More than just a light on the hill

Andrew West looks at how Kevin Rudd, Australia's most publicly Christian Prime Minister in almost a century, blends faith and politics:

Rudd, our most publicly Christian prime minister in almost a century - since his Queensland Labor predecessor, Andrew Fisher, who was a stern Presbyterian Sunday school teacher - has an active faith that shapes his world view. "He understands that his faith relates to what he does on a day-to-day basis," says Father John Milburn, the rector of St John's Anglican Church in Bulimba, Brisbane. "And God prepares us all for what we have"....

There are two ways to read Rudd's blending of faith and politics. The first - and, in fairness, the way most people who know him read it - is that Rudd's values really are driven by the Old Testament prophets crying out for justice, and the example of the radical Christ, who consorted with the despised of his day - tax collectors, prostitutes, criminals and lepers - and who overturned the tables of the money lenders in the temple.

The second, less charitable, view is that after the 2004 election Rudd saw the strategically important, if not particularly large, evangelical vote and decided he wanted a slice of it for Labor. Rudd talked to this author in 2005 about the Faith, Politics and Values working group he had established within the Labor caucus. To supporters of the Christian-inspired Family First party, which had sent preferences to the Coalition in several decisive seats, he asked: "What do you get from the Liberals that you don't get elsewhere?"

SMH 22 Dec 07