Christianity and Australian Politics - Literature review Example

Christianity and Australian politics Name: ID No: Unit code: Unit name: Assignment: Due date: Introduction Influence of religion in the Australian society’s way of life and politics cannot be denied. Australia is a group of British colony and its legal system is based on the English common law which is heavily biased toward Anglican ideology. Although Australia is considered a secular nation and its constitution contains statutes that try to separate the state from religion. However, the influence of religion in Australia can be felt in certain aspects of Australian law, politics and they mediate the attitudes of society towards gender and violence. Most of Australia’s populace are Christian, but there are a significant number of followers of other religions including Muslims, Buddhists and Hindu’s. However, Australia political ideology is heavily associated with Christian doctrines; this elicits debate over representation of the other religion in Australia. This paper explores the role that Religion plays in Australian politics and in other aspects of life. Historical relationships between religious and secular laws The separation of church and state has never been fully achieved in Australia’s history. This is despite the fact that section 116 of the Australian Constitution advocates for the separation of the church and the State by stating that “The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance” (Frame 2006, pp.42). This section of the Australian constitution has been subject to widespread debates and misunderstanding in the past decades with even the High Court declaring in 1981 that there is no clear constitutional separation between the church and the State in Australia (Thompson 2002, pp.67). One of the reasons why the church has been viewed as a stumbling block in the separation of the state and the church is because the Commonwealth is a Monarch whereby the Queen is both the head of state as well as the head of the church in England (Frame 2006, pp.32). Indeed, from the European settlement in Australia in 1788, to the beginning of the 19th century, Australian colonial law reflected the dominance and privileged status of the Church of England in the United Kingdom (Thompson 2002, pp.66). Despite the fact that migration patterns created a landscape that was religiously diverse, the Church of England and in extension the Australian colonial law, created a monopoly that inhibited the growth of other religions in the commonwealth (Possamai 2009, pp.11). Under the British Colonial administration in Australia, the State, the Judiciary as well as the church operated under one institution. According to Emerson, Mirola & Monahan (2011, pp. 23), the legal relationship between the church and the state was very close between the late eighteenth century up to the beginning of the 19th century. A good example was in 1826 when the Board of Trustees of the Church and Schools was given huge pieces of colonial land (Emerson, Mirola & Monahan 2011, pp.45). In fact, this corporation of trustees was provided with one seventh of the land in New South Wales by the colonial government for the purposes of the Church of England and education. In the 19th century, the role of the church in Australia started to change since the many different denominations of the Church had grown in numbers (Frame 2006, pp.33). By this time, denominations such as Catholic, Methodist as well as Presbyterian, had begun to press for more legal rights and with time, the monopoly of the Church of England would fade. The Corporation of the Trustees of the Church and schools was dissolved in 1833 by the then governor, Burke who wanted to establish full religious equality before the law (Thompson 2002, pp.66). The Church Act of 1836 was passed for this reason and it provided these four denominations with equal rights. In addition to this, the Act made it a necessity for the government to offer subsidies and support for the purposes of staffing and employment of clergy (Thompson 2002, pp.68). Moreover, the State was also expected to offer aid for the construction of church buildings. In the mid 19th century, the Judiciary was separated from the church and it became an independent legal institution (Frame 2006, pp.35). This meant that justice would be administered in a neutral way. In the course of the 19th century, the more Christian denominations as well as other religious groups such as Muslims and Hindus arrived in Australia. Therefore, there arose need to make changes to the Church Act of 1836. Thus, in 1901, section 116 of the Commonwealth Constitution was established to define the Church-State relationship (Frame 2006, pp.39). Section 116 of the Australian constitution has never been amended to date. However, in recent history, there are times when the clergy have controversially held high positions in the government. A more recent example is the appointment of an ordained archbishop, Peter Hollingworth as the Governor General of Australia in April 2001 (Frame 2006, pp.42). John Howard supported the appointment by stating that the move was legal since the previous governor general was a catholic (Thompson 2002, pp.68). Religious and Worldview Religion and worldview see life in from two distinctly different perspectives. Religion is concerned about our relationship with God or a higher power, while politics is concerned with our relationship to the word (Froese and Bader 2008, pp. 691). However, both religion and politics are closely related to each other as the relationship with God occurs in the political and thus politics and religion remain inseparable. In most western countries including Australia have some basic principles in the way they treat religion in politics. Australia has an official policy of separating religion from politics but this does not mean that religion does not influence politics and vice versa. Most literature view religion as leaning towards a conservative political ideology. Australia is a largely Christian country though its policy making is based on a secular view of the world (Froese and Bader 2008, pp. 712). However, the influence of Christianity is seen in the electoral process while electing the people’s representatives to government office. Australian believes that for anyone to be elected to be their representative he/she must believe in God as the World belongs to God (Rodney 2001, pp. 624). Although there is no law that prevents a person who does not believe in God from seeking elective it is very difficult for such an individual to garner majority support from the Australian electorate. This follows that individuals seeking elective posts must have some religious affiliation in order to identify with voters. It is important to note that the belief that any candidate believe in God does not confer religious leaders a right to influence elections. Even though Australian is very religious they prefer that their religious leaders do not interfere with their right to elect their political representatives (Herft 2010). Therefore religious leaders are not supposed to endorse any candidates for electoral office or influence elections in any way by leading their flock to vote in certain manner. One of the areas where Christianity in the Australian context departs from conservative ideology is its close association to struggle for social justice. Christians in Australia believe that the government is responsible for the provision of jobs and the social welfare of its citizens. Australian religious society view social inequality as a result of the government policy of economic individualism (Froese and Bader 2008, pp.712). In contrast, Australian leaders who strongly believe in God advocate for policies that lean toward economic individualism. One of the most distinct relationships between religion and worldview is that of morality in a society. Morality moderates behaviour in any society including the Australian society. Political leadership demands that individual have high moral integrity and be ready to overlook their own interest for the benefit of the people they represent. This follows then that there has to be scale for moral integrity in politics, in Australia there exist a secular based scale for moral integrity. However, such a scale in a largely Christian country like Australia would not work if it was not influenced by the religious belief of the majority. Sexual conduct is one of the factors that are used to determine whether Australian politicians are of high moral integrity. Australia is a monogamous society and promiscuous behaviour is frowned at especially among elected officials and sexual misconduct can cause a politician to fall from grace. The concept of monogamy is borrowed from Christian and other religious doctrines and thus may limit members of other faiths who want to participate in Australian politics. The Christian lobby which purports to represent the interest of Christians in Australian policy making vehemently opposes same-sex marriages and lobbies Australia to stick to the Traditional marriage (Shanahan 2012). The role of religion in violence and gender issues Christianity has been influenced by violence and gender issues where this has further gone to affect the political environment in the Australian government. This goes without saying that if violence is stopped and there is gender equality in the country, there is much development that will be experienced. Most of the people in Australia grow up with the assumption of gender roles as a natural way of behaving. Several examples of how gender roles are stereotyped include is how babies are colour coded where girls are assumed to wear pink and boys wear blue. Messages of gender roles are seen in the media, magazines and in other social sites and it has a history of affecting religions and political activities. In Christianity, gender roles are seen to hinder human rights where women are only seen as housewives and this makes them to be politically undeveloped (Nuttall 1972, pp.35). By putting gender roles, it is seen that it is only men who can do political things in the right manner shutting down any woman who would want to participate in politics. If gender roles are present in relationships, it will be true if we hear that most cases of violence are associated by men being the perpetuators and women being the victims while this cannot be the actual truth. It all depends on how individuals cooperate with each other that way gender roles can be eliminated (Nuttall 1972, pp.39). The promotion of gender equality in the Christian religion has been a painful process over the past years but though it has been done in a dynamic way, there has been great development. Traditionally men are given the forefront in having authority in marriage which places women to be submissive and denies women from having a position in church leadership and other forms of set ups. In today’s churches clergies and deacons are appointed to be men making a situation where there is female submission and male authority (May 2004, pp.67). With this, the developing Christian religion is providing positions for women in marriage and the ministry not forgetting in the political arenas to be involved in any decision made and with doing this it will ensure Christian feminist view will be eradicated and gender equality will be practiced. Despite all these, the Christian religion has regarded women with dignity and respect because they are filling prominent roles in the church and are now becoming politically active (May 2004, pp.70). Violence goes hand in hand with gender as where there is gender inequality among individuals; violence is easy to crop up. This is also attributed to the violence experienced in political situation where a woman’s opinion is not supported by many (Thompson 1994, pp.62). Christian churches are taking this issue seriously as they are taking into account that violence is based on gender where masculinity is also involved. Though the violence problem cannot be solved alone, there is the need for respect for women that widely needs to be promoted. In doing this the man will be encouraged to stop gender violence among women and embrace gender equality. Conclusion It is evident that in Australia, the separation of the Church and the State is not well defined like in the United States of America or Britain. It is true that religion plays an important role in the governance of a country; therefore, the principle of neutrality should be upheld in Australia. The Australian government should not appear to be favouring Christians since all citizens are equal before the constitution irrespective of race or religion. Moreover, Section 116 of the commonwealth constitution states that “The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion or for imposing any religious observance” (Emerson, Mirola & Monahan 2011, pp.49). References Emerson, M., Mirola, W. & Monahan, S., 2011, Religion Matters: What Sociology teaches us about Religion in Our world. Boston: Allyn & Bacon Frame, T., 2006. Church and State: Australia's Imaginary Wall. University of New South Wales Press Froese, P. & Bader, C. 2008, Unraveling Religious Worldviews: The Relationship between Images of God and Political Ideology in a Cross-Cultural Analysis, the Sociological Quarterly, vol. 49, pp. 689–718. Herft, R. 2010, Look at politician's ethics, not just faith: Anglican archbishop, viewed 2 August 2012,http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=22633 May, D., 2004, Transcendence and Violence: The Encounter of Buddhist, Christian, and Primal Traditions. United Kingdom: The Athlone Press. Nuttall, G.F., 1972. Christianity and Violence. Royston: Priory Press Ltd; Possamai, A., 2009, Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y. London: Equinox Publishing Rodney, S. & Finke, R. 2000, Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion, University of California Press, Berkeley. Rodney, S. 2001, Gods, Rituals, and the Moral Order, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol 40, issue 4, pp.619–36. Shanahan, D. 2012, Christian lobby backs Coalition on traditional marriage The Australian [online], January 31, viewed 2 August 2012, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/christian-lobby-backs-coalition-on-traditional-marriage/story-fn59niix-1226257740895 Thompson, R., 2002. Religion in Australia: A History. Oxford University Press Thompson, R.C., 1994. Religion in Australia: A History (Australian Retrospectives).Australia: OUP Australia. Read More