Scott Morrison, the Australian Liberal Party prime minister from 2018 to 2022, guided the nation through COVID-19 only to be turned out of office by the center-left opposition just as the pandemic was easing. Unlike many in office these days, Mr. Morrison has been open about his evangelical Christian faith before and after his ascent to high office.
He acknowledges he had to be “careful about the balance that you struck” as the leader of a largely secular nation, one that’s become increasingly hostile to Christian faith in recent years.
Like many politicians who have left office, Mr. Morrison has just published a book. But unlike those ex-officeholders, his new volume, “Plans For Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness,” centers on biblical teaching, not backbench brawling. Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence wrote the foreword to the book, released last week in the U.S. by evangelical publisher Thomas Nelson.
“I always had the view throughout my public life and politics from before I was prime minister, that I was never going to hide the fact or conceal or even detract away from the fact that my faith is a very big part of who I am, always have been,” Mr. Morrison said in a video interview from his office overlooking the Sydney Harbor Bridge. “I just saw that as being transparent with the public.”
“I think even over the time I was prime minister, we saw quite a shift in hostility towards Christianity, but I don’t mean as in a religion but against Christians and their role in public life and in society and their influence and culture and things like this,” he added.
While the “vast majority” of Australians are “respectful” of faith, he said, he witnessed in the secular media and some in the political class “quite a strong hostility” towards evangelical Christianity.
“There’s there’s a bit more acceptance of sort of traditional orthodox Catholic, sort of institutional-type faiths, but evangelical [is] not as well known and what people don’t know they tend to be a bit hostile towards,” he said.
Where Christian thought once significantly influenced the culture and was known even by unbelievers, Mr. Morrison said that’s no longer the case in many nations, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom. America isn’t on that list yet, he said.
“The assumption that the sort of Christian sort of worldview is a broadly held one — or even an understood one — I think would now be largely false,” Mr. Morrison said.
He believes there is a direct connection between Judeo-Christian values and “democracy, freedom, liberty [and] even market-based capitalism,” along with human rights and social justice. Modern secular Western societies, however, are “breaking that link,” morally, culturally and intellectually.
“I argue in the book, ‘Well, once you do that, you’re adrift. Where are you going?’” he said. “I mean, if we’re all just some sort of random accident — you know, as atoms bumping around here — well, what is the basis of social justice? What is the basis of human rights? What is the basis of human dignity if you’re not made by God in His image for His glory? Then where does that leave you?”
The former prime minister — who said he prayed with parliamentary colleagues but did not try to force his religious beliefs on others — said that he became a Christian believer “when I was about 12 years old,” thanks to the influence of an older brother. From that point, “I grew up in a Christian family” and found some “wonderful” mentors in the faith.
In the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Morrison said he began intensive daily Bible reading, following a radio broadcast suggestion by California megachurch pastor Rick Warren.
“He just sort of said, ‘We’re living in a highly disruptive, uncertain time, what should Christians be doing?,’” Mr. Morrison recalled. “And [Mr. Warren] said, you should be reading the Bible. You should be really immersing yourself in God’s truth and letting that impact you and guide you in how we live in these times.”
Over the ensuing 18 months — including 2021, “the hardest year of my prime ministership” — he said he kept on reading, through the 2022 election, “which I ultimately lost.”
Mr. Morrison, now retired from parliament, is working in the private sector advising companies in the finance sector and resources. The new author is also “taking the opportunity to work in ministry where I can. I still get up on my feet at my local church and speak occasionally on a Sunday morning.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.