Joe Hockey is member of the Australian House of Representatives. He is the member for North Sydney and shadow treasurer, considered by many to be a future contender for the leadership of the parliamentary Liberal Party, though Hockey rules this possibility out, at least before the next election.
Mr Hockey is delivering a series of speeches to the Sydney Institute (a conservative think-tank), the first of which was entitled ‘In Defence Of God’, available on Hockey’s website.
Such a speech creates the opportunity for cynical evaluations with regard to its content and timing. Who is Hockey trying to influence and why at precisely this time? Political pundits can muse of those sorts of questions.
It’s the content of Hockey’s speech that deserves consideration from Christians. So, what can we make of Mr Hockey’s gallant effort to defend God?
Firstly, the speech seems to indicate that its author is a decent, thoughtful person who seeks to serve the people of Australia, a country he perceives as a secular democracy.
Secondly, in preparing for the speech Hockey has found an echo of his own thoughts in the recently published work of Karen Armstrong, The Case for God. Tim Challies is not a fan of the book. His review is here. A recent interview with Armstrong can be read here.
Hockey affirms Armstrong’s work in these terms:
“In The Case for God Karen Armstrong argues that there has been a significant shift in the way in which all three of the great monotheistic faiths have interpreted their scriptures – be it the Torah, the Bible or the Holy Koran.
Her hypothesis is essentially that as religious leaders have sought to find their way in the rationalist world that rapid scientific advancement produced, they resorted to a more literalist interpretation and defence of the scriptures. She argues that before the Age of Enlightenment the Old and New Testaments were regarded as allegorical texts and able to be interpreted according to the age in which they were being read but that this has fundamentally changed. As one of her book’s reviewers, Mark Vernon, summarised: “the theological point for us now is that an error took hold soon after the Renaissance. This was the conviction that religious truths could be proven by reason, tested by evidence and timelessly captured in a text or doctrine.”
Anyone who has studied the history of Christian doctrine, let alone broader religious studies will know that position is tripe. Pure and simple. Mystical tripe. How anyone could assert that Christianity had no interest in propositional truth as the basis of belief before three to four hundred years ago is simply amazing. Read the Apostles Creed for a start.
Other than that it would seem that Hockey’s position is basically a deistic one that affirms the universal parenthood of God and the brother-and-sisterhood of all humanity.
Some quotes:
“I believe that faith plays an important and constructive role in our own society. In the context of this speech I use the term God as an analogy for faith in all its forms.”
“From the lips of commentators at the most benign end of the spectrum, to the hands of fundamentalists at the extreme, religion continues to be used in ways that no loving and forgiving God could possibly have envisaged or decreed.”
“For me, religious experience should fundamentally be a personal one.”
“Now there are some that will with great conviction, even to this day, argue that all of these things were so. In fact a number of fast growing evangelical Christian churches in Australia take a literalist approach to the scriptures. While most leaders of the older churches, if I can use that term, have moved away from such a position I would argue that there is still an alienating literalism that pervades many faiths and Christianity is not alone in this regard.”
“I however do not accept that any of the great religions envisage a God or a divine force that sanctions the worst failings of humanity. Religion asks of us to become better people – to choose a life of giving and compassion.
This “Golden Rule” is a thread that runs from Confucius to Christianity and from Buddhism to Islam.
For me this is the essential message of all faiths – that we should love our neighbour as we love ourselves. As Muhammad spoke in his final sermon “Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you”. Or as the great Jewish rabbi Hillel put it “that which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.”
“Faith is the spring from which the compact that binds us together as individuals flows.
For us in Australia we owe our liberal democratic tradition to the understanding that comes from believing in the essential worth of every other human being. It is the message of the Golden Rule, to love thy neighbour as thyself, and it is inspired by the understanding that we are all the children of God.
It is that respect for each other that drives us to believe in the virtues of charity, justice, equality and compassion.”
“Religion has, throughout human history, provided us with a stable reference point for our own lives. The human side of religion is exemplified by those who dedicate their lives to helping others. They often provide us with life inspiration.
In the past that inspiration has often come from the works of the saints, the mystics, the prophets and in the case of my faith, from the teaching and example of Jesus Christ.”
This is a pretty sound articulation of liberal Christian belief.
Hockey deserves to be given credit for not pandering to any particular interest group. Evanglicals will be unimpressed by his position and the lack of sympathy that Hockey has expressed. Atheists and agnostics will wonder why he needs a faith belief to articulate and hold any moral position espoused here. Liberal Christians will probably nod in agreement and the broad majority of Australians who really don’t have an opinion on these matters will take some comfort in the fact that Joe Hockey seems to follow the long line of Australian politicians who believe that a bit of religion is generally a good thing, as long as you don’t get too carried away with it.
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