The Greens don’t generally have much in common with the Catholic Church, and are, in general terms, normally quite quick to point out the church’s faults, a characteristic they do not apply universally of course to all religions, and especially one in particular. That is unless, however, the leader of said Catholic church, the Pope, happens to say something consistent with the Greens own spiritual beliefs, such as the one about global warming or the sea ice melting, and so on.
The Greens are also usually pretty hot on leaving personal beliefs, choices and orientations alone, and especially on insisting others do too – unless they want to be shouted down as Islamaphobic, homophobic or worse. That is unless, of course, the Pope happens to say something consistent with the Greens own spiritual beliefs.
If nothing else, however, the Greens are shameless hypocrites, and Senator Larissa Waters gave a flawless performance of that on the purple benches back in June. That is worth recalling in the midst of what has been a stellar week for Green hypocrisy.
In the midst of asking a question invoking the Pope, drawing attention to the number of Catholics in the government, and asking if the Prime Minister was going to listen to the leader of his own church (the Pope), referencing the Holy Father’s recent encyclical about climate change, a government Senator called across the chamber to ask if Senator Waters was married, a comment he later withdrew. No one heard it above the noise of the chamber, but Senator Waters wanted everyone to know that she was not, in fact, married, just so she could lecture the offending Senator thus – “that is an irrelevant question… my marital status has nothing to do with this chamber.”
Blinded by her evangelical zeal in climate theology, Senator Waters does, however, have no such pompous concerns about the religious beliefs of government members, which she certainly does see as relevant and does see as having something to do with the chamber, when Gaia is at stake, and the Pope is on board with it too.
So to hell with that thing in the Constitution about religion not being relevant to the political process – it sure as hell is to the Greens and other devotees of the new Green religion.
