Culture is Downstream from Spirituality
What to make of a massive Hindu statue unveiled in Western Sydney this week?
I suppose it’s better than a mosque.
Are we even allowed to say that?
New Hindu Idol in Western Sydney
The 15m statue of religious guru Bhagwan Swaminarayan is the highest metal statue in Australia.
The image, part of a Hindu temple and cultural precinct that takes up the equivalent of 14 football fields, was unveiled with federal ministers Chris Bowen and Michelle Rowland quietly nodding their approval.
This is what is meant by multiculturalism. The idea that immigrants are supposed to integrate into Australian culture is, by now, obviously a complete furphy.
The Hindu statue is a taste of Indian religion and culture to go with the butter chicken we were all led to believe was the extent of multiculturalism.
Personally, I think we should put Christ the Redeemer at the entrance to Sydney Harbour.
Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Credit: Adobe.
Can you imagine the outcry?
The same people fawning over the exotic Hindu statue would be screeching like crazy Karens, with veins popping out of their necks: ‘Christian nationalism!’ and ‘Theocracy!’ and ‘Separation of Church and State!’
Christianity and Religious Tolerance
The great irony of Christianity is that it contains, within itself, the seeds of its own destruction…
Christian nations always come to be the freest and most tolerant nations in the world because Christianity teaches that freedom of conscience is an inalienable gift from God.
That freedom is then invariably leveraged by every man and his dog to do whatever is right in their own eyes.
Add to that the pluralism that Christianity necessarily allows room for, and before you know it, you have a once-Christian nation with a 15m Hindu statue looking down over it.
Not to mention pro-Palestinian rallies every other weekend.
To go nicely alongside the LBGTQ Mardi Gras, and every other thing you can possibly imagine.
It’s Not Culture or Immigration. It’s Spirituality
In the case of the Hindu monolith, the usual suspects will rage about immigration ruining this country, or about the failure of migrants to properly integrate.
But the real issue is not cultural. It’s spiritual.
Just as politics is downstream of culture, culture is downstream of spirituality.
Neither a nation, nor the individuals within that nation, can expect to enjoy all the fruits of Christianity without watering the garden that produced them.
The ‘Australia as we knew it’ will be forever lost until we rediscover the garden in which all that we came to take for granted grew.
That garden is Christianity.
Christianity: The Only Worldview That Truly Produces Human Flourishing
And for those who wish to dispute the fact, be my guest. I wait for you to nominate any other soil that has been able to consistently create an environment in which human freedoms have flourished to the extent they have in the West.
On this point Ayaan Hirsi Ali is instructive.
Ayaan was raised Muslim but became one of the most prominent atheist in the world after rejecting Islam as a totalitarian religion to be escaped rather than embraced.
But in recent times, much to the dismay of her mentor Richard Dawkins, she has given her life to Jesus Christ and become a serious Christian.
The reason?
She realised that Christianity is the only ‘worldview’ that truly produces human flourishing and that is because it is a true view of the world.
You can adjust your political and cultural settings all you want, but all of those things are downstream from religion.
Your worldview creates your culture and your culture will be reflected in your politics.
If you want your country back, you’re got to get your religion back. There is no other way.
___
Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report.
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Agreed . God give us renewed fire in the pulpit or we will continue in decline.
Nice, neat summation thank you James.
2 Timothy 3:16 & 17
Our nation – and the church at large – is groaning under the weight of our great need of biblical teaching, solid rebuke and correction, and ongoing instruction in truth and righteousness, according to God’s own word.
May our gracious God continue to raise up in this generation His chosen vessels to do such great work. For His glory and our blessing.
For which we must pray without ceasing.
Vishal Mangalwadi’s book ‘The book that made your world’ (subtitled ‘How the Bible created the soul of Western civilisation’) is a persuasive argument to support your claim, James.
‘The book that made your world’ (subtitled ‘How the Bible created the soul of Western Civilisation’), by Vishal Magalwadi, argues your point very persuasively, James.
If others of your readers haven’t read it, the blurb on the rear cover states ‘through Mangalwadi’s wide-ranging and fascinating investigation, you’ll discover
what triggered the West’s passion for scientific, medical and technological development;
how the Biblical notion of human dignity informs the West’s social structure and how it intersects with other world views;
how the Bible created a fertile ground for women to find social and economic employment;
how the Bible has uniquely equipped the West to cultivate compassion, human rights, prosperity and strong families;
the role of the Bible in the transformation of education;
how the modern literary notion of a hero has been shaped by the Bible’s archetypal protagonists.’
He also indicates those things which will unravel its progress and how secular corruption endangers the stability and longevity of Western civilisation.
Mangalwadi was born and raised in India, where he studied in secular universities and Hindu ashrams.
[I lost this contribution somewhere I cyber space for a while, so posted a shortened one; my apologies for the double-up.
The metal cross at Haasts bluff in the middle of Australia is 20 metres high
On 7,8 June Pentecost Sunday there will be a prayer vigil there.
Great idea, James, a huge statue of Christ the Redeemer at entrance to Sydney Harbour, or, I suggest, in Hobart on Mt Wellington . Imagine the outcry from Aborigines , Greens, Labor , Liberals +Academics ! Yet we tolerate the Big Buddha in Campania, Tasmania , and now this enormous Hindu statue while Indian Christians are raped and burnt alive in their homes and churches destroyed nearly every day of the week in India !Until the British took over India , that “enlightened “culture burnt alive widows on the funeral pyres with their dead husbands .Hinduism is a religion so “enlightened” it worships cows and the goddess of the Assassins !Australians are now IGNORANT idiots. Tons of machetes are being imported to the day when Muslim numbers are sufficient to attempt a Take-Over of Australia when the machetes will be used to behead us as per the orders of the Koran + hadiths. Wake up, you FOOLS who support Multiculturalism+ Palestinians who want death of ALL Jews whom they call “monkeys “and us whom they call “pigs ” !The ignorance of tolerant fools frustrates me.
Christians get burned and killed in India and we are bringing the same darkness to this country .