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The Forum > Article Comments > Anzac day: a faith event? > Comments

Anzac day: a faith event? : Comments

By Alan Matheson, published 24/4/2008

For historians, Anzac Day, is 'a martial affair with military music and ritual', while for churches and their army chaplains, it’s a 'faith event'.

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As a veteran I say, keep the 'b...dy' churches out of the ADF !

When I was on active service, the only chaplains I ever saw were those (resplendent in their starched uniforms) relaxing in an Air-Conditioned hut that served as the Officers mess ! While we were 'outside the wire' in the stinking, humid jungle trying to protect our arse.

Ministers, Priests, Pardres et al. are absolutely redundant. They're a total waste of space. On the occasion we lost a bloke, they were never there.

I must say something for the Yanks, they had their Chaplains right up there with their blokes; where they were REALLY needed. Often actually ensconced at the various 'Fire Support Bases'.

To my knowledge, I never saw any of OUR Chaplains anywhere near the FSB's that I'd been tasked to man.

KEEP THESE 'GOD BOTHERERS' AWAY FROM OUR DEFENCE PERSONNEL ABROAD !
Posted by o sung wu, Thursday, 24 April 2008 5:11:58 PM
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Alan says:

"Again the military could depend on the silence of the churches."

O Sung Wu says:

KEEP THESE 'GOD BOTHERERS' AWAY FROM OUR DEFENCE PERSONNEL ABROAD !

I wonder, if 'The Church' criticized the Military or Government as the prophets of old did, whether they would have the same welcome they currently enjoy? Not if O Sung Wu has his way, nor Alan it seems.

"The Church" when unencumbered from the tanglements of politics and State, is indeed free to criticize in the name of God. It's calling is to be 'Salt' (preserve) and 'light' to show the way.

It seems we are regarding "the Church" (in these criticisms above) as an instrument of State?

If we want to take the gloves off, and really say what needs to be said, I doubt there would be any of us standing after it all.

Alan mentioned sexual harrassment in the military? Yet the military now has gender mixed bath rooms, and this includes urinals where blokes can be watering the horse while females walk in and go for a shower. Each shower is designed to have a 'change' cubicle and a shower cubicle, so a degree of privacy is possible, but the closeness of the sexes in places of nakedness and showering seems to me not exactly conducive to 'healthy intergender relations' or to avoiding the likelihood of sexual thoughts, words or actions being a part of the process.
Given the constant diet of pornography and degradation that most enlisted personell (and officers) feed themselves on at times, one is more struck by the relatively low levels of such behavior.
Posted by BOAZ_David, Monday, 28 April 2008 8:14:52 AM
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Remember our mates, look after yourself

ANZAC Day and all holidays are hard times for dads who have had their children stolen from them, and for kids who naturally miss their natural fathers. Suicide rates soar each holiday. Estimates show that for every woman who suicides in Australia, ten men kill themselves. Even under FOI, the C$A refuses to release the stats on how many of them are non-custodial dads).

Your kids may be out-of-contact, but you are still their dad. They will need you, eventually. as they grow up, children usually seek out their natural father, even against the lies and alienation fo the custodial parent.

Remember our kids
It is widely researched fact that children who lose their natural father suffer. Fatherlessness leads to worse outcomes in life than being born into poverty, or being born black in the USA.
(Quote from Dr S Baskerville from his book, "taken into Custody" http://stephenbaskerville.net/Book_Taken_Into_Custody.htm)

There is now a huge number of children and young adults who have this hole in their lives where their natural fathers should be. An aching longing that can never be filled.

Why is ANZAC Day growing? Why are the people attending ANZAC Day services mostly young men and women who have never experienced a large war? Because they have experienced the loss of their fathers, loss of their male teachers, loss of their male role models. THey have grown up seeing girls-interests and motivations being pandered to at school so two-thirds of uni students now are girls. These kids have heard rthe message 'boy's are not welcome here' in our schools and TV advertisements and across our societies other institutions.

Many will agree that in many ways the underlying message of Christmas is a ritual to celebrate motherhood...

www.fathers4Equality-Australia.org
PartTimeParent@pobox.com
Posted by partTimeParent, Monday, 28 April 2008 10:51:00 AM
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Dawn
Many times I have gone to the "Dawn" ANZAC Day Service in Sydney. It starts well before dawn, at the time when the troops started landing at Gallopilli. It's worth it. Sad, beautiful, powerfull and respectfull.

ANZAC DAY is the day Australia remembers the sacrifice of our men.

Soldiers killed in war are almost entirely men and boys, doomed by sexist values that views men as disposable.

Many men "volunteered" for WWI, but this was demanded of them, often by women, who handed out white feathers of cowardice to those men who didn't enlist. They had little choice. In WWII and Vietnam, many men were conscripted. They had no choice.

Men and women BOTH got the vote at the same time in Australia (Yes, despite what we're told), there were no female soldiers in these wars.

Not surprisingly there were no nasty-feminists calling it sexist or discriminatory that girls should be protected, while men are put in harms way. Next time you read an article in the newspaper that talks about people being killed somewhere, saying "killed civilians including women and children" remember, that men are often civilians also, and even soldiers are fequently not there by choice.

One of my friends went to the first Iraq war in the navy. He told me that most of the female sailors and officers got pregnant before departure and that got them off. Most of these women then had abortions, but they were not re-sent.
Posted by partTimeParent, Monday, 28 April 2008 10:51:21 AM
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ANZAC Day is turning into a new type of event... a much needed "Men's Day". Recognising the good things about men and the emptyness that so many suffer due to fatherlessness. It is a celebration to honour 'masculine virtues'.

While the baby-boomer matriarchy, the nasty feminist 'elite' constantly tell us that everything masculine is bad. There are many 'masculine virtues'.

Male virtues

ANZAC Day: Sad, beautiful, powerfull and respectfull.
Men bring many virtues to the world....
- Respect, honour, duty and sacrifice : the virtues of war
- Personal sacrifice and taking risks: the virtues of being a provider
- Protection, assertiveness and setting boundaries: the virtues of fatherhood
- Children: a result of the high male libido
- Rationality, objectivity, focus on the big issues: the virtues of achievement.

While women can master these things, these are things that only men are instinctively good at. One of my friends, from Poland, says that "Men are responsible for life". That says it all for me.

Change is coming, slowly

It gives me great encouragement to see how ANZAC Day is growing so strongly. That as a society, we are beginning to yearn for masculine virtues and recognition of the good things that men embody.

Perhaps Christmas is a ritual of motherhood, but certainly ANZAC Day is a ritual of fatherhood and a craving for masculine virtues.
Posted by Johnoh, Monday, 28 April 2008 10:56:54 AM
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The TV show "SuperNanny" is also. FOr every family Supernanny implemented a set of standard rules and boundaries. Each had a father who instinctively wanted to impose rules and boundaries, but was unable to. This due to the mother controlling parenting, the parents disagreeing and undermining the father's authority, or because the father was working huge hours to support his family and simply had no time.

I recently saw "the Spiderwick Chronicles" at the cinema, and I highly recommend it. A sub-plot has the son craving his natural father and bravely pointing the finger of blame at the mother who blamed and demanded and criticised, driving his father away. Gutsy effort kid! Gutzy effort hollywood for telling the truth that too many children and young adults know. And "The Pursuit of Happyness" a great film!

Across the child-industry, there are new currents beginning. The recognition that children need parents who set boundaries and that children need to experience failure. That bubble-wrapping kids is bad. That ADHD is caused by a school system that systematically forces boys to behave as girls. That women are as often the perpetrators of domestic violence as men are. That children need both natural parents
Posted by Johnoh, Monday, 28 April 2008 10:57:08 AM
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