On the influence of religion on politics, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott once said that, while one might be influenced by whatever value system they might hold, in the end public policy must be “publicly justifiable, not only justifiable in accordance with a private view, a private belief”. Abbott particularly criticised clergy who interfered in politics: “The priesthood,” he said, “doesn’t give someone the power to convert poor logic into good logic.”
Abbott might well have been taking aim at the likes of Fr Rod “Tilty McJesus” Bower, the Anglican priest notorious for his rainbow cassocks and endless pontifications on border protection.
But the left-media never criticise Bower as a “theocrat”, no matter how assiduously he tries to wedge his fringe religious beliefs against public policy. They show no such consideration, though, for conservative politicians. Any conservative who admits to religious beliefs is vociferously damned as a “theocon”, no matter how carefully they separate their religious beliefs from policy.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is the left’s current whipping boy for their odious double-standards regarding religion and politics.
When Morrison recently addressed the Australian Christian Churches national conference, the left-elite were apoplectic.
By and large, Labor’s leading identities responded moderately, if at all, to the Prime Minister’s talk. Most criticism, along with some secularist sneering, could be found in such left-wing publications as The Guardian Australia, The Saturday Paper and the Crikey newsletter, plus some Nine newspapers.
The most sustained attack came from former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd (writing in The Guardian) and former Liberal Party leader John Hewson (in The Sydney Morning Herald).
The hypocrisy is staggering: when Rudd was (briefly) PM, he made a habit of holding press doorstops as he exited church on Sundays. As opposition leader, Rudd wrote opinion pieces for the likes of The Warcry, the Salvation Army newspaper.
The hypocrisy is only deepened by the fact that Morrison’s address was almost completely bereft of political commentary.
The most quoted source was the late rabbi Jonathan Sacks. There were references to such Old Testament figures as David and Joshua, along with citations from the Psalms and the Book of Chronicles.
The Prime Minister proclaimed his faith in God, expressed a commitment to the covenant — which he depicted as the essence of community — and condemned “the evil one”. By which he meant, the Devil.
The existence of the Devil can be debated but few would maintain that this world is devoid of evil. And, yes, Morrison said, not for the first time, that he believes in miracles. Since this is a statement of belief, and not achievement, it’s a harmless comment.
It was the same with the Prime Minister’s address to the United Israel Appeal in Sydney on April 29. Once again, he quoted from Sacks and, on this occasion, gave Jacob a mention.
There were also references to former US president Teddy Roosevelt along with such Jewish Australians as John Monash, Isaac Isaacs, Zelman and Anna Cowen plus Judy Cassab and Isi Leibler.
Of the two, Morrison’s speech to the United Israel Association did touch on politics. But the United Israel Appeal is not a religious organisation. Morrison’s speech was mostly a rebuttal to identity politics.
Which is probably what really got the left’s noses out of joint.
In what became the most controversial part of the UIA address, the Prime Minister told his audience: “You are more than your gender, you are more than your race, you are more than your sexuality, you are more than your ethnicity and you are more than your religion, your language group, your age.”
A controversial contribution to the current debate, sure. But the Morrison view on identity will find considerable support among conservatives and social democrats alike. In other words, there was little that was political in the Prime Minister’s addresses to the ACC or the UIA.
But the reaction was fierce.
Again, the hypocrisy from Rudd especially is egregious. Rudd’s writings in left-wing journals used his religious faith to tout policy prescriptions on such lefty causes as climate change and asylum seekers.
However, despite the fact that Morrison has been prime minister for close to three years, Rudd could not provide one example of how Morrison has endangered Australian democracy.
What was absent from Morrison’s recent addresses to the ACC and the UIA was any direction about what policies believers should hold or what political parties or movements they should support.
The Australian
But that’s different: Morrison is a conservative.
The same left who swoon over fashionably left-wing Charlie Churchies like Rudd and Bower, explode with spittle-flecked fury at Christian conservatives, no matter how carefully the conservatives keep their religion and politics separated.
Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD