Who wins when politics and religion collide, particularly during a federal election?

In the heart of Queensland’s so-called Bible-belt, bishop Cameron Venables is not afraid to raise topics usually shunned in polite conversation.

“Sometimes I meet people who say, ‘We don’t want you to talk about politics because religion and politics shouldn’t mix’,” he said.

“I find that almost incomprehensible.”

 

The Western Regional Bishop in the Anglican Church Southern Queensland said it was time to take a leap of faith and open up the conversation.

“Because if religion is about faith, and faith is about every aspect of life, then politics is how we shape our society. It’s all about life,” he said.

Separation of church and state?

As Australia’s first pentecostal prime minister, Scott Morrison has attracted criticism from secularists worried about the threat of theocracy, but he is not the first political leader to openly practise a Christian faith.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has spoken about his Roman Catholic upbringing.

In secular, multicultural Australia, Christianity is still the dominant religion — 12 million people identified as ‘Christian’ in the 2016 census.

 

Simon Smart, the director of the non-denominational Centre for Public Christianity, said the term ‘conservative Christians’ was a modern stereotype.

“Historically, Christians have been very prominent in what people think of as progressive movements,” he said.
Changing tide

Mr Smart points to the Christian church’s involvement in the formation of trade unions, female suffrage, and the anti-slavery movement.

“It shouldn’t really be the case that ‘Christian equals conservative’ politically,” he said.

“But it is also true that in the last 20 or 30 years, as countries like Australia have become more secular, there has been a bit more of a capturing of significant parts of the Christian constituency with one end of politics.

“The Christian church is such a spectrum of different denominations, but also different political views. And it really should be that too.”

 

Political commentator and Griffith University associate professor Paul Williams said the role of faith in people’s voting intentions had declined over the years.

He said until a few decades ago, Roman Catholics could be counted on to vote Labor, while Presbyterians were “90 to 95 per cent Liberal Party”.

“There had been a very strong link between voting and church, but that has really withered away,” Dr Williams said.

“Regional Queensland has a higher level of Christian identity than most of the rest of Australia, but that’s not the reason they swung to [Scott Morrison in 2019].

“They swung because he was pro-mining, liked football and wasn’t going to introduce new taxes — an Australian with whom they could identify. It really had nothing to do with Christianity.”

So, on today’s political spectrum, would Jesus fit anywhere?

“I think he’d blow up Vote Compass actually,” Mr Smart laughed.

“[Jesus] has a habit of confounding expectations and being very different from what people are expecting him to be.

“I think it’s a bit presumptuous to try to guess — certainly for me — what he might do in any given situation.

“But we’d probably be able to broadly say he’s likely to be radical when it comes to issues of justice and care for the poor, but deeply conservative when it comes to issues of personal ethics, healthy systems, building communities, and that type of thing.”

 

Authenticity in leadership

For Bishop Venables, all aspiring political leaders should take a leaf out of Jesus’s book.

“Jesus was a leader who genuinely listened to others and went to others to hear their perspective,” he said.

“Whether it’s the woman at a well, a leper, or a tax collector up a tree, the stories just roll on and on and on.

“Sometimes we see pictures of leaders who are posing for photographs, but there isn’t genuine listening and genuine response to information received.”

Bishop Venables said Jesus’s vision of leadership was about protecting the most vulnerable.

“There’s that sense of ‘what is good news for those who are poor in our society?’ and that will go on to what the issues are, whether we’re talking about housing affordability and homelessness,” he said.

“In terms of care — love thy neighbour — in terms of love of environment and stewardship for the future … any candidate that’s not talking about realistic policy on that falls quite short.”

Mr Smart agrees the idea of ‘love thy neighbour’ should extend all the way to the voting booth.

“That vote should be a vote for other people,” he said.

“Not just my self-interest, or my personal cost benefit equation; the Christian person who takes their faith seriously should be oriented towards the common good.

“Now, different Christians will disagree about how best to achieve that outcome, and that’s entirely legitimate, but the outcome itself should be a shared one.”