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Compass: God in the Lodge

ABC screens the first of its "God in the Lodge" series, looking at the faith of Australian leaders.

Screen Shot 2014-05-01 at 2.55.42 pm.jpgReligion and politics are inextricably linked, even in the changing landscape of Canberra.

This Sunday night ABC screens the first of its “God in the Lodge” series, looking at the faith of Australian leaders and how it has impacted on the wider country.

This includes rarely seen archival footage of Australia’s early prime ministers, and interviews with a wide cross section of prime ministerial biographers and historians including Roy Williams, David Day, Blanche d’Alpuget, Marion Maddox, John Warhurst, Gerard and Anne Henderson, Margaret Simons and Stuart McIntyre.

“The faith, beliefs and values of Australia’s prime ministers from Barton to Abbott – from Federation to now. What did they believe? And, what impact did their religious beliefs have on their personal and political lives?

For the first time on television God in the Lodge examines an aspect of Australian politics often overlooked: the religious beliefs that have shaped and driven our prime ministers from 1901 to now.

Most of Australia’s leaders since Federation have believed in God.

Some were serious Christians. Only a few have been indifferent. But in our increasingly secular age it’s an area of political life rarely explored, even though in recent years our prime ministers’ religious beliefs have become more public.

In 2007 Kevin Rudd became our most overtly Christian prime minister, while our newest PM, Tony Abbott, studied for the priesthood before entering politics, and is Australia’s first Catholic from the Liberal Party to lead the country. God In The Lodge reveals how right from the start, religion – Christianity in particular – has played a role in federal politics.

The Bible was at the centre of proclamations declaring Federation. Our first prime minister, Edmund Barton, although Church of England, sought an audience with the Pope in 1902, a visit that outraged Australia’s majority Protestant population back home. And, his successor Alfred Deakin was one of Australia’s most intensely religious prime ministers. Although raised Church of England, Deakin also dabbled with Theosophy, The Salvation Army and Spiritualism.

Over subsequent decades religion played a key role in Australia’s WW1 conscription debates, and was pivotal in the 1950s Labor Party split. More recently Christian voters have played an influential role in election campaigns and outcomes.

6:30pm Sunday ABC1.

One Response

  1. A few years ago John Warhust wrote an essay titled “The Religious Beliefs of Australia’s Prime Ministers”; last year Roy Williams wrote a book with a similar name (the essay is online; you’ll find both if you Google that title). They’re interesting reading.

    Turn out that, despite popular belief, about 1/4 were agnostic or atheist and more than 1/2 only attended church for ceremonial occasions…

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