Musings on the Feast of Christ the King

As I sat at Mass last night, I couldn't help but think how anachronistic and irrelevant the feast of Christ the King is. How can a republican get excited about the idea of Christ as a King. When I think of kings, I think of people who have done nothing to deserve their postions, with enormous amounts of money gained from the efforts of workers. I think of people who spend most of their lives indulging themselves and are totally out of touch with the day to day reality of most people. How far is this from my image of Jesus. For me, the image of Jesus that sits best is the man talking quietly in the countryside to people who are hurting and giving them real hope.

I went to the dentist last week, and we decided to take this tooth out. I nearly fainted when I saw the size of it, but amazingly, it hardly hurt at all getting it taken out. The wierd thing is that since it was removed, I haven't been able to drink red wine. White is fine, but not red!!!

SMH-Climate change threatens the fight to end poverty

Why have we been able to mobilise so much publicity and support for the Climate Change agenda, which will/might have an impact some time in the future, and very little for the Millenium Development Goals and the fight against poverty, which is killing 30,000 people every day?

Unfortunately, I think the reason is because climate change will affect US whereas poverty affects anonymous people over there. I hope that is not true, but I think it is.

SMH - Death Penalty

It is interesting how people are starting to get indignant about the anti-death penalty movement because it is getting close to the time for the execution of Amrosi and the other Bali Bombers. I wonder if those same people will also be objecting to the imposition of the death penalty on the Bali Nine.

It is sad, how far back we have come from the seventies when advocating the death penalty was not even on anyone's agenda to now where any people are pushing for it (at least for non-whites).

I find it hard to even discuss the question with supporters of the death penalty because it is so obviously wrong to me. It is hard to even come close to getting inside the mind of someone who believes that the world would be a better place with the death penalty.

The book that has had the most impact on my life.

Of all the books that I have ever read, the one that has had the greatest impact/influence on my life is "Awareness" by Anthony de Mello.  It is a book that is very hard to describe.  In many ways, it says nothing that I haven't heard before, but I think it came at the right time.  I have been reading and rereading it now for about six years.

I wish I had an easy way to describe it.  It is one of those books that for me was an epiphany.  While reading it I came to the realisation, "Ah, so that is what it is all about."  So do I now, know the meaning of life?  Well, Yes and No.   It is really frustrating because, 'knowing'  does not make it any easier to put into words.  The closest I can come is a quote from Paul's letter to the Phillipians (can't remember the chapter and verse, or the exact words, but it goes something like this).  "May the Peace of God that surpasses all understanding blow your mind."   When you find something like that, there is a temptation to tell everyone about it and give them a formula, but as Anthony de Mello says, I can't tell you what to do, just what to look for.  If I told you what to do, I would be just giving you another formula, and that wouldn't work.

There are plenty of books, gurus, teachings that tell the same story, but this was the one that got through to me.  If you are still with me, I really encourage you to have a look at it.  You can generally get it at Dymocks or Borders book store.  If you want to talk about it after you have read it, I would love to share with you.

Donna and I saw Amazing Grace on Saturday night. It is a powerful movie about the campaign in the British parliament to abolish the slave trade.

It was made to comemorate the 200th anniversary of the passing of the legislation.

William Wilberforce and others fought a thirty year campaign to turn the tide of popular opinion on its head. It is an inspiring example of how one person can make a difference. There are many similar things happening today that we should not ignore.

It is also interesting to note that most people who believed that slavery was okay were bolstered in their beliefs by the bible. I couldn't help compare this to the situation at the moment with the campaign to make homosexual couples equal before the law.

How I stopped a rapist

What a beautiful story this is. I was moved to tears, but not of sorrow but of joy. The solution to problems of violence is not more violence, in the form of anger, hate, shame and fear, but one of strength. Only by confronting reality, and taking control of our lives can we really conquer evil such as the rape that this lady describes.

It is truly beautiful.

George Pell and the Stem Cell Debate

The sad thing about this whole issue is that the debate has become one about the church telling politicians how to vote, rather than the church expressing its position on an important issue.

Almost no-one would have learned anything about why the church holds the position it does from the debate, as expressed in the mainstream media.

I hope it wasn't Pell's intention to create a power struggle. I really believe that he has though

We have lived through a month of chaos during April as we put in a new kitchen. You can see some of the before, during and after shots here.

I think the timing of my haircut is ideal for this experiment. I desperately need a haircut and I expect my hair is going to get uncomfortable, so the shorter the better. Off I go at lunchtime to get it cut.

A friend was telling me the other day how he hadn't used shampoo or any hair care product for four years and that he had discovered that once your body gets over the initial shock (about six weeks) it goes really well. He just washes it with water and that is all. He is very image conscious and looks great. Anyway, I thought about trying it but chickened out. Then yesterday, I stumbled across this from Richard Glover. I have now decided that I am going to give this a go. Now that it is getting cooler, it might be bearable trying it out. I will update progress here.

What is the value of a human life?

We never actually say it, but our actions make it clear that it depends on where they live, what colour they are, what their religion or sex are.


While I agree that we need to cut down on our energy use, I find it amusing and sad that there is a build up of concern in the world for climate change, when it refers to some possible (perhaps even probable) issues in the future, when we are ignoring the fact that every day, the equivalent of ten 911s are occurring in our world and we don't even think about it.

Actually, an Elephant in the Room for most environmentalists is that as the Third World becomes more affluent then the impact on Climate Change will be even greater. You don't hear many environmentalists suggest that we lower our living standards, only that we reduce our wastage.

Like it or not, for there to be real justice in the world, we will need to halve our living standards.

I still believe that as parents, unless you have plenty of money and no job, it is just not possible to spread yourself around and have lots of kids. The kids just don't get all the attention they need.

I have felt it even with our four kids. This is one of the main reasons why I think the church is just plain wrong with their teachings on contraception.

When it comes to abortion and abortive agents, I am a lot closer to the church, but to ban condoms, vasectomies and other preventative means of avoiding conception is not (in my opinion) wrong. I can see some reasons why it might be. Especially if the reason is to sustain a materialistic lifestyle, but even in families that are non-materialistic, it is just not possible to spend the time needed to mould loving adults (without hangups) when there are so many
of them. That isn't to say that we can't work through our issues and live great lives, but for the church to put that added pressure on marriages of not being able to safely have sex without fear of conception is just totally wrong. I have no question whatsoever about the IMMORALITY of the teaching on contraception.

I have very mixed feelings about this sort of weapon. In one context it seems like a good thing, because it should minimise permanent damage. However, I am concerned that with weapons like this, military or civil forces will be tempted to use them far more readily than previously. The potential for total domination by a totalitarian regime are enormous.

Active Denial Ray Gun

Town troubles spelt in black and white - National - smh.com.au

Obviously, this whole incident is tragic. On top of that though is the hypocrisy of the reactions. The newspapers are being very careful not to explicitly mention that the attackers were aboriginal. I found the same thing when listening to talk back radio yesterday. People seem to be talking in a code that says, "nudge, nudge, wink wink." It does nothing to improve the issues of racism, because people are not talking openly, but it also shows how people continue to use labels like "aboriginal", "moslem", "do-gooder", "feminist" as an excuse to stop thinking of the person behind the label, to stereotype them and to assume that they will behave in a certain way. As the article indicates, most aboriginal people in Griffith are decent, law abiding, people who are just as concerned about the violence as everyone else in the community. That is what racism really is all about isn't it. Making assumptions about a group of people, just because other people who have one physical characteristic in common with them exhibit a particular behaviour.

This article in the SMH on how easily the rich (that includes you and me) can end world poverty makes it clear that the Make Poverty History is not a fruitless goal. The hard part isn't ending poverty, it is making people care enough to even bother.