Capturing the Religious Spirit: A Challenge for the Secular State

Climate Change, Politics and Religion: Australian Churchgoers’ Beliefs about Climate Change

“…However, in an Australian context, it appears to be Pentecostalism in particular where skepticism about the causes of climate change is prevalent. This finding mirrors the connections between Pentecostalism and the Christian Right and the ways in which the latter has aligned with conservative political agendas (e.g., [40])-although the distinctiveness of Pentecostalism (and of the smallest Protestant denominations and independent churches) with regard to their climate change beliefs remained even when several measures of political conservatism were taken into account in the analyses. The results also mirror a distinct lack of engagement from the Pentecostal churches, and the parachurch organisations with which they are associated, on climate change and environmental concerns more generally.…”

“…The rise of this movement over the last few decades-which is linked to the growth of Pentecostalism, has connections with the Christian Right in the United States and is typified by parachurch organizations such as the Australian Christian Lobby-has elicited considerable comment among Australian political scientists, although the extent of its influence in electoral and non-electoral politics is debated [6,8,[38][39][40]. The Christian Right has tended to engage on a narrow platform of issues concerning same-sex marriage, abortion, and the rights of religious organizations to discriminate in their employment practices [38,40,41]; engagement on environmental matters appears to have been very limited. However, it is worth noting that there are connections between the Christian Right and mining interests and think tanks [38,40], the likes of which have themselves pushed against action to address climate change [42].…”

“…The Christian Right has tended to engage on a narrow platform of issues concerning same-sex marriage, abortion, and the rights of religious organizations to discriminate in their employment practices [38,40,41]; engagement on environmental matters appears to have been very limited. However, it is worth noting that there are connections between the Christian Right and mining interests and think tanks [38,40], the likes of which have themselves pushed against action to address climate change [42]. Likewise, the alignment of the Christian Right with conservative political parties is relevant to climate change in a context where progressive and conservative parties inhabit such polarized policy positions on climate change.…”

Religion in Coalition: Balancing Moderate and Progressive Politics in the Sydney Alliance

“…However, where some literature on religious resurgence and revival conflates 'serious religiosity with fundamentalism' (Thomas 2007, p. 22), the case of the Sydney Alliance demonstrates that characterising religious engagement in politics as necessarily conservative or hegemonic is overly simplistic. In the context of a polity in which Christian influence on politics is well established (Maddox 2005;Smith and Marden 2013;Crabb 2009), and given the prevalence of conservative Christian voices in recent debates on same-sex marriage and religious freedom in Australia, the very visible religious presence in the Sydney Alliance is by no-means uncontroversial. In Australia, both conservative and progressive politicians and political groups draw on religious language and narratives in debates over a wide range of issues (Lake 2018), creating a 'political minefield' (Wood 2002, p. 149) the Sydney Alliance must negotiate.…”

“…The first examines the relationship of Christian groups to (usually conservative) political parties, analysing the influence of Christianity on voting patterns, political parties, and politicians. Marion Maddox (2005) book God Under Howard documented the influence of conservative Christianity on Australia's Liberal Party, arguing the Australian Prime Minister John Howard (1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007) adopted a US-style strategy of campaigning on polarising, socially conservative issues to shore up his political power (see also Smith and Marden 2013). Studies suggest that the changing nature of religious affiliation in Australia has favoured the conservative Liberal-National coalition (Bean 1999;Warhurst 2007) and that despite falling religious affiliation across most major Christian denominations in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2018), the use of Christian language by Australian politicians in speeches to Parliament has increased (Crabb 2009).…”