Currently the churches and the Greens have a mostly dysfunctional relationship. It is comparable with that which exists between many parents and their adult offspring. The parents instilled strong values into their children, but the children have taken those values in directions the parents had hoped they wouldn't.
More than a few Greens owe their passion for social justice to a strong Christian upbringing. It is understandable how this could develop into support for policies that threaten the institutional church, such as backing government schools at the expense of religious schools because government schools don't charge fees and therefore offer a better deal for the poor.
The days and weeks before Saturday's NSW state election witnessed a sometimes unseemly stand off between the churches and the Greens. While the Greens failed to live up to expectations in in the NSW counting, the air is unlikely to clear quickly because the Greens will shortly hold the balance of power in the Senate, in Federal Parliament.
On Friday, the Clarence Valley Daily Examiner quoted Lismore Catholic Bishop Geoffrey Jarratt's assertion that the Greens 'policies on euthanasia, abortion, same-sex marriage and school funding show them on the dark side'. He was echoing a message issued earlier in the election campaign by all but two of his fellow NSW bishops.
The local Greens candidate Janet Cavenaugh hit back, claiming that her own strong Christian upbringing gives her authority to interpret Christ's words in a way that may differ from the bishop.
Bishop Jarrett should examine his own position in keeping silent on many of the major moral challenges of our time, including mandatory detention of refugees, our involvement in the illegal war in Iraq, and the over-representation of the mentally ill and Aboriginal people in our jails.
Cavenaugh stresses that her 'reasons for joining The Greens included the fact that Greens' policies agreed with [her] sense of social justice — a result of [her] strong Christian upbringing'.
While there are many other Greens who attribute their social justice values to a religious background, it's probably true to say the majority no longer publicly identify as Christians. Notable exceptions include Lin Hatfield-Dodds and Christine Milne.
Hatfield-Dodds argues in an article for ABC Religion and Ethics titled 'Being a Christian, and Being Green' that Christian leaders and lobbyists who have no time for the Greens 'do speak for some who are part of the Christian faith tradition in Australia, but not for all'.
Frank Brennan