{"id":12440,"date":"2022-10-29T16:44:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-29T05:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/?p=12440"},"modified":"2022-10-30T20:07:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T09:07:02","slug":"infiltrate-impact-impel-raising-up-christians-for-the-liberal-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/29\/infiltrate-impact-impel-raising-up-christians-for-the-liberal-party\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Infiltrate, Impact, Impel\u2019: Raising up Christians for the Liberal Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upon signing up as a member of the Liberal Party in Victoria, some churchgoers have been handed a one-page document with the title \u2018Political Participation for Godly good\u2019, according to a Liberal Party member.<\/span><\/p>\n

The document (see image below) provides a flowchart matrix to guide new members on how they can participate in their local branch meetings, known as State Electorate Convention and Federal Electorate Convention meetings. It also details how they can influence the party\u2019s State Council and State Assembly. In the top right-hand corner appears the italicised motto: <\/span>Infiltrate, Impact, Impel<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A timeline is provided for how new members can help the cause. After one-and-a-half months as a member, the document says they can: vote at their branch meetings for State Council delegates and State Assembly delegates; or nominate as a delegate to the State Council and State Assembly, where they can influence administration and committee positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

After more than two years of continuous membership, the member can pre-select \u201cGood Godly candidates\u201d in their electorates. In a bubble quote nearby, the importance of this step is made clear: \u201cThis is where we impact the most for good\u201d. At this third stage in the flow chart, the motto, <\/span>Infiltrate, Impact, Impel<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> is repeated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rationale Magazine<\/span><\/i> obtained a copy of the document from a Liberal Party member, who asked for anonymity to protect their position. The origin of the document is unknown, but it is not endorsed by the Liberal Party of Victoria. The document is consistent with claims that some church communities have been organising in an attempt to gain control of party branches.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Such recruiting efforts would not be unique to Victoria. Across a number of states in recent years, right-wing Christians have been accused of targeting churchgoers in an attempt to preselect like-minded people as candidates and to influence policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the lead-up to this year\u2019s state election loss in South Australia, Liberal Party moderates warned that the influx of Pentecostal members to party branches, reportedly <\/span>driven by the right-wing faction and Christian politicians such as Senator Alex Antic<\/span><\/a>, would destroy the party\u2019s chances and make it \u201cunelectable\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Western Australia, where the Liberals were almost wiped out at last year\u2019s state election, one of the few survivors, David Honey, directed much of the <\/span>blame on the actions of right-wing Christian churches<\/span><\/a> for \u201cweaponising\u201d their memberships to dominate branches and preselections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahead of next month\u2019s state election in Victoria, the state’s Liberal Party, under the leadership of Matthew Guy, has its work cut out in attempting to win government from the Labor Party. Yet the Opposition Leader has been contending with headline after headline about candidates who have links with conservative church groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

In August, Reason Party leader Fiona Patten and Greens leader Samantha Ratnam <\/span>warned of the threat posed to the state\u2019s widely popular social reforms<\/span><\/a>, such as voluntary assisted dying and abortion rights, if some of these Liberal candidates were to be elected to the parliament.<\/span><\/p>\n

After narrowly losing a preselection battle to Pentecostal church member Renee Heath, <\/span>Liberal upper-house member Cathrine Burnett-Wake<\/span><\/a> went even further in her final parliamentary speech, warning Victorians to wake up to the threat that \u201cextremists\u201d and \u201ccults\u201d posed to democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Heath won preselection in July, <\/span>Guy has tried to distance the candidate from her father\u2019s church<\/span><\/a>, City Builders Church, located in Sale, Gippsland. The church has a record of campaigning against same-sex marriage and abortion rights, and has been accused of having <\/span>links to an external gay-conversion therapy program<\/span><\/a> \u2013 the no-longer-operating Living Waters Program.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to an ABC investigation, local Liberal Party members in Gippsland have alleged that City Builders Church <\/span>spent three years working with allied churches to take over party branches<\/span><\/a>. Party members told the ABC that the decline of the Liberal Party\u2019s traditional membership base and low membership numbers had made its branches vulnerable to influxes of members from church communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In sermons early last year<\/span><\/a>, Heath\u2019s father, Pastor Brian, told his congregation that governments were passing \u201cradical left-wing anti-Christ\u201d laws, but that God would turn things around through \u201cchurches just like this\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis church is here to affect every domain of society. No longer are we going to see ungodly flakey leaders put into political positions to pass ungodly laws. We\u2019re going to have people like you, and you, and you \u2013 and whoever else puts their hand up and says, \u2018I\u2019m going to be counted\u2019. I tell you: this is what we\u2019re about,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In November last year, Pastor Brian, <\/span>told a webinar <\/span><\/a>how people in his family and around him had become engaged in the political arena, with a \u201cjolt\u201d from God pushing the church out of its four walls and into the \u201cmarketplace\u201d. \u201cThe last seven or eight years in our nation, there have been so many controversial issues that have been raised that cause people like us to react,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heath\u2019s father, Pastor Brian, told his congregation that governments were passing \u201cradical left-wing anti-Christ\u201d laws, but that God would turn things around through \u201cchurches just like this\u201d.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The webinar was held just days after <\/span>The Age<\/span><\/i> reported<\/span><\/a> that Renee Heath, then a member of the Liberal Party\u2019s administrative committee, was being touted as a potential candidate for a seat in the lower house. When asked about his influence on his kids and \u201cin particular, the daughter in politics\u201d, Pastor Brian, <\/span>who was himself a candidate for Family First at the 2016 federal election<\/span><\/a>, said that he leads by example.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the webinar, Pastor Brian also talked about how his church had become an \u201centrepreneurial hub\u201d and a \u201ctraining centre\u201d in the region, and was about to enter an \u201cincredibly interesting realm\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not a massive church but we have a whole lot of people involved in the political, not just one party but many parties. And that\u2019s a good thing. We have many people who are in business, and I’m like a coach to them. And we have many people in areas like media and education, as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Renee Heath has <\/span>rejected suggestions that she would be the same as her father<\/span><\/a>, and said she respects separation of church and state. But she declined to tell the ABC what her positions were on social issues such as abortion rights and same-sex marriage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among other new Liberal candidates with church links who, in August, <\/span>declined to tell <\/span>The Age<\/span><\/i> their views on abortion and voluntary assisted dying<\/span><\/a> were Anne-Marie Hermans (a former Family First candidate), Moira Deeming (who has denounced abortion), Nicole Werner (a former pastor at Pentecostal megachurch Planetshakers), Briony Hutton (of Gateway Church) and Cynthia Watson (a prominent Mormon).<\/span><\/p>\n

Rationale<\/span><\/i> is not suggesting that the allegations of branch stacking are true, but that Liberal Party members themselves are making the claims.<\/span><\/p>\n

The situation is causing tensions to spill out into the open, with a lurch to the right making some moderates worried about the party\u2019s future and the prospects for electoral success.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the Mornington Peninsula, the local media has, in recent weeks, reported on a <\/span>\u201cturf war\u201d splitting the Liberal Party membership<\/span><\/a>, with accusations of a \u201creligious far right\u201d takeover at the centre of the tensions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019, local government councillor Steve Holland sounded the alarm about <\/span>possible branch stacking<\/span><\/a>. An ensuing investigation resulted in the expulsion of 150 members. <\/span>During recent weeks, he has warned that <\/span>good people would continue to be \u201cdriven away\u201d from the party<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is happening within the Liberal Party at the moment can be described as a turf war on a sinking continent. Successive state and federal election results in Victoria have highlighted the dire situation the party is in when it comes to appealing to the electorate,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Holland also pointed out, however, it can be difficult to know where to draw the line between what can be considered as genuine membership recruitment and branch stacking. Yet there is no doubt that leading voices of the Christian right have been calling on church communities to get involved in political parties to help turn the tide on the progressive policy gains of recent years.<\/span><\/p>\n

In late 2019, then-Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells \u2013 a Catholic \u2013 spoke to a function hosted by a group called Australian Christian Alliance. A standee banner located next to her on the stage outlined the group\u2019s mission, including, \u201cEnlisting People to bring Christ into the Political Process\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In her impassioned speech<\/span><\/a>, Senator Fierravanti-Wells pointed out that, of New South Wales\u2019 population of eight million people, only 30,000 people are involved in political parties and, of those, only 500-1,000 are really active in each party.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, I say to you: If you want more politicians in Macquarie Street and in Canberra that reflect your values and beliefs, then you have to be active. You have to be involved. You have to join a political party so that those political parties, when they make those decisions about issues that are of importance to you, there will be people in their ranks who actually reflect the views of the silent majority,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI urge you to pray. Prayer is important, but prayer is not going to change the views of government. Cold hard numbers and votes is what changes political opinion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>theme has also been a major focus of \u2018Church & State\u2019 conferences<\/span><\/a> in recent years. Don\u2019t be confused, though. The event is not about the <\/span>separation<\/span><\/i> of church and state; it\u2019s about the marrying of the two. The event logo even displays seven mountains in apparent reference to the fundamentalist Seven Mountains Mandate ideology, which seeks to achieve Christian control of the major institutions of society.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the 2021 conference, the Australian Christian Lobby\u2019s Martyn Iles talked about the need for Christians to get involved in parties and gave the example of how progressive politicians had swung the Labor party to the left. \u201cCan you go the other way in any party? Can you make the Greens a Christian party? Yeah, you know what? You can. If all the Christians in Australia signed up for the Greens tomorrow, they\u2019d be having worship services with Greens banners up tomorrow,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next week, the <\/span>\u2018Church & State\u2019 conference is being held again \u2013 this time in Adelaide<\/span><\/a>. It is being billed as \u2018An Essential Event for Christians Wanting Righteous Government\u2019 and aims to encourage \u201cChristians in every electorate to carefully steward political influence as Jesus would in our place \u2013 without blind loyalty to any politician or party.\u201d <\/span>Liberal Senator Antic is the guest speaker.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if members of the Christian right were successful at infiltrating Liberal Party branches, the extent to which they could make an impact or even impel governments would remain, ultimately, a matter for the voting public. But, at the very least, voters in these electorates deserve to know the extent to which religious ideology \u2013 especially more extreme variants \u2013 shapes such candidates\u2019 views on important issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you wish to republish this original article, please attribute to\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Rationale<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Click here<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0to find out more about republishing under Creative Commons.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0 Matt Guy (Facebook); Greg Rosenke<\/a> on Unsplash.
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