When I was young I considered myself to be liberal, because I considered that under the secular law all people should be equal, and that there should be a safety net and shelter for the unfortunate.

Now I am older, I consider myself a Tory (at least a Red Tory) because I  believe that under secular law all people should be equal, and there should be a safety net and shelter… and that these values have served New Zealand well. Paul Holmes is working in that sense of tradition when he said about the traditionalist Muslim woman in the O’Herald

In our communities, we expect to see the face of the person we are meeting or trading or interacting with. We don’t like seeing a face covered. Simple as that. To us it seems deceitful, weird, untrustworthy. Want to get ahead in New Zealand and Australia? Take off your stupid niqabs.

I venture to suggest that even the most reasonable New Zealander – even the most pro-immigration as I am – will tell you they hate the Muslim face mask.

Bow, I have never considered myself righteous.I beleive that Christians should dress modestly and in a way that respects others around them. I do not have the boldness of Jesus, who  was sent to heal and reconcile those who were shunned by their actions to God.

Mark 2.

15And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples — for there were many who followed him. 16When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

18Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

21“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

One of the things that we are given is reason and common sense. The rules in Christianity were described in three sentences in the Council of Jerusalem — shun food from offerings to idols, be faithful to ones marriage, and care for the poor. The Jewish teachers could sum up the law (and Jesus said they were correct to do this) in two phrases.

Our traditions, rituals and ways of life are useful guidee — in writing this I am within a tradition of pragmatism and empiricism that New Zealand shares with the Anglosphere — but they are not to over ride the prinicples by which we should live. Historically, Christians have never had a set dress — they act and dress as citizens of the countries in which they live.

Traditional Arab dress works in Saudi, where it is both very hot and very, very cold. The dress in NZ varies — the north is subtropical, while the south is continental, with snow.

We should not stick with what worked in the old country, but we should nat alwasy abandon these things. Traditions are tools, not idols to be worshiped. We are called to be free. Let no tradition place us in bondage.