The Risk of the Religious Right: Christian Libertarianism
It arguably took one presidential term in America for the nation to move from a modern nation with a loud Religious Right, to one where in 9 states a woman enduring a miscarriage will fear arrest for the charge that she caused it.
She is also likely to lack a swift end to her tragedy because doctors will be too frightened (or lack the training) to proceed with a D&C (dilation and curettage).
This grieving woman will then be susceptible to septicaemia as the pregnancy ends, potentially over the course of weeks. Across 42 states, 536 pieces of legislation have limited access to abortion.
At the same time, LGBTQI Americans are suffering a concerted attack on their rights and safety.
Idaho, for example, is threatening life sentence felony charges to parents or doctors who prescribe puberty delaying treatment, even if they leave the state.
It is hard to imagine Hillary Clinton allowing this Religious Right minority takeover without a monumental battle. Not least because up to 84% of Americans still support some access to abortion, and 67% of Democrats actively support trans rights.
Australia is a little further behind in the political power of our Religious Right, but it is growing. It is not regular religious faith that is troubling, but the political intentions of an immoderate faction. The philosophy underlying their agenda is “Christian Libertarianism,” even if many will not have heard the term. It explains this minority imposing its harsh definition of Christian morality on their nation at the same as the cruelty of Religious Right politicians’ policies towards the poor and vulnerable.
As our nation has embraced progressive positions, such as legislating to enable marriage equality, conservative religious groups are putting more pressure on the Coalition government to be their voice. With roughly 9 American-style Evangelicals (Pentecostal) and conservative Catholics in the federal cabinet, there is only limited resistance to the lobbying.
The trajectory looks likely to become entrenched as galvanized Christian groups branch-stack traditionally “conservative” seats. A recent article suggested that the Coalition might be willing to abandon progressive seats like Kooyong, hoping to hold power in the more conservative outer suburbs and rural areas. The National Party candidate for Richmond, Kimberly Hone, is such an Evangelical, with a social media history that echoes Katherine Deves’ controversial opinions.
A 2018 investigation exposed the Mormon and conservative Christian campaign shaping the Victorian Liberal Party. As the authors note, their impact outweighs their – as yet – minority numbers: “they are well-organised, they turn out to vote, and they are coalescing against rapid social change.” They compound that impact by targeting secular candidates such as the IPA’s James Paterson; his defence of his seat drives him to promote their religious agenda.
Deriving from the American Religious Right is the sense that conservative Christians are beleaguered. Progressives, they believe, have conquered education, entertainment and much of government. Rainbow flags on logos on social media suggest to this group that they have also lost commerce to the Left.
Perceiving themselves as embattled underdogs, rather than the fringe of the establishment with all the associated protections, they are fighting hard to keep their belief systems central to conservative government.
Rather than the conservative private religion of the Australian tradition, however, these new branch members and their selected candidates are introducing American religious Right tenets to the mainstream of Australian “conservatism.” With that pressure, it is becoming ever less conservative and more extreme.
The Religious Right in America has moved from the fringes of Republican thought after the Great Depression to being its driving force in 2022. Government programs were the province of communist Iron Curtain countries and welfare was socialism. Man should have the freedom to be poor. Vast sums from enthusiastic businessmen funded the Evangelical propaganda units tying freedom and God to American identity. It created the philosophy that has pervaded the Religious Right, Christian Libertarianism.
Libertarian political ideology demands freedom from government, tax, and regulation. It also asserts individuals’ right to determine their private morality provided they do not harm others. “Christian Libertarianism” by contrast, rejects the individual’s freedom of conscience and demands government impose their particular religious morality on the nation. This is partly because the dominant Evangelical majority in the Religious Right believe in Millennial prophecies where the nation must be moral under God’s law to ensure Christ’s return. Christian Nationalism – where the religious elect must control the nation – is a belief held by 20% of Americans.
This theocratic thinking is represented in Evangelicals here too. One example is National Party candidate Hone’s description of her mission: “I want to bring God’s kingdom to the political arena. And I want God’s kingdom to penetrate the political mountain.” David Hardaker, in his series investigating the growing religious impact on Australian politics, suggests part of Scott Morrison’s rejection of accountability might lie in his sense of himself as a divine agent “truly accountable only to God.”
Image from newprophecymovement.com.au
Outgoing NSW Liberal MP Catherine Cusack has endorsed the federal Greens candidate for the region, in outright rejection of the “wrecking ball” these Religious Right candidates are “putting through the Liberal and National parties.” She despaired: “They destroy moderates who cross the floor, they destroy trans people, and they do it in the name of God. It’s so destructive. It’s not liberal values, but it’s also not Australian values.”
The seeping of Republican ideas and strategies into our own conservative politics means the underlying Christian Libertarian philosophy is increasingly powerful here. On one hand the ideology is utterly committed to the freedom of individuals and businesses to operate without interference, as well as the intrusive public programs that might limit the suffering of the poor. Scott Morrison’s prosperity theology faith where wealth is a sign of God’s blessing and poverty a sign of his condemnation is emblematic. Intervention for the poor is against God’s will, and the Morrison government’s harshness to the needy is obvious. Paradoxically though, this freedom stops at the bedroom. Morrison’s support for Katherine Deves in her attacks on trans rights bows to this strict morality. Dominic Perrottet may not claim the label Christian Libertarian, but it describes his expressed beliefs with precision.
Part of the strength of this small demographic is the forging of a broader “conservative” identity against the progressive ideas represented by the Greens and the teal indies which they label socialist and an existential threat. The Coalition faces competition for these votes from the United Australia Party and PHON. They share the “freedom” rally anti-vaxx sentiment, and opposition to Covid health measures; the online Qanon/conspiracy network responsible has been absorbed into the Evangelical worldview. The Religious Right is also deeply sceptical of climate science. Coalition politicians around Australia have worked to avoid alienating Clive Palmer’s ralliers. Labor is treading a cautious path aiming to continue supporting both their traditional centrist religious vote as well as the progressive social vote.
Australia is echoing the American attack on trans people with other campaigns yet to follow the predictable American models. Amanda Stoker, Assistant Minister for Women, has been beginning to mainstream anti-choice arguments, and George Christensen introduced an anti-abortion bill to parliament last year. The Australian Christian Lobby is not only attacking Liberal candidates who crossed the floor to demand amendments to the religious discrimination bill, but is also campaigning against candidates who support late-term abortions (which are basically an emergency medical procedure).
These are the steps towards the cliff over which the US is now, suddenly, tumbling. Australians need to approach this election with full understanding of what a Coalition under siege from religious extremism means for us. The American model should scare us.
Lucy Hamilton is a Melbourne writer with degrees from the University of Melbourne and Monash University.
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Return to home pageYou are absolutely correct and we just have to look at Morrison’s interference in the NSW selection process and his stacking the federal cabinet with similar believers. Thankfully, Victorians roundly rejected the religious right at their last elections and in Australia, unlike the USA, we still have a degree of free thought and intelligence, sufficient to similarly reject the direction that these zealots would take us. It is ” I can’t do that as it is against my religion”, not “you can’t do that as it is against my religion!”
As with women’s rights and the freedom of choice, we must clamour as loudly and vote as strongly against these fundamentalists, or watch our society degrade further and our freedoms disappear faster than the current government can legislate their removal.
One could be assassinated anywhere, anytime, by a religious fanatic, those bent souls who fantasise beyond actuality and reality. There is no god or supreme being to be proven anywhere, not out of Rome, Istanbul, Mecca, Canterbury Cathedral, Delhi, Jerusalem, Beijing, Wall st. The Pentagon or Trump’s brown ring. We have the best ever microscopes and telescopes available right now, indicating the edge of the known universe and renewed estimates of time scales, far away from the most tiny unimaginable sub particles of matter. No Michaelangelo painty dream portrait of a Charlton Wayne type is needed to indoctrinate dills and deviates. Our P M is typical of those evil substandard types of egopromotors who make self/drive/will/ambition/fear/supremacist selfinfatuation a substitute for reality and calling this some god. Myths and legends entertain, that’s all. The god pushers have not a photo, fingerprint, DNA sample, confession, affidavit, signature, authentic witness, nothing.
So, the long-standing precept of separation of church and state has gone out the window, right? Now we get mugwumps proselytizing their fantasies and demanding that they be taken seriously, irrespective of Phil Pryor’s reminder of lack of proof, anywhere, ever. It’s a big step backwards, that these fantasists can sway and influence, and that the insidiousness has steeped into what was supposed to be a secular chamber of civil process on behalf of all citizens.
Wowsers have a long history though. The Mary Whitehouses, Billy Grahams, Fred Niles of the world, and all their ilk, have long sought to impose their own peculiar views on the populations at large; their rabid obsessional beliefs regarding fire & brimstone and their literal acceptance of the so-called word of god as delivered in the bible framing their frumpish anti-life perspectives; choosing instead of accepting that humans can enjoy their lives to prosecute a vision of darkness, sin, devilry, hell. Why these certifiably lunatic views gain traction is one of life’s great puzzles.
If men got pregnant then there would be no concerns about maternity health. But men, particularly the unChristian Libertarianism cult members, for their own egos, and without conventional religious dogma believe that their strange concoction of misanthropic beliefs MUST be adhered to by everybody … bar none.
Seems to me we saw that in Germany between 1933 and 1945 and history tells us the consequences of that strategy.
If Catherine Cusack id correct then perhaps we should listen to the wisdom of Napoleon Bonaparte; ”Never disturb your enemy while they are making mistakes”.
The religious right in Australia are strident in their belief that god, through their sperm is responsible for life. The fact that the ovum develops is irrelevant as it is the sperm that does god’s work. Should they become dominant the abortion laws will disappear. Leaving the choice only death between the pregnant woman and the foetus. God’s abortions will become the fault of the pregnant woman. If she drinks alcohol or takes drugs she will be charged with murder. If she has an accident she or someone will be charged with murder.
“Outgoing NSW Liberal MP Catherine Cusack has endorsed the federal Greens candidate for the region”
NEC, all liberal candidates put the loonies in front of labor.
Idealistically none should because the libs are anti-hung parliaments.
The rational explanation is they have the best chance of winning, if the greens have the balance.
The greens only member is the beneficiary of this practical preferential decision and he feels that 9 labor seats are vulnerable to liberal preferences. Richmond being one where the loonies may take enough votes from labor to gain 2nd place and take the seat from labor.
There seems nothing labor can do but wear the millstone, keep out of the water and work on the electorate to stop the latte set leaking to the extremists.
Every Sperm is Sacred….
Before the last election……
“This is a crucial time right now … In the next six months it’s time for the body of Christ [the Christian church] to put its differences aside … and come together and agree that Jesus is the Messiah and start praying together and calling it in and praying for our prime minister right now, and for our government.
“I really see that the body of Christ is going to have influence in the arena of – the political arena of this nation.
“[But] if the prime minister right now doesn’t get elected in this next election there’s going to be darkness coming. And I’m not being negative. The laws are going to change where darkness is going to come and there will be persecution on the church.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/07/darkness-coming-if-scott-morrison-not-re-elected-pentecostal-leader-claims
Never in my 60 years of oxygen thievery have I seen such an oily creep as Morrison.
@ wam: You know animals are a bit slow when it come to procreation. The Daisy family (Compositae for the academics) has established a breeding system called ”apomixis” where the ovary suddenly decides to form a seed without any cross-fertilisation with ”foreign” pollen.
This is a little bit like nominating candidates for pre-selection in the Nazional$ Party. Find a small group of like minded individuals, not too many females (because their only use is recreational bonking and Parliament has a prayer room for that) and select the least likely to be effective one to nominate because his ability to ”earn” a similar salary package to a back-bench politician in their own remote wilderness home range will be about zero. Thus the pre-selected individual will do as he is told and the crooks receiving the benefits will have a publicity shield for their activities.
I’m generally able to ignore fuckwits, but not when they become dangerous fuckwits. This brand of fuckwittism IS dangerous, corrosive, poisonous and, ultimately, destructive. I don’t wish to live in a theocracy; being in a plutocracy is challenging enough. Our current mob of rulers are stuffed full with the worst elements of worst aspects of both.
Whilst abortion law should never be a political football I think the approach adopted by recent Democratic administrations in the USA struck the right balance.
That terminations or abortions :
should be lawful – this is not an issue for the criminal law
should be a decision made by the woman in consultation with her physician
should be safe
should be rare
Sounds like a sensible approach to me.
Good article, highlighting the risk of grounded or grass roots constituencies being hollowed out for top down ideology, including Evangelical Christianity overtaking mainstream Christianity; though in the US belief is declining with demographic change and the ‘great replacement’, but more slowly than elsewhere.
Manifested by the weird ‘conservative’ coalition of seemingly diverse groups in the US, Australia, UK and elsewhere, including Evangelical Christians, libertarians, alt right and nativists, that are manipulated and/or platformed into a political force by (Koch linked Atlas Network) think tanks and media; white Christian nationalism crossing over with ‘traditionalism’ (aka Dugin-Kremlin, Cummings-Brexit & Bannon-Trump/alt right).
It’s on the latter that we observe inroads or symptoms, e.g. in US, Australia, Brazil, Central Europe i.e. Poland, Hungary & Russia with similar policies, strategy and language shared between think tanks, local politicians and media e.g. the war on ‘wokeness’, ‘cancel culture’, ‘elites’, ‘immigrants’, Islam, women or gender, education, skills of analysis etc. to permanently embed with autocratic Christian nationalism (the UK’s saving grace is being very secular but plenty of nationalism & nativism).
There have been some very relevant research including ‘The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism’ (Katherine Stewart) and ‘Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right’ (Anne Nelson)’ the latter on conservative Council for National Policy described as ‘In 1981, emboldened by Ronald Reagan’s election, a group of some fifty Republican operatives, evangelicals, oil barons, and gun lobbyists met in a Washington suburb to coordinate their attack on civil liberties and the social safety net‘.
By coincidence eminent US (Poland based) conservative researcher and analyst of Central Eastern European geo-politics and societies, Anne Applebaum, called out both Hungary (for its close relationship to Russia, CPAC events and its ‘values’) and the Danubius Institute think tank in Budapest, funded by Hungarian government, is linked to Koch or Atlas Network including Heritage Foundation*; both have had Tony Abbott presenting, while his advisor was a ‘visiting Fellow’ to Danubius, contributes to Spectator Oz, been on GB News and spruiker of Orban (but his profile disappeared within 1-2 days after the following Tweet, ‘reverse ferret’?).
Twitter: ‘Anne Applebaum 3 Apr If you work for the Orban-funded Danube Institute, or are/were enjoying a fellowship there, your views on Viktor Orban and the Hungarian elections should be taken with a grain of salt and a raised eyebrow. Just saying.‘
Heritage Foundation, like another Koch outfit, ‘bill mill’ ALEC, are nativist conservative libertarian fulcrums, policy promoters and predictors of what can emerge elsewhere e.g. ‘freedom of speech’, religious (Christian) rights, culture wars, wokeness, Voter ID/suppression, climate science denial etc.; wheels within wheels. Meanwhile (think issue Applebaum had) Koch’s have been linked to those in Anglosphere promoting the idea that NATO provoked Putin to invade Ukraine, while longstanding Christian and/or family groups had been accused of having Kremlin links.
Sorry, I’ve got nothing academic to add: However, as a Lay Person; utterly disgusted with the revival of religious nuttery; I am really scared that these religious idiots hold more plebeian power than is scientifically accurate. Who are these dumb, uneducated, wilfully ignorant species of Homo Sapiens? Well, let’s face it; we can only hope that these deliberately ignorant fools will face their religious Karma, earlier than they had hoped! In the meantime; is there anyone outside of Byron Bay willing to make their voices heard?! I suspect, if like me, you are fed up with the Byron Bay bunch of self-serving hippies and want a more honest account of political objectives!!! LET’S CREATE A NON-HIPPY, ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIALLY SUPPORTED, Party!?
Boats, Jet Ski’s, Motorbikes, classic cars; These are all the trophies of the average Coal Miner!!
Is it any wonder they want to protest against Job Losses!?
Sorry, I’ve lived a harder life as an artist, which you greedy mining cunts were never willing to support!!
Do people like me care about Coal Miners? Fuck No! These jobs were made to attract ignorant school leavers, without any education.
It is so sad to see ignorant workers still reading Murdochs Rags: The Telegraph; What does it take to re-educate the readers of Murdoch’s filthy Rags?
Who does it take to provide a decent DAILY NEWSPAPER/JOURNAL?
Life is complex and we know little.
Fear exacerbates and there is no component of society more fearful than the Christian right. But the out workings of the human condition seems actually built on uncertainty and human limitations.
Ive heard Christians say, “dont worry, everything is just as god planned it” But it its the case, why are the fundies in particular such a nervous, controlly insecure lot? As for the millenialists enmforcing “god’s law”, what ever that is.does it seem to be about love or about some thing anthtetic to love, this urge to control and compel rather than instigate something more humane.
Think. would you or I enforce the banning of terminations for ectopic pregnancies? Would any god of you understanding do worse than you if it is the case?
Perhaps life is meant to be challenging- greater stisfaction for enduring and winning on a just cause. But whatever “winning” is I am not at all sure, after the last decade.
‘
There is NOTHING good about the twisted, perverted mix of politics and the facade of smug, sanctimonious religious hypocrisy – that is the hallmark of the Abbott/Morrison regimes – especially in a (once) egalitarian, secular nation like Australia! Furthermore, there is absolutely NOTHING good, compassionate or humane about the truly awful, callously cruel and totally inept political psychopath, Scott Morrison! The rot set in with the rise of the treacherous little garden gnome, John Howard, and ever since then, the nauseating, totally corrupt, self-serving, bible-thumping hypocrites in the LNP have just got worse under the tyrannical, totally fake religious mania seen during the bad old days of the Mad Monk, Tony Abbott!
Ever since the political psychopath, Scott Morrison, ruthlessly betrayed his own colleagues by stabbing Michael Towke and Malcolm Turnbull in the back, he quickly rose to ignominious leadership of a malevolent, totally depraved regime that has overseen so much devastation, the rise of inequality and the relentless blatant “favouritism” of the Top 1%. Morrison’s rise to ignominious power is not at all surprising considering that Morrison has a notorious history littered with incidences of ruthless backstabbing treachery, lies and betrayal. Indeed, Morrison has been pushed out or shamefully “let go” from just about every job he failed to hold down before he rose to be one of the worst, most incompetent, deceptive, smirking political “leaders” in Australian history! The damage done under the Abbott/Morrison Circus cannot be over-emphasised with our nation divided, the rich becoming obscenely rich (at the expense of our poorest citizens), political corruption now “normalised” and our national debt exploding to more than ONE TRILLION DOLLARS!
Shamefully, Australia’s prime minister, the notorious Scott Morrison, is now internationally known as a ruthless pathological liar who has not got a shred of credibility, zero integrity and is known to stoop to any level, tell any lie or betray ANYONE in order to keep his tenuous grip on autocratic power! If you ask other world leaders like the French President, Emmanuel Macron, if they think that Morrison is a snivelling liar, Macron’s astute answer being “I don’t think, I KNOW!” came as no surprise to most intelligent, discerning Australians who see through Morrison’s fake, phony “persona”. The TRUTH is there is nothing – absolutely NOTHING – kind, compassionate, admirable, honest or “christian” about the bone-idle Sloth Morrison who “can’t hold a hose”, is incapable of making a decision and has never achieved a SINGLE thing to benefit the lives of ordinary Australians. Morrison isn’t a leader’s bootstrap – Morrison is nothing more than a shallow, autocratic, non-achieving bully with delusions of grandeur!
The fact is that Morrison has proven himself to be nothing more than an avaricious, pontificating, self-promoting, chest-beating, “born-to-rule” megalomaniac who will say and do ANYTHING to maintain a level of totalitarian power that is nothing short of despotic! Even Morrison’s OWN colleagues loathe him with Barnaby Joyce describing him as being “loose with the truth” and the LNP ex-NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, shrewdly describing Morrison as being a “horrible horrible person”. When a politician’s OWN colleagues despise and condemn him in such a way, THAT is a red flag warning that this political sociopath has the character of a rattle snake!
The fact that this ruthless, inhumane, narcissistic political parasite, Scott Morrison, attempts to hide his lying, conniving, inhumane treachery behind a thin, transparent layer of sanctimonious bible-thumping hypocrisy exposes him as an appalling charlatan who, in reality, has a notorious history of stomping over the carcasses of his own colleagues, committing any act of deviousness and tell any lie in order to maintain power.
There can be NO DOUBT that the lies, deception and appalling hypocrisy maintained by sanctimonious LNP leaders – past and present – have discredited our nation! The LNP have defunded just about EVERYTHING Australians value into oblivion, have done so much damage to what’s left of our once fine international reputation and have thoroughly divided our (once) egalitarian nation into the “have and the have nots”. Furthermore, the appalling LNP/Murdoch/IPA Alliance has proven themselves to be so thoroughly reprehensible, mutually rewarding and conniving, they have stretched their lack of democratic political leadership to the point of fascism!
It is absolutely IMPERATIVE that the majority of intelligent, compassionate Australians WAKE UP and, at the next federal election, kick the absolute worst, most inhumane, totally corrupt and destructive political sociopaths in our history to the gutter because THAT is where these appalling religious hypocrites in the LNP really belong!
Mark Shields,
The devil, as always, is in the detail.
Here is a link to former Labor Science Minister and Labor Federal President Barry Jones’s The Conversation article A challenged democracy: wicked problems and political failures (the link is actually to my comment, which might take a while to load, and will require you to scroll all the way back up to read Barry’s actual article).
Included in this article is a tabulated comparison of policy positions of Labor and LNP, and a hypothetical “Courage Party” of Jones’s hopeful imagination (which, as one commenter, Michael Wilbur-Ham, asserts, are by and large the policy positions embraced by The Greens, and which he then reproaches Barry for not supporting).
I imagine that the policy outlook of Barry’s Courage Party would largely be met with approval by a majority of the readers of The AIMN. But, and as I tried to explain in my linked TC comment 7 years ago, I believe the unfolding malaise of democratic politics, in Australia and everywhere else, is somewhat deeper than all that, and will require more profound adjustments than just yet another party with more agreeable policy goals, or financial support for “teal independents” as provided by Climate 200, of which Barry is now a convenor.
One thing’s for certain, if Jesus does make an unlikely return, he’ll be gunning for the likes of Fauxmo and his like minded, twisted fuckwits.
Barry jones is a fucking legend.Pity there aren’t more like him.Even if Albo falls across the line in first place,fundamental change,which has been postponed by the Liar and his puppeteers,will still be urgently required,and the Greens have the most sensible policy objectives.The corporatisation of the planet and it’s consequent destruction is now in it’s death throes whether they like it or not.Still a lot of pain to come.