In the early 1990s I began to say in parishes and in the higher councils of the Anglican Church of Australia that, as well as being infected with the Original Sin of humanity, Australians were also infected with their own unique Original Sin i.e. the building of their prosperity, civilization and culture on the violent dispossession of Aboriginal lands, with consequent destruction of Aboriginal family, clan and tribal morality and culture.


It was a controversial claim and I was surprised by the amount of agreement.


In the Genesis story of the Fall, once they sin, Adam and Eve are barred from re-entering the paradisial garden with its access to the Tree of Life. A new world has to be built and, according to the story, that new world is built by violence, for it is Cain the murderer of his brother Abel who is the first builder of a city, the founder of civilisation.


Violence is at the heart of all civilisation and culture. Mocking of those who draw attention to Australia's Original Sin as promoters of the 'black arm-band' view of Australian history , by Prime Minister John Howard and others, is a contemporary attempt to deny the violent dispossession and the violent murder of Aborigines that is foundational to modern Australia's prosperity and cultural and political sophistication. This mockery is a modern equivalent of Cain's derisive question to God - 'Am I my brother's keeper?'


Anglicanism does not have a distinctive theology of its own: its theology is that of mainstream, historic Christian orthodoxy with commitment to the canonical scriptures as the ultimate rule and standard of faith, and to the faith of the catholic church (of which it is a part) as professed in primitive times and as set forth in the Nicene and Apostle's creeds. But Anglicanism does claim to have a distinctive theological emphasis, an emphasis on incarnation i.e. upon God in Christ becoming one with humanity and identifying with the suffering, fallen created order.


This incarnational emphasis seen, as I will show, in twenty and twenty-first century Australian Anglicanism's commitment to social and political justice for Aboriginal Australians, leads Anglican theology to reject the individualistic (Enlightenment and Post Modern) thinking common to modern Australia and to affirm solidarity with the suffering outcasts and scapegoats of society.


The new way to the Tree of Life, a path of grace not sin, denies Cain and says 'Yes, I am my brother's (and sister's) keeper' and is bound by its faith to say 'No!' to social and political policies that hurt and oppress with violence, intimidation or scapegoating in order to maintain privilege, power and prosperity.


A little white baby born in 1975, say, to a family in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne or Sydney is born, through no merit of its own, with, as the metaphor goes, a silver spoon in its mouth. A little black baby born in the same year to a family, say, on Palm Island or on the outskirts of Alice Springs is born, through no demerit of its own, with a burnt stick in its mouth. Each baby will be 'called into being' (grow up) by its nurturers according to the language, prosperity, education etc inherited from its ancestors. Little about each of the babies will be individual. Each mostly will be a product of ancestral inheritance.


Human beings are social beings through and through, probably not more than one per cent of our being is individual; our minds, for example, are created from the language we learn as we drink our mother's milk. We are each other, indelibly then we are the keepers of each other. Just as God incarnate in Jesus Christ transforms and saves us by becoming one of us (by being 'called into being' as a Jewish, ancestral and social individual), we who follow Christ can only transform and save our brother's and sisters from suffering and sin by deep acknowledgement that we are each other's keepers.


Incarnation means identification. If our white baby is to follow Christ she must first see how much her silver spoon was forged however directly or indirectly by ancestors (not necessarily her own direct ancestors) at the expense of our black baby. If our black baby is to follow Christ then she must see how her burnt stick was originally poked in the eye of her ancestors, try to spit it out, and work and agitate for spoon equality - fiercely but non-violently opposing those who sinfully justify keeping and passing on their silver spoons in the name of 'I didn't personally do anything wrong', ' I have no responsibility or guilt', 'I don't need to say sorry' individualism.


John Meynard Keynes, the great economist, liberal intellectual and no friend to Christianity, said that the Church justifiably becomes involved in the political process because most political issues are moral not merely technical issues. For example, it is a technical issue as to which particular new fighter among others available should be purchased as suitable for the Australian Air Force; it is a moral issue to decide whether new fighters should be purchased at all, or whether to spend the money instead on education, health or overseas aid.


Keyne's view is rationalistic and sensible as far as it goes, but it is hardly theological. With his special identification with outcasts and with the sinned against (not only with sinners) such as women, the poor, the leper, the prostitute, the Jesus of the gospels revealed the violence at the heart of the new social order, at the heart of Cain's world 'east of Eden' (Gen. 4:16).


By refusing to defend himself with violence - going like a lamb to slaughter by human beings on Calvary's cross, and in his resurrection appearances breathing not violent retribution against his murderers but peace (John 20:19), Jesus unveiled the violence at the core of every human heart and every civilization and culture.


We live not in paradise but in Cain's world, this is why the New Testament presents us with paradox when it comes to how Christians are to view the state. On the one hand, St Paul advises us to view the state (Roman Empire authorities) as God's agent for good in curbing and suppressing evil human acts (Romans 13). On the other hand that same state (Roman Empire authorities) is the Great Whore, i.e. embodied evil, in the Revelation of St John the Divine.


But even St Paul recognises that in Cain's world the state counters evil with evil, violence with violence - 'It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer' (v 4). This is the way even advanced democratic countries such as modern Australia keep order - via our system of police, law courts and gaols. We prevent illegitimate violence by using legitimate violence. Better than the war of all against all, or perpetual vicious circles of revenge such as other nations experience, but even Australian society is held together, at the ultimate, by violence and the threat of violence: Cain's world. The book of Revelation more clearly recognises this and is written at a time when the state (Roman Empire Authorities) was acting violently towards Christians themselves: not an agent for good but an agent of evil.


For Christians, to live in Cain's world is to support and obey the state when it is an agent for good and to resist, subvert or disobey the state when it is an agent for evil. By and large the Anglican Church of Australia has sought to resist and subvert the state over its treatment of Aborigines insofar as it perpetuates the Original Sin against Aborigines.


Anglicans express their ethical convictions largely through resolutions passed at their synods. The General or National Synod is comprised of bishops, elected clergy and elected lay leaders. In the fifty years since 1955, the Australian General Synod has passed over 23 resolutions on injustices perpetrated against Aborigines. Subjects covered range from calling for the removal of legislation excluding Aboriginal women of more than 50% Aboriginal blood from maternity allowances available to all other women (1955), to calling for legislation to protect Aboriginal lands from mining exploitation (1960), to return land to Aborigines (1981), to increasing Treasury funding of Aboriginal health (2001).


The following excerpt from a resolution, moved by John Grindrod the then Archbishop of Brisbane, and passed by the Anglican General Synod of 1981, epitomises the Anglican view of participation in so-called political - but actually spiritual and ethical - issues of a Church with an incarnational emphasis. It also captures the paradox of a Church that knows the state can be both an agent of good, i.e. reflect God's coming kingdom of the future, or an agent of evil i.e. reflect Cain's civilisation of violence:
.this Synod, recognising the common humanity of the Aboriginal, Torres
Strait Island and non-Aboriginal people of Australia and the unity of all
peoples declared in the Christian Gospel.
calls upon all Anglicans to recognise the existence of racial discrimination
in Australia and to work towards its elimination in their own communities.
calls upon the Federal Government to take initiatives with state governments
to make freehold land available to recognised Aboriginal groups as a
foundation for the expression of their spiritual inheritance and cultural
identity.urges the relevant authorities to provide resources in order to
encourage the self-managed health, legal and educational services which
would lead to.social advancement.for Aboriginal people.


This is Church involvement in 'politics', and on this topic the Anglican Church has seldom been appreciated by governments in power or been supported by the vast majority of the Australian population. A statement true to this day!


* Bruce Wilson is an Anglican bishop and author of several books including Can God Survive In Australia? He currently co-produces Market Place, a national independent newspaper for Anglicans, and works as a psycho-spiritual guide for Church leaders.