From the Principal

Dear Friends,

As I view the contributions to this mid-term edition of The Vine, I am reminded of just how deeply engaged students are in the many co-curricular activities of athletics and music at Oxley. Indeed, these wonderful dimensions of schooling play a key role in contributing to the well-balanced formation of students. Events that are held at venues other than the College make for a richer experience in education, and we are pleased to record recent student involvement in many of these programs. For Senior students the exam season is probably uppermost in their minds. We wish students well in all the current activities of the College as another remarkable year unfolds for us.

I especially congratulate students in the Middle Years who took part in the Da Vinci Decathlon last month. Being placed 2nd out of 27 competing teams was an outstanding effort, and we look forward to your involvement in future events. 

The National Policy Forum of Christian Schools Australia was recently held in Canberra. As one of about 200 attendees it was remarkable to be a part of the wider leadership group dealing with the challenges of an authentic Christian education that is immersed in a secular culture. This is not a new situation, but the high quality of presentations from national and international speakers was evident and well received. Among others, Oxley is a place of learning that continues to be blessed by those commitments to truth that are rarely aired in the public square. In fact, truth in the public sphere is a casualty of the times. The suppression of truth is a crusade of the progressives to bend the arc of history, as Chris Uhlmann says.

He reflects on a religious civil war that is unfolding, but only one side realizes it's a theological battle. The issue at hand is whether state morality will fully infiltrate religious institutions, forcing believers to conform to its secular mandates. The final report by the Law Reform Commission on religious exemptions from anti-discrimination laws is another move in the long campaign to dictate permissible beliefs and on how far the state will go to enforce compliance.

The Commission acknowledges that one of its recommendations will limit ‘the freedom to manifest religion or belief in community with others, and the associated parental liberty to ensure the religious and moral education of one’s children in conformity with one’s own convictions.’ They argue that this is balanced by the overall effect of maximizing human rights.

The Commission recommends abolishing Section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act, which permits religious schools to hire people whose beliefs align with their religious doctrines. Losing the freedom to practice one’s faith, adhere to beliefs, and ensure children are educated under the framework of those beliefs raises the question of what remains for religious institutions.

This represents an extreme form of secularism driven by a progressive campaign against Christianity. This movement exhibits authoritarian tendencies, with bureaucratic forces imposing their version of utopia. Ironically, we witness the attempted transformation of Christianity as secular enthusiasts attack the last vestige of belief in a power higher than the state. The modern notion of universal human rights, originally rooted in the Christian belief of individual worth bestowed by God, has been twisted by those who now deny its religious origins.

Christianity’s profound ideas, like universal equality and the concept of a faith informed reason, have shaped Western thought and history. This wisdom demanded compassion, mercy, and justice, setting the West on the path to liberal democracy. Despite its flaws, civic forms of Christianity underpinned the ideals of the West, a fact that historians continue to acknowledge. 

However, the advocates of the new ideology deny this heritage, believing their dogma is neutral and self-evident. This is a delusion. The new ideology resembles an evangelizing religion, striving for a better world but intolerant of dissent, policing its opposition through human rights commissions.

Anti-discrimination laws, while seemingly just, introduce objective penalties for subjective offenses, threatening the basis of liberal democracy. The shifting norms, such as those surrounding identity, exemplify the complexities and contestations in applying these laws.

This state-led assault on religious faith is a clash of competing theologies, as secular authorities seek to impose their values on religious institutions, who are often more open-minded than their progressive counterparts.

The course of history is unwisely being distorted. Those who champion the neutrality of this motivation, this rationale, this new reason, neglect the vital role of faith seeking understanding. They discriminate under the guise of equality and unfairly seek to suppress religious faith.

Warm regards,

Dr Douglas Peck