In the midst of the Australian election – this seems an appropriate time to release our latest interview with Greg Sheridan.
In this ASK Podcast we continue our look at Greg Sheridan ‘Christians – the Urgent Case for Jesus’. The chapter – Light and Shadow in the Heart of Leaders – looks at the influence of Christianity on politics. We look at the influence of Jacques Maritain – a Christian French philosopher – on the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations. The role of Christianity in democracy. Are there Christian political positions? How do we care for the poor? Kim Beazley, Tony Blair. The large number of Australian religious politicians. We discuss the faith of Scott Morrison – Prime Minister. John Anderson – National party leader Bill Hayden, Labor – former atheist . Peter Cosgrove, former governer general. We also look at Pentecostalism, the connection between Planet Shakers and the Benedictines!
Also on YouTube here
The ASK Podcast 16 – The Great Wall of Heaven – with Greg Sheridan.
A privilege to be able to listen to a respectful conversation about politicians that has depth and is not a shouting match. I have read Greg Sheridan analysis on foreign policy for many years and appreciated the depth of his thinking. This podcast adds another dimension. I will need to go back and listen to all your blogs with Greg Sheridan now.
Hello Pastor
In the lead up to the federal election, I have just been reading a book that I think will interest you a great deal. It is “Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class” by Judith Brett.
https://www.booktopia.com.au/australian-liberals-and-the-moral-middle-class-judith-brett/book/9780521536349.html
It explores the historical links between the Liberal Party and Protestantism and its corollary, the links between the Australian Labor Party and Roman Catholicism.
Here is one part I found particularly interesting: she argues that the Liberals had a Protestant-derived ideology that everyone is an autonomous individual and that each should work for hte good fo the nation. Whereas nowadays we might think of the State granting citizenship, the earlier mindset was that of the State being the product of citizens.
By contrast, the ALP was always sectarian, based on Catholic herd mentality. In this sense, from a Liberal point of view, the Left is fundamentally “selfish” as it promotes the interests of special interest groups, not society as a whole. Early on, this was expressed in the format of class war, with the ALP taking the side of the working class against other elements of society, and those of the Roman Catholic minority. Nowadays, it promotes the vested interest of any host of special interest groups, such as the Aboriginal Lobby, gay rights activists, and so on, hence the Party’s affiliation with identity politics.
The book was published in 2003, so inbetween the Keating era of Political Correctness and the current wave of Wokeism but it shows clearly the path Labor was going down that would lead it to embrace Wokeness and the current crop of vested interest groups.
Although the link between Catholics and the ALP is no longer as close as it was in the past, this also helps to explain why Catholics were so affiliated with Labor when so many of its policies seem at odds with Catholic beliefs (abortion, same-sex marriage, feminism, etc).
Hope you find this interesting. God bless.
I should add that, because the book was published in 2003, it was – frustratingly- out just a few months too early to deal with the moral issues that dogged the latter part of the Howard era and alienated many Protestants I know from the Liberal Party – the decisions to involved Australian in the Iraq and Afghan invasions, the treatment of asylum seekers, etc.