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Religious Affiliations of Prime Ministers of Australia

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The religious affiliations of Prime Ministers of Australia have been a matter of public and academic interest, as the Prime Minister of Australia is the country's head of government and most powerful political figure.

All Australian prime ministers have received some degree of religious education during their upbringings. Several were the children of ministers or lay preachers, and many attended church-run schools. Of the prime ministers that maintained religious affiliations, all belonged to Christian denominations. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Presbyterians have been represented in broadly equal numbers, and two others were Methodists. A number of prime ministers changed their affiliation during their lifetime, including several who converted to another denomination upon marriage. There has been little correlation between religious affiliation and party status, although Catholics have tended to come from the Labor Party and Protestants have tended to come from the non-Labor parties.

Just under one-third of Australian prime ministers professed no religious affiliation during their time in office. Those have included deists, agnostics, atheists, and cultural Christians. Religiosity

Overview[edit]

Prime minister Affiliation Notes
1 Edmund Barton Anglican
  • "decidedly lukewarm about religion"
2 Alfred Deakin none
  • often described as deist; little formal religious education, but exceedingly well-read
  • involved with Theosophy and Unitarianism at various points, including in leadership roles; affiliated with the Australian Church from 1896 to 1901
  • sympathetic to the Salvation Army, and corresponded with William Booth
  • attended Anglican services during his second term (from c. 1905), but more for social reasons
3 Chris Watson none
  • "never felt strongly about any branch of Christianity"
  • married twice, both w
  • converted to Catholicism upon second marriage
4 George Reid Presbyterian
  • son of a Presbyterian minister
5 Andrew Fisher Presbyterian
6 Joseph Cook Methodist
7 Billy Hughes Anglican
  • not a regular churchgoer
8 Stanley Bruce Anglican
9 James Scullin Catholic
10 Joseph Lyons Catholic
11 Earle Page Methodist
12 Robert Menzies Presbyterian
  • raised Methodist, converted upon marriage
13 Arthur Fadden Presbyterian
14 John Curtin none
  • raised Catholic
  • briefly involved with the Salvation Army and Unitarianism as a young man
  • nominally Christian, but not a churchgoer
15 Frank Forde Catholic
16 Ben Chifley Catholic
  • married outside the church
  • disliked political Catholicism
17 Harold Holt none
  • raised Anglican / Methodist
  • "apathetic agnostic" with little interest in religion
18 John McEwen Presbyterian
19 John Gorton none
20 William McMahon Anglican
  • raised Catholic
21 Gough Whitlam none
  • raised Presbyterian
  • deeply interested in religion
  • self-described agnostic
22 Malcolm Fraser none
  • raised Presbyterian / Anglican
  • sympathetic to atheism as a student, but later more agnostic
23 Bob Hawke none
24 Paul Keating Catholic
25 John Howard Anglican
  • raised Methodist, converted upon marriage
  • in his autobiography wrote "denominational differences within Christianity meaning nothing to me"
26 Kevin Rudd Anglican
  • raised Catholic, converted upon marriage
27 Julia Gillard none
  • raised Baptist
  • self-described atheist
28 Tony Abbott Catholic
  • spent two years as a seminarian but decided against taking orders
29 Malcolm Turnbull Catholic
  • raised Presbyterian, converted upon marriage

Detailed list[edit]

  1. Edmund Barton – Anglican
    • Barton was nominally Anglican, but "decidedly lukewarm about religion".[1] He was not a churchgoer, and was married in his wife's Presbyterian church (she subsequently converted to Anglicanism).[2] According to Manning Clark, "he drew his wisdom from the Greeks rather than from the Old Testament or the teachings of Christ".[3] In 1902, Barton met with Pope Leo XIII in Rome, with whom he conversed in Latin. This caused an uproar among sections of Australia's Protestant community, but Barton paid little attention to the controversy.[4]
  2. Alfred DeakinAustralian Church (previously Spiritualist / Theosophist)
    • Deakin "wrote hundreds of private prayers and many other works of prose and poetry devoted to religious themes"[5] He was "the most religiously-minded Prime Minister in Australia's history". At various times affiliated with the Church of England, the Theosophical Society, the Salvation Army, Unitarianism, Spiritualism, and the Australia Church.[6] He was a deist who believed in a personal God that created the universe and was the ultimate foundation of morality. He did not believe in Jesus as divine. He also studied the Koran, the Upanishads, and Buddhist teachings.[7]
  3. Chris Watson – unaffiliated (later Catholic)
    • Watson was born to German Lutheran father and an Irish Catholic father; his step-father was a Scottish Presbyterian.[8] He "never felt strongly about any branch of Christianity".[9] Both his weddings were held at the Unitarian Church in Sydney, but there is no evidence that he was a regular worshipper there.[10] Watson converted to Catholicism at the age of 58, in deference to his second wife, but his funeral was held with Anglican rites.[11] His lack of formal affiliation may have been an asset in his leadership of the Labor Party, which was quite sectarian at that time.[12]
  4. George Reid – Presbyterian
    • Reid was the son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister, and was born in his father's manse.[13] He was "proud of his Puritan ancestors", but "never notably religious" himself.[14] After his retirement from politics he gave several public lectures on metaphysics, a subject which he also covered in his memoirs.[15]
  5. Andrew Fisher – Presbyterian
    • Fisher's parents both belonged to the Free Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian sect.[16] Fisher was a churchgoer his entire life, believed in private prayer.[17] He was friends with Keir Hardie, and like Hardie was something of a Christian socialist.[18]
  6. Joseph Cook – Methodist
    • Cook converted to Primitive Methodism in his teens. He began lay preaching at the age of 16, and at the age of 18 joined the Methodist New Connexion sect.[19] According to his biographer, Walter Murdoch, he would have trained full-time for the ministry if not for family commitments.[20] Cook retained his affiliation with the Primitive Methodists after immigrating to Australia. He was a strong supporter of his organisation's merger into the Methodist Church of Australasia in 1902,[21] and retained an affiliation with that body until his death.[22]
  7. Billy Hughes – Anglican
    • Hughes was born to a Welsh Baptist father and an Anglican mother. He was raised Anglican and retained at least a nominal affiliation for the rest of his life; he was not a regular churchgoer.[23] He was anti-Catholic, though not for theological reasons but rather he disliked the interference of the Catholic hierarchy in politics.[24] He also banned the use of German in Australian churches during WW1.[25] He "knew his Bible back to front",[26] but was also well-known for his blasphemous language. According to Geoffrey Bolton he had a "bleakly Hobbesian view of life".[27] He "inflamed sectarianism to a tragic degree".[28]
  8. Stanley Bruce – Anglican
    • Bruce was the son of a "strict Presbyterian" father, but was educated at Anglican schools.[29] He was never particularly religious himself, and was not a regular churchgoer.[30] In interviews with his biographer Alfred Stirling he said that he felt he had been called for a higher purpose.[31]
  9. James Scullin – Catholic
    • Scullin was born into an Irish Catholic family. According to biographer John Molony, "he remained committed to his faith and its practice throughout his life". However, Molony also writes that "Scullin's knowledge of Catholic social teaching was minimal and had no appreciable effect on his consciousness".
  10. Joseph Lyons – Catholic
    • Lyons was the grandson of Irish Catholic immigrants. His biographer, Anne Henderson, calls he and his wife Enid "very faithful Catholics"; Enid was raised Methodist, but converted to Catholicism upon marriage.
  11. Earle Page
  12. Robert Menzies – Presbyterian (raised Methodist)
  13. Arthur Fadden – Presbyterian
    • Fadden was the son of Irish Presbyterian immigrants, married with Presbyterian forms, and maintained that affiliation throughout his life. He was a member of at least one Protestant fraternal organisation, and his religion may have been a factor in his choice to join the Country Party rather than the Labor Party (which was dominated by Catholics at the time).[32] However, Fadden was far from anti-Catholic, and helped secure a knighthood for James Duhig, the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane.[33]
  14. John Curtin – unaffiliated (raised Catholic)
  15. Frank Forde – Catholic
    • Forde was the son of Irish Catholic immigrants. He had "an unexceptional traditional Catholic education and life, common among many Labor MPs of his generation".
  16. Ben Chifley – Catholic
    • Chifley was a lifelong Catholic, but had a strained relationship with the church.[34] He was the son of Irish Catholic parents, and attended both state and Catholic schools.[35] Chifley married a Presbyterian [[Elizabeth Chifley|Elizabeth
  17. Harold Holt – unaffiliated
    • Holt was an "apathetic agnostic".[36] He was baptised Anglican, attended Methodist schools, and married with Congregationalist forms, but had little interest in religion (a trait he shared with his wife, Zara).[37] Holt's lack of religiosity was never an issue in his career, and was hardly even remarked upon.[38]
  18. John McEwen
  19. John Gorton – Christian
    • Gorton was the son of . Gorton was socially liberal, voting for the liberalisation of divorce laws, the legalisation of abortion, and the legalisation of homosexuality.
  20. William McMahon – Anglican
    • McMahon was born to an Irish-Catholic father and an Anglican mother. Both his parents died when he was young, and he became close to his maternal uncle, Samuel Walder, an Anglican. McMahon had little formal religious education, but became interested in religion as a teenager and thereafter read widely in theology. He particularly enjoyed the works of William Temple.[39] McMahon enjoyed the support of conservative Christians during his prime ministership,[40] and had "an unfortunate tendency to exploit religion for political advantage".[41]
  21. Gough Whitlam – unaffiliated (raised Presbyterian)
    • Whitlam was the son of deeply religious Baptist parents, although the family frequently attended whichever church was nearest and eventually became regular attenders of a Presbyterian congregation. At his own request, Whitlam was confirmed as an Anglican, as he disliked the "windbag Presbyterian sermons".[42] He was exceedingly knowledgeable about Christianity,[43] and during his military service occasionally officiated funeral services when a minister was not available.[44] However, Whitlam lost his faith around the same time, confessing in a letter to his parents that he saw "no prospect of ever ­acquiring a faith".[45] He never returned to organised religion, and only attended church when he felt had an obligation.[46] He had a lifelong fascination with religion, and believed it was his duty as a member of parliament to be informed about the religious backgrounds of his constituents.[47] He once quipped "I don't go to church, but I always go to cathedrals".[48]
  22. Malcolm Fraser – unaffiliated (raised Presbyterian / Anglican)
    • Fraser has been described as a "thoughtful agnostic". He was the son of a Presbyterian father and an Anglican mother who converted upon marriage. Fraser attended Anglican schools before going on to Magdalen College, Oxford.[49] Several of his tutors at Oxford were atheist (including Thomas Dewar Weldon and Gilbert Ryle), and as a student he once wrote that "the idea that God exists is a nonsense".[50] Fraser rarely invoked God during his political career, but was "very comfortable in the company of Christians" and occasionally self-described as such.[51] In a 1994 interview, he said "if God did not exist, I think for the well-being of the human race it would be necessary to invent him".[52] Margaret Simons, Fraser's biographer, wrote that he was "not religious, and yet thinks religion is a necessary thing".[53]
  23. Bob Hawke – unaffiliated (raised Congregationalist)
    • Hawke was a self-declared agnostic.[54] He was famously a "son of the manse", born to a Congregationalist minister.[55] His father was was a supporter of the Social Gospel movement, and an uncle, Albert Hawke, was a self-described Christian socialist.[56] Hawke began questioning his religious identity while at university. He was a leader of Christian youth groups (where he met his first wife, Hazel), but was disturbed by the hypocrisy of some of his peers and eventually ceased attending church.[57] Hawke was particularly influenced by the abject poverty he saw at a youth conference in India, which he later described as "the beginning of the end of my belief in the organised Christian religion".[58] He wrote that Catholicism in particular was "intellectually unacceptable".[59]
  24. Paul Keating – Catholic
    • Keating's parents were both devout Catholics. He attended Josephite and Lasallian schools, and was a member of Catholic youth organisations.[60] Biographer Michael Gordon wrote that Keating "remained faithful to the tenets of the Catholic church, though he attends mass irregularly".[61] He has occasionally been referred to as a cultural Catholic". Keating was known for his social conservatism during his political career, publicly opposing the liberalisation of abortion laws and the Whitlam Government's introduction of no-fault divorce.[62] Don Watson, one of Keating's speechwriters, has suggested his views are generally "pre-Vatican II".[63]
  25. John Howard – Anglican (originally Methodist)
    • In his autobiography, Lazarus Rising, Howard wrote that "denominational differences within Christianity meaning nothing to me".
  26. Kevin Rudd – Anglican (originally Catholic)
  27. Julia Gillard – unaffiliated (raised Baptist)
  28. Tony Abbott – Catholic
  29. Malcolm Turnbull – Catholic (originally Presbyterian)
    • Turnbull was raised Presbyterian, but has stated he "didn't have a particularly religious upbringing". He attended public schools, and as a university student identified as agnostic. Turnbull was married with Anglican forms (though only for reasons of convenience), and later converted to his wife's religion, Catholicism.[64]

Analysis[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Williams 28
  2. Williams 31
  3. Williams p. 30.
  4. Williams 30
  5. 33
  6. 34
  7. 35
  8. 46
  9. 47
  10. 48
  11. 46
  12. 47
  13. 49
  14. Williams 50
  15. 52-53.
  16. 56
  17. 55
  18. 57
  19. 64
  20. 65
  21. 67
  22. 69
  23. 73
  24. 76
  25. 78
  26. 77
  27. 71
  28. 70
  29. 81
  30. 85
  31. 85
  32. Arklay 5-7
  33. Arklay 156
  34. 111
  35. 112
  36. 139
  37. 140-141
  38. 141
  39. 155
  40. 159
  41. 158
  42. 163-164
  43. 162
  44. 166
  45. Gough Whitlam letter reveals he lost faith, found Labor, The Australian, 16 July 2016.
  46. 166
  47. 166
  48. 169
  49. 172
  50. 173-174
  51. 175
  52. [1]
  53. 181
  54. 191
  55. 182
  56. 184
  57. 189
  58. 186
  59. 185
  60. 196-197
  61. 2001
  62. 199-200
  63. 201
  64. Roy Williams; What kind of God does Malcolm Turnbull believe in?, The Bible Society, 28 June 2016.


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