Costello Raises the Dead? : Melbourne Indymedia

From July 4th to July 8th Sydney will overflow with "A Youth Generation, radical for God . maturing into a force to be reckoned with". These youth, proclaims the Hillsong Conference website alerts an "enemy [who] is very mindful of a calibre of believer emerging - those who won't easily back down. All in all, these are very exciting days on the earth".

Our federal treasurer addressed this group of young people and a whole bunch of older believers who, in the words of conference organisers Mark and Darlene, will hear from "the finest men and women of God" during the week.

I want to preface the following remarks by stating that I know many fine Christian people. Many of them have had a profound and lasting impact on how I view the world and try and act during my short visit here. I know that many of them would reject outright and distance themselves from the claims made by some of the people associated with Hillsong and the strengthening religious right. As Marion Maddox in her book, "God Under Howard: The Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics" points out, many of our most socially valuable organisations and practices had their genesis within the Christian faith. Nonetheless, there are those, with worryingly loud voices, who seem to have gained the ear of our political masters.

While it's not news that the Howard government and a influential group within the Labor party are 'committed' Christians, it might come as a surprise to you to hear about the beliefs held by some of the other speakers who are sharing the stage with Peter Costello.

I mentioned before that perhaps Costello knows something we don't and wants to take in some advice from Reinhard Bonnke whose address to the Hillsong Conference might be, "Raised from the Dead". It seems Br. Reinhard has the power, bestowed on him by god to, literally, raise the dead. It happened like this.

In November 2001 Daniel Ekechukwu, a minister in one of Bonnke's churches, Power Chapel Evangelical Church of Ontisha, in Nigeria had, according to reports, been killed in a car accident. The story continues that he was taken from the mortuary, after lying in his coffin for three days and having been injected with embalming fluids, to a church where the "Christ for all Nations" founder and leader, Reinhard Bonnke, was preaching.

While his earthly body lay in its coffin Daniel reports that angels took him on a short tour of the universe where he saw, "a "multitude" of people dressed in white who were singing and praising God. Then he was taken to hell", he says. The angel told him that he had "another chance" to go back, and that the rich man's request to Lazarus - to warn those still alive about hell - had been "granted to this generation"." Ekechukwu said that he had been told he could return to the living to give "a last warning to this generation". It also seems that Mr. Ekechukwu was instructed that he had to appear at Bonnke's rallies if he wanted to carry out this remarkable quest.

Sure enough, in March 2002, Daniel Ekechukwu was a main attraction at Bonnke's Ilesa rallies in Nigeria. If you doubt that god can raise the dead, said Bonnke, then just shake Daniel's hand and have all your doubts cast out. Of course the claim was bogus, but no-one dared question this "man of fire". You see, not only does Bonnke raise the dead, he brings down 'holy' fire from god on those who accept Jesus as their saviour and who are willing to be 'purified' by god's holy flame. But back to Daniel's miraculous revival.

There is not enough space to go into the details of the bogus resurrection claims (a quick Google search will introduce you to them and the shonky Bonnke story) and it appears that even the US TV network, HBO, found enough holes in Bonnke's claims to drive a bus through. In short, even though he claims to raise the dead, it seems Bonnke is more than a little bit shonky. So who else shares the Hillsong Stage with Costello? Let's have a look at Jack Hayford, the hyper - charismatic pastor of The Church on the Way, The First Foursquare Church of Van Nuys, California.

Hayford teaches the prosperity gospel - that god rewards the most holy with lots of money, "earthly blessings" (read there the trappings of wealth) and that true believers speak in "tongues". That is, they make unintelligible utterances that only god can interpret - unless you happen to understand that 'tongue' and god allows you to interpret it for other worshippers. It seems that, for Jack at least, god's language is only ever about power and money which is the same message Hillsong leaders Brian and Bobby Houston preach.

Jack's message to the Hillsong faithful was that Jesus asks his leaders on earth to "Come up here". According to the Hillsong website, Hayford said to the assembled flock, "to any leader that is in a condition that is not what you want, God says 'Come up here' and see the view from Heaven". Hayford moves in the same circles as Jerry Falwell, Robert Schuller, Billy Graham, Benny Hinn and, basically, the same bunch of rightwing religious nutters that oversee the Bush administration.

So how does all this fit in with Costello?

Marion Maddox, in her book "God under Howard", ties together the rise of the religious right in Australia to the religious right wingers in the US. This group, she argues, have infiltrated policy and decision making circles and infected them (my phrase) with a distorted view of the biblical story and of the mission of the Christian church. She painstakingly peels back the layers of this infiltration and alarmingly reveals that the same infiltration of false teaching and, as it has been described, "post-apocalyptic millennialism" thought that underscores the US right, is alive and well in the halls of our parliament.

John Howard once described as "Lazarus with a triple bypass", seems to have a running mate for the leadership of the Liberal party who believes he can better him. After sharing a stage with Reinhard Bonnke and Jack Hayford, perhaps Peter Costello will go one better and like the Lazarus in the bible story will find himself, emerge, bound with rags but with a strong 'ticker', to take up his 'rightful' place as leader of the nation. Should this scenario worry us? I think it should.
Costello, Howard, Beasley, Rudd, Downer and whole bunch of the current crop of political 'heavies' all identify as Christian. Some are more overt in their display than others but as Marion Maddox explains the majority of them are members of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship. This group, it could be argued, forms the basis for what in other countries be termed the 'ruling Taliban' who would like nothing more than to see their brand of ultra-conservative fundamentalist religion become the basis under which Australia is ruled.

Indeed Costello has declared that if everyone became Christian there would be no more conflict while John Anderson described us as "a mob of dirty rotten sinners and we're on a path to hell". This is the same John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister who recently addressed the Catch the Fire Ministry. Remember them? Pastor Danny Nalliah was convicted of racial and religious vilification. Mr. Nalliah said after the address "Australia had enjoyed a renaissance of values. Many people in the last election noticed that there has been a considerable political shift. God is back on the agenda and Judeo Christian values have returned to Australia". But back to Hillsong.

Peter Costello's visit there sends a powerful message reverberating around the religious right movement both here and overseas. It telegraphs to them that if they want to see their agenda fulfilled then they had better get on his bandwagon to unseat John Howard.

The message it sends to those of us outside this faith circle, is that if we thought the roll back of human rights, the destruction of our environment, the undoing of 100 years of industrial relations, the pain and misery caused by a repressive and onerous welfare system and the constant ignoring of those most needy with our community was hotting up, we ain't seen nothing yet.

While the mainstream media refuses to acknowledge the shonky Bonnkes and their claims to be able to raise the dead and the spurious claims of the Jack Hayfords whose heaven is the domain of only those who believe exactly what they teach, then perhaps we, more than Lazarus need a Jesus outside what is becoming the oppressive tomb being built to smother us alive. Maybe we need to do some more work in exposing the real agenda's of the Hillsongs and the Catch the Fire Ministries. If they claim to be doing god's work here on earth, I would hate to see what damage the devil could do our society.

Shane Elson
PO Box 780
Morwell VIC 3840 AUS
61-3-5134 8556
61-413 597 828
sgels1@net-tech.com.au

Shane is the Australian Producer and Distributor of Alternative Radio.
Check out the web site http://www.araustralia.org

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

Bob Dylan

The links being drawn here between church and state is rightly disturbing to many Australians. Slave time.

Thanks for this article, and the link to AR! I've been on the look out for more independant radio in this country and didn't know about araustralia.