On a recent edition of his podcast The Pastor’s Heart, host and Anglican minister Dominic Steele pointed out there’s a secular advocacy campaign targeting Australians who have a loose connection with faith, telling some of them that they should tick “No Religion‘ in next week’s census.
He explained it took the form of an online quiz looking like census guidance.
The problem is that it misleadingly substitutes its own test for the question being asked by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Anglican Bishop of South Sydney Michael Stead who was one of the podcast guests, admitted the secular misinformation campaign attempted to mislead him.
“ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE COULD COMPROMISE INTEGRITY OF CENSUS”
The ABS has cautioned against taking the quiz as the Coalition warns it could compromise the “integrity” of the survey.
The bureau said it was aware of campaigns “aimed at influencing individuals’ responses” to the question on religion.
One campaign, titled Census – Not Religious? Mark No Religion, has circulated the questionnaire, claiming to provide “free, fast and personalised” advice on how to answer the question.
The Australian reports it has been run for the first time this year following a failed bid to change the wording of the question, sparking concerns from religious leaders.
WARNINGS TO BEWARE OF “DECEPTIVE” ONLINE QUIZ
Leading demographer Mark McCrindle who was also a guest on the podcast warned that secularists were trying to skew the results of the census.
He revealed the quiz was incorrectly encouraging people to mark “No Religion” if they did not actively practice their faith, which the ABS echoed.
“Material is circulating online and through social media that suggests people respond in a way that is inconsistent with the intent of the question,” the ABS said.
“The question on religion measures a person’s religious affiliation, which may be different from their practice of, or participation in, religious activities,” it stated.
BISHOP TELLS HOW ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE TRIED TO MISLEAD HIM
Bishop Stead explained: “At first I thought it was official guidance from the Bureau of Statistics [because of] the branding, the census language, personalised census guidance.”
“I think this is a very skewed survey. I did it a couple of times using real people that I know, but kind of imagining how they might answer it.”
“I filled it in and I was encouraged to tick the “Spiritual but not religious box” for one of those people.
For the other, he said it advised: “Tick the No Religion box. You are kind of culturally Christian, but not actually a practising Christian, therefore the most honest thing you could do is No Religion.”
BOX IN “NO RELIGION” ONLINE QUIZ IS NOT IN THE OFFICIAL CENSUS
Mark McCrindle pointed out: “There is no Spiritual but not religious box. This is the trickery of it.”
“So if someone says, I’m spiritual, or I’ve got a relationship with God, or I have got a worldview involving God, there’s no box for that, and people might be directed to No Religion.”
Mr. McCrindle pointed out even on the census website the Bureau of Statistics says that your religious affiliations may not match your current belief or practice.
“It’s looking at history, heritage, connection, family, upbringing, or maybe someone just has a loose connection with the Christian faith, or any faith, that’s what they’re trying to record.”
LIBERAL SENATOR VOICES CONCERN OVER THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Liberal senator Dean Smith has written to the ABS raising concerns about the contentious online quiz and its suggestions on how to fill out the religion question.
“I am concerned that organising campaigns encouraging Australians to answer the religion question in a particular way may have the potential to compromise the integrity of the census, undermine public confidence in its results, and facilitate an inaccurate use of census data in future policy and planning decisions,” Senator Smith wrote.
A statement released by the Census – Not religious? campaign welcomed the ABS’s statement, insisting it was encouraging people to answer the census question honestly.
“THIS IS A TEST OF RELIGIOUS CATEGORY IN ITS BROADEST AFFILIATED SENSE”
Mark McCrindle asserted: “It is important that the religion question is answered accurately and according to an individual’s own beliefs regarding their faith.”
“So somebody can be an occasional churchgoer at Christmas, have doubts or disagree with church leaders and yet still authentically say Anglican or Catholic or Baptist,” he explained..
“This is not a test of piety or church attendance, this is a test of religious category in its broadest affiliated sense.”
Bishop Stead said that’s why it’s important, if possible, to give one’s denomination rather than write a generic “Christian” in the Other box.
“The numbers in the census do matter when it comes to the government thinking about how they allocate funding for chaplaincy, for social services, for healthcare, aged care, things like that.”
WHY IT MATTERS WHICH BOX CHRISTIANS TICK
“The reality is if you don’t tick Anglican, if you’re an Anglican but you say, oh no, no, I’m Christian, and you just hand-write in “Christian” it means Anglican falls off the bottom of the top 10 boxes,” warned Bishop Stead.
“Don’t just tick the generic “Christian” because that’s what the [secularists’] survey is encouraging.”
“We know what the top 10 are from previous years, and so if you are an Anglican, you should tick the Anglican box.”
“If you’re a Baptist, if you’re Catholic, you should tick that box because it does matter.”
“I ENCOURAGE PEOPLE WHO HAVE A RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION TO IDENTIFY THAT”
“If you are a non-denominational Christian, I would suggest that you handwrite in the word Christian,” continued Bishop Stead.
“The more that you subdivide the religion category, the more it gets lost in the statistics.”
“I want to encourage people who have a religious affiliation to identify that.”
“If you want to have Christian schools, if you want to have a chaplain come and visit you in hospital, then identify with that.”
WHY IS THE CENSUS RELIGION CATEGORY SO IMPORTANT?
Mark McCrindle explained that this census leads to all sorts of government decisions.
“The funding of services, the zoning of areas where religious institutions can operate, through to the funding of religious chaplains, or it could be in jails and support services there.”
“So much government legislation and support at all levels, from local government to state and federal, flows from census data.”
“Therefore, a religious understanding from an affiliation perspective matters.”
WHY RECORDS OF DECLINING FAITH DON’T MAKE SENSE
Mark McCrindle concluded; “The category of religion is about an institutional connection in some form.”
“The fact that faith is declining in Australia according to these numbers doesn’t make sense when you look at how independent faith-based schools are growing, and millions of Australians are served every week with faith- based aged care and social services and healthcare, and that even Christian media is growing.”
“Yet we’re seeing this Christianity box drop, and I think that’s because we’ve narrowed the scope too much.”
“We’ve forgotten what that religious affiliation is, and that’s all of those other services we’re connecting with, and they ought to be recognised.”
You can view The Pastor’s Heart census podcast here
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