Two media campaigns reveal Australia’s perceptions about Christianity

by Steven Kryger on 14. Sep, 2009 in for Churches, for Outreach

September has been an interesting month for Christianity in the Australian media, and particularly Sydney.

Jesus has hit the headlines in two media campaigns launched this month – one, a poster campaign by Outreach Media, challenging who is forming our opinions about Jesus (see the poster, and read the responses to critical claims about Jesus). The other is a mass-media campaign launched by the Bible Society and supported by churches across Sydney – ‘Jesus: All About Life‘.

Both campaigns have received media attention through mainstream media (tv, newspapers), and also in the blogosphere. I have been particularly interested to see the comments that these media mentions have received (i.e. where the articles have been opened up for comments so that the general public can respond with their opinions).

Below is a list of media references and links to discussion forums I’ve collated that discuss these campaigns. I’ve found the comments made against many of these articles to be particularly enlightening about how Australians perceive Christianity.

The responses (in general) remind me of 2 Corinthians 2:16 -

“To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.”

Have a read for yourself…

‘Too brainwashed to read the Bible’ campaign

‘Jesus: All About Life’ campaign

Previous campaigns

The Jesus: All About Life campaign has also run in Adelaide and Canberra. Where there are links of interest back to the earlier campaigns, I’ll post the details here.

I’ll keep adding to this list as new mentions appear.

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3 Responses to “Two media campaigns reveal Australia’s perceptions about Christianity”

  1. Gee Suss 10. Oct, 2009 at 6:01 am #

    Nice list of links! Thanks for that.

    You forgot to mention http://jesusallaboutlife.com tho :) Hopefully our critique has been of some value to you with regard presenting exactly what we see as it’s failures from a perspective of non-believers. I also enjoy the release, being able to speak freely, and connect with so many other non-believers that contact us in solidarity as they are confronted already by the invasiveness of your belief, let alone this full blown advertising campaign, trying to brand the name basically. It does however make me realise just how important critique is, with the amount of school children level contacting us, because of the pressure religion in family and school places upon them. Being a small island that they can have a giggle at the parody, and see others think like them is but small solace.

    Personally, I think the easiest most succinct reason for the decline of religion on the whole is education, so the more discussions the better for sure.

    It will also make an interesting talking point and there should be at least some analysis over how your campaign seems to have really had a hard time) at the upcoming Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne http://www.atheistconvention.org.au (at least from many of the sites I have gone too)

  2. Da Winner 10. Oct, 2009 at 9:01 pm #

    Hi Gee,

    You seem to place all your faith in human intellect and strength. In 1 Corinthians we are told “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” and in Titus it says “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths.” The last quote sounds a bit like your convention!!!

    Going to the pinnacle of human knowledge Wikipedia it would appear that atheists still don’t completely know what they don’t believe. But “in the broadest sense, it is the absence of belief in the existence of deities”. Now let me apply a little human logic (not much I agree). Atheists are holding a convention to discuss something that doesn’t exist (in their eyes). Sounds like there won’t be a lot to talk about, just a lot of Omphaloskepsis* (to give it its Greek name) :-)

    I thank God for letting me believe in Jesus and his saving work on the cross (Thanks Jesus for my faith). As Paul writes in Philippians (the passage that gives my name its true meaning) “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus”. I pray that you and other atheists may also have your hearts opened and win the prize.

    As the slogan says “Jesus all about life” (this life and the next)

    *For wikis definition of Omphaloskepsis – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphaloskepsis

  3. Gee Suss 12. Oct, 2009 at 9:02 am #

    Da Winner,

    Why do you not believe in Islam, Buddhism, the Greek, Egyptian or Roman gods? There are literally thousands of them, why do you not have faith in those?

    We are both atheists, I just happen to believe in one less god than you.

    Atheism is not a doctrine, it is a philosophical position on the existence of a god or gods. Simply there are no convincing arguments or evidence to warrant such a belief. We lack a belief in your god, amongst the many others as well.

    Atheists, due to the huge amount of infuence religion has on our societies, are organising for the very reason that we have empathy and love for mankind. The path that religion leads us is one of division and hate disguised as ‘good’, the ultimate wolf in sheeps clothing.

    Atheists are organising, as the religious claim rights above and beyond others in the community. They label their belief as the ultimate good, and judge all those that do not have it as lacking morals, being evil etc. You see it as good when you push your belief on children of non-believers. You see it as good not to allow others to teach their children humanistic ethics (indeed are fighting to retain the right that those that opt out of your scripture programs in public schools are not allowed to learn anything, these children are forced by such as yourselves to ’stare at their navel’)

    It is dogmatic adherance to scripture and lack of critical thinking on issues. Religion actively teaches children this trait. It corrupts and calls it ‘good’.

    Critical thinking is a combination of empiricism (just the facts), rationalism (the application of logic and reason), and skepticism (a humble balance between credulity and cynicism). Critical thinking is an important facet of working out what is reality around us.

    If you encourage your children to accept your word as authority on issues of belief, then you will be setting them up to one day replace your authority with someone else’s whose ideas you may not agree with, or is dangerous for them. You are breeding dogmatic faith and putting it on the pedestal of righteousness. An extremely dangerous combination.

    It is these people that resort to quoting scripture as answers as you do, as they do not have the capacity to critically think. Their answers lie in a book, and their interpretation of it, usually handed to them from others, not worked out for oneself.

    So I find it quite ironic when someone of faith tells me I am holding to convention, when it is them that is doing this, indeed, your post and reply is hypocritical from my point of view, but you cannot see this can you?

    I find it ironic that you hold to your scripture in your reply, to you I quote you something you may understand because you sure aren’t going to listen to someone that speaks from their heart, only your scripture.

    Matthew 7:1 , Luke 6:37

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