Award-winning journalist Rachael Kohn says true democracy needs all Australians, regardless of religious belief, to “work together in common cause”. Source: ACU.
Dr Kohn made her comments at the annual Federal Parliamentary Interfaith Breakfast co-hosted by Australian Catholic University and Speaker of the House of Representatives Milton Dick yesterday.
Addressing an audience of more than 200 people, including parliamentarians and faith and community leaders, Dr Kohn said Australian democracy relied on acknowledging the contributions of religion and history, not “distorting the past and pouring contempt on our faith traditions”.
“Yet, today’s ‘Vanguard of the New’ is eager to paint the recorded past in the darkest of terms, for how else to elevate new schemes and make them look full of promise?” Dr Kohn said.
“The Vanguard of the New presents our history as a litany of failure, denies every virtue that our forebears upheld, and rubbishes every step of progress that they laboured to achieve in the most adverse circumstances.”
Dr Kohn explained how she saw the “nobler purpose and mission” of religion and how it could contribute positively to Australian society, firstly as an academic and then a journalist with the ABC, establishing herself as a household name for 26 years.
“And it was that story of religion’s contribution to Australia that I wanted to share with the public in my books, my talks and my programs on ABC Radio National,” she said.
Across 1700 programs that she produced and presented, Dr Kohn interviewed thousands of highly respected religious leaders – from archbishops, chief rabbis, the Dalai Lama, local clerics, imams and lay people, professionals and scholars, to “unsung heroes” who found a greater purpose through faith.
These interviews, according to Dr Kohn, demonstrated the ways in which religion could encourage community, and therefore, strengthen Australian democracy.
“Democracy needs us all to work together in common cause,” she said.
“Religion has aided that effort by reminding us of our moral purpose and sharing the means by which we choose our ‘better selves’ and by which trust can be established and reinforced among disparate people.”
ACU Vice-Chancellor and President Zlatko Skrbis said Dr Kohn’s message echoed the vision of the Parliamentary Interfaith Breakfast, which ACU has hosted across 10 years. He thanked the many leaders, both political and faith-based, for their support since the first Interfaith Breakfast in 2014.
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Dr Rachael Kohn AO talks religion, democracy, and the individual at ACU’s Interfaith breakfast (ACU)
