Bible Society Australia highlights how soldiers turned to God during wars in Anzac campaign

Why on earth is this worthy of coverage?

The ad is pretty good. Unfortunately the brand name lets them down. ‘The Bible Society’ sounds very archaic. Change the brand name to something more uplifting and you’ll get more followers.

Just another organisation trying to promote their product by exploiting the memory of the fallen.

Does it say anything about those who walked away from war saying ‘there can not be a god’?

@groucho Indeed.

If exploiting the memory of the fallen is tasteless, then religion has a lot to answer for.

Men and women then signed up to serve God, King and Country; to keep us safe. There were Chaplains. Not much lead up if this is the first I e heard of it. This is on,y irrelevant if you’re an atheist or don’t believe in protecting your family or serving your country and fighting under its flag.
Tradition has served its purpose on many occasions. Guess you’re all happy and hypocritical enough to not go into work on Christmas or at Easter or do you wNt the best of both worlds? Yes, these are gazetted public holidays, but based on fundamental Christian, albeit originally pagan ideas morphed into the new religion. No argument. The Bible Society is what it says it is and has done far more in third world countries than merely the distribution of Bibles. Buildings, sewerage , hospitals, schools and housing have been created.
Nurses and chaplains were usually the last people dying war personnel saw or heard or perhaps a photo of a loved one from home. Bibles gave these people hope of a better, albeit inevitable, death from mortal wounds – someone, someone on which to hold as they breathed their last. Speaking of tradition, under whose leadership and where is it documented that ANZAC become Anzac? Around the time QANTAS became Qantas, etc?
Guess this one is circular and everyone is entitled to their opinion but be aware, all naysayers, that Christian prayers are still being said at the opening of Parliament and at ANZAC Day ceremonies and that Christian hymns are sung at commemoration services. Have you also noticed that Asian and UAE owned hotels in Australia still house the Gideon distributed Bible in every hotel room?
I asked someone I thought I knew well if he went to the ANZAC Day March “I did when I went to school then I realized I could sleep in and not have to go to work”. Earlier I’d asked a RAAF Squadron Leader if he took his then 8 yo son to honour the fallen. “No, he’s too young”. Now at 15, I am guessing he’s still too young or his father’s too lazy. I’m grateful to my ancestors for the not ultimate sacrifice they made for me but for the service they gave and that chaplains and the Bible were and still are available for all serving personnel, should they need them. I am grateful my sons and I are here to honour these people.

The ad campaign may appear skewed or commercial but it is neither the first, nor the last. Camp Gallipolli? Where do the proceeds of funds with one’s parents or grandparents’ NX numbers go? Same with RTA, now RMS for their issue of plates some years ago? What about ANZAC cookies? What about religion teachers in public schools and chaplains, Bibles, religious studies (now mostly focused on Islam) and church services fit? Maybe funeral homes be disallowed from using the Bible, hymns and prayers during services of families who do believe?
so much more commercialism is used than that of the Bible Society eg Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc and yet more than millions of dollars are expended on these occasions BECAUSE the media tells us to and we blindly follow or ignore it. The choice is ours.
We have battles over halal-certified food and the multi-million $ corporations jumping on that particular band wagon – for the sake of the unholy dollar. We’d rather listen to the advice of Mark Zuckerberg and his underlings.
Be grateful for all that you have and that you are not subsisting in a “refugee” camp or in Guatanamo Bay, accused of crimes you did not commit. The enemy here is our own thinking and lack of belief in anything of substance.
Everyone needs and does believe in something: be it God or that a Paleo diet will fix YOUR problems.
As for God not stopping wars, He does not create them: man does.

Amanda Osborne
NSW Southern Highlands

Let those who believe in nothing be the one to cast the first stone.

I had a friend who was a POW in WW2 and he had a bible with him the whole time. He said it was his second most valuable possession. The paper pages were perfect for rolling cigarettes with.

Whatever your beliefs this is quite an amazing piece of creative work. We need to also put into context that for many of the men heading to Gallipoli, God and faith were an integral part of their lives. Things are obviously different nowadays for many Australians but I think it’s fine for the Bible Society to acknowledge the Bible and the role it played in these men’s lives. People cling to all kinds of things during times of conflict and war – faith is certainly a big part of it. From what I’ve read a number of the soldiers carried their Bibles with them during the warfare. From reading the website, it looks as though The Bible Society has a couple of these Bibles on display in their exhibition. Some still have shrapnel and bullets lodged in their pages. That’s an awesome piece of history. The way these soldiers revered the Bible (so much so as to carry it in their pockets) offers us insight into the Australian culture at the time. It shouldn’t be smirked at, just remembered as another piece to the ANZAC story. Just my opinion anyway…

There seem to be some foxes in this atheist hole.

Peddling religion and using war to do so. Disgusting.

First up, I’m an atheist. But that aside, its a moving campaign and its not pushing religion, its showing history and some great heroic stories of leadership. It’s pieces like these that make us proud and inspire us to be leaders no matter what your belief is. It has a really nice agenda. Show some respect to these soldiers by focussing on that, and the campaign itself rather than on the organisation behind it – and you have a great piece of creative.

Lawdie me, some of these comments are self-righteous. Eg: Get off your high horse @EthicalPerson. If I went to war, pretty sure I’d want to believe in a mystical sky being to get me through it. Bet you would too. The bible bashers probably have a more historically valid reason for banging on about anzac day than any corporate brand.

And i didnt see any CONVERT NOW buttons underneath any of the stories. This isnt a davinci code conspiracy, its just a bunch of nice stories. This is how we want to be doing anzac campaigns. You’re just maintaining the Woolies rage. Affronted disgust, my arse.