Please explain: How is 'religious freedom' under threat?

This was published 1 year ago

Please explain: How is 'religious freedom' under threat?

In his first weeks in the job Prime Minister Scott Morrison has tried to distinguish himself by talking openly about his religious beliefs. The Herald welcomes Mr Morrison's positive expression of his religious faith which is shared by many of our readers.

Mr Morrison has waded into much murkier territory, however in an interview with the Herald on Saturday where he promised that he would take a "pro-active" role in promoting "religious freedom." He gave as examples making sure that children could "do Christmas plays" and "talk about Easter" at school.

Any parent knows that children do talk about Easter at school, especially Easter eggs.

Less flippantly, Mr Morrison is right if he is saying that state schools do not promote the observance of Christianity or any other religion. But there is a simple reason why they don't: Australia is home to parents with many different sets of beliefs and state schools must make all their children feel welcome.

Scott Morrison will be "pro-active" on religious freedom.

Scott Morrison will be "pro-active" on religious freedom.Credit:AAP


To remind Mr Morrison, at the last census, only 57.7 per cent of Australians identified as Christian. It would be the opposite of religious freedom to impose Christianity on the other 42.3 per cent of Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Indigenous religion and no-religion students.

Mr Morrison talks as though Australia has suppressed religion at school but the opposite is the case. The government gives much more support to religious education than in the US, where separation of church and state is written into the constitution.

The federal government gives billions of dollars to faith-based independent schools. Mr Morrison sends his daughters to such a school. Hundreds of millions of dollars are allocated every year to the National School Chaplaincy Program, which is reserved for members of organised religions.

Mr Morrison's use of the term "religious freedom" borrowed from the ''no'' campaign in the same-sex marriage debate suggests his intention might be to rewrite the Sex Discrimination Act. "No" campaigners claim that it is a threat to their religious beliefs if they do not have an exemption which allows them to discriminate against homosexual couples now that the same-sex marriage is legal. Religious bakers could be forced to ice cakes for same sex-couples.

If Mr Morrison wants to change the Sex Discrimination Act it is likely that he will lose this argument for the same reason he lost the same sex marriage debate. Australia voted 62 to 38 for tolerance then and the numbers have not changed.

Mr Morrison has also expressed sympathy for fears that  school personal development courses are promoting non-heterosexual sex.  If Mr Morrison is serious about this issue he should get some facts straight. He last week tweeted his concern that "gender whispering" would encourage children to become transgender. The Herald's reporting suggests this is simply not happening.

Whipping up these fears among conservative Christian groups might motivate the "base" that the Liberals need to hand out pamphlets and knock on doors and raise funds but it is unlikely to be as effective a political tool as in the US. In fact, while 57.7 per cent of Australians identify as Christian, a Pew Research poll found that only 27 per cent of these people thought religion was "very important."

Mr Morrison said last week that he wanted all Australians to love one another. Rather than focusing on threats at the margins he would do better to spread a positive message about Australia's strong record of religious tolerance.

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