Christians Swing Left
April 17th 2008 02:44
Recent research shows that religion played a decisive role in Kevin Rudd’s victory in the 2007 elections. The research was conducted by John Black of Australian Developmental Strategies. Christopher Pearson took a look at the research in an article for The Australian. Then Stephen Crittenden interviewed John Black on ABC’s radio program, The Religion Report.
During the interview, Stephen Crittenden asked John Black whether he agreed that evangelical churches were moving to the left. John Black’s answer was “”Well it’s a simple fact they are.” He said that the reason why Kevin Rudd won so many electorates is because of the votes of evangelical Christians. They swung to the left and it helped Kevin Rudd became prime minister.
This surprised me. And it shouldn’t. After all, I’m a Christian. I voted for Labor. My faith has a huge bearing on deciding who to vote for. I voted for Labor because I believed its policies best reflected the issues that were important to me as a Christian – issues of social justice, rather than morality. So why did I think I was the only one?
In Stephen Crittenden’s report, he also interviewed ABC religion reporter, John Cleary. John Cleary said that there seems to be a shift going on in evangelical churches. He said it is part of a world-wide trend towards widening the social agenda. He claims this is because the Christian Right re-engaged the Christian community with civil society. But now those Christian communities are starting to think the Christian right has it wrong, that the issues are much broader that what the Christian right presents. He also mentioned Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis as authors who are influencing the younger generation of Christians.
Just as a side note, Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis are my two favourite authors. Every person who believes all Christians are right-wing fundamentalists should read them. Every Christian who believes he or she has to be a ring-wing fundamentalist should read them. In fact, everyone should read their books. Although I wouldn’t say they have shaped my thinking, they certainly helped me see that I was not the only Christian that thinks the way I do.
And yet, for some reason, I still get surprised when I find I’m not the only Christian with my types of views or political thinking. I think part of that is because I find so few people in my church that think the same way I do on political issues. Sometimes I get people who agree with me on certain topics. But for others, at best, my views are tolerated in a good-natured, “we’ll pray for her later” type of attitude. At worst, I get the “well you either believe the bible or you don’t” type of shut-down. I feel sometimes like the church has an invisible wall, with me standing by myself on the left of it and the rest of the church on the right.
But times are changing. Research confirms it. Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, Christians are moving to the left. Maybe soon, I’ll have a few friends joining me on the left side of the wall. And I say a resounding Amen to that.
During the interview, Stephen Crittenden asked John Black whether he agreed that evangelical churches were moving to the left. John Black’s answer was “”Well it’s a simple fact they are.” He said that the reason why Kevin Rudd won so many electorates is because of the votes of evangelical Christians. They swung to the left and it helped Kevin Rudd became prime minister.
This surprised me. And it shouldn’t. After all, I’m a Christian. I voted for Labor. My faith has a huge bearing on deciding who to vote for. I voted for Labor because I believed its policies best reflected the issues that were important to me as a Christian – issues of social justice, rather than morality. So why did I think I was the only one?
In Stephen Crittenden’s report, he also interviewed ABC religion reporter, John Cleary. John Cleary said that there seems to be a shift going on in evangelical churches. He said it is part of a world-wide trend towards widening the social agenda. He claims this is because the Christian Right re-engaged the Christian community with civil society. But now those Christian communities are starting to think the Christian right has it wrong, that the issues are much broader that what the Christian right presents. He also mentioned Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis as authors who are influencing the younger generation of Christians.
Just as a side note, Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis are my two favourite authors. Every person who believes all Christians are right-wing fundamentalists should read them. Every Christian who believes he or she has to be a ring-wing fundamentalist should read them. In fact, everyone should read their books. Although I wouldn’t say they have shaped my thinking, they certainly helped me see that I was not the only Christian that thinks the way I do.
And yet, for some reason, I still get surprised when I find I’m not the only Christian with my types of views or political thinking. I think part of that is because I find so few people in my church that think the same way I do on political issues. Sometimes I get people who agree with me on certain topics. But for others, at best, my views are tolerated in a good-natured, “we’ll pray for her later” type of attitude. At worst, I get the “well you either believe the bible or you don’t” type of shut-down. I feel sometimes like the church has an invisible wall, with me standing by myself on the left of it and the rest of the church on the right.
But times are changing. Research confirms it. Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, Christians are moving to the left. Maybe soon, I’ll have a few friends joining me on the left side of the wall. And I say a resounding Amen to that.
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Comment by S. L. Bradish
I'm curious, Samaritan, are the left and right in Australia so sharply divided as they are here? And what does each side stand for?
Comment by samaritan
Fringe Faith
It's hard to answer that question. Mainly because you can't just put all left-wing people into the same basket and say they all think the same way. There are those on the extreme left, just as there as those on the extreme right. Most people, I think, probably sit somewhere in the middle.
In terms of the two major political parties, there is not a sharp contrast between them. In the last election, the leaders of both parties were Christian. They also both did a conference where they spoke to Christians about what voting for them would mean in terms of Christian values. There was also a bit of a joke going around that their policies were pretty much identical for a lot of things.
The Greens is one party that has very left wing views. I don't know a real lot about their policies. I know that I strongly agree with some of them and strongly disagree with some of them. I know that one of the things they want to do is get rid of prayers in parliament. This is not something I agree with.
We don't see to have much of a separation of church and state as America does. My kids go to a public school. They sing songs about Jesus at Christmas time. They sing a prayer every week at their assembly. We had a nativity scene in our shopping mall over Christmas.
In terms of my own political views, I would consider myself just left of centre - if that makes sense! I don't agree with extreme left-wing views. But I definitely lean more towards the left than the right. But that doesn't mean that I agree with all left-wing thinking. In terms of the Labor party, they seem to have a lot of focus on social justice. But as far as I know they have not proposed anything that I could not agree with, as a Christian. I doubt that will change very much in the near future. If it does, I possibly would rethink who I voted for next time.
Don't know if that made sense or not?
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
The only person I have ever heard claim that "enviromentalism" is the religion of the left is Anne Coulter. And we know how reliable she is.
Yes, tChristianity in Australia is swinging left- look at Tim Costello and the way so many religious leaders got behind the David Hicks case.
Three cheers for the centre-left!