The Public Square

Otago University's Centre for Theology and Public Issues has begun a new venture that aims to broaden and deepen discussion around public issues.
Last year, the centre piloted a new type of public forum - titled ‘The Public Square' - in which a panel responded to questions submitted in advance by members of the audience. The questions related to a particular theme, in that case crime and punishment. The new venture builds on that format but with three significant differences:
• the panel will discuss current issues rather than a particular topic - so questions will be welcome on any issue in the news, national or international;
• panels will be held on a regular basis, with different members each time; and
• the discussion will take place before a live audience and be live-streamed across the country (and the world!) via the Internet. It will also be broadcast live on Dunedin's own Radio One and be available to download later from the University's website.

The first of the panels - which will retain the title ‘The Public Square' - will take place on Friday morning, 23 September, between 0915 and 1015. Public are invited to attend, submit a question, or watch via the internet.
The first panel will comprise national business commentator and writer, Rod Oram; Rt Rev Victoria Matthews, Anglican Bishop of Christchurch; Professor William Harris, Middle East expert and Head of Politics at Otago; and Radio One presenter...

Many people are resistant to connecting the dots surrounding violence issues in New Zealand. Others are unaware of which dots to should be connected.
A South Auckland school teacher was beaten unconscious by a student as he checked corridors during a rainy June lunchtime.
Secondary Schools Association president Patrick Walsh said the attack was an example of the "disturbing trend" of increasing verbal and physical assaults on teachers by students.
Mr Walsh said the rising number of attacks was indicative of the breakdown of values in society and the influences of dysfunctional families and violent video games.
NZ Christian Network National Director Glyn Carpenter says there are a complicated set of factors in all violence cases. He says it is easy to connect lack of respect and violence with disadvantage, family breakdown and social pressures. But society is failing to acknowledge also the growing lack of faith, diminishing status of marriage, and the important role of the Church community.
"These words are missing in current public debate," he says, "and desperately need to be restored."

Ron Hay recently retired from Anglican ministry to devote time to writing. His column "Thinking Faith" appears fortnightly in The Press newspaper. One of the most striking faith stories of the year has been the return to faith of well known British writer A N Wilson. In his thirties Wilson abandoned Christian faith and went on to write a skeptical book about Jesus and a jaundiced biography of Christian apologist, C S Lewis. But, as time passed, he found himself becoming disillusioned with what he calls "the bleak, muddled creed" of materialist atheism. Two essays written this year recount the reasons for his return to Christianity. Twenty years on, he now sees that his conversion to atheism was largely the result of the pressure of a culture that is overwhelmingly secular and anti-religious. "To my shame," he writes, "it was this that made me lose faith and lose heart in my youth. It felt so uncool to be religious." For the next 10 to 15 years he joined the ranks of the mockers, but then began going back to church before coming, slowly and gradually, to convinced faith. What has brought about this intriguing re-conversion? Wilson says it was in large measure the examples of believers he has known and the way in which Christian faith transforms lives. He writes: "I was drawn, over and over again, to the disconcerting recognition that so very many of the people I had most admired and loved, either in life or in books, had been believers." As a literary person, he rejoices that...

Europe could potentially show the world the way forward on one of the most pressing questions of our time: How do we live with differences, especially when these ideas are religious or ideological? That is the view of well-known speaker and author, Os Guinness who told his audience at the inaugural State of Europe Forum last month in Budapest that Christians should be in the forefront in pressing these issues in the public square. While many would say that the American experiment provides the answer, he said, anyone who knew America would know of the deep culture warring going on in that nation. Europe, despite its floundering moments, actually has the potential to show the world how to live with differences. Os proposed to the 120 forum participants from across Europe the following six steps towards such an answer. "One: know why freedom of conscience is crucial for everybody. Religious liberty is scorned today. It's considered at best a second-class right to freedom of speech or freedom of assembly. But this is the first of the political rights. Freedom of speech requires freedom of conscience. It is the key to a civil society. "Freedom of conscience is crucial for social harmony, because it is the truth that allows us to bring together strong political convictions with strong political stability. Many countries have one or the other but very few have both. A respect for freedom of conscience allows you to have diversity with liberty and yet social harmony. "Two: we need...

People trying to have the Wanganui District Council drop the tradition of opening each full meeting by reading aloud a short prayer are misunderstanding what's at stake, says Glyn Carpenter.
City leaders are split over whether or not to say the lines ‘Eternal God, source of all wisdom' and ‘Amen' aloud, as a way of respecting all faiths around the council table. ‘Non-Christians get the wrong end of the stick on these issues,' said Mr Carpenter. ‘They act as if we're trying to impose something for our own benefit. ‘The fact is that prayer in council, like limits on Easter trading, are good for most people in society. ‘If people pray for better government, and God answers that prayer, we all win. If God doesn't answer - what's the big deal? ‘When you look at social and family breakdown, you have to ask, why would we change things that will end up making it more difficult for people to get quality family time? ‘When half the country calls itself Christian, even if a person isn't religious, why would anyone feel compelled to drive Christian prayer and symbols out of every last area of public life? That's forcing half the country to live with no religious symbolism in public because a small number of people can't handle the tiny amount that still exists.' There was a passionate response from both sides of the religious debate at the last council meeting. As a result, whether or not to keep the prayer will be decided by a formal vote at the next full council...

‘The sure consequence of the attempt to liberate oneself from demanding moral norms and obligations is slavery,' says Dr Robert George, Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. The collapse of ethics and the moral foundation of America (as in New Zealand) has become a hot topic.
To address the situation, the Colson Center for Christian Worldview and The Witherspoon Institute of Princeton is preparing a new video teaching series called Doing the Right Thing, a six-part exploration of ethics. Hosts Brit Hume, Chuck Colson, Dr Robert George and a distinguished panel undertake a six-part exploration of ethics before a live student audience over six 30-minute sessions. NZ Christian Network National Director Glyn Carpenter says he is pleased to see the new DVD resource, which is very timely and will be as appropriate in this country as America. A trailer for the series can be viewed here.

‘Understanding the religious dimensions of the news requires competency, expertise and training. Our journalists simply do not have this,' Professor Paul Morris, of Victoria University's Religious Studies Programme, told the Religious Diversity Forum in Christchurch on 23 August 2010.

Following are some extracts from Professor Morris's talk:

The media and religion

The rubric ‘media and religion' covers a lot of ground. Media includes TV, print, digital, religious media, commercial media, the new social media, and within these: news, entertainment, educational, drama and so on. Religion too is diverse and increasingly so. The plan for my allotted 15-20 minutes is to introduce and delimit our focus to a number of pertinent issues, say a little about the new inter-disciplinary research area of ‘media and religion', particularly as it might relate to New Zealand, and then to conclude with a few thoughts on where we might go from here. New Religious Diversity Our population is becoming increasingly diverse raising a series of new challenges for media representations of this new religious demography. While Christians are still - just - a majority according to the last census, there are now sizeable Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim communities and these ‘non-Christians' who declare a religion are more than 6% of the population. In addition, the Christian community has been transformed by migrant Christians from the Pacific, the Philippines, the...

NZ Christian Network National Director Glyn Carpenter is encouraging Christians interested or involved in public issues to attend the conference Public Christianity: is there any other kind?, to be held at LifePoint Church, Wellington, 27-28 August.
The conference aims to encourage grassroots, congregation-centred, engagement with the whole Gospel. Local activists will provide reflections, workshops, and discussion input on a range of local and global considerations, possibilities, opportunities, and challenges. Its chief sponsors are the Wellington Theological Consortium, University of Otago's Centre for Theology and Public Issues, and Urban Vision. ‘Jesus is Lord, and Caesar isn't! Since Jesus is Lord of all, the Gospel requires that together we take action to resist "the ways of the world" by promoting ways of living that show evidence of Jesus' lordship,' says organiser Gavin Drew. ‘This is not something we can do alone; nor are we expected to. Christ-like living and work in the world cannot be undertaken apart from the body of Christ. Local congregations are the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.'
Speakers include Andrew Bradstock (Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public Issues and Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Otago); Jonathan Boston (Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington); Chris Marshall (Associate Professor of Religious...

NZ Christian Network National Director Glyn Carpenter is two weeks into a trial of the World Evangelical Alliance Leadership Institute's new 10-week online part-time course on public engagement.

As Chairman of the South Pacific Evangelical Alliance, Glyn is one of seven regents of the WEALI and said he was keen to trial the programme, much of which is based around the writings of Ron Sider, who is the World Evangelical Alliance's ambassador on public engagement. The course includes students from such diverse countries as Kenya, Argentina, Bulgaria, Ivory Coast, Belgium and Spain. The students do online assignments in their own time and meet for a Skype call at 5 am on Saturdays (NZT). "The key issues are different in each country, but the principles of authentic biblical engagement are the same," says Glyn. "The material is looking very good so far, and will be even better when it is fine-tuned after the course." This week's module looked at how the State and Church intersect – or even oppose each other – in the public square on issues of justice and human rights. The course will be available for public enrolments early in 2011. NZ Christian Network also commends a recent article by Malcolm Irwin, of the Salvation Army's Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit titled Angelic Exchanges: Speaking of God in the public sphere. Malcolm Irwin explores how The Salvation Army can dialogue with and speak into the public domain, asking...