Power of the pulpit
Most in the media have= ignored them, but Family Fi= rst is poised to seize substantial political power through its Christian manifes= to.
22sep04

FAMILY First is a new Christian-based party that - sadly - is scared to admit to being any such thing.

But by not mentioning its God, it has whispered out of nowhere to be a ch= ance to share the balance of power in the Senate.

We are seeing the b= irth of a new and canny conservative party, out in the grasslands of a religion represented for too long by big-city clergy who shared the politics of the cultural elite -- far to the Left of the people in their pews.

Stand aside, hand wringing bishops. Thanks in part to the church that gave us Australian Idol's Guy Sebastian -- and to the former head of the army's crack SAS -- muscular Christianity is on the move again.

And this time it's = not big-government Catholics, but free enterprise Protestants -- Evangelicals, Pentecostals and charismatics. Christians who= se churches are booming with certainty, not sinking in doubt.

Few journalists tre= at Christianity seriously, which explains why Family First managed to build a big political machine -- with more than 140 candidates, from pastors to principals, executives to social workers -- with zero publicity.

But it also helps to explain why an interview with Family First's lead Senate candidate in Victoria, Steven Fielding, marketing general manager of a $2.4 billion su= per fund, goes like this:

Steve, are you Chri= stian?

Fielding: "I'm= a father, husband, I've coached soccer, I'm an executive and I'm also a Christian . . . You must focus on the total person."

Are all the Family First candid= ates Christian?

Fielding: "I d= on't know all the candidates."

Well, what about th= e ones you do know?

Fielding: "But= I don't know all the candidates."

Cut to the chase: Fielding doesn't know any Family First candidate who isn't a Christian. B= ut his reluctance to admit it is shared by the founder of Family First, past= or and now South Australian politician Andrew Evans.

Me: Are all your candidates Christian?

Evans: "I only really know the candidates in SA."

Family First starte= d in Adelaide only t= hree years ago, when Evans -- retired but not retiring -- decided to stand in = the state election to fight "progressive" laws that have so devasta= ted many families.

The media, typicall= y, ignored him then, too. Yet despite being interviewed just once on televis= ion, he was elected after preaching in every church that would let him in. But= the story of his life should have been warning enough that he could not be de= nied.

Evans was born in <= st1:country-region w:st=3D"on">India= to Assembly of God missionaries and left school early to become a carpenter.=

It took a guest pre= acher at an Easter Sunday service in 1957 to convince him to become a pastor an= d he and his wife worked for seven years as missionaries in Papua New Guinea, running a primary scho= ol in remote Sepik and setting up aid posts and prenatal clinics.

(Last week Greens l= eader Bob Brown savaged Evans and his party as "extreme Right". And I wondered: Has Brown himself created a single aid clinic, hospital or scho= ol? Have any Green leaders demonstrated such practical care for people, rather than for trees? Or is humanitarianism now a sign of the "extreme Right"?)

His wife sick, Evans returned to Adelaide to take over a tiny Assemblies of God church. Go to his Paradise Church now and you will see wh= at he built -- a congregation of some 4500 worshippers, big welfare programs an= d a huge 3500-seat auditorium for services so musical and slick that one of t= he church's singers, Guy Sebastian, was voted by Channel 10 viewers as Australia's Idol.

Evans meanwhile bec= ame the World Secretary of the 40 million-strong Assemblies of God and was appointed to the world executive of the pentecostal<= /span> movement, which has 500 million followers.

So many people. So = many voters. But being Christian, who noticed them? When commentators thought "Christian", they tended to think of the brawling Catholics or = the vanishing Anglicans. No wonder they thought Christianity was dying -- or = dead already.

There was always Fr= ed Nile, of course, whose Christian Democrat Party holds two seats in the New South Wales Legislative Council and who is now standing for the Senate, w= here the Catholic independent, Brian Harradine, about to retire, has battled on alone.

But Nile and Harradine were seen as quaint, not harbingers of anything bigger. Tha= t is fast changing.

The Australian Fami= ly Association, part of the Catholic National Civic Council, has lately gone after politicians hard. But storming up from behind is the new Australian Christian Lobby, a largely Protestant group led by former SAS head Brigad= ier Jim Wallace.

It was Wallace, wit= h the AFA, who organised the rally at Parliament Ho= use last month against same-sex marriage that drew more than 1000 protesters.=

Labor's shadow atto= rney-general, Nicola Roxon, seemed shaken by the size and passion of the crowd, and committed Labor on the spot to voting for the Howard Government's ban on = gay marriages, to the fury of some in her party.

In July, Treasurer = Peter Costello underscored the power of the Pentecostals by giving a political sermon to 20,000 singing, swaying worshippers at a convention of Sydney's Hillsong church, where he called for a return to th= e Ten Commandments.

How many other caus= es can draw 20,000 people to a speech? Not surprising, then, that a Hillsong parishioner, Louise Markus, is standing fo= r the Liberals in the marginal Labor seat of Greenacres, in Sydney.

But Markus, like Fa= mily First's leaders, resists speaking about her Christianity and has reported= ly told staff she will sack them if they refer to her opponent's Muslim background.

Some will think it = sneaky of these to downplay their faith, but Andrew Evans says he genuinely does= not want his Family First party to be only for Christians. =

That's why he never justifies his political views by quoting the Bible - "I appeal to lo= gic, rather than religion - it's the best way of convincing people".

So he says he wants pokies banned not because gambling is sinful, but because "poker machines destroy families". He wants tougher laws on marijuana not because drugs are evil, but because "marijuana hurts families". Prostitution should not be legalised, because= this will entice more girls to sell themselves and will "hurt more families".

Get the drift? Fami= ly First says the same about porn, euthanasia, IVF for same-sex couples and = even extended trading hours. And if the Bible is indeed the summing up of centuries of life and wisdom, it's easy to defend the Commandments through reason alone. If only more bishops would.

SO cautious is Evan= s to avoid seeming a wild-eyed fundamentalist that he even admits he doesn't agitate for a ban on abortion.

"I don't make = a big issue of abortion," he says. After all, "there just isn't the w= ill in Parliament to change it".

But Family First is= eager to dress up its conservatism in funkier clothes. Even churchgoers drink chardonnay, after all. And so it has opposed the Iraq war, the planting of genetically modified crops, the prolonged detention = of asylum-seekers and the building of a nuclear waste dump in South Australia. <= /p>

"Family First = is very pro-conservation," Evans boasts. Bob Brown should be pleased at that, at least.

Otherwise, it's a g= uess what Family First stands for when its policies are so thin they could pass through the eye of a needle.

But with the surpri= singly good preference deals it haggled with the main parties -- particularly wi= th Labor in Tasmania -- it is nevertheless a chance for a Senate seat or two.

Maybe it will succe= ed and maybe it won't. While the party's grassroots are strong and spread wide, = it's had almost no coverage from the media to help it.

But as Evans said, without laughing: "They constantly underestimate us."

bolta@heraldsun.com.au