Ideologies and institutions that do not retain the wellbeing of others as their driving principle will always end up harming people and eroding the common good.

Paedophile priests blaming children for their own abuse. Others promising to honour the seal of confession over protection of the innocent. Churches of all traditions avoiding scandal rather than shielding children from predators. These are juxtaposed uncomfortably against the central image of Easter: Jesus hanging naked beside criminals, willingly bearing the scandal of the cross, sacrificing his reputation in solidarity with all who suffer at the will of the powerful and self-interested.

The narratives of Jesus in Christian scripture describe an attempt to remind us that it is love of people that really matters. But around this idea humanity built a religion and made that religion matter more than people.

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We’ve seen this in the response to the Covid-19 crisis: pastors in the United States determined to gather in crowds on Sundays at risk of arrest; churches in Australia going to the very limits of government advice, operating as though participation in the rituals of religion are its purpose instead of adaptable tools designed to mobilise followers towards the renewal of a world ravaged by greed and systemic injustice.

This trajectory isn’t unique to religion. Political movements, social theories and economic philosophies across the ideological spectrum are guilty of falling into a similar trap. A construct of meaning and the organisations that give it public identity – political parties, charities, public institutions – becomes more worthy of protection than the wellbeing of the humans they claim to benefit.

People may be dismantled. The construct must not.

Trust in traditional institutions – government and religious – is collapsing. The church of Jesus protects abusers instead of children. Political movements abandon accountability and democratic principles to maintain the power of an insecure cabal.

A gospel that ends up protecting the power and prestige of the church at the expense of children is no gospel at all

Has the global crisis made us remember that people matter? All over the world, leaders that once bowed the knee to the free market and invested their faith in trickle-down economic theory are offering wage guarantees and strengthening social security. Growth and surplus are no longer the measures of good government.

Or have they realised that the vast wealth of their patrons was built on the backs of the working class and now, for their own benefit, it is important for the struggling masses to not only survive but to spend?

We can evaluate motivation by what occurs when the full extent of the existential crisis is not yet apparent. A treasurer mocking the idea of a “wellbeing budget”. The initial determination to protect the promise of a surplus at all costs. A $750m bailout for a corporation with no inbuilt requirement to provide for employees.

Or, looking back to an almost forgotten pre-pandemic period, the commitment to massive tax cuts for big business and our wealthiest citizens alongside a refusal to raise income support for unemployed Australians, underspending on disability services and harrowing neglect of our aged population.

We are right to question whether we are seeing a change of heart or merely a response to economic – rather than social – necessity.

There is hope that a lasting consequence of this catastrophe will be a collective realisation that many previously “non-negotiable” government policies are in reality purely ideological decisions, akin to religious dogma enforced by leadership impervious to the human suffering that flows from its imposition.

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The gospel – or good news – that Jesus lived and preached was that love of people and not the preservation of religion was the primary outcome of faith. His statement that “the sabbath was made for people, not people for the sabbath” carries the idea that religious ideology is only useful to the point where it enables all people to flourish in a just and equitable society.

Likewise, political and economic ideology should be the means and not ends of what we want for our nation’s future. The economy exists for people, not people for the economy. We are slowly awakening to the reality that we will only truly thrive when authentic concern for people drives public policy. We can feel that the end goal of capitalism isn’t our collective health and wellbeing. We are realising that we need leaders who will invest in the public good not the private profit of a privileged few.

Just as a gospel that ends up protecting the power and prestige of the church at the expense of children is no gospel at all, so a recovery that merely rebuilds the world as it was before will not be good news for the long-suffering victims of institutionalised greed and economic exploitation.

• Brad Chilcott is a pastor at Activate Church and founder of Welcoming Australia. Join him and others at 1pm for Australia at Home at Church – Easter Sunday Reflection