Well now we seem to be going Fundie, or at least the "silent majority"
wants to flex some muscle:
Praise the Lord and pass the legislation
Andrew West
April 26, 2005
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15084767%5E28737,00.html
JUST before Easter, as the NSW parliament was getting ready to adjourn
early so some members could make it home for church services, the
state's National Party leader, Andrew Stoner, rose to denounce two
books circulating throughout primary schools.
Despite their innocent-sounding titles, Stoner suggested that The
Rainbow Cubby House and Koalas on Parade were promoting, among children
as young as seven and eight, a premature acceptance of same-sex
marriage.
Stoner is usually a reserved sort of bloke, but he thundered that the
books - co-written by Vicki Harding, who ignited controversy last year
by appearing on ABC television's Play School with her lesbian partner -
were "an outrageous attempt to brainwash our kids".
The books, which are still available to schools, refer to "my mums" and
to "Jed coming over with his two dads", but Harding insists they are
not about sex. "People think our agenda is to teach children about
sex," she tells The Australian. "But they are just looking at a family
relationship that is not featured in other books for kids."
It is precisely this different kind of "family relationship" that has
inspired Stoner's stand and galvanised conservatives. It comes just a
few months after federal Health Minister Tony Abbott sparked a
post-election debate about the number of abortions in Australia. John
Howard shut it down because of the wedge it could create between his
party's libertarians and conservatives. But the Prime Minister had
earlier weighed into the issue of Harding's appearance on Play School,
suggesting the ABC was running a pro-gay agenda.
The intervention by Stoner, who worships weekly at a Christian Outreach
Centre, is another sign that Australia's once-marginal evangelical
Protestants are restive and eager to assert themselves politically.
Conservative Catholics have long been a political force in Australia.
In the first half of the 20th century, Melbourne archbishop Daniel
Mannix often strayed into politics, on issues from conscription to
labour rights.
With the newly sworn in Pope Benedict XVI (former German cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger) set to uphold traditional teaching against birth
control and homosexuality and for priestly celibacy, experts predict a
renewed surge of energy from conservative Catholic politicians.
"They will definitely see his election as an endorsement of their very
traditional positions," Marcelle Mogg, editor of the liberal Jesuit
magazine Eureka Street, says of Abbott and Workplace Relations Minister
Kevin Andrews. "On the other hand, small-l liberal Catholics, whose
religion is just as central, will continue to be much more cautious
about letting their faith intrude on politics."
But even before the new Pope's election, there was a renewed impetus to
insert religion into public policy, as seen with last year's surprise
election of Victorian Steven Fielding to the Senate from the
Christian-oriented (although not church-based) Family First. This party
blends progressive policies on asylum-seekers, Aboriginal rights and
opposition to the Iraq war with traditional opposition to abortion and
same-sex families.
The religious Right is on the march, but whether it can seize control
of public policy or create in Australia the kind of values-based
politics that features so prominently in the US remains to be seen.
With the economy cooling, the Right is attempting to lock in the
support of voters whose economic interests might lie with Labor but
whose moral convictions remain firmly conservative.
Australia, however, remains a less overtly devout nation than the US,
where 40 per cent of people identify themselves as evangelical or
born-again Christians. Only about 5 per cent of Australians share the
label, and while Howard and his deputy, Peter Costello, might refer to
Australia's "Judeo-Christian heritage", it is unlikely that either
mainstream politician would name, as George W. Bush did in 2000, Jesus
Christ as their favourite political philosopher. It is even more remote
they would emulate the US President in talking explicitly about
"inviting Christ into your life".
In Australia, the Right has to work harder to consolidate the
conservative vote, using other, more subtle themes, such as co-opting
patriotism.
Howard was in Turkey for Anzac Day yesterday and the 90th anniversary
of the Australian and New Zealand troops' landing at Gallipoli during
World War I. As Marion Maddox, a scholar of religion and politics at
Victoria University in Wellington, observed in her recent book, God
Under Howard: The Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics,
Howard learned early about the quasi-religious reverence attached to
national symbols and events such as Diggers and Anzac Day. His broad
political strategy is also similar to that of US Republicans: to weld
to the conservatives' side those socially conservative, but often
low-income, voters who are willing to overlook their immediate material
needs in favour of religious and family values they will never
compromise.
US political scientist Thomas Frank points out in What's the Matter
with Kansas? that people who would benefit from the liberal Democratic
agenda of public health insurance and higher minimum wages, continue to
turn out reliably for big business-allied Republicans.
At last year's US presidential election, such "values voters" -- those
who declared that their faith and belief in institutions such as
traditional marriage and opposition to abortion were not negotiable,
whatever the cost to themselves -- were estimated to have comprised
about 20 per cent of electors.
Back in the mid-1970s, a Protestant NSW clergyman, Fred Nile, attempted
to mine a similar rich vein of votes. He transformed his Festival of
Light, which had begun during the pro-censorship campaigns of British
conservatives Mary Whitehouse and Malcolm Muggeridge, into a political
party. He made himself a fixture of NSW politics for almost 25 years
and has been elected four times to the Legislative Council.
When Nile began running for office, his strongest vote came not from
the mainstream and affluent Anglicans of Sydney's north shore and
eastern suburbs but from western Sydney.
"The wealthier ones tended to be the educated, the trendies who
believed you could accept anything and anyone," Nile says. "Most of my
support came from practical people; you know, carpenters and plumbers."
In the same way, Stoner's north coast electorate of Oxley is
statistically the poorest in NSW, yet this Rotary and RSL club member
won re-election in 2003 with 55 per cent of the primary vote. "I'd say
I'm a values-based politician," Stoner says. "Part of the reason I
joined my party was because of its motto: 'Honour to God, loyalty to
the Crown, justice for all'."
When Stoner campaigns, he does not speak of state-federal finances or
national competition policy but respect for the family unit, discipline
in schools, hard work and protecting the family farm. "The people who
vote for me are blue-collar and socially conservative and have respect
for Christian values," he says.
But "Christian values" and Christianity are not the same, according to
Maddox. She argues religious conservatives in Australia have had to
work much harder to broaden their appeal to people who rarely, if ever,
darken the doorway of a church but who see Christian values as code for
a more ordered society.
"The values push appeals to people who are not necessarily religious
themselves but fear we are losing our moral moorings and that young
people have no respect," Maddox says. "There is a feeling that, even if
you don't personally go to church, religion has an instrumental value;
that it will help those people -- be they single mothers or the young
unemployed -- who are perceived to have suffered a moral lapse."
Maddox says there is also a hip-pocket element to much modern faith, in
that many evangelical churches preach a prosperity doctrine that says
wealth is a sign of divine blessing. This is especially attractive to
poor believers because it holds out the prospect of riches.
For progressives, the big challenge is whether they can also fashion
themselves into conviction politicians. During the past 25 years, the
leaders of Centre-Left parties have become technocratic.
So eager have modern Centre-Left leaders been to declare that politics
is more about efficiency and simply what works that they now struggle
to anchor supporters to their parties in rough times, when their
economic management falters or their administrations become mired in
corruption.
"This is a real problem for them," Maddox says. "In the face of a
successful conservative appropriation of religious values, they have
failed to articulate where they stand and why they are also moral."
Andrew West is The Australian's political reporter in NSW.
.
|
