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The Forum > Article Comments > How faith supports the political process > Comments

How faith supports the political process : Comments

By Peter Sellick, published 27/2/2017

Thankfully the tradition of public service inherited from Great Britain still abides, but for how long now that its foundations have been quietly weakened?

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Something has gone wrong alright Peter, and that problem has its roots well and truly in the unsubstantiated beliefs of the religious fanatics alias the highly conservative tea party?

And wherever one looks, democracy is essentially destroyed by the inclusion of this or that unsubstantiated religious belief!

Thus we see this or that theocracy, replace democracy and tinpot tyrants erode the former rights and freedoms of the citizen, with the very first attack on freedom of expression and a free press!

Poverty on a hitherto unknown scale is what happened to America, and hard on the heels of an unacceptable period of unprecedented (keysenism socialistic) prosperity. As multi-millionaires became cash registers with eyes and handed the reins of corporate America to socialism hating corporate psychopaths?

Who only allowed themselves to see their world through the prism of the profit graph upward curve! And made diabolically dumb decisions that included offshoring their entire operation; thereby effectively destroying essential discretionary spending, then tried to force the profit curve to remain on track!

And if you want to see how well that works, just take a butchers at the ultra religious "Americanized" Philippines, the third poorest nation on the planet and one of the most populous!

More people doesn't make the economy perform better, nor does extreme exploitive capitalism, and no finer example to be found! With the privileged shoring up privilege by requiring mundane jobs, to have a college degree, thereby entrenching privilege!?

Moreover the basic wage in America remained unchanged for 30 some years until Obama, and medicine is the most expensive taking somewhere north of 13% GDP, yet still leaving around 40% of the population uninsured and reliant on charity for health and basic dental care!

The farm bill costs more than the forgone health care of the uninsured and essentially allows quite grossly inefficient operators and production paradigms to not just survive but prosper, all while concerned religious leaders took what amounts to a permenant vacation from their core pastoral responsibilities!

Yes and to coin a phrase, something stinks in the state of Denmark!
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Monday, 27 February 2017 8:27:28 AM
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The choice boils down to either a Cathedral or a Shopping Centre, voting LNP or Labor ?

The Masses either choose one to be led by , a 'God' that appears to be owned by religious Organizations or Modernism that is owned by 'Elites'.

How about , that I just live a good , moral and fair life , all without the need in Something 'spiritual' being 'greater' that mankind ?

I can choose to live without Cathedrals or Shopping Centres as a must have.I live in a small , prosperous rural district for a start, and get to choose neither the LNP or Labor.

That way I consign all 'Gods' to the History Books where they belong.

Hopefully ,they will be joined shortly by all major political parties !
Posted by Aspley, Monday, 27 February 2017 8:27:30 AM
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It is kind of weird how liberal democracies have become more restrictive than the theocracies of the middle ages with all the political correctness and so on. Maybe Christians need to push for greater self governance and as the 21st century meanders along. Perhaps even another neo-gothic architectural movement could make things more exciting and sustainable.
Posted by progressive pat, Monday, 27 February 2017 10:16:49 AM
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"I am a little sick of hearing about how precious and wonderful and essential democracy is in the face of its complete failure to election of a President of the United States that shows so little aptitude for the job."

This bloke would have to be the most arrogant contributor to OLO, bar none. Assuming that he meant 'failure to elect a president who shows apptitude', or 'electing a president who shows little apptitude' – Mr. Angry tends to shoot of his mouth without thinking – who the hell does he think he is, posing as someone who knows better than the majority of Americans who voted who they wanted as president: a tired old Lefty battle-axe, or a non-political man with talent who knows what people want?
Posted by ttbn, Monday, 27 February 2017 10:45:16 AM
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"men and women who lived in Christendom understood themselves as being children of God who were made in the image of God"

As usual, your whole argument is based on a false premise. Man has made God in his own image. The incontrovertible fact is that there is no God. If there were, would he have stood by while his son was brutally killed on the cross. Would he have stood by by while his so called representatives did bad things to the children in his care. What happened to the "suffer the little children .... bit". Come on man, wake up to yourself, give us a break and stop insulting our intelligence.
David
Posted by VK3AUU, Monday, 27 February 2017 12:50:58 PM
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Two images on the will to TOTAL power and control at the root of applied christian politics, both old-time and now time. All of which was given "approval" in the name of "god" and for the "glory of 'Jesus'" by the Papal bulls of 1455 and 1493.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panel13.html
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panel21.html
Trump of course stands entirely within that paradigm as do many/most of his advisers and his Department heads. And of course all of the dreadfully sane "conservative" Christians that endorsed him

But what is the real nature of the self or the Ego-"I"?
http://www.consciousnessitself.org
And did old-time pre-modern Christians with their consoling mommy-daddy creator-"God" really have a "better" sense of "self" or their true nature than we moderns?

http://www.beezone.com/whiteandorangeproject/whiteandorgangeEGO.html

The usual dreadfully sane Christian is just as narcissistic as everyone else.
http://www.beezone.com/narcissus.html

Two references on human life as a depth-level Process inherent in Reality Itself
http://www.beezone.com/da_publications/unique.html
http://www.beezone.com/da_publications/dualsens.html
Posted by Daffy Duck, Monday, 27 February 2017 1:50:02 PM
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Dear David,

Religion is not concerned with silly questions such as whether God exists - asking such questions is a modern trend which the ancients had no interest in and which simply never crossed their minds.

Rather than "What exists?", religion always asked "What is good?" (which is a corollary to "What leads to God", but let's not get into this here) and always sought for techniques and practices that make people better, that improve their character (sometimes more successfully, sometimes less, but this was always the aim of every sincerely-religious person and organisation).

Believing in God's existence is one of those techniques - and it tends to work well for those who are able to follow it, whose mind is not too afflicted with modern questions. The fact that God does not exist is completely irrelevant - it is still good to believe in God, it is still good to worship and praise God, it is especially good to sing to God and repeat His name at all times.

Let me testify on myself, that had I not had the good fortune to imbibe the great religious teachings at the feet of my spiritual mentors, then I would in all likelihood have ended up a thief, a murderer and a rapist.
Posted by Yuyutsu, Monday, 27 February 2017 2:11:33 PM
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the unbelievable part of this article is that Peter claims to be a believer. It certainly shows that not all belief systems are equal and Peter's seems more akin to the earth worshippers rather than the Creator of the earth. His rant about Trump defies belief. I take it he would prefer to back Clintom with her sponsporship of the organisation that trades in baby body parts. Surely if you really are trained in biological science then you would know how wicked this trade is despite pseudo scientist changing the name of the unborn. NO doubt you have also fallen for consensus 'science'as far as the warming of the planet.
Posted by runner, Monday, 27 February 2017 3:08:48 PM
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Yuyutsu, a lot of what you say makes a certain amount of sense. I might say that there are many good things which have only happened because people have had a belief in God, although our system of morals and ethics probably predates history. But a belief in something doesn't make it true, no matter how many believe it. For a long time people believed that the earth was the centre of the solar system, but that was subsequently found to be wrong.
David
Posted by VK3AUU, Monday, 27 February 2017 3:32:35 PM
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This is all pretty depressing Mr Sellick.

It appears to be forgotten here, that the essence of Christ, and thus Christianity, was humility and simplicity. Apart from overarching forgiveness of others weaknesses, (a facet of life I personally struggle with).
More of the essence was rendering unto Caesar etc.

The only kingdom which matters to a true believer, is the Kingdom of God. Christians are advised by Christ's teachings, not to be troubled by worldly matters best attended to by Caesar.

All happiness exists for the true believer, in the direction of Christ's teachings. You appear to be in a trap...maybe a good dose of Pilgrims Progress would be in order...keep it simple!

Christianity is not, and was not ever intended to be complicated: especially by worldly affairs.

Could I suggest to you, to aid in your recovery as a believer, that you throw the TV out the back door, cancel your newspaper subscriptions, abandon your deep theology, and return to pure Christian simplicity.
Posted by diver dan, Monday, 27 February 2017 8:43:53 PM
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Addendum :

The poor make the best Christians. It's probably why America has such an abundance of them. There they are classified as evangelical. Fundamental also describes them. One must be, at heart, a fundamentalist to be closest to Christ. Some see this as the fault of Christianity.
(The same problem exists with Islam).

It is a problem which can be easily overcome by redistribution of wealth, which is corrupting to Christians, and will also have the same effect on radical Islam.
This is a job for Caesar! (While the fraudsters, Turnbull and Shorten, preside over the redistribution of wealth in the opposite direction, they appear too stupid to realise the growing radicalism in this Country it causes. Arise Pauline Hanson).

Christ takes over the role of security in insecure times, very evident among the poor. And if anybody could kill every male child, (as war did to the population in Bolivia), King Donald is the man to do it. Who will be the next Moses in the Bull rushes?
Posted by diver dan, Monday, 27 February 2017 9:25:35 PM
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Who amongst the believers can claim to knows God's will?
How do the author know God didn't send Trump; an imperfect man?
What did the author expect; Jesus to run for election himself?

I awoke this morning and the first thing I heard was Melania Trump reciting 'The Lords Prayer' in a video that was taken about a week ago.
You know she's copped a lot of criticism already and it takes a lot of courage to do what she did.

I think the author should humble himself and listen to Melania as I did this morning and think upon how much his own criticisms might apply to himself.
Was his own ego not at work disparaging Trump when writing this article?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1fTdbxZn7Y

I should remind him it was Christians who's support helped elect Trump.
Are all of those Christians wrong and he right;
Or is there more to the story and his ignorance betrays him?

Just so everyone is aware '1984' OFFICIALLY began a week ago (33 years overdue);
- With global tech giants moving to shut down free speech, shut out Independent media, and overthrow the Trump administration.
If you aren't careful, while you're busy talking all your crap, Democracy (even the 'pretend' type we have now) might actually become a thing of the past.

They've taken over the Universities,
Taken over Congress,
Taken over Hollywood,
Taken over the Media.

Who's left to speak out against them?
Posted by Armchair Critic, Monday, 27 February 2017 11:55:53 PM
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Armchair Critic...
Very true...it's a homosexual conspiracy . Of course that sounds laughable, but study the scene. This radical group pops up at every opportunity.
Posted by diver dan, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 8:18:20 AM
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