Respecting the right to freedom of religion,however,is not the same as respecting religion. The exhortation to “respect” religion ultimately stifles debate about the privileged status of religious institutions under Australia’s anti-discrimination laws,tax and education systems.
One problem is that ever since religious voters swung seats to the Coalition in the 2019 election,Labor’s been fearing more electoral damnation unless it learns how to “talk” to the faithful.
This time Anthony Albanese said he had “no intention” of commenting on Morrison’s claim he’d been called upon to do God’s work,before commenting:“I think that the idea that God is on any political side is no more respectful than the idea that when someone’s sporting team wins it is because of some divine intervention.”
What a jarring juxtaposition of the profound and the trivial. I mean,en-route to the MCG,people from my fiercely secular household have been known to scout for signs God’s barracking for their team. Birds,say. Not the soaring eagles à la Isaiah – Morrison’s “sign” from God while electioneering – but the sort of birds that swoop on toddlers.
Suggesting God is rooting for the Coalition,on the other hand,violates our democratic ethos.
Returning to Morrison,then. I guess his revelation about secretly “laying on the hands” when meeting survivors at disaster scenes explains the forced handshake from that poor woman in the bushfire-ravaged township.
As to whether we attribute social media to “the evil one” or to Mark Zuckerberg et al,it’s indeed “corrosive” to humanity. Admittedly we might wonder if Morrison has the requisite clear-headedness to craft policies affecting social media companies if he believes he’s facing off against Lucifer himself. Nonetheless,should the PM decide to take on the horned one and stop his government routinely engaging on social media,he’ll have my blessing.
Writing inThe Guardian,Kevin Rudd assures us he never believed God could send him coded messages during his time as PM. I believe him.
However,most believers,by definition,must find a place in their psyche for some notion of the supernatural. So I wonder if the fixation with Morrison and Pentecostalism,with its religious literalism and exuberance,is mostly snobbery.
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All I can do is evaluate the earthly evidence about the faithful in politics. The staunchly Catholic Tony Abbott struggled to keep a lid on his zeal – as Health Minister in the mid-2000s he tried to block the abortion pill,RU-486. He failed because the move was out-of-step with the community consensus.
Morrison arguably veered into the same territory in pursuing religious freedom legislation in the aftermath of the 2019 election and the vote for same-sex marriage. At the time he said Australians of faith feel “the walls have been closing in on them for a while” – not a hint of identity politics in that remark,right? The draft legislation has all but collapsed under the weight of its various contradictions.
Perhaps more worrying than Morrison’s “signs” is his anecdote about lamenting to his late father-in-law:“I can’t fix the world ... We both believe in someone who can.”
To be fair,Morrison was relating a discussion from his teens. But does his epiphany about that someone who can “fix” things mean he’s inclined to outsource the hardest societal challenges to the bloke upstairs? Given we’re waiting on a lavish federal budget addressing structural discrimination against women my concerns are muted. For now.
Julie Szego is a regular columnist.