On Wednesday night I visited Saint Thomas More’s Forum where Jim Wallace, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, was presenting ‘Christian Involvement in Politics – Right or Wrong?’
Now there’s no prizes for guessing which of these viewpoints Jim holds, and in fact not only does he believe Christian involvement in politics is right, he is “amazed when Christians don’t get involved.”
Why? For the simple reason that there are many decisions made in politics which are for, as well as against, Christian values. Christians need to weigh in to the debate to ensure that our voice is heard and that our values are taken into account as well as those of secular society. We have just as much right to express our opinion as anyone else – no more, no less. Jim mentioned a few areas where Christians should be involved – abortion, foreign aid, euthanasia and homosexual adoption to name a few.
Jim also said we need to support our “champions on the high ground”. He spoke of one of our senators who he approached one day to congratulate him for going against his party’s line on a particular issue. The senator was appreciative of Jim’s gesture and said “You know, all I usually get from Christians is hate mail. Whenever my party does something wrong, I get hate mail.” We need to support Christians in parliament rather than chastise them!
When getting involved in politics though, it’s important not to get caught up in the issues and thus lose sight of the goals. For example, when it comes to abortion the goal is to give everyone the right to live, and some go too far – there have been 41 bombings of abortion clinics in the United States in the last 20 years. (Man gets 40yrs for abortion bombing attempt, NEWS.com.au, 20th October 2007)
The people who were behind these bombings probably aren’t Christians, but it serves as an example of getting caught up so much in an aim – in this case, ensuring unborn babies were given the right to live – that they’re risking taking away exactly the same right – the right to life – from mothers (and ironically, the baby in the process). When it comes to Christian involvement in politics, our goal should not be to impose our views on everyone else and turn Australia into a theocracy – that’s going to achieve nothing but hostility. Our goal should be to ensure that Biblical principles are adhered to where they matter the most.
Homosexual adoption is an example – I don’t think it should be allowed, because it is depriving the child of a proper upbringing with a mother and a father performing very unique roles. But, I don’t think we should campaign for Biblical principles just for the sake of it – such as if we spoke out against publicly taking God’s name in vein. I’m not saying that taking God’s name in vein doesn’t matter – it matters alot to me and although I must admit I almost don’t notice the “conservative dosings” anymore, if I can call them that, I wince whenever I hear tirades of abuse in Jesus’ name.
But, this is a free country and people really can say what they like. I don’t think God wants us to get involved in issues like this because it really is up to each person what they do, and they’re not harming the defenceless. What I’m getting at, is as Jim said, there’s the “don’t legislate your morality on me” mindset. We need to “pick and choose our fights”. We should limit our involvement on some issues – the “trivial” ones, again if I can call it that – to emphasise our involvement on others.
I guess there’s multiple stages of involvement in politics. There is of course the stage that Jim and the ACL is at – the lobbying stage. The influential stage. And on the other end of the spectrum there’s people who are impartial – who don’t get involved at all. Lobbying isn’t for everyone. But I believe that everyone needs to be involved in politics to some extent – not just Christians, everyone. The decisions made by the political parties influence your life and the lives of those around you. We’re not all called to lobby and take a public stand for issues – and we can’t all do it anyway – but I think we all have to take time out to look at what is on offer, and vote for the party that best fits our beliefs and that we believe will make the best leaders for our country. We need to be involved in politics at least to the point where we can say “I’m voting Liberal because Howard and Costello know how to run our economy” or “I’m voting Labor because they’re going to provide educational IT funding for families”.
For me personally the biggest issue is the leaders. Who do I agree with the most? Who do I trust? Who do I want running my country? We all should be involved – so that we can make our vote count.
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