Faith teaches us, Joe claims. So why haven’t some of our prominent religious politicians learned? It isn’t rocket science. As Joe himself points out, the world’s major religions set out in very simple and accessible terms how it is we ought to strive to treat one another. All ethics flow from these tenets of respect and recognition of our common humanity. Joe says so: “It is that respect for each other that drives us to believe in the virtues of charity, justice, equality and compassion,” he trumpets.
Religious politicians such as Joe, Tony and Kev must be deeply conflicted. How to accommodate the teachings of their faith with political expediency, the dubious tactics of spin, and the primary goal of winning the next election at any cost?
It isn’t that religious politicians are expected to be perfect. A bridge over the growing abyss between the religious talk and the political walk would be a start. The problem with having a foot in both worlds is that the further apart those worlds move, the more likely it becomes that you’ll be permanently torn asunder, and neither world will want you or believe a word you say.
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The disconnect between Hockey’s preaching and his actions, particularly on the matter of asylum seekers past and present, leads one to conclude that he has managed to compartmentalise his worlds to an unhealthy degree. He isn’t alone in this. Politics, at least as played out in Australia today, is increasingly incompatible with the basic demands for recognition of and respect for essential universal human worth made by Jesus Christ. The terms politician and Christian are well on their way to becoming an oxymoron, if they aren’t there already.
Is it too much to ask that Joe and the others either walk their talk, or spare us their sermons? Spiritual hypocrisy is not a good look.
And perhaps the following quotation may be of some use to Hockey, Abbott and Rudd, et al:
“All politics must bend its knee before human rights, and only in this fashion may politics ever aspire to reach the stage where it will illuminate humanity.”
Thank you, Immanuel Kant.
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About the Author
Dr Jennifer Wilson worked with adult survivors of child abuse for 20 years. On leaving clinical practice she returned to academia, where she taught critical theory and creative writing, and pursued her interest in human rights, popular cultural representations of death and dying, and forgiveness. Dr Wilson has presented papers on human rights and other issues at Oxford, Barcelona, and East London Universities, as well as at several international human rights conferences. Her academic work has been published in national and international journals. Her fiction has also appeared in several anthologies. She is currently working on a secular exploration of forgiveness, and a collection of essays. She blogs at http://www.noplaceforsheep.wordpress.com.
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