Ungodly Australians

Of the people that identifed as being Christian there is reason enough to assume that not all are practising their Christian tradition.
Interestingly, Albanese, has put it on the record at his disagreement with the US supreme Court ruling. Interestingly Anthony was raised by his mother, I wonder if Mr Albanese has approached the notion of his mother aborting on grounds of a mother's perogative, financial hardship or not having what back then a nuclear family.

Bradskii said:

The last census results have just come out. And the percentage identifying as Christian has dropped from 52% to 44%. And those with no religion are up from 30% to 40%.

Australians are more millennial, multilingual and less religious: what the census reveals.

Just as a side note, our current PM was sworn in a few weeks ago using a secular oath as opposed to taking the oath on a bible.

Maybe some people will think we are doomed...

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All unbelievers are condemned , even though they may have the most glorious earthy life.

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Christians in Australia should separate themselves from wider Australian society if they want to maintain their faith. The calculus should be God and the Church over the interests of the Australian state.

Bradskii said:

Maybe some people will think we are doomed...

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We knew that already just from looking at your wildlife, long before these census results came to be.

Don't worry, I'm sure there will be a flooding or wildfire sometime during the next year that can be blamed on this.

I am comforted by the Book of revelation.

Australia has been home to Coptic Orthodox people and churches for decades now, and one of my favorite bishops (if it's right to have 'favorites'; I mean I tend to get more out of his talks than many others', probably because he speaks English basically like a native) is HG Bishop Suriel, formerly bishop of Melbourne (he has since been moved to Los Angeles, in the USA). Since he grew up in Australia since the age of three, he even has a lovely Egyptian-Australian accent.

I don't know about your entire country, but I like what I see from my Church in Australia. Also, we're used to living in places where we are 10% or less, as it is in the Church's traditional homelands of Egypt, Sudan, and Libya. So 44% is like a godsend! See, it's all a matter of perspective.

Bradskii said:

The last census results have just come out. And the percentage identifying as Christian has dropped from 52% to 44%. And those with no religion are up from 30% to 40%.

Australians are more millennial, multilingual and less religious: what the census reveals.

Just as a side note, our current PM was sworn in a few weeks ago using a secular oath as opposed to taking the oath on a bible.

Maybe some people will think we are doomed...

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I vaguely recall religious internet opinions and expressions of religion from that region being slightly more extreme (in more than one direction) at one point in the last 5 to 10 years, perhaps it turned a lot of people off?

dzheremi said:

Australia has been home to Coptic Orthodox people and churches for decades now, and one of my favorite bishops (if it's right to have 'favorites'; I mean I tend to get more out of his talks than many others', probably because he speaks English basically like a native) is HG Bishop Suriel, formerly bishop of Melbourne (he has since been moved to Los Angeles, in the USA). Since he grew up in Australia since the age of three, he even has a lovely Egyptian-Australian accent.

I don't know about your entire country, but I like what I see from my Church in Australia. Also, we're used to living in places where we are 10% or less, as it is in the Church's traditional homelands of Egypt, Sudan, and Libya. So 44% is like a godsend! See, it's all a matter of perspective.

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I think you're trying very hard to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear not unlike the sheep & goats argument we hear too regularly.

Looking at this issue everything is relative. In Australia, Christianity is failing relative to it's historical level of acceptance. The situation of Coptic Christians in Egypt is (i'm sorry) interesting but irrelevant when looking the problems with Christianity in Australia.

OB

Bradskii said:

The last census results have just come out. And the percentage identifying as Christian has dropped from 52% to 44%. And those with no religion are up from 30% to 40%.

Australians are more millennial, multilingual and less religious: what the census reveals.

Just as a side note, our current PM was sworn in a few weeks ago using a secular oath as opposed to taking the oath on a bible.

Maybe some people will think we are doomed...

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I have to wounder just exactly which Christian value or values people feel would be such a determent to their society

Occams Barber said:

I think you're trying very hard to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear not unlike the sheep & goats argument we hear too regularly.

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I disagree, since I'm not trying to paint the census results as a good thing. I'm merely saying that when looked at from a different perspective than that of others who are used to living in Christian-majority societies, this does not look like the sky is falling.

It's a cultural reaction to generations of failure to live up to expectations.

Despite generally trusting our governments, Australians have some of the lowest levels of public trust when it comes to public organisations and their leaders. Bet it corporate, social (the amount of complaining some people do about the local local footy club!) or religious.

So the Church has things stacked against it whenever it tries to interject itself into Australia's social fabric anywhere outside of the pews (and even then, a lot of what's said inside church gets rubbished/ignored in the conflabs afterwards).

Couple that with the failures of the various Australian churches to be anything more than a vestigial appendage on the body politic through the 1970s and 1980s and its little wonder that Australians are increasingly abandoning religion. Not to mention that the few noteworthy religious leaders/thinkers that Australia has hocked up in the past couple of decades seem to have been on the wrong side of every major social movement - stem cell research, homosexual rights/gay marriage, HIV/AIDS issues, migrants, child abuse, etc, etc (looking at you Cardinal Pell).

I suspect it will trend this way for another 10-15 years, and then something will happen that will cause it to swing back the other way. European and US history would seem to indicate that the levels of religious belief in a population seems to act on a multi-generational cycle.

I'm to cynical to hope that this is a permanent thing. But, I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Bradskii said:

Maybe it's just a function of an increasing number of younger Australians adding their views to the census at that time.

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Without knowing the wider context, I would say that this is a very good assumption.

Bradskii said:

Marriage equality was brought in five years ago and there was obviously some argument against it by the religious right. But other than that..? I can't recall any major events that prompted any fundamentalist opinions. The graph earlier that shows Christian belief v Non religious seems to show both lines changing slightly in 2010. Maybe it's just a function of an increasing number of younger Australians adding their views to the census at that time.

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As with anything firsthand on the internet, it's possible, that I just met the wrong people.

The pandemic probably helped the decline also, some people attend in any context due to having always done it, and the social pressure involved with that.

What social distancing did, was release anyone who felt obligated because of reasons like that, but didn't notice until it was unavailable - due to social distancing.

Michael Collum said:

I vaguely recall religious internet opinions and expressions of religion from that region being slightly more extreme (in more than one direction) at one point in the last 5 to 10 years, perhaps it turned a lot of people off?

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Religion rarely creates waves in this country since we're fairly indifferent to any demands it might make.

The only significant issue I can recall was the same sex marriage debate and that was solved by asking all Australians what they thought. The answer was a resounding 'Yes'.

Generally speaking religious opinion was fairly quiet on the issue apart from the Sydney Anglicans who donated $1,000,000 to an anti SSM campaign. It was a silly donation. They lost the cause, and the money, which could have been used in much more productive Christian causes. For most Australians this barely created a ripple.

OB

disciple Clint said:

I have to wounder just exactly which Christian value or values people feel would be such a determent to their society

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I don't know about "values", but here's why Aussies aren't holding Christian churches in high regard

Campaigning against equal legal rights for homosexuals
Actively shielding priests from persecution over child abuse
Hiding hundred of millions in funds meant to compensate tens of thousands of victims of child abuse or elder abuse
Opposition to advances in medicine
Opposition to contraceptives and sexual education teaching (mostly the Catholics for the former)
Overfunding of religious schools compared to public schools (thanks to the Catholic private school network plugged into government)
Interfering in state and federal politics
Demonisation of Muslims and migrants (not common, but not unheard of)
Pushing of creationism (again, not common but depressingly becoming more so)