Religion: Do or Don’t

Do you know any of these?

 

Armenian Apostolic

Assyrian Apostolic
Baptist
Brethren
Catholic
Christadelphian
Church of Christ (Mormons)
Dominion Theology
Eastern Orthodox
Five-fold Ministry
Greek Orthodox
Jehovah Witnesses
Kingdom Now Theology
Lutheran
Macedonian Orthodox

Maronite Catholic
Methodist
New Apostolic Reformation
Open Church
Oriental Orthodox

Pentecostal

Presbyterian
Range Christian Fellowship
Revivalism
Roman Catholic
Russian Orthodox
Salvation Army
Serbian Orthodox
Seventh Day Adventist
Spiritual Warfare Christianity
Uniting Church

31 churches? More? Less? Christian? Are they real? Maybe I should take some of them out of this list – like Dominion Theology, Five-fold Ministry, Kingdom Now Theology, Open Church… Do you know any of them?

Christianity has gone downhill for decades – from 88% in 1966, to 74% in 1974, 61% in 2011 (blogwriter, Glen ‘The Census Expert’, said that 61.6% of all population in 2011 identified themselves as ‘christian’) and on down to 52% in 2016. ABS acknowledged that Catholicism, the largest christianity sub-religion, dropped from 25.3% in 2011 to 22.6% in 2016; they said that ‘no religion’ is rising very quickly: non-religious people went up to 30.1% in 2016.

How does 52% (2016) still run our country? Is it run by 22.6% (2016) of Catholics? Or 1.1% (2016) Pentecostal?

https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyReleaseDate/7E65A144540551D7CA258148000E2B85

ABC’s Religious & Ethics site talks about religion. Rodney Smith, in 2010, wrote an article about how Christianity Right had moved into Australian politics. This seemed to stand out since Howard, and our newest PM is one of those too.

Howard (LNP) was Anglican and was supposed to be devout of that religion. In 1998 he said that he was a mix of Protestant/Catholic/Anglican. In 2004, before he was voted out, he said that his religion was “in the background”, even though he saw religion as a requirement for PMship.

ALP took over from 2007 to 2013.

Rudd (ALP) was raised Catholic but attended the Anglican church in his electorate, Bulimba. The Australian wrote that he had not renounced his Catholic religion. I wonder why any sub-religion (“a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects”) wants the person to renounce which sub-religion they were brought up in?

Julia Gillard (ALP) was atheist and acknowledged it in a public forum. The media wrote heaps about her. Politics, unfortunately, worked against her as an atheist.

LNP took over in 2013 and still is in the seat.

Abbott (LNP) had “conservative Catholic views” and was originally not even considered for election as the PM. Unfortunately, the LNP did choose him.

Turnbull (LNP) has described himself as “a very imperfect Catholic”.

Morrison (LNP) was raised in the Uniting Church, but later became a follower of Pentecostalism. He now attends the Horizon Church (Hillsong), which is affiliated with the Australian Christian Churches and the Assemblies of God. 

An ABC article dated 10 November 2011 compared Gillard (atheist) and Howard (christian). It’s a long article, but worth the read.

This country is secular, regardless of Howard, Rudd, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison. The Constitution only writes s116 about religion. Religion is defined as “a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith”.

I have so many questions to ask the politicians, but I know they’ll never answer. They are still on here. Read them and comment if you think you have a definitive answer.

• The state laws do not write about religion. So why is Morrison trying to make a federal law about religion?
• Folau thought he could spiel bad stuff about LBGTI. He thinks he was blocked and fired. I think he was wrong. What do you think? (Read s116 and comments.) 
• What does ‘secular’ mean to you?
• Is ‘christianity’ all inclusive of all christian religions? Why so, or why not? 
• If sub-religion is separate – i.e., Catholicism is 22.6% - why is christianity considered to have more numbers than atheism who have 30.1% (2016)?
• How would you see a similar question in terms of race rather than religion: are all dark-skinned people African; are all white skinned people European?
• In politics, Christian Rights are all in LNP or independent: why?

I could go on…. and on. But I will leave it here and maybe I’ll look it up again after the next ABS. That will be interesting!