Easter is a time for us to remember that doom and gloom can be overcome. In the same way the coronavirus with its health and economic impact on so many Australians can also in most cases be overcome. Christianity has taken a bit of a battering over the last few years and this is a good opportunity for Christians to demonstrate what loving your neighbour is all about in the broadest sense of the term as Christ used it.
Many Australians are going to need a helping hand in dealing with the impact on their health, socialisation, income, jobs and debts. There is every chance that many people will suffer very badly, that many businesses will fail and it is assured that the community will have a great deal of debt to repay over future years.
This will be a good time to reread the four Gospels and look for the ways in which Christ’s teachings of tolerance, patience, kindness and forgiveness can be applied to fellow Australians whether they are neighbours or members of Parliament, business people or government staff. There is plenty of good government policy at the moment and there will be plenty of mistakes as we work through the crisis. It is good to remember how easy it is to criticise and how difficult it is to make the right decisions that affect great numbers of people well.
For those who want to improve society there are several important rules:
Find out what your opponents want and develop good answers as to why your solutions are better.
Contact the FairGO Voterlobby and engaged them to help you with strategic political persuasion.
Use their Votergram service to take your message to all members of Parliament in the name of individual supporters of yours. You will learn from FairGO why that is so important.
Votergrams are based on the parable of the sower and you will benefit if you practice the persistence of the woman knocking on the judges door.
Jesus taught us to help others to enjoy life and he taught it in a way that fitted with life under a Roman dictatorship and domination by religious leaders. Life in Australia, in our superb democracy, is quite different. We are not so much “ruled” as governed by a committee of people who we elect to represent us. For those who apply Christian principles strategically to persuading politicians and guiding government,will enjoy great success. FairGO has been helping Christians do that for more than three decades.