Pentecostal pastor Margaret Court has called on the West Australian Labor government to continue requiring the observance of Christian prayers at the opening of every day in parliament and had argued for the Ten Commandments to be in schools.
In a video message posted to her church’s Facebook page recently, Pastor Court told her followers that the government wanted to remove the Lord’s Prayer from the parliament and she rejected criticism that the practice was “just tradition or outdated”.
As the Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) has reported, the WA Legislative Assembly’s Procedure and Privileges Committee is considering a proposal for replacing Christian prayers with a more secular and welcoming opening daily practice.
In the video, Pastor Court argued that the Lord’s Prayer “is a prayer for all of us” and also said the Ten Commandments needed to be “back in schools”.
“It is not just tradition or outdated. It is a prayer that is alive and living today as when it was first written,” she said.
“We need the Lord’s Prayer and Ten Commandments back in our schools so our children know there is a God of Heaven and Earth.
“He created male and female to multiply and to fill the Earth. He is a God of love, not hate; a God of mercy and has given us Jesus Christ, His Son, to know Him here on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
The state parliament’s lower house, the Legislative Assembly, begins each day with two Christian prayers, including the Lord’s Prayer. A similar practice takes place in the upper house – the Legislative Council.
A Labor MP who is leading the push told the inquiry he has canvassed many of his colleagues and found “widespread support for such a change”.
Backbencher Dave Kelly has made two submissions to the committee inquiry, calling for reform to allow the Speaker to invite members of parliament to instead spend a quiet moment reflecting on their roles representing the people of Western Australia and in accordance with their own values and beliefs.
The Labor government is facing fierce pressure from religious lobbyists over the matter, with Premier Roger Cook already publicly stating his opposition to the proposal – even before the committee has made its recommendations.
Speaking today, RSA Executive Director Si Gladman said Labor MPs should recognise that Pastor Court’s suggestions for parliament to observe daily Christian prayers and for schools to introduce the Ten Commandments were completely out of touch with most West Australians.
“Premier Cook should be ensuring that the state’s public institutions are secular, neutral on the matter of religion and belief, and treat all people equally instead of imposing religious observances on West Australians,” he said.
In March this year, the RSA made a submission to the committee inquiry, arguing that public institutions should be secular and should not privilege religion or have a favoured religion.
Following the committee’s subsequent release of a Discussion Paper – in which the committee asked ‘Should the Prayers at the commencement of the Sitting Day be altered or retained?’ – the RSA made another submission in early August.
“…the parliament should be a secular institution and welcoming for all. It should be neutral on matters of religion and belief, and should not privilege any above the other,” wrote Mr Gladman in the second submission.
The Discussion Paper had noted that several of the earlier submissions to the inquiry argued that the exclusive use of Christian prayers “no longer reflects the diversity of Western Australian society or the contemporary composition of the Assembly”, and that the committee would be giving “careful consideration” to balancing concerns for tradition against those for modernisation.
Mr Gladman also urged committee members to remember that Census religion data did not provide an accurate indicator of religious and non-religious affiliation in Western Australia, given the leading nature of the Census question. He informed the committee that a robust recent survey – commissioned by the Census – Not Religious? – campaign showed that the question design used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics produced an undercount of the non-religious population by more than 10 percentage points.
The Rationalist Society of Australia is actively advocating for prayer rituals to be replaced with more appropriate practices in councils and parliaments. See the latest updates here.
Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.
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Image: Screenshot, Victory Life Church (Facebook).