A new Australian report has uncovered a growing antagonism toward Christianity Down Under.
The Australian Christian Freedom Index (ACFI), released by the Canberra Declaration, surveyed more than 10,000 Christians, 92% of whom responded that they felt “it is riskier to affirm Christian beliefs than five years ago.”
And 73% of responders said they “felt pressured to keep their beliefs private in public, online or at work” while 42% “experienced hostility, threats or harassment for expressing a Christian worldview.” One in four Christians said they were “denied opportunities in work, volunteering or leadership” due to their Christian beliefs.
Over the last 25 years, Christian freedoms have been limited through 74 acts of Parliament that are still enforceable by law. Nearly half of those were passed in the last five years.
Types of laws affecting Christians include the criminalization of certain conversion practices, including types of prayer and pastoral care, regardless of whether an individual requested the care or not. Other laws allow individuals to file complaints and prosecute those who teach Biblical views on sexuality. Within healthcare, mandates exist that force healthcare workers to file referrals for procedures that violate their religious beliefs, such as transgender surgeries.
Kurt Mahlburg, an author of the report, says the ACFI “brings together multiple lines of evidence to paint the most comprehensive picture of Christian freedom in Australia ever produced.”
“In the last couple of decades, federal and state governments have brought in anti-discrimination and vilification legislation,” Mahlburg said. “Christian freedom in Australia has become a series of ‘carve-outs’ or exemptions in other laws … Structurally, the situation in Australia is not good.”
The report says the Australian state of Victoria is “the most restrictive state in the country” by a large margin while Western Australia is the least.
Only 24% agreed that Christians are somewhat or very free to share their faith in public settings. The percentage declined to 19% in regards to sharing their faith in Christian education. Only 13% agreed as the statement pertains to workplace and professional settings and 8% in Christian healthcare.
Christian hospitals and schools are facing pushback against their Biblical beliefs, with 97% of Christians saying that Christian hospitals are restricted, heavily restricted or not free to operate according to their beliefs, and 80% saying the same for Christian schools.
George Christensen, a former member of Parliament and a professing Christian who participated in the report, warned that there is a “new rule” Christians in Australia are learning, which is to “stay quiet.”
“The idea is that your faith is not to be lived openly or expressed in ‘controversial’ areas like gender, parenting or education,” Christensen said. “It’s not paranoia; it’s a pattern of expanding rules and complaint-based systems being used to pressure us into silence. People are self-censoring to protect their jobs.”
Christensen says that the freedom to “still go to church and sing hymns” does not equate to true religious liberty and is simply a “hollowed-out version of faith.”
Michelle Pearse, CEO of the Australian Christian Lobby, also participated as an author in the report.
In a January article published by Decision, Pearse warned that the nation is “reaching a moral flashpoint” and “laws governing life, death, family, sexuality and religious expression are shifting at breakneck speed.”
“Legislation is increasingly secular, increasingly coercive and increasingly hostile to the values that once guided public life,” she said. “The result is an unprecedented assault on human dignity—and a growing attempt to push Christian voices out of public debate.”
“God is still sovereign, still calling people to Himself, and still able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. The cultural battles matter—Christians must engage. But we fight not as those who have only earthly weapons. We contend, knowing that the Gospel remains ‘the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,’” she said, quoting Romans 1:16.
“Ultimately, the tide will turn not merely through better policies or political victories, but through faithful witness, fervent prayer and the transforming power of Christ at work in human hearts.”
