Down here, we are suffocating under a thuggish prime minister, a practising Catholic who dabbled with ministry and who, amongst a litany of things he'd swore he never do but is doing and doing and grinning and grinning and telling us it is good for us like some wicked priest spewing his guilt from the pulpit, is in the process of radically defunding of our public broadcaster (there's always Foxnews), downgrading our internet aspirations such that we are now 44th in the world for internet speeds (there's always Foxtel cable), dismantling our national health system (there's always suffering), and who spruikes that climate change is crap and that coal is good for humanity.
And who, it must be appended, under a brutish 'deeply Christian' minister for immigration, has stopped the boats by making the nightmare detention product worse than the refugees original plight (there's always if Jesus wanted you to live here you wouldn't have been born there).
It's all wrapped up in the need to balance the books and live within our means. Nothing to do with getting rid of a big revenue raising carbon tax which went all but unnoticed on introduction but saw an immediate drop in green house gas release. Nothing to do with willful refusal to address rampant tax concessions at the top end of town. Nothing to do with doing Murdoch's bidding.
For all this treachery, for all the suffering imposed, nothing comes close to the climate issue. It is the moral issue of our times as the hapless Kevin Rudd said only to be shouted down by shock jocks and murdochs and liars and miners and he crumbled and blew away in a bitter puff of defeated dust.
But there is goodness beyond the little men and women who slog it out each day looking after themselves and their neighbours, immediate and far. Who worry about the planet. Who worry about their grandchildren. Who worry about the poor. There's a Holy Man. A Voice. A Holy Spirit.
And he's about to make life very uncomfortable for our Mr Abbott. And Murdoch who just tweeted that it's cold in the UK so how can there be climate change. Who can't yet distinguish between weather and climate; well, yes he can, but can't. Who took to the River Jordan in white robes and garlands to baptise some off-spring with Blair as the earth-god.
You've met your Man guys. He walks among you. And 2015 is the year.
2 comments:
A truly good man of God...they do exist, and this one never ceases to amaze me. Hadn't heard about the new encylical until now.
Reassuring isn't it. Every day I say to K, he needs a taster.
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