One Australian pastor wrote:

Re: http://jmm.org.au/articles/12901.htm

In discussion at our pastors’ prayer time this morning, the question was raised: Is a politician ever allowed to speak at a function like the National Day of Thanksgiving and be considered a private individual? Must they always be perceived as speaking as a government politician and thereby somehow speaking for the government? Are they responsible for the way a government performs? How much influence on government policy does any individual person have, albeit as elevated a person as the Prime Minister or Treasurer? Is it possible for us by our criticism to be hardening the negatives and restricting the flowering of any positives into fruitfulness? Let us rather thank God that Peter Costello did affirm things we hold to be true, however inadequately the government he happens to be part of may be functioning in areas mentioned in previous posts. We are wanting Christian people in politics to speak out, yet when they do, and respond to an invitation such as this, they become the target for cries of “hypocrisy” and their words are examined through a overlay of government culpability. We were reminded again of our responsibility to pray for those in leadership in our nation.

Another responded:

I suppose the same question faces us at ministers… is there ever a time when we do not speak/act as a minister of the church? The general consensus seems to be … no.

My concerns about the address is that of the Trojan Horse. We get excited because someone affirms some basics of faith in very general terms, but neglect the detail which flows out from it. When I read the text of the address, I find homage to the ten commandments, and a call for a faith renewal, but what else? Costello instead uses the ten commandments to justify Western economic values, and the latter in an apparent attempt to absolve government of its responsibilities in moral and ethical areas, both past and present. Sure I can affirm the import of the 10 commandments and the need for a faith renewal, but if that serves only to reinforce the nation we are becoming, then what? There is nothing of Jesus or his message in the address, he merely serves as an introduction.

We christians are a gullible lot in the public sphere. We get excited when someone calls for opposition to gay marriage, as if that somehow strengthens marriage itself. We think getting christians into power will solve our problems… (how does that explain the last 8 years federally, and the last four years in Victoria? or Queensland under Joh, or South Africa and Apartheid?) Something about the relative volume of words and actions?

Costello seems to merely parrot the idea that the way forward is by turning back the clock. That will never be true. The kingdom calls us forward, to make all things new, not old.

I never meant to damn with faint praise, because I didn’t see anything to praise. Our country has become more selfish, more egotistical, and less compassionate over these last two decades. Who will turn the tide?

Indeed, I pray for the leadership of our nation. Daily.