Christian Extremists Continue Attempts to Infiltrate Australian Politics

When Senator Fatima Payman quit Labor on 4 July, as it refused to condemn the Israeli perpetrated genocide in Gaza and also sanctioned her for speaking out against it, the old school white political establishment and media automatically went in to tag team mode at a 5 July presser with the PM.

Payman is Muslim. Reporters quizzed Anthony Albanese about the potential for a grassroots Muslim takeover of western Sydney politics.

And the PM responded, “I don’t… want Australia to go down the road of faith-based political parties, because what that will do is undermine social cohesion.”

Yet on hearing this, those who’ve been paying attention choked on their soup, as the real tangible threat to our secular system is in actuality the ongoing extremist Chrisitan creep into politics, which hit overdrive in late 2017, after the Christian Right bore witness to the passing of marriage equality.

No faith-based politics says Albanese, but he daren’t criticise the Christian Right, as the secular white political establishment is at core Christian. And the dead giveaway is prior to every session of parliament in multicultural, multifaith Australia, the Christian Lord’s Prayer is recited.

And as the Rationalist Society of Australia’s Si Gladman outlined in a recent article, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Labor MP Milton Dick, is soon appearing as a speaker at a Brisbane event bringing together leaders who follow a doctrine seeking to heighten Christian influence over politics.

Dick does Brisbane 7M conference

Dick is appearing at the Roar 24 Leaders Summit in Brisbane in early September, which is being held by the Breakthrough Church, which is one of those Christian institutions that adhere to the Seven Mountains Doctrine that’s increasingly playing a behind-the-scenes role in Australian politicking.

God conveniently delivered the Seven Mountains Mandate to US Christian American evangelist Bill Bright in 1975. And the belief system is a form of Christian Dominion theology, which seeks to establish a state run by Christians.

The Seven Mountains Mandate calls upon conservative Christians to infiltrate and dominate political and cultural institutions so that they adhere to Christian belief. And the seven spheres they seek to influence are family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government.

Also known as 7M, the doctrine is today popular amongst evangelical Christians and Pentecostals. Such extremist Christians make up a huge amount of the supporter base of former US president Donald Trump, and this belief system is gaining traction in this country.

Key talking points at Roar 24 will include “how to impact your spheres of operation significantly”, how to “partner with like-minded leaders in your nation for nation-building” and “elevate your sight to see god as the builder of nations and your significance in his nation-building plan”.

Gladman points out that the Rationalist Society is in no way stating that Dick supports 7M. But the article does mention the Labor MP attended last year’s event and has appeared at the Breakthrough Church on a number of occasions, even once to provide a grant so the church could build a café.

A gaggle of evangelists

The Church and State Summit, which posits on its website that “we need god for spiritual, cultural and political reformation”, has been operating annually out of Brisbane since 2018. But the forum, which tellingly features seven peaks on its logo, is these days holding events across the nation.

These events always feature high profile figures and politicians. Speakers have included Liberal Nationals Senator Matt Canavan, former Liberal National MP George Christensen, United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet, journalist Miranda Divine, independent journalist Avi Yemeni, One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts, Country Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and former Australian Christian Lobby head Martyn Iles.

Then Nationals MP Christensen spoke at the 2021 Church and State Summit, suggesting that Christians ought to run for Coalition seats but keep quiet about their faith until they’d secured office, and then they could set about swaying policies and legislation to align with their faith.

Iles claimed at the same event that in a few years there would be such a Christian presence in parliament that it would send a “shockwave” through it. And in terms of the LGBITQ community, the then ACL head suggested attacking transgender people as the weakest link to roll back queer rights.

And to underscore that these Christians aren’t simply off with the fairies, in June 2021 the SA Liberals terminated the memberships of 150 Pentecostals, who’d been found to join in order to influence party policy and 400 more new members had to show cause as to why they shouldn’t be expelled.

A bipartisan covenant

“Australia is not a secular country – it is a free country,” said former PM Scott Morrison in his 2008 maiden speech in parliament, which really set the tone for his time in the top ministerial role. “This is a nation where you have the freedom to follow any belief system you choose.”

“Secularism is just one,” the member for Cook continued, just after having waxed lyrical about the importance of the Christian faith in his life. “It has no greater claim than any other on our society.”

Then, in December 2017, as he held the office of treasurer, the Pentecostal politician complained to the Herald that people were disrespecting people of faith in the community, especially Christians, and he was keen to play a leading role in enshrining greater protections for religious freedoms in law.

This was two weeks after marriage equality had become law. And ten months later, as a result of a leadership spill, Morrison was head of the nation, while 12 months further on, the Pentecostal PM had published the first draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill 2019.

The first bill revealed the PM’s extremist tendencies, as it was going to permit health workers to deny services to transgender people, refuse abortions and the provision of the pill all on religious grounds. And there were three versions of the legislation, with each new one a little bit less prejudicial.

The way the Christian Right of politics was able to begin attempting to propose such discriminatory laws, is that religious faith is not a protected attribute under federal law, and antidiscrimination law experts all agree it should be.

So, Morrison presented a bill protecting people of faith from discrimination based on their religion, and wrapped up within them was a series of laws that served to raise religious rights above all others, which was a set of provisions that could have been referred to as Christian liberties.

But in February 2022, Morrison’s agenda came crashing down, when some of his own party crossed the floor on the Religious Freedoms Bill, refusing to pass it unless other laws discriminating against LGBTIQ kids at religious schools were not revoked at the same time.

So, Morrison’s bill was shelved. And the current Albanese government has always stated that it would resume the religious discrimination process, with attorney general Mark Dreyfus already having something up his sleeve, and the tendency has been to consider Labor won’t go to extremes.

However, now it appears that speaker of the House of Representatives, Labor MP Milton Dick, is to appear at a Seven Mountain Mandate influenced conference.

So, it’s quite likely that the god squad is about to launch another attack on our secular nation, with new Labor taking the reins this time.