There has already been some discussion about voting as a Christian in my how to vote. Here are three more things to keep you thinking!
Christian values?
The Australian Christian Values Institute has republished their usual checklist of the issues they claim Christians should vote for. Of the 23 issues they list,
- 8 are to do with family,
- 4 are to do with abortion and euthanasia,
- 3 are to do with censorship and pornography,
- 3 are to do with preservation of free speech,
- 1 is to do with the natural environment.
And that — apart from a couple of things about prayers in parliament, education, and drugs — is about it. Umm, OK… Since when does this particular handful of issues exhaust a Christian political outlook, even if they are the most pressing issues?
Ooh, double man-crush!
The two directors of the Centre for Public Christianity have been doing their usual top-flight work in the media. John Dickson discusses the Christian vote here, emphasising that it must always be a vote for others. Greg Clarke asks whether Australians need a Christian Prime Minister, here. Both articles are helpful in waking us up to post-Christendom realities and urging us to consider our priorities as the Body of Christ — plus helping the rest of Australia understand what we’re really on about.
Political compass
The Political Compass site has added a basic breakdown of the Australian election. Everyone has moved further right, both economically and socially. They note, as others have, that the Greens have made the transition from a single-issue party to a comprehensive social democratic platform. Remember to take the test to get your own political compass!
As always, I’d love to hear what you reckon!
Categories: Uncategorized Written by Arthur
Arthur Davis
Arthur Davis is an Aussie living in Tanzania, writing at meetjesusatuni.com.
Meet Jesus at uni 
I found it interesting that the only parties I’ve ever voted for were the two ‘all-red’ columns on the far right of the ACVI table.
Hmmm. And so I was compelled to take the political compass test.
Turns out I’m more Libertarian-Left than the Greens.
Economic Left/Right: -7.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.64
Perhaps the picture is a little more complex than the ACVI folks would have us believe.
I’m a Christian right? Aren’t I? I think I am.
Or is this what they call ‘cognitive dissonance’?
Brett
Yo Brett
I have something similar: economic -6.25 and social -2.56. :)
One day one of colleagues broke the Third Commandment. The boss said something like “In case you didn’t know, nearly everyone here except you are Christians, so the name of Jesus means a lot to us, so when you use it as a swear word we want to want to get a sharpened stick and impale you. Isn’t that right Eric?” I said “well, not the part about the sharpened stick”. What I would have added is that I don’t hold others to the the the same standards of speech and conduct as I hold myself.
Larry Wall (famous Christian computer scientist) talked about being liberal in the input you accept from others and conservative with your own output.
And my only ever full sermon was on politics, and raised the question – which of God’s laws for us should we seek to have reflected in the laws of the state?
My opinion is that Christians should be advocating less for Christians and more for the powerless.
Thanks for that, Eric. Yeah, I reckon that if we recognise there’s no such thing as a Christian nation, it steers us away from trying at all costs to prop up a Christian (Christendom?) political presence and instead focus on the grassroots presence of the church.
Just got an email this morning – Christians anxious about content of national school curriculum, because there’s supposedly less about Christianity and more about Islam. But just as being married to the establishment weakened the Church, I see an Islam overview in the curriculum as a way to make Muslims feel they are getting preferential treatment (esp compared to the more numerous Buddhists), part of Australian society rather than dissenters. Thus radical Islam gets subverted and the risk of terrorism at home decreases.
It’s not nearly as good as the two opinion pieces linked in the post, but here’s another recent article that makes similar claims: ‘Australian politics doesn’t need a Christian lobby’.
Thanks for that Arthur. I scored -6.5 and -5.59 and usually call myself a Christian. I think this puts me almost entirely at the opposite of the ACVI. This could either mean that most of the issues here don’t have much to do with Christinaity and more to do with political philosophy, but this assumes those two things are quite separate. Alternatively, it might be that we have much more radically different views of what Christianity is than we’d usually like to think.
Similar here:
Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.10
Got a bit of a shock actually. Kind of the opposite to most political parties and closer to where the Greens stand politically.
But the questions are very specific and obviously I wasn’t answering them as a politician, but as a Christian. Definitely interesting.
Thanks Arthur. :)
I would have to say the blogosphere leans to the left! Including much of the Christian blogosphere.
But it’s the conservative Christians who go into politics to win the nation back for God, while we lefties work more in other arenas.
My dot came out exactly where the Greens sit which is ironic or something given my stated intentions!