Putting a Face on Forgiveness by Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey

Joseph enjoyed a blissful situation for his first seventeen years of life. His doting father gave him special privileges signified by his multicolored coat. Then suddenly, Joseph entered a black situation not of his own choosing but through the evil act of his brothers who hated him. After thirteen years of separation from his father and his favorite son status, Joseph encountered a blessed situation that was a blessing to his father, who thought he was dead, and to his entire family. Without forgiveness, it never would have happened. What can we learn from Joseph about forgiveness? Here are three snap shots from some of his darkest days.

First, see Joseph forging purposefully ahead with God's attendance. Joseph did not give up. In Genesis 39:2 we read, "The Lord was with Joseph." Joseph was still a man on a mission. When Potiphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph, note how he responded in Genesis 39:8-9, "But he refused and said to his master's wife, 'Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?'"

Second, see Joseph forgetting painful anguish with God's assistance. As time passed Joseph married and had two sons. In Genesis 41:51 we read, "Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: 'For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house.'" Notice it was God who made Joseph forget the painful memory. Dr. Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) explains, "It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent."

Third, see Joseph forgoing personal avengement with God's acceptance. Joseph came to understand that God was in it all. His acceptance with God helped him deal with the rejection of his brothers. He knew it was not his place to take revenge on his brothers. He trusted God to take care of these things. He understood his mandate from God did not involve personal avengement. Genesis 50:19-20 reads, "Joseph said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.'" Romans 12:19 reads, "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord."

This chapter in Joseph's life can be characterized as putting a face on forgiveness. While it is good to recall the account of Joseph and his forgiveness, what about you? Will you put a face on forgiveness? Let the reflection in your mirror tell its story. Who knows the blessing it will bring?

Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, Author of Don't Miss the Revival! Messages for Revival and Spiritual Awakening from Isaiah and
Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice [Both available on Amazon] February 3, 2023 © All Rights Reserved

The Narcissists favorite gaslighting abuse tactic is to set you up to be angry and then shame you for the anger, it's practically a form of entertainment for them.

They provoke you intentionally—through subtle digs, blatant disrespect, lies, or by twisting your words—until you naturally react. Then, the moment you express hurt, frustration, or anger, they flip the script. Suddenly you're "too sensitive," "crazy," "overreacting," or "the problem." What they engineered becomes your fault.

This cycle is designed to destabilize you. First comes the push. Then comes your emotional response. Then comes the blame and humiliation. Over time, this pattern can make you question your own perceptions and feel ashamed for having completely normal reactions to mistreatment. That confusion is not accidental—it's the point.

By making your anger the focus instead of their behavior, they avoid accountability and maintain control. They get to provoke you and then stand back as if they are the calm, rational one while you are painted as unstable. It's manipulation disguised as innocence.

Don't fall for it.

Your anger is not the problem—being repeatedly disrespected is. Healthy people address issues; they don't bait you into emotional reactions just to punish you for having them. Recognizing the pattern is the first step to breaking it. When you see the setup for what it is, you reclaim your clarity, your power, and your peace.

Why not to engage a narcissist in debate about their behaviour

Ask a Narcissist to explain why they did the hurtful, destructive things they did and they will ALWAYS bring it back to something you said or did (or else failed to say or do).

They will rewrite history in real time. They will nitpick your tone, your timing, your reaction, your silence—anything except their own behavior. Suddenly, their betrayal becomes your "attitude." Their cruelty becomes your "provocation." Their lies become your "lack of trust." This is how they escape accountability: by making you the cause of the harm they chose to inflict.

None of that is true.

The real reason is simple: they are lying, heartless manipulative monsters, with the emotional maturity of a toddler. They lack empathy, not awareness. They knew exactly what they were doing. They saw the impact. They just didn't care—as long as they stayed in control, protected their image, and avoided shame.

A narcissist does not reflect, repair, or take responsibility. They deflect, deny, and distort. They weaponize blame to confuse you, exhaust you, and keep you doubting your own reality. And when confronted, they don't answer the question—you asked why, and they answered with you.

That's not an explanation.
That's manipulation.

Every secret you share with a narcissist becomes a weapon they'll use against you later.

You trusted them. You opened up. You shared things you'd never told anyone—your fears, your traumas, your insecurities, your past mistakes. And in that moment, they seemed safe. They listened. They validated. They made you feel understood. So you kept sharing, kept being vulnerable, kept giving them access to the most private parts of yourself.

But they weren't listening to understand you. They were listening to collect ammunition. Every secret you shared was filed away for future use. Every vulnerability you exposed became a target they'd aim for later. Every piece of your past became leverage they'd use when convenient.

And when things go bad, when you set a boundary or call out their behavior, they weaponize everything. They throw your secrets in your face. They use your traumas against you. They mock your insecurities. They expose what you trusted them with to hurt you or destroy your reputation. The intimacy you thought you built becomes the arsenal they use to destroy you.

Every secret you share with a narcissist becomes a weapon they'll use against you later. That's not paranoia. That's pattern. That's what they do. They collect your vulnerabilities during good times and deploy them during bad times. Your honesty becomes their advantage. Your trust becomes their power.

So guard your secrets. Don't share your deepest wounds with people who haven't proven they're safe. And if someone ever uses your vulnerability against you? That's not miscommunication. That's abuse. And they just showed you exactly who they are.

The narcissist knew you'd eventually tell the truth,
so they made sure no one would believe you when you did.

They planted doubt early.
They shaped opinions quietly.
They told half-stories, framed themselves as concerned,
and painted you as "difficult," "emotional," or "unstable."

By the time you finally spoke up,
the stage was already set against you.
Your truth sounded like a reaction,
while their lies sounded rehearsed and calm.

This wasn't accidental.
It was preventative damage control.

They didn't fear your anger —
they feared your clarity.
Because the truth has a way of unraveling masks,
and they needed theirs firmly in place
long before you found your voice.


Some narcissists genuinely believe their own delusions.
They don't just wear the mask — they become it.
They convince themselves they are good, moral, justified people,
no matter how much damage they cause along the way.

They rewrite reality until it protects their ego.
They edit out the harm, minimize the cruelty, erase the consequences.
In their version of the story, their intentions are always pure
and their actions are always excusable.

They can justify anything.
Abuse becomes "misunderstanding."
Control becomes "concern."
Cruelty becomes "honesty."
And accountability becomes an attack.

That's why waiting for self-reflection is so painful.
You keep hoping for remorse, for insight, for a moment of clarity —
but they are committed to a narrative where they can do no wrong.

Remember this when you're tempted to explain yourself again.
When you're waiting for an apology that never comes.
When you think maybe this time they'll finally understand.

They don't lack information.
They lack responsibility.

And no amount of truth will break through
when someone is invested in protecting their illusion
more than acknowledging your pain.



Narcissists don't run on logic —
they run on whatever emotion is fueling them in that moment.
Anger, envy, shame, entitlement, fear —
whichever feeling is loudest becomes their compass.

Facts bounce off them like rubber bullets.
Evidence doesn't land.
Consistency doesn't matter.
Because their "truth" changes depending on how they feel right now.

If they feel threatened, reality rewrites itself.
If they feel exposed, denial becomes fact.
If they feel superior, your pain becomes irrelevant.
Their emotions don't respond to reality — they replace it.

Their world isn't built on logic or accountability.
It's built on the shifting sands of imagination, ego, and self-protection.
What was true yesterday can be completely denied today
if it no longer serves their narrative.

That's why reasoning with them is exhausting.
You're arguing from reality
while they're arguing from emotion dressed up as certainty.

And that's why you'll never "win" with facts —
because you're not in the same world.

Matthew 27:1-14 ESV - When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. 2 And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.
Judas Hangs Himself
3 Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, 4 saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." They said, "What is that to us? See to it yourself." 5 And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money." 7 So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, 10 and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me."

Jesus Before Pilate
11 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You have said so." 12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate said to him, "Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?" 14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

I have often wondered why the Lord Jesus gave no answer to the false testimonies of the Sanhedrin.
By paying off Judas they were fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah and Jeremiah.
Zechariah 11:12-13 ESV
Then I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. [13] Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"-the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.
Zechariah 13:7-9 ESV
"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me," declares the LORD of hosts. "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. [8] In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. [9] And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"

Jeremiah 18:1-12 ESV
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: [2] "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." [3] So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. [4] And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. [5] Then the word of the LORD came to me: [6] "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. [7] If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, [8] and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. [9] And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, [10] and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. [11] Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 'Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.' [12] "But they say, 'That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.'
Jeremiah 18:19-23 ESV - Hear me, O LORD,
and listen to the voice of my adversaries.
20 Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless and widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 May a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For they have dug a pit to take me
and laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet you, O LORD, know
all their plotting to kill me.
Forgive not their iniquity,
nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.

Just as Judas sold himself for thirty pieces of silver and bought his own grave in his own graveyard, so Israel through its leaders had done the same.
Israel had turned their back officially on their Lord and Saviour.
They intended to bury Jesus but their alienation from Jesus meant that they were burying themselves.
The time for talk and remonstrance was over. They now would bare the just judgment of their ways.
No intercession by even Pilate would avail them now.
Their Saviour is silent because they have chosen their own judgment.
It warns us to seek the Lord while there is still time. Return to Him who is your Saviour.

CONCENTRIC CIRCLES ... Every Member Spreading the Gospel!

Person X may be in the high crime streets of a big city or in a third world, or in a poverty-stricken country, or in a rescue mission, or a jail— SO, WE go to them! We evangelize. We come home. We tell others about our efforts. We go back to our business, job, home, church, and/or daily routines; and every so often we repeat the cycle.

HOWEVER, WHY is it that all too often
We do not GO TO
THE FOLKS, close to us, IN CIRCLES 2 - 6?

[1] IT COULD BE because they know us! They know our salty language, lustful looks, greedy grasping, anger, business deceit, gossip, etc. They see how we are at work or at school or in our home. THUS: We might need to, first of all, ask for their forgiveness or give forgiveness— which if that is what we need to do— just do it! That is powerful witnessing!

[2] ANOTHER REALITY: With Person X, we don't have to deal with our 'hang-ups' … OR THEIRS … and we can 'love them and leave them!'

EVEN with 'Third World' type missions/evangelism right in our own town, or with outreach efforts toward neighbors just down the street— it's different and often far more difficult!

[3] AND ALSO, with ministry in Circles 2-6 — it's week after week, month after month, year after year. Ministering to those in Circles 2-6 is much like the ministry of the career missionary. We are there for the long haul— planting, watering, praying, and waiting for the LORD to give the increase! We can't leave them! We can't just do Sunday School… or Youth or Children's ministry… or ministry to a neighbor… or to a co-worker once or twice a year. Rather, we MUST minister to them week after week and year after year— or at least maintain availability to minister, being alert for the next opportunity… as we continue to pray and agonize for their souls! REALITY: To folks in our Circles 2-6, we are THEIR career missionaries! We are their full-time Ministers. SADLY: this is why many folk are looking for a church to merely attend; and not one where they will be equipped and called upon to labor for the Master!

IN OUR 'CIRCLES 2-6, we MAY have to stop and give sacrificially of ourselves and our time… you know… just like the Good Samaritan! HAVE WE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED THIS— if we find an 'open door' with a family, with an individual— do we not have to be prepared to follow-up week after week and even beyond?

If at Sunday School or at Church services, we discover a need someone has ... Be it a member or a visitor ... — doesn't the Sunday School class, (or you as a member), have opportunity/responsibility for follow-up ministry?

Over the years a good number of dear ones have told me that they feel that it is much easier to minister the Gospel in this particular foreign land or that one. It could be. But here is some larger reality: If we were the actual ones living in and ministering in that 'third world' country; or ministering in a big city Rescue Mission every day, 365 days a year and year after year— we would not think it easy; and we would see and experience the intense spiritual blindness and warfare in those mission fields!

Years back I had spent 2 weeks, 1 month, and then 45 days in India. All of those dear folks were my Person X! But all who were Person X to me— those same folk were the people of Circles 2-6 to the Indian pastors and gospel workers— 365 days a year. They did not get to LEAVE after 45 days and, thus, get out from under the daily load of evangelizing / discipling folks in Circles 2-6!

On three different occasions I, along with others, walked the streets of major cities in India, passing out tracts and doing street preaching. In years past, a number of our folk have done good ministry in Mexico, or at the Jail, or Rescue Mission. These are all ministries to our Person X group. Praise the LORD! But our 'Person X' group is the Rescue Mission's workers' or India's pastors' and churches' and/or the Mexico pastor's and their Christian worker's Person 2-6 Group! MOST OF THE REAL WORK IS DONE IN THE 2-6 GROUPS, BY THE CHRISTIAN WORKERS WHO LIVE IN THEIR MIDST, YEAR AROUND!

Yes, we can have a valid ministry to Person X, especially IF or when we leave them connected to local churches and ministries. But as any farmer knows— he must do more than scatter a bunch of seed and then leave town! FRANKLY, whatever we do among Person X is a 'piece of cake!' … when compared to the labor required from the native pastors or from the Rescue Mission Staff!...

[BY THE WAY: THIS REALITY SHOULD ENVISION OUR PRAYING FOR MISSIONARIES and NATIVE PASTORS, ETC.

BUT, again, the PRIMARY QUESTION for us is— WHO IS GOING TO TAKE THE GOSPEL TO THOSE IN OUR '2-6' WORLD? And the answer is that I MUST! AND SO MUST YOU!

BUT: "The people in my "2 to 6" world are not responsive to the gospel!" … And, "it's so hard…" and "what if it requires me to spend time with them every week…?" WE MUST REMEMBER:

First, Many a great harvest has come after a number of apparent crop failures! Let us keep planting, watering. God will give the increase! Second, we are called to be faithful. For 100 years or more, Noah worked on building an ARK and PREACHING RIGHTEOUSNESS and living a GRACE-FILLED life BEFORE a people who would ultimately be destroyed! BUT NOAH KEPT ON PREACHING! We are, likewise, called to be faithful! Third, look in the Bible— very often God has His servants in 'gospel-hardened' places! Just ask Noah! And then remember, that Jesus says that the last days will be like the days of Noah! Fourth, beware of modeling after the apparent success methods of the entertainment oriented religious harlot! Our lost world does not need PLAY ACTING visuals! They need REAL VISUALS— Christians who genuinely love and forgive, who are manifesting joy and hope in trials and tribulations, who manifest the COMPASSION of Jesus and who are walking in holiness. Fifth, A MASTER KEY with the folks in our "2-6" world, IS THE REALITY THAT life tumbles in for all of them. They have both good and 'bad' things that happen to them. And the same things happen to saints in Christ! HOWEVER, THE LOST do not have resources to help them deal with the trials and troubles. BUT, BEING IN CHRIST, WE DO! As they WITNESS you winning the battle over bitterness, revenge, hate, fear, and resentments— the Gospel is being seen in Circles 2-6! The MUSIC of the gospel is flowing from you. You are making them 'THIRSTY' and HUNGRY for good news, for GRACE to handle life! You are REVEALING JESUS, the LIGHT of the world! Thus, when life does tumble in, we often have FRESH OPPORTUNITIES… or "points of contact" to sow seeds of kindness and love! Love is, after all, meeting real needs.

Thus, real '2-6' evangelism/missions/witnessing OFTEN starts with how I treat my wife, my family, MY CHURCH FAMILY, those closest to me, those who are neighbors, those I work around; and/or those I may casually meet in the town/county where I live.

Real '2-6' evangelism/missions/witnessing starts with being a congregation that loves, that forgives, and that seeks to live holy and pure! Real 2-6- evangelism CONTINUES as we TELL what great things God has done and is doing for us— (1) Andrew went to Peter; (2) Philip, to Nathaniel; (3) The woman at the well, back to her city; (4) Cornelius went to his household; (5) The Philippian jailer, to his household; (6) The demonic of the Gadarenes now sitting at the feet of Jesus, fully clothed and in his right mind was told by Jesus to go back to his home people and to tell them what great things the LORD had done for him! (7) AND THIS WEEK… I WILL BE GOING TO___________________?

(Some of the concepts for this article are edited from and the diagram is from Concentric Circles of Concern, by W. Oscar Thompson, Jr.)

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies (1894-1978) was the founder of the Liberal Party. He remains Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister and one of our nation's most articulate statesmen.

Menzies was a Presbyterian, and his Christian convictions shaped him and his social and political views profoundly. In and out of office, Menzies promoted a down-to-earth, practical faith that served the community, improved democracy, and valued unity over sectarian squabbles.

Menzies on the Bible

Bob Menzies had a great respect for Scripture, believing in its divine inspiration, its uniqueness among the great books of history, and its irreplaceable value in shaping well-rounded citizens. He was raised to read the Bible regularly, and from university onwards he made this a daily habit.

At the opening of the National Memorial Bible House in Canberra, in 1960, Menzies made the following remarks about Scripture:

"The Bible is the most remarkable repository of religious history. Frankly, I don't think that any man could regard himself as educated unless he had become familiar with the great historic stories of the Bible."

"The Bible is the repository of our faith and of our inspiration. Never out of date, always up to date, always difficult of application and therefore stimulating to thoughtful people. It is the great source of faith, and of course that is why we ought to read it… The story is there, the great history is there, the great gospel is there, the whole spirit of Christianity is there."

"If I were, as I am not, an atheist or an agnostic or some other such unhappy person, I would still take the Bible with me to a desert island for two reasons. One, that I would have a noble piece of literature to accompany me and two, because given ample opportunity to study it I might cease to be an atheist or an agnostic."

Menzies on Self-Sacrifice

Sir Robert Menzies was ahead of his time in discerning the rise of an entitlement culture. As the modern world dawned in Australia, so much talk of rights was overshadowing the fundamental duties that citizens have towards one another that make for healthy, flourishing societies. It was in this context that Menzies regularly pointed to the great Christian ethic of self-sacrifice:

"Christianity… begins its teaching by imposing on every citizen the obligation of unselfishness, of thinking of the interests of his neighbour before his own, and regarding himself as his brother's keeper."

"This capacity for sacrifice, this capacity for preferring other people to oneself, this capacity for saying, I will contribute all if it is for the good of the country, exhibited so frequently in war is a God-like quality. The capacity for sacrifice, the whole idea of sacrifice is at the very root of the Christian faith."

"All things that our Faith stands for — quiet living and human kindness, the freedom of the soul, justice to our neighbours, the essential brotherhood of man, are today challenged and nothing less than our best can save them from eclipse."

Menzies on Spiritual Man

One of the great challenges facing Australian society during the Menzies years was a growing attraction towards materialist worldviews that saw humans as mere machines or animals.

Perceiving where this kind of thinking could lead, Menzies warned against it — but he never encouraged people to neglect the material world. Rather, he pointed to the spiritual realities that give meaning and purpose to our physical world:

"If ever man has set up a golden calf to worship, it is in the last forty-years or so, when he has been worshipping at the shrine of his own diabolical cleverness, and because he has become so great a worshipper of the material, the world has been rocked into such ruinous disaster."

"Democracy is more than a machine; it is a spirit. It is based upon the Christian conception that there is in every human soul a spark of the divine; that, with all their inequalities of mind and body, the soul of men stand equal in the sight of God."

"Nobody can suppose that we are educating our children, except for disaster, by turning them out of purely secular establishments at the age of fourteen, fifteen or sixteen years, merely educated to a point at which they think there is nothing left for them to learn, aggressively conscious of what they suppose to be their rights, and oblivious of that penetrating feeling of moral obligation to others, which alone can make a community of men successful."

"Human nature is at its greatest when it combines dependence upon God with independence of man."

Menzies on the Spectre of Tyranny

Materialism was not just threatening Australian society from within. It had also inspired diabolical ideas on the European continent that ended up dragging our young democracy into a second global conflict.

To successfully confront these evils, Menzies understood that a well-equipped military was not enough: we would need moral courage and character that can only flow from a belief that humans are spiritual creatures of irreplaceable value:

"While Fascists and Nazis concentrate their efforts upon the power of the State, regarding the citizen as the mere minister to that power, democrats must concern themselves with what they see to be the true end and final justification of the State; the chief end of the State becomes man — man the individual, man the immortal spirit."

"All war, and this one in particular, is a horrible and destructive thing, and demonstrates nothing so much as the truth that spiritual civilisation has lagged far behind material civilisation; that clever mechanics may yet have savage hearts; that a great reformation in human character must be the vital element in the keeping of the world's peace; and that great reformations proceed by slow changes step by step and not by decree."

"It is only that democracy which sees the superb spiritual value of the individual man which can really win a crusade against tyranny and force, and lead the way into a better world."

Menzies on Faith and Politics

Today people promote the "separation of church and state" and a secular public square. Those ideas go back to the founding of Australia, but Menzies wouldn't recognise them in their current form. For him, as indeed for Australia's founders, secularism was about making sure no particular denomination was favoured by the government. But that faith and religion should influence the political landscape of Australia was an absolute given:

"I don't think we ought to be seeking to express Christianity in party political terms, but I am perfectly certain that it's the duty of all of us to examine our own politics in Christian terms."

"We should all in a country like this, constantly test our politics, constantly try our political faith by seeing that we express it in Christian terms, but that doesn't mean that we can't disagree about politics. That doesn't mean that to be a good Christian you have to be a good Liberal or a good Country Party man, or a good Labor man. I'm saying exactly the opposite. To be a good Liberal, to be a good Labor man, to be a good Country Party man, you will be all the better if you are a Christian."

"In my father's house there are many mansions. Don't forget it. There is room in every political party for Christian men and women of all schools of Christian thought."

Menzies on Religious Freedom

For Menzies, what marked a civilisation was the freedom and tolerance it extended to its citizens. Freedom to worship and believe according to one's conscience was of paramount importance to Menzies, who laboured to heal Australia's Catholic-Protestant divide and who had a special affection for the Jewish community. In a time of rapid modernisation and violent conflict, Menzies elevated the vital importance of religious freedom:

"It is grimly significant that the century which has seen the greatest scientific advancements of recorded history has been, more than perhaps any other, disfigured, not only by wars of a stupendous range and intensity and destruction, but by widespread attacks upon the religion of love by organised hatreds and cruelties of the most barbarous kind."

"The religious freedom for which the Scottish Covenanters fought was freedom for all, Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile, and to deny it was to go back to the dark ages of man. Religious persecution was the denial of freedom. Freedom of worship is the victorious enemy of persecution."

"That just as freedom is not easily beaten out of the heart of man, so is faith not easily beaten out of him. You cannot take thousands, millions, hundreds of millions of people who have a faith of their own, and destroy it, merely by order or command."

Menzies on Jesus Christ

According to historian and political theorist Stephen Chavura, Menzies' "Christianity was sincere, but like many of his generation leading up to the rapid secularisation of the 1950s and 1960s, probably more ethical than devotional."

Even so, he had a faith that was unshakeable, life-defining, and centred on one man:

"The one man, for he was human as well as divine, whose memory holds no blemish, whose influence has grown for nearly two thousand years, whose birthday is the occasion for rejoicing for hundreds of millions of men and women, was and is Jesus Christ."