| "It
remains the fact that the Christian religion is the greatest
force for good and progress, and the dignity of the individual
in this nation".
What
is important here is not so much what is said but what isn't.
The implication of this, and similar political stirrings
by President Bush in the US and Prime Minister Blair in
Britain, is simple: God is on their side.
 Let's
compare this to the message Mr. Blair gave to a grieving
and attentive world just hours after Thursday's bomb blasts
in London. "Our determination to defend our values and our
way of life is greater than their determination to cause
death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to
impose extremism on the world," he said resolutely, breathing
erratically.
"Whatever
they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed
in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other
civilized nations throughout the world".
It's
no accident Mr. Blair slips in the word "extremism" as he
describes his foe while emphasising the civility of his
friends, just as it's no accident President George W. Bush
tells a joint session of Congress and the American people
after 9/11, "Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have
always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral
between them". In this light, it seems only natural that
our Prime Minister would link Christianity to progress and
individual dignity, ahead of other religions.
The
suggestion made by sanctimonious spiels such as these is
that to follow a god different to the god favoured by the
political leader, is to coalesce with the nation's enemies.
Untrue? Maybe. Divisive on the grounds of faith? Sure, but
when using God helps win a majority, who cares?
In
America, the political clout of the religious vote is well-documented.
One in seven voters in the 2000 US election identified as
members of the Christian right and of this sector, 79 per
cent voted for Mr. Bush1 .
Mr.
Bush himself makes no secret of being a born-again Christian
and others in his Cabinet, Condoleezza Rice, John Ashcroft
and Don Evans included, are similarly candid about their
born-again Christian status.
It's
a card the Republicans are happy to play. Ahead of the 2004
election, Bush's chief political advisor, Karl Rove called
for greater support from the Christian right. To win, Bush
had to draw 4 million more evangelicals to the polls than
he did in 2000, Rove said.
In
response, clergy members in social conservative states such
as Ohio attended legal sessions advising them on how to
talk about the election from the pulpit,2 pastors
handed out voter registration cards and Christian groups
mailed out millions of how-to-vote guides.
 By
comparison, the separation between church and state in Australia
is still pronounced. However, recent activities of politicians
from both sides, at state and federal levels, suggest that
that distinction is set to become increasingly murky.
Politicians
at home downplay the influence of the religious vote, deriding
it as "exaggerated", yet more than twenty parliamentarians
turned up at the Hillsong (Pentecostal Christian) annual
conference last week, full of praise.
That
praise wasn't reserved for God. When NSW Premier Bob Carr,
a noted agnostic, took the stage, he gushed. "I like the
idea of Christianity shorn of its medieval accretions. I
like the idea of each believer reading the Bible and finding
his or her path to salvation. I also like the spontaneity
and informality of Hillsong's worship," Mr. Carr said. "It's
actually very Australian."
It
is small wonder politicians are turning up en masse at the
Hillsong conference. This year, the five-day event attracted
thirty thousand delegates to the SuperDome. These worshippers
are not just constituents; they come value-added. It is
a congregation of aspirational voters from Sydney's outer
suburbs where marginal seats reside, and what many are of
the under 25 age-group, famously difficult to engage.
Hillsong
hails the youth market with more than its religious teachings,
some of which have drawn criticism from the Anglican and
Catholic churches for preaching consumerism by way of the
prosperity gospel, that is, the message that God wants Christians
to prosper.
Hillsong
has other lures. This twenty-one-year-old arm of the Assemblies
of God (AOG) church replaces stiff wooden pews with stadium
seating; stained glass windows with television screens and
hymns with Christian pop music you can dance to. The annual
conference offered religious karaoke and horizontal bungee.
The
influence Hillsong has demonstrated on Australian music
charts must excite politicians watching the group's pulling
power. In 2004, the album released by the church's own record
label Hillsong Music, 'For All You've Done' became the first
of its kind to reach number one on the ARIA charts. The
album has sold over four million copies and is distributed
overseas.
 So
it is the sycophancy that began when Mr. Howard agreed to
open Hillsong's main complex in Baulkham Hills just after
the Bali Bombings in 2002, and continued with Treasurer
Peter Costello's pre-election visit to the Hillsong annual
conference last year, carries on.
In
his buttering up of the gathering, Mr. Costello said: "There's
a definite movement and it's having a wonderful effect on
the lives of our young people and on our society". Not to
mention his party.
In
the last Federal election, Hillsong member, and Liberal
candidate, Ms. Louise Markus won the western Sydney seat
of Greenway, a traditionally safe Labor seat. In another
affirmation of the Liberal Party, the former leader of the
AOG churches, Andrew Evans, started a new party just before
the election. That party was called Family First. It promptly
gave its preferences to Liberal and unexpectedly won a Senate
seat in Victoria.
Two
other Family First Senate candidates, Joan Woods and Ivan
Herald, failed to win seats despites appeals in a Hillsong
publication for members to pray for them.
The
AOG churches' support of the Liberal party is not going
unnoticed. In March, 2004, the Liberal Party awarded Hillsong
a regional partnership grant worth $82,000. In the coming
financial year, the party promises another Hillsong offertory
of $672,064.
Uniting
Church Minister Dr David Millikan believes he knows why
Hillsong has found harmony in the Liberal camps. "Hillsong
says that if you come to Jesus, then Jesus promises you
a prosperous life, you'll be healthy, you'll be wealthy,
your marriage will flourish, you'll have a good sex life,
your business will flourish and you will be a prosperous
winner in this society," he said in an interview with the
ABC for the 7:30 Report.
"Now,
that is the religious version of exactly what the Howard
Government is saying to us... So in that sense, Hillsong
is the Howard Government at prayer."
Meanwhile,
Labor is busy playing catch-ups. After Mark Latham snubbed
an invitation to attend last year's SuperDome event, Shadow
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has moved quickly to repair
the party's image in the eyes of believers.
The
result is what has been labeled Labor's "God Squad", a Faith,
Politics and Values working group with a core of 15 Labor
ministers from varying denominations and including some
non-believers.
 Mr.
Rudd, who hosted the working group's first meeting, told
Channel Nine's Sunday program: "My fear is that
maybe the Family First party is saying to those folk, "Look,
if you really believe in God, you've got to come over to
the Libs, don't stick with those heathens in the Labor Party".
The
problem with any party aligning itself with God, is the
restriction it places on the development of policy.
Dr
Marion Maddox, author of God under Howard: the Rise
of the Religious Right in Australian Politics, said
Government attempts to stifle criticism from churches has
left Australia vulnerable to fundamentalist politics. Now
"a highly individualised version of Christianity" has emerged
in place of public religion and space for democratic participation
has been curtailed, she said.
The
too easily neglected flipside to believing you act politically
on behalf of God is that there will always be others who
act to satisfy a different god. Whether that political act
is to invade a country, or bomb a trade centre; with some
interpretation, there's likely to be a god who condones
it.
Rather
than spinning policy to mirror the values of a particular
religion, our politicians should create policies they have
faith in. After all, we elect politicians to represent us,
not a god of their choosing.
Footnotes:
1. Kellstedt, Lyman A., Corwin E. Smidt, James L. Guth,
and John C. Green. 2001. 'Cracks in the Monolith? Evangelical
Protestants and the 2000 Election.' Books and Culture
Magazine/Christianity Today.
2.
Cooperman, A & Bell, T. 2004, 'Evangelicals Say They
Led Charge For the GOP', Washington Post, November
8, Page A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32793-2004Nov7.html
|
