The influence of Christianity in politics
Last night, to keep up the brain feasting, I went a long to a lecture given in Parliament House by Senator David Coltart from Zimbabwe. I have a friend who works at the Centre for Independent Studies, so she’s been telling me about it, giving me fliers to hand out, and then even got me a free ticket (was only $15 so I wasn’t going to let that stop me). This was the blurb about the lecture on the website (incase it disappears from there):
This year’s address will be delivered by prominent Zimbabwean politician, human rights lawyer, and pro-democracy activist, David Coltart. Senator Coltart is a committed and active Christian, and was a founding member of the Movement for Democratic Change, now in uneasy but determined coalition with long-reigning President Robert Mugabe. In 2009, Coltart was appointed Zimbabwe’s Minister for Education, Sports, Art and Culture. He will discuss religious influence in politics.
I have this philosophy about blogging, that one should not attempt posts on certain subjects unless one knows good and proper what one is talking about. The foreign policies of the collective West and the politics of deepest darkest Africa would be in the category of things to be left alone by yours truly. However, while I thought this lecture would be at least mildly interesting, I was unexpectedly deeply fascinated for the entire duration. And I think you would need to listen to this fellow to understand why.
He basically presented a case for why the Christian framework is the best one to ensure freedom and security for a nation, but the true marvel of his talk was how often and how seamlessly he managed to quote the bible and talk about Jesus (more of that was probably heard in Parliament house in one evening that will be in an entire year) and how stunningly persuasive it was.
Among other things, he was very critical of western foreign policy (in particular Defence spending), and his compelling argument was that sustained and consistent application of moral principle will always triumph over military superiority and force, with countless examples from history of how the seeming weak eventually won by holding out for what was “right” (I found this very stirring!).
He’s also quite the sceptic of development aid/assistance, because he’s seen the consequent corruption (and he'd rather people spent nothing than give it to corrupt government), but he has managed to set up an Education Transition Fund in Zimbabwe, for which the funds are administered by UNICEF, and they are seeing great results (this came out in question time, as an example of ways to effectively distribute foreign aid).
Further, I don’t know the make-up of the audience, but rather than being shouted out of the room, everyone who raised their hand for a question began by thanking him for a “magnificent” address. I never thought I’d see the likes of it in a public lecture!
They are going to put the video online, and when they do I am going to link it and make everybody I know watch it.