I want to help build a political movement that is committed to the pillars of conservativism.
Starting with faith, we need to recognise that the influence of Christianity in society is the foundation stone of true freedom.
Our founders knew it when they embedded "humbly relying on the blessings of Almighty God" in our Constitution.
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If ever there was a time when our politicians needed to know that there is a God and it is not them, it is now.
The American founders knew this. They knew that without Christian faith there can be no virtue. Without virtue in the citizenry there is no freedom.
Thomas Jefferson said: "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God?"
John Adams, the second President of the United States, said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
And our greatest Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies also knew this truth when he said:
"The most important thing in the world, may I say for myself, is man's relation to his maker: his relation to the divine and spiritual law."
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Menzies knew the importance of the centrality of faith for civil society to flourish.
A multi-million dollar human rights commission can't make us virtuous and it can't make us free.
The second pillar is the natural family. I want to be out loud and proud for the basic group unit of society. Few causes attract more ridicule from the elites these days.
This is an edited copy of the speech Lyle Shelton gave in Toowoomba when it was announced he was joining Australian Conservatives.
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