God
under Howard: The rise of the Religious Right in Australia
Reviewed by Muriel
Porter, February 26, 2005
By Marion Maddox Allen & Unwin, A$29.95
Australia journalists are, in general, notoriously ignorant
about religion. Academic surveys regularly reveal that they
are far less likely to attend church, for instance, than their
neighbours. So it is not surprising that they tend to dismiss
religion as at best peripheral and at worst, trivial.
Marion Maddox's powerful analysis of the insidious growth of
the religious Right in Australian politics demonstrates the
danger of this ignorance. For all the acres of newsprint devoted
to political commentary in this country, the influence of fundamentalist
varieties of Christianity within the Howard Government over
a period of years now has gone virtually unreported.
The election of a Family First Party senator last year seemed
to many commentators to herald the birth of a new phenomenon,
given the party's links to the conservative Pentecostal Assemblies
of God. But as Maddox shows in this carefully researched and
cogently argued study, the religious Right did not need a in
or party to give it a (small) voice in Parliament. It has been
steadily gaining influence at the heart of the Howard Government
for years. And its influence is certainly neither peripheral
nor trivial. Rather, it comes perilously close to endangering
many of the personal freedoms most Australians take for granted.
Ironically, under its influence, the Government has routinely
ignored the mainstream churches' concerns, especially in relation
to refugees, asylum seekers and the war in Iraq.
God Under Howard is a troubling expose of the unheralded, unholy
marriage between religious fundamentalism and political expediency
that has taken place in Canberra, a marriage that has justified
and accelerated increased government intrusion in the lives
of individuals while accelerating the pace of economic deregulation.
Maddox identifies the Government's reinforcement of 1950s-style
"family values" as a policy clearly acceptable to
some conventional church leaders and congregations, as well
as to the Pentecostal megachurches. At the same time, however,
and less overtly, "Howardism" has adopted the "prosperity
gospel" preached by American religious Right protagonists,
who ally wealth creation with God's favour, she claims. This
is in direct opposition to mainstream church teaching, but legitimises
the capitalist "Market God", whose acolytes worship
competition as the supreme virtue at every level in the economic
arena.
These developments are not all sheeted home solely to John
Howard, though the title of the book and its clever cover graphic
portraying John and Janette Howard as dour Amish-style Americans
could easily give that impression. Maddox's detailed introductory
exploration of Howard's Methodist church-going childhood could
also be rather misleading in this respect.
As the book unfolds, however, it becomes clear that Howard's
Sunday school days seem to have had as little long-term influence
on his life as they did on most of his contemporaries. As Maddox
demonstrates, the Methodism of his youth hardly conformed to
the conservative stereotype and had little in common with the
religious Right.
The Methodist Church was consistently radical at the time,
promoting Aboriginal rights, an end to the White Australia policy
and a generous gospel of social inclusion and care for the marginalised.
Significantly, Howard's family is portrayed as resistant to
these views, despite their regular church attendance.
The American "apple pie and motherhood" publication,
the Saturday Evening Post, with its wholesome depictions of
impossibly perfect family life, seems to have been more significant
than any Methodist publication, and even perhaps the Bible,
in the Howard home.
By contrast with American political leaders, as Maddox points
out, Howard's personal religious identification is low key.
He admits to little more than occasional church-going, these
days as an Anglican.
That, she suggests, fits well with a sophisticated political
strategy in tune with secular Australia's distrust of overt
religiosity. The political message, even with its appeal to
"family values" and clever manipulation of wedge issues
such as gay marriage, is carefully couched in terms acceptable
to secular Australia. The religious motif is there, however,
for those attuned to its markers.
Behind Howard, Maddox identifies phalanxes of more overt right-wing
Christian politicians, using a range of think-tanks, forums
and parliamentary prayer breakfasts - sometimes closely linked
to American prototypes - to push their agendas on abortion,
euthanasia, stem-cell research, homosexuality, single mothers
and wealth creation.
The undeniable resurgence of right-wing thought internationally
has produced an environment that not only suits Howard's personality,
but also his political ambitions, she argues.
If Maddox's case is accepted - and the detail of her research
suggests it is a compelling case - the overall impression is
that religious values are not at the heart of current political
strategies at all. Rather, a deep and dark cynicism is the central
force, manipulating the religious Right as a powerful and convenient
tool to persuade an insecure electorate.
It is a dangerous game, and one Australians need to be alerted
to. Maddox's book deserves the widest readership - particularly
among political commentators.
Dr Muriel Porter is an Anglican laywoman and commentator on
religion.
