Welcome to Culture Connections
This new ACC web section is devoted to reflections and opinion pieces on culture in contemporary society, especially about Australia and Australian churches. The three main areas will be Contemporary Issues; Film; Books and Publications.
Peter Bentley will provide regular articles for the primary benefit of the ACC Community, but if you would like to reproduce the articles in your own church or community publication (especially in an edited form), please contact Peter at the ACC office for further information.
If you have ideas for articles please contact Peter to discuss these ideas and contributions.
The photo is the main permanent memorial to Arthur Stace and his writing of the word Eternity. It is located in the St Andrew's Cathedral Town Hall Arcade (now inside Cascade Coffee Shop, near Town Hall Station).
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Courageous Film
Peter Bentley reviews the new film from Sherwood Pictures. Courageous calls fathers to take their part in the raising of children, and hopefully to raise a new generation which respects women, and themselves.
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Yes to Male-Female Marriage
Why ‘gay marriage' is not good for Australia.
By Rod James
Why marriage is a government recognised and registered legal bond
The question needs to be asked today, ‘Why do governments of nations involve themselves in legally registering one type of domestic relationship of their citizens. The answer is two-fold:
1. It is in the interests of children to do so.
2. What is in the interests of children is in the interests of the generational progression of the nation as a whole.
It would seem that for governments marriage is about family, and family is about the raising and the well-being of children. Dr David van Gend, general practitioner in Toowoomba and a spokesman for the Family Council of Queensland recently wrote to the Australian newspaper,
Redefining marriage to include gay and lesbian couples would eliminate entirely in law, and weaken still further in culture, the basic idea of a mother and a father for every child.
Marriage is a compound right under Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; it is not only the right to an exclusive relationship, but the right to form a family. Therefore gay marriage includes the right to form a family by artificial reproduction, but any child created within that marriage would have no possibility of being raised by both mother and father.
Yet legalising same-sex marriage will inflict that deprivation on a child. That is why it is wrong, and that is why all laws are wrong that permit single people or same-sex couples to obtain a child by IVF, surrogacy, or adoption. (The Australian August 29, 2011 )
The matrix of the human person
George Orwell once remarked, "We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." To restate the obvious about human life and well-being we need to look at the matrix in which that life is created and exists. This word, ‘matrix', is both helpful and important in understanding what is truly good for a human being. A couple of definitions:
matrix - From Latin, mater, meaning "breeding female". Matrix was originally was used for the uterus or womb, then for a supporting or enclosing structure.
matrix - A situation or surrounding substance within which something else originates, develops, or is contained.
So the womb is the matrix of the unborn child. However the womb itself has a matrix-the pregnant woman has a necessary matrix which is the relationship with the father of the child and indeed the whole family of which that woman and her unborn child are part. People in non-western cultures understand this as fundamental and essential. It is only in the artificial individualism of western cultures that the broader matrix for the child can be thought of as non-essential
To alter the obvious matrix of human generation, for the sake of a very small minority is to tamper with the ‘womb' of the nation-the life-long love-union of a man and a woman, united in domestic and familial vocation, this is the wonderful matrix from which a strong and happy nation is born.
All of this is obvious, but we have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the duty of all intelligent and courageous people. So this address is really about ‘Why heterosexual marriage and family is vital for Australia, and, indeed, every other nation'. I will, therefore, proceed by talking about family, and then return to the matter of legal marriage.
For the full address (PDF 6 pages) please click here.
Marriage - a statement from the ACC
Marriage - A Statement from the Assembly of Confessing Congregations (within the Uniting Church in Australia)
Download statement (pdf booklet format)
Marriage is not an exclusively Christian concept. As a human experience between a man and a woman it is witnessed in all countries, and in all faiths. Nevertheless, there are many features that are common throughout time and culture. Here we speak of Christian marriage which is understood as "a gift of God and a means of grace. In the life-long union of marriage we can know the joy of God, in whose image we are made, male and female. ... Husband and wife, in giving themselves to each other in love, reflect the love of Christ for his Church." ... (‘Declaration of Purpose', Marriage Order of Service, The Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia, Sydney, 2005)
This Christian understanding of marriage has several features. These are:
1. Marriage is a central part of God's wonderful creation
Jesus pointed to the foundation of marriage as being in God's creation of humankind: male and female in his own image (Genesis 1:27, Matthew 19:3-5). As part of God's creation, marriage was provided then and now for mutual comfort, love and support. It also provides the fundamental basis for society and good order.
2. Marriage is between a man and a woman
In the most basic sense of our being (ontology) a man and a woman provide the only complementary basis for a marriage. Simply put, a woman and a man are made to fit together, and by their union are bonded together and can receive the blessing of children born from their mutual sexual love.
3. Marriage is a public acknowledgement of the love and commitment of a woman and a man to each other
Marriage involves a public ceremony. The couple's mutual decision to marry each other leads to the two being joined together with and before God and witnessed by family and friends. There is a public acknowledgement of the relationship.
4. Marriage is meant to be life-long
This life-long covenant is a gift from God, whose love is unending. God has eternally covenanted himself to the people called into a relationship with him, and married couples are called to model that love and life-giving forgiveness (Hosea, Ephesians 5).
5. Marriage is monogamous
Sexual love in marriage is a glorious and holy gift. It is not meant to be devalued by casualness before a marriage, or adultery after the bonds are created. Sexual love strengthens and unites the covenant union of the couple as they express the full complementarity of their man-woman relationship (Genesis 2:23-25, 1 Corinthians 7:3-5).
6. Marriage involves an openness to children
Children are a blessing from God, and families provide the basis of our society. As God provides for his children, parents provide for their children and should model the strength, love, generosity and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:9-12). Marriage enables children to live and grow up together with their mother and father in a secure covenant family.
In all, the marriage of a man and a woman, together with the family it enables, is a holy expression of the image and glory of God. In the marriage of a man and a woman the Old Testament sees a reflection of the covenant relationship between God and his people, and the New Testament sees the splendour of the union of Christ and his Church.
Approved at the ACC National Council meeting 16 May 2011
Put an End to Big Porn Inc
Peter Bentley reviews Big Porn Inc. edited by Melinda Tankard Reist and Abigail Gray, a full and frank account of the dangers and depth of the porn industry.
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The Grandfathers - new hearts
Peter Bentley reviews the final film in the trilogy (Beyond the Gates of Splendor (2002 documentary); End of the Spear (2005 dramatised version), which reflects on the murders of five missionaries, Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian in 1956 by men from the Waodani (or Huaorani) people, who live in the Amazonian rainforest area of east Ecuador.
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The Good Book (of Eli)
Peter Bentley reviews the film (now on DVD) The Book of Eli, an appropriate choice for the 2011, the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version Bible.
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Snowtown - No redemption?
Peter Bentley comments on the Australian film Snowtown which depicts the lives of the now infamous Snowtown murderers.
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Hereafter - more than human love
Clint Eastwood continues his examination of death (and Life) in his film work, this time with a love story set in the contemporary interest in the world of spirituality and the afterlife.
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