Sneering secularism failing to permeate the outer suburbs

Reporting on a recent televised broadcast to churches by Rudd and Abbott, the Sydney Morning Herald offers this observation:

"Rudd and Abbott are both busy. They would not give up this amount of time if they did not believe the audience was important or if they felt uncomfortable talking as Christians to other Christians.

Among the inner-city types who frequent taxpayer subsidised literary festivals, what Michael Burleigh has called sneering secularism is all the rage. Witness the recent successful tours to Australia of such proselytising atheists as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

The teachings of Dawkins and Hitchens seem to have enthused secular flocks in Ultimo or Melbourne's Brunswick.

But not so much in the outer suburbs and regional centres where God is anything but dead.

According to the census, some two-thirds of Australians regard themselves as Christians. When Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and Muslims are added, it is evident a high percentage of Australians are believers."