Now The Australian And American Elections Are Over …
For those of us committed to Christian and family values, it is time for us to stop and reflect:
The first big legislative change came with the Federal Parliament voting to stop same sex-marriages. Well over a thousand Christians packed the Great Hall of Parliament House with hundreds outside. That greatly strengthened the Coalition’s resolve to make this an election issue. So strong the response from Christians to this gathering and the Senate inquiry (the greatest number of letters in history!) that the ALP decided not to make it an election issue and an earlier agreement to support the Greens and Democrat moves to approve homosexual marriage went out the window.
Subsequently the Democrats were trounced in the polls, and the Greens polled very badly not achieving the Senate seats the left-wing press were saying was a sure thing. Neither now hold the balance of power in the Senate and have been effectively sidelined.
The second big issue was the resounding victory of John Howard and the conservative forces for social values and moral standards. The conservative vote was extremely strong. Family First won a Senate seat and Christian Democratic Party preferences in Western Australia and NSW helped elect both Liberal and Labor Senators instead of Green Senators. In Western Australia, the papers used the great rise in CDP votes (almost winning the Senate seat) to warn the Labor Government of problems ahead for the next State election. The coalition not only won an increased majority in the Lower House, but for the first time in thirty years, has absolute control in the Senate. Many of our friends whose Parties were defeated are still hurting. Those who Parties were victorious must guard against cockiness.
Third, President George W Bush has been returned with strong majorities in both the upper and lower houses, in the record number of Governors in the States, and in every referendum held at the same time on homosexual marriages. The Christian forces came out strongly and effectively. Americans did not accept the anti-life, anti-family and anti-faith agenda of the Bush opponents.
Now of note is the fact that both in Australia and in the US there has been a real rise in concern about moral and family values, and there has been a rise in the influence of evangelical Christians. Christians are finally stirring from their slumber and taking their faith seriously in all aspects of life. This is a welcome trend indeed.
We have now a great chance both here and in the US to see what we value is promoted in the public and social arenas. As Christians we need to make serious disciples and to bring Christian truth to bear in all of life.
The first place to start is training our children in biblical worldview thinking. They are assaulted by secular relativism and humanistic teaching.
We need to teach them the meaning of sexuality and marriage. Many were raised by single parents in a culture that denies the moral significance of sex.
We must also teach our children the value of all human life, including that of the disabled, the unborn, and the frail elderly. Wholesale abortion, euthanasia, the destruction of human living embryos for scientific research are all issues that must be confronted.
We need to teach our youth that the argument for gay “marriage,” are not to be based on “feelings” or “fairness,” but on moral and natural law judgments that marriage is inherently heterosexual, monogamous, fruitful, and permanent.
We need to teach our children concern for the environment, inter-country trade fairness, the essential requirement to solve international problems by diplomatic means rather than war, that terrorism requires strong defences, that compassion to the refugee and the homeless require a sharing of our resources in an orderly fashion and that those in power require humility in its exercise. We need to pray for our world leaders.
The Christian culture in the Western World has been debased and abused by many. Take heart and make sure you do your part to re-establish it.
THIS IS GORDON MOYES.
