Forget about refugees or the rights of indigenous people, according to the volume of emails in my personal and work inbox there is a far more pressing issue. The Australian Democrats, who have no influence on either the senate or the house of representatives, are doing a web survey!
Click here to view the survey
The Survey is about God and Government and has been accused of being biased and anti Xn. Personally I'm not sure if the survey is biased, and even if it is it doesn't stress me too much. What the survey does do is raise some genuine valid concerns that the Democrats obviously have which include...
- Church business, like Sanitarium a 7th Day Adventist company that is most famous for making weetbix , and the CD producing arm of Hillsong, enjoy have a tax free status (according to Steven Mayne) and this is not fair to other businesses.
- Chaplains & Religious Education teachers do not need any qualifications to do their job.
- If Church groups that take over public services (like health and welfare) and choose not to offer some services does this mean that those services may become unavailable or at least restricted, and would be a change in democratically agreed upon public policy by stealth.
- Who gets to choose what gets put in to school curriculums. Shouldn't scientists decide what goes into a science curriculum.
- We currently do not have any official split between church and state unlike the USA.
Whilst some in my inbox have labeled this an attack on Xy. I cannot help but think that it shows genuine holes in the way that we as a church have operated, holes that we need to address.
2 comments:
i dont think its an attack on christianity as much as i do think it's a badly put together poll. a friend told me today that the "technical statistical term, which you will appreciate has been available
since the days of the wireless, and used to describe this sort of survey is "self-selected listener opinion poll survey", or if you are into acronyms, SLOPS. "
duncan wrote something about it here: http://www.pacifichighlander.postkiwi.com/?p=547
me, i think it's incredibly badly composed, first of all the laws/regs for chaplains and RE are different in almost every state, something that this survey doesnt mention. The RE question is misleading becuase there are no two States with the same legislation and the term jurisdiction is incorrect as well. It is by school Council agreement and within the grounds of the school in 4 States, none in SA, and WA and Vic are a deliberate students must opt in in the legislation.
I also disliked the way that they've equalled religion to ethics.
i also wrote about it here: http://planettelex.bur.st/?p=816
Another friend included in his email to the democrats "The lead article is mischeivous rather than demonstrating a researched and objective level of understanding. Many Church do indeed pay taxes on everything from Community service to events that they run. Businesses are business and to run as such as required to adhere to laws relevant to business. Churches have had their tax status tested and reset through the recent inquiry into Charities and Benevloent Institutions. While some State taxes are not paid - such a property taxes, other are. Its a very mixed and complex issue and nowhere near as simple as your article suggests. "
Hi Darren,
Thanks for your comments! My "I can understand where they are coming from" comments have not gone down well particularly in other forums and conversations. I should qualify that although "I can understand where they are coming from" this doesn't mean that I think the survey is necessarily not biased or overly simplistic. The following, although relevant to what Darren has said in parts is not a response soley to what he has written but also includes answers to other things people have said elsewhere to save me repeating it later. :)
I guess my feelings about this became clearer for me last night whilst talking to a friend. I grew up in a public school which finished 40 minutes early every Friday because there was no scripture, and a year or two before I started school there the Xn group that met of a Friday lunch time had been banned. So, I am always amazed that a school would let Xn’s come into a school where most people are not practising that religion to be RE teachers or chaplains. What we have with chaplains, RE teachers and Xn charities involved in social action who receive government grants is a great privilege. Wether some Xns have abused that or wether we provide a unique service that is better than what others can provide not is irrelevant, we have been given a privilege and need to treat it like that, and prove that we deserve to be given that privilege in the future, which as someone who has been an RE teacher almost worked as a public school chaplain, and now works for a Xn charity that receives government funding believes we do deserve. Also re: religion and ethics. That they equate the two shows that (a) others probably do and (b) we probably need to explain the difference.
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