Shannon Deery: Daniel Andrews has track record of taking on Christianity … and winning

Daniel Andrews has a track record of going head to head with Christianity and winning. If there’s a holy war brewing, he’s only too happy to have it.

The Holy War erupting around the Essendon CEO saga threatens to become an interesting state election issue.

Former NAB boss Andrew Thorburn stood down from his newly announced role as Essendon CEO on Tuesday – less than 30 hours after his appointment was revealed.

It came after his membership of a the City on a Hill church, which has previously broadcast divisive beliefs on topics such as same-sex relationships, abortion and marriage, was revealed.

Daniel Andrews was the first to weigh in, labelling views held by the church as “absolutely appalling”.

“I don’t support those views, that kind of intolerance, that kind of hatred, bigotry. It is just wrong,” he said.

“To dress that up as anything other than bigotry is just obviously false.”

Cue religious backlash.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy fired back, saying the Premier should not have taken a public stance on the matter.

“Football clubs can hire who they choose – I don’t see, if I was the premier, why I would be telling people who they can hire and fire”.

Andrew Thorburn’s departure from Essendon has caused widespread debate in Victoria.

“What are we now banning people from going to church, banning people from going to a synagogue, banning people from going to a mosque? This is ridiculous.”

Cue pro-choice, gay lobby backlash.

As if Guy doesn’t struggle enough with the anti-women vibe the Liberal Party gives off.It has been battling that with limited success.

Both leaders now face losing a swathe of votes from those outraged by their public positions.

But Andrews is unlikely to come off second best.

If he sniffed any danger of that, he wouldn’t have gone anywhere near this topic.

He would have batted away questions with one of his oft-repeated quips: “I’m not here to talk about that today”, or perhaps “that is not my focus”.

Or maybe even the signature: “who the Essendon Football Club chooses to run its operations is insignificant to my job of getting on with government and getting things done”.

Et cetera, et cetera.

Andrews was perhaps a little too eager to weigh in on the issue.

Why?

Because this is a man who has a track record of going head to head with Christianity, and specifically the Catholic Church, and winning.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy also weighed into the debate. Picture: Nicki Connolly

More than 40 per cent of Victorians might still identify with a religion, and of those 43 per cent are Christian, but it has failed to translate to electoral damage for Andrews, the most socially progressive leader in the nation.

He worked out a long time ago that divisive religious views are just that, even among the faithful.

Which means those espoused by religious leaders are sometimes in stark contrast to the views from the pews.

Andrews, a Catholic himself, is a pertinent case in point.

Unless of course he subscribes to the views of the Catholic Church which would then make him vehemently anti-abortion and in opposition to many of his own policies.

Under his watch same sex-adoption has been legalised, laws were passed to allow a person to change their sex on their birth certificate, and Victoria became the first state to legalise euthanasia.

Special Religious Education has been dropped from schools and introduced laws mandating priests break the seal of confession to report child abuse.

He’s also publicly butted heads with prominent religious over a range of issues, including laws to ban gay conversion “therapy” church leaders said went too far.

If there’s a holy war brewing, Andrews is only too happy to have it.