God’s quad

A pledge of faith by a group of Sydney academics has many staff and students worried. Aban Contractor, Gerard Noonan and Kelly Burke report.

IT WAS a call to arms. A full-page advertisement in a student newspaper signed by 22 senior academics, including three august professors heading major faculties at the university.

Every student, the advertisement said, should look to Jesus Christ as one of the great figures of history. His claims to be the Son of God bear up under the closest scrutiny. Underneath the inscription, the cream of Australia’s oldest university urged their student charges to thoroughly investigate “this unique figure, Jesus”.

The ad appeared in Sydney University’s student newspaper Honi Soit just days before the first anniversary of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre. The United States was pressing for war against Iraq and widespread anti-Muslim propaganda was cluttering the radio airwaves.

Publication of the names, complete with full academic titles, sent shockwaves through a number of the university’s faculties, including the prestigious law school in Sydney’s law precinct.

More: http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2002/11/15/1037080914152.htm