Waleed Aly defends Scott Morrison after controversial ‘conspiracy’ sermon

Waleed Aly has come to the defence of former prime minister Scott Morrison after he was blasted for a sermon on the weekend.

The Project host Waleed Aly has come to the defence of former prime minister Scott Morrison after he was blasted for a sermon in which he called into question “fallible” governments and the United Nations.

Mr Morrison was delivering a sermon to Margaret Court’s Victory Life Centre church in Perth on the weekend when he remarked, “We don’t trust in governments. We don’t trust in the United Nations. Thank goodness”.

National uproar followed after a clip of his speech surfaced, with Anthony Albanese hitting out at his predecessor for sprouting a problematic “conspiracy” line.

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Waleed Aly said Scott Morrison’s church sermon was taken out of context. Picture: The Project

“I just thought, wow. This guy was the prime minister of Australia and had the great honour of leading the government. I found it quite astonishing,” he told ABC radio.

“It provides some explanation perhaps of why, in my view, he clearly didn’t lead a government that was worthy of the Australian people – he said he doesn’t believe in government.”

Aly defended Mr Morrison Thursday evening, saying the backlash was the result of media coverage that took his sermon out of context.

“The criticism here is that he’s saying ‘don’t trust the government’. I think that’s a bad faith reading of what he’s saying. That’s a misinterpretation,” he told panellists.

HOLY MOLY! Waleed Aly is making complete sense on #TheProjectTV tonight.

There was NOTHING wrong with what ScoMo said in Church.

I can’t believe I’m on team Waleed.

I’m off to have a shower. This feels dirty.

BTW Don’t trust governments in or out of the house of God.

— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) July 21, 2022

JUST NO, Waleed Aly. Stop making excuses for Morrison saying ‘don’t trust the govt/UN’, & his invisible friends are the only entities u can trust. You’re also leaving out the “Satan” causes anxiety lunacy.

Unsurprising, Waleed believes in this nonsense too #TheprojectTV#auspol

— Embattled Lucas ☘️🐯🖖 (@LukeQuilty) July 21, 2022

“All he’s saying is ‘we don’t trust earthly institutions the way that we trust God’.

“If you’re a Christian, and not just a Christian by the way, I reckon just about any mainstream perspective from any mainstream faith would say the same thing.

Scott Morrison delivered a sermon at Margaret Court's church.

Panellist Jessie Stephens disagreed with Aly’s take. Picture: The Project

“That’s a completely uncontroversial thing to say. What’s controversial is the way that it’s been taken out of that context, the context of a sermon, and placed in the context of a news cycle and then turned into a comment about government like he’s whipping up some kind of anti-government movement.”

He argued: “that’s just not what he’s doing”.

Panellist Jessie Stephens disagreed, saying no matter the context, Mr Morrison’s comments were inappropriate from the former prime minister.

“Trust in the government has never been lower, so to have someone who not long ago was an elected official and still is a backbencher, to make that kind of remark still I think is unhelpful,” she said.

Reaction to Aly’s take on Mr Morrison’s sermon was mixed, with some praising him for “making sense” and others blasting him for “making excuses”.

“JUST NO, Waleed Aly. Stop making excuses for Morrison saying ‘don’t trust the govt/UN’, & his invisible friends are the only entities you can trust. You’re also leaving out the Satan causes anxiety lunacy,” one Twitter user wrote of the sgement.

Someone else said: “HOLY MOLY! Waleed Aly is making complete sense on TheProject tonight. There was NOTHING wrong with what ScoMo said in Church”.

Mr Morrison told the congregation on the weekend that his loss at the May election was all part of “God’s plan” for him.

“I still believe in miracles. God has secured your future, all of it. Even that bit,” he said.