Christian Votes will play key roles in Australian Election Campaign

The Australian Election Campaign will be held on 9 October. The current election has proved to be completely different from the previous one, as the nation’s large number of Christian have involved themselves actively, and they are expected to pose a major influence on the votes.

Over the past few months, Christian organisations in Australia have urged the Government to outlaw same-sex marriages. The final victory has encouraged more and more Australian Christians to voice their opinion with Christian values.

As the Australia Election Day approaches, many churches have prepared election guides outlining key foreign and domestic issues of interest to the community.

For example, a “Christian values checklist” was published this week by a research team of prominent evangelical organisations, including the Australian Family Association, the Australian Christian Lobby and an ethics action group, Saltshakers. On the list there are 26 issues, including abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage and drugs policies. It has been made very obvious that a typical left-wing party’s policies would disagree with all of the statement presented with a Christian view.

However, Warwick Marsh from Australian Heart Ministries commented that it is actually hard to judge party’s policies with the Christian worldview, as they usually avoid revealing their true position on these important issues. Nevertheless, the list will surely encourage parties to incorporate Christian principles into party platforms in order to win their votes.

The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), a body that is made up of the Anglican, Catholic and Lutheran churches, has focused more on issues such as “community harmony” and cancelling international debt in its election guide.

For Uniting Church, Australia’s third-largest denomination and an amalgamation between the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian churches, the election guide deals largely with social issues such as the environment, “celebrating our diversity” and peace.

Christian politicians have been encouraged to introduce policies strongly based on Christian teachings, especially the two major political forces, Prime Minister John Howard’s Liberal-National coalition and the Australian Labour Party (ALP).

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello, who is the son of a Baptist preacher, and a member of the government, has been tipped as a future prime minister. He recently visited the fastest-growing church in Australia - the Hillsong Church. In front of an audience of 16,000 conservative evangelical Christians, he introduced a new spiritualism, “We need a return to faith and the values which have made our country strong.”

Health Minister Tony Abbott also said Australia’s abortion rate was a “national tragedy” while Employment Minister Kevin Andrews called for a national inquiry into ways of strengthening marriage. Both of them are Catholics and members of Howard’s cabinet. Their statements have proved to have moved the heart of Christian voters.

According to the National census, 70 percent of Australians are Christians, with the Catholic and Anglican churches the largest denominations. Despite a steady decline over the past century in the numbers of Australians identifying themselves as Christians, Australian Christians represent a strong presence in the society as evidenced clearly in this election.