Why Australia Needs More "Queue Jumping" Refugees

In Australia the stereotype for the worst kind of unemployed person is something like this... They sit around sometimes for years, sometimes for generations waiting to hear from someone agency offering them a job. They just fill out all the necessary paper work but apart from that they just sit and wait for a job to turn up no matter how unlikely that might be. They don't think outside the box, they have no entrepreneurial spirit, they don't even think of another way of getting a job, they just trust the system alone.

By contrast...

In Australia the stereotype for the best kind of refugee is something like this... They sit around sometimes for years, sometimes for generations waiting to hear from someone agency offering them a place in Australia. They just fill out all the necessary paper work but apart from that they just sit and wait for a place to turn up no matter how unlikely that might be. They don't think outside the box, they have no entrepreneurial spirit, they don't even think of another way of getting a place, they just trust the system alone.

If you had to choose between refugees who are labelled "queue jumpers" or  those who have waited for a place to come up, it strikes me that maybe we could do with a few more "queue jumpers".

Debunking the Myths on Asylum Seekers

Middle Class Christian Economics Applied To Middle Class Sexual Morality

Jesus said some pretty hard things about sexual ethics (If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. Matt 5:29) and some pretty hard things about money (go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor. Mark 10:21)

When it comes to putting these into practice Xns, particularly those of us in the evangelical west, are often hard on the sexual ethics but pretty lax or money.

I was just wondering what if we applied some of the attitudes we have about money to sex?

Scenario 1.

Version 1.

Your husband goes to the shop and purchases some choclate, you usually buy fair trade, but this time regular choclate is half price so he buys that instead. You think it'd be nice if he'd bought fair trade but the budget is tight and you can't afford to not save money where ever you can. You eat the choclate together.

Version 2

Your husband goes to the DVD store to hire a movie, you ussually hire a nice hollywood movie, but this time all of the movies in the pornographic section are half price so he hires one of them instead. So, will you be thinking "it'd be nice if he'd hired a hollywood blockbuster but the budget is tight and we can't afford to not save money where ever you can"?

Scenario 2

Version 1.

Your wife admits to some friends that she has a good income and talks about giving money to people in need but just ends up spending it all on shoes, clothes, and eating out. Her friends console her, assure her that she needs to look after her needs and what is really important is her attitude to money not so much what she actually does with it.

Version 2.

Your wife admits to some friends that she has a good husband and talks about being faithful but constantly ends up cheating on him with other people. Her friends consol her assure her that she needs to look after her needs (these other men are obviously giving her something her husand can't) and what is really important is her attitude to marriage not so much how she lives it out.

"Yer but it's different"... Yes and no. The main difference is we can see how the sexual ethics can hurt someone but the money stuff is not so clear. Right now there are more slaves around the world than ever before. A couple of hundered years ago we might have had slaves making our dinner and washing our clothes now they live in another country picking our coffee, coco and making our clothes and gadgets. Responding to this is hard but surely no harder than to give up slaves when no one else around you does.

A Rambling Review Of Blue Like Jazz

Excluding historical bioppics like Romero or Molokai, Blue like Jazz is the best Christian movie I have ever seen. It's better than cross over films like The Blindside too. Before you say have you seen ... Does that movie involve a lesbian character character dispensing advice that starts "if you ever want to see a vagina without a credit card"? If not I probably won't like. That might be one of the cruder lines in the film but it nicely illustrates how the non Xn characters in the film can be flawed, in smaller areas like talking politely, but are often genuinely caring good hearted people.

I liked the book but I wasn't a huge fan, but that was partly due to my own theological journey (Book Review here). I have faced similar questions to Miller and come to slightly different conclusions. Unlike the book the movie is far more open ended, questions are asked Jesus is embraced but exactly how the theology of it all is worked out is yet to be sorted out. And comes across as something that might forever be a work in progress anyway. Like the characters in the film I too have a thing for John Coltrane's album "A Love Supreme". I went to University and was the only Christian (apart from one overseas student who avoided talking to anyone) in a large dormitory with Uni sex toilets. It was the early 90s and I owned the Tori Amos album discussed in the unisex toilet scene.

Finally one of the best elements of the film is Penny, the sort of the love interest character. She doesn't spend any dialogue swooning over boys or wondering how to catch a mate. She is who she is and doesn't change, bend or soften to win a man. If someone wants her they have to take her exactly as she is. If only more Hollywood films could write female roles like this.