I have just returned from the Australian Christian Lobby's 2010 Make it Count event in Canberra last night, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott addressed Christian leaders in the lead up to the next election. The event was watched by tens of thousands of Christians in churches and other venues across the nation. My thoughts?

a) It is a giant credit to the ACL to pull this event off for a second time. No doubt advisors on both sides would've questioned its value for their respective leaders.

b) There was little in each leader's address to get excited about. Rudd took the opportunity of talking about the ALPs current Education Building projects, support of chaplaincy etc. Abbott focussed much on providing a strong economic future for Australia, through which good works could be done (my words). There were no policy announcements, like Howard's internet filtering software initiative of 2007. It was a little bland, although Abbott was a little more detailed on his values.

c) Rudd was smooth but said nothing about any personal sense of faith. Abbott's speech was littered with biblical references but his statement, 'As a Christian, I believe people are basically good...' would've raised many an eyebrow from this biblically-astute crowd.

d) The questions asked by the Christian leaders - on issues of Indigenous health, immigration, climate change, the definition of marriage and gay civil partnerships, chaplaincy, the sexualisation of children, and prayer in parliament - were very general and brought very general answers from both political leaders. Politically, it may be asking too much to desire more specificity but I longed for sharper questions.

e) I was interested in Abbott making such strong ties to John Howard as his 'mentor' while positioning him as someone who was 'a man of his time' whose values Abbott would take forward in new ways.

f) The event's great value is showing both leaders that there is a voting Christian public keenly watching their moves, rather than Christians gathering any great insights from the leaders themselves. This could be 'tweaked' to provide more of the latter, but is still a valuable service. I hope this event becomes a key event each election time.

I caught up with those Christian leaders who got to ask questions of both Rudd and Abbott afterwards and asked them how they felt about the answers they received. Their feelings were mixed; you'll hear the on Open House this Sunday.

Did you watch the webcast? What were your impressions?