Vote for others

During previous elections, I have encouraged people to vote for others, that is, as an expression of love for neighbour, to vote not for the party or candidate who will meet my needs, validate my projects, support people like me, but for the ones whose policies are more concerned with the common good, with protecting the vulnerable and needy, who will look for long term benefits not immediate political or economic gain. Siu Fung Wu has written an excellent little piece making the same point with some good examples.

If you're a new reader or haven't been following recently, you might like to consider some of these posts:
• How to vote Christianly
• Why I am neither right nor left
• How green are the parties?
• The elephant in the room
• Some myths about refugees in Australia
• Are the Greens anti-Christian?
• Changing the wind: elections and social change

Finally, for those looking for some slightly more detailed analysis and critique from an evangelical perspective, Gordon Preece, director of Ethos, has written a very useful piece summarising why this election has been particularly frustrating (parochialism, presentism and poll-iticians) and then offering some principles for ethical voting, including the need to evaluate the relative weight of ethical issues across a range of personal, social and ecological concerns. It is too simple to just pick one area and decide that the others are irrelevant.

Today, fear not and vote for others.
H/T Ian Packer for both the links.

Studying Jesus

A shameless plug
I try to keep ads here to a minimum, but since this one is for my brother, I couldn't resist.

Google ‘Jesus’ and you get 152 million results. He may have cultivated more discussion, interest and controversy than any other person in world history. Who was he? What were his ethics, his teachings, his motivations? In the MCSI subject, Jesus: Person, Politics & Ethics, you’ll look in-depth at Jesus’ life and words, what we know about him and what difference he made (and is still making) to the world.

Curious about Jesus? Want to find out how historians think about him, rather than ministers, sports stars and journalists? The Macquarie Christian Studies Institute is offering a second semester course called Jesus: Person, Politics and Ethics at both Macquarie University and UNSW that is open to everyone, though most Australian university students will be able to take it for credit.

The unit convenors are Ian Packer, Director of Public Theology at the Australian Evangelical Alliance, and Murray Smith, PhD candidate in Ancient History at Macquarie University working on early Christian second coming expectations (Murray is a hero and mentor of mine - and also my brother).

Enroll online before July 31. Here is the course outline:

Week 1: Faith, History and Worldview
Week 2: Gospels - Canonical and Apocryphal
Week 3: The Quests for the ‘Historical Jesus'
Week 4: The Social and Political World of First Century Palestine
Week 5: Jesus in First Century Judaism
Week 6: Jesus, Eschatology and the ‘Kingdom of God'
Week 7: Jesus, Ethics and the Law
Week 8: The ‘Sermon on the Mount'
Week 9: Messianic Ethics for Today?
Week 10: Resurrection?; Counter-cultural community
Week 11: Wealth and Poverty
Week 12: Violence, War and Peace
Week 13: Resistance, Assimilation and Protest

I think this will be a great course with excellent teachers (even if I am biased...).

PS Murray is also teaching an online course in second semester with John Dickson comparing five major world religions.