Great article in Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald 'Room for Religion as Moral Compass'
by Rev Tim Costello. He is a Baptist and brother of our Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer though that has not stopped him criticising the Government. He is also chief executive of World Vision Australia.
He was quoted by our Lay Reader Assoc. Professor Michael Horsburgh who as usual gave a great sermon this morning. I will link to it when it becomes available online. He managed to move a sermon on the Baptism of Jesus to a discussion of Church and State by linking via the stance John the Baptist made to Herod Antipas. Michael quoted from Tim Costello
" It is striking that the textbook for Christian faith, the Bible, has some 3000 verses urging us to care for the poor and marginalised, and only a handful of verses on two of the topics that the religious right trumpets as its main values criteria: homosexuality and the family."
We need Christians to apply their faith to politics by standing up for the minorities and applying values of social justice to refugees and Hicks to mention two, not trying to enforce their own personal piety and private values on others.