Scott Morrison called to do God's work

 

Scott Morrison tells Christian conference he was called to do God’s work as prime minister

Australia’s first Pentecostal PM says he practises the tradition of ‘laying on of hands’ while working and calls misuse of social media the work of ‘the evil one’

Jenny and Scott Morrison sing at church
 
02:10
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison tells conference of calling to 'God’s work' – video
Chief political correspondent

Last modified on Mon 26 Apr 2021 18.16 AEST

 
 
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Scott Morrison has asked a national conference of Christian churches to help him help Australia, while revealing his belief that he and his wife, Jenny, have been called upon to do God’s work.

In video that has emerged of the prime minister speaking at the Australian Christian Churches conference on the Gold Coast last week, Morrison also revealed that he had sought a sign from God while on the 2019 election campaign trail, and that he had practised the evangelical tradition of the “laying-on of hands” while working in the role of prime minister.

He also describes the misuse of social media as the work of “the evil one”, in reference to the Devil, and called on his fellow believers to pray against its corrosive effect on society.

While Australians are familiar with the non-evangelical Christian beliefs of John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, Morrison is the first Pentecostal Christian to hold the office.

 
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Morrison has been open about his faith, inviting journalists into the Horizon church in the Sutherland shire during the 2019 election campaign, and describing his subsequent victory as a “miracle” win. Footage of him calling for prayers for state and territory leaders during the Covid pandemic has also emerged.

The prime minister travelled to the conference from Sydney using his taxpayer-funded aircraft. No video of the address has been promoted on his Facebook or official pages, nor has his office released a copy of his speech, as usually occurs when he is speaking in his official capacity as prime minister.

The video, which was broadcast by Vineyard Christian church then distributed by the Rationalist Society, gives rare insight into Morrison’s personal religious practice and the beliefs that guide him and the rapidly growing Pentecostal movement in Australia.

Asking the audience for their help and prayers, Morrison reveals that when he became prime minister, his pastor gave him the advice on election night to “use what God has put in your hands … to do what God has put in your heart”.

‘Scott, you’ve got to run’

Talking about a difficult time during the final fortnight of the election campaign, Morrison shared a story of asking God for a sign before visiting the Ken Duncan Gallery on the New South Wales Central Coast.

“I must admit I was saying to myself, ‘You know, Lord, where are you, where are you? I’d like a reminder if that’s OK,’” Morrison says.

“And there right in front of me was the biggest picture of a soaring eagle that I could imagine and of course the verse hit me.

“The message I got that day was, ‘Scott, you’ve got to run to not grow weary, you’ve got to walk to not grow faint, you’ve got to spread your wings like an eagle to soar like an eagle.’”

He told the conference that he and Jenny had been grateful for the “amazing prayers and support” sent from Christians across the country, and shared with the crowd that he had practised the laying on of hands, a Pentecostal tradition of healing and encouragement to faith.

“I’ve been in evacuation centres where people thought I was just giving someone a hug and I was praying, and putting my hands on people … laying hands on them and praying in various situations,” he says, referring to a visit to Kalbarri in the Pilbara in the wake of Cyclone Seroja.

Scott Morrison meets a local resident as he visits cyclone-affected areas in the tourist town of Kalbarri

Scott Morrison meets a local resident as he visits cyclone-affected areas in the tourist town of Kalbarri. Photograph: Getty Images

“It’s been quite a time, it’s been quite a time, and God has, I believe, been using us in those moments to be able to pride provide some relief and comfort and just some reassurance.

“And we’ll keep doing this for as long as that season is. That’s how we see it. We are called, all of us, for a time and for a season and God would have us use it wisely and for each day I get up and I move ahead there is just one little thing that’s in my head and that is ‘for such a time as this’,” Morrison said in reference to a biblical verse seen as a call to arms for Christian practice.

If you look at each other not as individuals but as warring tribes you know it’s easy to start disrespecting each other

Talking about the importance of community, Morrison also discusses at length the work of the former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks, praising his book Morality for highlighting the “dignity and value of each and every human being and the responsibilities that they have one to another”.

“He was talking about community and that you can’t replace community with governments, the market, with other institutions; you can’t you can’t replace the family, you can’t replace marriage, you can’t replace the things that are so personal and ingrained and come out of us as individuals with systems of power or systems of capital.

“You know, you cancel out one human being and you cancel community, because community is just human beings that God loves and intended to connect us one to another.

“It’s so important that we continue to reach out and let each and every Australian know that they are important … that they are significant, and as we believe they are created in the image of God, and that in understanding that they can go on a journey that I’m very confident you can take them on, and I’m relying on you to do that because that’s not my job, that’s yours.”

He also talks about the threats to the sense of community, singling out identity politics as being “corrosive” to society, while suggesting prayers are needed because Facebook can be used by “the evil one” to undermine social cohesion.

“Sure, social media has its virtues and its values and enables us to connect with people in ways we’ve never had before – terrific, terrific – but those weapons can also be used by the evil one and we need to call that out.”

Jenny and Scott Morrison sing at an Easter service at his Horizon Church in April 2019

Jenny and Scott Morrison sing at an Easter service at his Horizon Church in April 2019. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

He said identity politics was an “absolutely corrosive” threat to society, which negated the value of the individual while promoting tribalism and misunderstanding.

“If you look at each other not as individuals but as warring tribes you know it’s easy to start disrespecting each other; it’s easy to start not understanding the person across from you.”

He also draws on conversations he had with his father-in-law about his faith when he started dating Jenny as a 16-year-old.

“He’d get very frustrated with me because I wouldn’t answer all the questions and I said, ‘Roy, you know, I can’t fix the world, I can’t save the world, but we both believe in someone who can,’” Morrison said.

“And that’s why I’ve come here for your help tonight, because what you do and what you bring to the life and faith of our country is what it needs.”

Early in the speech Morrison also acknowledges “the other members of my band of Christian believers in Canberra”, including “Brother Stuie” – Stuart Robert, the minister for employment.

‘Australia is very secular’

A political historian, Judith Brett, said Australians were “wary” of religion in politics, and Morrison’s religious beliefs stood out in the same way that Tony Abbott’s Catholicism was out of step with the view of most Australians.

“Australia is a pretty secular society and our politics has not been driven by religion as much as it has in the United States,” Brett said.

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“Essentially Australia is very secular, and the sort of things that he is saying if it was in the 19th century it wouldn’t stand out as being particularly peculiar, where people praying for you and doing God’s work was much more part of widespread common sense even if people weren’t particularly churchgoing, but it makes him seem odd in what is effectively a secular society.”

But she said the address was “contentless” and didn’t call for any radical religious policy changes on issues like abortion law or same-sex marriage.

“It doesn’t seem to have much policy content, it isn’t making him more compassionate to people trying to live on Newstart, but on the other hand he isn’t trying to ban abortion, and he is not trying to wind back same-sex marriage legislation.

“He is not a warrior, he is not a political warrior. It may be a guiding philosophy, but it is rather nebulous.”

 

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/26/scott-morrison-tells-christian-conference-he-was-called-to-do-gods-work-as-prime-minister?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

14 comments

He also took a private plane at OUR expense to the Gold Coast  "To do God's work'

He also said what the country needs is  "the church'

 

 

 

 

Related stories Australian prime minister Scott Morrison tells conference of calling to 'God’s work' – video  18h ago Scott Morrison prays for Australia and commits nation to God amid coronavirus crisis1 Apr 2020 Australian government unveils $17.6bn stimulus package as coronavirus hammers stock market12 Mar 2020 ‘Gossip’: Morrison sidesteps claim Hillsong pastor snubbed by White House22 Sep 2019Scott Morrison prays at Hillsong conference – video  10 Jul 2019Scott Morrison calls for ‘more love’ as he prays for Australia at Hillsong conference10 Jul 2019Scott Morrison will change the law to ban religious schools expelling gay students13 Oct 2018'Darkness' coming if Scott Morrison not re-elected, Pentecostal leader claims7 Sep 2018

PlanB  - I was so disgusted when I read about him in today's Telegraph. What a hypocrit of a man. I really think he thinks he  is the chosen one. He is in the Pentecostal Church and they talk in foreign tongues???? no wonder we don't know what he is talking about. 

 

 

 

 

What gutter rubbish that comes out of his mouth.

He is NOT doing God's Work, he is doing the work of the Devil. He is setting Australia up for the eventual antichrist.

1. No where does the Bible state to shout out your good deeds, it is to be in silence and God will reward you.

2. Take note Scomo - you are going to cop it. It says in Revelation not to harm the earth - for which God created. You have chosen to destroy it by gas exploration and coal mining.

3 You are NOT a Christian. When I hear how you treat your peers in Government, no respect, no loyalty, no honour, all against the Bible stating how Christians should act.

Hola - A full blown Christian speaking in tongues is like a code to talk to God not usually to man. But I highly suspect Scomo is a ring in, a false Christian. Also a Christian would detach themselves from same sex relations as it is not as God had planned. But in the same token - God is not pleased his people have chosen this way, but he still loves them as his people.

I have also read where out of the lot of the politicians in his party 13 of them are also of his church --

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/the-political-influence-of-the-pentecostal-hillsong-church/12263182

 

 

The mates in faith that Scott Morrison admires January 7, 2020 Written by: 24 RepliesCategory: News and Politicspermalink

In 2008, Scott Morrison used his first speech in parliament to tell us how he had been “greatly assisted by the pastoral work of many dedicated church leaders”, specifically mentioning “pastors Brian Houston and Leigh Coleman.”

Most people are aware of Brian Houston, leader of the Hillsong Church, after he was censured by the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse for his failure to report to authorities his father’s confessed serial sexual abuse of children, and for the grave conflict of interest in dealing with the sex claims himself.

 

This is the man that Scotty wanted to bring to dinner at the White House.

But you may not be aware of Leigh Coleman, another former Hillsong executive who, two years before Scotty’s confession of admiration, was investigated for allegedly ripping off government funded Indigenous charities, as reported by The Australian.

“The Government has admitted that Hillsong Emerge chief Leigh Coleman received $80,000 of federal indigenous development funds to top up his salary, despite having only indirect involvement in the projects.

It also paid Hillsong Emerge $82,500 to fit out its office in the Sydney suburb of Redfern. Mr Coleman uses the office to run the Christian Business Directory, which touts for advertising worth up to $2000 an item.

The new material shows Mr Coleman received $80,000 in annual salary for his part in administering two indigenous business development programs. Hillsong Emerge’s federal funding in both programs, by Indigenous Business Australia, was discontinued this year after revelations in federal parliament that only a tiny portion of the millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money reached the Aboriginal community.

The vast majority of the funds went to employing Hillsong Emerge staff, including $315,000 to cover the salaries of seven workers in Redfern.

In one year, the program made just six “micro-enterprise development” loans to Aborigines, which were worth an average of $2856 each.

The discontinuation of the IBA funding programs came only weeks after Hillsong Emerge was stripped of a separate $415,000 federal grant for community crime prevention.

Liberal MP Louis Markus, a Hillsong church member who once worked with Mr Coleman, won the seat of Greenway in Sydney’s northwest at the last election with the campaign support of Hillsong members. Labor MPs have alleged in federal parliament that the commonwealth grants to Hillsong Emerge were a reward for Hillsong’s political support.”

Five years later and Mr Coleman was in the news again with this article from news.com.au

“A CHRISTIAN charity which has so far spent more than $1.3 million to generate just $330,000 in loans for Indigenous Australians is being investigated.

Many Rivers Microfinance is run by a former Hillsong executive who has already come under parliamentary scrutiny over an earlier loans program that delivered only a trickle of funds to the Indigenous community.

In 2006 Leigh Coleman’s operation at Hillsong Emerge – the evangelical group’s former benevolent arm – had its funding discontinued after revelations the vast majority of taxpayer dollars went to employing staff.

Mr Coleman’s current program at Many Rivers has since successfully raised millions of dollars from the Federal Government and some of the country’s biggest companies including Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Westpac.

But since its inception in 2007 to the end of the 2010 financial year the latest available records show it has delivered just 74 microenterprise loans worth a total of $330,000.

While declining to provide evidence as to how the reported $1.375 million had been spent delivering them, the charity said that – like the discontinued Hillsong pilot – the bulk had gone on staff salaries and training.

A presentation delivered by Many Rivers to potential donors, and obtained by news.com.au, claimed a single field officer in a “developing regional community” would cost the charity $250,000 to support per year.

Since 2010, Many Rivers has obtained an additional $1 million from the Federal Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, $522,000 from the Federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace relations and more from the West Australian Government.

Westpac Bank has provided $1 million over five years as well as all loan capital since mid-2010. Other private donors include Transfield, Fortescue Metals Group, Chevron, Woodside Petroleum and Exxon Mobil as well as law firms Blake Dawson and Minter Ellison.

As CEO of Many Rivers, Mr Coleman has been paid an undisclosed amount for his services on a contract basis since the charity’s creation as a legal entity in 2007 through his private firm Looking Glass Holdings, which he runs with his wife Vera.

These services were never put out to tender. Vera Coleman was listed as a member of the company in the 2007-2008 financial statements.

Vera Coleman is also a former Hillsong Pastor and, according to her CV on the Looking Glass Trust website, worked for Hillsong Emerge between 1996 and 2007 and helped initiate the pilot for the Redfern component of Hillsong’s microfinance program which her husband oversaw until it had funding cancelled.

She also helped develop the controversial “Shine” program for young women which was criticised for teaching young women self esteem through learning how to apply make-up, style their hair and walk with books balanced on their heads.”

Nikki Sava’s book, Plots and Prayers, reveals that Scotty and his fellow Pentecostal and close friend and numbers man Stuart Robert, prayed that “righteousness would exalt the nation,” in the minutes before Mr Morrison was made prime minister by the Liberal party room. “…righteousness would mean the right person had won,” Mr Robert told Savva.

Independent Australia have an excellent article revisiting the ‘litany of transgressions’ by the righteous Stuart Robert. It’s a long list but it didn’t stop Scotty from promoting his mate in faith.

Pentecostalism is on the rise in Australia, particularly with the young.

“Australia’s largest churches in every capital city and in the regions are all Pentecostal churches,” said Andrew Singleton, an Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Research at Deakin University.

“Starting with Hillsong in Sydney and churches in Melbourne and Adelaide like Planet Shakers, Riverside Church, Paradise Church are all Pentecostal.

“More people are attending Pentecostal churches than any other Christian denomination, they put bums on seats.”

If people are not concerned about the deliberate infiltration of politics by conservatives with religious backing, they should be, particularly when they are preaching their “prosperity doctrine” to our youth and our politicians.

 

https://theaimn.com/the-mates-in-faith-that-scott-morrison-admires/

Yes they know which side their bread is buttered on. These churches never pay taxes yet fleece the poor unsuspecting. There is no room for religion in politics. I call them cults. "Righteousness would exalt  the Nation". Oh, give me a break. 

Yes HOLA it is a rip off by a lot of low life scum

That is why there are so many churches in the USA for donkeys years.

I noticed in the paper that scumbag Dr. Andrew Laming is back in parliament again after Scott Morrison sent him off for "Empathy training"? You can't learn about empathy it is inside you and comes from your nature. ScoMo should have done more to show his responsibility as a Prime Minister and have him sacked. This man is a serial woman stalker. More women are coming forward and speaking about his behaviour - which he denys completely. ScoMo only seems to believe the men and won't even talk to the women who have been victimised. 

Scumo never leads he follows and seems he is unable to stand up to these scum bags

Everybody is entitled to follow their faith, even politicians.  Most, if not all previous leaders have declared their faith at one time or another.  Having said that, there does appear to be a worrying increase in the amount of influence this particular faith appears to have in the way the country is governed.

Yes Leonie I agree but they should not try and involve others and also the country which scomo is doing

 

Of course the poor man calls on God, would you prefer him to call on the devil?? Blessed are they that live by the hand of God, you should all follow his example.

 

Good people do not need a religion to be good people.

ScoMo is not a good person and his claptrap about a God doesn't change people's opinion of him or a God.

Anthropomorphism is for individuals who choose to place their beliefs and feelings in that direction, but ScoMo's pontification and attitude should not give the impression of himself  being a deranged, inconsiderate fool.

 

Scottie from Marketing is the perfect recipient for God's word

he is obedient to his institutions - whatever he may perceive them to be he has no problem condoning child rape, violent attacks on women and rape of women and defending the people who commit these acts - if it suits the 'holy' purposehe has no problem condoning campaigns of lies, innuendo and isolation against victims of the above crimes if his masters decide it is a 'plausible sell' to assist the 'holy' purposehis moral and ethical values are derived from his ability to serve his masters - just like any vassalhe has no problem with an external entity defining his moral and ethical values and the righteousness of his actions - hence his reliance on a willingness to 'serve'

So yeah, great news Scottie is a tub-thumper .........

Consider for a moment the cost of the Murdoch Marketing campaign that is keeping this regrettable creature in power  ..... and then consider what ROI MM will demand and get ....

It appears we do actually get the Govt we deserve

C'mon people, he was chosen by God to lead the plebs. God sent the eagle to tell him so. Miracle or grandiosity? Further, like Jesus he can heal with his hands. It doesn't matter if the recipient doesn't want his healing hands on them...they are forced to submit to imposition of his godly powers because they, being less godly, will understandably not know that he is force touching them to miraculously (or grandiosely?) heal them. Unfortunately though, god didn't give him the power to hold a hose, which might have been more helpful.

Yep, our PM is grandiose! His speech to the Christians was full of it. In a person wielding power, such grandiosity is dangerous! (not to mention delusional)! 

It doesn’t matter whose “work” Scott Morrison is called to do. He is a darn sight better than the idiot, who thinks he can run the country. Albo couldn’t lead anyone out of a paper bag!!!

It does matter because he was voted in to work for the people, not God.
At least Albo is not grandiose! He strikes me as a rather humble, decent bloke.

I have no time for either party -- at the moment --  but have darn sight less time for Morrison --and find it downright frightening that a person that can be so enamored with such a religion is running this country

 

Morrison has NO leadership qualities at all and also no empathy either, he had proved that over and over

You only have to look at Morrison and you see an arrogant/stubborn/rude SOB

I don't care for either of them either tbh, but prefer Albo over ScoMo.  The least worse choice.  Feels like our politics has been that way for quite a while.  

Anthony Albanese seems like a nice guy, but is a bit wishy-washy like he's already given up.  He fires up from time to time but sort of runs out of steam and just goes with the flow.  Maybe he's just keeping himself a small target after what happened with previous Labor leaders, who knows, but he comes across as ineffectual.

The trouble with Scott Morrison as I see it is the opposite, personal photographers capture heartwarming scenes, building a cubby house for the kids, etc.  But he changes with the wind.  From the stern 'stop the boats' and 'robodebt' enabler to the baseball cap wearing 'hail fellow well met' chum and back again as necessary.  It all feels like a performance.  I keep wondering, which is the 'real' Scott Morrison?

I guess you could say that about any politician, they are all actors in a way, performing for us, the chumps who vote for them.

 

I agree Leonie, Albo at least has some empathy -- Morrison has none and also not one thing in his favor

ScoMo is involved in the Hillsong cult, the Pastor Brian Houston has a paedophile father and ScoMo tries hard to keep the information out of mainstream media and public general knowledge.

For years, Mr Houston’s father Frank abused as many as nine boys across New Zealand and Australia, including Brett Sengstock who testified before the royal commission into child sexual abuse in 2014, more on the link :-

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/09/23/hillsong-brian-houston-scott-morrison/

The background of Scott Morrison, no way is he Mr Squeaky Clean, a liar, thief, a hippocrite, an incompetent buffoon, and more below:-

https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/02/11/scott-morrison-career/

The more I read and see on Morrison the more I despise him he is downright crooked -he ducks and weaves and never tells the truth --

He carries on like he is a God-like person and IMO is very far from it and the very fact that he is besties with Houston --says enough,  I think he is all about the $$$ and shows no care for much else

Five aspects of Pentecostalism that shed light on Scott Morrison’s politics

 

 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison began his victory speech on Saturday with the words, “I have always believed in miracles”. This was no mere hyperbole. Morrison appeared to be declaring his belief that God had actively intervened in the political process to bring about his re-election.

Morrison’s Pentecostal Christian faith is at the centre of his understanding of political life. He invited cameras to film him while worshipping at his church, Horizon, in southern Sydney. And in his maiden speech to Parliament in 2008, he described Pentecostal Hillsong Church leader Brian Houston as his “mentor” and himself as standing for “the immutable truths and principles of the Christian faith”.

In Morrison, the marketing man joins the evangelical preacher. When he tells his listeners, “I will burn for you”, this references the Biblical text, “Never let the fire in your heart go out,” (Romans 12.11). And, if he stays true to his church’s Pentecostal doctrine, he presumably believes in a personal Devil “who, by his influence, brought about the downfall of man”.

What then, are the key aspects of Pentecostal belief that will likely shape Morrison’s actions as a re-elected Prime Minister commanding huge authority in his party?

.Miracles

Morrison’s Horizon Church is part of the broader Pentecostal movement that emerged in the United States in the early 20th century. That miracles happen is a central tenet of Pentecostalism. As a religion, it sees itself as re-creating the gifts of the Spirit experienced by the earliest Christian worshippers. Along with the working of miracles, these included speaking in tongues and healings. They remain central features of Pentecostal belief and worship today.

Divine providence

Morrison’s mention of an election miracle coheres with the Pentecostal belief in the divine providence. Put simply, this is the belief that, in spite of the apparent chaos in the world, as the old song puts it, “He’s got the whole world in his hands”.

According to Pentecostal theology, all of history – and the future – is in the control of God; from creation, to the Fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden, to the redemption of all in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In turn, this will lead to the second coming of Christ, the end of the world and the final judgement.

This is why further action on reducing carbon emissions to counter the environmental damage wrought by climate change may have little intellectual purchase with the PM. If the end of the world through climate change is part of God’s providential plan, there is precious little that we need to or can do about it.

Coral bleaching in the Kimberley region in 2017. If climate change is part of God’s plan, there is precious little we need do about it. University of Western AustraliaProsperity theology

In keeping with his theology, Morrison appears to see himself as chosen by God to lead us all towards his understanding of the promised land, which as we know means, “If you have a go, you get a go”.

This “have a go” philosophy sits squarely within Pentecostal prosperity theology. This is the view that belief in God leads to material wealth. Salvation too has a connection to material wealth – “Jesus saves those who save”. So the godly become wealthy and the wealthy are godly. And, unfortunately, the ungodly become poor and the poor are ungodly.

This theology aligns perfectly with the neo-liberal economic views espoused by Morrison. The consequence is that it becomes a God-given task to liberate people from reliance on the welfare state.

So there is no sense in Pentecostal economics of a Jesus Christ who was on the side of the poor and the oppressed. Nor is there one of rich men finding it easier to pass through the eyes of needles than to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. On the contrary, God helps those who are able to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

 A homeless woman in Brisbane in 2017. There is no sense in Pentecostal economics of a Jesus Christ who was on the side of the poor and the oppressed. Dan Peled/AAPExclusivism

That said, in some ways, Pentecostalism is pretty light on beliefs. Rather, it stresses an immediate personal connection with God that is the exclusive property of those who are saved. This leads to a fairly binary view of the world. There are the saved and the damned, the righteous and the wicked, the godly and the satanic.

In this Pentecostalist exclusivist view, Jesus is the only way to salvation. Only those who have been saved by Jesus (generally those who have had a personal experience of being “born again” which often happens in church spontaneously during worship) have any hope of attaining eternal life in heaven. At its best, it generates a modesty and humility; at its worst a smugness and arrogance.

So only born-again Christians will gain salvation. Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, and non-born-again Christians are doomed to spend an eternity in the torments of hell.

Thus, as the website of the Christian group to which Scott Morrison’s Horizon church belongs puts it, “We believe in the everlasting punishment of the wicked (in the sense of eternal torment) who wilfully reject and despise the love of God manifested in the great sacrifice of his only Son on the cross for their salvation”.

 Worshippers at Horizon church in April: Pentecostalists are more concerned with the experience of the Holy Spirit than the Bible. Mick Tiskas/AAPPietism

In principle, the PM’s faith is “pietistic”. It is about the individual’s personal relationship with God. So faith is focused “upwards” on God in the here and now – and the hereafter. The result is that Pentecostalism is weak on the social implications of its beliefs. Social equity and social justice are very much on the back burner.

So you would not expect from a Pentecostalist like Morrison any progressive views on abortion, womens’ rights, LGBTI issues, immigration, the environment, same sex marriage, and so on.

Pentecostalists are not fundamentalists. Unlike them, they are especially concerned with the direct experience of the Holy Spirit as the key to salvation. But like fundamentalists, they believe in the Bible as the inerrant word of God in matters of ethics, science and history.

Thus, they hold to a social conservatism reinforced by an uncritical approach to the Bible, which reveals everything necessary for salvation. It would be difficult, for example, for a Pentecostalist to reject the Biblical teaching that homosexuals were bound for hell. The Prime Minister recently did so. But only after first evading the question and then through very gritted teeth.

ChristianityScott MorrisonReligion and politicsMiraclesReligion and politics in AustraliaPentacostalismElection 2019prime minister

https://theconversation.com/five-aspects-of-pentecostalism-that-shed-light-on-scott-morrisons-politics-117511

 

 

 

    

Scott Morrison and the big lie about climate change: does he think we're that stupid? 

 

 

  

Of all the horrors that might befall the burnt-out, the flooded, the cyclone-ravaged and the drought-stricken Australian this summer, perhaps none could be viewed with more dread than turning from their devastated home to see advancing on them a bubble of media in which enwombed is our prime minister, Scott Morrison, arriving, as ever, too late with a cuddle.

It’s fair to say that Morrison has pulled off other roles with more conviction – the shouty Commandant of the Pacific camps perhaps his most heartfelt to date, the Gaslighter-in-Chief his most audacious, his Mini-Me to Donald Trump’s Dr Evil not without tragicomic charge – but sorrowful Father of the Nation has begun to feel a firebreak too far.

In Australia we are all now being treated as children, quietened Australians, most especially on the climate crisis. While the climate crisis has become Australians’ number one concern, both major parties play determinedly deaf and dumb on the issue while action and protest about the climate crisis is increasingly subject to prosecution and heavy sentencing.

In Tasmania, the Liberal government intends to legislate sentences of up to 21 years – more than many get for murder – for environmental protest, legislation typical of the new climate of authoritarianism that has flourished under Morrison. As Australia burns, what we are witnessing nationally is no more or less than the criminalisation of democracy in defence of the coal and gas industries.

 Scott Morrison says no evidence links Australia's carbon emissions to bushfires Read more

In this regard, the climate crisis is a war between the voice of coal and the voice of the people. And that war is in Australia being won hands down by the fossil fuel industry.

Which brings us back to that industry’s number one salesman, the prime minister, standing there in the ash in the manner of Humphrey B Bear on MDMA, as, mollied up, he pulls another victim in the early stages of PTSD into his shirt, his odour, his aura – such as it is – and holds them there perhaps just a little too long. Sometimes, at his most perplexing, he lets that overly large head loll on the victim’s shoulder and leaves it there. Prayers and thoughts naturally follow.

Perhaps it is just his way. Certainly, the prime minister is an unusual issue of two stock types frequently derided in broader Australian culture: the marketing man and the happy-clappy. But in fairness to both tribes, he seems to draw on the worst in both traditions and make of them something at once insincere, sinister and vaguely threatening.

Perhaps it’s the slightly up and down smile, the uneven mouth and crooked teeth, a lack of symmetry that can be attractive in some here seems to suggest nothing more than an untrustworthy menace. After all Elvis made of his sneer an alluring smile. Scott, with his reverse magic, makes of his every smile a sneer. Still, his wisdom would seem to be that if he is seen to be very good at feeling our pain we won’t ask him what caused the wound.

And therein the problem.

The prime minister must accept that public men are judged by public acts. Real empathy would mean speaking honestly to our nation about what the climate catastrophe means for our economy, our environment, our society, and each of us and for each of us personally.

All this theatre hides a deeply cynical calculation: that Australians will keep on buying the big lie, a lie given historic expression last Thursday morning when on national radio the prime minister declared that Australia’s unprecedented bushfires were unconnected to climate change.

The same day the New South Wales government announced that Sydney dams had in the last 12 months received just 10% of the normal water inflows and declared level two water restrictions as numerous country towns face the prospect of no water.

And on this day, when Sydney was blanketed in bushfire smoke, when much of Victoria was declared code red, fires were burning out of control in South Australia, and “climate emergency” was declared word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries, Morrison said that “to suggest that at just 1.3% of emissions, that Australia doing something more or less would change the fire outcome this season – I don’t think that stands up to any credible scientific evidence at all”.

This is an argument entirely in bad faith.

Two days before saw the release of a major UN report that forecast Australia to be the sixth-largest producer of fossil fuels by 2030. Between 2005 and 2030 Australia’s extraction-based emissions from fossil fuel production will have increased by 95%. By 2040, according to the report, on current projections the world’s annual carbon emissions will be 41 gigatonnes, four times more than the maximum amount of 10 gigatonnes required to keep global heating below 1.5C.

According to the Economist: “The report lays much blame on governments’ generosity to fossil-fuel industries.” The report details at length how Australia supports its fossil fuel industries.

Actively working through legislation, subsidy and criminalisation of opposition to enable Australia to become one of the world’s seven major producers of fossil fuels makes Australia’s actions directly and heavily responsible for the growing climate catastrophe we are now witnessing in Australia. It gives the lie to the nonsense that we will make our Paris commitments “in a canter”.

It cannot be explained away. It cannot be excused. Australia is actively working hard to become a major driver of the global climate crisis. That is what we have become.

The same day Morrison went to the Gabba, got photographed with cricketers and tweeted: “Going to be a great summer of cricket, and for our firefighters and fire-impacted communities, I’m sure our boys will give them something to cheer for.”

To the question does he think we are that stupid, the answer was implicit in an interview the same day when the prime minister justified not meeting with 23 former fire chiefs and emergency services leaders calling for a climate emergency declaration in April, claiming the government had the advice it needed. He went on to say that: “We’re getting on with the job, preparing for what has already been a very devastating fire season.”

Only he’s not.

Getting on with the job would be calling a moratorium on new thermal coalmines and gas fracking. Getting on with the job would be announcing a subsidised transition to electric vehicles by 2030. Getting on with the job would be working to close down all coal-fired powered stations as a matter of urgency. Getting on with the job would be calling a summit of the renewable energy industry and asking how the government can help make the transition one that happens now and one that creates jobs in the old fossil fuel energy communities.

And getting on with the job would be going to the world with these initiatives and arguing powerfully, strongly, courageously for other countries to follow as we once led the way on the secret ballot, women’s suffrage, Antarctic protection, the charter of human rights.

We are not a superpower, but nor are we a micronation. We have an economy the size of Russia’s. Our stand on issues whether good or bad is noted and quoted and used as an example. And one only has to look at the global standing of New Zealand to see the power of setting a moral and practical example, and the good that flows from it for a nation and its people. Australians everywhere are ready to get on with the job of dealing with climate change. We just need a prime minister to lead us. In the meantime though we are left with a mollied-up Humphrey B Bear.

That same day, news broke of a panicked attempt by the federal government to administer some desperate triage over the growing costs to ordinary Australians of climate change in the form of perhaps the most ill-considered piece of policy in recent political history: to underwrite insurance premiums in north Queensland where premiums on homes in cyclone-affected areas are becoming unaffordable.

Major insurers have been warning for years that many homes will no longer be insurable as the consequences of climate change are felt and have been demanding action on climate change. The government has done nothing and now wishes to use taxpayers’ money to hide the growing costs to individual Australians of climate change. If the government does go ahead with this panicked response the precedent established is pregnant with catastrophe for the public purse.

According to a detailed report by SGS Economics and Planning released at the beginning of this year more than 1.6 million Sydneysiders are at high risk of flooding or bushfires, about 2 million Brisbane residents face extreme risks from cyclones, and more than 4.4 million people in NSW and Queensland live in areas with extreme or high risk of cyclones. It will be impossible for any government to subsidise the premiums of Townsville residents with cyclone risk and not offer it to those in Huonville whose fire risk also increases yearly.

And yet the government will not act on the fundamental problem that leads to those risks, choosing instead to use the public purse to hide the growing evidence of its failure.

  Scott Morrison can’t attack Australia’s political circus and pretend he isn’t its ringmasterKatharine MurphyKatharine Murphy Read more

The man who brandished a lump of coal and told us not to be scared, the man who last October told farmers to pray for rain, the man who says there is no link between the climate emergency and bushfires, the man whose party has for 30 years consistently and effectively sought to prevent any action on carbon emissions nationally and internationally will finally have to answer for the growing gap between his party’s ideological rhetoric and the reality of a dried-out, heating, burning Australia. And as the climate heats up ever quicker, and as the immense costs to us all become daily more apparent, that day draws ever closer.

Many political commentators tend to view Morrison as some political genius, the winner of the unwinnable election. But history may judge him differently: a Brezhnevian figure; the last of the dinosaurs, presiding over an era of stagnation at the head of a dying political class imprisoned within and believing its own vast raft of lies as the world lived a fundamentally different reality of economic decay, environmental pillage and social breakdown.

A corrupted, sclerotic system incapable of the change needed, surviving only by and through a dull repression of dissent and dissenters can, nevertheless, seem eternal – until the hour it crumbles. At some point something gives. Something always gives. The longer the impasse, the more denied the common voice, the greater and more terrible that future moment.

We still have other, better choices. We need leaders who will enable us to make them.

Morrison’s Pentecostal religion places great emphasis on the idea of the Rapture. When the Rapture arrives, the Chosen – that is, those Pentecostalists with whom the prime minister worships and their controversial pastor – will ascend to Heaven while the rest of us are condemned to the Tribulation – a world of fires, famine and floods in which we all are to suffer and the majority of us to die wretchedly, while waiting for the Second Coming and Scott and co wait it out in the Chairman’s Lounge above. Could it be that the prime minister in his heart is – unlike the overwhelming majority of Australians – not concerned with the prospect of a coming catastrophe when his own salvation is assured?

In any case, as a Christian whose faith is built on a direct reading of the gospels, the prime minister would know the most compelling and convincing form of betrayal has always been the embrace and kiss.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/25/scott-morrison-and-the-big-lie-about-climate-change-does-he-think-were-that-stupid

 

  

 

 

Thank ou for supplying the article PlanB,

Only one thing in his favour, Climate Change is a myth in it's context and is not in any way linked to bush-fires.
On a large scale, vandals, the weird beliefs and protests of Greenies and on a small area, lightning.

What an idiot is Scomo. All this cash splash comes from China who are buying all our Iron Ore.

Who here remembers the "Pig Iron Bob" era? It came back and bit us in the ass in WWII.

Now we have "Iron Ore Morrison" which will be the death of us. This will also come back to bite us in the ass in WWIII.

We are assisting the "China's War Machine!" and this dope can not see it!

 

 

BeeMee I just said the same to my son yesterday ---  makes you wonder why they-- the Chinese --  have refused all our other stuff but are loading up with the iron ore -- but these idiots wouldn't have a -----g clue!   Maybe it is pig iron Morrison my God I hope not?

 

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