I’ve been writing about the threat of Christian dominionism in Australia for over a decade now. Lately, there is quite a deal of ‘movement at the station’ and I think it’s time to renew my efforts. This is the first of what I hope will be a series of articles on the threat of Christofascism in Australia. This is long, so grab a cuppa and put your feet up.

Dominion theology was popularised in the early 2010s when American evangelists, Bill Bright and Loren Cunningham claimed to have been simultaneously blessed with a divine revelation; that Jesus would not return until Christians had conquered and gained control of 7 “mountains” of global culture: government, education, media, arts and entertainment, religion, family and business. This became known as the 7 Mountains Mandate or Kingdom Now theology and it caught on like wildfire through Pentecostal, Apostolic, 3C and other conservative, protestant churches. 

Readers of my vintage will recall 70s pop star, Colleen Hewett, singing the repetitious but catchy lyrics, “Pre-e-e-pare ye, the way of the Lord.” This is essentially the aim of the 7 Mountains movement: the prophecies of Revelations will not come to pass until Christians (and by that, we mean white, right-wing, protestant, predominantly male Christians) control all aspects of life on earth.

Dominionism pre-dates the 7 Mountains Movement and has long been cause for concern – even within Christianity itself. In 1981, Tom F Driver, the Paul Tillich Professor Emeritus at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, said:

“[We] fear christofascism, which we see as the political direction of all attempts to place Christ at the centre of social life and history … [m]uch of the churches’ teaching about Christ has turned into something that is dictatorial in its heart and is preparing society for an American fascism.” 

Christofascism goes beyond the dominionist agenda to take control of the government and social institutions in God’s name – generally by stealthy, non-violent, infiltration. Christofascism sees the dominionist agenda co-opted by bad-faith actors to advance an authoritarian or totalitarian political strategy – with the real end goals being money and power. 

As we’ve seen recently with the exposés on Hillsong Church – the religious agenda of ‘good, Christian, family values’ which is said to be the raison d’être behind the 7 Mountains movement only applies to the poor saps at the bottom of the Pentecostal pyramid scheme. Those at the top indulge in every kind of lascivious, unconscionable, and unlawful behaviour, totally exempt from the constraints they wish to place upon the rest of us. Why? Because –

It. Was. Never. About. Religion. It was always about money and power.

Looking at America, it is often said that Christian evangelists have taken over the GOP. What is more likely is that bad-faith actors took over the GOP and the GOP took over Christian dominionism. Ultimately, the ‘Christian soldiers’ recruited to the cause will become more than just spiritual warriors. They will be the cannon fodder for an actual holy war; a Christian militia, ready to stage an armed and bloody revolution with God at their side. Does this sound outlandish? Ladies and gentlemen, may I direct your attention to Washington DC, January 6, 2021.

Back in the 2010s I was willing to concede that Christian dominionism was somewhat less rabid than reconstructionism or – God forbid! – fascism. But, today, I’m more than happy to suggest that if our merry 7 Mountains mountaineers are not yet fascists, they’re certainly fraternising with them, sharing common cause, and pursuing a goal which can only be achieved through totalitarianism. 

In 2011 I posed the question “Is the Australian Christian Lobby Dominionist?” in an article for ABC’s Religion and Ethics website. Such was the power of the ACL at that time, editor, Scott Stephens decided he should tell them in advance about my claims. Subsequently, the ACL’s lawyers spent a day on the phone trying to stop the article being published. When it was published, Brigadier Jim Wallace, then Managing Director of the ACL, told editor, Scott Stephens, he’d never even heard of dominionism, let alone embracing it. “I had to ask around the office to ask if anyone knew what it was,” said Jim.

Wallace’s denial rang rather hollow because my article linked to the world’s major dominionist website, Reclaim 7 Mountains, which proudly boasted that the Australian Christian Lobby was one of the organisations involved in the movement. The listing was promptly “disappeared”. But, don’t worry, Jim – I kept a copy:

Baptist minister, Rod Benson from the Sydney Anglicans’ Moore College, took me to task over my article, accusing me of “opportunistic scaremongering”. The Australian Christian Lobby had no wish to see Australia become a theocracy, said Benson. Look! They even say that on their website! 

Yeah. That’s about as convincing as someone prefacing their racist rant with, “I’m not racist, but ….”

Benson accuses me of assigning guilt by association. Just because you address the Fabian Society doesn’t make you a Fabian, says Benson.Twelve years on, I wonder what, Benson might have to say about the former Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, Lyle Shelton, socialising with neo-Nazis.

Let me pause here to indulge in a little parable. One day, many years ago, I sat down to drink a coffee on the terrace of a suburban coffee shop. Sitting unattended at the table opposite mine, was a young boy, perhaps, 5 years old. He had taken a teaspoon, heaped it high with sugar from the sugar pourer on the table, and, at the moment I spied him, he had the spoon poised a centimetre from his open mouth.

“You’re not going to eat that sugar, are you?” I said, giving him a stern look.

The boy’s big blue eyes widened with feigned innocence as he slowly and deliberately shook his head from side to side –  as if it were inconceivable that I should even think such a thing! Of course, the close proximity of the spoonful of sugar to his lips was simply a matter of coincidence and no conclusions could or should be drawn from that association. I often wonder if that kid grew up to be a Pentecostal pastor.

In response to my article, Brigadier Wallace, then Managing Director of the ACL, wrote:

“I have always totally rejected the American model of church engagement with politics and have reaffirmed that everywhere I have promoted ACL and political activism.”

This is the same Jim Wallace who chairs the board that recently sacked the ACL’s incumbent Managing Director, Martyn Iles, for being too evangelical and not political enough. 

“[T]he Board has reviewed ACL’s strategic direction and decided I am not the right person to lead the revised strategy, which focuses more primarily on political tactics, less on the gospel,” Iles explains in his online resignation letter.

It’s a different story to the one I was fed back in 2011. 

In a recent interview on the podcast Yeah Nah Pasaran, American-based, Australian researcher, Kate Burns, talked about the rise of Christofascism, both in America and Australia, as well as the close connections between activists in the two countries.

“What was once kept behind the veil is now becoming more overt,” says Burns. And she’s dead right.

The ACL was furious that I outed their connection to Christian dominionism and the 7 Mountains mandate in 2011, but, look! Here’s the ACL’s Martyn Iles presenting in front of the self-same dominionist logo at the 2021 Church & State Summit. Count those mountains – 7 of ‘em!

“But that doesn’t mean he’s a dominionist!” I can hear Rob Benson and Jim Wallace cry. Well, yeah, but his mouth’s wide open and right next to those 7 Mountains of dominionist sugar. 

Again, in this photo from 2023, we see the ACL’s former Managing Director and Chief of Staff, Lyle Shelton, standing proudly in front of the same 7 Mountains logo. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!

I was derided in 2011 when I suggested the ACL was dominionist. Even Scott Stephens from the ABC’s Religion & Ethics site, who, despite enormous pressure from the ACL, published my article, told me he thought I had gone too far; that I “just didn’t understand Australian protestantism.”

But I knew I was on the right track when I attended a conference at which Professor Marion Maddox, Australia’s leading authority on the intersection of religion and politics in Australia and the author of God Under Howard, stood at the lectern and said, “Is the Australian Christian Lobby dominionist? Chrys Stevenson is right.”

Since then, my spidey-sense about the ACL has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt. Now, I’m sticking my neck out to take my concerns even further. 

I used to kid myself that dominionism in Australia was a quixotic attempt to quietly infiltrate government and cultural institutions in order to wield undue influence. I saw it happening at a local level with local Pentecostal churches entreating parents to join their state school’s Parents and Citizens group in order to support school chaplaincy. Annoying but, ultimately, small change.

Fast forward to the present day and former MP George Christensen and Christian conservative commentator, David Pellowe,  are openly talking about doing the same thing with political parties with Pellowe saying of their plans to take over the Liberal party:

“It’s not branch stacking, it’s participation.”

Read:  “I’m not eating the sugar … I’m consuming it!”

Dominionism has moved on since I first took on Jim Wallace and the ACL. Following the events of January 6 in the USA, I don’t think we can dismiss 7 Mountains dominionism as annoying, but ultimately harmless; a comically, quixotic tilt at theocratic power. 

OK. I don’t think a Christian coup is imminent in the country … yet … but I believe that’s what they’re planning – or at least, hoping, for. And the language is becoming increasingly bellicose.

At a Church & State “Kingdom Come” Summit in 2021, the ACL’s Managing Director, Martyn Iles. bemoaned the fact that governments were legislating progressively. Iles joked that his father often said, “we need a good war” to sort this out. “There’s a little bit of truth in that,” said Iles.

Conference convenor, Dave Pellowe hastily, yet unconvincingly, added:

“We’re not advocating violence or revolution … today.”

To which Martyn Iles replied:

“Not yet, that’s down the line.”

Chilling.

Of course we could dismiss this as a bit of good-natured blokey banter that went awry – “Only joking’ folks!” … Until you see the 7 Mountains logo used like this:

At this point, the good folks at the ACL and the organisers of the Church & State Summit will be reaching for their smelling salts, proclaiming, “Spiritual warfare, you stupid woman! They’re talking about spiritual warfare!”

But, to be clear, at a Born for War sermon at a 7 Mountains dominionist event, held just prior to the US 2021 election, American dominionist, Steve Holt, called for a “Kingdom of God revolution in our time.” Holt prayed:

“May this state, in the years ahead, run red with the blood of Jesus. May this city, run red with the blood of Jesus. May this county, run red with the blood of Jesus.”

Read in conjunction with the bellicose rhetoric of Pellowe and Iles in March 2021, it’s hard not to join the dots and connect the ideology of our home-grown Bible bashers to that of the Christofascists who attempted a coup at the US Capitol; many of them emboldened by the rhetoric of the 7 Mountains Mandate.

Researcher and journalist, Teddy Wilson (in an article by Elle Hardy for Unherd), mapped more than 850 individuals who took part in the Capitol riot and found that:

“Christian Nationalism, more than any other ideological beliefs, has played the most significant role both in motivations of the defendants, the performance of the attack, and the attempt by the Right to rewrite the history of January 6th.”

And, marching alongside those Christian Nationalists? Hundreds of neo-fascist Proud Boys – bearing the same name and ideology as the men with whom Lyle Shelton (front left) and Dave Pellowe (standing) are beaming in the photo below.  Don’t want to be called a fascist? Don’t socialise with neo-Nazis!

“Good to catch up with the Proud Boys at the Mt Gravatt Bowls Club. Contrary to popular opinion they are not Nazis, just blokes who are sick of all the PC nonsense,” Shelton tweeted.

Great blokes – who just happen to be wearing black shirts (symbols of Italian fascism) and making White Power signs. 

Here’s a curious thing; Hitler wasn’t too fussed on all the PC nonsense either. His aversion to political correctness (aka human decency) led to the murder of approximately six million Jews, homosexuals, people with disabilities and various political dissenters. And Poland wasn’t too pleased, either. Good bloke, that Führer! He sure knew how to get rid of all that PC nonsense.

It seems that neo-fascists and the good Christians of the religious right have found common cause, not only in the US, but here in Australia. To be honest, it’s nice that poor Lyle has found some friends. After being cast-off from the ACL, Lyle’s been wandering in the wilderness for somewhat more than 40 days and 40 nights. But, I fear he’s following the Apostle Matthew’s story rather too closely.

How well do you know your Bible?

After Christ was lost in the wilderness he came across the devil who offered him food and drink. 

“Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” 

Jesus was smart enough to tell Old Nick to go to hell. The gormless Shelton met the devil, knocked back a few beers and declared him a good bloke. All Shelton and Pellowe saw is that the Proud Boys might be useful to the dominionist agenda. “Thanks for the beer! Can I give you a ride home, Satan?” says Lyle.

I no longer believe that 7 Mountains is a peaceful movement which seeks only to influence but not forcibly seize control of our government and cultural institutions. There is strong evidence that 7 Mountains theology was weaponised to rationalise the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

Using the buzz words used by the 7 Mountains movement, a pastor who spoke at Trump’s rally on January 6 told the crowd:

“We are not just in a culture war, we are in a kingdom war. There are but two parties right now, traitors and patriots.”

David Barton, a leader of the 7 Mountains Movement – also an Islamaphobe, homophobe, anti-immigration campaigner, historical revisionist, outright liar and a key liaison between the GOP and right-wing Christian networks – tweeted a video of himself inside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Barton has the honour of having his 2012 book, The Jefferson Lies, voted the “least credible history book in print.”)

Tyler Ethridge was also charged in association with the insurrection. Ethridge live-streamed the events as he joined the crowd which stormed the capitol. He was pictured standing on scaffolding outside Nancy Pelosi’s office as well as inside the chamber. 

Ethridge is a graduate of the “School of Practical Government” at Andrew Wommack‘s, Charis Bible College which trains students in the 7 Mountain Mandate. Wommack is also the founder of 7M Ventures Inc. – which sounds like it might be a nice little earner. 

Breathless with excitement, Ethridge says in his video:

“We stormed the Capitol… This is amazing. I hope this doesn’t get me thrown in jail. I’m officially a pastor. This is what pastors need to do. … Christians, we need to infiltrate every area of society like this. Every area of society like this. Peacefully. But if it takes a little bit of aggression to barge through the walls that Satan separates us from the culture, it’s time for the body of Christ to infiltrate the culture.”

Radicalised grandmother, Rebecca Lavrenz, of Colorado Springs was later arrested for her involvement in the attempted coup. A review of Lavrenz’s social media found she had been sharing posts from 7 Mountain Mandate dominionists and had attended an event headlined by Andrew Wommack. Lavrenz and her family attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6 and Lavrenz joined the crowd who entered the Capitol building.

Elle Hardy, who has written extensively about dominionism in her book Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity is taking over the world, notes that 7 Mountains ideology has infiltrated deeply into the Republican Party. She says:

“A plan by a shadowy group of ‘prophets’ and ‘apostles’ to take over the world sounds like the stuff of a bad airport novel, but it is one of the most important ideas in the Pentecostal movement today.”

We shouldn’t be surprised that Australia’s right wing Christian cohort have flocked to the 7 Mountains theology like flies to a glob of Golden Syrup. As I said in 2011, when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. But it’s a cold that many of the old guard dinosaurs of the Australian Christian right-wing have caught before. The fascism implicit in the 7 Mountains Mandate is part of the dark and rarely discussed history of the Australian Christian Lobby.

As I have stated often, the Australian Christian Lobby grew out of a right-wing religious cult, the Logos Foundation, which embraced reconstructionism – a more muscular version of dominionism which called for a coup of the world’s governments in order to reinstate divine law and justice. Dominionism tended to be sneakier – they preferred infiltration by stealth.

Logos was strongly ‘pro-life’ with one key exception: it advocated the return of capital punishment in line with Old Testament Law – not just for first-degree murder, but for homosexuality, too. 

According to former fascist, David Greason (in Faces of Hate, Cunene et al, 1997), the Australian Christian Lobby’s predecessor, the Logos Foundation,  and the fascist, ultra-nationalist, League of Rights, worked happily in alliance during the 1980s.

Way back in the 80s, the Logos Foundation fraternised with fascists and dreamed of taking over Queensland politics – hey, it’s not the world, but it’s a start! 

Along with Logos’ leader, Howard Carter, and Lyle Shelton’s father, Ian Shelton, Jeremy Lee was a co-founder of the Logos Foundation. Lee was also the Queensland and northern NSW director of the League of Rights and acted as the ‘defacto deputy’ to the League’s founder, Eric Butler. Cosy. No-one seemed to think that represented any conflict of interests.

ACL co-founder, and former Baptist minister, John McNicoll, was a contributor to the League of Rights’ journal, “The Strategy”, although he later sought to distance himself and the Network for Christian Values (later the ACL) from the organisation and claimed NCV director, Derek Brown, had since resiled from Logos’ anti-semitic views (Canberra Times, September 1994).

But you do have to admire them. Without the benefit of mobile phones or the internet, these Christofascists of far-gone days had networking down to a ’t’.

After the collapse of Logos (Carter was caught bonking someone other than his wife), Australian society became ever more progressive. I find it amusing that Australia’s Christian right leaders adopted their own version of ‘political correctness’. They saw the need to be more ‘polite’ in order to be accepted into the echelons of power. So they ’resiled’ from their ‘formerly held’ fascist, racist, and anti-semitic beliefs. But don’t fret. Homosexuals were still fair game.

Now, in this (partly) post-pandemic world the ACL and their ilk feel emboldened to embrace their inner fascist. No longer denying their involvement with Christian dominionism, the nation’s Christian leaders stood proudly in front of the 7 Mountains logo at the recent Church & State Summit – and at previous summits. Were all the speakers fascists? No. But they are certainly dipping their spoons into the fascist sugar bowl.

In an interview with anti-fascist campaigner, Andy Fleming (aka Slackbastard) and journalist, Cam Smith, Kate Burns notes that one of the key figures in the American Christofascist movement is Jurgen Matthesius, founder of the Awaken Church in San Diego. Matthesius began his journey in the Christian City Church in Sydney (now C3) and Hillsong College. He counts Australian pastor Phil Pringle and Hillsong’s disgraced former leader, Brian Houston, as mentors. Among his followers, Matthesius is known as “the General.”

In a recent article, Burns accuses Matthesius of “preaching fascism.”

Matthesius has become radicalised over recent years, says Burns, and his church “has become a hotbed for San Diego’s Christofascist scene … Their culture war push has seen founders, pastors and congregants” involved in numerous actions, including the January 6, 2021 Capitol Riot.

“Awaken’s goal,” says Burns, “although they don’t say this directly, is to have Christianity dominate US and eventually global society.”

And, of course, plans for TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION requires money – lots of it. Matthesius reminds his band of merry mountaineers:

“God is brilliant with ledgers. God is the most perfect accountant, he knows everything you give and he makes sure it comes back to you with interest.”

According to Burns, Matthesius’ sermons are also peppered with “Talk of rampant election fraud, globalist cabals and genocidal elites.” If this is the state of the world, surely a religious-led coup is absolutely justified! You can see how suburban, church-going grandmas like Rebecca Lavrenz become radicalised. And, of course, the message is even more compelling for young, testosterone-fuelled, white males who see themselves as saviours of the world and the future leaders of the post-revolutionary society.

Matthesius has strong connections within Australia and travels frequently between the two countries. According to Kate Burns, Christofascism in Australia is tinder-dry; it just needs a charismatic flame like Matthesius to set it ablaze. Matthesius, she believes, is keeping a close eye on opportunities in Australia. 

Recently, disgraced former Hillsong pastor, Pat Mesiti, organised a Prayer and Pushback online event: “The War’s Not Over, Where to Now?” screams the headline on the event website. Speakers at the event included Jurgen Matthesius, Avi Yemeni (who is known to consort with neo-Nazis and is the on the watch-list of Jews Against Fascism), Craig Kelly, MP Malcolm Roberts and libertarianTopher Field. In 2011, Topher Field was speaking at the National Seminar of the Australian League of Rights. But, of course, THAT DOESN’T MAKE HIM A FASCIST!

Christensen, Robert, and Field were also speakers at the recent Church & State Summit organised by Dave Pellowe. You know, the one with the 7 Mountains logo prominently displayed behind every speaker. You’d be an idiot if you didn’t join the dots.

Am I warning against a right-wing, religious coup similar to that which we saw in America on January 6? Yes – and no. Australia is a very different country to the US and religious nut-baggery has not yet taken hold of the population in great numbers. But, as we’ve seen in previous parliaments, the nutters don’t need a majority in order to wield enormous influence. They just need to hold the balance of power. And, as we’ve learned from the culture wars in the USA, Christofascists and their political masters don’t need to actually succeed to cause a shit-load of damage to democracy. 

At the Church & State Summit in 2021, Martyn Iles, then representing the Australian Christian Lobby, said that, until now Christians have tended to “hide in plain sight”.  Now, he said:

“The more we are seen for who we really are, the more powerful our influence is actually going to be.

… All of a sudden I’m actually seeing people rising up more and more and more. Give this a couple of years and we’ll be able to put such a shockwave through any Parliament in the country they won’t even know what hit them. And we’re almost at that point.”

Chrys Stevenson

Here is a link to my latest article on Medium for ⁦‪Humanists Australia. It‬⁩ reviews the history of school chaplaincy to explain why we shouldn’t be rejoicing about ⁦Education Minister Jason Clare’s announcement re secular well-being workers. We’ve been down this road before.

When it comes to school chaplaincy, both the Coalition and the ALP have been too clever by half. I’m cynical. It sounds like a Morrison-esque exercise – all announcement and no substance. And, even if it isn’t, is diluting a flawed program with secular well-being workers really what our kids need?

On the Road Again – Is Labor Serious About a Secular Alternative to School Chaplains?

During the Sky News leaders’ debate last night (20/4/22), the mother of an autistic child asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison why she should vote for his party, given that, following a review, her son’s NDIS had been slashed by 30 per cent. Morrison responded:

“I’ve been blessed, we’ve got two children that don’t … haven’t had to go through that. And so for parents, with children who are disabled, I can only try and understand your aspirations for those children.”

Not surprisingly, many people took that to mean:

“Geez, lady, I dunno. Us being good Christians, me and Jen, God gifted us with “normal” children.

You have to understand, if you do the right thing, praise the Lord and learn to speak in Tongues, you get rewarded. If you piss God off, you end up with a kid on the NDIS.

Who’s fault’s that? Certainly not mine; certainly not the taxpayers’!

So, instead of bitching about the NDIS, lady, maybe you should look at what you did to get yourself into this pickle, eh?

When’s the last time you praised the Lord? Did you have premarital sex? Did you vote “Yes” in the marriage equality postal survey? Have you ever had an abortion? Do you even tithe? God, forbid! You’re not bloody Catholic, are you?

Maybe try getting right with God and your kid will be cured. Tithe enough and God might even make you rich.

By the way, would you like to join my Amway downline?”

Harsh? I don’t think so.

Morrison makes no secret of the fact he is a Pentecostal Christian – absolutely immersed in that faith (see my post about that here). Pentecostals are big on shrugging off institutional responsibility and apportioning individual blame, and there’s not much difference between their views on poverty and their thoughts about disability.

The Prosperity Gospel teaches that if you’re not at the top of the Amway pyramid, it’s your own damned fault. As Morrison said to people living in poverty in Australia, “If you have a go in this country you’ll get a go.” (Tell that to all the Pentecostal Christians with garages full of cleaning products they can’t sell.)

It’s this mindset – that if people are struggling they only have themselves to blame – that rationalises Morrison’s determination to keep the NewStart allowance at $46 per day. Living in destitution is seen as a surefire way of motivating bludgers – oops, sorry – people to ‘have a go’ in Morrison’s Australia.

As Tanya Levin, a former member/victim of Hillsong Church and author of the exposé People in Glass Houses: An Insider’s Story of a Life Inside and Out of Hillsong” explains:

“Prosperity theology is explicit in its assertion that wealth demonstrates God’s approval. The prime minister believes that “the poor you shall always have with you”. It is understood that if you are not financially successful, you have not tithed enough, prayed enough, or been holy enough.”

This prosperity gospel thinking is a mirror image of the Pentecostal theology relating to disability. But Morrison was never meant to say it out loud.

Following an outcry from people with disabilities, the families of those with disabilities and social media in general, today has seen a great deal of re-framing and back-peddling from the Morrison camp.

Morrison has apologised for his comment, saying:

“I meant no offence by what I said last night but I accept that it has caused offence to people … I think people would also appreciate that I would have had no such intention of suggesting that anything other than every child is a blessing is true.

Every child is precious and a blessing to every parent.

I don’t think that’s in dispute and I don’t think anyone would seriously think that I had the intent of anything different to that.”

Finance Minister, Simon Birmingham insisted the Prime Minister’s words had been taken out of context:

“The PM, actually in that context, was talking about not having to deal with the many challenges of systems that you have to work through to get support.”

While Senator Hollie Hughes, a conservative Catholic, said the disability community’s ‘rage machine’ was to blame for the sector’s failure to achieve “constructive gains.”

Let’s be clear. The Prime Minister didn’t ‘mis-speak’, he wasn’t taken ‘out of context’, his words aren’t being twisted by his opponents. In a rare moment of honesty Scott Morrison said exactly what he has been taught to think by his church: that disease and disability are inflicted by God as punishment for sin. Following this line of thought, the logical conclusion is that those who follow the Pentecostal faith will be ‘blessed’ with exemptions from these ‘curses’.

I understand this aspect of Pentecostalism from bitter experience. When a member of my family began experiencing worrying symptoms, they were referred by their church to a church-approved, Pentecostal psychologist. The verdict, after much probing into the piety of my relative, was that the symptoms were a punishment for the fact one of our ancestors was a Grand Master of the Freemasons. Ardent prayer was prescribed. (In fact, as it turned out, my relative had a malignant tumour.)

This toxic belief that disease and disability is either self-inflicted or the result of some kind of ancestral sin is causing havoc in African countries that have been effectively colonised by evangelical Christians of the Pentecostal variety. In Uganda and elsewhere, sick and disabled people are expelled from their homes, brutalised and sometimes burned as witches. This is not an Indigenous practice – it has been imported and inflamed by missionaries of Pentecostal Churches.

Reporting from the ground, Ugandan Humanist, Leo Igwe says:

“It cannot be overemphasized that churches in Africa are instrumental to the witch craze in the region. Programs and activities of faith organizations continue to fuel witchcraft suspicions with sometimes horrific consequences on alleged witches.”

Similarly, a theological treatise on Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe states:

” …. there is a common misconception in these prevailing and mushrooming prophetic, charismatic and Pentecostal religious organizations that people living with Disability have been either cursed, bewitched or possessed by the evil spirit.”

Australian Pentecostals may not be as forthright about this toxic belief as the evangelicals infecting African nations, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there, bubbling just below the surface – until the Prime Minister had a brain fart on national TV.

It wasn’t that long ago when Hillsong sponsored Mercy Ministries, an arm of the church set up to heal young women suffering from eating and other ‘disorders’ (including – shock, horror – lesbianism). In exchange for their social security cheques, these vulnerable girls were promised in-house therapy and treatment. But what Hillsong/Mercy delivered was not medical treatment but exorcisms.

Call it demon possession or witchcraft, the basic premise of this theology is that disability and disease are Satanic and the result of some kind of personal or familial spiritual weakness.

Scott Morrison was a member of Hillsong Church (Waterloo) around the time that Mercy Ministries was operating, but he is now a member of Horizon Church (Sutherland). But Morrison maintains strong ties to Hillsong. In his first speech to Parliament, and even more recently, Morrison cited disgraced former leader, Brian Houston, as a spiritual mentor.

Even after decamping to Horizon Church, Morrison was pastored by Michael Murphy, the former Associate Pastor to Brian Houston at Hillsong. So, we can be sure that the spiritual lessons he was being taught at Horizon were much the same as those at Hillsong.

Horizon is now headed by pastors Brad and Alison Bonhomme but, with Horizon still associated with the Pentecostal Australian Christian Churches, and this view of disability being fairly consistent throughout that denomination, we can assume the same kinds of beliefs prevail.

In a scholarly paper on Pentecostalism Luke Thompson from the University of South Florida explains how Pentecostals think about sickness and disability:

“Well established within Pentecostal theology is the belief that the presence of suffering (sickness or debilitating conditions) may indicate personal sin, symbolize unholiness, or result from demonic influence.”

According to Thompson, Pentecostals:

“readily accept Exodus 15:26, a passage of scripture indisputably relating to ancient Jews, which links health with obedience, and sickness with disobedience as evidence for the contemporary normative association of sin with suffering.”

Thompson continues:

“Those who repent or who are truly saved are believed to be ‘supernaturally rescued’ from suffering through prayer. Pentecostals’ view of the Bible supports the Pentecostal view of disability.”

Pentecostals believe that healing is to be expected as a result of obedience and faith (or the casting out of demons). It follows then that lack of obedience or lack of faith is to blame when the disabled stubbornly refuse to “heal themselves”.

Given this perspective it’s not surprising that, under Morrison’s stewardship, the NDIS and the people it is meant to serve are in crisis. Nor is it a coincidence that this monumental fuck-up has occurred under the control of Morrison’s spiritual brother, fellow Pentecostal, Stuart Robert – the man Morrison affectionately calls “Brother Stuie”.

It was Brother Stuie who praised Scott Morrison’s rather creepy practice of surreptitiously “laying hands” upon random strangers and praying for them. One wonders how often that was inflicted upon unsuspecting people from the disability community?

Last night, when Scott Morrison said he was ‘blessed’ to have two non-disabled children, he meant exactly what he said. It was a dog-whistle, a humble-brag – “Look at me. See how holy I am? God gave me kids off the good pile, and boy, do I deserve it!”

Of course, he’d never be so crass as to say it as baldly as that in public, but the theology in which Morrison has immersed himself throughout his adult life leaves no doubt that, despite his protestations to the contrary, this was, indeed, what he meant.

Chrys Stevenson

Pastor Sharad Yadav of the Bread and Wine Church Community in Oregon recently wrote the following Facebook post about the benefits of joining a church. His post was shared by one of my friends, a liberal Christian from Australia. After checking Pastor Yadav’s profile and church website, I noted that his religious views seem to be, similarly, liberal – he is not one of those purse-lipped fundamentalists with whom I so often butt heads. Yet the post really troubled me.

Discussing the pastor’s post, my friend and I were dismayed that we interpreted his thoughts entirely differently – my friend, positively, me negatively. I promised to explain my reaction, so I thought it was best to do it here. I wanted to be fair (this is a discussion, not a take-down) so I contacted Pastor Yadav and he has graciously agreed to me publishing both his post and my critique. I’ve promised him a right of reply if he wishes.

Pastor Yadav writes:

As I try to remember why the hell I do this for a living, here is a handful of reasons, dear friends, to consider joining a church:

1. To join a church is to commit to a social circle you do not get to choose and can therefore show you whether your spirituality is bullshit or not.

2. Joining a church is a way of practicing – among a small group of people over a significant period of time – what you’d like the world to be like

3. To join a church is to live in rebellion against the neoliberal and capitalist forces which are brainwashing you into making your consumer desire the center of the world, reducing all your experiences of the world (including all the people in it) to instruments and resources.

4. Joining a church is to organize your life around a time to confess your limitations, culpability and imperfections together with other people so that you can get used to receiving divine forgiveness and hope in response to your honesty.

5. To join a church is to resist all traditional loyalties to state, party, culture, family or affinity in an act of loyalty to a group that transcends all natural categories.

6. Joining a church organizes your financial priorities around supporting an inclusive community for vulnerable people . . . that you actually have to live with.

7. To join a church is to cultivate an environment unlike your home, work or play where your life is not measured according to any other purpose or goal than to discover and enjoy your own humanity.

8. Joining a church is a way of maintaining healthy skepticism about human knowledge and capacities in the language of divine mystery.

9. To join a church is to cultivate an imagination for how your unique talents and creative potential can be offered on purpose for love instead of money.

10. Joining a church is a life lesson in how to deal with assholes without retaliating, dehumanizing or running away (in the desperate hope of not becoming an asshole).

I have enormous respect for my Christian friend. We agree on most things. But, while he drew inspiration from Pastor Yadav’s words, I had to admit that I read most of it with this look on my face:

And I wasn’t the only one. Responding to my friend’s post, other Christians, including a priest, suggested it also gave them a touch of the heebie-jeebies. It seems my friend and others of us in his ‘circle’ understood Pastor Yadav’s post in entirely different ways – leaving us all a bit puzzled.

What follows is an attempt to explain my discomfort. My intention is not to attack Pastor Yadav, but to show how what you write is only one part of the communication equation. How the reader interprets what you’ve written can elicit quite different meanings, and, hopefully, open up new insights and useful channels of communication.

The list starts well – I don’t have any issues with the first two points:

1. To join a church is to commit to a social circle you do not get to choose and can therefore show you whether your spirituality is bullshit or not.

2. Joining a church is a way of practicing – among a small group of people over a significant period of time – what you’d like the world to be like.

Despite my reputation, I’m not anti-religion. I understand that many people find comfort and community in religion. I appreciate that, for some people, the church provides a vessel, a captain and fellow crew members who are intent on sailing forth to change the world in positive ways. I see great common cause between us atheists and liberal Christians. I’ve always tried to work with the leaders and members of these churches, not against them. (If you agree, please follow the Twitter account for A Progressive Christian Voice (Australia) – @APCVA.)

Speaking bluntly, I don’t think fundamentalist Christianity can be successfully opposed by atheists alone. It will take mainstream, liberal churches, networking together (with our support) to mount a convincing, alternative Christian narrative to the heresy of American right-wing evangelicals and the Australian Christian Lobby.

Lots of people seek community and, for many, a church is a safe, welcoming place. Not all churches, to be sure. But, I know there are some service clubs and sporting clubs, not to mention atheist groups, that are far more dysfunctional and toxic than many churches. I’ve been in some! Let’s not assume that every church is the same. If people want to join a healthy church with a view to making the world a better place for everyone, then I’m completely on board with that project.

I don’t want to lull Pastor Yadav into a false sense of security, but I’m absolutely in favour of point three.

To join a church is to live in rebellion against the neoliberal and capitalist forces which are brainwashing you into making your consumer desire the center of the world, reducing all your experiences of the world (including all the people in it) to instruments and resources.

I too, live in rebellion against the neoliberal and capitalist forces that seem to value profit above people. We live in a world in which people – even friendships – have become commodified; the multi-level marketing schemes so prevalent in fundamentalist churches is a case in point. The prosperity gospel simply puts a Jesus mask on free-market capitalism.

But, fighting back against neoliberalism doesn’t give you a free pass to mine church members for money, nor to exploit workers for their labour. I’ll say more about this when I address points 6 and 8.

So, a provisional high five on point three, Pastor Yadav! Sadly, it’s pretty much downhill from here.

Now, we come to point 4 and my nose starts twitching.

“Joining a church is to organize your life around a time to confess your limitations, culpability and imperfections together with other people so that you can get used to receiving divine forgiveness and hope in response to your honesty.“

I think there’s a real danger in inviting people into a community and encouraging them to focus on their “limitations, culpability and imperfections.” I am confident that Pastor Yadav didn’t mean it this way, but, too often, focusing on people’s vulnerabilities is a way of breaking them down; making them malleable to adopt beliefs that aren’t necessarily true, and to act in ways that aren’t necessarily good for them.

Choosing a religion (or choosing no religion) is a bit like choosing a spouse. You really don’t want to be doing it when you feel bad about yourself. You especially don’t want to be choosing a spouse who likes to focus on your faults and puts themselves forward as the one who can ‘fix’ you. There’s a huge power disparity in this kind of relationship and, even if the spouse (or church) is well-meaning, I think the temptation to exploit the power dynamic is often too great.

Instead, why not build community based on people’s strengths? Build a community of titans, not lambs. If someone does come into the community feeling unworthy, don’t respond by confirming their low opinion of themselves; focus instead on their strengths, their talents, and their inherent value. Build them up to their strongest and then see if what you have to “sell” will add value to their lives. Let them choose from a position of strength, not vulnerability.

Because I’m a relatively high profile atheist, people who have decided to leave their church occasionally contact me for guidance. My response is always, “This is your journey. Feel free to explore your options. Please don’t think atheist communities are going to be any better/nicer than Christian ones – we’re all just humans. Go at your own pace – and you can go back if you want. I’m here to support you, not deconvert you.”

In contrast, some churches (I’m not suggesting Pastor Yadav’s church here) prey on the vulnerable. They pro-actively zero in on the lost, the broken, the lonely, and the vulnerable and gather them tightly into their fold. It might seem like they’re offering redemption, but, too often, what is offered is love-bombing, brainwashing, then financial and spiritual exploitation.

How much better, stronger, and more principled is the church that says, “No, you’re not weak, you’re strong. You’re not unworthy, you’re terrific – with us or without us. Your value does not depend on your membership. If we can help you on your journey towards confidence and self-love, we’re here to support you, but not to convert you. Decide what you believe when you are whole, not now while you’re in pain.”

You need an army to change the world and, surely, it’s better to build an army with enthusiastic recruits, not bedraggled conscripts who have nowhere else to go.

My objections to Pastor Yadav’s fifth point are similar:

To join a church is to resist all traditional loyalties to state, party, culture, family or affinity in an act of loyalty to a group that transcends all natural categories.

There are often very good reasons to resist loyalties to state, party, culture or family. Nationalism is destroying America. Blind loyalty is never a good thing. And I’m a firm believer that there are often branches of the family tree that should be joyously excised with a chainsaw. What frightens me, is when institutions encourage their members to forego loyalties that aren’t necessarily unhealthy and prioritise group loyalty instead.

When you join a church, you should be adding to your social network; you should be building bridges, not burning them. Joining a church shouldn’t be like boarding the Minnow and setting off for Gilligan’s Island.

To me, encouraging followers to abandon loyalties outside the church and suggesting that the church is the only institution to which they should be loyal reeks of “abusive relationship.” (I’m not saying Pastor Yadav is doing this, only that this is what I read into it, and why I found it triggering.)

If the church is to have real value – for individuals and for society – it should be just one of the social institutions to which its members are loyal – and, of course, that loyalty should never be blind.

By point 6, I’m grimacing so hard you can see my gums.

“Joining a church organizes your financial priorities around supporting an inclusive community for vulnerable people . . . that you actually have to live with.“

OK. I understand that churches have expenses too, and it’s only fair that the people who derive benefits from them should help to finance them. Helping the poor is a noble calling; but we should talk about how liberal churches using their numbers, power and influence to lobby governments and corporations for systemic change, will do far more for the poor than handouts.

Nevertheless, it’s nice if people who have surplus funds can contributed to causes or individuals who will benefit from their largesse. But the way in which people organise their “financial priorities” should never be something the church tries to influence or direct. Membership of a church should never, ever, involve its members (who may, themselves, be vulnerable) feeling obligated or pressured (even subtly) into making financial contributions.

I’m going to let point 7 slide and go straight to point 8.

“Joining a church is a way of maintaining healthy skepticism about human knowledge and capacities in the language of divine mystery”.

As a card-carrying skeptic I get really twitchy when people talk about being skeptical about “human knowledge.” Sure, humans get things wrong – all the time. But we also have brilliant systems – like scientific method, and peer review – to ensure that, on the important things, we’re more often right than wrong.

Human knowledge isn’t static and that makes people who like the certainty of religion very uncomfortable. Yes! What we know about the world changes according to new discoveries and changing circumstances. But, just because what we know changes, doesn’t mean that what we know is wrong. For example, Charles Darwin was right about evolution but wrong about some things concerning evolution. What we’ve learned since 1859 is that while Darwin got some of the detail wrong, his general hypothesis was still right.

If point 7 is telling us that, when the Bible or your own intuition (or “common-sense”) is at odds with the consensus of human knowledge, you should “go with your gut”, then it’s sending a really dangerous message. Neither the Bible or “your gut” is a reliable replacement for knowledge accrued through academic or scientific discipline. This is the kind of wrong-thinking that has Christians claiming that Jesus is their vaccine and that their natural immunity will save them from COVID.

Skepticism is a good thing, but the extent to which one is skeptical must be measured by the level of certainty expressed by people who are experts in the field, and a scrupulously honest assessment about how your expertise compares to theirs. Believing in God doesn’t make you (or even Jesus) an epidemiologist and no church should be suggesting that it does.

In comparison with the other points, point 8 only makes me squirm slightly:

To join a church is to cultivate an imagination for how your unique talents and creative potential can be offered on purpose for love instead of money.

Volunteering can certainly help vulnerable individuals and groups in the community and it can be personally rewarding. But, too often, it’s taken for granted that people with valuable skills and knowledge should provide their services for free. Women and people with disabilities, in particular, are frequently asked to “volunteer” their services, even when men around them are being paid.

Similar to my point about financial support, nobody should ever feel obliged to volunteer. These days, churches are businesses – often wealthy ones – and pastors (generally) don’t work as volunteers. Why? Because (generally) they have mortgages to pay and families to feed. Congregation members, similarly, need to pay the bills. Time spent volunteering may take away from time spent doing paid work. It isn’t a sin to prioritise paying your utility bills or your kids’ school fees over saving the world!

Many churches have accumulated their wealth by exploiting their congregations for volunteer labour. Hillsong is a case in point. I’m as committed as the next person to making the world a better place, but I don’t (generally) volunteer my services as a researcher. I work with people who lobby professionally and they pay me a fair (but not exorbitant) sum to assist. I know from personal experience that it’s possible to “save the world” and pay the bills at the same time.

If churches need human labour to do their work, they should (generally) be offering some kind of payment – in cash or in kind – with no expectation that people should work for free in order to buy their way into heaven.

Finally, point 10:

Joining a church is a life lesson in how to deal with assholes without retaliating, dehumanizing or running away (in the desperate hope of not becoming an asshole).

OK. Now I’m back to the full lips-turned-inside-out grimace. It’s really, really dangerous to tell people they have to learn to live with assholes without retaliating or running away. I realise Pastor Yadav is probably thinking of eccentric members of his congregation whose behaviour elicits Angela Merkel level eye-rolls. But, when we start telling women, in particular, that it’s a good thing to learn to live with an asshole, we end up with dead women.

Not all assholes are harmless. I’d venture to say that most aren’t. Assholes tend to be either psychologically or physically abusive, or both. We should be running away from the assholes in our lives at great speed. We should be encouraging and supporting legal retaliation where appropriate. And, while I’m generally opposed to dehumanising anyone, it’s a fact that some of the worst assholes (I’m talking narcissists and psychopaths here) are really just empty human shells who walk like aliens among us.

I think it’s incredibly healthy – often life-saving – to recognise that some people just aren’t functionally human. This was a hard and painful lesson for me. But, understanding this brutal fact is crucial for processing how and why you, or someone you love, has been abused. And running away – ceasing all contact if at all possible – is absolutely the best method for dealing with such people in a way that doesn’t compromise your own humanity.

When someone writes the kind of list composed by Pastor Yadav, what they meant, and what someone reads into it may be two very different things. I’ve obviously read the pastor’s post in a way he didn’t mean for it to be interpreted. I’m very grateful that he has allowed me to voice my contrarian thoughts. My Christian friend clearly wasn’t triggered by the pastor’s words in the same way that I was. It’s really important to understand that I haven’t written this as a criticism of Pastor Yadav, or my friend, but with a desire to explore how meaning is created in the space between writer and reader.

In my (admittedly atheist) view, when the church is envisaged as an institution that is an island or a refuge, it is burning bridges, not building them. You can’t change the world from a desert island. Strong people don’t live in conclaves.

It seems to me that, effective, liberal, world-changing churches emerge when they exist as a part of a wider, diverse network of individuals and institutions who are trying to make the world better – even if, sometimes, they look at the world (or Facebook posts) very differently. I want to be a part of that kind of network.

Chrys Stevenson

Comments on this blog are moderated. You’re welcome to comment on the issues discussed in this post, but if there are any comments which personally attack Pastor Yadav will not be approved. This is a discussion, not an inquisition.