August 20, 2007
Politics and Religion Down Under
I often feel very lucky to live in Australia. Particularly when I look at how other countries are ruled by illiterate intellectually void morons (not naming any in particular, of course). I’ve also always been happy that even though Australia is a predominantly Christian nation, religion (in my lifetime, anyway) has never played a large part in politics.
While I don’t think Australia will ever be as dominated by fundamentalist religious dogma as is the case in the USA, it’s scary to see religion and politics closely intertwined in Australia, as it’s certainly possibly that we could head down a similar path. Our two major party leaders, Kevin Rudd, and John Howard are both strong Christians (or, so they claim), as are many of the other Members of Parliament.
Democrats1 leader Lyn Allison says there are too many federal MPs with strong religious views.
Senator Allison says the separation of church and state is becoming blurred.
“The Prime Minister this morning said that there were a great number of Members of Parliament in Coalition ranks with very strong ties to the Christian church,” she said. “I know this is a Christian country but people with very strong religious views are heavily over-represented, if I can put it that way, in the Parliament,” she said.2
I’ve always been a swinging voter, and I don’t support either major Australian party - my votes in the past have gone to the Greens, the Democrats, or the odd independent (with the unfortunate necessity of nominating both of the major parties somewhere with my preferences). It worries me, however, when I can see the line between politics and religion in Australia getting blurred.
Some claim that comments like those of Lyn Allison are misguided, but I think it’s a legitimate concern. There’s certainly no problem with having a reasonable percentage of Christians represented in parliament (if 64% of the population are Christian, then their views might be well represented if we have 64% Christian MPs). My problem is that politics seems to be becoming more about religion than it should be, and who knows where that will lead? Honestly, I don’t care what religious views our leaders have, as long as they’re able to put their views aside when it counts. I worry that the efforts of our potential Prime Ministers to emphasise their Christianity will push the focus where it doesn’t belong.
(Oh, and sorry this post was late - I try to write one major post each Sunday, but I’ve had a rather busy weekend!)
- A minor party in Australia [↩]
- Donald, P., Iggulden, T. (August 2007) Howard, Rudd Woo Christians Online, ABC News [↩]
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