A few years ago in Singapore some friends took me to the Hindu Temple in Little India where we were able to watch a worship service.

A couple of musicians were making much more noise than you would expect, and the drumming and blowing and singing reverberated around the interior of the concrete building. In the centre was a fire, fuelled by oil that others poured out. There was much bowing and scraping and worshipping.

At the climax, a life-size image of a god was removed from its prominent niche and paraded on shoulders around the building. Then it was returned, and sand and flower petals showered upon it.

Recently the head of the Roman Catholic version of the Church visited Australia and addressed huge crowds in an outdoor stadium, completing the events with a mass, shared by all. The old man, supposedly Christ's representative on Earth, looked god-like as he walked around in his white and red robes. His message to the people of Australia and anyone else watching was to turn to "Christianity."

That is the substance of the good news of Roman Catholicism.

The two events I have described are strikingly similar. Both set the atmosphere; both paraded the god. Both recommend him—or it.

True Christianity, in which Christ is in all his followers, parades Jesus Christ around all the time. In Christ the whole of the godhead dwells...and you are complete in him, Paul taught. That's right. I just hope he can be seen, or our evangelism—our recommending Jesus Christ the Saviour— will be much like the messages of dead religion.

First published July 23 2008