Bloody hell! can someone please tell the Pope that Italy is a protestant state?

If that's the case, then, dare we ask what the Vatican is too?

And, forgive me for raising a nasty query, but if anyone goes to France, secular though it is, no one does a days work there because they celebrate saints days every week, just about, and, do correct me if I am wrong, in France it is not the protestant saints they celebrate but the Mick ones.

Then there is Protestant Poland, well known for producing the first protestant Pope eh?

Leslie is spot on.

It's a shame that our Baptist PM knows nothing of history, so immersed has she been in her Menzian vision of life and her Sunday School appreciation of the dangers of the Enlightenment that someone else has hit upon already.

Really, if Jim Wallace and Lyle Shelton, Pell and Jensen, Houston and Gillard are the Light on the Hill spruiking for the Lurv O'God then, thanks, but no thanks.

I hear the shrill cries of so-called Christians demanding a spot of reform amongst the Muslim world but isn't there just a small mote-in-the-eye in the Christian world that needs removing first?

Lexi,
Your outline of the Australian values comes with relationship - "Love [value] your neighbour and foreigner as yourself" and with a graceious attitude. These are values espoused by Christ. However not everyone claiming to be Christian has followed the spirit of his teachings.

Friction in society has come be misrepresentation and ignorance. She mentions -"Reason also cripples claims the church is responsible for values that Human Rights Commission research shows sections of it still don't support. As the Ad Hoc Interfaith Committee explains, the main tolerance many Christians thought deserved legal protection was their "lower tolerance" for homosexuality".

She identifies homosexual acts should be as accepted as equal. Homosexuality is an unnatural act and is not a person or culture. It is just recently that the British Health service will now accept blood from former person engaged in homosexual acts who have not had sex with another man in the last ten years. WHY? They are not an equal culture with the rest of society because they are more prone to diseases and viruses not because their genetics which cannot change but because of their chosen unnatural acts; which predisposes them to AIDS and HIV

The preoccupation of Jim Wallace and the Australian Christian lobby with homosexuality speaks volumes about the kind of narrow-minded, bigoted, mean-spirited, self-interested Christianity they espouse.

Despite all their remonstrances to the contrary, the ACL is a religious right-wing fundamentalist group with just as much interest in establishing a Christian theocracy in Australia as the American Christian nationalist groups it emulates.

The out-dated views of this unrepresentative board of self-elected, self-important dinosaurs also shows how out of touch the ACL is with the broad Australian community. A Nielsen poll last year showed a huge 20% gap between the 57% of Australians who support same-sex marriage and the 37% who don't. What gives the ACL the right to impose their 'values' on the majority of Australians who don't share them?

Wallace fudges that the ACL doesn't wish to discriminate against gay couples. Those of us who know our history remember that similar platitudes were offered by the fine Christians who opposed civil rights in America:

In Arkansas, a statement signed by eighty ministers explained the Church's view on integration:

"This statement is not made with any enmity or hatred in our hearts for the Negro race. We have an abiding love for all people . . . [But] ... We believe that integration is contrary to the will of God ... is based on a false theory of the 'universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.' We believe that integration is not only un-Christian, but that it violates all sound sociological principles and is not supported by Scripture or by biological facts."

‘Contrary to the will of God’, ‘un-Christian’, ‘not supported by Scripture or biological facts’. Doesn’t this all sound eerily familiar? (continued in next post).

(Continued from previous):

Don't believe a word of Jim's assurance that the ACL doesn't wish to discriminate against homosexuals. In February 2011, Wallace defended the right of religious schools to expel gay students for no other reason except for being gay.

And, in one of Jim Wallace’s latest tirades against the ‘homosexual lobby’, published in the Australian Wallace made the astounding claim that Christians are being oppressed by homosexuals.

According to Wallace, it is not Christians who seek to inhibit diversity and, through legislation, force all Australians to live in accordance with a particular set of moral values, but homosexuals. It is an argument of such arrogant audacity and heartless hubris that it left me physically ill and shaking with rage. (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/greens-are-attacking-religious-freedom/story-e6frg6zo-1226014944623)

Again, Jim's 'blame the victim' strategy has recognizable historical roots. It reminded me of a particular quote from another vocal supporter of Christian doctrine who was equally concerned about the inherent dangers of the 'unnatural':

“... Eternal Nature inexorably avenges the infringement of her commands.

Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” - Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

Yes, just as poor old Hitler had to defend humanity against the oppression of the Jews, Jim has to defend Christians against the oppression of the homosexual lobby – and both invoke God as their witness.

It's time Australians woke up to this divisive, unrepresentative, viper which infests the halls of Australian politics. The ACL does not represent Australian values - Australians are much better than that. The ACL puts the greatest part of its corporate efforts into fighting for the right to discriminate against its fellow Australians and deny them basic rights like equality in marriage, equality in employment, the right to autonomy over their own bodies and women's reproductive rights. The ACL represents the very worst in us, and it works against Australians, not for them. Any government which panders to this group deserves to be sent into the political wilderness.

A timely article as "institutional" Christianity is under the spotlight like never before. Finally, people are starting to question the way so-called Christian values are coiled among the administration of the so-called secular state. The only kind of institution Christianity is these days is a dead institution, like monarchy. Certainly we should preserve the glorious churches and cathedrals; the bulk could be converted into museums and art galleries, Sunday Markets (as the ancient Abbey's of Europe used to be) and shelters for the homeless. A few could of course be retained in "authentic" order for scholars and antiquarians. Some which retained sufficient glebe land could be turned into theme parks for romantics and nostalgia buffs, complete with services, choristers and mock crucifictions. I would favour them remaining in public hands and the profits going to the public purse instead of the other way around for a change. Those who still profess the faith could assemble in the more modest and radical way that Jesus intended. Jesus has no doubt been cringing for the last two thousand years at the way his avant-garde ministry as been demeaned, commodified and institutionalised, so that far from being radical and critical of the state, it works in symbiosis with it to keep the masses in the mental Dark Ages and quelled.
For where I differ with the author is in this notion that "Australia is a wonderful country because of what good people of all faiths believed in and fought for".
What a shame to spoil such a sensible article with shameless hyperbole! Australia is surely more akin in its decadence to Pilate's Rome than Jesus' Judea?

In any event. Let Australia retain the church's fabric but excommunicate the institution. Privatise it! Let it pay its own way! User pays! These are the catch cries of the day are they not?
The most offensively ironic aspect of state sanctioned and funded Christianity is that most of its members are probably neoliberals! The bloody effrontery!!

“For social, cultural and religious reasons, this is not unreasonable and it does not make us or the Prime Minister intolerant of homosexuality.”

Pfft.

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/christians-want-gays-banned-from-surrogacy/story-e6frfku9-1225828364852

http://gaydadsaustralia.com.au/category/foster-care/

How about we should be asking why we tolerate a Christian lobby determined to redefine an institution for its own political agenda. Or why, given our “collective memory”, Christian organisations are allowed the administration roles of children in Out Of Home Care.