Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

In the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street, one character, aptly named Kris Kringle, claims he’s Santa Claus. It’s a claim that gets him sent to a psychiatric institution and to court. The film is about those who have or don’t have faith in Santa Claus. Faith is described as “believing what you know is not so.”

An episode of All in the Family, the TV series that ran for nine years from 1971, has Archie Bunker say faith is “what you wouldn’t believe for your life if it wasn’t in the Bible.”

A 2006 CNN special entitled “What is a Christian” had a voiceover during the credits that said, “After all, if you’ve got the truth, it’s not really faith at all.”

Each of these comments—separated by decades—talk about faith as if it has no substance in reality, as if faith is something only irrational people take on board.

Dallas Willard, in Knowing Christ Today, says we’re in the midst of a “great historical struggle between what might be called ‘traditional’ knowledge, represented by the church, and modern knowledge represented by science” that has brought us to the place where so many see religion “as mere belief or commitment.”

This has made all traditional and religious “knowledge” as illusion and superstition, with real “knowledge” reserved for “subject matters of mathematics and the ‘natural’ sciences—and questionably, to that of the ‘social’ or ‘human’ sciences.”

The problem here is Christianity has uncovered the reality of a God who cares. There’s solid evidence of a Jesus, known as the Christ; and of an empty tomb that began a movement. It’s a movement not devoid of rational thinking, but that demonstrably helped establish scientific methodology.

Not all knowledge is found in the sciences. Never will be. To have real knowledge of love, for instance, you have to experience it.

Willard gives this challenge: “To know Christ in the contemporary world our opponents must see people and communities of people in which He lives today.”

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

Popular author Anne Rice recently announced she’d quit Christianity. She wrote on Facebook that she refused to be anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-artificial birth control, anti-Democrat, anti-secular humanism, anti-science and anti-life any longer. This, she feels, is what Christianity has become.

She adds she’s left Christianity, not Christ: “My commitment to Christ remains at the heart and centre of my life.” She plans to attend church to pray in private, “as long as nobody there is offended by my presence,” she told the Los Angeles Times.

Rice wrote about vampires (The Vampire Chronicles series of novels) before it became popular to do so. She wrote these books as a “pessimistic atheist.” She says, “Those novels are all about what it’s like to live in a very dark world, a meaningless world. . . . I can’t go back to that, I don’t believe that anymore.” Now she writes about angels.

Still, she’s walked away from organised Christianity, and in doing so she’s identified three issues Christians need to address.

1. Without attempting to defend or challenge her “anti” list, it shows a major tragedy with today’s Christianity. What Christians stand for is being drowned out by what they are perceived to stand against. God must weep at this.
2. She says it’s impossible for her to belong to this “quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious . . . group.” So many Christian groups act like dysfunctional school children when there needs to be respect and honour for one another—1 Corinthians 13 is a good guide.
3. Finally, she asks whether “the decisions of people in organised religion are related to any deep-rooted theology of Jesus Christ.” Is it stating the obvious when we say Jesus Christ must be central for those who are Christ-ians?

I’m sorry Rice feels she has to walk away from Christianity because it’s best experienced in a healthy body of Christ (the church). I hope she discovers one soon.

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

In a remarkable performance on 60 Minutes this past Sunday, Mark Latham, former leader of the Australian Labor Party and wannabe Prime Minister, announced he’s going to the polling booth to put in an empty voting form.

His message (in case you missed it): “When it comes to good ideas for Australia’s future, Gillard and Abbott have given voters a blank piece of paper, so let’s give them a blank piece of paper in return.”

He’s inviting us to do the same to send a message to our politicians.

That’s a bit rich coming from someone who, a few years ago, was out and about seeking votes for himself and his party. Does he think politics has gone downhill so much since his party rejected him as leader? Is this personal? Or after his recent run in with Julia Gillard, is he merely planning a career as a walking headline?

More important, though, is this question: What would happen to democracy if no one participated? Do we search for a benevolent dictator—and what guarantees do we have they would stay benevolent?

We have this messy, inefficient system called democracy where our politicians are accountable every few years to the people. It’s complicated by the fact that there are parties involved, which means our representatives, at times, have divided loyalties between their constituencies and their party. That adds to the messiness.

What this messy, inefficient system has done, however, is build a stable nation that allows for divergent views—like Latham’s. That must never be discounted.

It’s easy to be the critic. It’s certainly easier than trying to find solutions. And, it must be admitted, it isn’t always easy making a choice at the polling booth.

However, there’s something healthy about a nation that encourages everyone to vote (that’s the law), and allows anyone to stand. The range of parties and individuals attempting to represent New South Wales in the senate is a fascinating insight into Australian life.

You’ll find on the ballot paper groups such as the climate sceptics, communist, secular, sex, and shooters and fishers parties. Mostly they’re special interest groups that will secure much less than one per cent of the vote. Then there’s a long list of independents, unknown to most of us, who have put their names down.

So while, realistically speaking, none of these parties or individuals has a chance of being voted in, the fact they’re there says something positive about our nation. And they’re “having a go.”

It’s a cop out to go to the polling booth and do nothing. Here’s a chance to make a statement that is meaningful—by voting. Leaving the paper empty means you’re asking someone else to make the decision for you. That’s when you become a bystander, and God hasn’t given us life to live it as a bystander.

So, sorry Mr Latham, while I’m still waiting to be impressed that any party can actually lead Australia strongly into the future, I’ll be making my mark on the voting form. It’s both a responsibility and an opportunity.

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

Our members brought a touch of raw reality to Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church this past Saturday. Testimonies often do this. If you didn’t know the people and their stories, you may have missed it. I didn’t know all the stories, but I knew enough to know dramatic changes had taken place.

This was real.

If you weren’t there, I’m sorry you missed it. Individuals wrote on a large piece of cardboard the issues they’d faced. On the other side: the solution they’d found in God. One by one they walked to the stage, gave us time to read the problem before revealing the change. Nothing was said.

This was powerful.

Here are the kinds of problems/ solutions they shared:

• “A puppet of Satan/ but behold I am now free in Jesus”
• “No hope in life/ Jesus is my hope”
• “Lost brother 2 cancer/ but death is defeated in Jesus”
• “Lost everything through selfishness/ found peace and confidence in God”
• “Doing my own thing/ life in Christ”
• “Angry, broken pretender/ forgiven work in progress, Jesus defender”
• “Committed to partying/ committed to serving”
• “In turmoil/ @ peace”
• “Lost and searching/ found direction in Jesus Christ!!”
• “Lukewarm and lost in depression/ transformed by Christ’s love”

This was moving.

I wish I could tell you the stories behind each one. Like I mentioned, I don’t know them all, but that isn’t important. Each one of these testimonies indicates one thing: victory.

There’s nothing more to say except to point out the obvious: Jesus makes a difference.

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

First a confession: I’ve watched MasterChef.

I’ve never had much of an interest. Still don’t, but we had family staying and they’re big fans.

I saw the episode where—shock—Marion Grasby lost. Apparently, she’d become the one to beat. Apparently, her satay sauce tasted great, but it didn’t look as appealing as the other competitor’s.

As a non-viewer introduced to the players only this past week, Marion’s loss didn’t mean much to me. It did to those staying with us. Even the other contestants thought so.

Marion is obviously a loser, or is she?

We all lose some time, at something. Does that make us a loser?

There’s a difference between losing at something and being a loser. We will have losses—that’s a part of life. Being a loser is an attitude that not only expects to lose, but lives as if your life calling is to be a failure.

Marion will never be master chef, she’s lost her chance. But she’s well on her way to achieving her goals. She’s already announced her own line of gourmet products—including her satay sauce. She’s rumoured to become “a face” of Coles supermarkets. And she’s already signed to be the first contestant to have a column in the new MasterChef Magazine.

Marion’s agent, Lisa Sullivan, says her phone has “rung off the hook” with offers. “There have been so many enquiries, for publishing deals to appearances for Marion,” she told Richard Clune of The Sunday Telegraph (“Marion Grasby tipped to be MasterChef millionaire,” July 10, 2010). “Her future is bright.”

“I get shocked at these sorts of things,” says Marion in the same article. “I feel I’ve been working really hard for not much reward since I quit journalism two years ago. It’s amazing.”

She’s no loser. Taking a loss doesn’t make you a loser.