The Lord’s Prayer Today – But What Tomorrow?
Western Victoria MP Bev McArthur spoke against Fiona Patten’s motion to remove the Lord’s Prayer from the Victorian Parliament.
After weeks of lockdowns in Victoria, Ms Patten used her first opportunity back at Parliament to move the motion which would have stopped the prayer being read at the commencement of each sitting day, arguing that it imposed a certain religious view on MPs.
Mrs McArthur told the Upper House, “Surely instead of trying to remove an act that affects 40 MPs for a few dozen days a year, our time could be better served by seeking more accountable Government and indeed getting it out of the lives of Victorians to better enable individual freedom and prosperity.”
“Instead, we are here attempting to tear down the traditions passed down to us by the founders and pioneers of this state, due to personal ideologies.”
The Lord’s Prayer has been read in the Victorian Parliament for more than 100 years, and in its progenitor, the Westminster Parliament, since the 16th century.
Mrs McArthur said, “The values upon which Western civilisation is founded – equality before the law, the rights and freedoms of the individual, private charity, our educational institutions – are very much based on our Christian heritage.”
“This motion isn’t just about the Lord’s Prayer – it’s part of a broader concerted effort to dismantle the remaining attachments we have to our heritage and Western civilisation.”
“Today we are getting rid of the Lord’s Prayer, but tomorrow it will be another tradition, another statue and one day, all traditions and remnants of our history will have been abolished.”
“This is the tendency of totalitarian and communist regimes – abolish all veneration of tradition, religion and history, only to replace it with the worship of the state and its despots.”
“The Lord’s Prayer is not divisive or discriminatory. People of all faiths and even agnostics can appreciate its very sensible petitions – hope to do good, asking for the daily necessities required to survive, preaching forgiveness and its reciprocity and begging for the avoidance of bad motives.”
“We may no longer be an exclusively Christian state anymore, but the Lord’s Prayer is an important tradition that expresses many timeless values. The Lord’s Prayer may have been gone today, if Ms Patten had her way, but what will we see cancelled tomorrow?”
“The butchering of this state’s history and tradition by ideologues will clearly continue. And one may well ask – at what price?”
Ms Patten's motion was not voted on today. It was adjourned off by the Labor Party and may return at a later date.
4 August 2021