Federal election 2019: Why Christians on the left are a growing voting bloc

Updated

The religious left may not wield the same political power as the Christian right, but it is emerging as a diverse, passionate and active voting bloc in Australia.

Unlike conservative Christians on the right, who rally around a distinct set of issues — including same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and abortion — on the left, things are more complex.

While there's a clear commitment to social justice among the progressive and pious on the religious left, they're not wholly subscribed to the left's full agenda.

Jonathan Cole from the Centre for Public and Contextual Theology at Charles Sturt University argues the Bible is ambiguous about political ideology, in spite of what both sides claim.

"Christians always cut both ways," he said.

Regular churchgoers favour the Coalition

There are several reasons why Christians are viewed as politically conservative, and there's some evidence that most Christians do land on the right.

The Christian right has prominent champions in Parliament, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who referred to his faith at his maiden speech to Parliament, and former prime minister Tony Abbott.

The ABC's Vote Compass survey data shows Catholic and Protestant respondents rate Mr Morrison above Bill Shorten on competency and trustworthiness.

The way the Christian right votes may be more certain, but it's not clear if the religious left would ultimately vote for progressive parties.

Overall, voting patterns of regular churchgoers in Australia consistently favour the Coalition, according to the National Church Life survey.

In 2016, 41 per cent of church-attending Christians voted for the Liberal-National Party, and 24 per cent voted for Labor.

Reverend Elenie Poulos, a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia, said she did not believe politicians would be successful in making appeals to Christians who are not part of the Christian right.

"The constituency of the [right-leaning] Australian Christian Lobby vote one way and that's not going to change," she said.

"The rest of the Christian church, they're just like all other Australians. They're going to vote depending on local issues, they're going to make decisions on what's most important to them."

Dwarfed by the ACL

The biggest difference for the religious left is that it does not have the same numbers as the right — at least not yet.

Common Grace is the largest left-leaning and faith-based political movement in Australia with 42,500 members and 200 individual donors.

But its reach pales compared with the Australian Christian Lobby, with 135,000 members.

However, it was only established in 2014, nine years after the ACL, and has already demonstrated year-on-year growth in membership.

Small denominations like the Quakers, whose numbers are fewer than 1,700, are closely associated with social justice campaigns and peace activism, but the political leanings of larger denominations like the Catholic and Anglican churches vary between dioceses.

For example, in the Western Sydney suburb of Parramatta, Catholic Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen has voiced strong support for progressive issues.

Reverend Poulos said the religious left still lacks organisation.

"I think what's often possibly seen as the Christian left is Christians who are passionate about social justice issues," said Reverend Poulos, whose denomination was the only major one to endorse same-sex marriage and is widely viewed as progressive.

"There are people who are concerned about children in detention who don't want to get involved in climate change, and there are people who are involved in climate change who wouldn't want to get involved in advocacy for same-sex marriage."

Dr Cole agreed: "The point is that you can't assume that these people are ideologically left across the board."

Refugee issue has been a driving force

If there's one issue that has galvanised the religious left in Australia, it is refugees and asylum seekers.

Common Grace was a driving force behind the successful #KidsOffNauru campaign which in February saw the last four children on Nauru resettled in the US.

"I actually think it's got something to do with Scott Morrison," Dr Cole said.

"His faith came up regularly, partly because of Christian activists who were offended that this guy was running this cruel and brutal policy, and yet was a Pentecostal Christian."

Clement Ngai is a law and social work student at the University of NSW and a Christian. Politically, he leans left on many issues like refugee and asylum seeker policy.

In 2018, he wrote a letter to his local MP, signed by 100 members of his church, as part of the #KidsOffNauru campaign.

"My church is located in a very strong Liberal seat, and it's also a Chinese Christian church," he said.

"Most people don't immediately think of that as being a particularly progressive demographic."

But people were queuing up to sign the letter and advocate for refugees.

"A lot of people came up to me afterwards and said thank you for bringing this to our attention and for taking this initiative," he said.

In Canberra, the Refugee Action Committee started a faith-based working group in 2013 to engage religious communities in refugee advocacy.

"They realised the potential influence of the religious left, and began discussions with Christians. As a consequence you're getting a far greater Christian participation in Palm Sunday rallies," said John Warhurst, emeritus professor in political science at the Australian National University.

The Palm Sunday rallies, in support of refugees, are now in their third year and about 4,000 Canberrans took part.

Professor Warhurst, who is also the president of Christians for an Ethical Society, is a regular participant.

"Now that's a level of organisation that is relatively new," he said.

Diversity is a strength and a weakness

The religious left is more diverse than the Christian right and a willingness to work with people from other religions is more common on the left.

Thea Ormerod is Catholic and the president of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change. The group's management committee includes a Buddhist, a rabbi and an Anglican priest.

"The Hindu and Buddhist traditions are very much about respecting animal life and therefore tend to be vegetarians or even vegan," Ms Ormerod said.

"We were probably one of the first environmental campaigners, and probably still one of the few, who emphasise eating less meat as a way of addressing climate change."

In March, they held "funerals" for coal outside the offices of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and other shadow ministers, and announced willingness to blockade Adani's Carmichael mine project.

But the religious left's diversity also makes it less unified than the Christian right and that can make it tricky to define.

Sexuality can split the religious left

For many left-wing Christians, holding a conservative theological position on sexuality has set them apart from the mainstream left.

"People may just make the link that if you've got this conservative view of sexuality, you're probably conservative full stop," Dr Cole said.

"I think there can be suspicion," said Professor Warhurst, "and it's possibly because of the sexual morality issues that people on the religious left are not seen as the real deal."

Mr Ngai describes himself as politically centre-left but admits he holds straight-up conservative views on some issues.

"For example, something I believe would be that the proper place for sex is in a marriage relationship, and many people would see that as oppressive and very outdated," he said.

Dr Cole also notes that progressive Christian organisations typically steer clear of sexual morality issues like marriage equality.

"I think that reflects their discomfort, if nothing else, with that issue," he said.

'My faith gives me a way forward'

Common Grace has run successful campaigns on four core issues: refugee and asylum seeker policy, Aboriginal reconciliation, climate change and domestic violence.

They didn't get involved in the marriage equality campaign.

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While these issues are typically aligned with the left, Brooke Prentis, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice spokesperson for Common Grace, said the movement cuts across the political divide.

"We love Jesus and we're called to love our neighbour as ourselves, and so I don't see how there's a left and a right in that," Ms Prentis said.

"Does that mean we're in the centre? No. But it means that we've created a space for diverse Christians to come together."

As an Aboriginal Christian, Common Grace was just what Ms Prentis was looking for — "people passionate for Jesus and justice within the church".

When she was a teenager in the 90s, Ms Prentis thought "reconciliation, which for me meant a treaty and true equality, was like two years away".

"Twenty years later, there's still no treaty, there's still no reconciliation, and there's still no true equality for Aboriginal peoples in our own land. Those things will drive me my entire life. And my faith gives me a way forward."

So who will get their vote?

Dr Cole said refugee policy promoted by different parties may be the key factor in determining how the religious left vote.

The natural fit for many would be the Greens.

"You've got this party which I think, objectively speaking, is probably the most hostile to religion in terms of its rhetoric," Mr Cole said of the Greens.

"Yet there's this natural constituency amongst devout, religious believers. I don't know how that dynamic works. They may get a vote from some of these people, and they may not."

"Of the major parties, Labor does offer attractive policies on a range of issues including the living wage and anti-poverty measures," according to Professor Warhurst.

"And Mr Shorten himself is quite acceptable. There was a bit of an issue for instance with Julia Gillard who was a self-declared agnostic."

Professor Warhurst does not believe left-wing Christians will swing the election but warns they should not be ignored as a political force.

"If people are worried about the influence of the religious right, they should be aware that there's a countervailing force," he said.

"Maybe not quite as powerful, but quite influential in its own right."

Topics: government-and-politics, federal-election, federal-elections, elections, religion-and-beliefs, abbott-tony, scott-morrison, christianity, australia

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