Last night I saw Kevin Rudd twice on TV.  The first was at the Australian Christian Lobby's national webcast.  Here Kevin Rudd said this:



Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's address to Christians at the Make it Count 2013 Election Panel webcast from Australian Christian Lobby on Vimeo.

Now I don't mind if he changes his view on same-sex marriage.  For me same-sex marriage is not a deal breaker, however what is a deal breaker is what happened when I saw Kevin for the second time last night.  On ABC's Q&A I watched this interaction between Kevin and a local Pastor...




And here in lies my issue.  In the first video he said this...

"Many in the Christian churches may be disappointed with some of the decisions I have taken as prime minister or as a person, I have also undertaken those decisions in good and prayerful conscience, even though people in equal prayerful conscience may disagree with some of those conclusions."

That's all I'm really looking for in a politician.  Someone who can form views, advocate for them and respectfully disagree yet understand the other persons view.

But then when I got home, I witnessed one of the most cruel and patronising moments on TV that I've seen. Kevin Rudd unleashed an unfair, and wrong attack on this Pastor.  In fact he sounded more like a member of the gay lobby than a politician who had formed a view.  As he points out on Q&A in the video above, the New Testament has an ethic of showing love.  What Kevin Rudd forgot was that he has to do that with people he disagrees with, even on matters that he disagrees with people on strongly.

So What's clear is Kevin doesn't respect people, let alone love those, who've come to different prayerful decisions based on conscience.  And that is no quality I want in any member of parliament let alone the Prime Minister.  So I'm sorry Kevin, even though I own a Kevin 07 t-shirt, and was once a member of the ALP, you lost my vote last night.

As an aside my current sitting local member, Andrew Wilkie was present last night and I wish he'd given Kevin Rudd some lessons.  Wilkie is also in favour of same-sex marriage, but unlike Rudd, he actually does respect people who think differently to him and was able to put forward a balanced position that respects those who hold to the traditional view of marriage given he agrees with same-sex marriage.