Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Friday, September 14, 2012

Questions and Mockery

There was a somewhat surprising take in The Australian on Peter Jensen's appearance on the Q&A debate the other night. Here's a portion-

'When Archbishop Peter Jensen appeared on the ABC's Q&A on Monday night there was a sense he was not there as a representative of a valid strand of community thinking but rather as a curiosity to be mocked by a crude stand-up comedian. It signalled Q&A's retreat from discussion towards crass confrontation, and a reluctance to reason with traditional views when they can be shouted down instead.'

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its true mate. QandA has become a circus. To pump up ratings by virtue of the distinct one side against each other representation.
The regular appearance of musicians, comedians and surfers(!!!) illustrates the weak attempt to pull people in from varying demographics to watch the 'punch up'.

i for one don't agree with what old mate the Archbishop had to say but I did gain alot of respect for him because of the way he handled himself and his measured approach to answering questions and putting forward his opinion.
THAT is definitely something the rest of the panel morons could have learnt from him.
We don't normally watch the show anymore but as you know, I love a good scrap where religion (of any denomination) is involved.
I have written off the show altogether now. It was a waste of time.

Anonymous said...

It's disappointing that there wasn't time for the panellists to have a decent debate about the three issues (asylum seekers, submission, homosexuality) rather than throwing in what they could in such a limited time. I don't mind Q&A, but found this particular one frustratingly shallow. I'd have happily watched a longer episode (or had them stick to just one or two of the issues) in order to try to get some depth from each side of the argument. As it was, it seemed to do nothing but make a lot of people cranky and judgy.

onlinesoph said...

I felt very emotional about the whole thing. Some of the panelists were horrible. Others I could see myself being friends with, even though I didn't agree with everything they said.

As for Peter Jensen, I thought he was a wonderful example of humility and grace in the face of mockery and derision. I've seen quite a few christians criticise him online...well, all I can say is being on a panel like that, expressing your point of view while fielding questions in the QandA format is harder than it looks.

Karen said...

It's probably not a very Christian thing to say but I thought Catherine Deveney came across as a ranting shrew really. And Peter Jensen's humility in the face of it all was wonderful to watch.

I agree that far more time was needed to have a decent debate. But I'm not sure that that is the purpose of Q&A these days. It's more about shock value.

RodeoClown said...

Hi Ben,
I found this article (via Karen Beilharz): https://jlummow.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/intolerant-disrepectful-christians/

It was really well written I think.
Check it out.

Anonymous said...

RodeoClown, it seems we have a mutual friend! Karen and Ben's little girl is my son's BFF (Karen's pretty tops, too).

This was another article I read that's worth checking out for a different perspective:
http://thatsmyphilosophy.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/defending-deveny/

RodeoClown said...

Hi Belle,
I don't actually know here - I got the link from her twitter feed (and I think I've posted a comment on her blog once).

She does seem pretty nice, and a bunch of my friends do know her and seem to think the same thing :)