The Left’s religious war on Scott Morrison a self-own

Prime Minister Scott Morrison performs a reading during Good Friday Easter services. Picture: AAP

There are many valid criticisms that can be levelled at the Prime Minister. His religion is not one of them.

Exclusive polling in The Australian today reveals Scott Morrison leads his counterpart, Anthony Albanese, in the leadership stakes in almost all categories. The PM enjoys a higher level of support compared to the Opposition leader by a margin not seen since the post-election surge of support for Kevin Rudd in 2008.

A significant part of Scott Morrison’s approval might be attributed to the pandemic, a feature in evidence among state premiers, leading to the wild levels of favour extended to WA premier, Mark McGowan who has popularity ratings in numbers in Western Australia almost greater than there are Western Australians. Or should that be Westralians or even New Westralians?

How Anthony Albanese attempts to counter Scott Morrison’s popularity is a vexed business. But one element should and must be ignored: the Prime Minister’s faith.

Earlier this week, a video was released of the Prime Minister speaking to the Australian Christian Churches conference on the Gold Coast. The ACC is an umbrella association of Pentecostal churches in Australia. It no longer counts Hillsong as a member with the global megachurch preferring to go its own way in 2018 but it still accounts for a membership of 1100 congregations and an estimated 375,000 followers in Australia.

Pentecostalism is a renewal movement that sits broadly within Protestantism and places emphasis on a direct personal experience of God.

In the media much was made of Morrison’s speech, his reference to elements of social media being driven by the “evil one”, the practice he adopts of ‘laying on of hands” as a form of spiritual healing and consolation, and his belief that he and his wife, Jenny have been chosen for important work by God.

And just like that, the Left lost their minds.

I’m an atheist but it’s almost impossible to be a card-carrying member of that club anymore. Atheism broadly is the absence of belief in deities and that is a perfectly sensible way to approach the world. But it has become a belief system characterised by intolerance and sneering arrogance towards those who have a belief in God.

The more fervently expressed one’s faith in a deity is, the more derision one can expect to receive from the atheists.

In the wake of the video of Morrison’s address, a million tweets were tapped out dripping in mockery followed by furrowed brow academics claiming Australians are leery of the assimilation of religion and politics which many Australians might be, but I would argue they are a lot more wary of religious intolerance.

The SMH published a cartoon today from Cathy Wilcox that summed up the sneering perfectly with a Morrison caricature saying, “A good leader calls on the advice of wisdom and experts” with the punchline being Morrison summoning God as his chosen expert. Talk about laugh. I didn’t know when to start.

Alas, it is the way with this particular cartoonist, whose animations feature far too much text as a sort of acknowledgment her freehand drawing doesn’t quite get the message across. If I wanted to read so much, I’d grab a book.

Religious affiliation in our political leadership is hardly new. Malcolm Turnbull was raised Presbyterian and converted to Catholicism later in life. Kevin Rudd was raised a Catholic and became an Anglican. Tony Abbott had been a seminarian. His faith is well known. Bill Shorten was raised a Catholic and converted to Anglicanism as an adult.

Scott Morrison has been up front about his faith, too, to the point of allowing media to film services he has attended at Horizon Church in the Sutherland Shire. But for many on the Left the little understood practices of Pentecostalism were derided as feats of magic and crude mysticism.

An examination of any faith, any denomination is necessarily an exploration into the arcane. There are elements of all religious practices that defy logic and sit above reason. But it was Morrison’s faith that was lampooned, shelved as guitar strumming, happy clapping boasts of a special relationship with God not enjoyed by others. That is the whole point of Pentecostalism, by the way, but there was no attempt to understand it, no effort made to find a little empathy.

The Left’s extraordinary capacity for bungled messaging in this country (sometimes referred to in social media as “a self-own”) seems to know no bounds. Some may find their own spiritual fervour in the obtuse knowledge that the nation’s latest census showed a majority of Australians have no religious affiliation. Some even more foolishly suggested that Pentecostalism was the enemy of the more traditional Christian denominations, summoning an unlikely revisitation of the Counter-Reformation in Canberra.

While pews across the country may not bow by the sheer number of backsides on them on Sundays as they once did, it is the sense of fairness in middle Australia that condemns attacks on an individual’s faith, even a prime minister’s faith, though it may be expressed more simply as “none of your business and none of mine.”

Scott Morrison is riding a wave of popularity. The idea that he can be brought down by his faith is bizarre and more so, a reflection of the paucity of thought on the Left. If religion is a personal matter while politics is the public battle of ideas, the Left who more often than not proudly claim to have no truck with the former, are utterly bereft of the latter.