Our Feature Article this month is the transcript of an address given
by former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson at the Brisbane Lord
Mayor’s Annual Breakfast held last month. It is a timely reminder for
our nation as we face a militant push to neutralize the influence of
the Christian faith  in our nation.

By John Anderson former Deputy Prime Minister of
Australia.

Hello and thank you very much indeed for your kind introduction.
It ¢â‚¬â„¢s great to be in Queensland. I ¢â‚¬â„¢m sort of  ¢â‚¬Ëœout to pasture ¢â‚¬â„¢ these
days in terms of public life and I have to say that I don ¢â‚¬â„¢t greatly
miss it, and I think very much of myself as just a private citizen
again so it ¢â‚¬â„¢s always a bit of a shock when sometimes someone
recognises me or half recognises me.

I was in a reception line for a charity in Sydney a little while
ago and people were filing past and politely saying  ¢â‚¬Ëœhello ¢â‚¬â„¢ to the
heads of the charity and then to my wife and then to me, and a very
charming and gracious elder lady from a prosperous area of Sydney,
immaculately dressed and manicured, looked straight at me in the eyes
and great warmth radiated and she put her hand on mine and she said
 ¢â‚¬ËœNow Sweetie, I know I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve seen you around Sydney many times over the
last couple of decades. Worse than that, I know we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve been
introduced, but I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve forgotten your name and I ¢â‚¬â„¢m going to have to ask
you to tell me who you are because I cannot resist the temptation to
tell you that you bear an uncanny resemblance to that fellow John
Anderson who used to be the Deputy Prime Minister. ¢â‚¬â„¢

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, it ¢â‚¬â„¢s great to be here with you. I
served for many years around a cabinet table with your mother. I was
very fond of your mother; she was a lovely, warm, friendly person  ¢â‚¬“
one of those genuinely beautiful people  ¢â‚¬“ and I mean that in every
sense of the word. You will know, as her son, that the smile often
hid a very forceful and gritty approach to life.

I remember on one occasion she came to me with an idea that
involved spending quite a bit of money on disadvantaged rural
communities and she said,  ¢â‚¬ËœAre you with me on this? ¢â‚¬â„¢ and I said,
 ¢â‚¬ËœAbsolutely! ¢â‚¬â„¢ She said  ¢â‚¬ËœDo you think that the Treasurer and the
Finance Minister and the Prime Minister will be? ¢â‚¬â„¢ and I said  ¢â‚¬ËœNo, not
with that price tag attached to it. ¢â‚¬â„¢  ¢â‚¬ËœGood ¢â‚¬â„¢ she said,  ¢â‚¬ËœWell I ¢â‚¬â„¢ll go
up and publish it now as our Policy, and then they can clean up the
mess afterwards! ¢â‚¬â„¢ And I have to tell you that she and I lost quite a
bit of skin over that, but we got the Policy.

Well, like so many Australians, I watched on with horror at the
recent seasonal events – out-of-seasonal natural events in the state
– over the summer period and I want to say to you that our hearts
certainly went out to you. We admire greatly the leadership that was
shown and the volunteerism and all of the things that went to
ensuring that the best of a dreadful situation was made.
It did cause me to reflect on something, and that is that, tragic as
it was, and particularly tragic where lives were lost, we are
fortunate indeed, are we not, to live in a country where we have the
capacity to mount outstanding emergency responses, and the financial
wherewithal to assist communities and indeed the state, frankly, to
recover? Those are good things!

The great majority of people who live on the surface of the globe
today do not live in societies where such things are possible. Yet we
take them for granted. But I want to say to you, ladies and
gentlemen, that I don ¢â‚¬â„¢t think we should take the great blessings we
enjoy for granted. I think we are in very, very great danger in the
West of seeing our privileged position ebb away.

As a farmer, I ¢â‚¬â„¢m very conscious that if you want to grow a good
crop you have to first till the soil in which the crop is grown. The
crop of freedom, of democracy, and all of the good things we take for
granted in our lives, is, in fact, Christianity and yet our society
has moved away from it and so little understands now, the soil in
which the crops of freedom are grown, that I do not believe that we
can continue to expect to grow those crops, and I ¢â‚¬â„¢m deeply sobered
and deeply concerned by this. I really am.

You know, it strikes me as a great irony that the atheistic regime
in Beijing better understands our history than we do. I ¢â‚¬â„¢m indebted to
the ABC (I ¢â‚¬â„¢m sorry, Heather  ¢â‚¬“ another media organisation, you ¢â‚¬â„¢ve
heard of them) to the ABC Religion Hour, if it still exists, for a
broadcast they had a couple of years ago and someone gave me the
transcript and it was with a very senior correspondent in Beijing and
he was reporting on a major study that the Communist government had
undertaken into the Christian church in China; and the report had
come back indicating that the church growth in China was amazing and
that it is not likely to be stopped.

And it caused great consternation, and that is, of course, behind
the persecution of the house-church movement in particular in China.
Why? I ¢â‚¬â„¢ll tell you why, as our correspondent said. The Chinese
government understands that it is Christians who start to agitate for
the recognition of  ¢â‚¬Ëœthe little person ¢â‚¬â„¢. For the radical idea that we
take for granted yet you find in no other culture. No other belief
system that I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve ever encountered. That all have dignity before God,
and that the King must respect the peasant just as the peasant is
expected to respect the King – the Good Samaritan story.

The Bible, of course, is based on the whole idea that each is
precious; and the Chinese understand the European history! It was
that radical nation that built the idea of representation in
Parliament, peaceful means of removing those who become corrupted by
the lure of power, which is almost all people who get hold of power.
Not Ron Boswell and me, but most people, and you need a peaceful
means to resolve that and democracy has evolved out of it. Nor do we
understand the way in which transformed and renewed lives have
transformed our society.

My political hero is a man called William Wilberforce. To many of
you he ¢â‚¬â„¢s still a hero today  ¢â‚¬“ to Christians everywhere. Here is a man
who came from Hull, entered Parliament as an extraordinarily
privileged and wealthy young man with the world at his feet, in an
age of great moral  ¢â‚¬Ëœmessiness ¢â‚¬â„¢ in Great Britain. It was a
 ¢â‚¬ËœSuperpower ¢â‚¬â„¢ but it was a dreadful place; inequitable, corrupt,
vice-ridden, and he had everything to gain by remaining the sort of
dissolute young man that he was, but he got converted.

He got converted and he was transformed, and this man went on to
do something that was extraordinary for somebody from the mercantile
class; a very wealthy man. He came to see that people with black skin
mattered equally to God to those with white skin and he led the
greatest human rights campaign of all times, that which freed the
slaves.

The Left in this country used to prattle on about human rights
till whales became important; until the cows came home but we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve
erased our understanding that it was the Christians who gave rise to
our democratic freedoms and to the idea that slaves should be freed,
and so on and so forth. We ¢â‚¬â„¢ve jettisoned it all.

Now England, the country that exported Christianity and freedom;
you know, the  ¢â‚¬Ëœmother of the parliaments ¢â‚¬â„¢ and what have you, has
changed. Like Australia, there was a time when Christianity, even if
you didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t go to church, was seen as true; then there was a time when
it was just one of many truths. Now, according to the intelligentsia,
it ¢â‚¬â„¢s dangerous and you shouldn ¢â‚¬â„¢t expose your children to it! And
England ¢â‚¬â„¢s busily exporting the new atheism  ¢â‚¬“ the Richard Dawkinses of
this world and the Christopher Hitchenses.

Christopher Hitchins wrote  ¢â‚¬ËœGod is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons
Everything ¢â‚¬â„¢. Are you all aware of that book? He was in Sydney about
twelve months ago. He was at the Opera House with the ABC (you can
see how I love that organisation) I think it was them. They had this
 ¢â‚¬ËœDangerous Ideas Conference ¢â‚¬â„¢ you see. So here ¢â‚¬â„¢s one of their great
heroes, Christopher Hitchins  ¢â‚¬“ a brilliant man who ¢â‚¬â„¢s against God  ¢â‚¬“
he ¢â‚¬â„¢s up there.

At the same time, ironically, I have to tell you (I ¢â‚¬â„¢m an Anglican)
the Anglican Church had an outreach thing called  ¢â‚¬ËœThirty-nine
Prominent Australians Talking About Their Christian Faith ¢â‚¬â„¢. And they
were prominent Australians (well, thirty-eight of them were  ¢â‚¬“ I was
the thirty-ninth)! Remarkable men, from captains of industry to Peter
Costello to sportsmen to scientists to medicos, proclaiming their
belief in the resurrected Christ – while Christopher Hitchins is
saying that only an imbecile believes in a resurrected Christ
today!

I would have thought that that was a potential  ¢â‚¬Ëœfield day ¢â‚¬â„¢ for the
media. Thirty-nine (thirty-eight plus one) prominent Australians
saying they do believe while the Great Atheist is saying only an
infantile believes. Isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t that rich ground? And yet the media,
confronted with something unfortunate, like a whole lot of thinking,
intelligent Australians who believe in a resurrected Christ  ¢â‚¬“ it ¢â‚¬â„¢s
easier just to ignore it, isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t it? What have we come
to?
Christopher Hitchins has a brother. His name ¢â‚¬â„¢s Peter. Peter was an
atheist too. Then he went to live in Russia for quite a while and he
saw what seventy or eighty years of atheistic Communist rule had done
to the people, and he converted, and he ¢â‚¬â„¢s written a book called  ¢â‚¬ËœThe
Rage Against God ¢â‚¬â„¢ and in that he mounts incredibly powerfully, the
argument that we are being blind and foolish beyond belief. He says
we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve silenced God; we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve mocked Him, we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve sidelined Him; we won ¢â‚¬â„¢t
give Him a role in the public square. Must we learn it all again  ¢â‚¬“
that no society that says it can do it without God preserves its
freedoms or lasts for very long? The brother of a great atheist;
that’s what he says; and he goes on to talk about some of the
disastrous results  ¢â‚¬“ and again, he ¢â‚¬â„¢d have seen them in Russia.

Do you know the first thing he nominates that ¢â‚¬â„¢s been so damaging
out of all of this? The trashing of marriage. The trashing of family;
and he argues very powerfully, and I agree with him because I can see
it  ¢â‚¬“ I saw it in public life  ¢â‚¬“ your elite, your intelligentsia, the
 ¢â‚¬Ëœtrendy ¢â‚¬â„¢, who are at the forefront of trashing traditional marriage
and traditional family and seem only to speak for adults, and never
for the interests of the children who have to grow up in some sort of
environment, ladies and gentlemen, so they, in a way, are the least
to suffer from the trashing of marriage. They can go and find a
 ¢â‚¬Ëœtrophy bride ¢â‚¬â„¢, or a yacht, or a chalet in Switzerland to take their
mind off the pain, but as it filters down through society the results
are more and more and more devastating.

There is a little town not far from where I live which used to be
a good, honest working town; it ¢â‚¬â„¢s now a social security town. The
school has shrunk and shrunk. There ¢â‚¬â„¢s twelve kids in that primary
school today; they have between them three mothers and five
fathers.

Will those children  ¢â‚¬“ precious every one of them  ¢â‚¬“ be selfless
givers to humanity, able to contribute to society; to take their
place in our community and help us build a bigger, stronger community
and families of their own? Or will they be people tragically locked
into a cycle of welfare dependency and of deep need drawing on the
rest of the community  ¢â‚¬“ I ask you?

They will be preoccupied with self and that is another enormous
price we are paying for the abandonment of Christianity. Selflessness
built our freedoms. Selfishness is destroying them.

One thing politicians know about is what you ¢â‚¬â„¢re thinking. They
employ very sophisticated and expensive polling techniques to
establish what you ¢â‚¬â„¢re thinking, so that they can tell you what you ¢â‚¬â„¢re
thinking and hopefully you ¢â‚¬â„¢ll say,  ¢â‚¬ËœWhat a great leader! ¢â‚¬â„¢ Now the
trouble is that, of course, nobody thinks the same thing anymore
because we ¢â‚¬â„¢re breaking up as a society and it ¢â‚¬â„¢s almost impossible to
find a  ¢â‚¬Ëœcommon thread ¢â‚¬â„¢ anymore but, the other people who know what
you ¢â‚¬â„¢re thinking is the advertising industry and in particular the
banks. Sorry, I ¢â‚¬â„¢ll offend everybody by the time I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve finished this
morning! And you may recall that advertisement that just had a big
page and a hand pointing out of it  ¢â‚¬ËœLook after the most important
person in the world  ¢â‚¬“ You ¢â‚¬â„¢.

Stop and think about it for a moment. Isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t that what ¢â‚¬â„¢s ripping
our society apart? Isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t it that very selfishness that we now idolise
that so threatens our and our children ¢â‚¬â„¢s future? And more than just
the fabric of our society; it spills over into economics. The thing
that is really shattering us now is, of course, the GFC. We ¢â‚¬â„¢ve been
largely immuned from it in Australia. Now, it wasn ¢â‚¬â„¢t very long ago
that I would have said that there ¢â‚¬â„¢d been a good government that had a
bit to do with that. I suppose if I ¢â‚¬â„¢m honest it ¢â‚¬â„¢s China taking all
our exports and all those sorts of things. But I think we ¢â‚¬â„¢re all
aware that we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve been very fortunate in this country but that the
world is in deep, deep, deep trouble.

You ¢â‚¬â„¢ve got once wealthy countries all over the world, once really
wealthy countries so deeply  ¢â‚¬Ëœin hock ¢â‚¬â„¢ that there responses will be
one of three or a combination of three things; they ¢â‚¬â„¢ll have to
massively wind back government services, and in a selfish age that ¢â‚¬â„¢s
a very painful thing to do because no-one wants to lose anything;
they ¢â‚¬â„¢ll have to raise taxes  ¢â‚¬“ ditto  ¢â‚¬“ or default on debt repayments.
All of them threaten us; threaten those societies and the Western
Alliance; indeed, the global outlook. That ¢â‚¬â„¢s something, ladies and
gentlemen, that in an age when politicians want to say  ¢â‚¬ËœWe ¢â‚¬â„¢ll make
sure this never happens again, and we ¢â‚¬â„¢ll put in place the regulations
that won ¢â‚¬â„¢t let the greedy bankers and so forth, do it again ¢â‚¬â„¢ that
we ¢â‚¬â„¢re overlooking that the crisis has its roots in character failing
and in moral failing; in greed and in poor judgment, and you can ¢â‚¬â„¢t
legislate against those things.

You actually need a cultural environment where people understand
that your word should be your bond; that you should earn rather than
seek instant gratification, on borrowed money, the things that you
want. I ¢â‚¬â„¢m not saying I ¢â‚¬â„¢m against sensible use of debt. I ¢â‚¬â„¢m not
against that at all. I ¢â‚¬â„¢m a good capitalist after all. But this is out
of control and you won ¢â‚¬â„¢t fix it by regulation, and it wasn ¢â‚¬â„¢t just a
few greedy bankers in the United States. What is revealed is that
everywhere, governments and their citizens had been living beyond
their means, and what it amounts to, of course, is a monstrous
inter-generational theft, because we ¢â‚¬â„¢re putting our children ¢â‚¬â„¢s and
our grandchildren ¢â‚¬â„¢s futures at risk. That in turn, of course, has
further consequences. It threatens the whole of the Western Alliance
that we are part of.

For years we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve lived as a middle-ranking, wealthy and free nation
as part of the most privileged alliance of nations on earth; probably
that the world has ever seen, ultimately under the protective mantle,
in recent decades, of economic, military, social, and I cringe a
little when I say it, the cultural might of the United States. But
the warning signs are all there; that it isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t going to continue much
longer. And in the midst of all of this in a deep-seated sense of
anxiety right across the western world, governments are failing. This
is not a reference to Obama in any way politically or personally, but
I don ¢â‚¬â„¢t think I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve ever seen anything more ridiculous, more
frightening or na ƒ ¯ve or stupid than watching the way in which
everyone salivated at the thought that this new American President
Obama could  ¢â‚¬Ëœsave the world ¢â‚¬â„¢.

Lemming-like, everyone, including the western press (except
Heather) embraced this idea that if we just get rid of that other man
and we put this new one in, it will all be fixed up. There was only
one Messiah. The undue expectations placed on that man ¢â‚¬â„¢s shoulders
were ridiculous  ¢â‚¬“ and we ¢â‚¬â„¢re doing the same thing in Australia, we ¢â‚¬â„¢re
casting around for leadership because we want to be let out of it.
But the problem is, ladies and gentlemen, as any good historian
knows, you ¢â‚¬â„¢ve got no hope of working out where to go if you can ¢â‚¬â„¢t
work out where you are, and you can ¢â‚¬â„¢t work out where you are if you
don ¢â‚¬â„¢t know where you ¢â‚¬â„¢ve come from. That is our problem. So don ¢â‚¬â„¢t
think any time soon some great western leader (who can be trusted
anyway) is going to come along with the solutions to the problem,
because it isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t going to happen until we collectively wake up to
ourselves (in my judgment) and that doesn ¢â‚¬â„¢t look like happening any
time soon. So it ¢â‚¬â„¢s a grim outlook in some ways.

I recently re-read, though, a little book called  ¢â‚¬ËœThe End of
Christendom ¢â‚¬â„¢. It was written by Malcolm Muggeridge. Actually it
wasn ¢â‚¬â„¢t written by him, it ¢â‚¬â„¢s a record of two lectures that he gave in
America in 1978. Malcolm Muggeridge was one of those truly brilliant
Englishmen. They do happen. And he was absolutely  ¢â‚¬Ëœup there ¢â‚¬â„¢ with the
C S Lewises of this world. He ¢â‚¬â„¢d been a journalist and he ¢â‚¬â„¢d lived in
Russia in the heyday after the revolution when much of the West, let
alone the Russians, thought this was the way to freedom; atheistic
communism  ¢â‚¬“  ¢â‚¬Ëœwe can do it better without God ¢â‚¬â„¢. That was the Left
Wing ¢â‚¬â„¢s version of how to do it without God; then you have the Right
Wing ¢â‚¬â„¢s version, which is fascism.

They both visited unbelievable suffering of humanity. Remember
Peter Hitchins? Think you can do it without God? Learn the lessons of
history  ¢â‚¬“ you can ¢â‚¬â„¢t. He became firstly very cynical, and ultimately a
Christian out of what he saw in Russia, and in 1978 in these two
lectures; Pascal lectures in America; Pascal named in honour of a
great French Catholic philosopher and thinker who wrote so powerfully
about mankind, coined that term  ¢â‚¬Ëœthe glory and the scum ¢â‚¬â„¢ – the
nobility that is the God image in us; the scum that comes from our
fallen nature evident in all of us.

Sometimes we say  ¢â‚¬ËœI ¢â‚¬â„¢m the good guy ¢â‚¬â„¢, that ¢â‚¬â„¢s what we do isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t it?
They ¢â‚¬â„¢re the bad guys. No we ¢â‚¬â„¢re not. The Bible says that each of us
are a combination of both; flawed hopelessly by sin. He became
converted. He said  ¢â‚¬ËœWestern society based in Christianity is moving
away from everything I ¢â‚¬â„¢m saying now ¢â‚¬â„¢. He has a much greater mind than
me so I ¢â‚¬â„¢m only following in his footsteps really. He warned precisely
what was happening, and thirty-three years on, everything he said
would unfold is unfolding, albeit, I fear now, at an
ever-accelerating rate. But, he said in the second lecture,  ¢â‚¬ËœThis is
no great cause for concern at one level. All societies rise and
fall ¢â‚¬â„¢.

Another great English mind, Arnold Toynbee, wrote that towards the
end of his life in the 1970s. He said that of the twenty-three great
civilisations that he had studied down through the ages, all had
ultimately collapsed – not as a result of external takeover, but of
internal decline, and the dying stages, very interestingly, the
common theme, the dying stages of all the great civilisations were
first selfishness and then a giving-over into apathy.  ¢â‚¬ËœI don ¢â‚¬â„¢t care.
I ¢â‚¬â„¢m not going to lift a finger for anybody else. Except that I demand
that someone else fix my problems ¢â‚¬â„¢.

So Muggeridge said  ¢â‚¬ËœLook, it may be that the West will fail, in
fact it ¢â‚¬â„¢s probable that it will. ¢â‚¬â„¢ I hope he ¢â‚¬â„¢s wrong; I pray he ¢â‚¬â„¢s
wrong and I ¢â‚¬â„¢m sure you all do too but we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve got to heed the warning
signs and understand why it ¢â‚¬â„¢s happening.  ¢â‚¬ËœHowever ¢â‚¬â„¢, he said,  ¢â‚¬ËœThat
will not be the end of Christianity. It will not be. God will simply
move on to new areas. He loves His creation and He will move on. ¢â‚¬â„¢ And
he was repeatedly asked by journalists and cynics and so forth,
 ¢â‚¬ËœWhat ¢â‚¬â„¢s your evidence for this? ¢â‚¬â„¢ And his evidence was very
interesting. He said,  ¢â‚¬ËœLook at fifty or sixty years (at that time) of
atheistic rule in Russia. It hasn ¢â‚¬â„¢t killed off Christianity ¢â‚¬â„¢. A third
of Russians at that stage still believed in Christianity and he
pointed to people like Solzhenitsyn, the great thinker and Christian
writer who found faith in a gulag salt mine prison.

He couldn ¢â‚¬â„¢t see what we can see, which is that Christianity,
actually, is quite evidently, about to enter its most vibrant and
wonderful stage globally. That is what is actually
happening.

It ¢â‚¬â„¢s terribly bad new for Mr Dawkins and Mr Hitchins and they must
sob themselves to sleep every night, but this will not be a century
of atheism. This will be a century of enormous ferment over beliefs
and the values that are driven by beliefs; and by behaviour. The
Chinese government understands that. They should. Ten to twelve
percent of the Chinese population today are believed to be
Bible-believing Christians. That is a hundred to a hundred and twenty
million people!

Six percent, it ¢â‚¬â„¢s estimated, of India ¢â‚¬â„¢s population: I have a
friend who heads up  ¢â‚¬“ gave away a business career, a very
spectacularly successful one  ¢â‚¬“ to head up Alpha in Asia, not
Australia, in Asia. Twelve thousand churches in India today are
offering Alpha courses and forty percent of the people who enrol in
them remain in a church.

I ¢â‚¬â„¢m here with Stuart Brooking, a very good friend of mine. He is
the Executive Director of Overseas Counsel Australia. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s a mission
organisation. We support colleges in the emerging world. There ¢â‚¬â„¢s an
ad, Stuart, if anyone wants to talk to you afterwards! And I should
acknowledge Jeremy German who ¢â‚¬â„¢s a very good friend from CMS – he ¢â‚¬â„¢s
here as well. The people dedicated to mission; they would know what
is happening.

In Indonesia, the most populous Moslem nation on earth right on
our doorstep. There ¢â‚¬â„¢s a hundred Bible Colleges in Indonesia. Did you
know that? Just been there, and for all of the ferment in that
country there ¢â‚¬â„¢s a real interest in belief and some very strong
Christian growth.

Africa: seventy percent Christianised. Now they say it ¢â‚¬â„¢s a mile
wide and an inch deep  ¢â‚¬“ desperate need for good teachers. I heard the
Bishop of Uganda the other day describing how he has several hundred
parishes that he cannot fill with trained men and women. Enormous
need, but an extraordinary response to the Christian gospel.

What should we say then, in the face of all this? Should we
despair at the state of our culture? At one level  ¢â‚¬“ yes! But what
should it drive us to do? Gird our loins to take up our cross and to
reflect the Hope that is ours! I had Tim Costello say to this city a
few years ago (I ¢â‚¬â„¢m Patron of SU in Queensland; a role I love. I
always love it when

Queenslanders are friendly to me, because I know how you feel
about southerners in this state) and Tim Costello was saying  ¢â‚¬ËœYou
know, one of the things we don ¢â‚¬â„¢t understand any more; we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve stripped
our kids of hope. Our grandfathers hoped that if they ran the risk
with their wives of coming out to this country and surviving the ship
journey and then going out into the outback and building a life, they
might develop a better future for their children, their grandchildren
and their great-grandchildren. Our fathers ¢â‚¬â„¢, he said  ¢â‚¬Ëœhoped that if
they worked hard they ¢â‚¬â„¢d have a comfortable retirement and be able to
provide a better outlook for their children. Our children hope for a
good time tonight. ¢â‚¬â„¢ And he had a point.

We must broaden our horizons and understand the Christian hope.
There is real work to be done, firstly in this country. We must do
everything we can firstly on our knees to encourage people, our
fellow-Australians to come back to faith. As a very big part of that
we need to recognise that as a multi-racial society  ¢â‚¬“ great thing  ¢â‚¬“
many of the people who come here are very open to the faith.

I have a young Chinese friend in Sydney. He ¢â‚¬â„¢s a Presbyterian
Minister, he ¢â‚¬â„¢s only 31, but you know he has a thing called Rice. I
said  ¢â‚¬ËœWhy do you call it Rice? ¢â‚¬â„¢ and he said because I come from Asia
and we like rice. I said  ¢â‚¬ËœWhat ¢â‚¬â„¢s Rice? ¢â‚¬â„¢ He said,  ¢â‚¬ËœOnce a month we get
young, mainly Asian believers together in the Sydney Entertainment
Centre for a night of fellowship. Not a church. Just a night when we
come together for some fun, share experiences, sing, pray,
what-have-you. ¢â‚¬â„¢ I said  ¢â‚¬ËœHow many do you get? ¢â‚¬â„¢ and he showed me a
photograph. Auditorium full; he said eight to ten thousand
people.

Wouldn ¢â‚¬â„¢t it be an incredible irony if we from a traditional
Caucasian background who walk away from our faith and our culture and
let it decay around us, have the whole situation picked up and
retrieved for us by New Australians? God bless them if it happens,
but we ought to be working with them in every way we can. And then
there ¢â‚¬â„¢s the homelands they came from.

You know, the fascinating thing, the wonderful set of
opportunities and responsibilities that arise for Australia stem
largely from its geography. We ¢â‚¬â„¢re of the West, that ¢â‚¬â„¢s patently
obvious, but we ¢â‚¬â„¢re not in it. We ¢â‚¬â„¢re in Asia, and Paul Kelly who ¢â‚¬â„¢s a
journalist I respect enormously is the Editor-at-Large of the
Australian. He wrote the other day that if Wayne Swann is right to
say that Australia can ride (and he was referring to economics, but
let ¢â‚¬â„¢s face it, it needs to go much beyond that I believe, and a whole
range of ways) ride the rise of Asia. He went on to say to stop and
think about whether our values are in sync with Asia, and he referred
to their hard work, to their commitment to their countries, to their
family values and to rising religious faith.

That ¢â‚¬â„¢s what he wrote in the Australian just before Christmas and
then he said,  ¢â‚¬ËœYou must realise these values are anathema to many of
the people who run the debate in Australia today. ¢â‚¬â„¢ And they are, but
we know that they ¢â‚¬â„¢re right and we need to  ¢â‚¬Ëœtap into it ¢â‚¬â„¢ and to work
into it and to recognise that if that is where God is working, there
are tremendous, strategic opportunities and responsibilities for
us.

Ladies and gentlemen, it ¢â‚¬â„¢s been a great pleasure being with you. I
seek to encourage you in that hope that in the midst of despair we
need to recognise that God is building His Kingdom. He will not be
mocked. He will not be thwarted. As Peter Hitchins says, that is a
very stupid western idea that will only enjoy a very short currency,
ladies and gentlemen, because in the end, we get our three score and
ten; and our response in the midst of this must be to remember that
God calls each one of us into a loving relationship with Himself
through Jesus Christ.

We need, then, to use the gifts and talents that He has given us
and which ultimately belong to Him to expand His kingdom here in our
own country; here amongst those who come to us in our country and, I
would suggest, wherever else we have the opportunity, but
particularly in Asia. God bless you.

Source: John Anderson – Former Deputy Prime Minister of
Australia

Home