It appears that two Australian politicians, Bernard (Bernie) Finn MLC and Craig Ondarchie MLC, have earned public criticism for themselves and their political party by calling on pairing arrangements to excuse themselves from the Victorian Parliament on religious grounds (due to Good Friday, just a few days ago)—only to then return and vote on an issue (to the disadvantage of their political opponents, who had honoured the pairing arrangements, and were therefore two voting members down). ABC News and The Sydney Morning Herald, amongst other sources, have reported on the situation.
There is debate about this controversy at many levels. There have been questions about the genuineness of Finn and Ondarchie’s Christian beliefs, for example, but we do not know all of the details. Barney Zwartz’s report in The Sydney Morning Herald seems to be well balanced—he notes that it is possible that Finn and Ondarchie did intend to absent themselves for the stated reasons, but apparently were then ordered to return by their political party’s leaders.
One key concern from my point of view is that there appears to be a lack of questioning about who a ‘Christian’ actually is. There are plenty of people in Australia who call themselves Christians—around 52% of respondents to the Australian Census in 2016 indicated Christianity, of one form or another, as their religion. With a response rate of around 95% to that census and a national population of around 23.4 million, that meant somewhere around 11.6 million ‘Christians’ in Australia at that time. Does this mean that there are that many genuine Christians in the country? I doubt it.
Who, then, is to determine if the name of ‘Christian’ is accurate for an individual claiming it? What is the acid test? Surely, it must be the decision of the Lord Jesus Christ.