The instant of his death

The death of Derrida will most likely bring all manner of silly comments about his own deconstruction, etc, etc. However, there has always been a serious consideration of death in Derrida's work, from contemplating Abraham's obedience to God in being willing to sacrifice Isaac, to the classic Wittgensteinian observation that it is impossible to experience your own death. It is causing me to reflect on how meaningFUL death is, how it helps people to focus their minds, how it removes distractions, and how it often (counter-intuitively) generates hope. My philosophy class prayed for him just a week earlier, at the end of a lecture, wanting God to come to him, to bring the kind of justice and mercy that he himself imagined. And more.


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More on the federal election

CASE contributors, Byron and Jessica Smith, have put an enormous amount of work into a comparative table of issues and where the various political parties stand on them. Download it here. Has anyone devised a means of assessing these issues along Christian lines? If so, I'd love to hear from you.

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Election slogans for Christians

The blog is back, after some weeks of silence. And we are thinking about the upcoming election. How do Christians decide how to vote? In reality, they tend to vote as their parents/friends/influences vote�just like everyone else does. But if we are to step back and look for principles to guide our voting, where do they come from and how do we prioritise them? I've been very impressed with two resources in recent days.

The first is the Election website from the Evangelical Alliance, where you can find a series of well argued and diverse opinions on which issues should determine how you vote.

The second is the campaign by the Brotherhood of St Laurence in Victoria, which launches one of the best Christian slogans I can remember: "This election, vote for someone else". This isn't an anti-Howard stance, but a brilliant summary of the Christian motivation to think of others and not just ourselves. Why are we always deciding how to vote on the basis of what will make US better off?


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Identity politics

A fascinating biography of two leading Australian politicians—Opposition leader, Mark Latham, and Government Minister, Tony Abbott—has highlighted Christianity as a point of difference (among many). Michael Duffy, author and publisher, argues that Abbott couldn't decide between priest and politician, whereas Latham has never had time for the established churches (although he is attracted to the Jesus of history).

Both men are outspoken on ethical and moral issues, notably Abbott on abortion and Latham on social inequities. Both hold ethical ideals and have not always caved in to political pragmatism. They do in fact stand for things.

I suspect the difference between their attitudes may be linked to different approaches to institutions per se, with Abbott defending their central authority and Latham the 'outsider' questioning their power and noting their hypocrisy.

But Christianity is not primarily ethical nor institutional, it's spiritual. It is about identity—the identity of God, of Jesus, and self-identity as a penitent sinner, as a child of God, as a created being. It's about how you see yourself and the world.

The identity questions shape the rest of it. But how significant are they to government in a democracy? I'd be interested in your comments.

For another perspective, try The Australian

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