By Hilary White 
 
CANBERRA, August 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A meeting held on Tuesday of  300 Australian Christian politicians and community leaders argued that Christianity has been under "consistent attack" and that Australian society must be re-Christianized in order to survive the corrosive effects of radical secularism.
 
The Australian reports that the forum was addressed and endorsed by Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who said, "Judeo-Christian ethics, the progressive spirit of the enlightenment and the institutions and values of British political culture have been central to the development of Australian values."
 
The forum was organized by the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship, a non-partisan group of Christian Members of Parliament. The group's president, former Nationals leader John Anderson, opened the forum at Parliament House and pointed to the Christian origins of the principles underlying democracy.
 
"I think we confuse in the public mind very much what we really are, and certainly our government is secular," he said. "It's actually a Christian concept that you should separate church and state -- it's one of the great differences between us and Muslim societies."
 
"What is a secular value system?" he asked. "I could argue the extreme case, that a secular value system gave us World War II via Nazism."

The Australian quotes Anderson saying that Australians enjoy the "fruits" of a Christian value system but warned that "no fruit will survive without you tending the roots that provided the growth in the first place and without replanting."