Cash Cows?

Alison and I are both involved in ministering to International students at our church. We are really thankful for the opportunities we have to share Jesus and our lives with people. But it has made us really aware of how poorly treated international students are. They are charged an incredible amount of money come here and study, and then receive no financial assistance in terms of travel insurance or medicare. International students will often work long hours each day, and are usually underpaid. Unaware of their rights, I've heard too many stories from students in the past three years who have been taken advantage of by the employers.

Michael Spence, reflecting on the racial violence against overseas students that has made world headlines for the past year, has this to say:

"...[W]e need to get serious about the services we provide to overseas students. Each student we welcome into Australia is a person with complex needs and aspirations, unlike the volumes of coal and iron ore that have traditionally dominated our links to Asia. Students should not be perceived as cash cows to be milked at every opportunity. Sure, overseas students make a huge economic contribution but why shouldn't state governments recognise this by, for example, treating them like other students and providing travel concession cards?" - SMH

Dr Spence argues that a way forward is for universities to provide more on site or local accommodation for international students. He also notes that "our education links are often as strong as, if not stronger than, our diplomatic links." I think that I agree with him. However, I want to take it further; because it is not only institutional change that is needed. It's not only our governments and universities that see overseas students as "cash cows", but employers who work international students on 12 hour shifts and pay them a pittance. Our landlords who charge students $200 a week to share a two bedroom apartment with seven other people. What is need ultimately is a change of heart. As agents and victims of sin and evil, what we need is to be set free.

That's why I'm thankful for being involved in the overseas students ministry at church. Because as Australians and Chinese (and one Colombian guy), we can say "yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Cor. 8.6.)

Around the Web

You may have missed this on the weekend, I certainly did, but the SMH had an article about CMS Missionary Maggie Crewes and her work with street kids in Ethiopia. It's an interesting article and worth checking out.

And the blogging world is abuzz with news of A.N. Wilson's conversion (h/t Michael). Wilson has written about it here and here. It's fantastic! I particularly liked this quote:

Easter does not answer such questions by clever-clever logic. Nor is it irrational. On the contrary, it meets our reason and our hearts together, for it addresses the whole person.

In the past, I have questioned its veracity and suggested that it should not be taken literally. But the more I read the Easter story, the better it seems to fit and apply to the human condition. That, too, is why I now believe in it.

Easter confronts us with a historical event set in time. We are faced with a story of an empty tomb, of a small group of men and women who were at one stage hiding for their lives and at the next were brave enough to face the full judicial persecution of the Roman Empire and proclaim their belief in a risen Christ.

Michael has followed this up with a great post on doubt. Go and read it now.

Picture from the SMH, Kate Geraghty.

Only in America?

Obama's choice of church under scrutiny. Did any one raise an eye brow when K Rudd started attending St John's Reid?

From Instrument of Brutality to Symbol of Love

John Dickson in today's SMH. Picture by John Shakespeare from SMH 10 April 2009.

John Dickson: Faith no more does little good for society

John Dickson is in today's SMH:

It hardly takes a statistician to tell us that a huge proportion of non-government welfare and aid in this country is organised through agencies with a religious heart, such as World Vision, Salvation Army, Mission Australia, Anglicare and Caritas. Then there is the evidence that the religious are more likely to become teachers, nurses and doctors. The recent Religion And Occupation study by the Christian Research Association says about 25 per cent of people in these "nurturing professions" are regular worshippers of one kind or another - much higher than the national average of 17 per cent. Religious people do not have a monopoly on doing good. Many unbelievers do a great many good things for the poor and marginalised, and there are several excellent welfare and aid agencies with no religious foundation.

Nevertheless, do-gooding remains a particular preoccupation of the faithful. Whether trying to earn their way to heaven or (more likely) trying to embody the love they think God has for the world, believers tend to give more money away, run more soup kitchens, collect more aid for those in poor countries and gravitate more toward "people professions" than those without religion.

You can read the rest of the article here.