Connections Archive

A Christian academic has challenged Seventh-day Adventists to become more involved in public life and the political process to capitalise on the "retreat" of secularisation.

Dr Stuart Piggin, director of the Centre for the History of Christian Thought and Experience at Macquarie University, described Catholic social theory as a "healthy discipline" and the Uniting Church as inheriting "Wesley's love for the poor and Methodist identification with the needy," during the annual Murdoch Lecture on July 10. Then the sting: "but most of us in the evangelical tradition . . . have created our own universe, parallel to, but unengaged with the secular world. We don't even try to communicate Christian perspectives in the marketplace of ideas, and so we do not know how to do it."

Piggin adapted a phrase from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as the title of his lecture--"Taken at the flood: cherishing our Christian heritage the surest foundation for Australia's future." "There is a tide in the affairs of men, but it's high tide now, the tide is at the flood, and it's a king tide."

Piggin and a colleague visited Canberra in 2005 to explore the feasibility of holding a National Forum on Australia's Christian Heritage. They were "amazed" at the interest federal Members of Parliament showed in Christianity and the support they gave to the forum. "It is almost as if in the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition we have the two pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, representing, on the Liberal side, the family values dimension of the faith, and, on the Labor side, the social justice dimension."

Piggin also used the "robust" debate about the teaching of Australian history at a summit in Canberra that followed the forum as evidence of his claim. "All the delegates were united in their desire for students to examine religion's role in shaping society and supported the weaving of religious history into the narrative."

However, a confidence about what our faith can offer our country is important, said Piggin. He shared two convictions: the gospel generates social capital and raises the quality of citizenship; and Christianity is the key to national greatness and to greatness of character.

Piggin demonstrated his first statistically. The religious dimension of the Australian Values Systems Study (1983) showed people who go to church are more: tolerant; supportive of the family; likely to be married; likely to have children; likely to take the opinions of others seriously; determined to make a contribution to society; and inclined to think life is meaningful and purposeful. Sociologist Gary Bouma, who co-authored a book about the study, returned 21 years later, producing with others the study Religion, cultural diversity and safeguarding Australia, which the federal government funded in the wake of September 11. The authors show Australians live in a paradoxically secular and multi-faith society, but the examples they give of the generation of social capital are almost exclusively Christian.

Piggin traced his second conviction back through history, to the Franco-Prussion War in 1871, to the publication of a book by French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835 and 1840 and to the Roman Empire. The French, who were humiliated, contrasted their instability and weakness with the stability and strength of the British, finding Methodism prevented revolution. de Tocqueville wrote, after touring the United States, "not until I went into the churches . . . did I understand the secret of [America's] genius and power." And Eusebius, a church historian, argued the empire would be safer for every person who became a Christian. "When the Kingdom of God comes into contact with the kingdoms of this world, the best interest of the latter are served," said Piggin.

He concluded by asking Christians to learn three things from history: one, "Christianity is not a crusading religion; it is a missionary religion"; two, Christians should not shed any more blood in the defence of the faith because "the violence of the cross is to bring all other violence to an end"; and three, Christians should not avoid the contested areas of public life because "contests require peacemakers."

?"It is high tide," said Piggin. "Will you help us take it at the flood?"