Ross Clifford

Ross Richard Clifford AM (born 1951) is an Australian Baptist theologian, political commentator, radio personality and author. A former lawyer who later joined the ministry, Clifford became a campaigner on moral issues while a suburban Sydney pastor in the 1980s. He has served as head of several religious organisations and as an occasional media spokesperson. He unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council in 2003. Until mid-2010 he had a radio program on Sydney station 2CH.

Clifford was born and raised in the northern suburbs of Sydney and had a private school education. His conversion to Christian faith occurred at the 1959 Billy Graham crusade in Sydney. Clifford initially studied law and obtained a Diploma of Law from the Solicitors Admission Board of NSW. He worked as a solicitor in the inner Sydney suburb of Kings Cross and then served as a barrister specialising in family law in the Northern Territory and New South Wales.

Clifford decided to study for Christian ministry and completed a Bachelor of Theology degree at Morling Baptist Theological College in Sydney. He initially served as pastor at South Windsor Baptist Church and first became involved in public life in the 1980s when he became a campaigner for moral standards in advertising and publications while pastor of Gymea Baptist Church. He also contributed to church and public discourses concerning right-to-life issues and the proposed Australian Bill of Rights, which was debated and defeated during Bob Hawke's term as Prime Minister of Australia.

In the early 1980s Clifford took a sabbatical from his preacher's post to study apologetics at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law in Anaheim, California. Clifford's writings place him within the school of thought known as evidentialist apologetics. His MA thesis examined the apologetics arguments of eight lawyers concerning the resurrection of Christ. The thesis, which was originally published in Russian in 1991 by Missionswerk Friedensstimme, was released in Australia under the title Leading Lawyers Look at the Resurrection (1991). It has been subsequently published in Arabic. On the strength of the Russian version of the book he was invited to speak in the Soviet Union where he met some of the personal staff of Mikhail Gorbachev, various members of the Soviet legal profession, and pastors of Baptist churches.

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