Geez, Jim, I'd love to give you a run down on how Christianity was not the primary influence on Australian politics, national identity or culture but I'm afraid you're just going to have to be patient and wait for the book.

In the meantime, this may whet your appetite:

http://networkedblogs.com/h0rN6 (My chapter starts at page 9).

I've really enjoyed my research on the myriad links between the ACL and America's Christian nationalist and reconstructionist movements. Most illuminating. It will make a very interesting early chapter on why your 'David Barton'-like insistence on re-envisioning our history through Christian rose-coloured glasses is firmly linked to a theocratic agenda - despite your protestations to the contrary.

Oh - direct link to The Australian Book of Atheism: http://books.google.com/books?id=nXrJS7aOM3wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=australian+book+of+atheism&hl=en&ei=Dbq0Ta72F5HOvQOd3OiVBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CGkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

I'd be interested if anyone had a response re: my earlier arguments about liberal pluralism and voluntary association...

Just that I *think* this article is arguing for a kind of interference in voluntary associations that I'm not really comfortable with, and I'd be interested what others thought...

The local bikies and the local skinheads have "free association" and beyond that can hire and fire who they like in their business dealings as well as refusing entree to people they just plain don't like.

They don't much claim tax-exempt status.

To the extent that a church contributor pays tax on what he donates, or the church itself does on money it makes through investments, by all means let the church apply a religious test to how that is spent.

To the extent the church claims tax-exempt status on all monies collected (extended to being a deduction for the contributor, no less) and *claims* that this is for charity work, let it be under the rules of discrimination applied to other public effort, or other charities like Rotary or Lions, who most certainly may not apply a religious or religiously inspired test to their hirelings. Let such tax-exempt monies be audited in a manner accessible to the community at large.

Hmmmmm?

Rusty

And for anyone who missed it, here's Jim Wallace on twitter exploiting the history of the ANZACS for his own bigoted, homophobic ends.

From: @JimWallaceACL
Just hope that as we remember Servicemen and women today we remember the Australia they fought for - wasn't gay marriage and Islamic!
1 hour ago

Fortunately, real Australians understand what ANZAC Day is for and have responded appropriately. I've posted many of the responses on my blog.

http://thatsmyphilosophy.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/anzac-day-cheapshot-from-religious-extremist/

Jim Wallace,

The significant factor in the West's pre-eminence is not really 'Christianity' but Protestant Christianity which undermined Catholic universalism.

It's certainly no coincidence that progress towards democracy and industrialization accelerated in the Protestant nations of NE Europe.
Protestantism encouraged independence of thought and the questioning of ancient doctrines which eventually led to the Enlightenment and scepticism in regard to all religion.

So, we could say that Protestant Christians unwittingly started the process that created the modern secular state, however there's no justification to the claim that Christianity is the source of modern Australian values.

After all their work, the Chinese scholars still don't understand.