The religious faith of our Prime Minister has often been the subject of criticism, which seems justified when linked to extremism and child abuse, writes George Grundy.
IMAGINE AUSTRALIA without religion – a modern, pluralistic, mildly drunken society united by a belief in science and human nature, whose people have based their lives on the wisdom of Plato, Darwin, and Penny Wong. Australia is already (thank goodness) one of the least religious nations on the planet, with over 30% of its population having no religious affiliation (a number that grows each time the question is asked) . So, in fact, life wouldn’t be much different.
And then one day the prime minister said he had had a revelation and from now on he would base much of his life on the teachings of a Palestinian cleric from the Bronze Age written in a book. two thousand years old that he found.
Sure. Okay. May be.
It might be hard to swallow. Frankly, we might have a hard time telling the difference between Scott Morrison’s new beliefs and those people you see yelling in front of malls and making us decide to cross the street. Rational people would suggest that the prime minister was not feeling well. Compassionate people would say he needed help.
Examining the belief system and character of a political leader is deeply in the national interest. Scott Morrison is notoriously manipulative when it comes to his privacy, but a new belief in a guy in the sky might prove difficult for even the spin master to spin. Journalists spent their nights quickly reading his new “Bible” to see what Morrison was getting into. How should we react when they discover a book filled with contradictions, which regularly promotes murder, genocide and genital mutilation? How would the climate debate be reshaped if we found out that the Prime Minister enjoyed the apocalyptic verses of the Book of Revelations?
What would quickly prove problematic for the Prime Minister are the glaring inconsistencies between his convictions and his actions. This “bible” says not to eat shrimp nine times, but the prime minister loves them on Barbie. Leviticus calls homosexuality an abomination. Exodus says you can sell your daughter into slavery. If you would follow the Bible chapter and verse, they would lock you up and throw away the key, so there would be an explanation. Even President Bartlet knew that sometimes the Bible is quite close to psychosis.
Perhaps we could accept that any historical text must be interpreted through a modern lens, but how do we explain the treatment of the Murugappan family? How Morrison Could Match Central Themes in Jesus’ Life with Immigration Policy built around deliberate and calculated cruelty? Jesus fed and clothed the poor; Morrison holds them indefinitely in facilities where sexual abuse, especially of children, is rife. I’m no Bible expert, but I’m not 100% sure that child sexual assault at the Nauru Regional Treatment Center fits the whole mantra “What would Jesus do?” “.
Genesis 2:15 said ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and keep it’, but that’s a long bow to shoot to suggest that it also means God is happy that your fellow miners dig a ton of shit in the backyard and set it on fire. Perhaps planning for the future is less of a problem for a man who also likely believes (as 44% of Americans do) that recent earthly events are evidence of God’s impending judgment.
Religious or otherwise, we all now pretty much agree that having 419 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere (for the first time in around four million years) is a bit of a problem, but not, it seems, for our merry Prime Minister, who presides over a nation that is quickly becoming the global carbon pariah. . Relax, Matthew 6:34 said ‘don’t think about tomorrow’, which helps put these 2050 climate goals in context.
And then there’s the company he keeps. Even a secular society would have its share of lunatics and extremists, but in any universe, fictional or otherwise, we would be concerned to find out that the Venn diagram of members of the Prime Minister’s religion and a terrorist group stated overlaps significantly. In America, the QAnon cult freely mixes with evangelical Christian organizations and is directly linked to political violence. Still, it appears Scott Morrison downplayed and refused to sever his close ties with Tim Stewart, one of the country’s main QAnon adherents. This connection now has national security implications, as Q doesn’t particularly like election results that don’t go their way.
Maybe we wouldn’t mind if the Prime Minister chooses to celebrate his new beliefs with other deceived people, until it becomes clear that his “church” looks like a pyramid scheme that the founder is doing. ‘under active investigation by NSW Police for covering up the life of his father. child sexual abuse. In fact, we could look at the last decades of revelations about pedophilia coming from the Catholic Church and think that maybe there was something immoral about these institutions.
Stripped of its historical mantle of legitimacy, we might see Scott Morrison’s beliefs for immoral horror show that they often are, and Australia might nostalgically wish they had a leader with basic human decency again. Someone who knew right from wrong in his heart rather than interpreting the laws, he often wrote himself and sorted through religious texts when the time suited him.
We are all entitled to our beliefs and values, but we do not all mix in the shadows with extremists and few of us use our beliefs to justify the torture of young children. In a world without religion, Scott Morrison’s belief system would lead us to ask deep questions about his character and suitability for a position. It might just make us believe in the Devil.
George Grundy is an Anglo-Australian author, media professional and businessman. Read more about George on his blog americanprimerweekly.com or follow him on Twitter @georgewgrundy.
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