I say give Rudd the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Howard neutralised One Nation by adopting their policies. Rudd is trying a similar trick on Family First. He’s attempting to annex the compassionate-christian space for Labor.

It is possible that he’s trying to do so without raising all the red-flag issues at once, that he’s looking for support on the safer issues before taking a clear position on the ones that get the christian right into a lather.

Compassion is a great card for Rudd to play. It doesn’t place him in conflict with Beazley, but it does go to the Coalition’s weak point, as we saw when Howard got rolled on refugee rights.

There will be plenty of time for Rudd to reveal the depth of his compassion. For the time being, I think the comment that, “there is no evidence of Jesus of Nazareth expressly preaching against homosexuality” can be taken as an indication that with respect to queer Australians, he is more benign than malignant.

I'll gladly put up with Rudd any day. In fact I'd rather listen to him than to open up every article discussion to discover Leigh has already snuck in and left us one of his malodorous defecations.

Kevin Rudd. Is very astute in his essay, he has sussed out the religous rights political strategy. Accordingly Kevin Rudd has moved in, to make his own mark of the religous rights political manipulation by stealth!

eg: The Exclusive Brethren, don't vote, don't socialise outside their sect, have their own schools for their own ,have charitable status without a charity policy, Yet have access to the Prime minister of Australia.

Putting aside the new religous political party. The fair go Aussie comment, sounds quite hollow.

I think putting up with Rudd is not preferable. One lesson we must learn from both the Howard regime and the Bush regime is Christians make terrible politicians. The hallmark Christian values of lies, deceit, persecution, marginalisation, vilification, manipulation, coercion, and exclusion seep into the political arena. If Rudd is so superstitious as to believe in god he is not fit for the job as a representative of the people. We need people that work for the nation not pray to childish idols in the hope to evoke a magical being to make things better.

If I voted for people and not policy there are a few I'd vote for in the ALP.

Unfortunately the hypocritical, disingenuous Mr Rudd isn't one of them.

BD,

Im truly astounded about your comments of compassion being selective, for someone like yourself who takes your faith so seriously, that comment just dosn't compute.

Wasn't Christ's last prayer for his killers?

You don't have to be compassionate, plenty of people on this forum will admit they are not, I'm not, I hate people sometimes. But you can't preach the word of Christ all day and then say that compassion is selective.

Isn't the very idea of compassion is that it applies to EVERYONE?

I'm no theologian, but isn't that the basic overall message of the bible?