Scott Morrison has assiduously cultivated his links to disgraced Hillsong leader Brian Houston and that corporation for years. It is a core part of his political identity. The prime minister was happy to boast of his links to the corporation when he thought it did him good. Now that Houston and his outfit have turned toxic, Morrison can’t dissociate himself.
He’s by no means the first Liberal — or politician — to cultivate Hillsong in the belief that its prosperity gospel and roots in suburban communities offered a path to political good fortune. In 2005, Peter Costello led — to a rapturous welcome — an array of Liberal luminaries to Hillsong; Costello was a repeat performer at Hillsong events, clearly thinking it would be a handy support in his inevitable ascent to the prime ministership.
It wasn’t just Liberals dancing to Hillsong’s cash register tune, either. As NSW premier, Bob Carr tried to cultivate Labor’s links with the corporation.
Now Hillsong, which extended its tentacles to the lucrative markets of the United States, stands revealed as founded by and riddled with admitted and alleged sexual predators and frauds; its most senior figure resigning in disgrace after revelations of his harassment of women, blamed, variously, on alcohol, sleeping pills and anxiety medication.
Plainly prayer and faith aren’t the psychological panacea Hillsong has long claimed them to be.
But Morrison went much further than any previous politician in boasting of his links to Hillsong and Houston, who is also awaiting trial for concealing the rape of children by his father.
Morrison famously acknowledged Houston, along with another controversial Hillsong figure Leigh Coleman, in his maiden speech in Parliament, claiming his own faith had been greatly assisted by their pastoral work.
Guess who was almost invited to dinner
Equally famously, Morrison tried to get Houston into a state dinner with Donald Trump, something even the corruption-ridden Trump White House baulked at. Morrison then tried to cover up his efforts, before being forced to confess. In retrospect, one wonders what the Trump White House was aware of about Houston and the potential for scandal he represented even to a president as scandal-plagued as Trump.
But Morrison was still “paying honour” to Houston last year, as Crikey’s David Hardaker revealed. His close relationship with “Brother Stuey” Robert, a church figure with ties to Hillsong, continues. And his experience with Houston, Coleman and other Hillsong and evangelical figures shapes his approach to policy. In 2018, discussing “Islamic fundamentalist radicalisation”, Morrison said this:
I’m a member of a religious community and my pastor knows what’s going on in our church community. He would know if there was someone, or his wife would know if there was someone, who was leading a local Bible study group or something like that who was teaching things that were not in accordance with what our faith believed. They’d be pointing that out and they’d be dealing with it because that’s the responsibility of a religious leader, to actually protect the integrity of your faith community.
As Houston’s actions show, the problem is not so much that the pastor knows what’s happening in his (always a him, for Morrison) community, as the community not being told what the pastor has been doing — especially to women.
So does the prime minister still “pay honour” to Houston? Does he still see his faith as having been shaped by the man? Does he still take his national security policy cues from Brian Houston and other evangelical pastors? Is Brian Houston still a “mentor”, as he’s been so often described?
This is not a consequence of Scott Morrison’s faith, to which he is entitled like anyone else. It’s a consequence of Morrison’s own deliberate political strategy — far beyond that of any previous politician — of aligning himself with a particular evangelical sect that has become a global corporation, and of linking himself publicly to key figures in that corporation.
He wanted to share their glory. Now he must share their shame.
Shame? What shame? The PM redefines shamelessness. His moral compass always points due self
Yep. Ain’t that the truth.
Exactly! Morrison and his ilk have never had any moral compass. He has no credibility and who in there right mind would believe one thing he says?
I personally never trusted Hillsong and a former girlfriend along with her kids were devout to the belief of that religion.
No moral compass, no shame, no hesitation in stepping away (I haven’t been to Hillsong for 15 years or words to that effect) and yet he asked for Houston to be included in an invite to the White House. And denied doing so to start with.
Appeared on stage at a Hillsong event just after the 2019 election win????????
ScoMo must be related to Trump – they both chant from the same Play Book. In fairness Trump didn’t accept the invitation, but I expect that may have been Trump’s minders doing.
“I don’t preach a sermon”?
Is God so pissed off he is undermining the PM Is the chosen one about to become the frozen one
If only!
Morrison’s hypocrisy, like many similar before him, is on full display, using an existing emblem, or belief system, to gather support for his personal crusade. Isis do it with a perverted version on Islam, Trump and his lot do it with their bizarre alliegance to their flag, and the “myth” of white supremacy and making America great “again”. Morrison’s and Stuart Robert’s belief system, has no place for the poor, disabled, disadvantaged, refugees, or any of “them coloureds over there”, or even here, in Biloela. His God must observe with despair, at the prostitution of the Christian belief system to obtain political advantage. It’s utter hypocrisy beyond the pale…..and most Church leaders are silent.
They are but Christianist, a term used by Andrew Sullivan a conservative, gay, Catholic author and blogger in 2003 concerning the then President, Dubya, The Faux Texan and his push concerning a “Faith Based Administration”, as we can see now here in Australia with The Happy Clapper and his Brethren.
It was also then that Andrew Sullivan a conservative, gay, Catholic author and blogger in 2003 used the term Christianist concerning the then President, Dubya, The Faux Texan and his push concerning a “Faith Based Administration”, as we can see now here in Australia with The Happy Clapper and his Brethren.
“I have a new term for those on the fringes of the religious right who have used the Gospels to perpetuate their own aspirations for power, control and oppression: Christianists.”
Interestingly Sullivan first used the word “Christianist” in 2003 to describe Eric Rudolph, the US religious terrorist, convicted for a series of anti-abortion and anti-gay-motivated bombings across the southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed three people and injured 150 others. Rudolph also planted the bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
“Christianism is an ideology, politics, an ism. The distinction between Christian and Christianist echoes the distinction we make between Muslim and Islamist. Muslims are those who follow Islam. Islamists are those who want to wield Islam as a political force and conflate state and mosque. …It is the belief that religion dictates politics and that politics should dictate the laws for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike.”
“But any pretense of a religious foundation for Christianism breaks down on many of the issues Christianists now consider their highest priority — cutting social services, blocking access to health care, lowering taxes, undermining public education, repealing restrictions on the ownership and use of firearms, endorsing harsh law enforcement methods and restrictions on the right to vote in communities of color, defending the Mexican border, and closing the door to refugees, to name a few.”
I’m a Christian and I mostly agree with your observations. I personally believe that the true essence of Christisnily is amazing and pure, to love others as we love ourselves, to be good stewards of this earth. But many Christians are afraid of what they see around them, and they react to as they see it, try to fix things, in a world they see as declining more and more. And they also react to more radical elements of the left. In this regard I also think the radical left is also to blame. They’ve pushed too hard at times, claiming to be tolerant and loving, when their insulting and intolerance of Christians shows the opposite.
Both sides need to try to wanting to control so much, and be truly more tolerant and accepting of each other, whilst acknowledging our differences.
If God chose Scott to be PM, you have to wonder at his selection ability.
God has excellent judgment, he just isn’t very good with money – he always needs lots more money.
Not an original idea, but the comedian that produced a brilliant sketch based on this concept, was spot on…and the sketch should be a part of the public school curriculum.
Yes, and when Morrison got elected, he strongly suggested that he thought it was a miracle. Since then, we’ve had fires, floods and a pandemic. So, it’s probably time that people started asking him, if he thinks that his god is punishing him in some way?
Punishing us all because enough voters believed Morrison.
Those fires, floods and a pandemic, aka The Plague, to which could be added a possible scarcity of some foods, so famine and now the conflict with Russia’s attack on Ukraine, war, some might say the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have arrived.
They are possibly the habringers of The Great Tribulation in the eschatology of the futurist view of some of the Christian cults, Pentecostalism et al.
Such true believers are prepared for The Rapture which will remove them prior to such, while the rest of us whether agnostic, atheist, or adherent to any other form of Christianity or religion will suffer.
“… revelations of his harassment of women, blamed, variously, on alcohol, sleeping pills and anxiety medication.”
Perhaps we should be glad that, unlike so many others facing similar allegations, Houston did not blame the way the women looked, or talked, or dressed, or whatever. But there’s still zero personal responsibility. He is still saying he did not willingly do anything wrong, rather he was under forces beyond his control; the poor, weak, dummy that he is. It’s still ‘Look what [you or it or something] made me do’.
Great article Bernard.