Conservatives, Religion & Politics

I’m sorry God, but I don’t believe you’re approving of the Conservatives’ values in Australia. I understand a conservative person to be someone who holds traditional values and, politically, often those considered to be right of centre. Typically, conservatives are averse to change and are skeptical to innovation, thus always looking to maintain the status quo.

I have found the traditional values upheld by modern outspoken conservatives to be more closely related to piety rather than assisting any true social cohesion or sense of community by legitimate compassionate persuasion. I’m not sure religion and politics can be kept entirely separate as both form our lifestyles at a basic level and the rise of Christian Conservatism cannot be ignored.

Australia’s conservative political parties are the Liberal Party and, by coalition agreement, the National Party. Prominent Australian conservatives are people such as PM Scott Morrison, former PM Tony Abbott, Cory Bernardi MP, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies, and Lyle Shelton of Australian Christian Lobby. These people hold staunch and unflinching views on many issues ranging from climate change to family values to the management of the economy. While not all conservatives make a show of any religious conviction, in my opinion, the main undercurrent of a conservative policy view is religious piety. Scott Morrison has overwhelmingly intertwined religion with politics and it cannot be disregarded when policies like the religious discrimination bill are on the horizon.

Many Christian people with whom I interact hold to traditional conservative viewpoints and this carries over into their vote for a conservative party. It is this conservative mindset that confuses me as it is so distant from Christianity, which they use to defend their traditional values. Conservatism is not synonymous with the teachings of Jesus Christ who was clearly depicted in the Bible as a revolutionary who rebelled from the pious teaching in his time. Yet many Australian Christians vote for a conservative party that has policies contrary to the teachings of Jesus (after whom I thought Christianity was named!). Let’s unpack a couple of policies from our conservative government and see how they work with Biblical teachings (I’ll concede I’m not as familiar with other religions).

The Liberal government frequently claim governing is largely about economics. I’m not going to get into who is the better economic managers in government; I’ll leave that to economic commentators such as Saul Eslake. The Liberal party is given its name because of its propensity for neo-liberalism, which is the accumulation of wealth for the individual via a free-market capitalist economy. Strange that individual wealth accumulation is the policy of the traditional conservative viewpoint when bible verses such as Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have;…” My concern is that many Christian voters prioritise financial management above all else. I have heard it said to me time and again. I would have thought this was contrary to the well-known verse, “For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs” [1 Timothy 6:10]. Apparently Jesus said, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” [Matthew 19:21] and the following sentence, “When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.”  It certainly doesn’t sound like Jesus was encouraging anyone to accumulate great wealth for themselves and ensure the economy runs smoothly without fully funding the less fortunate.

Global warming or climate change also appears to be a stumbling block for conservative policy makers and their voters. Genesis, the first book of the bible, describes gods supposedly creating humans in “…our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and…” pretty much everything else on earth. I would have considered this sovereignty required enormous responsibility and constant diligence rather than unchecked mining and pollution. When science has taught us so much about the fragility and delicate balance of life and ecosystems, human dominion must be even more contemplative to achieve the instructions issued by gods. Ignoring scientific knowledge highlighting humanity’s effect on our planet is rather incongruent with a deity’s biblical allocation of authority to those humans. I’d be surprised if any Christian in the Western world had the audacity to stand before their god on judgement day and claim they’d done a good maintenance job on the planet. Climate science has been framed as a “religion” which intentionally makes it easy for conservatives to dismiss the science as fanatical and false; dismissed due to their already existing theology. Climate change, however, is not a belief system; scientific data and analyses exist whether you believe in it or not. US Christian climate scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, uses her science knowledge and faith to say, “We know that the earth’s climate is changing thanks to observations, facts and data about God’s creation that we can see with our eyes and test with the sound minds that God has given us. And still more fundamentally, I went on to explain why it matters: because real people are being affected today; and we believe that God’s love has been poured in our hearts to share with our brothers and sisters here and around the world who are suffering.” Climate change is going to largely affect the poor and needy first; the very people the bible instructs to protect.

As the term suggests, asylum seekers are people looking for safety and refuge away from the dangers from which they’re escaping. The conservative government has labelled asylum seekers as “illegals” under former Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock. This label is deliberately false and misleading: it is definitely not illegal to seek asylum. Many asylum seekers have been placed in indefinite detention and there are many records of the deaths, suicides, mental and physical injuries and ongoing maltreatment. These reports are indisputable and well documented by human rights agencies. Ezekial 16:49 reads, “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.” Seems pretty clear that God valued facilitating the wellbeing of those less fortunate than ourselves. “Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.” [Malachi 3:5]. I would contend that our current conservative government has very much “thrust aside the sojourner” by placing them on Nauru, Manus Island, and Christmas Islands for extended periods of time. There doesn’t appear to be a fear of God’s reprisal from our evangelical christian prime minister. Leviticus 19 instructs kindness to refugees in acknowledgement of when the chosen people were exiled from Egypt, “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them”. Indefinite detention of foreign asylum seekers is yet another conservative political policy that is a far cry from traditional biblical values.

Conservative policies are currently neo-liberalist in nature: wealth accumulation and constant economic growth. Conversely, Jesus and the Bible is all about giving up your wealth to look after the poor and needy as well as loving your neighbor as yourself. That seems to be the very basis of the Christian ethos, remembering that whatever you do to one person you also do to Jesus. So, what exactly are these traditional values that the conservatives are constantly trying to preserve? If their conservative values don’t readily align with the basis of a longstanding religious ethos, then they’re hardly traditional and seemingly anti-progressive for no particular reason other than piety. I am genuinely intrigued as to what tradition the conservatives, themselves, think they’re actually preserving.