By Anthony Barich
Australia’s Bishops have issued a Social Justice Sunday Statement in response to what they call “an increasingly violent Australian society”.
The 14 September statement noted that assault, which constitutes the bulk of violent crime, has increased by over 50 per cent in the decade to 2007 in Australia.
The Bishops said that research shows homeless people are particularly exposed to violence, which in Australia includes a significant proportion of Aborigines.
“We know that Indigenous Australians are the victims of physical or threatened violence at much higher levels than their non-Indigenous counterparts,” the Bishops said. “Recent incidents where Indian students and Sudanese migrants have been attacked remind us that cultural minorities can be vulnerable.”
They said the Australian media has contributed to a “campaign of dehumanisation” that has demonised people who come to its shores seeking asylum from war and injustice – which was a key issue leading up to the 21 August federal election.
“The media have at times demonised the people who come to our shores seeking asylum from war and injustice,” Australia’s Bishops said in the statement that took the theme Violence in Australia, a message of peace, issued in response to “a growing violent culture in Australia”. “This campaign of dehumanisation can turn reality upside-down and make the powerful feel they are the victims of the powerless,” the Bishops said.
“How can it be that a group of desperate asylum seekers could inspire such animosity and rage throughout Australia and reignite old fears rather than an informed debate about our obligations to the most marginalised and powerless?”
The Bishops said that these asylum seekers remain at risk of being pawns in “a continuing game of political point-scoring until our national leaders find the resolve to adopt a bipartisan approach to meeting Australia’s obligations”.
“Divisive political rhetoric and sensationalist broadcasting encourage fear, even hatred, which can paradoxically make us more tolerant of the violence we deplore. How often do we witness the media ‘blame game’ where vulnerable groups are recast as aggressors and conflict among neighbours is inflamed?” the Bishops said.
The Bishops warned against politicians portraying groups like asylum seekers, cultural minorities, the unemployed and drug users as a threat, arousing fear and anger. “Often, the suggested remedies for community discord or violence lie in harsher penalties and in more intrusive forms of policing,” they said.
The Bishops also discussed the personal roots of violence both in the family and in the community and focused on all the ways violence “plagues society” – including domestic and street violence.
They said that, for Jesus, the key to a peaceful life and to just relations was to have a large vision of God’s care for the world.
“Then as now, (Jesus) invites us into a communion with Him which enables us to see the world through his eyes,” they said.
They added that while Jesus showed anger overturning sellers’ tables in the Temple in Mark’s Gospel, it was a “controlled gesture designed to remind people of the prophets’ criticism of their society and to make them ask themselves what really mattered”.
“It shows us that anger can be constructive if it is used for the right purposes,” the Bishops said.