Comments on: On Saying Sorry

By: Bill Muehlenberg

Bill Muehlenberg — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:54:18 +0000

Thanks Rosie

Of course all these questions can be turned on you.

However, yes I have contacts with Aboriginals, many of whom see this mainly as a case of a rescued generation, not a stolen generation. And yes I have seen the report (and I suspect that most people have not read every word of the 700 page volume). And Bolt, like others, relies on various authorities and experts, as do you and I. Authorities such as Noel Pearson, eg., are as much a part of the mix as the ones you are likely lean on.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

By: Rosie

Rosie — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:13:44 +0000

I have some questions for you Bill:

How many Aboriginal people who were taken from their families to be placed in institutional ‘care’ (I will refrain from using the term stolen generations since you are so obviously uncomfortable with it) do you know, and how many of their stories have you heard? Do they agree with what you have outlined in your opinion piece?

Have you read the Bringing Them Home Report?

Who made Andrew Bolt the authority on Aboriginal policy and history, and when? And why?

Rosie Downing

By: Ian Brearley

Ian Brearley — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:46:58 +0000

I signed the sorry book back around 1996. I love the Lord Jesus and was saved from the hippie scene in 1974. I’m sorry for the many massacres that the whites committed on the blacks, and for the much lesser numbers of whites that were killed by blacks. From the very early days of the colony, when a black would commit an offence (which it was to our forebears, but may not always necessarily have been an “offence” if you were black and having your homeland and tribal livelihood taken from you, bit by bit, by force) the response was often to kill 20 blacks for the white that was killed. In some massacres, 300 were killed for the “offence” of hitting back when whipped by a stockman on a horse-this happened around 1931.
I have had virtually nothing to do with aboriginal people, but when I was in church one sunday morning here in Canberra, with an aboriginal man leading the meeting, the Lord was laying on me how much pain and anguish we (the white forebears) had heaped on the aboriginals. The tears just rolled down my cheeks for over 30 minutes. At the end of the meeting, I went straight to the man who’d been leading the meeting, and said how sorry I was for what had happened – he straightway came back with “we all just have to forgive and move on brother”. Of course he’s right.
I think that in the “stolen generations” debate, that much, much more good was done than harm in rescuing so many kids.
As to “what my forebears did I can’t answer for” – I was not there when our Aussie sons bathed themselves in glory by what they did at Gallipoli, but I draw great pride from it. I thank God for the wonderful Christian Aussies that have come before me, from Ritchard Johnson to John Flynn. I was not there when they did what they did, but I thank God for them, they inspire me and I am proud to be called an Aussie because (in part) of them. Doesn’t it have to work the other way, when our forebears did things that we regret, if we can do something about it? Can we do something about it? Yes, I believe sorry is a start. I thank God that the “noble savage living in total harmony with Nature” myth is exploded. I sure don’t want to go down that loony lefty road of utopian beliefs, but I don’t want to go down the right-wing and generally Christian (at the moment) road, which says “let the blacks just get over it and work for a living like we have to”. If Australia had been over-run by the Japanese in WW2, would we be the proud sport-and-travel loving people on the international stage that we are today? Would we not be a downcast, broken people, second-class citizens in our own country, given to all the substance-abuse etc that are part of that situation? I wonder how I would have handled the situation of taking-over another country which was inhabited with native people in 1788, with all the mindsets of that time, without all the enormous benefits of hindsight. If you are born Aboriginal in Australia, you start out with an enormous handicap in life. Who’s fault is this? Hugely too big to cover here. Can we (the white victors) do something about this – yes I believe we can. When the Lord God almighty asks me, Ian, what did you do with the talents, time and opportunities that I gave you, I want to be able to answer Him honestly.
Ian Brearley

By: Bill Muehlenberg

Bill Muehlenberg — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:30:10 +0000

Thanks Barbara

But while there is overwhelming historical evidence for the Holocaust, the evidence is mixed, ambiguous and inconclusive for the so-called stolen generations. And while the Holocaust was purely evil, this cannot be said about the removal of Aboriginal children. Some of them may have been stolen, but many of them were in fact rescued, as Aboriginal leaders like Pearson readily acknowledge.

Thus your comparison with the Holocaust is not all that helpful here, it seems to me.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

By: Barbara Oxford

Barbara Oxford — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:50:16 +0000

Sadly enough as I read all the comments, I keep getting the feeling, most people think the events of stolen generation” never really happened. Don’t forget the emotional price that the people have paid. Stop focusing on what liabilities we are up for and focus on fixing the problems. Its scary that in this day and age and with all the intellects that we have we can still question if the events have happened instead of learning from it and making sure it never gets repeated. Are we turning out to be like the neo-nazis claiming the Holocaust never actually happened?
Barbara Oxford

By: Peter Coventry

Peter Coventry — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:04:12 +0000

It is interesting that if you declare something long enough and loud enough some people will eventually believe it. I watched with interest the “lemming” like mentality on this issue as the facts were conveniently ignored.

I am always suspicious when those who dare to question popular mythology are dismissed so readily. Thanks to Bill and Andrew and all those who refuse to be silenced.

Peter Coventry

By: Ewan

Ewan — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 10:27:15 +0000

Indeed, David Moore makes a great deal more sense than all the ‘stolen generation’ propagandists put together.

Another thing Jesus wouldn’t do is give deference to animistic aboriginal culture in the way that our politicians, media, elites, and even churchians do these days.

And Jesus wouldn’t be going along with this myth that Australian aborigines have lived on this continent for between 40,000 and 60,000 years making them the oldest living people group in the world as both Rudd and Nelson claimed today.

Ewan McDonald, Victoria.

By: Bill Muehlenberg

Bill Muehlenberg — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:11:39 +0000

Thanks Steve

I know what he wouldn’t do. He would not treat people as whole classes or races or groups, as the twentieth century tyrants did, and as the secular left is so wont to do. Jesus always treats people as individuals, and given that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness, he would not encourage me to apologise for your sin, or vice versa. He would expect each of us to come clean with our own guilt, to take personal responsibility for our own wrongdoing, and not politicise such situations.

And if Jesus did want a public apology from the government, I think it would be much more in line with what Noel Pearson said yesterday in the Australian or what David Moore said there today: www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23203981-7583,00.html

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

By: Steve Angelino, WA

Steve Angelino, WA — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 05:41:06 +0000

What would Jesus do, Bill?

Steve Angelino, WA

By: Jonathan Sarfati

Jonathan Sarfati — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:20:41 +0000

Wesley Bruce raises good points, especially his last sentence. In this context, see also A sorry day—with an unlikely twist: The draft of the national apology by Australia’s Prime Minister had some surprising but revealing truths about the links between Charles Darwin and racism, but that has been removed. Jonathan Sarfati, Brisbane