleeing oppressive Middle Eastern regimes
entry to Australia for processing—have been cruel. But Ruddock himself has
been a crucial part of a sneaky campaign of
lies and misinformation, along with the demonisation of the refugees.
The article, spread over six pages, doesn’t
really manage to explain all the contradictions of the man, and I’m not
about to try. I’m writing this commentary because it was partly due to
Philip Ruddock—a Christian, as is the Prime Minister John Howard—that I
started this blog.
When the Tampa crisis erupted last
year—a Norwegian freighter had picked up hundreds of refugees trying to
reach Australia and whose boat was sinking, leading to a major Australian
military operation to stop the freighter from entering Australian waters—I
was appalled at the policies of our government.
As a Christian I thought Jesus had
commanded us, in the story of the Good Samaritan and elsewhere, to help the
stranger in trouble. For the first time in my life I wrote a letter to my
Member of Parliament.
My MP, Kevin Andrews, is a prominent
Christian. He led the fight to overturn the legalisation of euthanasia in
the Northern Territory. I appealed to him as a Christian to take a stand
against the Government’s policies. The reply I got was bland in the extreme,
noting my concern and telling me what the Government was doing.
I found it hard to believe that so many
Christians supported—often with enthusiasm—policies that demonised refugees,
that refused them entry to Australia (that is, refused them entry to
Australia just for processing; if they turned out not to be true refugees
then of course I believed we had the right to send them home again), or that
locked them up, sometimes for years, in
outback detention centres.
For example, the leader of Australia’s
Christian Democratic Party, Reverend Fred Niles, issued a disgusting
statement on the refugees, a statement that I feel is tinged with
hatred.
A leader of the
Salt Shakers Christian ethics group wrote sarcastic letters to the press
against the refugees and against those Christians who supported their cause.
I kept wondering.
How can parts of Australian Christianity
maintain a huge infrastructure of high-fee
private schools that may once have provided the masses with an
opportunity for a Christian education but which now exist mainly to help the
elite of this country—and increasingly, the
elite of Asia—get into the best universities?
How can parts of Australian Christianity
support chains of large
bookstores that lavishly promote the latest American fashions—Prayer of
Jabez merchandise and books on the evils of Harry Potter—but where you
struggle to find information on the suffering Christians of the world?
Why do so few Australian Christians seem to
care that Jihad is
occurring against brother and sister Christians, just across the waters
in Indonesia?
Why are so few Australian Christians
excited beyond words about the revival taking place in the Chinese church
and the huge growth in Chinese congregations in Australia?
I wondered what had happened to the message
of Jesus.
So I started this website.
May
3rd, 2002
