Utter Disgrace!

On rare occasions this white man literally feels nauseous at the decisions and actions of the Australian Government, be it a Liberal or Labour government. And it seems that these issues predominantly arise out of the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indiginous Affairs. Hence the current atrocity concerning the revoking of a German doctor's visa on the basis of his son, a sufferer of Down's Syndrome. Click the link for a brief description of the regrettable (to say the least) matter: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=657645

Blind anger prevents me from expressing the full force of my opinion on this shameful episode. So this white man simply will reduce it to two words: UTTERLY DISGRACEFUL!

The Pastor's Ass

This white man was sent this email this morning, entitled "the pastor's ass!" I recall receiving this once before and I imagine it is one of those humourous faith-related inspiring emails that does the rounds every now and then. However I post it here mainly because of the truths contained at it's conclusion. The "moral of this story" is powerful and a worthy reminder to us all.

The Pastor's Ass

The pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won.

The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again.

The local paper read: PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT.

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.

The next day, the local paper headline read: BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS.

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey.

The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent.

The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day: NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.

The bishop fainted.

He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10.
The next day the paper read: NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

The next day the headlines read: NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.

The bishop was buried the next day.

The moral of the story is . . being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery .. . even shorten your life. So be yourself and enjoy life. Stop worrying about everyone else's ass and you'll be a lot happier and live longer!

AMEN!

Theology and Hinch...

For a long time this white man has had an on-going love-hate relationship with "the Human Headline", renowned radio presenter Derryn Hinch. I say it's a love-hate affinity with Hinch as there are simply some things I really respect about the man and the principles he stands on. For example, his fight for justice for victims of crime, expecially child sexual offences is highly commendable. Yet on the other hand there are sides to Hinch that I find difficult to accept. He can be brash and downright rude to people who don't agree with his views and his penchant to play the "shock-jock" sometimes with overly sensationalised stories is highly annoying and sometimes completely distasteful. Yet in and through all of that, I find Hinch a compelling voice in society and, whenever I get the chance I often enjoy his 4-6PM Drive program on 3AW 693.

One current issue that concerns Hinch is typical of the reason he produces such a dichotomy of feeling and opinion. It relates to the present court battle Hinch is involved in. Earlier this year Hinch publicly named and shamed (as only Derryn can) two men charged with child sexual offences. The County Court had issued suppression orders protecting the accused men from being named. Hinch ignored the orders and now finds himself in court with his own charges to defend. He believes he was morally right to name the offenders in the public interest. For a more comprehensive reading of the case click on this link http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=657099

Everybody who knows Derryn Hinch knows that his number one pet hate in this world are paedophiles. He has already gone to jail, charged with contempt of court for naming a paedophile during the offenders trial some years ago. He has demonstrated unequivocably that he is prepared to sacrifice even his own freedom in his long-term committed campaign to protect the community from the evils of child sexual abuse. And I admire him for his courageous stance. Hinch despises child sexual offenders with a passion and who can blame him for that. Is there a more heinous despicable crime in our society than the sexually abuse of children? As a parent I can't bear to imagine the inner rage I would unleash if my sons were ever subjected to abuse in that way. So I deeply respect Hinch for his zealous and principled fight against this human evil.

Yet I am also conflicted as this soft, still voice maintains a steady whisper from my heart to my head. It whispers repetitively one word: "grace...grace...grace..." And as much as my head tries to mute this continuing impassioned truth from within, I can't help but be stopped in my legalistic tracks to consider and deeply reflect upon this most 'inconvenient' of God's truths. My head hates the paedophile and everything about him, just like Hinch does. Yet my heart reminds me of a cross that stands in the midst of all eternity that speaks not of hate, but overflows with love and, that word, grace. And I am undone by the truth again that if Jesus forgave my sin then His love and grace can also cover the multitude of sins of anyone, even the darkest stains of the paedophile. And therefore I am compelled again to wrestle with the God-given directive to hate the sin but love the sinner. And I continue to wrestle...

Funny how such a strongly self-professed atheist like Derryn Hinch can open up the deepest, most tangled of faith complexities in a white man like me.

Sick Charity...

A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan, in which a man was beaten, robbed and left for dead. She described the situation in vivid detail so her students would catch the drama. Then, she asked the class, 'If you saw a person lying on the roadside, all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?' A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence, 'I think I'd throw up.'

Fair Game?

This white man loves his sport. Whether it be AFL, rugby league, football (soccer), union or basically anything that is a fair contest between two opposing teams. But good sport has to be just that - a true and fair contest in which both teams start with an equal chance of victory. And it is because a fair game should consist of these essential basics that I am flabbergasted as to why the 'powers-that-be' continue to persist with that charade of an international tournament, the Rugby League World Cup. I mean let's face it - as fine a sport rugby league is, it is, in essence a breakaway protest from it's original entity, rugby union. And rugby league is seriously played in only a handful of nations - it is hardly a world-wide football code, let alone a world-wide sport. Of the twelve rugby league world cups contested, Australia has won ten! It was a runner-up in one other and mustn't have shown up to the other remaining one! Obviously, Australia dominates the rugby league world as it has arguably the best competition in the world, the NRL. The only other competition of note is the English Super League which is full of retired Aussie NRL players anyway. So why persist with such an ill-conceived joke of a tournament? Everybody knows that the cup will be won by Australia with the runner-up being either New Zealand or England. And so, because it is a race of three, why not just adopt a tri-nations tournament concept like rugby union has for it's big three southern hemisphere powers, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Honestly, why bother with a rugby league world cup - who wants to see Australia hammer Scotland by 100 points? That's not sport; that's not fair game, it's an unfunny joke!

Verse of the Day...

Understanding the Bible...

A father was approached by his small son who told him proudly, 'I know what the Bible means!'

His father smiled and replied, 'What do you mean, you 'know' what the Bible means?

The son replied, 'I do know!'

'Okay,' said his father. 'What does the Bible mean?'

'That's easy, Daddy...' the young boy replied excitedly, '

It stands for 'Basic Information Before Leaving Earth.'

An Old Man's GPS

Boys Behaving Badly...

So the Xavier College Year 12 boys have been a bad lot haven't they?! It reminds this white man of his own Year 12 muck up day at my old school, Scotch College. By the way, even I can recall there being a lot of Xavier boys in the local Hawthorn area around that time running amok as well. Private school boys just being a little too public! Anyway what I remember of my end-of-year celebrations back in 1989 were obviously much tamer than the happenings of this week. Nevertheless even back then I can remember thinking that the whole shenanigans were pretty contrived and meaningless. Frankly I was certainly happy to finish up school but all I wanted to do was enjoy the freedom after the exams.

But I will say that the behaviour of some of the Xavier College Year 12 students appears really outrageous. An intimidating balaclava-clad mob moving through the local streets damaging cars, blowing up letter boxes and basically terrorising people is quite a step up from water pistols filled with soy sauce and graffiti-ing other students shirts! Maybe Xavier should have sent all their Year 12 boys to the World Youth Day conference in Sydney earlier this year for some spiritual guidance! Pope Benedict would be most displeased with his boys behaving badly!

Mr Men!

This white man clearly remembers being given many Mr Men books as a kid. He should remember because he's still got most of them! Now they are played with, stacked up, thrown around and rarely read by Kim and Luc. But it seems that the Mr Men series is still soldiering on. Today, in my local Coles supermarket they were selling the books along with little figurines. At the time of writing this Luc is glued to ABC kids TV watching the Mr Men Show! On that curse of a networking tool Facebook, you can send Mr Men characters to friends as gifts. And it seems that Mr Men has embraced a wider range of female Miss Men (?), sorry...Little Miss characters in the spirit of gender equality. Many of the original characters are there: Mr Happy, Mr Bump, Mr Strong, Mr Tickle and so on...But I haven't seen Mr Lazy or fat Mr Greedy re-appear yet. Maybe they have moved on to Mr Men heaven. Actually who needs them parading around for kids these days anyway - it's not as if laziness and obesity aren't enough of a plague upon children!

So anyway, three cheers for all the Mr Men who have stood the test of time and continue to both teach and entertain kids today. And let's hope Mr Men and Little Miss's remain as is - for this white man fears that one day political correctness will rear its ugly head and push upon our kids a Miss Man or Mr Lady or some other twisted reality that would only further mess up our children's innocence. Roger Hargreaves would turn in his grave!