| What it means to be a Christian country |
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| Tuesday, 11 March 2008 00:00 |
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In this article...
Why Australia is not a Christian country Rev Dr Chris Budden I think that what people mean when they make the claim that Australia is a Christian country is that Australia has a cultural heritage that has been shaped to some extent by a relationship between the church and society, allows a space for God and the Church, and supports some Christian values. But how can a country be Christian? What do we mean by ‘Christian’ when we make that claim? To be Christian is not simply to own a set of moral values, particularly if those values only have to do with personal morality and a particular view of the family. To be Christian is to belong to a community that has been called and elected by God to be a sign of God's intention for the whole of creation. To be Christian is to understand that among the many things that claim our allegiance, our absolute loyalty belongs to Jesus. And it is not that Jesus has a claim on our spiritual life, and the country on our bodily life. Jesus claims lordship of our whole life and calls us to be an alternative community whose heart is peace-making, forgiving of enemies and caring for the least. The Christian faith has to be significantly redefined and revamped to allow Christians to call their country Christian. The early church was clear that there was a choice between faith in Jesus and obedience to the Roman rulers. The central claim that "Jesus is Lord" (1 Cor. 12: 3) had deep political meaning. When the early church, as a persecuted minority in a large and powerful Roman Empire, said that Jesus is the Lord, they were also saying that Caesar is not Lord. Early Christians understood that there is a tension between allegiance to Jesus and the demands of citizenship.1 William Cavanaugh shows how the rise of the modern nation state further confused the relationship of citizenship and discipleship that had begun with the conversion of the Emperor Constantine. Citizenship became the first loyalty and discipleship has to conform to the demands of the State.2 A central problem in claiming Australia as a Christian nation is that we give up the tension between citizenship and discipleship and we allow our life to be shaped by citizenship. We give up our view of the church as alternative community and sign of God’s intention for the world. We worry about the place of the church in the world, when in fact the world and the church both have their place within the purposes of God. When we make this claim we also ignore the diversity of our community and the biblical picture of hospitality and being with people, rather than being against people and forcing them to fit into our understanding of the world. 1 Susan Brook Thistlewaite, Christology and Postmodernism: Not Everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’. Interpretation (July 1995) Why Australia is (and should be) a Christian country Rev Fred Nile
Not everyone living in Australia is a Christian, although nearly 70% claim they are Christian in the National Census, with their Christian Church identification such as Anglican, Catholic, etc. As it is the only voluntary question, I believe many Christians do not answer the question, in order to protect their privacy. Every day that Federal and State Parliaments sit, they commence with a Christian prayer and the Lord’s prayer. The Queen of Australia, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned as a Christian Queen in a Christian Coronation Service. When our Commonwealth Constitution was being debated a prominent founding politician, Sir John Downer (1898), said, “This Commonwealth of Australia from its first stage will be a Christian Commonwealth”. Sir Henry Parkes, the “Father of Federation,” said, “As we are a British people, pre-eminently a Christian people as our law, our whole system of jurisprudence, our constitution are based upon and interwoven with our Christian belief, and as we are immensely in the majority, we have a fair claim to be spoken of at all times with respect and deference”. Even though Australia is a multi-racial nation, the majority of the new arrivals have come from Christian nations or are Christians, e.g. Koreans, so they support our Christian heritage, conventions and traditions. Rev Dr Chris Budden is a Christian scholar and minister with the Uniting Church in Australia. Rev Fred Nile is the Hon National President, Christian Democratic Party. Unpack the issues...Discussion points
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How can a country be Christian? What do we mean by "Christian" when we make that claim. Chris Budden and Fred Nile put forward opposing arguments to those questions.
Australia is a Christian nation in the same way as we identify other nations, e.g. India as a Hindu nation; Pakistan as a Muslim nation, etc.
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