Telling Lies for God

Fred Nile is probably the most abhorrent figure in Australian politics today. I still haven't got over the 2004 Federal election when he described making the age-of-consent for homosexual sex equal with heterosexual sex as "good news for paedophiles"! (A Greens policy that the Labor government picked up and passed.) As nasty as that deception was, their policy was just maintaining the status quo, as it is when they want to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples and exempt religious schools from anti-discrimination laws. But this election they became worse than ultra-conservative, they became openly regressive, particularly Nile's suggestion of a moratorium on Muslim immigration in favour of taking in more Christians. I can't believe that he can say that with a straight face. This clearly puts him in the same league as One Nation yet the major parties won't distance themselves from him the way they agreed to preference Pauline last. Such is the nature of religion in Australia, although few Australians practice it with any sincerity, it still lends a gloss of respectability to xenophobia.

When I saw this video before the NSW election last weekend I just found it funny. But now it has more of a bitter taste because the Christian Democrats have increased their vote statewide and even out-polled the Greens in a few seats around where I used to live. It doesn't make any immediate difference because they won't take any lower-house seats and they're getting no new upper house seats. But it's indicative of a trend towards an American style fusion of religion and politics and that's terrifying.