Part III

Religions in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US in the Twenty-First Century

26

Religions in Australia in the Twenty-First Century

GARY D. BOUMA

Introduction

The land mass now referred to as Australia has been home to a great diversity of religions and spiritualities for over 45,000 years [2]. It is becoming increasingly clear that this deep history is part of the present as one of the factors shaping the religious life of Australia and deserves far greater respect and attention than it has been given in the past. Focusing only on religions and spiritualities of Australians of European and more recently of Asian origins has characterized previous accounts of religion in Australia [24; 25; 8; 4; 5]. In addition to being disrespectful of the indigenous peoples of Australia this lack has undermined the capacity of such accounts not only to depict Australian religion and spirituality accurately but also to understand religion in Australia.

Sources on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander religions and spiritualities are limited and problematic [28; 2]. Most European settlers were utterly disparaging of indigenous cultures and religions, declaring that they could detect nothing that to them resembled religion among these peoples. There have been great debates about whether figures that feature in stories of the Dreaming which recount creation type events and the origins of land formations, peoples and relationships qualify as ‘high’ gods or represent the remnants of past better organized cultures. While there are recurrent themes among these stories which have been told and retold among the many Aboriginal nations, languages and cultures, they are distinctive to each place and people [2]. Programmes designed to eradicate indigenous languages also eliminated their cultures; overriding and destroying sacred sites had the effect of, to draw an analogy, destroying their scriptures. A few reports produced by missionaries who in producing written forms of languages preserved cultural elements, and some anthropological studies have been conducted that provide a basis for reconstructing our understanding of this rich diversity [2; 28]. This has been greatly enriched by contemporary anthropologists who have revisited this material, listened carefully to many Aboriginal elders including women, and who have attempted to redress the patriarchal and Western biases in earlier work. This has resulted in part in the restoration of proper respect for indigenous women, their stories, their religious life and their role in the production and reproduction of these great founding myths of the land now called Australia [2].

Key factors shaping religion in Australia in the twenty-first century include the decline of British Protestant groups, the conflict between those who work for mutual understanding and respect among the religions and spiritualities of the world and those who seek to impose their particular approach to these matters on the rest of the world, the need to include respect for indigenous religions and spiritualities as central to the process of reconciliation, and the need to reshape the forum of public policy to include religious voices. A picture of the changes in Australia’s religious profile helps to frame the exploration of each of these issues.

Australia’s Changing Religious Profile

Australia is fortunate to have conducted regular censuses including a religious identification question since 1850. It has also, since 1996, had the most careful and complete system for the classification of religious responses [1]. The overall picture depicted by the rolling snapshots of Australia’s religious profile shows the rise of the dominance of Anglicans and British Protestants as waves of migrants free and convict largely from Britain and Ireland fed the rising European population. During the mid-nineteenth-century gold rush, as Chinese, Afghans, Americans and other migrants arrived from many parts of the world, this population became more diverse. By the 1880s the dominance of Anglicans, about 40 per cent of the population and British Protestants, another 35 per cent, was well entrenched. However, this picture began to change as following 1947 the ‘White Australia’ immigration policy was slowly eroded as migration from Britain failed to keep up with the demand for labour. Early on the needs of humanitarian refugees from Europe were acknowledged and they were permitted to settle. This substantially augmented Australia’s Jewish communities, and other displaced persons. Later, as labour demand continued to rise, immigrants from Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Lebanon and Egypt were admitted. Following the end of the Vietnam War boat people arriving on the northern shores of Australia were admitted. Each of these waves of migration added not only population, but also linguistic, cultural and religious diversity to Australia. Finally, the Australian census did not include Australia’s indigenous people until after 1967. The effects of these changes can be seen in table 26.1.

Australia’s religious profile in 1947 had in large measure been consistent since about 1880. However, an examination of censuses conducted between 1901 and 1947 reveals that British Protestants were already declining as a percentage of the population by 1911 and Anglicans had hit their high-water mark in 1921. The declines until 1947 largely represent the loss of numbers from these churches to the category ‘not stated’ after the ‘religion’ question became explicitly voluntary in 1933. This was greatest during the Great Depression. Following 1947 the losses to ‘no religion’ began to rise. The ethnic background of those declaring ‘no religion’ in 2006 was very similar to those who identified with British Protestant denominations and as Anglicans.

There has also been change within the distribution of Christian groups as is evident in table 26.2 While British Protestant groups and Anglicans have continued to decline to roughly half their 1947 percentages, Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, other Orthodox, Pentecostal and other Christian groups have grown. These changes reflect the rise in those who declare ‘no religion’, the impact of migration and the growth of ‘emergent churches’ of Pentecostal, evangelical and other active proselytizing orientations. These groups have changed the face of Australian Christianity. This becomes even more evident when data on attendance as opposed to identification are taken into account, as much lower percentages of Anglicans and British Protestants actually attend than do other groups [5; 10].

The impact of migration since 1947 is apparent in table 26.1 and even more so in table 26.3. Migration has resulted in the rise of significant communities of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious groups. There are now more Buddhists than Baptists, more Muslims than Lutherans, more Hindus than Jews, and in Melbourne more Greek Orthodox than Uniting or Presbyterians. These communities have built significant religious and educational infrastructure with many purpose-built mosques, temples, gurdwaras, as well as schools. Australia provides formula-based support to faith-based schools of all persuasions. Nearly 40 per cent of secondary level students attend private schools. In addition to Catholic, Anglican, Uniting, Baptist and Presbyterian schools, there are now Muslim, Jewish, KRSNA, and other faith-based schools. Religious communities are also significant channels of social, welfare and settlement services to their people [5; 6].

While partially due to migration, the growth of new religious groups and spiritualities is also due to ‘conversion’ or people changing their religious identity, or adopting forms of paganism. The considerable growth in these groups is evident in the data presented in table 26.3. Scientology was declared a religion by Australia’s High Court in 1981 [17]. This began a more tolerant and understanding approach to new religious movements which now characterizes Australia’s official attitude. Various forms of paganism are practised and Goddess religions are popular as they do not impose the patriarchal domination characteristic of most other religions [5] while a very wide range of new religious movements including Brahma Kumaris, Mahikari, Tenrikyo and many others offer their services in Australia’s religious marketplace.

Table 26.1 The number and proportion of selected Australian religious groups in the 1947, 1971, 1996, 2001 and 2006 censuses
Religious	1947		1971
Identification*	000s	%	000s	%
CHRISTIAN
Anglican	2,957	39.0	3,953	31.0
Baptist	114	1.5	176	1.4
Catholic	1,570	20.7	3,443	27.0
Lutheran	67	0.9	197	1.5
MPCRU**	1,678	22.1	2,199	17.2
Orthodox	17	0.2	339	2.7
Pentecostal	–	–	–	–
OCG***	270	3.8	683	5.4
Total Christian	6,673	88.0	10,990	86.2
BUDDHISTS	–	–	–	–
HINDUS	–	–	–	–
JEWS	32	0.4	62	0.5
MUSLIMS	–	–	22	0.2
OTHER****	4	0.1	14	0.1
Total	37	0.5	99	0.8
Inadequate Description	19	0.2	29	0.2
No Religion	26	0.3	856	6.7
Not Stated	825	10.9	781	6.1
Total Population	7,579		12,756

Religious	1996		2001		2006
Identification*	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%
CHRISTIAN
Anglican	3,903	22.0	3,881	20.7	3,718	18.7
Baptist	295	1.7	309	1.7	317	1.6
Catholic	4,799	27.0	5,002	26.7	5,127	25.8
Lutheran	250	1.4	250	1.3	251	1.3
MPCRU**	2,011	11.3	1,887	10.1	1,732	8.7
Orthodox	497	2.8	529	2.8	544	2.7
Pentecostal	175	1.0	195	1.0	220	1.1
OCG***	653	4.4	711	3.7	777	4.0
Total Christian	12,583	70.9	12,764	68.0	12,686	63.9
BUDDHISTS	200	1.1	358	1.9	419	2.1
HINDUS	67	0.4	95	0.5	148	0.7
JEWS	80	0.5	84	0.4	89	0.4
MUSLIMS	201	1.1	282	1.5	340	1.7
OTHER****	69	0.4	92	0.5	109	0.5
Total	617	3.5	911	4.8	1,105	5.6
Inadequate Description	54	0.3	352	1.9	134	0.7
No Religion	2,949	16.5	2,905	15.5	3,707	18.7
Not Stated	1,551	8.7	1,836	9.8	2,224	11.2
Total Population	17,753		18,769		19,855

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Notes: * Only those Christian groups larger than 1% and other groups 0.4% and larger in 2006 have been included.

** MPCRU combines the data for the Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational, Reformed and Uniting Churches. The Uniting Church was formed in 1977 in a merger of Congregational, Methodist and about half of the Presbyterians.

*** OCG – Other Christian Groups less than 1%.

**** Other religious groups less than 0.4% of the population.

Table 26.2 Changes in Australia’s religious profile 1996–2006: Christian groups (groups 0.1% and over)
Religious Identification	1996		2001		2006		2001-2006
	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	% growth rate
CHRISTIAN*
Anglican	3,903	21.99	3,881	20.68	3,718	18.73	-4.20
Baptist	295	1.66	309	1.65	317	1.60	2.59
Brethren	22	0.12	19	0.10	24	0.12	26.32
Catholic	4,799	27.03	5,002	26.65	5,127	25.82	2.50
Churches of Christ	75	0.42	61	0.33	55	0.28	-9.84
Jehovah’s Witnesses	83	0.47	81	0.43	81	0.41	0.00
Latter Day Saints	45	0.25	50	0.27	53	0.27	6.00
Lutheran	250	1.41	250	1.33	251	1.26	0.40
Oriental Christian/Orthodox	31	0.18	36	0.19	33	0.17	-8.33
Orthodox	497	2.80	529	2.82	544	2.74	2.84
Pentecostal	175	0.98	195	1.04	220	1.11	12.82
Presbyterian/Reformed	676	3.81	638	3.40	597	3.01	-6.43
Salvation Army	74	0.42	71	0.38	64	0.32	-9.86
Seventh Day Adventist	53	0.30	54	0.29	55	0.28	1.85
Uniting	1,335	7.52	1,249	6.65	1,135	5.72	-9.13
Other Christian	253	1.43	324	1.72	411	2.07	26.85
Total Christian	12,583	70.55	12,764	68.00	12,685	63.89	-0.62
National Population	17,753		18,769		19,855		5.79

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Note: * Only those Christian groups more numerous than 0.1% of the population are listed separately.

Table 26.3 Changes in Australia’s religious profile 1996–2006: other religious groups (0.01% and over)
Religious Identification	1996		2001		2006		2001 to 2006
	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	% growth rate
BUDDHISTS	200	1.13	358	1.91	419	2.11	17.0
HINDUS	67	0.38	95	0.51	148	0.75	55.8
JEWS	80	0.45	84	0.45	89	0.45	6.0
MUSLIMS	201	1.13	282	1.5	340	1.71	20.6
OTHER
Aboriginal traditional religions	7	0.04	5	0.03	5	0.03	3.0
Baha’i	9	0.05	11	0.06	12	0.06	9.1
Chinese religions	4	0.02	4	0.02	4	0.02	0.0
Druse	2	0.01	2	0.01	3	0.02	50.0
Japanese religions	1	0.01	1	0.01	1	0.01	0.0
Nature religions
Paganism	4	0.02	11	0.06	16	0.08	45.5
Wicca/witchcraft	2	0.01	9	0.05	8	0.04	-11.1
Other	4	0.02	4	0.02	6	0.03	50.0
Total Nature Religions	10	0.05	24	0.13	29	0.15	20.8
Rastafarianism	1	0.01	1	0.01	1	0.01	0.0
Satanism	2	0.01	2	0.01	2	0.01	0.0
Scientology	1	0.01	2	0.01	3	0.02	50.0
Sikhism	12	0.07	17	0.09	26	0.13	52.9
Spiritualism	8	0.05	9	0.05	10	0.05	11.1
Theism	2	0.01	3	0.02	3	0.02	0.0
Zoroastrians	2	0.01	2	0.02	2	0.01	0.0
Other ‘Other’ Religions	8	0.04	10	0.04	11	0.06	10.0
OTHER Religions Total	69	0.39	92	0.5	109	0.55	18.5
NO RELIGION
Agnostics	9	0.05	18	0.09	22	0.11	22.2
Atheists	7	0.04	24	0.13	31	0.16	29.2
Humanists	4	0.02	5	0.03	8	0.04	60.0
Rationalists	1	0.01	2	0.01	2	0.01	0.0
NO RELIGION nfd*	2928	16.36	2856	15.22	3644	18.35	27.6
NO RELIGION Total	2949	16.5	2905	15.5	3707	18.67	27.6
NOT STATED/INADEQUATE Not Stated	1551	8.67	1836	9.78	2224	11.20	21.1
Inadequate Description	54	0.31	352	1.88	134	0.67	-61.7
NOT STATED/INADEQUATE Total	1605	8.98	2188	11.7	2358	11.88	7.8
NATIONAL POPULATION	17,753		18,769		19,855		5.8

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Notes: Significant changes may have occurred where populations are less than 4,000 and growth % is 0. In each case, changes may equal several hundred. These are not expressed here due to rounding.

* nfd = not further defined

The future shape of Australia’s religious profile is detectable not only in the trends evident in tables 26.1–26.3 but even more so in the age distribution data presented in table 26.4. The age profile of Christian groups is considerably older than the national distribution. This becomes clearer when Catholics who have a distribution that matches the national distribution are removed. British Protestant groups have over 40 per cent who are fifty-five years old and older. This pattern is even more dramatic for ‘attenders’ who have an even more aged profile [10]. Meanwhile, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities have comparatively youthful profiles and higher fertility rates. The Greek Orthodox are beginning to age as their migration slows and the percentage of Greek youth identifying as Orthodox declines. New religious movements and pagan groups tend to be more middle aged. It is very unlikely that Christianity will cease to be the largest group, but it will no longer be able to dominate the religious landscape as it has in the past. Moreover its internal divisions are shifting with the rise of Pentecostal, evangelical and ‘emergent’ churches and with the Catholics becoming the most numerous and demographically healthy group. The British Protestant and Anglican dominance is over, even though this has not fully registered on many in these groups [5; 22]. Moreover, studies of youth spirituality do not indicate a bright picture for formerly dominant religious groups in Australia [23].

Table 26.4 Religion by age in Australia in 2006
	0-14	15-24	35-44	45-54	>54	Total
Christians	18.1%	12.2%	14.6%	29.0%	29.1%	100.0%
Buddhism	16.6%	15.8%	18.2%	35.4%	14.7%	100.0%
Hinduism	19.2%	17.3%	16.8%	28.7%	9.3%	100.0%
Islam	29.9%	18.8%	14.8%	24.4%	8.2%	100.0%
Judaism	17.0%	11.9%	11.9%	26.6%	32.4%	100.0%
No religion	24.6%	16.7%	15.3%	27.9%	13.4%	100.0%
All Australians	19.9%	13.7%	13.5%	28.7%	24.4%	100.0%

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Twenty-First Century Challenges

When the gaze is shifted beyond demographics, several issues emerge that define religion and spirituality in twenty-first-century Australia – the decline of British Protestantism, a decline in religious participation, the inclusion of a wide diversity of religious groups, spiritual aspects of indigenous reconciliation, and a return of religious voices to public discourse.

Shifting Hegemonies: The Decline of Cultural Christianity, or British Protestantism

Through much of the twentieth century it was possible to view Australia as a British colonial outpost dominated by British Protestantism. I include Anglicans here because through this time the Protestant end of Anglicanism dominated and cooperated with Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists and Baptists to form a cultural hegemony of a certain style of cultural Christianity. I limit this to the twentieth century because this coalition formed not so much in the nineteenth century as during and following the First World War. The nineteenth century was characterized more by the struggle to survive, establish institutions and form cities and then a nation. It was not until 1840 that significant religious organizations were formed and that church and synagogue [21] building commenced. The emergence of a middle class and the dominance of the free as opposed to the convict and warders only began to emerge at this time. The nineteenth century was characterized by many voices – religious, secular, occult [26] and others. Remembering that the England from which convicts and settlers arrived was not particularly religious at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries helps us to understand this situation. Religion was left to the person in burgeoning London and other cities. London was primarily churched in the mid- and late nineteenth century. The fear of Irish revolt kept legitimate Catholic organization at a standstill for decades and limited its development for many more. The gold rush of the mid-century brought many more people to Australia but they were not noted for religious observance either. There was contestation among the various Christian groups for state aid and the provision of education and other support [18; 15; 20]. Even the founders of the Australian Federation were very mixed in religious orientation and practice. Yes, they passed the ‘White Australia’ immigration act that remained in force in law until the early 1970s. But that act was not anti-Irish, or anti-Catholic, that was to come later.

The First World War provided a catalyst for the emergence of heightened British Protestantism. The Protestants and Catholics disagreed strongly over conscription. The new Archbishop of Melbourne – Daniel Mannix – did not support the referendum calling for and establishing conscription partly as a protest against the oppression of the Irish by the English which was entering another very violent period and partly because he doubted the wisdom of sacrificing so much for Britain. From that time Protestant and Catholic relations became embittered and stayed so until well into the second half of the twentieth century. The huge suffering Australia endured during and after the war provided the second stimulus to an emergent British Protestant dominance. Australia, having been badly treated, her soldiers mercilessly sacrificed and her heroism largely unmarked could easily have rebelled against Britain, but instead, up went the ‘For God and King’ Remembrance shrines in Anglican and Protestant churches. Those who served, those who died, those who came back broken in mind, spirit and body were honoured and their sacrifice and the suffering of their loved ones legitimized by an ex post facto increase in loyalty to the Empire. So British had Australia become that she refused independence when Britain offered it in 1937 and was forced to accept it in 1942.

However, as we saw above, while Australia ramped up its allegiance following its huge and heroic sacrifices in the First World War, British Protestantism had achieved its high-water mark in terms of its percentage of the population in 1921. The depression saw a significant drop in the percentages identifying with a religious group and a corresponding rise of those declaring ‘no religion’. Catholics had a solid base and a high birth rate. Things religious were about to change dramatically. The fall of Singapore to the Japanese and the abandonment of Australia by Britain had a profound effect on the British Protestant hegemony. Yes it continued but it had suffered a mortal blow. The second mortal blow came with the collapse of the British Empire and the entrance of Britain into the Common Market. This put an end to many trade relationships between Britain and Australia. With this the colonial, military and economic ties to Britain were severed. When the economic base of British Protestantism was removed Australia looked more widely for its defence alliances, markets and cultural links. There was a related but not equal rise in the appearance of new religious movements, American style evangelical churches and emergent churches [22] as well as many streams of Buddhism, various forms of Hinduism, and Sikhism, which have arrived both with migrants who hold to them and through conversion to these religious groups of Australians who had identified with other groups or none.

Declining Religious Participation

Not only has there been a decline in the percentages of Australians identifying with a religious group, there has also been a decline in the levels of participation in religious groups. Australia was never a ‘high religious participation’ zone like the US or Ireland. The high-water mark for participation seems to have been in the 1950s. According to sample surveys of the time participation ran at a little over 20 per cent nationally. While only 8 per cent of those who identified as Anglicans attended regularly, the percentage was higher for Catholics. However, since the 1970s there has been a decline in both national figures and in those for Catholics [16]. Those who do attend have a significantly higher age pattern than those who identify, further suggesting that attendance will continue to decline as attending religious services does not seem to be a practice adopted by youth [10].

While religious groups bear some responsibility for this, the most salient explanations for the decline in participation lie in the rise in the number and range of alternative providers of the services over which religious groups formerly exercised a virtual monopoly [27]. In the 1950s religious groups – churches and synagogues – offered dances, movies, tennis courts and social clubs to say nothing of social services, hospitals and education. Blue laws reduced to negligible the competition on Sundays. Since then television, increased numbers of sporting events, youth oriented dance clubs and nightclubs, have emerged to offer a greater choice. Health and social services have been taken over by the state. The popularity of faith-based education has increased, but has reduced its focus on faith development in many cases. In short, religious groups have had to compete with cashed-up alternate providers of many of the services that they had provided.

There is now also competition for the provision of what might have been described as the ‘core business’ of religious groups – providing meaning, marking life passages, and offering occasions for collective grief and celebration. Australia provides a group of certified professional ‘civil celebrants’ who offer naming ceremonies, marriages and funerals. The percentage of marriage ceremonies conducted by a minister of religion has declined to 37 per cent. As recently as 1988 it was 59 per cent. There is also a decline in the proportion of funerals conducted in religious premises and by religious personnel, although it is higher than the percentage for marriages. Civil celebrants are popular for several reasons – they focus on the needs of the client, rather than imposing the strictures of a religious group; they are more willing to marry people who have been divorced – at this time over one-third of marriages are remarriages for one or both of the partners; they are often more professional and careful than religious personnel for whom this is a minor part of a larger role; and finally, civil celebrants are more willing to allow the client to draw from a wider range of resources in putting together their celebration – they are facilitators of postmodern bricolage, rather than imposers of modern uniformity and orthodoxy. Some celebrants began to provide this service to offer a secular, non-religious alternative. They have discovered, however, that many of their clientele want religious items in their services – the Lord’s Prayer, 23rd Psalm, St Paul’s passage on love, and even hymns along with readings from Kahlil Gibran and others.

The dominance over non-indigenous Australians’ religious life which was not there at the outset and only began to take hold in about 1840 has now faded dramatically, leaving Australians free to ignore religions and spiritualities or practise them deeply, bundling together religious, philosophical and spiritual bits and pieces. In short, as they were as convicts, warders and freedmen in the first fifty years following 1788, today’s Australians are free and responsible to themselves for how they conduct their religious lives. For those who opt in, religion is more salient, for others less. In this context secularity is a very viable option, but is increasingly seen as just that – one of several options available for the construction of meaning, ethics and sociality. What has emerged is not so much a secular society, but one characterized by offering a level playing field upon which various providers of these services can compete [12; 13].

Inclusion vs Exclusion

Given the fact of religious diversity, the challenge facing Australia is the development of a policy and legal framework to protect and encourage the beneficial use of the ‘level playing field’ referred to above. Australia does not have a bill of rights. Constitutional protection is provided for religion but in a very indistinct form. Various states in the federation have acted to protect freedoms of religion and belief. Australia’s openness to new religious movements was given strong support by the High Court’s ruling that Scientology was a religion and thus entitled to the protections, privileges and responsibilities of one in this society [17]. On the other hand, since the events of 11 September 2001, issues of religious inclusion and exclusion have become more pointed as some have taken this as motivation to attack Islam and Muslims [14].

Several states have enacted religious anti-vilification legislation to make it clear that religious as well as racial hate-mongering or inciting to violence against racial and religious groups is not acceptable. These laws have been vigorously resisted by evangelical Christians who argue that they need to be able to speak their ‘truth’ about Islam and others even if it has the effect of dividing the community and making some Australians fearful of their neighbours [7]. Several states include religious diversity along with racial and ethnic diversity as something to be addressed by their Multicultural Commissions.

Following the events of 11 September 2001 and the London and Bali bombings, there have been increased interreligious tensions felt by minority religious groups, especially Islam, but also Sikhs, Buddhists and others. Some evangelical Christian groups have accelerated their anti-Islam propaganda and teachings. There have also been increased attacks on all religions by secularists who seek to push forward their perspectives. At the same time many religious groups have increased their attempts to promote interreligious understanding and mutual respect. There are many organizations devoted to promoting interreligious understanding and respect. Some of these continue the work of ecumenism, which reduced interreligious tensions among Christian religious groups in the twentieth century. Some are bi-lateral, such as the International Council of Christians and Jews, while others focus on the Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and still others work with wider ranges of religious groups, such as Religions for Peace, which deals officially with only the largest and most prominent religious groups, or the Parliament of the World’s Religions which welcomes the full participation of people from all religious groups and none. In Sydney and Melbourne organizations related to the Gulen movement have been outstanding in their efforts to promote interreligious understanding and to build bridges between religious groups.

Australia officially takes pride in being multicultural and increasingly in being multi-faith. This has not been an easy journey. A great deal of effort has been invested in curricula for schools, programmes supporting multicultural interaction and interreligious relations. State, and now again Commonwealth governments, have provided leadership and civic and religious organizations have worked vigorously. The result is a largely harmonious multicultural and multi-faith society. However, those who would impose their own form of monoculturalism continue to seek ways to gain the power to do so.

Spiritual Aspects of Indigenous Reconciliation

The religious profile of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians is close to that of the whole population [5] as many have been educated in religious schools, were raised in church institutions, or have adopted Christianity through the work of missionaries. However, traditional ways, beliefs and practices continue to be practised by some and many indigenous languages are still in use. For some Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, these traditional ways are practised alongside Christian beliefs and practices, for others not.

While issues of inclusion and exclusion have largely focused on Islam and new religious movements, following the ‘Sorry Day’ apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders by the Prime Minister of Australia on 13 February 2008, the spiritual dimensions of indigenous reconciliation have only recently become more recognized. While the treatment of indigenous people has been atrocious in many ways – taking away children of mixed parentage to be raised in church institutions and prepared as a serving class, racial discrimination at all levels, massacres, and other forms of violence to person, land and dignity – the disregard for and disparagement of indigenous beliefs and practices strikes at the heart of human dignity and the capacity to manage change. It is becoming clear that a significant part of the humiliation and degradation experienced by indigenous people has been the way their traditional beliefs, customs and practices have been derided and not accorded the dignity of the status of religions. This disregard began as some anthropologists declined to apply the term religion to indigenous beliefs and practices and this attitude was adopted by government policy-makers.

Given that the centrality of relating to the land of one’s birth and ancestry is so central to indigenous religious practices, land claims related to sacred sites are intimately bound up with spiritual aspects of reconciliation [2]. Settling these claims has been vigorously resisted and arguments arising from religious and spiritual association and practice have not been accorded the weight they deserve. One consequence of the rise of religious diversity in Australia has been the appreciation of a wider range of religious beliefs and practices that increasingly includes those of indigenous Australians.

Religion in Public Discourse

For all the evident decline in both identification and participation, there has also been a resurgence of religious voices in public discourse in many parts of the world including Australia [29; 22]. Ironically, this is in part due to the decline of British Protestantism which had been so much a monopoly as to virtually drown out all other voices on the one hand and on the other so much interwoven with all aspects of social and cultural life as to exercise its influence almost without notice by its production and reproduction of what was taken to be normal. With the rise of significant communities of Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and others, along with the rise of Catholicism to be the largest of the Christian groups and of Pentecostal and evangelical Christians as the most vocal there has emerged a diversity of religious voices in public discourse. The contestation between various religious viewpoints, meaning systems and perspectives including varieties of secularism has made religion a hot topic.

Some decry the passing of the old order where Christianity was the ‘normal’ and Anglicanism the ‘default’ religion. They argue that Christian symbols and references must remain because they are constitutive of Australian society. While that may have been true at some time in the past, it is not true now, nor is the style of Christianity these groups wish to promote the style that was constitutive in the past. This is yet another religious voice among others seeking to enhance its traction by lining itself to a ‘golden age’ in the recent past.

In this context issues of freedom of religion and belief come to the fore regularly. Am I free to speak ill of another religion, religious group, or religious person? Some feel their religion compels them to do so. Attempts to prevent some groups from building schools or buildings for worship are viewed by some as a central expression of and defence of their faith. Similar contestation emerges with respect to abortion – current legislation requires those health care professionals who oppose abortion to inform those in their care about this and offer a referral to someone who takes a different view. Catholics join others to have this law changed. At this point freedoms of religion and belief are seen to inhere in individuals and not the religions themselves, nor in religious organizations.

The fact of religious diversity not only makes religious identification interesting in a way that it was not when ‘everyone’ – at least everyone who counted – was British Protestant, it also makes for interesting contestation among religious viewpoints on social, moral and political issues. Conservative evangelical Protestants try to argue that there is one Christian way, but even they dispute what it is and their views are not widely shared among other Christians [3]. While the Catholic hierarchy argues a particular line it is not uniformly accepted or followed by the Catholic people indicating internal contestation over many issues from abortion to contraception practices to women priests. Add to this already extensive diversity the voices of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and pagans, to say nothing of the secularists, and an extremely interesting, highly complex set of religious voices can be heard, seeking to influence, to be heard and to seek strategic alliances.

Religion in Australia is changing and restructuring. The changes do not provide data in support of that form of secularization that focuses on decline in participation and influence, nor do they point to a resurgence of religious organizations, even while participation in public discourse is increasing. Plural voices, contestation and friction are all signs of life, not the end of religion. This land has long known religious, cultural and linguistic diversity. The relatively brief period of British Protestant hegemony stands out as exceptional, not normal; as deviant and not a pattern to be re-instituted. The fact that Australia has managed a high level of religious diversity without significant violence augurs well for its capacity to continue to be an example to the world.

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