Should a Politician put aside their religious beliefs when making decisions?
The simple answer would seem to be yes to anyone who understands that to fairly administer a nation for all citizens you need to be able to know what the peoples needs are and how to fulfil them in a fair and just manner, not only from your own persepective, but from theirs as well. If you are a religious person it seems that it is nigh on impossible for you to do this. Just lately this has been shown to be true for about 90 percent of the religious community that have had anything to do with decision making. The Ethics Classes debate has shown most religious people only care about keeping kids in the Special Religious Education classes and not at all about those who don’t attend. Those who don’t attend are left to fend for themselves and aren’t really bothered about unless they wish to do something useful and then they are stopped. It seems that Scripture is the be all and end all of their existence and what others needs are don’t matter.
I do have to say here that the Muslim community have shown themselves to be the more openminded and are quite happy for the classes to go ahead. I and many others applaud their support at this time.
The Australian Christian Lobby on the other hand are mobilising as much support against the classes as they can muster and seem to be of the mind that they are the absolute arbiters of what should be taught, where it should be taught, when it should be taught and who teaches it.
Look at what is about to happen shortly and you can see that the religious are getting their way much more than you would have thought. On 21st June Prime Minister Rudd and the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will address Australian churches via a web-cast. I have never heard of such a thing in my life. What has so radically changed in this country that they are giving in to one group to such an extent? It just shows that the leaders in this country not only have religious leanings, which in and of itself is alright, but have a bias towards religion that is blinkering their outlook on the community as a whole. It’s not that there is anything overt being done that has affected us, but more that when we speak, we aren’t heard. It’s like we don’t exist at times.
No politician should be giving in to any one group over others consistently or to be seen to be playing favourites in this manner. There is a section of politics that is fighting back, but they are small and don’t have the numbers to make changes as easy as other factions. It is up to us, the people who are fed up with the way things are, to support these people and help them make the changes we wish to see. If we don’t, then we have no right to be complaining when next our lives are disrupted by religion getting in the way. We are a bigger part of the community than even most of us are aware and if we mobilise ourselves and make ourselves heard we can bring this country back into balance.
You, as an atheist, agnostic, freethinker, secularist, humanist or another religous person that thinks the christians in this country have far too great a say in our lives, then you need to start asking what you can do to change things for the better. Help these brave politicians. Sign their petitions, attend parliament, write letters and emails. It really now has come to the time that you need to make yourself heard. I hate to have to put it as plainly as this, but…