Article by Cameron Spink

It is only this week that many people have realised that the Christian position remains largely undefined in this political election. So, to counter-balance this several articles have been released this week to express Christian perspectives.

First there was Mark Stephens article on On Line Opinion titled “The Complexity of the ‘Christian Vote’”. He details that many Christians are part-platform (i.e. some policy support but not universal) voters, which I believe has more truth in this election that it ever has. Mark Stephens also outlines a desire for politicians to “express their beliefs and values”. In summary, Mark wants a wise government, “in the biblical sense of wisdom”.

Tim Costello, today, takes a different approach as to what the Christian voter should consider. In his article “Looking for God on the Campaign Trail” on The Punch Tim states that there is a “terrible danger in putting ‘professing’ over and above the ‘character’ of polices that our leaders put forward”. Essentially Christians should pay no heed to Gillard’s atheism nor Abbott’s Catholic faith and merely consider the party platforms of the two.

John Dickson’s article “In the political realm, birds of a feather don't necessarily flock together” follows a similar vein. His contention is that “religious favouritism” does not guarantee that “our nation will be marked by peace, justice, compassion and truth”. This is an extremely valid point. Tony Abbott, while being Catholic, does have shortcomings which may prevent him from being the leader that Australia needs. He no longer adamantly opposes abortion and still seems like he’d make an uncomfortable leader.

On the other side, Julia Gillard presents us as a leader who is an atheist living in sin. For many Christians there is no issue in having a leader, and inevitably a role model, with questionable morals. However, upon looking at Labor policies we see many positions that are dangerous to all Christians. While Labor, in the past, spent energy on social justice, the party has had a recent transformation and no longer shows many signs of social justice in their platform. Labor supports abortion, contends to support a national Chaplaincy program (though, the program is up for review next year) and while Julia professes to believe in marriage as being between a man and a woman other voices in the party have expressed support for same-sex marriage once they have the public’s endorsement.

The most worrisome of Labor’s policies is the endorsement of human rights and the lack of resistance to vilification laws. It is possible if Labor were re-elected that Christians would be inflicted with mandates against preaching the truth. In this respect, the leader does seem to have an influence over the party.

While it is fine to state that one shouldn’t merely vote for a Christian leader the leadership of each party does have significant ramifications on the policies they bring. Besides, an Australian Prime Minister should be wise. This entails having a healthy fear of God and uncompromising morals.