No longer a ‘Christian nation’: why Australia’s Christian Right loses policy battles even when it wins elections

IF 1.3 0 RELIGION

Religion State & Society Pub Date : 2021-05-27 DOI:10.1080/09637494.2021.1946344

David T Smith

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引用次数: 3

Abstract

ABSTRACT This contribution explains the declining policy influence of the Christian Right in Australia, especially compared to its more powerful American counterpart. Despite seven years of conservative federal government in Australia featuring prominent Christian conservatives, including two prime ministers, the Christian Right has had continuous defeats on issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. This contribution argues the Christian Right in Australia is weakened by the lack of a popular sense of Australia as a ‘Christian nation’, even if it still has a majority of Christian identifiers. Unlike the United States, where a Christian nation discourse is an important political resource for the Christian Right, in Australia the relative lack of such a discourse weakens the link between the Christian Right’s policy agenda and broader exclusionary nationalism. Even when repelling out-groups is politically popular, Christianity is no longer privileged as the national in-group. This contribution empirically examines the use of the term ‘Christian nation’ in recent public discourse in Australia to show why it lacks political power.

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不再是一个“基督教国家”:为什么澳大利亚的基督教右翼即使赢得选举也输掉了政策斗争

这篇文章解释了基督教右翼在澳大利亚政策影响力的下降，尤其是与更强大的美国同行相比。尽管澳大利亚保守的联邦政府有7年的历史，其中包括两位著名的基督教保守派总理，但基督教右翼在同性婚姻和堕胎等问题上连续失败。这篇文章认为，由于澳大利亚作为一个“基督教国家”缺乏普遍的意识，澳大利亚的基督教右翼被削弱了，即使它仍然有大多数基督教标识符。在美国，基督教国家话语是基督教右翼的重要政治资源，而在澳大利亚，这种话语的相对缺乏削弱了基督教右翼政策议程与更广泛的排他性民族主义之间的联系。即使排斥外部群体在政治上很受欢迎，基督教也不再享有作为国家内部群体的特权。这篇文章经验性地考察了“基督教国家”一词在澳大利亚最近的公共话语中的使用，以说明为什么它缺乏政治权力。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Religion State & Society RELIGION-

CiteScore

1.90

自引率

10.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Religion, State & Society has a long-established reputation as the leading English-language academic publication focusing on communist and formerly communist countries throughout the world, and the legacy of the encounter between religion and communism. To augment this brief Religion, State & Society has now expanded its coverage to include religious developments in countries which have not experienced communist rule, and to treat wider themes in a more systematic way. The journal encourages a comparative approach where appropriate, with the aim of revealing similarities and differences in the historical and current experience of countries, regions and religions, in stability or in transition.