Abbott gave the annual Margaret Thatcher Lecture in London yesterday, using the platform to outline Australia’s border policies and make suggestions about how European nations might best handle the current influx of refugees.

Invoking the Bible, Abbott said, “Implicitly or explicitly, the imperative to ‘love your neighbour as you love yourself’ is at the heart of every western polity. It expresses itself in laws protecting workers, in strong social security safety nets, and in the readiness to take in refugees. It’s what makes us decent and humane countries, as well as prosperous ones.

“But right now, this wholesome instinct is leading much of Europe into catastrophic error,” he said.

“Our moral obligation is to receive people fleeing for their lives. It’s not to provide permanent residency to anyone and everyone who would rather live in a prosperous western country than their own.

“It will require some force, it will require massive logistics and expense, [and] it will gnaw at our consciences. Yet it is the only way to prevent a tide of humanity surging through Europe, and quite possible changing it forever,” said Abbott.

Wendy Francis, QLD director of the Australian Christian Lobby disagrees with Abbott.

“In so many ways what he’s saying is opposite to the teachings of Jesus. This is the teaching of the New Testament, the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), giving a cup of water to the stranger (Matt 10:42). That’s our mandate and that teaching is what Western polity actually comes from.

“When he talks about our conscience, to deny our conscience is really dangerous. We have an inbuilt understanding of right and wrong. Regardless of whether they’re Christian or not, people have an understanding in themselves of what’s right and wrong. Abbott is saying to ignore the basic instinct of what is right and wrong,” says Francis.

“When Prime Ministers start quoting the Bible, or talking about what Jesus would do, they need to be really careful that they get it right, because what [Abbott] has said is offensive to most if not all Australians.”

But Senator Bob Day, Family First Senator in South Australia thinks Abbott is right.

“Of course I agree [with Abbott]. Any reasonable, sensible, logical person would have to [agree]. God is a God of reason, therefore he expects us to use the reason he has gifted us with to make sensible decisions.

“What Abbott is saying is eminently sensible, eminently humane, and is irrefutable. Except in people who are impractical.”

Senator Day thinks the role of conscience is paramount, but says, “that has to be tempered and balanced with the role of human reason.”

Jarrod McKenna, teaching pastor at Westcity Church in Perth, and #LoveMakesAWay leader is frustrated by Abbott’s words.

“Wherever Christ’s commands lead is what all Christians should long for; not warn against. If I was Mr Abbott’s pastor I’d be sitting him down for some intensive Bible studies about how Jesus’ love is not a ‘wholesome instinct’ but a concrete practice of loving others like God has loved us.

“If ‘loving thy neighbour’ is an error, I pray we’d all be found guilty of it,” says McKenna.

Image credit: #LoveMakesAWay
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