Scott Morrison’s address to the Australian Christian Churches (ACC) gathering on the Gold Coast last week began with a roll call of Christian influence on the government. The words were music to the ears of an adoring audience of Pentecostal Christians lapping up the proof of how far they’d come with one of their own in the highest political office in the land.
“Brother Stewie,” the prime minister said, name-checking Employment Minister Stuart Robert, a fellow Pentecostal. Robert has recently been promoted to the government’s powerful Expenditure Review Committee.
Then there was “brother Matt”, who’d “recently joined us”. This was West Australian Liberal Matt O’Sullivan, elected to the Senate in 2019, who graduated into politics via billionaire Christian businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation. In his brief time in Parliament, O’Sullivan has already distinguished himself as a defender of the government’s robodebt scheme (which was incidentally introduced on the watch of Scott Morrison as social services minister).
“It’s wonderful to have [Matt] here joining our band of Christian believers in Canberra … ” Morrison said. “And there’s more of us from all different denominations providing encouragement and fellowship to each other.”
The audience was by now close to a state of rapture.
Here was proof of the outsize influence of Pentecostalism within the Australian government. Followed by just over 1% of Australians, the religion now lays claim to a prime minister, a cabinet minister and a new senator carrying its standard in government.
For Pastor Bob Cotton — a sceptic of the thrusting political power of the ACC and the brand of “prosperity Christianity” it represents — it was a demonstration, too, of the power of the so-called “Seven Mountains mandate” in action.
A Seven Mountains pin-up boy
The Seven Mountains mandate is a little-known Christian movement that aims to wield influence in seven key areas of society. And having Pentecostal Scott Morrison in the Lodge made him “the pin-up boy globally” of the mandate, Cotton told Crikey.
The seven key sectors are: education, religion, family, business, government/military, arts/entertainment, and finally media. (Yes. Media.)
Those who follow the Seven Mountains mandate believe that “before Christ can return” the church must take control of these seven spheres for the glory of Christ. Once the world has been made subject to the kingdom of God, Jesus will return and rule the world. That’s how vital it is to get control.
As Cotton explains, the Seven Mountains mandate is a spin-off of another Christian movement called Dominionism. The name is drawn from the biblical reference to Adam in the Garden of Eden having “dominion over every creature”.
“The bible doesn’t teach this stuff,” Cotton told Crikey. “It’s false but it works on people who are gullible.”
The Seven Mountains mandate operates in some ways like a secret society. If you know the code then you’re in the know. And then you’re in.
Church and State Summit
One example Cotton points to is an annual gathering called the “Church and State Summit”, which brings together prominent figures from politics, business, the media and academia. The logo for the summit’s website is a discreet graphic of seven mountain peaks which, according to Cotton is “unmistakably” a Seven Mountains mandate symbol.
Speakers at the 2021 summit included Cardinal George Pell, Australian Christian Lobby head Martyn Iles, and Senator Matt Canavan, whose short bio spruiked the north Queensland conservative as taking “a public role in arguing for the biblical definition of marriage during the public debate on the topic in 2017”.
Speakers at the 2020 conference included Senator Eric Abetz, Queensland LNP state MP Fiona Simpson, and Dave Hodgson, a former special forces commando and born-again founder of the Paladin group of companies valued in excess of $1 billion. According to his bio, Hodgson is a “highly sought-after speaker at global summits and churches all over the world” who teaches how he learnt to do God’s will, God’s way, “resulting in a meteoric rise from $76,000 credit card debt to a $100 million business in 31 months”.
In 2019, Murdoch columnist Miranda Devine and Queensland Senator Amanda Stoker were listed as speakers. Stoker, according to her bio, wanted to see Australia return to being “a free land of opportunity, based on Christian values”. LNP member George Christensen was also a speaker.
A driving force behind the Seven Mountains movement is a US Pentecostal televangelist called Kenneth Copeland, who also has a major presence in Australia via the Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Mansfield, Queensland.
Copeland is an eloquent proponent of the “prosperity gospel”, which preaches a message of abundance through religion. It’s a message which has drawn the enthusiastic backing of Hillsong church founder and Morrison confidant Brian Houston, who sent Copeland his warm congratulations via video for his years of ministry.
Thankfully for Copeland he has now been blessed with a net worth estimated at close to US$900 million, demonstrating that, like some other preachers, he has successfully put his mouth where the money is.
If the US is anything to go by, the “Moral Majority” is a vocal minority that’s here to stay as a force in politics. I get all religions to an extent don’t really abide by the nominal separation of church and state, and try their own ways of influencing politics in its direction (such as the Catholic Church threatening to deny communon to members who vote for more abortion rights), but the Moral Majority truly doesn’t care about the separation, and the US has nearly half a century of finding out what that means. Let’s hope here Aussies don’t follow the US down that particular rabbit hole…
They will. We unfortunately always follow the American way.
At the same time as saying “those stupid Yanks” no doubt…
“Too late!” croaked Quoth the Raven.
Wheels within wheels…. Jane Mayer of Dark Money fame described how the likes of Jerry Falwell’s ‘Moral Majority’ was encouraged by Heritage Foundation (part of Koch’s Atlas Network like CIS/IPA, and Abbott has presented also) i.e. Paul Weyrich (used to hang out with Nazi sympathisers i.e. Laszlo Pasztor) and to make abortion an issue, which it had not been previously.
It was understanding that Koch Network promoted radical right libertarian socio-economic ideology would not be acceptable to the electorate after a Koch Libertarian presidential candidate got <4% of the vote. Accordingly, there was a need to build a ‘conservative’ voter coalition round abortion, WASP evangelicals, Catholics, guns, white nativism (now nationalism and far or alt right).
In the US it’s catering to vast numbers of conservative or evangelical Christians while in Australia it’s Christians in government wanting to convert mostly non religious Australians into ‘quiet Australians’ who follow orders, don’t ask too many questions and worship the ‘prosperity gospel’, while dismissing global warming…..
perhaps not…. we do have compulsory voting which means Governments generally have to be Centerist to get elected…
Really? You regard the current Rabid Right government as centrist?
Apparently, he’s been to disaster areas and people think he’s giving someone a hug, but what he’s really doing is laying on hands and praying for them…
Did he get their consent?
I for one do not want the PM to be laying his hands on me while fantasising.
Confirmation of his wilfull ignorance of anything to do with consent laws, and the obvious cover up of Brittany Higgins alleged rape.
Exactly what I thought. No healer is allowed to place their hands on anyone without that person’s consent, but Mortispin has a habit of manhandling people especially when they make it clear they do not want him to touch them. The man is a total, delusional jerk.
It has been known for membership from this group to “lay on hands” for less than moral reasons, and for others to conceal those acts for their own personal gain. Their morality is little different from that found in the church of Rome.
It is about saving souls for the kingdom of god. It is a duty of care to keep the devil away. Consent is an irrelevance when it comes to saving souls. It cannot be a matter of discretion. Such is god’s work.
This is truly terrifying. But add to it the number of Pentecostalists who control or work in the electorate or parliamentary offices of Liberal politicians and the organisational arm of the party.
Let’s call it for what it is – Pentescottalism.
PentesQottalism.
This is just horrible to learn. We are not Americans and we certainly don’t need to import any wacky so-called Christian ideas like Pentecostalism here.