Larvatus Prodeo

2009 ended with a flurry of discussion on religion and politics, and it’s a theme I imagine we’re going to hear a lot more of in 2010.

I was ruminating on this question because of a couple of phrases which have come up this week about political events.

In Queensland, State Parliament has been debating the decriminalisation of altruistic surrogacy (where there is no payment involved). It’s the last jurisdiction where this is illegal, and members of the Legislative Assembly have a conscience vote. Much attention has focused on the fact that the bill enables same sex couples to access surrogacy, and you can get a sense of some of the rhetoric this is producing from opponents here.

We’ve heard, among other things, about “traditional Queensland families”.

Meanwhile, Tony Abbott has justified his support for the threatened preselection of David Clarke by describing his views as “mainstream”, writing to New South wales party members:

The letter argues that Mr Clarke should not be seen as having extreme views when all he does is go “to church on Sundays” and respect “traditional values”.

Yet the 2006 census found that only 63% of Australians describe their religion as Christian, and research found in 2001 that only 19% of Christians go to church regularly (defined as at least once a month). In absolute numbers, there were slightly fewer self-described Christians in 2006 than in 2001, and this identification is significantly skewed by age. Nor should it be assumed that all of, or even a majority of non-church attending Christians sign up to the suite of values defined as “traditional”, and even less so, that all want to see such values embodied in the law of the land.

Yet, in political debate, and in decisions which radically affect people’s life choices, the invocation of such values, and the influence of lobby groups which champion them, appear to have a presumed legitimacy which should be unwarranted in a secular democracy.

Documentation on the legislative process of inquiry into the framing of the bill can be found here.

Elsewhere: Andrew Bartlett on the Queensland Parliament’s surrogacy conscience vote.

Update: John Birmingham on the LNP and the surrogacy debate.