Last Friday evening, 1 Sep 2006, Right Reverend Doctor Tom Frame, Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force and well known author and social commentator, addressed the 2006 “Christians in Defence” Fellowship Dinner in Canberra. His address, titled “Church-State Relations in Australia and Christian Fidelity”, is available on the web site of the Military Christian Fellowship of Australia

http://www.mcf-australia.com

For the direct link, see http://www.mcf-australia.com/images/2006dinner/Frame_MCF_Dinner1.rtf <http://www.mcf-australia.com/images/2006dinner/Frame_MCF_Dinner1.rtf>

Tom Frame is always thought-provoking, and he did not miss this opportunity either. Here are some snippets.

“The relationship between politics and religion, Church and State, have become an ideological battleground-once again. This time, the struggle is not between rival Christian denominations but between those with religious beliefs and those with none. There are those who are offended by any public displays of Christian faith and appalled that Church people would want to shape public policy. This makes the position of every Christian… a complicated, and even controversial, one. …

The first followers of Jesus realized that faith in him was costly. He not only demanded their commitment in body, mind and spirit, being his discipline cost many their families and their friends as they suffered isolation and alienation from loved ones who would not walk with them in the footsteps of Jesus.

In the last decades, the church in Australia has moved from nearer the centre of public life to the periphery. There are those who lament and those who welcome this shift. The former believe the Christian cause has lost ground. Christians no longer enjoy political, social or moral ascendancy. Many clergy feel besieged or ignored. Whereas previously the church’s position meant a great deal in national affairs and Christian thinkers were accorded a prime place in the public square, Christians can no longer presume they will even be heard, let alone heeded, in an increasingly indifferent and hostile society. Christians are one among many “special interest” groups vying for influence and the crowd’s ear. For many in the church, it is now about winning a war of survival.

Others, however, feel no such angst. They insist that their ‘alien citizenship’ (a term used to describe Christians in 1 Peter) is better served by some distinction between the Christian community and secular society. Whereas Christians can affirm their participation in what Saint Augustine referred to as ‘the politics of the earthly city’, their true polis and their ultimate loyalty is in the Celestial City and with God. Loyalty to the earthly city is, therefore, joined to an allegiance that is usually viewed as subversive by those who do not share it. It will be ‘God before Country’ rather than ‘God and Country’. …”