John and Kevin talk God
August 10th 2007 02:02
You have to hand it to the evangelical wing of the church - despite their evident lack of liturgical taste they sure know how to organise a big techno-savvy bunfight. Getting John and Kevin to talk about religion to over 100,000 church punters is quite a coup. and reflects the growing power of the megachurches.
The content of the speeches was a little disturbing, though. The Prime Minister's exegesis of the parables was - too say the least - ham-fisted. The moral overtones of this interpretation no doubt reflects his low church protestant upbringing. No enfeebled foostering about with the literal sense, go straight to the ethical for an improving lesson. Those parables they have such a lovely moral to them, don't they?
Why Rudd's would include a quote from John Calvin is beyond me. Calvin may well have thought that "the world was his parish" but in Geneva this pastoral care included the incineration of theological minorities - whatever his fondness for the poor. Hardly a touchstone of tolerance, although you'd probably find that the theocratic tendency of the charismatic movement would be happier in Calvin's Geneva than even howard's Australia. perhaps Rudd picked his audience well.
There is an old saying that at school openings the parish priest talks about money, the bishop talks about politics and the mayor talks about religion. This is true with an indecent frequency. While it is good that politicians express their religious feeling and try to engage with "faith communities" in an election period you get the feeling that religious writings are being mined for proof texts to support a priori positions.
I hope neither of them gets going on the Koran.
The content of the speeches was a little disturbing, though. The Prime Minister's exegesis of the parables was - too say the least - ham-fisted. The moral overtones of this interpretation no doubt reflects his low church protestant upbringing. No enfeebled foostering about with the literal sense, go straight to the ethical for an improving lesson. Those parables they have such a lovely moral to them, don't they?
Why Rudd's would include a quote from John Calvin is beyond me. Calvin may well have thought that "the world was his parish" but in Geneva this pastoral care included the incineration of theological minorities - whatever his fondness for the poor. Hardly a touchstone of tolerance, although you'd probably find that the theocratic tendency of the charismatic movement would be happier in Calvin's Geneva than even howard's Australia. perhaps Rudd picked his audience well.
There is an old saying that at school openings the parish priest talks about money, the bishop talks about politics and the mayor talks about religion. This is true with an indecent frequency. While it is good that politicians express their religious feeling and try to engage with "faith communities" in an election period you get the feeling that religious writings are being mined for proof texts to support a priori positions.
I hope neither of them gets going on the Koran.
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