Beware the religious invasion of our polity (3 Viewers)

[MoonlightSonata]

Church expands horizons.

Oh dear.

The strategy was unveiled yesterday by the national president of the Assemblies of God in Australia, Brian Houston, at its biennial conference titled Take the Nation, Shake the World.

That's just really scary

 

[Generator]

Slight bump

Labor hears gospel of popular church
Andrew West, NSW political reporter
July 04, 2005


THE Labor Party has recognised the potentially huge political influence of Australia's burgeoning Pentacostal churches, and for the first time will send representatives to its annual convention.

The party is dispatching one of its most senior figures, NSW Premier Bob Carr, to address the Hillsong conference, which opens today at the Telstra Superdome in Sydney. Up to 30,000 people are expected to gather for the premier event on the Pentacostal calendar.

Mr Carr will be accompanied by Roger Price, the chief whip of the federal Labor caucus, who will represent Opposition Leader Kim Beazley.

It is the first time the ALP has sent a delegation to the convention, which was addressed last year by Treasurer Peter Costello.

Many within Labor had figured that Hillsong - an 18,000-strong Assemblies of God congregation with churches in Sydney's northwestern and inner southern suburbs that has an annual turnover of $40 million and preaches a so-called "prosperity gospel" - was hostile territory.






When Mr Costello addressed last year's conference, delegates gave the son of a Baptist lay preacher a roof-raising ovation as they appeared to embrace his aspirational economic message.

At the federal election last October, a Hillsong employee, social worker Louise Markus, won the western Sydney seat of Greenway for the Liberals, ending Labor's long grip on the electorate.

Prime Minister John Howard initially forged a bond with Hillsong in late 2002 when he opened its state-of-the-art auditorium at Castle Hill.

This year the Labor Party, which has established its own Faith, Politics and Values committee within the federal caucus to reach out to religious communities, was determined to accept Hillsong's invitation.

Even so, conservative politicians will still outnumber Labor MPs, with six Liberals so far confirming their presence at this evening's opening-night rally. They include Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews, who has recently drawn flak from the ecumenical National Council of Churches of Australia and Sydney Catholic archbishop Cardinal George Pell over his proposed tough new industrial relations laws.

NSW Liberal MP David Clarke, a conservative Catholic associated openly with the Opus Dei movement, has also confirmed his attendance.

Some of Mr Clarke's moderate Liberal colleagues have recently accused him of using the Hillsong Church as a recruiting ground for party members as part of an effort to win control of branches in Sydney's north.

While attendances at mainstream churches have declined over the past decade, Pentacostal congregations are up 30 per cent, albeit from a traditionally low base.

Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15813439%5E2702,00.html

 

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*bump* (not so slight this time)

Church can't do state's work: Pope

Church can't do state's work: Pope
Jill Rowbotham and Natasha Bita
January 26, 2006


THE church cannot take on itself the political battle to bring about "the most just society possible", Benedict XVI has warned Catholic believers in the first significant public statement of his papacy.

In the long-awaited encyclical entitled Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), the Pope clarifies the relationship between church and state. "A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the church," he says.

[continued - see link]

 

[leetom]

*bump* (not so slight this time)

Church can't do state's work: Pope

Churches are entitled to criticise government policy, but they shold refrain from publicly backing a given political party.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Somewhat refreshing news.