Religion's dying swan act: secularism is banishing it from the public square

However, I suggest the public square argument is really a cri de coeur concerning religion's decline in the West which is demonstrated by

• religion's steady decline in terms of memberships and church attendances; as an idea in the public mind, expressed in the census figures, religion's ship is slowly but surely sinking.
• religion's overall inability to prevent social reforms that tend to undermine religion through their secularising effect

On the first point, the August 2016 census will show us just how low religion has sunk in Australia when – for the first time – citizens are asked up front whether they have a religion or not, and, if so, what it is.

Unlike the 2013 New Zealand census where Christianity has slumped to somewhere between 49 and 42 per cent (NZ citizens can tick more than one box for religious affiliation) the Australian census has for decades concealed the 'no religion' option at the bottom of the religion question under a checklist of religion options. The result of shifting it to the top of the question will be an interesting exercise.

There is now a good reason why politicians, in particular, soft-peddle on their religious beliefs. The first is that electorally, it can be a kiss of death. Disinterested citizens don't want to be preached to.

Our 2015 IPSOS survey (Russell Blackford, 'Most Australian voters are not influenced by religion', The Conversation, 13 September, 2015) found that 86 per cent of Australians do not take religion into consideration when they vote; 26 per cent said the question had no application to them; 60 per cent said religion did not influence them at all; 14 per cent said they were 'somewhat influenced'. Only 5 per cent said they were 'very much influenced'.

On the second point, by way of evidence, here is a list of social initiatives and reforms achieved in spite of conservative church opposition since the 1870s:

• the creation of free, secular and compulsory public schools
• the opening of museums, public libraries and later sports activities and shops on Sundays
• the end of prohibition and the extension of the opening hours of hotels and clubs selling alcohol, later extended to seven days a week
• new no-fault divorce laws
• the lowering of the age of consent
• legislation to allow civil celebrants
• sex before marriage and the widespread use of oral contraceptives
• the common law compromise concerning abortion, the acceptance of a woman's right to choose and later the decriminalisation of abortion in some states
• the legalisation of homosexuality
• the right of lesbian women to IVF and more liberal approaches to gay adoption
• a loosening of the laws concerning blasphemy and censorship
• the extension of horse racing into night time meetings

A case study of these battles was the Western Australian parliament of 2002 which introduced gay and prostitution law reforms, and eased off on prohibiting abortion.

In a useful review of what happened, journalist Steve Pennells ('Pulpit Politics',West Australian 14 September 2002) wrote the politicians had been ' … intimidated, threatened, blacklisted and defamed in a coordinated set of campaigns aimed at influencing the state's political decisions'.

He cited Liberal MP Arthur Marshall who said ' It was intense – it was the force of religion against the force of free thought. It got very spiky and it got very personal. There were people crying in the Assembly.'

The reforms all got through. Another WA MP, John Quigley, openly Catholic, said what theocrats don't want to hear: 'Once you are in public service you are not there to pass criminal laws to outlaw behaviours because the Catholic Church agrees or disagrees with it.'