Given Morrison has placed his faith front and centre of his public persona, it is helpful to try to understand how he perceives his faith and how it might intersect with his job as prime minister.

For me, Morrison's recent comments about faith and prayer reveal a pattern of human passivity, dependence on divine intervention, and potential abnegation of power.

For example, in his 60 Minutes interview, Morrison's response to a question about his empathy was:

I've worn out the carpet on the side of my bed […] on my knees, praying and praying […] praying for those who are losing loved ones, praying for those who couldn't go to family funerals, praying for those who are exhausted […]

To be fair to Morrison, it would be odd for a person of any faith not to include prayer as part of their expression of concern for those who suffer or struggle. Such an approach has a long tradition. But we might expect more than just prayer from a devout Christian who also happens to be the prime minister.

In this response, he appears to prioritise prayer over action, which is astonishing given the power he holds due to his position. In the Christian tradition, prayer informs and even motivates action; it does not replace it. Such a response is also, of course, a way of signalling his piety to certain constituents.

It is not an isolated example. Take, for instance, his address to the Australian Christian Churches National Conference in 2021, where he told the crowd:

I can't fix the world, I can't save the world, but we both believe in someone who can.

That someone, of course, is God.

On the one hand, it shows admirable humility to acknowledge that even the prime minister cannot "fix the world". But in alluding to the "someone who can", Morrison appears to be giving over his agency and responsibility to God. Leave it up to God to act.

More recently, in a speech commemorating 14 years since the Rudd government's "sorry" to Indigenous peoples, Morrison shifted the focus to forgiveness, which sparked fury.

Morrison shifting the focus to ‘forgiveness' in a speech commemorating the apology to the Stolen Generations sparked fury this week.

Morrison explicitly stated that forgiveness was an individual, not a "corporate" matter, expressing a hope for the kind of healing that came through forgiveness.

His desire to move from apology to individual forgiveness is entirely consistent with his stated spirituality which emphasises individual and personal faith.

But it is also theologically thin.

Trawloolway man and theologian Garry Deverell was quick to point out the prime minister had missed a step.

In the Christian tradition, no apology can insist on forgiveness, and seeking forgiveness for harm done requires repentance, acts of restitution, and attempts to address injustice.

The spiritual cannot be divorced from the physical, tangible, social, and political dimensions of life.

While acknowledging, rightly, that forgiveness is hard and cannot be earned, Morrison had put the onus on those wounded by systemic justice to do the work of forgiveness, rather than on those with power to do the work of restitution.

Prayer and action go hand in hand

There's a classic story that does the rounds in Christian circles of a guy who gets trapped when his town floods. In a desperate attempt to avoid the rising floodwaters he climbs onto his roof and prays to God to save him.

Soon a rescue crew in a boat come past and invite him into their boat, but he refuses. "God will save me," he says.

Later a helicopter flies by and a man descends on a rope. He is offered a way off the roof by the rescue crew, but again he refuses. "God will save me."

Eventually the man dies and goes to heaven, but he is confused. "Why didn't you save me God?" he asks. "I've been a faithful Christian my whole life."

And God replies: "What do you mean I didn't save you? I sent a boat and a helicopter. You refused them both."

Such parabolic stories demonstrate a Christian theological belief that God works through and with human activity, not despite it. It points to the need to integrate belief, prayer and action.

Theology - how we think and talk about God - matters precisely because of its implications for human activity.

I have no reason to doubt that when Morrison talks about his faith he is sincere, and when he expresses his care for people primarily through prayer he is behaving in a normal way for his faith community. Yet this kind of passivity and trust in divine intervention is not the only or even the fullest expression of Christian faith.

Faith and power should integrate, not separate

The danger of emphasising personal prayer as the primary expression of Christian care is that social responsibility can be abdicated.

Pray and leave it up to God can be a cop-out, particularly for those with power.

It can be a way to ignore systemic injustice by reducing faith to something personal and private.

As Brittany Higgins put it so eloquently in her recent National Press Club address: "I didn't want his sympathy as a father, I wanted him to use his power as prime minister."

Theologians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer offer an alternative expression of Christian faith.

Bonhoeffer lived and wrote during the early 20th-century rise of Nazism in Germany.

In his well-known book The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer writes about "cheap grace", which is the kind of faith that wants forgiveness without actual repentance, and justice or peace without personal cost.

Cheap grace wants the inner spiritual resolution without the outward costly work.

For Bonhoeffer, that outward work included vocal criticism of the Nazi regime and of Christians who were silent bystanders.

Bonhoeffer saw the way of Jesus was one that demanded practical help for victims of injustice and, where necessary, resistance to government.

Arrested for conspiring to rescue Jews, Bonhoeffer was imprisoned before being executed at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in 1945.

Not every Christian needs to become a martyr, but as Garry Deverell writes:

The Christian is called not to separate but to integrate their faith and their public presence, work or office.

This broader view of faith is seen in the call of Tim Costello for the prime minister to act on his faith when it comes to climate change, or in the urging of church leaders for more compassionate action for refugees based on Christian values.

After all, Jesus teaches that whatever one does for the least among us (defined as those who are hungry, poor or imprisoned) one does for Jesus.

Morrison is not the first prime minister to be a person of deep faith, nor will he be the last.

That is not the issue.

All politicians are informed by their value systems and beliefs, regardless of the religious or non-religious traditions that shape them.

Neither am I criticising Morrison for speaking out about his faith.

I am, however, critical of the highly individualistic, spiritualised version of faith Morrison espouses, which allows him to shirk personal responsibility and action when convenient.

There are millions of faithful Christians in this country who also wear out the carpet in prayer every week.

The difference is they do not hold the highest office in the land, nor have Morrison's power to enact change.

• Robyn J. Whitaker Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

The Australian Christian Lobby and Christian school groups threatened to withdraw their support for the bill if an amended Sex Discrimination Act removed exemptions for religious institutions protecting the "teaching and daily operation of faith-based schools".

Mr Morrison on Wednesday agreed to a proposal put forward by four moderate Liberal MPs to fast-track Sex Discrimination Act amendments and ensure gay students could not be expelled, suspended or discriminated against based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

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Instead, Morrison insisted, people of faith must be defended from those who seek to marginalise and silence them.

After tabling the government's religious discrimination bill in parliament on Thursday, Morrison said faith groups and individuals should be shielded from the "prevalence of cancel culture in Australian life".

"It's true, it's there, it's real," Mr Morrison said.

"Australians shouldn't have to worry about looking over their shoulder, fearful of offending an anonymous person on Twitter, cowardly sitting there abusing and harassing them for their faith, or transgressing against political or social zeitgeists.

"We have to veer away from the artificial, phoney conflicts, boycotts, controversies and cancelling created by anonymous and cowardly bots, bigots and bullies."

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus said Labor would "carefully review the bill" and speak with religious bodies, civil society and community organisations, LGBTIQ groups and legal experts.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has welcomed the introduction of the Religious Discrimination Bill. They say it will provide basic human rights protections for Australians of all faiths to express their beliefs.

Archbishop Peter A Comensoli, chair of the Bishops Commission for Life, Family and Public Engagement, has commended the bill. He said it offers "a positive expression of religious freedom" that will be "an important progression towards parity with other anti-discrimination laws in Australia."

"All Australian citizens, regardless of their religious belief or activity, should be able to participate fully in our society. They must be entitled to the equal and effective protection of the law. They should not be discriminated against based on their religious belief or activities in public life."

Trade unions on Thursday opposed the religious discrimination bill, with the ACTU warning the new laws would "undermine the mental health and safety of Australian workers."

ACTU president Michele O'Neil said the proposed religious protections would hand "exemptions to religious employers to discriminate against workers on religious grounds."

Sources

The Australian

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

Morrison's religious discrimination bill, a 2019 election pledge, will shield Australians from prosecution if they express reasonable and genuinely held faith-based views despite offending others.

Senior government sources said the revised bill removed some of the more controversial or "extreme" measures in earlier drafts and offered a "sensible compromise".

The government has removed the ‘Folau clause' but retained exemptions guaranteeing that professional bodies cannot dismiss people based on religious beliefs. The clause refers to rugby union player Israel Folau who was stripped of his contract in 2019 after posting "hell awaits" gay people on social media.

It is understood faith-based groups have adopted a pragmatic approach to the bill, realising that outcomes gained from the proposed laws would offer more protections than they currently have.

Catholic Bishops Conference spokesman Peter Comensoli, the Archbishop of Melbourne, said a religious discrimination bill was "an important progression towards parity with other anti-discrimination protections".

However, doctors have called for a halt to draft federal laws to enshrine religious freedom out of concern the changes would curb access to health services for women. They believe it will also compound discrimination against gay and lesbian Australians.

"It's unnecessary to introduce ‘religious freedom' laws when these rights are already protected under Australian law," said Dr Karen Price, president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

"Furthermore, we remain concerned about the potential impact of the bill on the delivery and access to some women's health services, and vulnerable groups' access to suitable healthcare or particular health services.

"The proposed law could compound negative community attitudes toward those most vulnerable, including minority groups and the LGBTQI+ community.

"Given Australia is already in the grips of a mental health crisis, we must do everything in our power to prevent this."

The religious discrimination bill will be debated by the lower house next week. It will then be sent to the Senate, where it is expected to be referred to a committee process.

Sources

• The Australian
• The Sydney Morning Herald
• Sky News Australia

They did not do that to make Morrison look good. Rather, they hoped it would make the PM look, um, weird because of his faith - or at least out of the Australian mainstream. Read more

The mother became concerned when Folau started inviting fellow players to the Truth of Jesus Christ Church in Sydney's north-west. The church was set up by Folau's father Eni in 2013.

The mother says she decided to attend the church herself and claims what she saw "disturbed her greatly."

"I honestly do not want my son involved in what I have come to understand is false teachings and counterfeit Christianity," she says.

"I've gone, I've checked it out and I would call them an isolated hate group."

Folau's cousin Josiah, who attends the same church, says the Catholic Church is "false and filled with lies.

"Any devout Catholic person is not a saved Christian ... Look at Catholic doctrine, almost 100% of it is false and is filled with lies," Josiah wrote to the concerned mother.

"The blasphemous Catholic mass is a paganistic ritual rooted in heresy, evil and devil worship.

"The Catholic Church is a synagogue of Satan and I one-hundred-per-cent believe and affirm that Roman Catholicism is masked devil worship," he added.

The Folau's church teaches the baptisms of most other mainstream Christian churches who believe in the Trinity are also false, the mother says.

The church also preaches against women deaconesses or preachers, and that homosexuality is a sin "worthy of death".

Folau believes any Christian who wasn't "born again" would go to hell and that anyone who wasn't baptised in the way of the Folaus is heading for hell.

Folau was recently sacked by the Wallabies after he made a controversial social media post in April saying homosexuals, fornicators, drunks, atheists and others were going to hell.

His views prove his congregation has deviated far from mainstream Christianity, Christian ministers say.

One describes Folau's church as a "sect".

According to the teachings of Folau's church, most Christians are bound for hell, including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who belongs to the Australian megachurch Hillsong.

Also headed for hell are most of the donors who gave money to his legal defence fund which was organised by the Australian Christian Lobby.

Folau is battling with Rugby Australia for up to $10 million in damages, claiming he was unfairly sacked on religious grounds.

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) paused donations for Folau's legal fund after it topped $2.2 million.

ACL managing director Martyn Iles says he has never heard Folau say "anything which contradicts mainstream Christian belief."

Source

• Yahoo Sport
• FoxSports
• Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: Newshub