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Churches in Victoria must mobilise their congregations to vote Daniel Andrews out of office.

Sure the Liberals are hopeless, but at least they don’t hate Christians. The same cannot be said for the Andrews government.

Not only does the Victorian Labor government continually enact legislation that is an affront to Christian principles — whether on abortion, or euthanasia, or on LGBTQ+ issues — it does so with a snarkiness that conveys complete contempt for people of faith.

Blackguard

Contrary to lefty conspiracy theories about fundamentalist Christians conspiring to run the country, church leaders are loath to become involved in partisan politics. They fear doing so is a distraction from their core business of spreading the message of Jesus.

It’s true, Jesus commanded us to love our enemies. But He never said we should keep electing them to positions of power over us.

If Andrews’ hostility towards Christians is rewarded with re-election in November, it will only embolden his attacks on the church.

This week the Premier derided orthodox Christian teaching on human sexuality and sanctity of life as ‘appalling views’.

‘That kind of intolerance and hatred is just wrong,’ he said, joining a media pile-on to discredit Anglican Andrew Thorburn who had been appointed CEO of the Essendon Football Club.

Since when was it in the purview of a Premier to announce which existential views were acceptable, and which were not?

Who elected Daniel Andrews, god?

He certainly governs like he is.

Last year, the Andrews government passed so-called conversion therapy laws which made it an offence for ministers to pray for a parishioner — even at their request — to resist homosexual urges.

Believe what you like about the morality or otherwise of homosexuality, when the state dictates what can and cannot talk to God about, it’s a sign that the state has not only invaded the church, but it is also drunk on the communion wine.

When a reporter asked this week if the resignation of Andrew Thorburn meant Christians could no longer take on public roles, Andrews snapped back:

‘No. They might want to think about whether they should be a bit more kind-hearted, a bit more inclusive.’

And then, addressing his faithful flock (by which I mean the media), he sermonised: ‘Aren’t we all God’s children?’

Oh please!

Has a political leader ever invoked the name of God with less sincerity?

Okay, apart from Nancy Pelosi (the Democrat Speaker of the House once argued that it was her Christian faith that led her to support abortion).

If the media had stopped worshipping Andrews long enough to hold him to account, they would have asked if peaceful protesters shot with rubber bullets at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance were ‘God’s children’.

And what about the unvaccinated who were effectively banned from public life for two years. Were they ‘God’s children’? Or are God’s children only those with a government-issued vaccine certificate…

Essential workers were God’s children. Non-essential workers could go to hell.

Hypocrite

After waxing lyrical about all God’s children — and having insisted he was ‘not here to be having a debate with faith leaders’ — the Pope, ahem, Premier took a moment to instruct Catholics on how to be Catholic.

‘I will just say this. I’m a Catholic. I send my kids to Catholic schools. My faith is important to me and guides me every day.’

Wait. What? Wasn’t Andrew Thorburn kicked out of AFL heaven for fear that his Christian faith would guide him as Essendon CEO?

Andrews continued:

‘Everyone should be treated equally. Everyone should be treated fairly and for me, that’s my Catholicism. That’s my faith.’

It is surely only a matter of time before Pope Francis summons Andrews to Rome to instruct clergy on the finer points of Christian doctrine.

It’s the vibe. It’s the Bible. It’s equality. It’s fairness. It’s the vibe and ah, no that’s it.

Andrews’ religion is a mile wide, and half a millimetre deep.

So just to be clear, it wasn’t that Thorburn was wrong to be guided by religion, it’s just that Thorburn’s Christianity wasn’t the state-approved version as described by Chairman Dan and the Labor government.

We know that the Labor Party has a special fondness for China and we know that China has a special fondness for herding Christians into state-approved churches.

Christians know that Christians attend the underground ones, where there’s a bit more to their faith than the vibe coming from government headquarters.

I wonder if Andrew Thorburn feels like he was treated ‘equally’ and ‘fairly’.

Daniel Andrews threw Thorburn to the lions. And now he’s trolling Christians. He needs to go before none of God’s children are free.

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Originally published at The Spectator Australia. Republished from The James Macpherson Report.

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Photo: Wikimedia Commons