G'day Shadow,
and thanks for introducing me to this novel concept; sarcasm wow! I'll definitely being looking into this!
Sadly, I didn't have your advantage of a church education, which obviously leaves me with the challenging task of interpreting the written word on my lonesome. I have been somewhat aided in this endeavour, thankfully, by a comparatively recent innovation, introduced by Luther I think, a mere half millenia ago.
I could be wrong -probably am, not having had your educational advantage- but I would have thought the passage was simple enough for a child of moderate intelligence to understand, eg:
“If thou wilt
be perfect, go and sell that thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven: and
come and follow me.”
As self avowed Christians, should not Messrs Rudd and Abbott be encouraging all Australians to be “perfect”?
One would think a God -by definition- would have a superior insight into the true value of GDP.
Thanks again for introducing me to this thing called sarcasm. I really must try it some time.

Note to Shadow Minister: Bigots merit the sensitivity and gentleness that they bestow on those whom they insult.

MM, Grim, and EJ,

From the exit polls, it looks as though the people of Aus are bestowing on Dudd the respect that he displayed to them.

I hope he loses his own seat

Firstly, the former PM's lambasting of the bigot in our midst, has been a long time coming. Thankfully we are not all non-thinking, irrationals who view the bible as the word of someone else's fantasy, written long after the main protagonists were dead.

The day Xtians realise that they are not the be all and the end all of moral measurement, and accept that they are but a part of a population which has in part, a lot of thinkers, as opposed to fantasists, the better for them and for the rest of us.

If the churches felt that he had humiliated them, sad. If they had utilised it to begin a conversation on faith, that would have been better, but as usual, they didn't.

The only votes he lost were those who don't feel inspired to think for themselves.

".....It has irreparably damaged his once close relationship with the Christian constituency across Australia."

Blatant hypocrisy abounds.

Here's a letter to Tony Abbott from the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Darwin (He's a "real" Christian - not a partisan political hack):

http://www.mn.catholic.org.au/news-events/news/2013/letter-from-bishop-eugene-hurley-to-tony-abbott