Wanda Uhle, aged 78. Chances are you’ve never heard of her. She was murdered in Canberra last weekend, allegedly by her 86-year-old husband. I can only imagine the sad backstory to that tragic episode. Even more tragic is the fact that Wanda’s story is not unique: she was the fourth woman murdered in Australia over that weekend, and the 43rd woman murdered in Australia this year (that’s roughly two a week!). It’s a staggering and horrific statistic, and an indictment on contemporary Australian culture. Which is what I want to reflect on in this piece.
Earlier this week I heard a former Australian Olympic athlete, in a conversation about rules and regulations around doping in sport, assert that ‘it is human nature to cheat.’ No it’s not, I wanted to shout. Surely cheating is an aberration of human nature, in the same way that violence is an aberration of human nature, along with prejudice and discrimination and other ‘unnatural’ behaviours. To excuse such behaviours by labelling them as ‘human nature’ is to normalise them and reduce the likelihood of being able to alleviate them.
What would be the point of the AFL staging the Sir Doug Nicholls Round each year, or of Australia promoting the Week for Reconciliation, if we understood racial discrimination to be ‘human nature’? And what would be achieved by marking IDAHOBIT Day if we believe that homophobia or LGBTQI+ discrimination is simply ‘human nature’? And what would be the value of peace marches and climate protests and awareness-raising campaigns if it were true that violence and war and abuse and apathy and injustice are ‘human nature’? Surely it is the hope and belief that these things are not human nature that fuels the struggle against them!
And yet it is true that violence against women is on the rise in Australia, that discrimination against indigenous people and minority groups continues, and, I fear, that Australian culture is becoming more self-interested, more self-protective, more suspicious of difference, less tolerant, less generous, less hospitable and less accepting. The values of mateship, a fair go, and having each other’s back, which are enshrined in Australian folklore, are compromised by intolerant attitudes toward indigenous peoples, women, the LGBTQI+ community, asylum-seekers, the unemployed, the culturally and linguistically diverse, and many marginalised people.
As one who espouses the Christian faith, I am embarrassed to acknowledge that so many of these flawed attitudes have their roots in the conservative Christian culture that helped shaped our nation. The establishment Christian culture that arrived with the First Fleet, has nurtured a ‘holier-than-thou’ mindset, an attitude of entitlement, that has shored up too many of the bigoted and discriminatory policies of governments and corporations over the years. I often see this pious, entitled attitude displayed in the policies and pronouncements of the Australian Christian Lobby. I see it at work in the defensive ‘shock’ exhibited by conservative Christians when someone dares to question the practice of opening Federal or State Parliaments with the Lord’s Prayer. I see it echoed in the voices of conspiratorialists who claim ‘the blood of Jesus’ as their protection and the ‘rights of the individual’ as their mantra. I lament its undergirding of anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic sentiment, and its suspicion of minority faith groups. I shudder at its de-bunking of the science of climate change because science is perceived to be at odds with the story of God’s activity in creation. I grieve its opposition to the marriage equality referendum in 2017 and its advocacy of the ‘No’ campaign in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum of 2023.
Is it a leap too far to suggest that discriminatory attitudes toward the indigenous peoples of Australia might be anchored in the colonial atrocities committed against them in the name of Christ: displacement from the land, banning of language, dislocation from culture, stolen generations, dismissal of spirituality, etc. etc.?
Is it a leap too far to suggest that the escalation of domestic violence, the dismissal of the poor and marginalised as ‘unworthy’, the inequalities faced by women in workplaces and politics, and the denial of climate change might be a reflection of the deeply embedded patriarchal attitudes and practices, the self-righteous superiority, the claim to have exclusive knowledge of the ‘mind of God’, that is too often evidenced in the history and present-day life of the Church?
What will it take for the Christian Church to repent of its history and become agents of reconciliation in Australian community, rather than the source or sponsor of division that it has too often been? Instead of excusing these attitudes as ‘human nature’, might we dare to partner with the Spirit of Creation in the redemption or reclaiming of our true human nature? In his life and teaching, Jesus modelled authentic human nature: he challenged the prevailing culture and its aberrant definition of human nature by acting with compassion, generosity, grace, acceptance and love. He may have been ridiculed, opposed and ultimately executed because of his seditious subversion of the culture, but his life gave us a glimpse of the promised land, of the utopia that is possible when true human nature thrives.
I refuse to believe that it is human nature to be violent, to be abusive, to be cruel, to be selfish, to cheat. Rather, I believe it is human nature to be compassionate, caring, generous, kind, loving. Is that naïve, idealistic, unrealistic? I don’t think so. Rather, I think it is consistent with the understanding that, having been formed in the image of the Creator, our essential nature is consistent with that of the Creator, a nature exemplified in the life of Jesus, a nature that holds the promise of the better world for which we yearn.
I have long been captivated by the image of doorways – hence the profile picture for my blog site – because they invite the question of what lies beyond. This blog provides me with an avenue to explore that question, to dream about what might be, to reflect on the space beyond the doorway. And despite my evident cynicism about church and politics and society, I gaze upon that image with hope because I sense that the Creative Spirit has acted for the healing of our world, and that humanity has, within its essential nature, the capacity for building a world of justice, compassion, hope and peace. Just because hostility continues in the Middle East, or violence continues in Australian homes, or discrimination continues in Australian society doesn’t mean the lion can never lie down with the lamb – it simply means we are not yet living out our true human nature.
I invite you also to hold on to that hope and, in keeping with our essential nature, work to make that new world order of compassion, justice, hope and peace a reality. Indeed, let’s do better than that: let’s live as though it were already a reality, already our experience, because then it will be our reality and it will change the world!
David Brooker
6th June 2024
OldSoul.blog 
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