If anyone knew about muscular discipleship it was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but maybe Kevin Rudd does too… We share a common hero:

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian, pastor and peace activist is, without doubt, the man I admire most in the history of the twentieth century.”

Thanks to Jarrod McKenna for the tip off about this article written by the new leader of the opposition Kevin Rudd.

When read it in that light it is a very interesting article and that one would make promising reading to any thinking Jesus follower…

A couple of quotes:

“Bonhoeffer’s was a muscular Christianity. He became the Thomas More of European Protestantism because he understood the cost of discipleship, and lived it.”

“But there are signs of Christianity seeing itself, and being seen by others, as a counterculture operating within what some have called a post-Christian world. In some respects, therefore, Christianity, at least within the West, may be returning to the minority position it occupied in the earliest centuries of its existence.”

“I argue that a core, continuing principle shaping this engagement should be that Christianity, consistent with Bonhoeffer’s critique in the ’30s, must always take the side of the marginalised, the vulnerable and the oppressed.”

“In the fifth approach, the Gospel is both a spiritual Gospel and a social Gospel, and if it is a social Gospel then it is in part a political Gospel, because politics is the means by which society chooses to exercise its collective power. In other words, the Gospel is as much concerned with the decisions I make about my own life as it is with the way I act in society.”

If Kevin Rudd means what he says in this article then he could have my vote tomorrow.

The challenge of course is for Rudd to lead his party in this direction and that of course is another issue entirely!

There is always hope.