HOWEVER (bare with me for a moment) - Lets take a broader look at the overall question.
Here is the question - Why are Christians heavily represented in conservative politics? Why are right wing political groups almost always christian? (there is a link between the rich classes and conservative politics - ask anyone in Toorak or Double pay who they vote for!)
When you can answer that question then I think you can answer the original question!
BTW - anyone can have a crack at answering!
As a left wing-leaning happy clappy Christian, this is something which has often perplexed and frustrated me!! As a "left" voter, I'm certainly in the minority in many churches. I think there has been a big influence here from American christianity, because I dont' see the same extent of right wing views in the UK or Asian churches.
I am friends with many American Christians, and there is often a pervading "separation" viewpoint.....keeping away from non-believers as much as possible, as well as a strong anti-govt viewpoint.... that govt should be involved as little as possible in our lives. Thus the trend to home schooling, and a stronger link to the republican party, which generally promotes "small govt".
In Australia, I have seen a significant shift away from this all pervading right wing approach over the past 10-15 years, and I think it will continue to change, particularly as the church becomes more multicultural, and the left wing parties in Australia becomes more conservative.
Obviously, there are moral issues which concern many Christians, and if a political party is totally against the common Christian viewpoint, its difficult to vote for them. I don't want to extend this to a political debate, but for me, the Greens are a good example of this. Christians may be committed to conservationism, but so many of the Greens policies are so radically opposed to conservative Christian values that it is very difficult to support them.
One thing I'm interested in is how Christians react when the right wing parties have strong moral values but dont have a compassionate approach to the poor/ refugees etc. I personally don't think that's a biblical approach - from my point of view, both are important. But many Christians will only look at morality and not compassion, which I think is short-sighted.
I also think its important that churches don't give an opinion from the pulpit about political parties, although I think its reasonable to comment on both moral and compassionate issues. In our denomination, pastors can be sacked for bringing political comment. But I think in the 60's and 70's, it was fairly common for the priest/ pastor to take a political stand, and inform the congregation that to be a good Christian you had to vote for the conservative party. So, many in that generation have accepted this without maybe questioning whether the party has a "biblical" foundation, or just a conservative foundation.
and I think the conservative parties have traditionally marketed themselves much better to the Christian voter. In our case, both Liberal and Labor have very similar viewpoints on moral issues, but most peoples perception is probably that Liberal is stronger in this area.
Sorry, another long post.........
Pen
