Identity politics is an “evil thing” threatening to steal the hope and courage of Australia’s young people and social media can be “used by the evil one”, the Prime Minister has warned in a speech revealing more about his pentecostal faith.
Mr Morrison said through “identity politics”, young people particularly were increasingly “defined by your group, not … who God has created you to be”.
“There is a tendency for people not to see themselves and value themselves in their own right, as individuals, And to see themselves only defined by some group,” he said, in an address to the Australian Christian Churches Conference on the Gold Coast last week, released online by secularism advocates Rationalist Society of Australia on Monday.
“And to get lost in that group, and you know, when you do that you lose your humanity and you lose your connection I think, one to each other.”
Mr Morrison told an appreciative crowd that it was a “corrosive force”, which undermined community and self-worth and was “why people start writing stupid things on Facebook and being disrespectful to one another.”
“That is corroding and desensitising our country and our society, not just here but all around the world,” he said.
“I think it’s an evil thing. I think it’s a very evil thing.
“And we’ve gotta pray about it and we’ve gotta call it out. And we’ve got to raise up the spiritual weapons against this because it is going to take our young people.
“It’s going to take their courage. It’s going to take their hope. It’s going to steal them.”
But less is known about how his beliefs influence him when it comes to individual decisions.
The fast-growing church values people, living generously and “seeks to connect people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ”, according to its website.
On Tuesday night, Mr Morrison compared his daily political life to Psalm 23:5 — in which God prepares a fabulous banquet for David in front of his enemies — and revealed he practised the Christian tradition of laying-on of hands.
“I’ve been in evacuation centres, where people thought I was just giving someone a hug and I was praying,” Mr Morrison said, later specifically referencing Cyclone Seroja in Western Australia.
“And putting my hands on people in various places, laying hands on them and praying in various situations.”
Mr Morrison spoke of an early conversation about politics with wife Jenny’s father, during which the older man was becoming frustrated about him not answering questions.
“I said, I can’t fix the world. I can’t save the world, we both believe in someone who can,” he told the crowd.
“And that’s why I’ve come to you for your help tonight, because what you do and what you bring to the life and faith of our country, is what it needs.”
Mr Morrison also described a key moment he sought guidance during the 2019 election campaign.
“I must admit, I was saying to myself, ‘where are you? Where are you? I’d like a reminder, if that’s ok’.
“I walked into his gallery and there right in front of me was the biggest picture of a soaring eagle that I could imagine.
“Of course the verse hit me, that story … ‘run and do not grow weary, walk and do not grow faint’.
“But the message I got that day was ‘Scott, you’ve gotta run to not grow weary. You gotta walk to not grow faint. You gotta spread your wings like an eagle, to soar like an eagle’.”
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said in a statement to Nine newspapers that Mr Morrison attended the event as he had many other religious events.
“The Prime Minister was invited to address Tuesday night’s event the same as he attends many other stakeholder events, including for other religious groups such as the Copts, Maronites, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim,” the statement said.
“The usual transport and security protocols were followed as they are for any event the Prime Minister attends.”
This content first appear on 9news