Double standard

Following on from yesterday's post about hostility towards Christians involved in politics, a well known Australian newspaper columnist published a list of 100 organisations who participated in last Sunday's annual Palm Sunday rally through the streets of Melbourne. 

The original purpose of the march was to emulate Christ's entry into Jerusalem, and proclaim the Christian message to the people of Melbourne in the leadup to Easter. Since then, this original has been lost. It has evolved into a social justice rally in which a range of community groups participate, both religious and secular, and from across the political spectrum. 

Christians involved in politics are often told that they should keep their beliefs to themselves, and not allow them to influence their political ideology. I have also directly experienced hostility from the political left when attending political meetings run by conservative Christian organisations. Again, this is another form of pressure to keep faith private. 

Now I come to the point of this post. It seems to me that this talk of keeping religion out of politics only applies to contentious hot button issues like equal opportunity employment law exemptions for religious organisations, abortion, and same sex marriage. When it comes to social justice issues like refugees, secular groups are happy to ally themselves with religious groups.

Put another way, the inference is that conservative Christians should keep out of politics, but left wing Christians are more than welcome.