Exclusive: 'Christian Reads Bible!'

News.com.au's takedown of Scomo's faith is groundbreaking journalism

The headline read:

Scott Morrison “has a God complex” and recited the Bible in meetings, new book claims.

Whoa. This’ll be good, I thought. I couldn’t wait to read it.

Can you imagine a national leader quoting the Bible? You know … like Abraham Lincoln, or Martin Luther King, or George W Bush, or Barak Obama, or Joe Biden or Queen Elizabeth II …

Journalist Samantha Maiden had the “exclusive” at news.com.au

The article’s sub-heading read …

According to a bombshell new book, some colleagues liked Scott Morrison’s religious faith while others found it “weird”.

No way!

You mean to tell me that some people liked Scott Morrison’s faith while some other people found it weird? Hold the front page!

Tomorrow Maiden will run an exclusive telling us that some people like strawberry flavoured milkshakes, while others aren’t really that into them.

Anyway, onto the “exclusive” about Scomo’s faith …

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison had a ‘God complex’, would recite passages of the Bible during meetings and laid his hands on cabinet ministers in prayer.

A professing Christian would occasionally quote the Bible and pray for people?

What in God’s name was Scomo doing?!?

Did you know that dogs “woof” and cats “meow”?

According to a bombshell new book, Bulldozed by veteran political journalist Niki Savva, some colleagues liked his religious faith while others found it “weird”.

That some people like Christianity and some don’t is certainly a “bombshell”. Niki Savva is on a winner with this book. If it’s not a bestseller, something is wrong.

“Occasionally, during meetings with cabinet ministers, he would recite passages from the Bible he had read that morning that had inspired him,’’ she writes.

Outrageous.

Our political leaders should be quoting Marx, not Isaiah; Machiavelli, not the Gospels.

Next thing you know they’ll be quoting the Lord’s Prayer at the opening of Parliament.

Oh wait, that’s right. They already do and have done for 121 years.

“He laid hands on colleagues in prayer. A few found it comforting; a few thought it was weird.”

You’re telling me people who believe in God find prayer comforting and people who don’t believe in God find prayer weird? I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t read it in the news.

In a chapter titled Bless You, former Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt recalls being quietly approached by the Prime Minister and a cabinet minister.

“Ken Wyatt was sitting in a chair in the prime minister’s office one night, along with six or seven other colleagues, both ministers and backbenchers, chatting over a glass of red wine, when Scott Morrison and Stuart Robert quietly approached him,” she writes.

“What happened next was highly unusual, to say the least. Morrison and Robert stood either side of Wyatt, then each placed a hand on his shoulders and began praying for him.

“They prayed for God to give Wyatt the strength to succeed in what would be an extremely challenging portfolio.

But she writes Mr Wyatt was “unperturbed”.

“He said he had no issue with what Morrison and Robert had done,” Savva writes.

“He found it both comforting and reassuring. ‘I knew the strength of the prime minister’s faith’,” Wyatt said in an interview for the book.

“They were both genuine in wanting me to succeed, to have the fortitude and strength to take on the reforms.”

So Niki Savva wrote in her book - and Samantha Maiden breathlessly reported - that a guy facing a difficult task appreciated two other guys praying for him to succeed.

If this is not proof that Australia turned into a radical theocracy under Scott Morrison, I don’t know what is. There needs to be an inquiry!

However, former Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said she did not witness overt displays of faith from Morrison, but she could not believe all the religious references she had heard in maiden speeches after she entered Parliament.

“I was horrified, because my view is, keep politics, religion, and sex separate,” Ms Andrews said.

“It was a hot bed of all those issues at Parliament House. I was surprised at the extent of it.”

So Ms Andrews didn’t witness any concerning displays of faith despite the fact that many MPs referenced faith when giving their maiden speeches.

It’s almost like Christians who were elected to Parliament simply got on with being parliamentarians.

Andrews was “horrified”, however, that so many parliamentarians seemed to be Christians.

Oh “the extent of it”!

Again, to be clear, she never witnessed any overt displays of faith. She was just surprised to find that in a nation where close to half the population identifies with the Christian faith that more than one or two found their way into power.

Savva also reports that in a 2006 CV, when he was job hunting after Fran Bailey sacked him from Tourism Australia, Morrison listed under his personal interests: ‘Church (Hillsong Church, Waterloo), Family.’

“He also named (Hillsong founder) Pastor Brian Houston from Hillsong as a referee,’’ she wrote.

Morrison was once part of Hillsong Church and put down the pastor as a referee on a resume. This may be the most significant piece of journalism since Bernstein and Woodward collected a Pulitzer Prize for exposing Watergate in 1973.

One former cabinet minister who had known Mr Morrison for many years told Savva that the former Prime Minister had “this thing about God”.

A former cabinet minister noted that a Christian had a “thing about God”. With powers of observation like this, I do hope the former cabinet minister was in charge of national security.

I mean, seriously, can you imagine a Christian who didn’t have a “thing about God”.

“The overflow from 2019 was that he and others around him believed their own bulls**t. In the end, voters worked him out,’’ Savva writes.

Indeed. I think the 2022 federal election result confirmed that.

One former cabinet minister, who had worked with him and observed him closely over many years, tells Savva: “I have never been able to get my head around evangelism.

Evangelism is the spreading of Christianity by preaching or telling others the good news about Jesus. I think what our former cabinet minister means is that he was never able to get his head about evangelicalism.

Evangelicals have a particular take on the Christian message. It is more than just a belief they mentally ascribe to; it is a belief that motivates their entire life.

It’s not surprising that a person who does not believe in God would not be able to get their head around someone who not only believes in God but believes God is actively engaged in every aspect of their life.

“He did seem to have this thing about God wants this, or God has chosen me to be prime minister. He didn’t brook much opposition,” he said.

An unbelieving prime minister might consider his elevation to high office to be the result of fate or of hard work. A Christian - while not discounting hard work - believes human affairs are directed by God.

This is not unusual or unprecedented. The great British politician William Wilberforce, who famously campaigned for the abolition of slavery throughout the Commonwealth, believed God had chosen him for the task.

If Morrison really did believe God put him in the Lodge it would have served to humble rather than embolden him.

“It was a my-way-or-the-highway approach, which I suspect was inspired by his evangelism.”

Others of us suspect Morrison’s my-way-or-the-highway approach was inspired by his own flawed character.

Whatever.

After his “miracle” election win in 2019, some colleagues said he started believing his own “bulls**t”.

Breaking News: Politician develops ego after winning a national election. Well knock me down with hymn book!

Another former MP, also a practising Christian who Savva writes had been subjected to Mr Morrison’s controlling ways, was unimpressed by his faith.

“The happy-clappy orthodoxy is largely unacceptable to me,” the MP said.

“The Morrison happy-clappies are part of that. He can be there clapping his hands and holding them up, and singing loudly. All that is largely irrelevant to me. It’s how you live your life and how you conduct yourself that’s more relevant.”

Nothing says “practising Christian” quite like someone anonymously spilling the dirt on a former colleague to a national news outlet while claiming “it’s how your live your life and how you conduct yourself” that proves you are a true Christian.

“Australians respect religion,” Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg said.

“Many Australians are cultural Christians and appreciate the special role religious institutions play in our society. But my sense is Australians don’t want to see religion feature heavily in public life. They want it to be a private matter and not in the public domain.”

Next time Mr Bragg marches at Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras someone might like to inform the senator that Australians respect people’s right to make their own decisions about sexuality, but probably would prefer it to be a private matter and not in the public domain.

In July, Mr Morrison delivered a sermon telling voters to trust in God, not governments.

“God’s kingdom will come. It’s in his hands. We trust in Him,” he said.

“We don’t trust in governments. We don’t trust in the United Nations, thank goodness. We don’t trust in all of these things, fine as they may be and as important as the role that they play. Believe me, I’ve worked in it and they are important.

“They are earthly, they are fallible.”

We can all see the funny side of a former PM telling us not to trust in government. It’s particularly ironic since many Liberal voters believe Mr Morrison betrayed their trust by signing Australia up to Net Zero and failing to defend civil liberties during the pandemic.

But the idea that a Christian’s ultimate trust is not in government but in God is Christianity 101.

Now if Morrison was a Marxist, it would have been a very different sermon. And it wouldn’t have been given in church, as the churches would all have been shut down.

“Do you believe if you lose an election that God still loves you and has a plan for you?” he asked. “I do, because I still believe in miracles.”

So there you have it. There’s not much love for Morrison from voters or from news.com.au, but Scomo believes God still loves him.

That says a great deal more about God than it does about Scott Morrison.