Bishop's letter: Who will win the Australian election?

Last Updated on Friday, 27 August 2010 21:03 Friday, 20 August 2010 22:13

For the present it is a close run thing and we found it interesting to be in Queensland where the campaigning is white hot. Interesting because we felt sufficiently detached to note the way people will offer a policy [call it enticement if you like] only to be outdone the next day.

A re-write of the lyrics to ‘Anything you can do I can better’ from the Broadway hit “Annie Get your Gun” would

capture the essence of the ‘battle’ and music might have helped some of the contestants. But that isn’t what I wish to dwell on. Instead it is the furore that led into the election campaign when Mr Rudd was dislodged as PM. One person suggested that Kevin Rudd lacked a power base within his party or put another way his constituency wasn’t a political faction but rather, the people themselves. And by all accounts those who had him dumped hadn’t sufficiently thought about the anger the people of Queensland felt about him being treated in such a fashion.

The moral: ordinary people have an extraordinary sense of fair play whether it be in Queensland or here in New Zealand. There is a dislike for ‘behind the scenes’ plotting, transparency is more appreciated.

It seems to me that that was one of the big differences between Jesus and the Pharisees. He was open and direct when dealing with people while those who sought to depose him lurked on the edge of the crowd or in the shadows of the room.

What we might find difficult to accept is that the Pharisees like the ‘faceless men’ behind the political curtain in Rudd’s own party don’t have a mortgage on ‘behind the scenes’ manoeuvring.

Speed Lees who came to us from the Alban Institute a few years back to speak at our Clergy Conference on Conflict Resolution used the term ‘whispering in the carpark’  to allude to a similar pattern of behaviour that can occur in a faith-community when things are not going as smoothly as they should. Regardless of whether the car park chatterers feel justified or not isn’t the point. What is is the need to be transparent in our dealings with each other. Matthew 18 encourages the direct route. But I am also reminded of Jesus teaching on love – that we are to love others as we would have them love us. There you have it then: obedience to Christ’s teaching and charity and openness with each other.

And who will be the next Australian PM? I have no idea.

+Tom

Bishop of Wellington