What do you think about Prime Minister John Howard’s dramatic turnaround on indigenous reconciliation this week?
There’s a general acknowledgement that past injustices against Indigenous Australians have a real legacy today. The issue is whether an apology should be offered to them.
Mr Howard says a national apology would take the nation backwards by reinforcing a culture of victimhood? As he said to a journalist this week, we can say we’re ‘sorry’ about someone’s plight in empathy, but apologising means assuming responsibility. And this generation isn’t responsible for the past injustices against indigenous Australians.
Would a national apology from the Prime Minister take Australia forwards or backwards?
FOR CONSIDERATION:
• Indigenous groups say reconciliation will not be achieved unless Mr Howard apologises on behalf of non indigenous Australia for past injustices, like the Stolen generations.
• Reconciliation Australia and other groups say a ‘sorry’ is an important part of the reconciliation process.
• Howard says millions of Australians see nothing to apologise for
• Many Australians are ‘sorry’ about past mistreatment, but will not assume responsibility for it.
• Howard says that saying sorry encourages a culture of ‘victimhood.’
What do you think?
Comments (2)
I don't think that Christians should get caught up in the 'government should say sorry' push Are there very big legal and societal implications attached? We can also demonstrate true sorrow by getting to know our indigenous neighbours & working with them to see God's kingdom come.
I've had the opportunity & privilege of meeting & developing friendships with quite a few Aboriginal Christians over the last 20 years, though I am often convicted about how easily I forget them & their needs. In the same way, I notice that the Body of Christ tends to overlook them & their ministry. Maybe instead of officially saying sorry we need to get to know Aboriginal people & their world and learn to stand faithfully with them. Of course there's no guarantee that this won't bring its own problems, but loving your neighbour isn't always problem-free.
Posted by Madigan, Brisbane | October 21, 2007 8:25 PM
Posted on October 21, 2007 20:25
Hans Bauer once said that thinking was an act of worship because it involved truth. The reason we have an indigenous issue and the reason it is not far from most Australian minds is that it involves an element of truth in the negative sense. A moral truth in other words even though it is a negative truth. For the Christian beginning with the truth is the beginning of Christianity. Whether or not people think an apology is or is not necessary or if it will take Australia backward or forwards for the Christian, truth is paramount as it is encapsulated in the person Jesus Christ. So primarily the indigenous issues is a Christian issue because it is our God who is the moral standard of the universe.
It is my opinion that Wilberforce who made sure missionary's were on the ships of the First Fleet knew that the inception of this country by Colonails was first to bring the gospel to the people they lived and this was a God idea in Wilberforce's thinking.
Also Howard is correct when he says millions see no reason to say sorry. However he fails to mention that this is because the history being taught through our education system is based upon a modernistic framework which never addressed human tragedy because being humanist only foccussed on the good things in life whilst ignoring the negative.
Finally addressing truth does not create a victim mentallity at all. When each of us commits to Jesus as Savior Lord and Kind, we begin at the start, with our sin and not with the possibility of blessings which come later.
Here it is no different because the intitial sin here is against God and then against the image and likeness of God.
These moral issues are issues against our God who is the moral standard of the universe. It is my opinion therefore that these issues must be dealt with by the church or we should at least provide an intellectual response. If the church says nothing, God will not. If we don't address indigenous issues now, we will face an indigenous Islamic nation. Mundine and his followers will have little or no opposition in the face of a silent Christianity. Abortion is ethical today and it is ethical in contrast to our Judeo Christian tradition. In other words the world see our truth and our God as unethical. God help us please!
Posted by Hona Wikeepa | October 20, 2007 3:21 PM
Posted on October 20, 2007 15:21