Resistance
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Rubbish Audit #1
Note: I am privileged with time, education and resources that allow me to make choices that are not available to everyone. Each of us has to make decisions based on our circumstances and values. You can read more of my thoughts on this topic here and a related quote. So, this post is me doing me; I encourage you to do you … always thoughtfully, of course! As part of my sustainability goals, I have on my list to “do a rubbish audit and then reduce rubbish by 25%.” Last week, I did the first part, which was to audit our rubbish. The idea is to see how much rubbish…
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I’m Voting Yes
On Saturday Australia will go to the polls to vote on an amendment to our constitution. The question being posed is: “A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?” with the alteration being: The First Peoples of Australia have suffered terrible discrimination and persecution since British settlement and continue to suffer disadvantage. In 2017 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples gathered at Uluru to extend an invitation to us in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The Voice is the first part of that. To me, it feels like…
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To save the time or not?
I generally have a few books on the go at one time that include at least one (loosely) theological book (morning reading), one other non-fiction book (afternoon reading) and one fiction book (evening reading). Apart from having the right kind of reading for every time of day this also allows the books to more easily “talk to each other.“ I’m currently reading “Wandering with Intent” by Kim Mahood. She has spent many years working in remote Aboriginal communities and recounts how after spending an afternoon searching and digging for yams a visitor asked why they didn’t cultivate the plants near the community. Her answer was “Because that would take all…
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Settling Well
A few years ago, I finally completed my M. Div. It’s 18 units, and I did one each semester, so nine years of studying, which I loved. My degree culminated in a year-long thesis on Revelation and how it might shape our response to the massive ecological damage humans inflict on the planet. Suppose you have heard anything about the book of Revelation. In that case, you probably know it goes to some pretty weird places, and it felt particularly appropriate (worrying?) to be spending so much time there once the pandemic hit nine months into my thesis. It was a year of sitting with Revelation, reading the text, looking…
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Our annual ritual is back on …
Each summer, Dad drives down to the Otways to pick Silvan berries to make jam. If I’m around I usually try to go down with him along with whoever else happens to be hanging out down here at their house and wants to go. Last year we missed it because it was closed due to changing hands and COVID, but this year, berry picking was back on. The girls and I went with dad. The weather was overcast, which made for comfortable picking, and there were plenty of berries on the bushes. Over the next two days, we turned them into jam. Out of all the jams we make, the…
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Critical Theory and Christianity
I was listening to an episode of Undeceptions about Critical Theory last week, and I was reminded again of the incongruity of people who identify as Christian, reflexively dismissing theories that “aim to explain and transform all the circumstances that enslave human beings.” I could understand if the objection was that only Christ could complete that sort of transformation or that some positions are too extreme, but there seems to be resistance in many circles to acknowledge that these theories reveal truths about societal structures that oppress people. The Bible has its own way of presenting a critique of culture. From Genesis, where the cosmological myths of the surrounding cultures are critiqued…
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Ethical Consumption as Class Distinction
Connected to my last post, Dr Jonathon Cornford comments on how ethical consumption can become just another form of class distinction, a marker of difference from others. “one of the difficulties I have, and one of the reserfvations I have with ethical consumption is it still does remain the preserve of a choice of people who both have the information and wherewithal to practice it. What we ultimately need is shopping … where everyone is able to engage in the basic market transactions they need to conduct their lives in a more ethical manner.” Dr. Jonathon Cornford on the ABC podcast God Forbid – What if we lived with less?
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Resistance and Privilege
Cultural forces can be a little like a river that carries us through life without giving it much thought if we let them. Some of those forces we would consider good, and in this case, the current is a good thing as it moves us effortlessly in the right direction. However, other forces deform our humanity and oppress our ability to behave in life-giving ways. If we want to, the power of the current can be too much to fight. By monopolising our attention and rushing us from one thing to the next, our culture removes the space where we might be able to choose differently for ourselves. Intentionally setting…
