It feels like we here in the Crikey bunker have been bashing away endlessly on Christian politicians and their influence in government. And yet the more we know, the more it is apparent we don’t know — a little like falling down a rabbit hole with Donald Rumsfeld.
Secrecy, though, is the issue.
So much of the Christianisation of politics in Australia is cloaked in secrecy and enabled by special protections. The connections are by and large opaque to the outside world and to that extent anathema to democracy and the separation of church and state.
Case in point: yesterday we revealed the role of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute (LMI) and the Australian Christian Lobby in developing Christian politicians, most prominently and most propitiously the National Party member for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster, who is chair of the parliamentary committee on human rights which will scrutinse the highly contentious religious discrimination bill.
But our journey of discovery has revealed a further layer of surprise: aspiring Christian politicians are also given a parliamentary internship as part of their 14-week, $30,000 training course.
So which government-funded offices have hosted religious politicians in training?
This facility has been offered by WA state Liberal MP Phil Edman; NSW MP Rev Fred Nile of the Christian Democratic Party; former leader of the National Party Warren Truss; former Nationals MP and NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli; former federal MP Louise Markus; former NSW Liberal premier Mike Baird (then treasurer); former Liberal senator Guy Barnett.
More detail? The training is held on a 100-hectare property outside Canberra, 20 minutes from Yass, where interns “do life together” through studying, cooking, working, travelling, playing, debating and praying. According to the course description, this creates a place where “relational and emotional skills” are developed.
The institute says its guest speakers include former and serving parliamentarians, including former and current cabinet members, although it doesn’t name them.
Crikey is able to report this much because we were able to access a secure page of the LMI site as it existed in 2016, using a search which finds content on a website at a moment in time. It is but a snapshot of a bigger picture which is inaccessible.
The site revealed the names of 45 alumni over four years, from 2011 to 2014. We don’t know who or how many graduates have been through the LMI since and what place they now occupy in public life.
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission has also played a role in enabling the secrecy of groups such as the Australian Christian Lobby. It has given the ACL an exemption from publicly disclosing the names of its directors.
And journalists? Political reporters have been remarkably reluctant to probe religious links to power, apparently accepting a kind of olde worlde agreement where faith is off limits because it is personal.
Yet Christian politicians are blurring the old lines of church and state more and more. If we ignore that, we risk missing the story completely.
Around 10% of Australians attend regular religious services, yet church going Christians are infesting our parliaments at all levels. That’s undemocratic. Please don’t let this drop, Crikey.
Hear, hear! Kathy Heyne.
Yes good on Crikey and David Hardaker!! This is nothing more than a cult- those who sponsor them need to be exposed. Keep up the good work!
I also fail to see why there is so much attention paid religion, for adherence to religion is diminishing, most evident in the younger cohort while also evident in older cohorts as well.
A survey, from 2013 by McCrindle Research, had just 8% of Christians attend at least once per month. The survey also discovered that 47% of respondents do not go to church because it is “irrelevant to my life”, 26% “don’t accept how it’s taught”, while 19% “don’t believe in the bible”
This made clear by Census 2016, in which 30.1% of Australians stated “no religion” and a further 9.6% chose not to answer the question.
So that is possibly near 40% who evince no interest in religion.
In Census 2016 those reporting no religion increasing noticeably from 19% in 2006 to 30 %, the largest change between 2011, of 22% and 2016, when an additional 2.2 million people reported having no religion.
Other faiths include Muslims (2.6%), Buddhists (2.4%), Hindus (1.9%), Sikhs (0.5%), and Jews (0.4%).
Sikhism is the fastest growing religion in Australia which showed a 74% increase from the 2011 census followed by Hinduism,60%, this compared compared with an increase in Irreligion of 48%
It will be interesting to see the results of the 2021 Census, when data is released in June 2022.
More than 40% of those brought up as Anglicans or Lutherans, 36% of those brought up in the Uniting Church and 28% of those brought up as Roman Catholics now described themselves as having no religion.
33% of 15- to 29-year-olds identified with a Christian denomination in 2009, down from 60% in 1993.
In 1996, 17.9% of Roman Catholics attended Mass on a typical Sunday, falling to 12.2% in 2011. In 2006, the median age of all Catholics aged 15 years and over was 44 years.
In 1996, 27% of Roman Catholics aged 50 to 54 years regularly attended Mass, falling to 15% in 2006. 30% aged 55–59 years regularly attended in 1996, but only 19% in 2006.
From 1996 to 2006 Mass attendance for Roman Catholics aged between 15 and 34 declined by just over 38%, going from 136,000 to 83,760 attendees.
A study in 2011 by the Christian Research Association discovered that the attendance of Uniting churches has declined by 30% over the past 10 years. The association’s president, Philip Hughes, has predicted that the decline in church attendance will continue “at least for the next 20 years”.
The study also found that the average age of people attending Catholic and Anglican churches is around 60 years.
An earlier survey, 2013 by McCrindle Research, just 8% of Christians attend at least once per month. The survey also discovered that 47% of respondents do not go to church because it is “irrelevant to my life”, 26% “don’t accept how it’s taught”, while 19% “don’t believe in the bible”
grâce à wikipedia et al.
“I also fail to see why there is so much attention paid religion, for adherence to religion is diminishing, most evident in the younger cohort while also evident in older cohorts as well.”
It’s because in the context of the issues being discussed your point is irrelevant. It has nothing to do with absolute numbers within the population. Hardaker is reporting on a secretive, well-organised and well-funded entryist conspiracy to place trained and highly committed personnel into positions of power and influence.
According to Gibbon’s history, at the time when Christians established their dominance of the Roman Empire under Constantine they amounted to somewhere between 1 in 20 to 1 in 10 at most of those within the Empire. What mattered was how organised and zealous they were compared to everyone else, not their numbers.
Not irrelevant as adherence to religion IS diminishing, so why are a diminishing minority allowed to have such an influence and a hold over what occurs in mainstream Australian life and in particular in political life.
As for the time of Constantine, he ruled the Roman Empire as sole emperor for much of his reign.
With his main objective to gain unanimous approval and submission to his authority from all classes he chose Christianity to conduct his political propaganda, believing that it was the most appropriate religion that could fit with the Imperial cult.
Constantine convened First Council of Nicaea, to investigate the trouble brought about by the teachings of Arius in the Greek Eastern church deemed heretical by those in the church on the West. He in fact was an Arian Christian.
His supposed conversion before or later on close to death, was just another example of his use of religion to serve his political interest in keeping the Empire united under his control.
Yes, Constantine used the Christians; and they used him. And Constantine’s family murdered each other, and the Christians murdered each other, and a jolly good time was had by all.
But I was not in any way disputing your point about adherence to religion diminishing. All I was saying was that a group who identify themselves as Christians are doing a good job of seizing control. They are not trying to do it by weight of numbers so the fraction of the total population signed up to their cause or to any other religion is irrelevant.
Agreed, SSR, and low party membership is making it oh so easy for them to stack branches with their own kind. Frightening. Undemocratic because unrepresentative.
I am very impressed by the quiet and dignified way Sikhs go about doing a great deal of good with simple acts of of kindness and generosity.
The Sikh gudwaras were the savior of many western freaks in India in the 60s but they were unable to withstand the sheer elephantine sense of entitlement of the waves that followed.
I wonder whether one may still receive chapatti, dahl and a safe sleeping mat on the subcontinent?
My experience (3years before Covid) is that they still do provide chapatti, dahl and a safe sleeping mat to all those in need. I am sure Covid has served to increase their social contribution.
Thanks for that, good to know – I was afraid that 400yrs of charity had been overwhelmed by feckless freeloaders and junkies.
I also fail to see why there is so much attention paid religion for adherence to religion is diminishing most evident in the younger cohort while also evident in older cohorts as well.
Think your 10% is generous as a survey in 2013 by McCrindle Research, had just 8% of Christians attend at least once per month. The survey also discovered that 47% of respondents do not go to church because it is “irrelevant to my life”, 26% “don’t accept how it’s taught”, while 19% “don’t believe in the bible”
In Census 2016, 30.1% of Australians stated “no religion” and a further 9.6% chose not to answer the question. So that is possibly near 40% who evince no interest in religion.
Census 2016 has those reporting no religion increasing noticeably from 19% in 2006 to 30 %, the largest change between 2011, of 22% and 2016, when an additional 2.2 million people reported having no religion.
Other faiths include Muslims (2.6%), Buddhists (2.4%), Hindus (1.9%), Sikhs (0.5%), and Jews (0.4%).
Sikhism is the fastest growing religion in Australia which showed a 74% increase from the 2011 census followed by Hinduism,60%, compared with Irreligion, 48%
It will be interesting to see the results of the 2021 Census with data to be released from June 2022.
More than 40% of those brought up as Anglicans or Lutherans, 36% of those brought up in the Uniting Church and 28% of those brought up as Roman Catholics now described themselves as having no religion.
33% of 15- to 29-year-olds identified with a Christian denomination in 2009, down from 60% in 1993.
In 1996, 17.9% of Roman Catholics attended Mass on a typical Sunday, falling to 12.2% in 2011. In 2006, the median age of all Catholics aged 15 years and over was 44 years.
In 1996, 27% of Roman Catholics aged 50 to 54 years regularly attended Mass, falling to 15% in 2006. 30% aged 55–59 years regularly attended in 1996, but only 19% in 2006.
From 1996 to 2006 Mass attendance for Roman Catholics aged between 15 and 34 declined by just over 38%, going from 136,000 to 83,760 attendees.
A study in 2011 by the Christian Research Association discovered that the attendance of Uniting churches has declined by 30% over the past 10 years. The association’s president, Philip Hughes, has predicted that the decline in church attendance will continue “at least for the next 20 years”.
The study also found that the average age of people attending Catholic and Anglican churches is around 60 years.
grâce à wikipedia et al.
I was including ALL religious services- not just Christians, Hayward.
Infesting is the correct word.
Religion and State must be separate, It is time we dismissed this current “God bothering ” Prime Minister !
And Premier.
Which of the many premiers are you referring to?
I suppose an adherent to the barely recognized sometimes bordering on Catholic cult of Opus Dei would possibly the premier in question, and that would be Dominic Perrottet.
These pathetic wannabes are taking guidance from the American Christian right. I’m guessing that their hands are being held every step of the way by all those wonderful Christians trying to eliminate abortion, keep women down on the farm and justify every hideous act of racism and climate denial as behaving according to their god’s law.
What I cannot fathom is why they bother to call themselves Christians. Doesn’t that require them to at least pay lip service to decency and compassion?
Why not just go with fascist patriarchy and then no-one can be unclear as to their aims?
Agreed Goatgirl. There has been an aggressive well funded and growing infiltration of foreign interference in our Government since the 1970’s which, now having sucessfully gotten their hands on the levers of power, their mask of decency is slipping. Hope its not too late and more Aussies will see them for who they are. Keep up the
good work Crikey exposing those who would make Australia a Theocracy.
In fact 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 Disciples.
“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.
Sullivan first used the word “Christianist” in 2003 to describe Eric Rudolph, US domestic 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.
Another quote from Sullivan…
“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.”
Or such as the difference between Judaism or more simply being a practicing Jew versus being a Zionist which is an activist supporter of the state of Israel.
Just as there are many Muslims who are not Islamist, there are many Jews who are not Zionists.
The problem we currently have in Australia is that anyone who criticizes anything the Israeli’s do to their neighbours, is immediately branded as anti- Semitic, which I am sure my German Jewish grandfather would have found amusing.
Considering that Israel was set aside for a Jewish homeland by fundamentalist evangelical Christians. at the Balfour treaty in 1917, my grandfather considered it a stupid idea for all the Jews to live in the same place making it so much easier for them to be wiped from the face of the earth.
“Political reporters have been remarkably reluctant to probe religious links to power, apparently accepting a kind of olde worlde agreement where faith is off limits because it is personal.”
Hardaker is absolutely right to suggest this reluctance makes no sense under the circumstances where religious groups are conspiring and organising to seize political power. But the reluctance may have arisen with good reasons. There are plenty of examples, not just in Australia, of bigoted main-stream press attacks on particular politicians because of their personal religion. Some of this is history, as the adherents of some religions are no longer treated with the suspicion or contempt they used to attract, but some is current.
“If they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear.” from such an authority as the Prime Minister himself.
How do you keep clandestine group think from being defined, except by secrecy.
A side comment is that this trainee program is run by an institute named after one of the most barbaric governors of NSW, a man who recommended that the blacks be hunted down and shot, with the bodies hung from the trees as a warning to the others.
His bronze statue has an epitath saying “A most Christian gentleman”, Macquarie was nothing of the sort.
We can refer to an earlier authority – Hermann, later Reichsmarschall, Göring , Munich Beerkeller, 21 March 1938 celebrating the failed Nov ‘23 putsch: ““If you are not doing anything wrong then you have nothing to fear from surveillance”
Because political reporters are also apparently complicit in having similarly high levels of Christian belief, but does not reflect Australian society.
Hillsong style Pentecostalism is NOT a religion. It is a prosperity cult. Hillsong the classic example of a ‘theology’ that purports to be christian but clearly is something else. The aim to take control government is clearly stated as one of the 7 mountain objectives.
Also would like to know about the ‘colleges’ here in Ausutarali. How much gov support, how many international students…so many questions.