Standing up for freedom in the public square
By Catherine Sheehan
Archbishop Julian Porteous spoke on the need to protect freedom and democracy at the recent ‘Church and State’ conference held in Hobart from 6-7 April.
The conference brought together Christians from various denominations and the line-up of speakers included Senator Eric Abetz, CEO of the Australian Christian Lobby Michelle Pearse, and former politician Bernie Finn.
In his keynote address, Archbishop Julian said that while living in Australia was a blessing due to “the freedoms and opportunity” provided by our society and democratic system of government, cherished freedoms were under threat.
“Yet there are clouds on the horizon, indeed they are now overshadowing us,” he said. “Little by little our freedoms are being curtailed.”
The Archbishop referred to the current push to remove protections for faith-based schools from the Sex Discrimination Act as a “direct attack” on religious schools.
He also said that so-called ‘Conversion Practices’ legislation essentially seeks to “make illegal public statements, or practices based on belief, that those with same-sex attraction or seeking gender transition are in need of help”.
“Bit by bit through legislation, attempts are being made to silence the Christian voice and make our institutions comply with the LGBTQI agenda,” Archbishop Julian said.
In order to protect religious freedom, Christians needed to be willing to stand up publicly, he said.
“Threats to our religious freedom are very real in Australia today.”
“We need Christians of conviction to enter into politics. We must more fully activate our people in the political arena. It is in the area of public policy that our freedoms are being curtailed.”
“The more Christians in parliament, the more votes we will have to oppose this ideological agenda and be able to finally stop these attacks on religious freedom and the natural family and start to turn the tide.”
Dr David Daintree AM, Director of the Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies also spoke at the conference and proposed strategies for dealing with the tension between “the predominant atheistic world view” and the vision of “believers”.
“Do not allow your faith or your church to conform to the world,” Dr Daintree advised. “The very opposite is what’s needed.”
Seeking to be popular, he added, would not lead to respect but rather “just contempt”.
“Frankly, we can’t compete: the world ‘does secular’ much better than we do.”
Dr Daintree said treating unbelievers as “the enemy” was also the wrong approach.
“Direct your anger at the source of evil itself, not at your deluded friends who are themselves victims of it,” he said.
However, such strategies to evangelise were not enough, he added, when faced with “real and incontrovertible evil”.
“As a nation we permit and regularly practice pre-natal infanticide. Let’s forget that lame word ‘abortion’ and call it what it is.”
“How dare we point the accusing finger at Pol Pot, Joe Stalin or Adolph Hitler when we ourselves are so mired in ethical corruption?”
The ‘Church and State’ conference is an independently-run event held in different locations around Australia each year. It aims to encourage and support Christians to share the Gospel message in the public square.