Some conservative Christian groups are convinced the election was a referendum on gay marriage and that the result means Australia has rejected it. But other equally conservative Christians, for example the widely read Bill Muehlenberg, think that very few Australian voters care about the topic.

Others, like the Australian Christian Lobby’s Lyle Shelton  simply note that Kevin Rudd’s support for gay marriage did not attract voters.

In rounding up responses to the election on the topic of same sex marriage, Eternity necessarily focuses on the views of conservative groups because they are the ones who have responded since the election.

“Record Election Loss – Australians Reject Labor Party’s Proposal” is the headline of the Dad4Kids press release by Warwick Marsh

“Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the Labor Party’s policy proposal to redefine marriage front and centre of his election campaign. The Labor Party created a website and official videos to promote its marriage redefinition policy. The 2013 Federal election became a referendum on homosexual marriage and the proposition was overwhelmingly defeated.”

Even more strongly, Marsh maintains that the election result means “The Labor Party’s push to bring in homosexual marriage within the first 100 days of re-election has been rejected by the people of Australia. The landslide loss by the Labor Party has shown that those parties that make this their policy in the future, are doomed to suffer electoral suicide.”

The Australian Christian Lobby takes a different tack. Rather than saying Australians rejected the Labor proposal to bring in gay marriage, ACL’s new managing director Lyle Shelton  notes that it failed to draw voters toLabor.

“Despite being a centre-piece election promise, same-sex marriage didn’t rate a mention by Rudd at Labor’s launch the week before polling day.

However, he did bring it up again last Monday in a special video message played at ACL’s election webcast to the Christian constituency.

In it, Rudd admitted he had disappointed Christians by changing his position on marriage. His tone was muted and conciliatory.

However, by 10:30pm it was a very different Rudd bullying pastor Matt Prater on ABC1’s Q&A.

“Suddenly same-sex marriage was front and centre again for the remainder of the last week of the campaign…

“Despite the incredibly high profile during the campaign of same-sex marriage, it is now clear that it was not a vote winner for Labor or even the party of same-sex marriage, the Greens,” Lyle Shelton writes on Online Opinion.

“Labor achieved its worst primary vote in 100 years and the Greens went backward by 3pc.”

Culturewatch blogger Bill Muehlenberg believes that same sex marriage had little effect in the election.

“While Kevin was convinced that the most important issue in the universe was homosexual marriage,” Muehenlberg writes, “ he once again miscalculated terribly. His appallingly bad judgment was on full display here. He was completely out of touch with the electorate, living in his own thought-bubble instead.

“The truth is, 99 per cent of Australians do not give a rip about homosexual marriage. Indeed, it clearly put off much of the electorate. Yet Labor and the homosexual militants will keep pushing this. Thus we all need to keep in touch with the Coalition members, congratulating them on their wins, and urging them to stand strong here.”