Catholics are not the only religious group concerned at the government’s failures and fiascos. Alan Austin reports.
THE LIST OF THE ABBOTT REGIME’S SINS, which Christian churches across Australia are denouncing in chorus, is growing steadily.
Last month, IA listed
several transgressions which have dismayed Roman Catholics. These
include bioethical issues, persistent blatant lying, dudding Indigenous
people, cutting overseas aid, abusing vulnerable people, militarism,
spying and redistributing wealth and income in favour of the rich.
Since then, further wrongs have provoked the outrage of Catholics and Protestants alike.
What seems most offensive, however, is that those committing such
clear violations of fundamental Christian teaching actually profess
strong personal belief.
Such hypocrisy, according to all strands within Christendom, deserves special condemnation.
Several religious groups have sheeted home blame for this week’s loss of life on Manus Island to Abbott’s regime.
Uniting Church Australia president Professor Andrew Dutney, in a media release, said:
“The Church is deeply concerned about the death of one asylum
seeker and the injury of so many others. Sadly this tragedy was both
predictable and preventable. The Australian Government has placed
vulnerable people in a situation where their basic needs are not being
met.
“These individuals have fled violence and horror in theirFormer diplomat Tony Kevin, in the Jesuit journal Eureka Street, said the Government is prepared to break any rule or relationship to ‘stop the boats’:
homelands – and have now been exposed to it yet again as a direct result
of Australian Government policies.”
‘The Coalition's message is brutal and clear: we will stop theThe Coalition has thumbed its nose at international law according to Elenie Poulos, the national director of UnitingJustice Australia, speaking in a press release:
boats. To do this we will break international maritime and refugee laws,
jeopardise Australia's relations with Indonesia, and stand at arm's
length and watch as major avoidable violence and human rights abuses
take place in PNG. Because all this bad stuff reinforces the deterrent
message we are utterly determined to keep sending.’
“The warehousing of asylum seekers in inadequate facilities inWhere’s the humanity, asks Anglican writer Rebekah Lee:
these offshore centres is entirely unacceptable. It is a breach of our
obligations under international law and diminishes us as a nation.”
‘All humanity shares the honour of being made in God’s image.Earlier this month, the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce told a parliamentary joint committee on human rights that the government's proposed changes to immigration laws were unacceptable.
We’re therefore indelibly marked as precious … This must shape our
treatment of asylum seekers.’
Chair of the taskforce – which represents 16 denominations – Anglican dean of Brisbane Peter Catt claimed the amendments would give Immigration Minister Scott Morrison too much power:
“This proposed situation, in which the minister may be requiredThe churches are not just appalled at the disastrous outcomes in
to 'play God', is relatively unique or rare amongst ministerial
portfolios and decisions. If the minister gets it wrong the consequences
could be dire for the individual.”
death and injury, but at the blatant hypocrisy — a particularly grievous
Judeo-Christian sin.
Scott Morrison’s maiden parliamentary speech, in 2008, is jolting:
“From my [biblical] faith I derive the values of loving kindness,
justice and righteousness, to act with compassion and kindness,
acknowledging our common humanity and to consider the welfare of others;
to fight for a fair go for everyone to fulfil their human potential and
to remove whatever unjust obstacles stand in their way.”
In 2012, Treasurer Joe Hockey, a professing Roman Catholic
and son of a refugee, got so worked up over the case of a 13-year-old
unaccompanied child, he allowed himself to openly weep in Parliament:
“But I will say one thing deliberately to this parliament. I willNow in power, Morrison has made it explicit that the policy of the
never ever support a people swap where you can send a 13-year-old child
unaccompanied to a country without supervision — never! It will be over
my dead body. How dare people!”
Government of which Hockey is a living, breathing part is now precisely that — to send children, including those with no family, into incarceration on the Manus Island or Nauru offshore detention hellholes.
Search for some compassion as Morrison explains his policy in a November 2013 Operation Sovereign Borders Joint Agency Task Force press conference:
“… it doesn’t matter whether you’re a child, it doesn’t matterIt’s enough to make one weep — but not Joe Hockey; not now.
whether you’re pregnant, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a woman, it
doesn’t matter whether you’re an unaccompanied minor, it doesn’t matter
if you have a health condition, if you’re fit enough to get on a boat
then you can expect you’re fit enough to end up in offshore processing.”
Ten unaccompanied children were sent to Nauru on Monday.
Rev’d Dr Rod Benson is a Baptist ethicist and public theologian.
He told Independent Australia:
“Political leaders who publicly profess to be Christian, and toQuestions for the professing Christian Hockey are these: Was the
love God and follow Jesus, but who are drawn into compromise through
identification with policies or actions involving evil or injustice
should be called to account, and if necessary publicly rebuked by
reputable Christian leaders for their lack of love and failure to follow
the way of Jesus.
“Christian ethics unashamedly declares that Jesus is Lord and
there is no reasonable excuse for the exercise of duplicity by political
leaders who identify as Christian.”
choking voice in parliament in 2012 pure theatrics? Or has the power of
high office corrupted what were once genuinely-held principles? Will you
renounce your faith, or resign?
Abbott himself was nauseatingly hypocritical in his ‘Closing the gap’ statement in parliament last week, claiming:
“We are a great country — I firmly believe theThis was uttered even as government agents were preparing to inform
best on Earth …. There is no country on Earth where people are made more
welcome. There is no country on Earth whose people have more innate
generosity to others.”
refugees imprisoned on remote islands, having fled persecution in Africa
or the Middle East, that there would never be a place for them in
Abbott’s Australia.
Tragically, the plight of refugees is not the only matter to have
united churches in opposition to the Abbott regime’s harm and
hypocrisies.
Racial profiling has been highlighted by some church spokespersons as Abbott’s team subtly fuels racist sentiment.
The government signalled in December it would weaken further the
already anaemic sanctions against racial vilification. This prompted a
concerted ecumenical effort which has continued since. An open letter was sent to Attorney-General George Brandis signed by 155 community and faith groups.
These included Catholics, Quakers, Anglicans, all the Uniting Church synods and assemblies and the Jewish B'nai B'rith organisation.
Urging the government to retain current laws, they wrote:
‘Racial hatred causes serious harm to individuals and diminishesOther issues dismaying religious groups include proposed cuts to social services, complicity with corruption in international finance, whistleblowers, gambling laws and the C20 summit of community organisations integrated with November’s G20 economic summit in Brisbane.
us all as a community. It increases the likelihood of racial
discrimination and racist violence … Any changes to the laws should only
be undertaken with extreme caution and involve a comprehensive public
consultation process.’
Each week, Gosford Anglican church added to the list, as social media users are well aware (see below).
Ethicist Dr Rod Benson again:
“Christians have a responsibility for articulating courageousTony Abbott once said:
prophetic voices in the face of evil, injustice and violence. Failure to
speak truth to power when the opportunity arises is an abrogation of
our citizenship of both the kingdom of God and the socio-political
spheres in which we live from day to day.”
“Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it’s not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia.”Perhaps not.
But increasingly, however, followers of Jesus in Australia are of the
view that it’s not necessarily Tony Abbott’s place to be prime
minister.
