The Australian Greens Have a Problem with Religion

The Australian Greens could easily be the preferred party of Christian voters, so why aren’t they?

Christian voters – I think here of Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Catholics – represent about 2-5% of the population depending how you define it. They are highly sympathetic to the Greens on taking a compassionate approach to asylum seekers (Jesus was a refugee after all), belief in responsible eco-care is simply an extension of biblical eco-theology (read evangelical theologians like Richard Bauckham and Jonathan Moo!), Christians generally support pokies reform (Tim Costello is a household name), they want a generous foreign aid package (so many overseas aid groups are Christian),  they care about social justice and ending poverty (as did the biblical prophets and Jesus), and they are passionate about ending human trafficking (we are the people of William Wilberforce remember). In the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaign did an excellent job in trying to reach out to evangelicals and catholics, and it worked. One of the best Christmas speeches I’ve ever heard came from the NZ Greens leader, Russel Norman, an atheist, where he used the Christian message to show how its themes and ideas could make NZ a better place … a flipping Greens atheist for crying out loud was lauding the Christmas story (see speech here). The Greens Leader of Canada, Mary May, is an Anglican ordination candidate!

So given all this potential connect between the Australian Greens and Christian Voters, why aren’t the Greens deliberately trying to engage in outreach to them, why is there such a fear of the Greens by groups who should in fact be sympathetic to them? Apart from a few token religious radical, who have abandoned nearly every Christian doctrine there is, you will be hard pressed to find too many Christians standing within the Greens’ upper eschelons. But why is this the case when it need not be?

The answer is elementary: The Greens have a pathological hatred of religion. As such, they express of a mixture begrudging acceptance and self-righteous contempt for people of faith. Rather than try court the religious vote, the Greens instead pander and promote a group of vociferous and vitriolic secular fundamentalists who, in their narrative, believe that religion is the single greatest hindrance to achieving of a truly diverse and secular nation. The fact that we have a conservative Catholic prime minister at the moment is for these secular fundies an apocalyptic tribulation that they hope to get through (I wonder if a few have fled to France until it passes over).

Let me give two examples.

First, let’s consider the Green’s opposition to school chaplains. Now the Greens sometimes argue that the reason they oppose this program is that the money could be spent elsewhere. Rubbish. The Greens would happily spend money like a drunken sailor if they believed in the cause. Or, the Greens argue about separation of church and state. Rubbish. If the Greens where opposed to school chaplains on the grounds of church-state separation then they’d also be arguing against military chaplains, police chaplains, prison chaplains and hospital chaplains. But why are they only against school chaplains? Why? Why when the program has bi-partisan support from both major left and right parties, why when the program has popular grass roots support, are they opposed to it? The answer is easy. For the Greens, religion is like pornography, it is a dirty and disgusting thing that people may do in the privacy of their own home, but they don’t want children exposed to it, less they think well of religion or of people of faith. Its the secular dogma dummy!

Second, consider the recent proposal by the Greens to abolish saying the Lord’s prayer in Parliament. Now let me say that I really don’t give a flying donut if our Parliamentarians say the Lord’s Prayer or do a chicken dance before proceedings get underway. If they abolish it, Jesus will still be Lord and beer will still be cold and frosty. But why bother in the first place trying to abolish it? I don’t think that Jews or atheists or Muslims wake up every day with a weight of oppression upon their shoulders knowing that far away in the halls of Canberra, their local MP is spending 45 seconds in Christian prayer. If diversity and multi-culturalism were the real issue, then why not propose instead Monday for the Lord’s Prayer, Tuesday for a Muslim prayer, Wednesday for a Jewish prayer, Thursday a day of silent reflection for atheists, and on Friday’s offer a banana to a Hindu god? So why all the effort and desperation on this issue? Why, when so many other domestic and foreign issues are at hand, call for abolishing the Lord’s Prayer in Parliament? The answer is clear: symbolism! The saying of the Lord’s Prayer remains symbolic for Australia’ Christian heritage, however relevant or otherwise now, and it is this symbol that irritates the Greens like sand in the proverbial underpants.

To give further anecdotal evidence, I once spoke to a young Greens member trying to promote her party in a public spot and I got talking about stuff I’m interested in. The conversation was going swimmingly until I told her what I did for a living and how I thought religion could be a force for good in the world. During the conversation I shocked the young women when I told her that 23 of the 25 largest charities in the country were faith based. Her face turned ashen with shock and then red with rage. She told me, in no uncertain terms, she would rather see every Australian over the age 65 euthanized than give one cent to a faith based charity like Anglicare or Uniting Care to look after them. How the hell can you reason with such pure and pathological hatred as that where a woman would rather terminate her parents than entrust them to the care of faith based organization. She is admittedly extreme case I’m sure, but I’m equally sure that intense loathing of religion and the religious is far from exceptional among the Greens.

As a theological educator who trains men and women for Christian ministry, I have friends and students who are quite supportive of the Greens on the policies mentioned above, who sometimes even vote for them. But they do so with an acute sense of ambivalence, angst, guilt, frustration, and doubt, because they know that they are also voting for a party which deplores them for holding to beliefs and values which they regard as despicable and for belonging to a organization that in their eyes is quite diabolical. They are voting for a party where, excuse the hyperbole, many members fantasize about throwing them to the lions at Taronga Zoo.

The Greens could easily be the preferred party of religious voters, there is ample common ground between them, but they won’t be. The problem is that the Greens are too beholden to a small group of angry secular fundamentalists in their own ranks and apparatus which prevents them from engaging in any kind of dialogue or outreach to religious people. These secular elites simply enjoy their hatred of religion and enjoy despising people of faith. It gives them an enemy to focus on, a name to attribute the evils in our society, and it provides them purpose and resolve. 

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the Greens are this minute plotting the assassination of George Pell or turning churches into gay brothels and kiosks selling cannabis flavored tofu.  But its just the vibe of the whole thing.

So here’s some advice for the Greens: (1) Talk to evangelical and catholic groups and learn why they support many of your policies but won’t vote for you because they quiver in absolute fear of you; (2) Learn that there are models of secularism and Richard Dawkins is not the only game in town. We can have church and state separation, but also, state and church can still cooperate for the enhancement of the human condition and for the betterment of society (I know that sounds like secular blasphemy, but believe me, it can work); (3) Put a muzzle and a leash on the secular fundamentalists in your ranks because they are bringing you down, they are unworthy of you, and do not comport with a message of freedom, diversity, tolerance, and pluralism; (4) Remember that religion is not going to go away, it is remarkably resilient, so give up trying to move from John Lennon’s “Imagine there’s no religion” to a Dawkinian “Let’s make it happen” and instead try some outreach and learn to talk to God-fearing folks in their own language. (5) Before you come up with proposals and plans impacting religion in Australian, try consulting with religious leaders. Ask them how they feel about what you’re proposing. Find ways to mitigate perceptions that you’re out to get them. Adjust the content and presentation of policies so as not to offend. You might find that you even like them!

But I suspect that asking the Greens to engage in religious outreach is about as futile as asking sharks to try do some bridge building PR work with salmon. You don’t do outreach to a group that you hope to eradicate. But, even so, perhaps they could consider the words of Abraham Lincoln: “The best way to destroy your enemies is to make them your friends.”

There endeth the lesson!