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Alison Atkinson-Phillips When Kevin Rudd published his public essay “Faith in Politics” in the October 2006 edition of The Monthly, many Christians cheered. At last, a politician willing to debate the place of Christianity in public life outside of “family values".
Nonetheless, you could also be forgiven for being a bit cynical, especially as the article was published only weeks before Rudd’s successful challenge to the Opposition leadership, and at a time when political analysts were increasingly talking about the power of the Christian vote to sway decision making in Canberra. What has followed has bemused Australians, secular and religious alike, as Health Minister Tony Abbott went into bat for the Government, accusing Rudd of being “politically correct,” by engaging in a discussion of Christian socialism without dealing with private morality issues such as abortion or genetic engineering. Over the last few decades Christianity in Australia has become increasingly associated with issues of personal morality. This has in part been due to the vocal political engagement of people such as Fred Nile, leader of the Christian Democrats, as well as the establishment of the Australian Christian Lobby and the Family First Party. And, while the Prime Minister has not followed the lead of US President, George W Bush, in overtly politicising his faith, it is well known that he and other members of his cabinet are regular church goers. There has certainly been a wide interest in the discussion: it has been reported by all the major Australian newspapers, as well as by Christian news sites around the world, generating numerous online comments and blogs. But while this debate is interesting for Christians, it makes scant sense to an increasingly secular society where many of those listening have only the vaguest ideas of the basic tenets of the religion under discussion, nevermind the complexities of theological debate. At a time when most of the major Christian denominations would admit they have a credibility problem, a public slagging match of do-gooder vs killjoy played out in 30-second sound bytes does little to educate people about the place in public life of Christianity or any other religion. On the other hand, Rev Elenie Poulos, national director of UnitingJustice, suggests it’s a discussion we have to have, in whatever way is possible. “It’s hard to have this debate in a meaningful way when you’ve only got a couple of hundred words to make your point. But it’s a really important discussion to be had, especially when you’re seeing in an international context what some people are calling the end of secularisation. “In countries where you have a secular democracy, it’s important to have these discussions at whatever level you can get them,” she says. Elenie points to last year’s furore over cartoons published in Denmark which insulted the Muslim prophet Mohamed. The outrage this caused was incomprehensible to many people because, Elenie says, much of the western world is “so secular we find it difficult to understand why people of faith would respond so strongly.” Elenie suggests that what is happening in Australia should been seen in a broader context, where questions now being asked about the extent to which religion influences people’s values, be they Christian, Muslim or indeed atheist. “Religion is being taken seriously as a motivating factor,” she says. “Christians are one group in society, and we have things to contribute that come out of our hope for reconciliation in Christ and how we live that out.” People are suspicious of Christian values, because they have been too often discussed in terms of morality, focussed on issues of abortion or genetics, which people see as being a personal, not a social choice. However this view of Christianity neglects a long tradition of involvement in social issues: many of the founders of trade unions and the Labour party both in Britain and in Australia were Christian. On the other side of the political divide, William Wilberforce, the man credited with ending the slave trade, was a British Conservative politician and a Christian. Of course, so were many of the slave owners and traders he was fighting against. 2007 is the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, and a new movie focussed on Wilberforce’s life, Amazing Grace, might help to recontextualise the discussion away from a debate about Labor vs Liberal. “We forget those stories,” says Elenie. “Just to have that story being retold is really significant, because it shows this is something the church has contributed that has nothing to do with sexual ethics, but is about how we live out our lives as human beings on this one planet.”
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