Earlier this month, Liberal Party MP for North Sydney Joe Hockey delivered a speech at the Sydney Institute entitled In Defence of God. The script is available on his website. His idea of God is a catch-all amalgum of the nice bits of religious figures, not the God who reveled Himself in the Bible at various time in history by His Spirit and though the incarnation of His Son, Hebrews 1. There is no message of separation from God because of sin and the offer of forgiveness and restoration. Instead, God's main message is "'Love your neighbor as yourself'", the second great commandment. There is no mention of what Jesus called the greatest commandment, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind'" Matthew 22:36-39. If a minister of religion had launched into a political discussion with as little research as Mr Hockey did he would have beaten out of the public square.
A couple of days later Annabell Crabb wrote a brilliant piece for the Sydney Morning Herald entitled God's memo for Kevin and Joe. It is written in the guise of God addressing a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament which may offend, depending on your interpretation of the first commandment. Her point is not to make fun of God, but rather to satirise those who use Him for their own ends. I recommend it.
It's great that people can talk about God in the public square, but we should be careful not to fall over in amazement nor give them unthinking support just for doing so, particularly when the God they are talking about can be so different from the one we know.
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