We apologise for giving you doctors and free medical care, which allows you to survive and multiply so that you can demand apologies.
We apologise for helping you to read and teaching you the English language and thus we opened up to you the entire European civilisation, thought and enterprise.
We feel that we must apologise for building hundreds of homes for you, which you have vandalised and destroyed.
We apologise for giving you law and order which has helped prevent you from slaughtering one another and using the unfortunate for food purposes.
We apologise for developing large farms and properties, which today feed you people, where before, you had the benefits of living off the land and starving during droughts.
We apologise for providing you with warm clothing made of fabric to replace that animal skins you used before.
We apologise for building roads and railway tracks between cities and building cars so that you no longer have to walk over harsh terrain.
We apologise for paying off your vehicle when you fail to pay the installments
.
We apologise for giving you free travel anywhere, whenever.
We apologise for giving each and every member of your family $100.00 and free travel to attend an aboriginal funeral.
We apologise for not charging you rent on any lands when white people have to pay.
We apologise for giving you interest free loans.
We apologise for developing oil wells and minerals, including gold and diamonds which you never used and had no idea of their value.
We apologise for developing Ayers rock and Kakadu, and handing them over to you so that you get all the money.
We apologise for allowing taxpayers money paid towards daughters' wedding ($8,000.00 each daughter)
We apologise for giving you $1.7 billion per year for your 250,000 people, which is $48,000.00 per aboriginal man, woman and child.
We apologise for working hard to pay taxes that finance your welfare, medical care, education, etc to the tune of $1.2 billion each year.
We apologise for you having to approach the aboriginal affairs department to verify the above figures. For the trouble you will have identifying the "uncle toms" in your own community who are getting richer and leaving some of you living in squalor and poverty.
We do apologise. We really do.
We humbly beg your forgiveness for all the above sins.
We are only too happy to take back all the above and return you to the paradise of the "outback", whenever you are ready.
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4 comments:
WOW. Is this what you mean by being "a godly exemplar to my children and grandchildren"? Is this how you "show Christ to others"? How, in Jesus' name is this "communicating the gospel"? Why haven't I found this kind of petty and juvenille speech from Jesus in the Bible? It appears he tells stories about fathers and their prodigal sons, turning the other cheek, forgiving seven times seventy times, loving your enemies, etc. Good Lord! I might agree with this as a political manifesto...but from a CHRISTIAN? It's no wonder, with hypocrisy like this we are having trouble seeing "our church grow". If Jesus was looking over your shoulder as you typed this...He might've been thinking: 'where did I teach you this? Where is the love?' Good luck to you, man. To each his own opinion. In mine, you are doing our Church more damage than good
Wow. I am prepared to answer to my maker and will not be doing so anonymously. At least I have the guts to put my name to opinions.
My name is (appropriately enough) Christian and I live in London. Posting anonymously avoids having to sign up to a google account, etc. I didn't view the posting of my comment in any way as a display of courage. Nor do I feel it takes, guts, to have written, posted, and signed your retort to the Australian Government's Apology. That's not an attack on you sir, just maintaining some perspective.
Should Christians ridicule somebody's attempt for atonement? Or should we applaud and promote such acts of reconciliation? I think the Bible, and Jesus, teach the latter. Even Jesus, who had nothing to apologise for, asked for his Father's forgiveness when dying on the Cross. As I wrote previously, I agree with you that the Government of Australia has done MUCH to allay its past injustices. I disagree, however, that ridiculing it taking one more step (and trying to promote reconciliation worldwide)is a display of Christian humility.
Mr. Weeks, I am sure you are ready to answer to your maker. Good for you. That had and has nothing to do with this debate. But (since you brought it up) when you do, know that you are leaving behind Christians who will still be trying to dispel the notion that we are a religion of intolerance.
Let me put what I posted in context.
First of all I did not write it but have sympathy with the sentiment behind it as is shown by this quote from my original prior post.
"Where does it end?
snip
So should we apologise for sending the convicts? Will the Normans, Angles, Vikings, Saxons, Junes and Romans apologise for invading us?'
IMO the modern penchant for apologies comes from the guilt feelings of liberals ashamed of their nations' past.
I am not guilty of the sins of Crusaders, imperialists, slave traders or the bombers of Dresden, Hiroshima etc. It wasn't me who did it. It wasn't even my ancestors who were never members of the ruling elite. Do I feel ashamed of some of these parts of my nation's history? Yes but only some. For example, I am ashamed of the sack of Constantinople and of the refusal of the East India Company to allow missionaries to disturb the darkness of Indian religions, But I would not favour British apology for imperialism when those colonised would have much preferred us to the alternatives on offer in the age of imperialism, exploitation by the Germans, French or Belgians. In Africa the history since independence is all too often of exploitation by local rulers, the extent of which makes imperialist profiteers, small fry indeed.
But the Aussies did have something of which to be ashamed in takng the aboriginal children.
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