Do you have to believe in God to lead the country?

I was outraged the other morning to hear that Archbishop Barry Hickey is questioning whether Julia Gillard should lead the country because she is an atheist……. Well two things came to mind for me…would he have the same question if the opposition leader was not a so called devout Catholic and second many people turned to atheism when they discovered there so called spiritual leader “priest’ was a child paedophile or an abuser of some sort…….I think that the Archbishop should stick to religion and cleaning up his own back yard before criticising Julia Gillard’s belief’s and the church should keep out of politics…… The Catholic Church is renowned for keeping women as second class citizens…….... and also look at what the 'so called good priests and nuns' have done in the past in relation to child and sexual abuse...not sure that their belief in God made them good people......

‘God’ it’s hard to be a successful woman in a man’s world, Julia Gillard has good leadership qualities. Who is anyone else to judge what sort of person she is because she announces she is an atheist….....how shallow are people..... the qualities I see in Julia Gillard is that she is law abiding, conscientious, kind and considerate... intelligent articulate etc etc etc....

We need to be looking at policy not gender or belief in God......