Gillard - no God for me! A sign of the times.

For the benefit of our overseas readers, there has been a dramatic change in the Australian political landscape over the past few days. Kevin Rudd, the man who defeated the decade long serving PM John Howard has himself been removed; not by the opposition and not by the people, but by his own party.

For the first time in Australia's history, a sitting PM has been removed by his own party before his first term was complete.

To say the Australian public is a little annoyed about this is an understatement, judging by the polls.

Julia Gillard has become the first Welsh born Australian Prime Minister, the first '10 pound pom' and the first red-head (we think!).

As dramatic as all that is for those who keep trivia, there are a few other 'firsts' Australian Christians do not feel so happy about.

Belief in marriage
Firstly, Gillard lives in a de facto relationship with her long time partner Tim Mathieson. Immediately, the press seized on the fact that Gillard would become the first Australian PM to reside in the Lodge⁽¹⁾ "living in sin".

It would be naive to think Gillard was the first PM in Australia's history not to hold firmly to a Christian view of sex. It is well documented that many of our country's leaders were less than exemplary in this department, include some who had mistresses while they were in office.

But as far as I am aware, Gillard is the first to avoid any pretence that her lifestyle is anything else than what it really is. It is no longer a vote loser to declare that you live in a de facto relationship and that was definitely not true in other eras.

However, Gillard's views on marriage are only the natural outworking of her view of God: he doesn't exist.

Belief in God
Before we cover our ears in horror, it is important to note that very few of Australia's recent Prime Ministers have held to anything like a Christian belief in a personal saviour.

In fact Rob Chalmers, one of the grand old men of the Canberra Press Gallery, believes out of the previous 12 Australian PM's, only Kevin Rudd had any genuine personal Christian faith.

That's disturbing to say the least because when a tearful Rudd gave his final press conference in the wake of his overthrow he finished with these words:

“But to the the great god, and creator of us all. I thank him or her, as well”.⁽²⁾

Let me get this straight: Rudd was the only Christian PM we've had in the past however many years and he thinks God is either a "he" or a "she"? Yikes! I must admit I did not realise our country's theological bank balance was so low.

Ironically, Rudd prefaced that remark with the statement,

"It is probably not the occasion for high statements of theology."

He certainly proved that, however, Rudd is from the Australia whose leaders at least pretended to believe in God. Now that's not even true.

Athiesm reigns supreme
Today in Australia (as with England and, to a certain extent, the USA) believing in God is seen as more of a hindrance than a help. You can get yourself into hot water by even alluding to God as NSW Premier Kristina Keneally recently found out.

The Premier was speaking about the State's same-sex adoption legislation when she made the quip,

"Jesus sat with the sinners and the saints".

The press immediately seized on the comment which obviously (to them at least) contained the inference that homosexuals were sinners. Her back tracking was as slick as Jacko's moonwalk.

"Jesus loves all. He accepted all. For me, that is the strongest message that comes out of the gospel."

In other words, it doesn't matter what you are, what you believe or how you act, you are OK with God, if it turns out he/she even exists. In fact, the only people not OK in this world are the fundamentalist Christians who will not change with the times.

If you want to win the approval of this world, that's the way to do it, but if it's God's approval you are after, then you need a different approach.

All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)

Footnotes

1. The Lodge is the Australian Prime Minister's official residence in Canberra.
2. Watch the speech in full here.