Christian soldiers fight back in Liberals’ holy war

John Howard’s broad church had half its pews pulled out this week – and Christian conservatives are asking why they’re treated like pariahs.

South Australian Christian Liberals Todd Weatherly, Debbie Norman, Derek Gladigau, Marty Manuel, Barry Manuel and Rob Norman. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

John Howard’s broad church had half its pews pulled out by the South Australian Liberals this week – and Christian conservatives are now asking why they were treated like pariahs by the party they think should welcome them with open arms.

The holy war erupted earlier this month when several hundred parishioners from evangelical churches suddenly joined the party, prompting fears in the moderate-dominated division of a concerted “stack” by conservatives.

The row inflamed tensions in what has historically been a factionally volatile division and threatened to derail the calm that Steven Marshall has presided over since becoming leader in 2013 and Premier in 2018.

With the Marshall government seeking re-election next year, the battle also exposed the toxic and dysfunctional relationship between the moderate-dominated state parliamentary party and the federal conservative grouping centred around Senator Alex Antic, Boothby MP Nicolle Flint and Barker MP Tony Pasin.

The three raised the matter in the Coalition partyroom in Canberra this week, with Senator Antic making the point that even Scott Morrison as an evangelical Christian himself may have had his membership suspended had he joined this past month.

But away from the factional ­intrigues, a large group of South Australians led by their clergy have a more fundamental question: Why is it that people like us would be regarded with suspicion by a party that is meant to be conservative?

The number of people affected was vast, with 550 new party members having doubt cast over their bona fides.

Fearing a push led by Senator Antic to stack conservatives into key branches, the moderate-­controlled state executive refused to accept the membership of 150 new recruits and put a further 400 on notice that they would have to sign statutory declarations vowing to uphold the party’s rules.

As of a snap meeting on Thursday, brought on by the controversy, the party has softened its position and will conduct a brief review of the 150 blocked members via telephone calls, and abandon the insistence on statutory declarations for the remainder.

Rather than a blanket suspension, the party will investigate complaints about possible “stacking” and report back on June 28.

The furore has Christian leaders demanding answers as to how it came to pass that the South Australian Liberals regarded their involvement in politics as a threat.

They also fear that the episode tells a broader story about freedom of speech and freedom of ­religion in Australia, and the progressive orthodoxy that now exists across both the Labor and Liberal parties on social policy.

One of the prime movers of the membership drive was the head of the popular Southland Church in the Adelaide suburb of Pasadena, Rob Norman. His is a Hillsong-style church which uses energetic sermons and upbeat music to ­attract huge crowds, and har­nesses technology to stream podcast versions of sermons for its modern and young audience.

Norman says his church and others have been wrongly derided as “Pentecostal” in a bid to paint them as fanatical American-style televangelists.

He also says that far from being part of an organised “stack”, his church and others spontaneously decided to get involved in politics when the Liberals implemented laws making it easier for women to access late-term abortions.

And rather than urging parishioners to join the Liberals, the suggestion was made that they join either major party if they wanted to have a say on social policy.

Norman says his starting point for advocating involvement in party politics came on February 6 this year when 5000 people marched to protest the then-­proposed Termination of Pregnancy Bill. He says the subsequent passage of that bill made it more urgent for his church and others to express their concerns.

“Despite that march and the thousands of letters written to MPs around the state, the bill passed on May 2 to the disbelief and great disappointment of community members who tirelessly voiced their concerns,” Norman says. “I point to February’s abortion-to-birth bill as the moment in time that saw a grassroots movement of concerned South Australians emerge, with a number joining parties from across the left-right political spectrum.”

The same sentiment can be heard at the Healinglife Ministries in the inner suburb of Wayville, another evangelical church led by ordained Baptist minister Barry Manuel and his wife Janet.

Manuel says he cannot understand the claims that Christians are “stacking” the Liberal Party and he has had no involvement in any recruitment himself.

Rather, he says, there is a groundswell of concern from grassroots churchgoers about the commonality between Labor and the Liberals on everything from prostitution and euthanasia to abortion and same-sex marriage. “As Rob Norman says, the abortion bill shocked and galvanised a lot of people into action,” Manuel says. “I am not active in recruiting people at all but I can understand why they have decided to get involved because the truth is in this state when it comes to Labor and Liberal it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other on all these issues.”

The SA Liberal Party is now hoping the compromise struck will quell the issue ahead of next year’s poll and that further internal brawling can be avoided.

In Pasadena, Norman says he had no real interest in the inner workings of the Liberal Party’s constitution but was guided by the Bible and a belief that people had a right to have a say.

“To quote John 3:16, human life was so important to God that ‘he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’.”