Authenticity V. Perfection

Sometimes, in the heat of discussion you go a little bit further than you would if it were an absolutely calm, considered, prepared, scripted remark.
. . . .
The statements that need to be taken absolutely as gospel truth is [sic] those carefully prepared, scripted remarks.
Tony Abbott, being interviewed by Kerry O'Brien on the 7:30 Report, 17 May 2010

It's been fascinating to see how Tony Abbott's rise to the top of Australian political life has forced public consideration of communication and integrity. Last week it got even more interesting. For years the public has been saying that we don't trust lying politicians, and all we want is someone who will come along and just say what they really believe, without massaging the truth in an ugly attempt to win votes. Last Saturday I attended a Sydney Writers' Festival event in which the journalist Annabel Crabb criticised people like Kevin Rudd for using grey filler speech to mark time and obscure the truth. She described such speech as risk-free because the speaker never commits themself to anything in clear speech.1 Interestingly, former NSW Premier Nathan Rees then pointed out that even if politicians go the other way they lose, because - like Tony Abbott - they get accused of being volatile and unreliable.

So is this what's happened to Tony Abbott? Was The Sydney Institute's Gerard Henderson right when, on last Sunday's Insiders program, he said: "all he was saying really was there's a difference between the printed word and the spoken word, and everyone knows that's true . . . . if he's saying that the spoken word is not very precise: the spoken word is not very precise." Or was Abbott admitting that he sometimes lies when he speaks? In which case, it all becomes very postmodern - should we admire him for being honest about his dishonesty, or should we ignore the fact that he was being honest and criticise his dishonesty?

The whole issue gets still more interesting when you consider the specific issue about which Kerry O'Brien accused Abbott of backflipping. David Marr, on the same Insiders program, pointed out:

[T]his is the crucial point about the whole thing. Why couldn't he say, "We've changed our mind"? The curious thing is in the political culture of this country he chose to say "I'm occasionally a lier," rather than say, "Look we've changed our mind on the position of tax". . . . . Here is an example of where there's a big line: "We are not going to impose any new taxes". Then they decided - or Tony decided - that they were going to tax some businesses in order to pay for parental leave. Now why couldn't he say, "Kerry O'Brien, we've changed our mind on that" - because, in fact, that change of mind was not something that came in the heat of the moment. . . . . Nobody will do it. Nobody will say- and yet our whole political system is based on the notion of debate and trying to convince one another of the right position. But nobody is willing to say, "You've got a point there and we've changed our mind".

It seems as if, on the one hand, we know that politicians are just ordinary people and we want them not to try and pretend they're something they are not. We want them to be honest and authentic. Yet at the same time, we expect them to be perfect. We want them to speak honestly each time they speak and we want them to settle on a position on the first go. It looks like we're caught between that thing we Australians know so well - that no-one's perfect - and a strange desire for a better man. I think there's good in both and I think it will always be a messy business. Ultimately, I think what we're looking for is something truely Good, but a good that doesn't pretend the stuff-ups and shortcomings aren't there. Maybe I'm drawing a long bow, but I think the impossible expectations we place on our politicians reveal our nation's yearning for Jesus.

1 22 May 2010, 'Programmatic Specificity We Can Believe In'

Sydney photos - this way

Sydney photos - that way

Censorship

In Turkey, people are very religious and spiritual. That's just part of their makeup and their everyday lives. So you can talk with them about anything and religious stuff will come up one way or another. It's not like that in Australia. Here we have a very clearly defined spiritual/secular divide, and spiritual discussion is only permissible in certain contexts. But when it comes to this we Australian Christians should act more like Turkish people and less like Australians. Our faith and spiritually is at the heart of everything we think and do. It pervades even our humble deeds. If we fail to talk about it, it must be because we are actively stopping ourselves from doing so. So let's resolve to be more natural and true to ourselves, and to our God.


H/T Peter

Getting along

Anglo Australians have some okay conflict management skills. We know how to talk things through and we may even be able to do so calmly. But our skills can make us a little too atuned to being wronged and leave us with the expectation that every issue must be sorted out. Chinese Australians, on the other hand, have pretty decent conflict avoidance skills. They can overlook wrongs and bear with other peoples' failings. But they can also bottle stuff up inside until finally they explode in anger. So there's things we can learn from each other.


H/T Paul

The community of church

On mission I learned about church in the innercity and about connecting with strangers. Actually I've since realised another thing - that I already have relationships with various people in my community; it's just that they're not very good relationships. So I don't need to feel overwhelmed at the thought of getting to know new people. These people are already part of my life; it's just that I need to get to know them better.

Another thing we witnessed on mission was community. I went along to a few different church groups - an evening community group in the pastor's house, a lunchtime workers' group in the workplace and a morning Mums' group in the pastor's house again. Each group did different things, but they were all marked by the loyalty and care of their members. Maybe we only noticed this because we were newbies looking on, or maybe there's something special going on at St Peters. Shane the pastor and his wife Ali were certainly eager to be hospitable and made all fifteen of us feel at home. I also noticed that Shane's focus on community came out in the church services - with plenty of communal reading aloud of Bible passages and confessions of faith. It was all good stuff and a privilege to be part of it for a week.

Sydney

Here are two things I love about Sydney:

1. When you indicate, the driver nearest to you will pause for a moment so you can duck in. Every time. This never happens in Hobart. There, you have to indicate for half an hour before you want to change lanes, and even then, the other driver will only let you in if they've had their morning coffee and didn't fight with their wife.


2. When you want to get rid of something and it seems just a little too special to chuck in the bin, you put it on the nature strip. Everyone does this. Someone else will come along and take it. Or it will just sit there. This never happens in Hobart or Melbourne or Canberra. People would mind.