How does John Key an atheist get off with praying at the Te Tii Marae? This is another sign of his political pragmatism (to put it in its best light) and absolute hypocrisy (to be real about it). In one foul swoop he denigrades Marae protocol and the Christian faith. Of course there is a tradition for doing such for politcal expediency but surely this should help those Christian i love with key to see what he really is about! I wrote to my FOCaL (Forum of the Christian Left) egroup in response to some discusion about whether Christian should vote based on a politican's policy and ability to delver or on their stated beliefs...
Political decison making in a democracy requires deep discernment. Lables are often misleading, especailly the "Christian" label. You've noted well that many 'christian' politicians have espoused and implemented very unethical policy. While we can and should decide to support politicals leaders wit stronmg personal credentials; it may be more imprtant at times to support the politician that can within the party system that they are in deliver the outcomes that we are looking for on behalf of the poor and disadvantages. Politics is the art of compromise, I suppose, and while we may have high ideals at times we have to be prepared to compromise on some of our ideals in order to make gains in others. And when confronted with possibility of John Key gaining power and the thought of loosing so much ground, the stakes are even higher. I'm sure the Kingdom of God is bigger than the church and when we see politicans and parties and potentail coalitionsthat have a vision that resembles the KoG (Esp Luke 4:14-17) and the credentials to deliver on their promises I'm sure we are justified in giving them our (sometimes qualified) support.I'm intrigued (but not suprised) that many people within the social democratic stream of politics are motivated by Christian faith or at least have had their poltical theory nurtured by their previously held religous belief and or Christain upbringing. I recently meet a number of young labour people, some still at high school, passionate about their crusade for a better world. Some of them told me stories about their parent's faith and how it shaped their world view and aspirations. What causes me some grief is the fact that many of these people see no relevance for christian faith at all. It doesn't fit into their world view, some of them have been burned by the church and or seen their parents burned by the church. At the same time I also meet some labour people with very mature and vital Christian faith. I long that the church would do a better job at nurturing people who think outside the box. From my perspective the gospel of Jesus is very consistent with the social democratic cause, as has been said before I'm sure, "The Labour Party is Christianity without God." A little exagerated I'm sure - the church isn't that good and well I think the LP has a lot to learn from other left leaningparties especially the greens.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Rich and the poor
That’s Rich
The Tories just don’t get it do they? Making assumptions about low income people without ever having known what it is like to choose between school shoes and school lunches. In last nights “The Star” Katherine Rich writes how Kiwis are feeling the pinch due to recent inflation pressures. Naturally this is all the fault of Labour’s policies and in particular Dr Cullen’s over taxation and poor fiscal management.
Yes the economy is screwed up at the moment but that’s got more to do with Bush’s over spend on war and the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US. We are just a small boat in the big sea of international economy and when the US makes big waves the we along with most other countries can do bugger all about apart from battening down the hatches and manning the bilge pumps. In spite of international pressure the NZ economy is doing very well, perhaps the best in 50 years or more. What’s more the poor are benefitting.
I don’t count myself as at the bottom of the heap poor but I am on a relatively low income with 3 kids and the working for families tax relief tops up my take home pay by nearly 50%. That’s more than $250 a week. That’s a huge ‘tax cut’ over the last 2-3 years and has made a great deal of difference to our stress levels at home and given us a lot more choice about the way we live. It means we can live off one income and that our kids have at least one parent around after school every day.
Sure petrol's gone up, - that’s a global reality we need to get used to. As for us we walk a lot more – no problem.
Dairy prices have gone up - again a global pricing problem –we could persuade Fonterra to reduce prices on the domestic market (Yeah Right) Besides a reduction in dairy products is not a bad thing for the old ticker anyway.
What’s National answer to “Labours gain and kiwis pain” Well you know Cut taxes and Cut spending.
Tax cuts will make stuff all difference to lower income families what little they get in the pocket will be absorbed by the inflationary pressure of the tax rise. I’m sure wealthy Tories will do well out of a National tax cut as usual.
But what do they expect to cut spending on? And how will that affect the poor?
Market rentals for state houses?
Health?
Education?
Infrastructure?
Perhaps they plan to borrow from overseas to line the pockets of Key’s cronies. I hope these remain rhetorical questions I shudder at the thought of a return to the past with a national led government.
It’s another case of Camels and Gnats. The Nats are getting their knickers in a knot (Or trying to persuade us that we should) over relatively minor hiccups in the cost of living. The nats are straining gnats, yet missing the camel, that kiwi families on low incomes are significantly better off since labour came to power, more kids have risen above the poverty line have better access to health, better resourced schools and better futures.
God, please don’t let us throw it away!
The Tories just don’t get it do they? Making assumptions about low income people without ever having known what it is like to choose between school shoes and school lunches. In last nights “The Star” Katherine Rich writes how Kiwis are feeling the pinch due to recent inflation pressures. Naturally this is all the fault of Labour’s policies and in particular Dr Cullen’s over taxation and poor fiscal management.
Yes the economy is screwed up at the moment but that’s got more to do with Bush’s over spend on war and the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US. We are just a small boat in the big sea of international economy and when the US makes big waves the we along with most other countries can do bugger all about apart from battening down the hatches and manning the bilge pumps. In spite of international pressure the NZ economy is doing very well, perhaps the best in 50 years or more. What’s more the poor are benefitting.
I don’t count myself as at the bottom of the heap poor but I am on a relatively low income with 3 kids and the working for families tax relief tops up my take home pay by nearly 50%. That’s more than $250 a week. That’s a huge ‘tax cut’ over the last 2-3 years and has made a great deal of difference to our stress levels at home and given us a lot more choice about the way we live. It means we can live off one income and that our kids have at least one parent around after school every day.
Sure petrol's gone up, - that’s a global reality we need to get used to. As for us we walk a lot more – no problem.
Dairy prices have gone up - again a global pricing problem –we could persuade Fonterra to reduce prices on the domestic market (Yeah Right) Besides a reduction in dairy products is not a bad thing for the old ticker anyway.
What’s National answer to “Labours gain and kiwis pain” Well you know Cut taxes and Cut spending.
Tax cuts will make stuff all difference to lower income families what little they get in the pocket will be absorbed by the inflationary pressure of the tax rise. I’m sure wealthy Tories will do well out of a National tax cut as usual.
But what do they expect to cut spending on? And how will that affect the poor?
Market rentals for state houses?
Health?
Education?
Infrastructure?
Perhaps they plan to borrow from overseas to line the pockets of Key’s cronies. I hope these remain rhetorical questions I shudder at the thought of a return to the past with a national led government.
It’s another case of Camels and Gnats. The Nats are getting their knickers in a knot (Or trying to persuade us that we should) over relatively minor hiccups in the cost of living. The nats are straining gnats, yet missing the camel, that kiwi families on low incomes are significantly better off since labour came to power, more kids have risen above the poverty line have better access to health, better resourced schools and better futures.
God, please don’t let us throw it away!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Of Gnats and Camels
Jesus once castigated the ruling elite for getting their knickers in a knot about the finer details of the law, insignificant stuff like the minutae of taxation law. You lot a careful to give 10% of your herbs but you forget the weightier matters of the law
Justice,
mercy,
faithfulness
Justice,
mercy,
faithfulness
and then he called them blind guides
"YOU STRAIN OUT A GNAT AND SWALLOW A CAMEL"
"YOU STRAIN OUT A GNAT AND SWALLOW A CAMEL"
How often through the centuries have Jesus words been relevant in application to the religious and political leaders of society.
Dealing with the 'naughty' things that other people do is a useful way of drawing attention away from the systematic evil that you are involved with.
I start this blog with the hope of drawing attention to camels, perhaps in modern parlance 'the elephant in the room' that people would rather ignore, but the weightier matters of the law; Justice, mercy and faithfulness can't be ignored by any follower of Jesus.
Over the last few years much of the polical debate in NZ has been around things that I think are gnats not altogether insignifcant but often distracting public attention from the pressing issues of a world facing economic, envirnmental, religious, and territorial crises wherein teh stakes are enormously high.
It disturbs me greatly that so much "Christian" energy has been put into things like defending the rights of parents to discipline (read 'punch' for that is what the repeal of Section 59 was all about) their children. We demand the right to beat our kids while millions of people around the world want the right to feed their kids, educate them, raise them in a safe environment with future and hope.
It's time we had a debate in this country about morality, what is it really? And the church should lead the way - though I have my doubts. Is morality more about we do in the bedroom or the boardroom? Is a rightesous nation one that crimalises sodomy or one that stands up against the bullies of the world and says no to nukes, no to war, no to whaling, no to poverty, no to the money sharks demanding their pound of flesh from poor third world nations that are crippled with unjust debt burdens.
There'll be lots of stuff to blog about and I hope one or two people might actually read this stuff and enter into a discussion with a comment or two.
As you may have guesed from my Blog name I'm a Christian lefty a social democrat who believes that the social justice imperatives of the gospel must find expresion in social policy. You may choose to disagree and I affirm your right to do so. But if you want to enter the debate please do so respectfully and I'll follow suit
cheers Micah 68
Its not those parts of the bible that I don't understand that bother me, its those parts that I do Mark Twain
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