The Land

Our sermon on Sunday on Deuteronomy touched on issues of land and displacement, with Israel's approach to its promise.

John went on to draw a parallel with Australian aborigines and their 'land rights', mentioning the anachronistic term terra nullius.

Israel and the land is not aboriginal Australians and the land, as we are one nation and occupy, according to our law, one land in an orderly and equitable manner. There is no demarcation beyond this, and to think that there is or maybe, or needs to be is to misconstrue both history and the unity of Australia, and to give the past what it doesn't have: the present.

It risks introducing an apartheid: two communities in the one country with different laws, rights and benefits. That's the start of tribalism, which under previous governments has greased the slope of disadvantage, instead of flattening it.

The problems of aboriginal Australians need to be addressed, and one step in that direction is a frank confrontation with the fruits of the ancient pagan culture of bloodshed and exploitation of women and children that was noted by the first Europeans who came here (I avoid the other anachronism 'invaded', as well).