The legislative season of the Victorian parliament in 2008 introduced profound changes to basic social institutions and norms, and opened up a fundamental conflict of values, in our society—and in the parliament itself. It has conjured the spectre of a “culture war” between two sets of values: one, anchored in the common tradition of the world religions, which holds to objective, universal and enduring values, representing the moral covenant of Creator and the conscience or soul of the human being; and the second, rooted in an essentially materialistic and secularist philosophy (whether or not consciously embraced by its supporters), which…