The man of steel has launched a preemptive strike on churches who insist on meddling in politics:

I think church leaders should speak out on moral issues but there is a problem with that justification being actively translated into sounding very partisan,” Mr Howard said in an interview while in Tasmania last week.

“I don’t deny the right of any church leader to talk about anything.

“But I think, from the point of view of the unity of the church, it stresses and strains when the only time they hear from their leaders is when they are talking about issues that are bound to divide their congregations.”

[snip]

“I know something of the composition of church congregations. There are a range of political views and you can offend,” Mr Howard said.

“Particularly (when) some of the church leaders have been particularly critical of our side of politics, they (can) end up offending a large number of their patrons.”

Contrast that with something I came across this morning thanks to mike, an interview with Tony Campolo:

Churches are doing a brilliant job of addressing poverty on the micro level. They are the leaders in setting up programs for the homeless and trying to reach runaway kids on the street. However, the church has not done enough to address the social and political structures that cause poverty. We have turned our backs on those structures and basically said that politics is not our business. But if you really believe that Jesus Christ is Lord of all, then you cannot exclude politics from that domain. Trying to get the government to restrain [corporations with] policies that are detrimental to the poor is part of the calling of the church.

Churches also need to recognize as individual [congregations] they become rather impotent. But if they come together, through their denominations they can exercise tremendous influence. I would encourage churches to be strongly supportive of World Vision’s work because in World Vision they can find the voice to articulate their concern

You know what I find offensive and divisive? If I were to be a part of a church which felt that it had no voice in matters of politics and government.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2004 at 10:37 am by dan and is filed under oz politics and society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.