Census results mean religions should stop getting special treatment

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This was published 1 year ago

Opinion

Census results mean religions should stop getting special treatment

I last went to Sunday school some time back in the mid-’90s. I could probably have done with some divine forgiveness for the acid-washed jeans I was likely to have been wearing. Coming from a mixed Catholic and Protestant background, with a mother who truly believed Jesus’ return was imminent, it’s fair to say that religion was important to me back then.

Every step I’ve subsequently taken in my life, career – and hopefully fashion sense – has taken me ever further from the Church and from seeing myself as a religious person.

The 2021 Australian census results have shown a significant decline in religiosity with the proportion of people choosing “No religion” increasing from 29.6 per cent in 2016 to 38.4 per cent in 2021, in figures released by the ABS yesterday. The rise of nine percentage points since 2016 is the largest ever single increase between censuses for people choosing no religion.

This census result is also the first time that the number of Australians indicating a belief in Christianity is less than 50 per cent. It’s incredibly apt that these figures come just after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, an extreme example of how disproportionate the reach of the church can be. A local example is the $1 billion spent on the school chaplaincy program since it was introduced by the Howard government in 2006. The program gave vastly disproportionate preference to religious workers.

As CEO of Humanists Australia I was part of the “Census: No Religion” campaign which encouraged Australians to give an accurate representation of their current beliefs in the census.

The increasing membership of our organisation shows growing numbers of people are identifying as humanists, a movement based on the philosophy of “being good without god”. We believe non-religious people are neither lacking, nor lesser, than religious folk in any sense.

Put simply, society has changed. And the 2021 census results give us a clear idea of exactly how much it has changed, with almost 10 million people now reporting that they are not religious. Plenty of these people are living good, highly contributory lives. It is time we acknowledge it is perfectly possible to be ethical, compassionate and to live a life of meaning without any supernatural beliefs.

It is also clear that it is time to rethink and reconsider all of the many ways in which the Australian state privileges religious institutions, such as the former Morrison government’s proposed religious discrimination bill, which would have allowed the religious to exclude the secular in certain settings including schools.

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The non-religious basic principle of fairness should prompt us to look again at how much public funding religious bodies enjoy, and I believe that those almost 10 million non-religious Australians have some reasonable questions about how religious organisations can be automatically classed as charities and granted tax-exempt status for many of their activities.

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Similar tax exemptions are simply not granted to equivalent secular bodies unless they apply for tax-exempt status and fulfil certain criteria.

The tax exemptions granted to religious organisations, other than for genuine charitable work, means millions of dollars are lost to state revenue at a time when so many social services are in dire need of funding.

Ultimately, giving preferential treatment to religious groups ends up emphasising the differences in our society. By offering different treatment to religious institutions in the form of tax exemptions, and offering different (and often preferential) opportunities for funding we are likely to end up with greater inequalities despite the good works that many religious organisations undoubtedly perform.

Reducing the privileges granted to religious bodies, as their influence declines, promotes fairness and offers truly equal opportunity for all to practise their beliefs, or lack thereof.

Religious institutions, with the collusion of government through tax breaks and unfair opportunities such as the chaplaincy program, are locked in a bygone age – not just of acid-washed jeans but of fire and brimstone, incense, chalices and chasubles.

As I have moved on from my days of ’90s fashion, it is time to acknowledge that society is moving on too.

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