Given Morrison has placed his faith front and centre of his public persona, it is helpful to try to understand how he perceives his faith and how it might intersect with his job as prime minister.

For me, Morrison's recent comments about faith and prayer reveal a pattern of human passivity, dependence on divine intervention, and potential abnegation of power.

For example, in his 60 Minutes interview, Morrison's response to a question about his empathy was:

I've worn out the carpet on the side of my bed […] on my knees, praying and praying […] praying for those who are losing loved ones, praying for those who couldn't go to family funerals, praying for those who are exhausted […]

To be fair to Morrison, it would be odd for a person of any faith not to include prayer as part of their expression of concern for those who suffer or struggle. Such an approach has a long tradition. But we might expect more than just prayer from a devout Christian who also happens to be the prime minister.

In this response, he appears to prioritise prayer over action, which is astonishing given the power he holds due to his position. In the Christian tradition, prayer informs and even motivates action; it does not replace it. Such a response is also, of course, a way of signalling his piety to certain constituents.

It is not an isolated example. Take, for instance, his address to the Australian Christian Churches National Conference in 2021, where he told the crowd:

I can't fix the world, I can't save the world, but we both believe in someone who can.

That someone, of course, is God.

On the one hand, it shows admirable humility to acknowledge that even the prime minister cannot "fix the world". But in alluding to the "someone who can", Morrison appears to be giving over his agency and responsibility to God. Leave it up to God to act.

More recently, in a speech commemorating 14 years since the Rudd government's "sorry" to Indigenous peoples, Morrison shifted the focus to forgiveness, which sparked fury.

Morrison shifting the focus to ‘forgiveness' in a speech commemorating the apology to the Stolen Generations sparked fury this week.

Morrison explicitly stated that forgiveness was an individual, not a "corporate" matter, expressing a hope for the kind of healing that came through forgiveness.

His desire to move from apology to individual forgiveness is entirely consistent with his stated spirituality which emphasises individual and personal faith.

But it is also theologically thin.

Trawloolway man and theologian Garry Deverell was quick to point out the prime minister had missed a step.

In the Christian tradition, no apology can insist on forgiveness, and seeking forgiveness for harm done requires repentance, acts of restitution, and attempts to address injustice.

The spiritual cannot be divorced from the physical, tangible, social, and political dimensions of life.

While acknowledging, rightly, that forgiveness is hard and cannot be earned, Morrison had put the onus on those wounded by systemic justice to do the work of forgiveness, rather than on those with power to do the work of restitution.

Prayer and action go hand in hand

There's a classic story that does the rounds in Christian circles of a guy who gets trapped when his town floods. In a desperate attempt to avoid the rising floodwaters he climbs onto his roof and prays to God to save him.

Soon a rescue crew in a boat come past and invite him into their boat, but he refuses. "God will save me," he says.

Later a helicopter flies by and a man descends on a rope. He is offered a way off the roof by the rescue crew, but again he refuses. "God will save me."

Eventually the man dies and goes to heaven, but he is confused. "Why didn't you save me God?" he asks. "I've been a faithful Christian my whole life."

And God replies: "What do you mean I didn't save you? I sent a boat and a helicopter. You refused them both."

Such parabolic stories demonstrate a Christian theological belief that God works through and with human activity, not despite it. It points to the need to integrate belief, prayer and action.

Theology - how we think and talk about God - matters precisely because of its implications for human activity.

I have no reason to doubt that when Morrison talks about his faith he is sincere, and when he expresses his care for people primarily through prayer he is behaving in a normal way for his faith community. Yet this kind of passivity and trust in divine intervention is not the only or even the fullest expression of Christian faith.

Faith and power should integrate, not separate

The danger of emphasising personal prayer as the primary expression of Christian care is that social responsibility can be abdicated.

Pray and leave it up to God can be a cop-out, particularly for those with power.

It can be a way to ignore systemic injustice by reducing faith to something personal and private.

As Brittany Higgins put it so eloquently in her recent National Press Club address: "I didn't want his sympathy as a father, I wanted him to use his power as prime minister."

Theologians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer offer an alternative expression of Christian faith.

Bonhoeffer lived and wrote during the early 20th-century rise of Nazism in Germany.

In his well-known book The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer writes about "cheap grace", which is the kind of faith that wants forgiveness without actual repentance, and justice or peace without personal cost.

Cheap grace wants the inner spiritual resolution without the outward costly work.

For Bonhoeffer, that outward work included vocal criticism of the Nazi regime and of Christians who were silent bystanders.

Bonhoeffer saw the way of Jesus was one that demanded practical help for victims of injustice and, where necessary, resistance to government.

Arrested for conspiring to rescue Jews, Bonhoeffer was imprisoned before being executed at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in 1945.

Not every Christian needs to become a martyr, but as Garry Deverell writes:

The Christian is called not to separate but to integrate their faith and their public presence, work or office.

This broader view of faith is seen in the call of Tim Costello for the prime minister to act on his faith when it comes to climate change, or in the urging of church leaders for more compassionate action for refugees based on Christian values.

After all, Jesus teaches that whatever one does for the least among us (defined as those who are hungry, poor or imprisoned) one does for Jesus.

Morrison is not the first prime minister to be a person of deep faith, nor will he be the last.

That is not the issue.

All politicians are informed by their value systems and beliefs, regardless of the religious or non-religious traditions that shape them.

Neither am I criticising Morrison for speaking out about his faith.

I am, however, critical of the highly individualistic, spiritualised version of faith Morrison espouses, which allows him to shirk personal responsibility and action when convenient.

There are millions of faithful Christians in this country who also wear out the carpet in prayer every week.

The difference is they do not hold the highest office in the land, nor have Morrison's power to enact change.

• Robyn J. Whitaker Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

Under the current law, up to 10 people are permitted to make up the church service.

With such a limitation, it became abundantly clear that the parishes would exclude people.

Eleanor, representing the Foxton and Shannon communities was invited to be one of ten people participating in the Cathedral as the parishes live-streamed Sunday Mass.

On Friday she wrote.

Dear Friends,
I went to Bunnings this afternoon.

There were no queues, people were walking freely in and out of the store, shopping at close proximity to one another and then it dawned on me what Jacinda was doing.

It is not only unpractical but cruel, and now we are presenting this same model to our parishioners.

Imagine a parish of 200 people where only ten can enter the church at a time with restrictions, which means that parishioners must now scramble to get into their own church.

When the Mass was in the presbytery it was beautiful because it looked like a family saying Mass together but if we are going to have a Mass in the Cathedral or church with only a selected few and all the other parishioners excluded, Jacinda would succeed in humiliating us as a worshipping community.

Thank you for asking me to come, but in light of what I experienced today, I have to decline.

God bless us all
Eleanor

Mass from the Cathedral with just ten people was cancelled however continued as it was during lockdown, live-streamed from the confines of the Cathedral Presbytery.

• The Cathedral, Palmerston North, Our Lady of Lourdes and Foxton parishes

He is encouraging Christians to create bridges of hope rather than hostility.

The comments were made by Pope Francis during his weekly general audience on November 6.

"Paul does not look at the city of Athens and the pagan world with hostility but with the eyes of faith," he said.

"And this makes us question our way of looking at our cities: Do we observe them with indifference? With contempt? Or with the faith that recognizes children of God in the midst of the anonymous crowds?"

Francis said the paganism of the Greeks did not cause St Paul to flee.

Instead, "Paul observes the culture and environment of Athens from a contemplative gaze that sees God dwelling in their homes, in their streets and squares."

"In the heart of one of the most famous institutions of the ancient world, the Areopagus, he realizes an extraordinary example of inculturation of the message of the faith," the pope said.

"He proclaims Jesus Christ to idol worshippers and doesn't do it by attacking them, but by making himself a 'pontiff,' a builder of bridges."

Francis said St Paul engages with empathy and it is in this way that he builds bridges of hope with culture, with those who do not believe or with those who have a different creed from ours.

Calling on tradition, Francis, cited Pope Benedict XVI, saying that acting with empathy is not proclaiming the unknown god, but rather "proclaiming him whom people do not know and yet do know - the unknown-known".

According to tradition, St. Paul preached to the Athenians at the Areopagus, an area that was not only a symbol of Greek political and cultural life but also the location of an altar to the "unknown god."

Source

• NCR

The class immediately erupted with commentary.

It was obvious, they said, that loyalty was paramount—not a single student said they'd "snitch."

They were unequivocally unconcerned about who was harmed in this hypothetical scenario. This troubled me.

This discussion was part of an introduction to an essay assignment about whether Americans should pay more for ethically produced food.

We continued discussing other dilemmas, and the kids were more engaged that they'd been in weeks, grappling with big questions about values, character, and right versus wrong as I attempted to expand their thinking about who and what is affected—and why it matters—by their caloric choices.

I was satisfied that students were clearly thinking about tough issues, but unsettled by their lack of experience considering their own values.

"Do you think you should discuss morality and ethics more often in school?" I asked the class.

The vast majority of heads nodded in agreement. Engaging in this type of discourse, it seemed, was a mostly foreign concept for the kids.

Widespread adoption of the Common Core standards—despite resistance by some states—arguably continues the legacy of the No Child Left Behind Act.

The 2002 law charged all public schools to achieve 100 percent proficiency in reading and math by 2014, meaning that all students were expected to be on grade level.

This unrealistic target forced schools to track and measure the academic achievement of all students, a goal lauded by most, but one that ultimately elevated standardized testing and severely narrowed curricula.

Quantifying academic gains remains at the forefront of school-improvement efforts to the detriment of other worthwhile purposes of schooling. Continue reading

• Paul Barnwell is a teacher, writer, and urban gardener based in Louisville, KY.

I liked, donated, tweeted, commented and prayed over those updates.

I witnessed the circle of life, beamed through my smartphone.

But was I really making a difference?

Social media and digital technology are seeping into the biggest moments of our lives - not to mention into the monotony of everyday events.

Now, researchers have begun digging more deeply into how this new connectivity is transforming us and our relationships, just as experts are beginning to ponder how we can use these digital technologies to help us live more meaningful and compassionate lives.

A typical Facebook user, "has more close friends; has more trust in people; feels more supported; and is more politically involved," compared to non-social media users and those who use the site infrequently, the Pew Research Center has previously found.

Contrary to the popular narrative, even many younger Americans see social media as a place where they find meaning.

A 2013 study found that teenagers often feel that social media helps them to deepen their relationships with others.

How's that for a status update?

Here's some more thinking on how social media may contribute to the social good.

First of all, it can reduce stress levels.

A new Pew survey released last month found that not only is social media use not generally associated with increased stress for most users, but that "women who use Twitter, email and cellphone picture sharing report lower levels of stress" than those who do not use the technologies.

This isn't always true, but that's not bad news either.

Pew reports that exposure to difficult events in the lives of others through social media can cause increased levels of stress, particularly in women, a phenomenon sometimes called "the cost of caring."

So as social media makes you increasingly aware of events in other people's lives, you can wind up feeling more emotionally wound-up in their well being.

"'The cost of caring' is that you feel stuff about other people. It's not entirely clear that feeling stuff about other people is worse than not having had that feeling at all," explains Lee Rainie director of Internet, science and technology research at the Pew Research Center.

Knowledge that disturbs you can also empower you to reach out and act in support, thus giving your own life a little bit more purpose and meaning. Continue reading

Image: Forbes

As Krznaric writes, empathy (the 'Golden Rule') has its foundation in major spiritual traditions including Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism and Christianity.

Empathy, he adds, lies 'at the very core of human existence'.

Most of us like to see ourselves as empathetic, but what does it mean to really 'imagine oneself in another's place and understand the other's feelings, desires, ideas, and actions'?

And how do we get there?

'A first step is to humanise our imaginations by developing an awareness,' writes Krznaric, as 'we all possess deep wells of pain and sorrow that we can draw on to help bridge social divides and create empathic bonds'. Continue reading.

Source: Eureka Street

Image: School of Life

We now understand that the onset of symptoms of autism spectrum disorders is variable during the first two years of life. Signs are evident in some children from birth, while others may appear to be developing typically but then fail to progress.

Other children may lose some of their already-developed skills. Words the child may have previously (and correctly) used to name or request objects, for instance, may no longer be uttered. This apparent slowing or regression in development usually becomes apparent between 15 to 24 months of age, but may begin even later.

What is autism?

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a complex set of conditions that affect more than 1% of children. They are characterised by difficulties in the core areas of social communication and language, accompanied by restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests.

Although largely genetically determined, we still do not understand all of the causes of ASDs.

There are currently no available cures. So the best evidence to date points to early identification and behavioural intervention as the best way to minimise the effects of these conditions on the developing child.

If behavioural intervention can be accessed as soon as there are early warning signs - before the onset of the "full-blown" syndrome - it's possible to target the developmental precursors of ASDs. This improves the chances of the child moving toward a more typical developmental trajectory.

A baby who doesn't respond when his name is called, or shows no signs of imitating others' behaviours such as clapping and waving, and instead seems to be on their own agenda, is a candidate for early intervention. This child needs to be brought back into the social loop so that he can begin to learn from others. Continue reading

Sources

• The Conversation
• Image: soulation

The study leads were Ara Norenzayan and Will Gervais at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and they collaborated on this one with Kali Trzesniewski at the University of California, USA.

They were intrigued by an earlier study which found that autistic people were more likely to be atheists. They wanted to know if this was true and, if it was true, they wanted to know why.

So they ran four separate studies. The first matched a small group of autistic individuals with a group of neurotypicals, and found that the autistic individuals were less religious.

The second looked at a group of Canadian students, and found that those who reported more symptoms of autism were also less religious. Study Three broadened this out to a group of 725 American Adults recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk, while Study Four looked at a different sample of 425 Adults (they were part of a paid survey panel).

Again and again, they found that symptoms of autism correlated with lack of belief in God.

But their analyses went further. They also asked them about their empathy (using questions like "I often find it difficult to judge if someone is rude or polite" and "I am good at predicting how someone will feel.").

They found that empathy also correlated with belief. Not only that but, using a statistical technique called "bootstrapping", they found that the most plausible explanation for the correlation was that autism was related to a lack of empathy, which in turn was related to lack of belief.

In other words, lack of empathy was the 'in between' factor that mediated the relationship between autism and lack of belief. Continue reading

Sources

• Epiphenom
• Image: Reasons to Believe