fishers, surfers and casters

Australian broadcasting regulations of the 1960s onwards allowed a space for religious programming, even if it were just among the screening of commercials. Mainstream Protestant and Catholic churches lacked a voice of authority for the new media environment, and struggled with how to approach it ethically and structurally. The Christian Television Association was developed to deal with these issues on the behalf of the major denominations, and became a well-known Christian presence in Australian television, until regulations were relaxed in the 1990s, making Christian broadcasts more expensive, having to compete for air-time in the same way as other community and commercial organisations. Now the newly named Christian Television Australia focuses its resources on a digital channel, with rarely run special programmes on free-to-air.

It seems now that the once-small Evangelical Christian voice is the great winner in Australian broadcasting deregulation. Its energies are not wasted by the strict authority regimes and ethical debates that confronted the mainstream churches (Lehikoinen, 2003: 165-166). American televangelism, such as the ministries of Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Marilyn Hickey and Benny Hinn, had enough resources to buy air time on Australian television. Their common message was the Bible is given directly by God and so must be read with a literal eye, that prayer brings rewards to the true believer, who is persecuted by a secular world unprotected from Satan’s influence, and is called to bring moral regeneration until the end of days, which are imminent. Though a very marginal Christian worldview, the rituals contained within the television programming, together with the ritual acts adopted by its consumers, helped legitimate the religious identity of viewers as part of a global movement. (Alexander, 1994: 3-5).

Evangelical Christianity has, since Billy Graham, been seen as a rapidly growing movement with a strong successful voice in Australian society, to the shame of Catholicism and mainstream Protestantism. Television has helped, not just by carrying the message, but by reinforcing the shape of the Australian religious milieu as a market, where religious identity is built by consumption, and where the success of an organisation is dependent, albeit somewhat, on the marketability of its products. This is indeed the basis of criticism of Australia’s “megachurches”, such as Hillsong in Sydney and Adelaide’s Paradise Church, labelled by some in the emerging church movement as more akin to businesses than religious communities.

Television is not the only transforming force of changes in Australia’s Christian landscape in the mid and late twentieth century. While ecumenical activities engaged dialogue between established denominations with increasing fervour, political debates asked Christians to take sides, producing divides within denominational structures. Whatever differences divided Christians into Catholics and Protestants would become less important than those that defined a “left-wing” and a “right-wing”, or a Liberal versus a Conservative Christian.

The Second Vatican Council spanned three years and involved two Popes, ending in 1965. It changed the face of the Roman Catholic Church, opening its doors to alternative methods of theological inquiry, greater freedoms of expression for congregational brothers and sisters, and interest in inter-denominational and inter-faith dialogue. In response to its global power, Catholics in Australia found a seat in the Australian Council of Churches (now known as the National Council of Church in Australia) and involvement in joint theological training organisations, such as the United Faculty of Theology and the Melbourne College of Divinity. Economic prosperity, social mobility, free education and urban sprawl since the 1950s closed distances between Catholics and Protestants in both geography and class. Pure Catholic families were growing at a slower rate, inter-denominational marriages were becoming normal. (Breward, 1993: 67)

But one Papal Encyclical would cause a disagreement among Catholics, creating a divide that is not yet resolved. Humanae Vitae, subtitled “On The Regulation Of Birth” was written by Pope Paul VI and released in 1968, reaffirming traditional teaching and unequivocally condemning contraception and abortion. Many Catholics began to question the infallibility of the Papacy, and clergy met those confessing to the sin of using contraception with acknowledgment that it was a matter of personal conscience (Breward, 1988: 73).

In Australia as in other parts of the world, political movements evoked responses by Christians that separated them from others. They would include the anti-war movement and feminism of the 1960s and 1970s, environmentalism and the gay and lesbian rights movement of the 1980s and 1990s. Wuthnow (1989: 32-34) describes the distinction between pro and con among believers as arising out of a perceived gap between political values and behaviour. The Liberals attacked the behaviour of government while the Conservatives critiqued values. Conservatives wanted out of political involvement, focussing more on changing personal beliefs, while Liberals saw this was not enough for the Church’s witness to the world.

The Christian churches have sat in an uneasy place in Australian society, ever since Europeans arrived to the continent in the eighteenth century. It took many years, and much pressure from immigrants, for British churches to consider the communities of convicts, emancipists and free settlers as mission fields (Breward, 1988: 1). Rather than conscientious opposition that grew in North American societies, it was apathy that halted the establishment of a national Church in the colonies.

The same apathy allowed for the growth of religious diversity and the development of a unique religious character for the land that would be a nation. Colonial governments supported the importation of both Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy and professionals to build charities for migrants and freed convicts, the majority of whom were Irish Catholics (Breward, 1988: 11, 13). The copper and gold boom of the mid 1800s attracted both miners and evangelists who gained followers more by their practical piety than formal theological education. It was in this period that Methodist and Baptist churches grew rapidly, by the deployment of lay preachers (Breward, 1988: 28). Finke and Stark notice a similar expansion in the history of the United States’ expansion. In the absence of an established national church, as in Europe, religious diversity thrived and the growth of denominational communities were fuelled by a process akin to market forces: those that grew were those that could provide religious products that the wider community would be attracted to consume (Finke and Stark, 2005: 15-20).

Even this early in the history of White Australia, common sense pointed to an ecumenical Christian presence, if at least a common Protestantism. Anglicans, Presbyterians and Wesleyans shared resources to build churches in marginal areas, including the support of clergy (Breward, 1988: 23-24). This common sense survived into the next century, where a federated Australia saw the union of all Lutheran churches (previously divided by ethnic origins), a Baptist Union, and an Australian Anglican General Synod (Breward, 1988: 66). Even Methodism, Congregationalism, and most Presbyterian communities were lost to a Uniting Church in Australia.

It is argued that this ecumenical sensibility fuelled the separation of church from state in the nation’s development. For example, a passion for justice united Christians to the campaign of state-funded education in the second half of the nineteenth century, that led to the dissolution of most Protestant schools. It could have ended all sectarianism, but it paved the way for a Roman Catholic system that aimed for a religious alternative to secularist education, and then new Protestant schools that aimed for prestige and refinement (Breward, 1988: 32-33). The same passion in Christian community service led to the ideal that the professional skill is more important than the religious affiliation of service agencies’ staff, and would eventually mean the independence of many from their Christian roots (Breward, 1988: 86-87). Examples include the Brotherhood of St Lawrence, Mission Australia and the Australian Workers Union. Even organisations that carry a denominational label, such as Anglicare and UnitingCare, ensure the culture of the workplace remains primarily secular, even where chaplains are employed.

Against the historical backdrop of consensual secularism and latent ecumenism, the mid 1900s saw a convergence of various global social and political factors that led to a watershed in Australian religious history, among the effects of which the Australian emerging church now sees itself. These include, but are not exhausted by, the Billy Graham crusades, the Second Vatican Council, the arrival of television, the Asian Wars, the World Council of Churches, the Death of God, and communism.

Evangelical crusades and revivals have been with Australians since before the Gold Rush. They focussed on simple pragmatic doctrines balanced by a fervour for community harmony and service. Evangelists were often gifted with more charisma than formal education, and understood the plight of their congregations. Billy Graham entered Australia with the same properties, but his style led to a new flavour of Evangelicalism that will be the key characteristic for Evangelicalism in that century and the next. Graham’s works had earned him many devotees in North America, and arrived down under with a large capital outlay to produce large musical and dramatic events in our capital cities, that drew unusually large crowds (Breward, 1988: 77). With Graham came the idea that the spectacle is as important as the message.

Graham’s crusade, like other evangelistic pursuits to follow, was worded in the language of new media of the period, television. Schofield Clark (2003: 30) notes the four main tenets of Evangelicalism are:

1. That humans are in need to salvation
2. That Christians are charged with bringing others to the faith
3. That the Bible is free of errors and must be understood literally, and
4. The Rapture will mark the end of days, vindicating the plight of believers.

As television became the dominant form of mass media in Western culture, the late twentieth century saw both religious and secular polities increasingly submissive to its discursive structure. Television was, as it still is, a medium packed with stories of good versus evil, where even journalism shows contain a narrative and ritual structure that is filled with drama. The Evangelical Gospel found a comfortable place among the messages beamed into homes of this period.

Here are some facts, according to Bellamy and Castle’s* reading of 2001 ABS Census 1996 and 2001 National Church Life Surveys:

About half of church attenders in participating denominations are Catholic. There are some Protestant and Pentecostal churches that didn’t take part in the survey, accounting for around 137 000 attenders. Eastern orthodox and non-trinitarian groups (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter Day Saints) not included.

Decline in mainstream Protestant churches – Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Uniting – offset by increases in attendance in other Protestant and Pentecostal churches, but not enough to counter the decline in Catholic church. Therefore attendance dropped overall by 7% between 1996-2001. Decline of just 2% in Anglican is masked by fact that Sydney diocese experienced “significant” growth.

8.8% of population are weekly church attenders in 2001. We see that this is a decline from 9.9% in 1996. Due to decreased church attendance plus a population growth of 6%.

1998 Australian Community Survey found that 20% of the population claimed at least monthly attendance. The 2002 release showed the figure fell to 18.6%.

Comparison with census identification: overall census identification fell from 71% in 1996 to 68% in 2001. Percentage of weekly attendance over census identification in 2001: Anglican 5%, Uniting 10%, Baptist 36%, Churches of Christ 74%, Salvation Army 39%. These figures haven’t changed much since 1996, except for Churches of Christ, where there’s an increase of 18%. This may be due to falling census identification coupled with increases in weekly attendance.

It’s noted that a number of Pentecostal congregations had actually changed denominations between 1996 and 2001.

Anglican (9%), Lutheran (5%), Presbyterian (8%) Salvation Army (2%) and Uniting (22%) decreased number of congregations in Australia between 1991-2001. the large figure for Uniting must take into account that the definition of “congregation”. Other Protestant and Pentecostal rose in the number of congregations: Apostolic 67%, AOG 37%, Church of the Nazarene 27%, Vineyard 60% (since 1996, 1991 figures not available), Wesleyan 32%.

*Bellamy, J. and K. Castle (2004). NCLS Occasional Paper 3: 2001 Church Attendance Estimates. Sydney, NCLS.