Politician gracious to Christian webcast then slaughters Christians on Q&A
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| English: Kevin Rudd (right) and Julia Gillard (left) at . (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has clashed with a Brisbane pastor over gay marriage. IF there is actually such a thing as the "Christian vote", on Monday night Kevin Rudd lost it.
For many, the Prime Minister's spirited defence of same-sex marriage on ABC1's Q&A program was a watershed moment. Kerryn Phelps hailed it as a "historical moment in Australian politics" and penned a 475-word article of thanks to Rudd.
For Phelps and so many other LGBTIQ voters, this was the "sweetest victory of all". Rodney Croome clapped and was amazed these statement came from a Christian.
Yet for so many Christian voters, this was the moment that the sheep's clothing came off the wolf's back. At 7.30pm that Monday, the same night as the ABC broadcast of Q&A, more than 35,000 Christians gathered across 339 churches in every state and territory of Australia to watch Rudd and Tony Abbott address the Christian constituency through the ACL webcast.
Not yet knowing what was to come, many of us sympathised with Rudd's apparently genuine admission that: "Many in the Christian churches may be disappointed with some of the decisions that I have taken as Prime Minister or as a person. I have also undertaken those decisions in good and prayerful conscience, even though people in equal prayerful conscience may disagree with some of those conclusions."
If the night had ended there, many of us would have been disappointed but at least sympathetic towards Rudd's clumsy attempt to navigate through a complex moral minefield. What came next, on the ABC's Q&A no one could have foreseen.
Not more than three hours later, Rudd publicly crucified a mainstream Christian pastor for questioning the PM's backflip on marriage policy. Instead of the "gentle Kevin meek and mild" we'd seen earlier that night on the ACL webcast, Rudd now not only failed to directly answer the question but mercilessly lambasted, or smacked down the pastor, whose personal views were irrelevant to his response.
According to Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies, Rudd was "profoundly wrong in his understanding of the Bible. He misquoted the Bible and attributed to the Bible something that Aristotle said (that slavery is a natural condition)."
While Rudd's gross distortion of biblical truth was deeply concerning, it was his modus operandi and treatment of the Christian church that was offensive.
In retrospect, the Prime Minister's apparently gracious words of 7.30pm were akin to Judas's kiss before his 10.30pm betrayal. Voters can forgive a prime minister for changing his or her mind on even an important policy issue. On Monday night, however, Rudd treated every Christian voter in Australia with absolute contempt.
Far from being some moment of great integrity and strong leadership, the Prime Minister's visceral attack on the Christian church was nothing more than cheap political opportunism. It was this Prime Minister's attempt at creating his own "misogyny speech", with the same confected moral outrage against a fictitious straw man. It was political desperation on steroids.
