A common theme amongst religious Right groups in Australia is that the secular society that exists in Australia today is filled with evil and that society must change so that it more closely resembles a Bible-based worldview, whatever that may mean.

Now religious extremists are never shy when it comes to self-righteousness and moral superiority, but do their assertions stand up to scrutiny? The dreadful decline in American politics and society since it lurched to the right in recent years has given many writers cause to question the merits of faith-based politics, or indeed of a society built on so-called Christian faith.

Last year, paleontologist Gregory S. Paul published an analysis entitled Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies in the Journal of Religion and Society.

His findings showed:

… Christian and anti-evolution America performs poorly in terms of rates of homicide, juvenile and adult mortality, STD infections, abortion and teen pregnancy and birth. … America is the only First World nation to retain Second and Third World rates of religious belief and practice and is the only First World nation to retain Second and Third World rates of societal dysfunction.

Paul’s work was discussed in a recent article in The Australian by Phillip Adams entitled Religious basket case. In Adams’ words:

Paul was surprised to find that “no highly religious nation enjoys high levels of social health”. In contrast, “the more secular democracies all enjoy good social conditions never seen before in human history”.

Meanwhile, US evangelist Jim Wallis, in Australia recently to promote his book God’s Politics: Why the American Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, claims that rightwingers have hijacked Christianity. In an article in the Age entitled Losing their religion, Wallis says:

… issues such as the environment, war, truth-telling, human rights and poverty are virtually ignored by the religious Right in America, and they are focussed on the narrow moral issues of abortion and gay rights.

Wallis also passionately reminds his readers that the term “Christian” is not synonymous with “right-wing Christian fundamentalist”. Now I don’t agree with everything Wallis has to say, but his views on the religious Right reflect the core concerns of the unBelief website. Not surprisingly, Wallis is gaining a strong following amongst American Christians who are fed up with the way that the religious Right has hijacked and distorted the Christian message to create a “religion without a soul”. As he tells it,

One kid at an airport shook my hand and said, ‘You’re the only Christian I see and don’t throw up afterwards’.

Wallis has joined with Tim Costello to echo similar sentiments in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Humanity the loser in rigid models of rule and religion.

Bill McKibben, a US Christian writer, says in a recent article The Christian paradox:

America is the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behaviour. That paradox illuminates the hollow core of our boastful, careening culture.

… One day it occurred to me that the parts of the world where people actually had reduced their carbon emissions, lived voluntarily in smaller houses and used public transport, were the same countries where people were helping the poor and making sure everyone had health care - countries such as Norway and Sweden, where religion was relatively unimportant.

The negative influence of the religious Right is not confined to America. Here is Australia, the rich mega-churches preach the so-called “prosperity gospel” and right-wing groups proclaim “Biblical family values”, which is code for shrill opposition to abortion and gay rights. One has to ask whether this is nothing more than an excuse to cloak prejudice and bigotry in comfortable middle-class religion.

However, Australia is a much more secular society than the USA. Our country is not perfect, but it was built on the concepts of tolerance of other cultures, faiths and lifestyles, and a “fair go” for all. Consequently, we have not seen here the societal dysfunction that Christian America exhibits. Let’s ensure that it stays that way!

Filed in: Christian Right, Secularism