The Rationalist Society of Australia has reminded councillors at the City of Adelaide that the majority of their citizens are not religious, as the council faces an Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) campaign urging the retention of Christian worship as part of meetings.
With the council currently considering removing prayers, the ACL has launched a mass letter-writing campaign to put pressure on councillors to keep prayer because it “reminds people that our democracy was founded on Christian truth”.
At the opening of meetings, the council’s Chief Executive Officers asks “all present to pray” the following:
Almighty God, we ask your blessing upon the works of the City of Adelaide; direct and prosper its deliberations to the advancement of your glory and the true welfare of the people of this City. Amen.
In a letter to Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith and fellow councillors, RSA president Dr Meredith Doig argued that the council should support a proposal to modernise proceedings to better reflect the diversity of the community.
Dr Doig pointed out that, according to the 2021 Census, a majority (51.6 per cent) of the population of the Adelaide council area now identified as not religious and only 27.6 per cent identified as Christian.
Dr Doig also noted that, in the past, the ACL had lobbied state and local governments to retain Christian worship using the justification that the majority of the population were Christian.
In 2020, Wendy Francis, then the ACL’s spokesperson for Queensland, launched separate campaigns urging the state parliament and the Brisbane City Council to retain Christian worship as part of their formal proceedings. In the petition on the Queensland Parliament website in September 2020, she said: “The majority of Australians chose to identify as Christian in the most recent census.” On the ACL’s website in August 2020, Ms Francis argued that: “The most recent census [2016] showed that, once again, the majority of Australians choose to identify as Christian.”
In her letter to Adelaide councillors (see full letter below), Dr Doig noted that the most recent Census figures showed that the majority of Australians no longer identified as Christian, with the figure plummeting from 52.1 per cent in 2016 to 43.9 per cent in 2021.
At the same time, South Australia has witnessed a surge in people identifying as not religious, rising from 36 per cent to 45.8 per cent.“We support the proposal to modernise the council’s standing orders to replace prayer rituals with more inclusive, secular practices,” wrote Dr Doig.
“The Adelaide council should be a place where everyone feels welcome and comfortable to fully participate in the council’s proceedings. By starting meetings with rituals of Christian worship, the council sends a poor signal to the (now) majority of its citizens and ratepayers – that the traditional favoured religion will continue to be privileged and that other worldviews and beliefs are of lesser value.”
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Letter to Mayor Lomax-Smith and City of Adelaide councillors, 31 March
Dear Mayor Lomax-Smith and Councillors,
I’m writing on behalf of the Rationalist Society of Australia, Australia’s oldest freethought organisation promoting reason, evidence-based policy and secularism, regarding the City of Adelaide’s proposal to remove prayers from meetings.
We support the proposal to modernise the council’s standing orders to replace prayer rituals with more inclusive, secular practices.
The Adelaide local government area is home to a very diverse range of people – including those from different faith backgrounds and, increasingly, those who identify as not religious. The council’s proceedings should change to reflect the diversity of the community it serves.
At the 2021 ABS Census, over half (51.6%) of the population in the Adelaide council area identified as not religious. Only 27.6% identified as Christian.
The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has organised a letter-writing campaign to put pressure on councillors to retain the prayer.
We would like to point out that, in 2020, the ACL’s then Queensland spokesperson and now acting managing director, Wendy Francis, launched separate campaigns in Queensland urging the state parliament and the Brisbane City Council to retain Christian worship as part of their formal proceedings.
In both campaigns, Ms Francis argued that this Christian worship should be retained because most people in the community were Christian. In the petition on the Queensland Parliament website in September 2020, she said: “The majority of Australians chose to identify as Christian in the most recent census.” On the ACL’s website in August 2020, Ms Francis argued that: “The most recent census [2016] showed that, once again, the majority of Australians choose to identify as Christian.”
However, as the 2021 Census shows, the majority of Australians no longer choose to identify as Christian: the figures have plummeted from just over half (52.1%) in 2016 to around 44% (43.9%) in 2021.
At the same time, the numbers choosing to identify as not religious have surged. In South Australia, those identifying as not religious increased from 36% to 45.8%, showing beyond doubt that the South Australian community has changed.
We believe the state’s governing institutions should also change to reflect the religious and non-religious diversity of the community and to make the proceedings of these governing institutions more inclusive and therefore more welcoming of all people.
The Adelaide council should be a place where everyone feels welcome and comfortable to fully participate in the council’s proceedings. By starting meetings with rituals of Christian worship, the council sends a poor signal to the (now) majority of its citizens and ratepayers – that the traditional favoured religion will continue to be privileged and that other worldviews and beliefs are of lesser value.
Sincerely,
Dr Meredith Doig,
President, Rationalist Society of Australia