One of Western Sydney's largest churches today declared itself to be "politically neutral" following a national webcast by both the Prime Minister, John Howard, and the Leader of the Opposition, Kevin Rudd.
A spokesman for Riverlands Christian Church (RCC) Penrith - which was the centre for the webcast in Penrith region - said, "We encourage our members to be politically savvy, and vote for whichever party they think is best.
"There have been some attempts within the national media to portray Christians as conservative right-wing voters. This simply isn't true. But Christian voters are not left-wing radicals either. Christianity is a 'thinking faith'," he said.
In an Australian first, the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd made their pitches for the Christian vote in a webcast streamed live to a claimed 100,000 Christians across the country.
"I acknowledge of course that God is neither Liberal nor Labor," he said. Mr Howard said, "I do, however, state it to be the fact that my party and the National Party has within its ranks a very significant number of people who are extremely active members of various Christian denominations."
Mr Rudd said the political right should not 'have a mortgage' on Christian values. "Personal faith provides a compass point for my life," he said last night. "It helps shape the view I try to bring to the public space."
The Riverlands church spokesman said RCC's outlook on the federal election was consistent with the agreed approach of Australian Chrisitian Churches (ACC). RCC is a member church of the ACC network.
Mr Howard struck a chord by telling Christians they had nothing to be embarrassed about. "The predominant religious culture in our society is Christianity and I always find it odd that you have to demonstrate your tolerance by denying your own heritage," he said.
Like Mr Howard, Mr Rudd put a Christian spin on his party's political strengths. "From a Christian perspective, we are custodians of the planet. We have a responsibility to ensure that those who come after us have a planet which is habitable," he said.
Speaking on how governments should treat the poor and underprivileged, Mr Rudd said, "We need to be mindful of giving voice to the voiceless and to have a view that compassion is not a weakness, it is one of our greatest strengths." Around a dozen times in his speech, Mr Rudd said his Christian beliefs gave him a unifying vision for the nation: "How can we be a country which has hard heads and soft hearts?"
Australian Christian Lobby director and former SAS head, Jim Wallace, said he expected the Christian vote to have a "big impact on the coming election".
"I think we saw after the last election there was a perception there was a Christian vote there. What we've seen tonight is that political parties certainly see it," he said.
"Also, we've been able to demonstrate that it is there in very large numbers. We had between 80,000 and 100,000 people watching tonight - that's a conservative estimate.
"For anyone with constituency to be able to do that, I think, is reasonably impressive and means if people are committed enough to come along and watch something like that in those numbers right around Australia, then it's a constituency that has to be listened to."
Mr Wallace publicly distanced himself - and Australia's Christian voters in general from the conservative "American approach". He said Christian voters here would take a wider perspective.
