A Pastor Asks A Politician Why He Supports Gay Marriage. It Seems He Wasn't Prepared For His Reply

[Jim Lane]

31. Kevin Rudd (the politician responding) is a born-again Christian

I'm an agnostic and will confess to feeling some anti-religious bigotry. My defense is that it's provoked by the way so many born-again Christians in the United States seem eager for a theocracy, or at least to impose their views on everyone.

If more of the evangelicals here were like Rudd, I'd have a much better attitude toward them.

More about Rudd and his views on religion in politics: "Christianity and Politics - Kevin Rudd". He condemns the politicians who say "vote for me because I'm a Christian" and who emphasize "a defined set of views on questions of private sexual morality...."

Contrary to the right-wing stereotype of us, sensible nonreligious people don't try to exclude religion from public life. We can completely agree with what Rudd says here:

Whereas a Christian perspective on contemporary policy debates may not, therefore, prevail, it must nonetheless be argued. And if argued it must therefore be heard by those in authority. It should not be rejected contemptuously by secular politicians as if these views are an unwelcome intrusion into the political sphere.

Now, before I go too far in praising Rudd, I should quote another excerpt from the linked article. Rudd wrote in 2006:

Second is the question of asylum seekers. The biblical injunction to care for the stranger in our midst is clear. The parable of the Good Samaritan is but one of many which deal with how we should respond to the stranger who is vulnerable. That is why the Government ’ s current proposal to excise the entire Australian mainland from the entire Australian migration zone and to rely almost exclusively on the so-called Pacific Solution should be the cause of great ethical concern across the Christian churches.

I don't follow Australian politics in detail, but my impression is that he has now backed down from that position. Harsh anti-refugee measures are very popular with the Australian electorate, and Rudd wants to win the next election and remain Prime Minister.