Wow. Political campaigns can bring out the worst and ugly in some candidates and Australia's current Prime Minister, a boy raised in a Christian home in Nambour, Queensland has certainly changed his views about marriage.
There was a question and answer show where a local pastor from Brisbane Matt Prater asked a very valid question of the Prime Minister and the following is my commentary from the YouTube clip which has me gobsmacked and sad. I have made time references in the left margin when the comments were made in the video clip and my comments are in blue.
Matt Prater
asks his question of Prime Minister Rudd:
“I’m a pastor of a local church and work for a national christian radio network. Most of the listeners and callers we have had on our radio station have been saying they won't be voting for you because they're disillusioned because you seem to keep chopping and
changing your beliefs just to get a popular vote with regard to things like marriage. Why
should we vote for you?"
Rudd's response is that he made his decision to support gay marriage.
40 Secs – Rudd
made his decision to support gay marriage in good Christian conscience. I feel very sad for him.
48 Secs – Rudd
does not believe that when people are born, they chose their sexuality. My creator knew me
in my mother’s womb – He created my sexuality.
1:00 – Rudd
states it is how people are built. No, people are not built, we are created.
1:06 – Rudd
believes that the idea that it “gay” is an abnormal condition, is just wrong; He
doesn’t get that. I do not get Rudd.
1:14 – Rudd
– If you accept that it is natural and normal for someone to be gay because
that’s the way they are, then it follows from that, that I don’t think it is right to
say that if these two folk here who are in love with each other and of the same
gender should be denied the opportunity for legal recognition of the duration
of their relationship.
1:40 – Rudd
- If your starting point is that homosexuality is abnormal and he asks Matt
Prater what his view is because he needs to know and Matt defends his position
very well – got to love a politician for flicking the attention somewhere else
instead of just answering the question himself.
2:07 – Matt
– marriage is between husbands and wives. Jesus said that a man shall leave his father and mother and be married and that's the biblical definition. I just believe in what the bible says and I'm just curious if for you Kevin, if you call yourself a Christian, why don't you believe the words of Jesus in the bible. Yep, totally
agree and well done Matt - http://matthiasmedia.com/briefing/2013/09/pm-verbals-the-bible/.
2:25 – Rudd
“Well, mate if I was going to have that view, the bible also says that slavery is a
natural condition. (Applause from the
audience – shocking!)
2:48 – Rudd
“St Paul says in the New Test slaves be obedient to your masters and therefore,
we should have all fought for the confederacy in the US Civil War. Oh for goodness sake! The human condition and
social conditions change. Ah, but Jesus is the same
yesterday today and forever. What is the fundamental principal of the
New Testament? It is one of universal life. Loving your fellow man and if we
get obsessed with a particular definition sexuality, then we are missing the
centrality of what the gospel, whether you call it a social gospel, a personal
gospel or a spiritual gospel is all about.
I
believe that one of the fundamental principal’s of the New Testament is found
in Luke 4:18 - The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to
set at liberty them that are bruised,
3:18 – Rudd
“And therefore, I go back to my question, if you (Matt) think homosexuality is
an unnatural condition, then frankly I cannot agree with you based on any
element of the science, and therefore, as a persons sexuality is as they are
made, then you better ask the second question, should therefore, their loving
relationships be legally recognized and the conclusion I have reached is that
they should and on the question of chopping and changing, I wrote a 2 to 3,000
word essay stuck in online months and months ago before returning to the Prime
Ministership so everyone would know why I had changed my position, the reasons
for it and it was the product of some many, many months and years of reflection in
good Christian conscience.
Wow
– Prime Minister Rudd – we prayed for you tonight. Read Psalm 2:10-12 - Now then, you kings, act
wisely! Be warned, you rulers of the earth! Serve the Lord with reverent fear,
and rejoice with trembling. Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry,
and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities— for his anger
flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him!
We live in a fallen world and it is the slight edge that changes society's definitions and what is tolerated today as opposed to generations ago and I do not think it has improved our quality of life, but rather for the most post, it has complicated life to an extreme. We need to get back to the basics of life, in my opinion. Do I agree with same sex marriage - no. Will I be voting - no and that is because I am not yet an Australian citizen. Do I love gays and homosexuals - absolutely but it does not mean that I endorse their behaviour nor do I want to see it legalised.
I remember writing a letter to a Canadian Member of Parliament many years ago when my niece Allison was pre-school aged expressing my views on the subject then and I have the same opinion now; it is not the way God intended for us to live and it is not up for negotiation. Political leaders who believe they are God and chose to take that power into their own hands will have to give an account; I pray that Kevin Rudd has an encounter to remind him of God's definition of "The Family."
