My wife Delma and I were on a Country Town Tour to the Northern Territory and attended the national video link evening run by the Australian Christian Lobby held at a Darwin Baptist church where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott addressed the Australian people, on all things Christian.
Every Sunday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a committed Christian, inevitably did a media interview after attending church. Mr and Mrs Rudd would be videoed for the evening's television news, meandering down the church pathway after morning worship.
This weekly gentle peaceful walk down the church pathway, told a story. It became a national symbol. The head politician of the nation was unafraid to wear his Christian belief on his sleeve. It offered a certain kind of confidence to Christians.
His presentation on the Australian Christian Lobby video link was as always, well prepared, well documented, articulate, bringing in history, theology, philosophy and sociology in such a way that his audience followed his thought patterns.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer one of Ken Rudd's inspirations of history, as in all such speeches he gave, was liberally referenced. There was something of pathos to his passion - as Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazi's, his fellow Germans, not 21 days before the regime collapsed as Berlin was crushed in 1945.
Such was Kevin Rudd's avid commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ with all his theological understanding and the weekly demonstration of this, the peaceful walk after morning worship down the church pathway, that I often wondered in that secret part of my heart - how long would those political colleagues who despised all this Christian commitment would do him in.
In my view, it was the classic 'waiting to happen' scenario that the pathos of my own heart worried about. If history is anything to go on, it seemed to me at least, such were his political foes within his own, that inevitably, he would be sent down.
But even I was astonishingly surprised and felt cut to the quick, after such a powerful presentation on the Australian Christian Lobby's national view link, that these so-called colleagues saw him off. It was a dramatic poetic expression of a political assassination – one night speaking to the nation on the centre of his life - Jesus Christ – the next, the hidden cutlass was revealed, the dirty filthy unhanded deed done.
Moreover, no one within Labor could adequately explained why.
'Kevin 07' was the unmistakable political calling card of the 2007 Federal election. Then Prime Minister John Howard's reign came to an end. Howard even lost his own Federal seat of Bennelong. The national mood was evidenced in the wind – it was time for change. We as a nation elected "Kevin 07".
Kevin Rudd was a breath of fresh air. He bought energy and dynamism to the role of Prime Minister. We as a nation felt supremely confident in this change of direction. Although only 22% of Australians attend church regularly (monthly), Kevin Rudd's kind of Christianity rang out a chord of political comfort and sustainability.
We the nation, had at the helm, a pretty reasonable sort of fellow. His feet were on the ground. There was a good solid foundation in Christian philosophy and thought. He could explain it in words and ideas we understand. Even his climate change policies, although not fully comprehended by the mass of the population, the way he explained its significance made enough sense to bring confidence in its ideals.
The nation was at one in this sentiment. Wherever he went, we the people mobbed him. He wasn't someone above us. He wasn't someone untouchable. He wasn't someone out of touch with us, he felt the same pain we experienced, he expressed the same joys as we did. We understood his language. He had to zip – we all understood he had to be somewhere else, another pressing commitment. We loved it! He's one of us!
There was something else that grabbed our attention and we liked what we heard. The public service, the fat cats, for once in their lives had to work and work hard, at all hours, they were on-call to the nation. Story after story came to our attention how he disturbed them from their fine wine cocktail functions or woke them in the small hours of the morning. He wanted information – now!
His national apology to Australia's indigenous peoples is perhaps one of Australia's greatest historical political speeches, on par with John Curtain's call to the nation at war time. Already commentators have agreed on this as has current Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Kevin Rudd's political assassination by his own people in June 2010 has already gone down in Australian history as a most stupid and ill conceived political event. Whatever Kevin Rudd's faults (I have yet to find the perfect Prime Minister who made no mistakes), this decision was incomprehensible to us the nation. We elected him. Not his rabbit colleagues.
And who did they put in his place, a knife wielding atheist, living in a de facto relationship, who the public didn't elect or even want. If the nation had wanted a woman Prime Minister, the nation would have liked the time to consider who this person was, rather, there was no election, just an imposition.
The symbolism between these two political persons could not have been more stark. And no one explained it. We the people of Australia were treated like idiots. This is who you'll have, you have no say, we're the great political manipulators, get stuffed!
Kevin Rudd is now gone having stepped away from politics on Friday 15 November 2103. He was put back into the Prime Ministership way too late. We all recognised it except these same rabbits. We all felt so wretched for him, how could we re-elect this rabble, they'd do him in again, regardless of internal new rules. We had no choice but to throw out the putrid bath water, and sadly, in this case, the baby went with it. We mourned for Kevin Rudd! (www.news.com.au)
We may never see his like again. We lived through it. We witnessed political bastardry at its worst. Thrust upon us was a political outcome that proved disastrous. Will it happen again? You betcha! Stupidity reigns supreme in the power of the politic.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at
www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html