Bishop Oliver Heyward, assistant to the Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia said in a letter:
The God of the Bible is a just God and his justice requires that recompense be made to the Aboriginal people. The present political debate over native title to land should go some way towards meeting that requirement.
Our task as Christians is to see that the 'backlash and loss of sympathy for the Aboriginal people' that you predict does not happen.
It is not clear how the God of the Bible and the justice of a Bible requires recompense to the aboriginal people. There is a requirement of recompense when harm is done to a person or persons. There is no biblical principle which requires recompense to be provided in material terms to (i) a race and (ii) from one generation for harm done to a previous generation, many times removed.
There are many races all over the world who have suffered in years gone by. Do their distant descendants have a claim many years or a century or more later? A modicum of common sense and understanding of history demonstrates the absurdity of the so-called claims or rights.
It is a distortion of the Bible to make such a claim. The claim is based on modern philosophical principles and guilt.
The Christian position is one of forgiveness. Guilt is the basis of the movement for recompense to the Aborigines. Guilt is not a Christian concept — repentance and redemption are. A person who is in guilt cannot receive forgiveness which must affect his spiritual development. Recompense can only be made to the actual persons who suffered. They are all dead. Their descendants many times removed (some of whom are more white than black) have no rights.
A person who bears resentment has a spirit of unforgiveness. The Aboriginal people's resentment and unforgiveness is being whipped up by many — and unfortunately the Churches are participants in this process. They are stifling the spiritual life of these people.
Contradiction Of The Bible and Commonsense
The present rights or claims of the aboriginal people are contrary to the justice of The Bible and all notions of commonsense. I regard Mabo as the worst decision in Australian jurisprudence.
I find it impossible to understand how the Anglican Church can take the position it does. The Anglican Church has in recent decades moved away from the theology and understandings which the Anglican Church (which traces apostolic succession to the early Church) has taught for centuries. I was brought up on Anglican theology. CS Lewis, whose writings are as valid today as they were at the time Lewis wrote has had a profound influence on me.
The position on aboriginal issues and so many other matters of public concern is based on modern social and political philosophies with a thin veneer of Christianity.