Lots of cracks are now appearing in the reputedly monolithic Christian right facade. Already squabbling with the Australian Christian Lobby over gay and lesbian issues, Peter and Jenny Stokes’ ‘Salt Shakers’ group is now having a go at backsliding mega-churches, Baptists and sympathetic National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce.

Pentecostals seem to be the first target:

Sadly, we seem to be moving from denominational ’small cornerism’ to mega-church small cornerism, as ‘brand name’ churches spring up, and all too often isolate themselves from the wider church community. If they are not organising [an event or conference], all too often they won’t publicise it.

Then there is the attitude that ‘if it confronts our seeker-friendly [or possibly 'sucker-friendly'] program we won’t take a stand for ‘fear’ people will be ‘offended’! (Editorial, Salt Shakers Journal, Sept. 2006, 2)

Looks like a case of ‘the bigger, the blander’, but did Salt Shakers really have to work it out from first principles?

The Stokes’ are Baptists, but this doesn’t spare the Baptist Union of Victoria from their righteous wrath:

The latest Christian organisation to advertise in the homosexual press for foster carers is Abercare Family Services in Victoria, which is part of Baptcare (formerly Baptist Community Care) … The ad notes that ‘Abercare Family Services is committed to the protection of children’ …

If you are a Victorian Baptist, please … write to the Baptist Union of Victoria and ask that this matter, and the fact that the Carey Baptist School had a Muslim speaking at [a recent lecture] be raised at the next Union Assembly for clarification of the Baptist position on same-sex relationships and Islam. (ibid., 7)

Maybe the Baps could have a talk about nasty-minded narks as well, but I don’t suppose they will.

Salt Shakers’ last shot is at Sen. Barnaby Joyce and gay Big Brother contestant David Graham, an active National Party member who is thinking of standing for pre-selection:

… Barnaby Joyce said he … knew David Graham and thought David would excel at politics because he was a ‘decent and caring person with a strong work ethic …’ (ibid., 8)

Queensland Nationals’ Director Brad Henderson and Queensland leader Lawrence Springborg also welcomed Graham’s interest in the Nationals. ‘Clearly no-one wants to risk being labelled as homophobic or “discriminatory”‘, sulked Salt Shakers.

Doesn’t your heart just bleed for them?

Filed in: Pentecostalism, Politics, Sexuality