Despite a long career in journalism, it has only been in the past several years that Greg Sheridan has chosen to become more vocal in his defence of Christianity. Source: Melbourne Catholic.
The Australian’s foreign editor shared his experience of “coming out” as a Christian in public life with more than 230 people at the first Melbourne Catholic Professionals luncheon for this year.
Despite a long career in journalism – he says he has been “an opinionated newspaper columnist” since he was a boy and before he had an “outlet” – it has only been in the past several years he has chosen to become more vocal in his defence of Christianity.
He never hid his Catholicism, but sensing that the public culture was becoming more “hostile” to Christian belief and values, he felt prompted to do more.
“I don’t want to overstate that,” he said. “We Christians are not persecuted in Australia, but we live in a now actively hostile public culture … So that’s not an argument for the past. The past is a foreign country. It had its own demons, its own wickedness. It’s simply recognising a changing circumstance. Now, in that circumstance, if chance gives you a public microphone, you have a duty to speak in defence of the truth and, more basically, to stand up for your friends.”
The first overtly religious book he published was God is Good For You (2018), a defence of “mere Christianity” and the rationality of belief in God. The second, Christians: The urgent case for Jesus in our world (2021), explored the historicity of the gospels and how Christians around the world continue to bring new life to a troubled world.
“To my astonishment, when I finally did ‘come out’, I found the reaction was overwhelmingly friendly,” he said, “even from people who absolutely objected and disagreed with everything I said or wrote. And when you think about it, the range of behaviour we regard as fairly normal today is pretty wide.”
FULL STORY
‘It’s great fun’: Greg Sheridan AO on being a public Christian (Melbourne Catholic)
