Author: Patricia Karvelas
Publication: The Australian
Date: August 7, 2006
URL: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20040912-2702,00.html
Christianity has been under "consistent
attack" and should be re-established as the dominant belief system in
Australia.
This argument was mounted yesterday by more
than a dozen politicians of all hues at a Christian conference in Canberra.
Former Nationals leader John Anderson, president
of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship, opened the 300-strong Christian
forum at Parliament House last night, saying secularism had gone too far.
"I think we confuse in the public mind
very much what we really are, and certainly our government is secular,"
he said. "It's actually a Christian concept that you should separate
church and state -- it's one of the great differences between us and Muslim
societies.
'What is a secular value system? I could argue
the extreme case, that a secular value system gave us World WarII via Nazism."
Mr Anderson also delivered a statement from
John Howard, who praised the contribution of Christianity and endorsed the
forum.
"As I've said before, Judeo-Christian
ethics, the progressive spirit of the enlightenment and the institutions and
values of British political culture have been central to the development of
Australian values," the Prime Minister said in his message.
Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd,
who will address the conference today, said he was fed up with the Liberals
and Nationals claiming they were the "natural" parties of God.
"I've had a complete gutful of the conservatives'
political proposition that family values is somehow their policy terrain.
I can think of no single policy more hostile to family values than the industrial
relations legislation," Mr Rudd said.
Mr Anderson said Australians were enjoying
the "fruits" of a Christian value system but warned that "no
fruit will survive without you tending the roots that provided the growth
in the first place and without replanting".
"Where are we going to draw our values
and beliefs from in the future, Big Brother? Millions of Australians watch
(the reality television show) rather than go to church," he said.
"Many people want to deny the historical
basis of our society. I think it's quite self-evident that our way of life
... is deeply rooted in Christianity.
"It doesn't seem to be offensive for
other faiths to strongly put their perspectives and their views."
Tasmanian Liberal senator Guy Barnett, who
also spoke last night, said the forum had been stimulated in part by the "consistent
attacks and the denigration of Australia's Christian heritage".
It was "a response to the denigration
at a public level of Christian values", Senator Barnett said.
