BOOK SHELF No room for complacency for Australia's churches Book review by John Morrissey
Double-Minded: How Sex is Dividing the Australian Churchby Mark Durie (Melbourne: Deror Books, 2023). Paperback: 154 pages. ISBN: 9781923067004. RRP: AUD$24.99
The Rev. Dr Mark Durie, an Australian Anglican priest and theologian, has produced what he calls a roadmap of the condition in which the major Christian denominations find themselves in Australia today. His stated aim, in this slim volume Double-Minded: How Sex is Dividing the Australian Church, is not to impose his views upon readers, but to help them to better understand the fragmentation which is occurring.
He does this not only by providing a statistical analysis, based on census data and the results of the National Church Life Survey (NCLS) research, but by examining the structures of various denominations, where authority concerning beliefs and practice is located, and how it is imposed on their ministers and pastors especially. In the crucible of church-goers' responses to the sexual revolution, and especially same-sex marriage, he asks the larger question — that is, whether the Bible or human reason will be the ultimate arbiter of faith and morals.
Failure to agree on this question has seen the splitting of large denominations in the U.S. There, over 1,000 conservative Methodist parishes have left the United Methodist Church upon its approval of an openly homosexual bishop's same-sex marriage, many to join a conservative Global Methodist Church, founded in 2022.
Division on this issue has also seen the formation in 2008 of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders.
Australia's late Cardinal George Pell has observed that the key issue dividing the Christian churches now is not the sectarian divisions, but a conflict between secular Western culture and biblical authority.
Durie denies that the fundamental issue is about sex. Rather, he says, it is about what it is to be human, which from a biblical perspective is to serve and worship God. Thus, the purpose of marriage is procreation, avoidance of sexual sin and for mutual comfort and support.
However, a modern Western understanding is that "self-realisation" lies in fulfilling one's supposed personal needs and psychological drives. Human identity has thus come to be understood as inherently sexual. This concept of identity then permits one to identify as a different gender or race, arbitrarily divide societies into oppressors and victims, exalt a flawed virtue of inclusion, and turn the objectives of education on their heads. Durie observes that the sexual revolution of the 1960s had been preceded by centuries of Christian understanding of the human person and consequent views on sexuality and marriage, until challenged in the last two centuries by the works of Rousseau, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud.
A Christian response is that there must be a line drawn between reasonable cultural accommodation and the subversion of church doctrine and ethics. Drawing this line is now routinely described as hatred and bigotry, and it should be remembered that, two years before Australia's 2017 postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage, Archbishop Julian Porteous of Hobart was threatened under Tasmania's anti-discrimination laws for merely quoting Catholic Church teaching on the matter.
The 2021 census figures for adherents of Christian denominations in Australia ranks Catholics, Anglicans and Uniting Church as most prominent; but Durie judges that the census under-estimated Pentecostals who, grouped as they were with those of "Christianity (not defined)", would outnumber adherents of the Uniting Church. He notes that census figures do not represent personal faith or participation.
According to NCLS research, Catholic practice sits at 11% and Anglican 5%; but the writer does not point to a uniform decline in Christian practice, as Pentecostal and "Other Protestant" numbers are growing, with high participation and more youthful congregations.
Durie examines the structures of the main denominations and how these exercise authority over the received beliefs and lives of their adherents. The doctrines of the Catholic Church are detailed in its Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), which is explicit on same-sex relationships, which are described as "disordered" and homosexual acts as "sinful". Whatever dissent exists, there is no prospect of change to this explicit prohibition.
The Anglican Church does not assert the same authority, but shares the same traditional view, grounded on the same biblical passages. However, the 1998 Lambeth Conference called upon Anglicans to "minister pastorally to all irrespective of sexual orientation". In 2023 the Church of England Synod voted to authorise a form of blessing for same-sex relationships, prompting the splits which have occurred.
At base is the issue of the authority and interpretation of the Bible. Ironically, in Australia most Anglicans are conservative (especially the graduates of Sydney's Moore Theological College), and maintain doctrinal opposition to same-sex marriage. Progressive theological views are in decline in the Melbourne synods, in spite of the changes which are advocated elsewhere, but the Durie fears future rifts nationally.
Attendance in the Uniting Church of Australia, although regarded as the nation's third largest denomination, ranks behind attendance in the Catholic, Anglican, Pentecostal and Baptist churches. It is governed by four levels of assemblies and has a Basis of Union which Durie believes contains a "weak" acknowledgement of the Bible as a merely a "prophetic and apostolic testimony". On ethics much is left to the discretion of individual clergy, leaving Durie to conclude that God's truth on the issue of homosexuality is subjected to individual interpretations, without any prohibition of sex outside of marriage.
Census data give no reliable measure of the strength of the Pentecostal movement in Australia, but active membership ranks second only to Catholics. Often meeting in halls, cinemas or converted factories, they are culturally adaptive, as seen in their contemporary church worship music, but conservative in doctrine and ethics. While traditional congregations have declined, Pentecostals have a younger demographic and are more dynamic and growing. Its largest grouping, Australian Christian Churches (ACC), has over 1,000 churches and 3,000 pastors.
Although self-governing, Pentecostals have a United Constitution, which states that "The Holy Scriptures, known as the Bible, [are] the inspired Word of God and our all-sufficient rule for faith and practice" and all other points are "grounded in these scriptures". Its ministerial code of conduct details what is expected of ACC ministers, with the capacity to discipline pastors for breaches of sexual ethics.
Two evangelical denominations of the Calvinist tradition are the Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCA) and the Free (Dutch) Reformed Church (FRCA). The former is composed of congregations, each of which is headed by a minister and council of elders. These come under the authority of regional presbyteries and a state assembly presided over by a Moderator. The national general assembly is presided over by a Moderator-General. The PCA takes a conservative stance on Biblical authority and human sexuality and is far less liberal than its Scottish counterpart.
The FRCA adheres to the Apostles' Creed and the 1563 Heidelberg Catechism and espouses a biblical standard of chastity, whatever the laws of the land. Its church order policy defines fornication and adultery as serious gross sins, whether heterosexual or homosexual, and applies to lay people as well as pastors.
As distinct from their denominations' statements on beliefs and conduct, a measure of churchgoers' attitudes to different aspects of human sexuality may be gauged from the NCLS, last conducted in 2011, that is, of more committed church members.
Adultery is almost always wrong, according to 96.8% of respondents. Interestingly, young adults (20-30 years-old) believed more strongly than baby-boomers (then 60-69 years-old) that extra-marital sex is always wrong. Durie speculates that this trend, also seen on other issues, reflects the experience of the older cohort who lived through the sexual revolution and became more liberal, and also the number of younger people in Pentecostal congregations. It was also noted that the attitudes of regular attenders had remained stable since 2001.
A factor which might explain the conservative attitudes of youthful attenders is the large numbers of fervent young Asians, Africans and Pacific Islanders who occupy the pews in all the denominations surveyed. This is especially evident in Catholic congregations and, increasingly, among younger clergy. While the attitudes of Uniting Church and Pentecostals attenders reflect the codes of conduct of their churches, there is a mismatch between the strict codes of the CCC and the permissive attitudes of many Catholics. We conservatives call them "cafeteria Catholics".
Among Protestants, Pentecostals remain the most conservative and Uniting Church adherents remain the most permissive on the question of sex before marriage being always wrong, with similar ranking on attitudes toward adultery. In 2011, however, 73% of those surveyed disagreed with same-sex marriage, with less frequent attenders more likely to agree. Same-sex adoption was greeted with similar responses.
Dr Durie's conclusion is the more that churchgoers practise their faith, the more conservative their views are likely to be on sexuality. He quotes prominent American commentator Ross Douthat, who says: "The decline of belief and practice, rather than resilience or revival, in the Christian churches that have gone farthest with the liberal program is one of the most salient facts of contemporary religious history in both America and Europe" (New York Times, June 23, 2023).
The author also notes the correlation between declining attendance and progressivism, and nominalism and more permissive sexual ethics. While he recognises the significant number of Uniting Church attenders who hold conservative views on sexuality, despite their denomination's equivocal moral code, he singles out the Catholic Church for the greatest gap between doctrine and the opinions of people in the pews. As with the Anglican Church, there is a division in the private attitudes of Australian Catholics regarding Church teaching, but it is not reflected in any doctrinal confusion.
Although this data does not indicate the current attitudes of the apparently more permissive Australian teenage churchgoers in 2011, Dr Durie is not pessimistic about the future of Christianity. He points to a recent global survey of Catholic women, showing younger respondents were far more opposed to extending the sacrament of marriage to same-sex couples than were older women. In the Melbourne Anglican diocese where he served, parishes with youth groups were more conservative in theology, being either evangelical or charismatic. Contrary to those doomsayers who urge the Church to embrace the prevailing culture, he argues that the opposite trend is evident among younger Christians.
Objects of hatred
In his conclusion, Dr Durie reiterates that some denominations and movements have been declining and others growing. He notes that permissive attitudes towards same-sex marriage are associated with the trend to place personal sexual ethics outside the scope of church discipline altogether. Also acknowledged is a hostile legal environment restricting the freedom of religious schools, but also forcing churches to protect themselves with formal doctrinal statements on sexual ethics. Citing the Essendon Football Club's Andrew Thorburn uproar in 2022, he points out the unequal rights for those out of step with the sexual revolution, so that they are marginalised and treated as objects of hatred.Among his many works, Dr Durie is also the author of The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom (2010), which offers a basic outline of Islamic texts and how Muslims are expected to regard others, according to Islamic law. It is recommended reading for all who have been taught the myth of centuries of peaceful co-existence between Muslims, Christians and Jews under Islam.
In Double-Minded, he does not despair of Christianity in Australia. He judges that those who embrace the outcomes of the sexual revolution represent the dying fringes of Christianity, not its beating heart. Dr Durie has not shirked any of the issues which he confronts in this analysis, but has met them head on, not sparing his own Anglican denomination in the least.
Catholics, especially, should be disturbed by his very just observations on their poor attendance rates and lack of fidelity to Church teachings. I recall that, in my youth, Mass attendance exceeded 60% and rarely were the teachings on faith and morals questioned.
Limited only by the perhaps out-of-date figures in the 2011 National Church Life Survey, Durie's book is a valuable "roadmap", as the author calls it, of the state of organised Christianity in Australia today — and there is no room for complacency.
John Morrissey is a retired secondary school teacher who has taught in government, independent and Catholic schools.
