Australia’s new prime minister is an evangelical.
The Telegraph recently ranked the least religious countries in the world. Australia came in twelfth with just 34 percent saying they feel religious.
So it is notable that the mostly secular nation’s new prime minister is an evangelical.
Scott Morrison, who had previously been the country’s treasurer, was sworn in Friday as Australia’s sixth prime minister in 11 years after a political rift among conservative lawmakers led to the ouster of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The New York Times reports that Morrison, 50, is the first evangelical Christian to become prime minister and that church has always been a part of his life. He even sees Christianity as one of his motivations for public service.
Morrison said in his first speech to the Australian parliament in 2008, “For me, faith is personal, but the implications are social—as personal and social responsibility are at the heart of the Christian message,” He also cited a verse from the Book of Jeremiah as the encapsulation of the core of his beliefs: “I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on Earth; for I delight in these things, declares the Lord.”
For the last 10 years, Morrison, his wife Jenny, and their daughters have been active members of the Horizon Church, one of Sydney’s largest Pentecostal congregations.
Morrison has said, “personal faith in Jesus Christ is not a political agenda… for me, faith is personal, but the implications are social.”