On the Family - 4

Question 9 Do you believe Australia's low attendance to Church in comparison with our population has contributed to our 'family values' and if so, why?

Our church attendance is low compared to a country like South Africa or the USA, but higher than Britain's and certainly higher than most countries in mainland Europe. Decline in church attendance has been parallel with decline in all kinds of social involvement since the 1960s - decline in political party membership, sports clubs, RSL clubs, newspaper readership, scouting groups and so on. So we perhaps shouldn't read this shift as merely a religious one - it has a broader social context. Australians have a great suspicion of authorities and institutions, which I share. And many Australians came to the country in the first place to begin a new life away from these things. So, the mainline churches have never had quite the moral authority that they have had even in the UK.

It is still the case that upwards of 50% of Aussies still maintain that they have an affiliation with a church - so there is still a strong if residual connection to the churches present it must be said. On the whole, even though they aren't great church attenders, Australians stick to a very Christian-influenced view of what family life should look like ideally. We are very socially conservative, something you tend to forget if you live in the inner west of Sydney as I have most of my life! It interests me that Kevin Rudd was very firm that he was not about to liberalise Australias policies on gay 'marriage' for example... and that this made him electable.

As an afterthought, I am not sure that the US, with its very high church attendance rates, shows an appreciable difference in family values in terms of statistics! Their abortion rate is very high, for example.

Question10 How useful do you believe discussing family values and morals are in Church?

Well, as always, it depends what you mean. If the church forgets its message is one of forgiveness and redemption, and falls for the trap of trumpeting moral values all the time, then it is a disaster. It just confirms people in their complacent self-righteousness, or reminds them of how far short they have fallen. But if, as fellow forgiven sinners, we seek to help one another carry the burden of living lives with one another - having and raising children, seeking to live pure and faithful lives, supporting single and married people - the discussing these matters is extremely useful. It is addressing difficult matters that most of us have to confront sometime or other. For example: what do the infertile couple do? Should they have IVF - and what should they do with the embryos they don't use? Where can the single mum find support for herself and her kids? Is it possible to remain faithful to the same person for a lifetime - and if so, how? What if I fail? Churches have to, and are, talking about all those things because they are the stuff of life. Sometimes they get the tone wrong, as it turns out. Sometimes people hear them through their previous negative encounters with churhces and church people, and this makes for hurt and misunderstanding. But church have a responsibility to keep discussing these things together.