Sex Won't Save You and Te Whatu Ora

Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
Sex Won’t Save You and Te Whatu Ora
Monday 12th December 2022

Sex Won’t Save You

Here is a superb response written by Jennifer Michelle Greenberg to The Gospel Coalition and Joshua Ryan Butler about the recent ‘brohaha’ about Butler’s article (published by TGC and now removed) and his shortly to be released book. This is a superb and concise exegesis on human sexuality and a brilliant rebuttal to the misogyny we still see in far too many corners of our society.

POV. With the recent resignation of Jacinda Ardern I was once again grieved to read about the extent of the misogyny she has been subject to. This is unacceptable regardless of one’s political views. Pastors, let’s be sure we do all we can to exorcise any vestige of misogyny (read chauvinism, male dominance) out from amongst us.

Te Whatu Ora

On the 28th February veteran Board Director, Rob Campbell was ‘fired’ from his role as Chair of the new Health Authority, Te Whatu Ora describing his experience as ‘stultifying’. He said this in a Listener interview about the organisation. “As I got more determined we needed change I became more and more aware of how the health bureaucracy is impeding change. We were in a running fight with inefficiency and inaction so it was becoming increasingly frustrating - not just for me, but it's easy for me to speak out more openly about it. That made me less inclined to be a typical public servant which frankly I never thought of myself as….. the real obligation you have as a public servant is to the public.

POV. Every Doctor (and clinician) I have ever known want to do a really good job. They genuinely want the best for their patients. What Rob Campbell is criticizing is the bureaucracy (the administration, the organization) that has amassed around the delivery of health services in NZ. The very thing that is intended to assist Doctors and Nurses to deliver top class services has over time become the thing that impedes the delivery of those services. It explains why the Health system is not working well if not broken. Actually, this is in my opinion a problem in some churches in NZ particularly in larger denominations.

Headlines Only

Teacher Salaries can be found here. A starting teacher (usually a person in his/her early twenty’s) on the basic scale starts on $51,358pa and within a 6-7 years can earn up to $85,490pa. Its pretty much the same for nurses and social workers in NZ. Not to shabby I would have thought. The median income in New Zealand $61,700pa as of February 2023 based on a 40-hour week.

Jesus Revolution Movie coming to a theatre near you from 20th April 2023. I can’t wait to see it!

Last week Wednesday the Student Christian Movement hosted this event at the Maclaurin Chapel at Auckland University. Would this not qualify as blasphemous?